Colonel Borremans - Resistance By The Orangists

Resistance By The Orangists

When it became obvious that the provisional government and the National Congress, established by the southern rebels after having overthrown the legitimate regime in this part of the Kingdom, were incapable of generating any credibility either with the press or with the intimidatory French schemers who were dedicated to agitating loudly in the public gallery during gatherings of the Congress occupied with drafting the new constitution and with the candidacy to the Belgian throne of the Duke of Nemours, son of the new king of France, Louis-Philippe, the Orangist faction in the southern part of the Netherlands was able to easily increase its public support. The Orangists created a network that was able to re-establish the legitimate regime, a network in which were represented, among others, the former Minister Gobbelschroy, an industrialist from Liège John Cockerill, the commander of the troops of the provisional government in Bruges Ernest Grégoire, the chief of the home guard Baron Emmanuel d‘Hoogvorst and his brother Joseph, Charles Morel and the Generals Goblet and Van der Smissen. Faced with the ineffectiveness of the new administration, Colonel Borremans decided to join this network of resistants. For the Orangists, the decision to revolt was caused when Minister Alexandre Gendebien founded, on 23 March 1831, the day of his resignation, the National Association - a clique orientated towards France that, if it did not succeed in spite of all its scheming in getting Belgium annexed by France, strived all the same to reduce the Southern Netherlands to a satellite state of the Kingdom of Louis-Philippe. The Association decided to organise a meeting on 24 March at the Vauxhall in Brussels’ public park. As one of the measures to liberate the country, the Orangist's network decided to send Colonel Borremans, Chief of the Hunters and Brussels born, to the public houses to recruit partisans to disrupt the meeting of the Association. The Colonel was regarded as imprudent when he pleaded openly for the return of the Prince of Orange, the future Willem II of the Netherlands, and proved to be incapable of warding off the empty but impressive rhetoric of the leaders of the Association. As his persuasive strength had eluded him, he and is adherents had to leave the meeting without having achieved any success. As the military intervention had not yet taken place, Colonel Borremans had to find some sympathisers in his district of the Old Grain Market Square the next evening to support the insurrection. The Colonel was in a state of despair after the failure of the previous day which made him surrender to the police of the new government, which of course was a disaster for the Orangist party. The English Envoy, Lord Ponsonby, then recommended that the Orangists cancel their counter coup. Most members of the resistance were able to escape, but Colonel Borremans was summoned before a Military Court and convicted. On 31 May 1831, he was stripped of his military ranks by a superior Military Court due to "the non denunciation of a plot against the security of the Belgian state". His conviction led to anti-Orangist riots. The regiment itself had been transferred to Aalst - Dendermonde. Borremans, having always denied the accusations, was pardoned on the occasion of the marriage of Leopold I, who meanwhile had accepted the throne of the Belgian Kingdom. Borremans was freed from gaol only in September 1832.