Closing Time: The ‘Fortunes’ of the Great Council at the Turn of the Century

Abstract

contains information about applications and physicochemical properties of inorganic citrates. These include solubilities in water, boiling temperatures, freezing points and activity and osmotic coefficients at these temperatures. Presented vapour pressures of water over unsaturated and saturated solutions of alkali metal citrates are thermodynamically analyzed to give activities of components in these systems. From other properties, it also contains sound velocities, densities of binary and ternary solutions and partition data in two-phase ternary systems, namely in the alkali metal citrate + aliphatic alcohol + water and alkali metal citrate + polyethylene glycol (PEG) + water systems. In addition, it includes the literature sources leading to data about crystal structure of many inorganic citrates.

Appendices

Concluding Remarks

Looking back on the events of the late 1780s and early 1790s, it might seem that, already in 1787, it was obvious that the Great Council was bound to disappear. Nevertheless, the councilors, and without a doubt other contemporaries, were blissfully unaware that the curtain was falling over their court. Apart from the external events, the 7 years between 1787 and 1794 must have seemed from the Great Council’s perspective rather similar to the rest of the eighteenth century. And even the French invasion was not so out of the ordinary: the French had occupied parts of the Southern Netherlands twice before in the eighteenth century, once during the War of the Spanish Succession and once during the War of the Austrian Succession.

Several characteristic traits of the Great Council that we have already distinguished in the previous chapters continue to pop up in the final decade of its history. The self-consciousness of the Council and the status anxiety of the councilors, for example, are omnipresent in their constant reminders to the sovereign of their unwavering loyalty and of the special position of the council as the ‘Emperor’s Court’ par excellence. Yet, the perpetual fear of the Council’s members to be ignored and undervalued becomes especially obvious during their exile in 1792. Unmistakably, the councilors were banned from the center of activity—first located in Roermond, later in Wesel—where all other governmental councils were allowed to continue their work; instead, they were singled out to remain in Düsseldorf as private citizens. And while the Great Council’s members did not actually go so far as to complain about their situation, de Fierlant’s letters and their refusal to move to a city other than Roermond or Wesel indicate that they were well aware that their exile in Düsseldorf was indicative of the Great Council’s position in the hierarchy.

The rivalry with the other provincial councils and their attempts to undermine the Great Council’s authority continued throughout the late 1780s and early 1790s. The Council of Flanders and the Magistrate of Malines in particular persisted in trouble-making. While the Privy Council often ruled these conflicts of jurisdiction to the advantage of the Great Council, the court was sometimes harshly rebuffed. The refusal of the Council of Finance to refund the expenses made for the jurisdictional infighting with the Council of Flanders, not only jeopardized the Great Council’s future efforts to keep it in line, but also sent the signal that maintaining Malines’ authority against its subordinate tribunals was no longer deemed important. The culmination of this lack of governmental support for the Great Council’s claims certainly was the Valenciennes case, when the Council of Hainaut—which only a few years earlier had opposed the Habsburg rule—was awarded jurisdiction over this newly conquered territory at the expense of the ‘Emperor’s Court’.

In general, the central government adopted an ambivalent attitude towards the Great Council. In times of crisis, which the late eighteenth century certainly was for the Habsburg dynasty, the Great Council thrived. When the instigators of the ­various revolts needed to be punished, the government explicitly fell back on the Great Council and the loyalty of its members. Likewise, when the position of the Council of Brabant had become untenable in the eyes of the government, the Great Council was awarded the—admittedly somewhat dubious—honor of taking over the jurisdiction of the Council of Brabant through the establishment of a satellite in Brussels. Nevertheless, once the immediate crisis had passed and the outlook was somewhat better, the government degraded the Great Council again to a mere secondary role, up to the point that it even turned down the Great Council’s request to regain its ­jurisdiction over Luxemburg and Tournai.

In the end, the Great Council demonstrated a remarkable resistance against ­actually disappearing. Even though the tribunal had to go into exile in 1794, was ­officially abolished in 1797 and its silver seals were sold in 1801, some of its ­remaining members attempted to revive the Great Council in 1814 and disputes over its records were still fought out in 1830. It was not until approximately 1845, or more than half a century after its official abolishment, that the books on the Great Council eventually could be closed for good.

References

5.1.1 Archival Sources

5.1.1.1 Antwerp, State Archives

Provinciaal Archief Frans Tijdvak

69

5.1.1.2 Beveren, State Archives

R 53, Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg, EA Mechelen

48

5.1.1.3 Brussels, General State Archives

Algemene Regeringsraad

857, 858, 974

Departement voor de Nederlanden van de Hof- en Staatskanselarij

952/1, 953–959, 960/1, 960/2

Geheime Raad, Oostenrijkse Periode. Registers

482, 484

Grote Raad van Mechelen. Registers

• 3 Preliminary documents

GRM 3 includes a small register as well as a limited number of separate documents concerning the archives of the Great Council during and after the Brabant Revolution and the first and second French invasion (1789–1894). It contains detailed descriptions of the inspection and confiscation of certain archives of the Great Council during the Brabant Revolution including their retrieval by a specifically for that purpose designated councilor and secretary in late 1790. In addition, it includes an account of the examination of the Great Council’s chambers and their sealing by the French revolutionaries in 1792. The set of separate documents holds the order of June 1794 to provide the Great Council with carriages to transport its most important archives to Roermond and a short account by the warden of the Great Council of the events in Malines right after the evacuation of the Great Council from the city. The documents also give a privileged insight into the preservation of the records of the Great Council, their arrangement and even to a certain extent into the use of the premises of the Council (e.g.: it is described which archives are preserved in what rooms and specifies the employees that hold the keys to certain chambers).

• 4–5 Patent letters

GRM 4–5 mainly contains the lettres patentes or open letters by which the employees of the Great Council—both the president, councilors and the lower personnel—were appointed into their position. Appointment letters were always standardized texts, describing the ‘rights’ and ‘duties’ of the appointee in question in which only the names and dates were changed. To a smaller extent, the patent letters also include letters of naturalization and habilitation which foreign-born candidates for a councillorship in the Great Council needed to be considered. Patent letters for the Great Council have been preserved for the period between 1686 and 1794. The appointment files, which do give ample information about a prospective candidate, can be found in the Privy Council, which was responsible for the nomination of councilors and other personnel at the royal courts.

• 97–98; 133; 135–140 Correspondence

The “recueils de la correspondance du Grand Conseil” have been preserved for the entire history of the Council, covering the period between 1464 and 1794. The correspondence of the Great Council consists of a diverse array of letters and requests sent to or by the Great Council. The central government, usually through the Privy Council, is the main correspondent, but other institutions, such as provincial councils, and even individuals figure in these registers. The subject matter ranges from orders to organize a Te Deum, requests of all sort of dispensations, conflicts of jurisdiction with especially the Council of Flanders or the Magistrate of Malines, to instructions of the governor on how to respond to a potential invasion by the French. The only structure in this mishmash of documents is the date on which they were composed or received, but even this chronological criterion was not always rigorously followed. The registers provide a privileged insight into the judicial but even more into the non-judicial aspects of the Great Council’s workings. However, the enormous volume of the series (consisting of 129 registers over a period of 330 years) and the lack of organization make research into the correspondence very time-consuming. The correspondence of the Great Council has its counterpart in the archives of the office-fiscal (GRMOF, Banden en Delen) which, however, suffers from the same problems.

• 175/10 Decrees and Ordonnances

Number GRM 175/10 is ranged under the heading Edits, Placards et Ordonnances (comprising GRM 169 to 175/11). This series contains, at least in theory, a list of all ordinances and decrees that the Great Council had to publish—or at least give the order to have them published—in its jurisdiction, predominantly for the second half of the eighteenth century, although some earlier periods are also included. However, the title is somewhat misleading; in fact the inventory specifies for this specific number that it deals with the judicial administration for the period 1789 to 1794 in addition to information about residences of the Great Council outside of Malines, ceremonial issues, relations with other institutions and procedure for the period between 1466 and 1794. In practice, number 175/10 is not a register but a ‘file’ filled with a mishmash of documents with little or no internal connection. Documents concerning the period between 1789 and 1795—the official act that abolished the Great Council in 1789 can be found here—are included, as well as descriptions of the paintings that are hanging in the premises of the Great Council. In addition, the move of the Great Council to Namur in 1746 is extensively described. Moreover, the file also contains several documents about the archives of the Great Council that were not necessarily written during the Ancien Régime: e.g. the letter of P.J. L’Orye from 1830, criticizing Audoor’s report on the archives of the Great Council, an overview of the documents of the Great Council that were eventually returned by the French in 1770 and several accounts of the chaotic situation the archives of the office-fiscal were in. Finally, the file contains a separate subfile that deals with the problems concerning the jurisdiction of the Council of Luxemburg. It is obvious that a wealth of information is hidden behind an inadequate description.

• 231–232 Miscellaneous

The “miscellaneous” category in Van den Bussche’s inventory (consisting of the numbers 231 to 261/3) is indeed a collection of unrelated documents that do not really fit anywhere else. It consists mostly of marriage contracts, last wills and ‘letters written by famous people that have been extracted from their case files’. The numbers 231 and 232, however, are even in this “miscellaneous” category somewhat “outsiders”. Van den Bussche describes GRM 231 as cahier portant des annotations au sujet de certains faits auxquels le grand conseil s’est trouvé mêlé ou qui l’ont mis dans le cas de devoir prendre une délibération ou une consulte officieuse (1701–1800). In practice, the first part of this register is indeed an overview of unofficial decisions taken by the Great Council, mostly with regards to their ceremonial duties (such as congratulating a newly appointed governor or organizing a holy mess for the sovereign’s health). The second part, however, mostly deals with the first invasion of the French in 1792 and describes in great detail the decisions regarding the stay of the Council in Düsseldorf and the councilors’ dissatisfaction with this ‘exile’. Finally, the register also includes the documents regarding the awarding of the title of ‘Councilor of State’ to the senior councilor of the Great Council in 1794. If the description of GRM 231 does not entirely cover its content and is probably an artificially put together collection, this is equally true for GRM 232. While the register is described in the inventory as Recueil des documents concernant le personnel du Grand Conseil, particulièrement les secrétaires, et diverses pièces touchant le rétablissement du siège en 1791, not many documents about any of those two subjects are included. Even though there is a long complaint by the secretaries denouncing the fact that, in violation of all ordinances, councilors ‘steal’ their work (and thereby their income) by awarding copying jobs to their personal assistants and a document describing the re-erection of the Great Council after the Brabant Revolution, the main part of the register is filled with a long letter of the councilors of the Great Council, dated in 1771, denouncing the ever growing jurisdiction of the Council of Luxemburg. As a rule, a wealth of information is often hidden behind inadequate descriptions, in the archives of the Great Council.

Grote Raad van Mechelen. Officie-fiscaal. Banden en Delen.

32–34, 42, 43, 61, 65–70, 96–99

Grote Raad van Mechelen. Officie-fiscaal. Procesdossiers.

717–751

Inventarissen van de Derde Afdeling

13, 14, 16, 48, 102

Manuscrits Divers

860/A

Papiers des commissaires du gouvernement dits Papiers Bouteville

439

Staatssecretarie voor België

6798

5.1.1.4 Malines, City Archives

Archives de la ville de Malines: affaires civiles et ecclésiastiques

23, 129/5, 138

5.1.1.5 Vienna, Haus-, Hof-Und Staatsarchiv

Belgien DD-B rot

80 (alt C53)

5.1.1.6 Vienna, Finanz-Und Hofkammerarchiv

Österreichisches Kamerale

2308, 2309, 2310

5.1.2 Published and Printed Sources

Le moniteur belge, 15^e Jaargang, N°345, 11 December 1845