Charles Rogier
Charles Latour Rogier (
17 August 1800–
27 May 1885) was a
Belgian statesman and a leader in the
Belgian Revolution of 1830. He was born at
Saint-Quentin,
France, studied law at
Liège and was admitted to the
bar, devoting himself, however, with greater zeal to journalistic campaigns against the
Dutch rule in
Belgium. Upon the outbreak of the insurrection at
Brussels in August,
1830, Rogier went to Brussels, where he gained note as one of the most active among the patriot leaders. He became a member of the provisional government established in October, and after the election of
Leopold as King, in June,
1831, was made Governor of
Antwerp. He was
Cabinet Chief of Belgium on three separate occasions first from
1832 to
1834, secondly from
1847 to
1852, and thirdly from
1857 to
1868. He brought into existence the Belgian railway system during his first stint as an Interior Prime Minister. From
1861 to
1868 he was Minister for Foreign Affairs.
He descended from a Belgian family settled in the department of the Nord in
France. His father, an officer in the
French army, perished in the
Russian campaign of 1812; and the family moved to
Liege, where the eldest son, Firmin, held a professorship. Charles, after being called to the
bar, founded, in collaboration with his lifelong friends,
Paul Devaux and
Joseph Lebeau, the journal
Mathieu Laensberg (afterwards
Le Politique), which by its ardent patriotism and its attacks on the
Dutch administration soon acquired a widespread influence.
*
List of Prime Ministers of Belgium* Descailles,
Charles Rogier, 1800-85 (Brussels, 1896)
