Before 1914
He was the leader of Belgium's Catholic Party, and he served as prime minister between 1911 and 1918.
Once it became clear that Germany intended to violate Belgian neutrality in August 1914, he oversaw Belgium's mobilization for war. Despite the mobilization, de Broqueville opposed King Albert I's proposal to deploy the Belgian Army along the German frontier in 1914 — instead strategically placing them throughout the country. He recognized that wartime support for Belgium depended upon its continued status as a non-provocative neutral power.
Read more about this topic: Charles De Broqueville