Charles Rogier

Charles Latour Rogier (17 August 1800 – 27 May 1885) was a Belgian liberal statesman and a leader in the Belgian Revolution of 1830. He became Prime Minister of Belgium on two separate occasions: from 1847 to 1852, and again from 1857 to 1868.

Career
Rogier descended from a family settled in the department of the Nord in France. He was born in Saint&#45;Quentin. His father, an officer in the French army, perished in the Russian Campaign of 1812. The family then moved to the Belgian city of Liège, where the eldest son, Firmin, held a professorship. Rogier studied Law at the University of Liège (ULg) and was admitted to the Bar. However, he devoted himself with greater zeal to journalistic campaigns against the Dutch rule in Belgium, established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In 1824, in collaboration with his lifelong friends Paul Devaux and Joseph Lebeau, he founded the journal Mathieu Laensberg (afterwards Le Politique). With its ardent patriotism and its attacks on the Dutch administration, the journal soon achieved widespread influence.

On the outbreak of the insurrection at Brussels in August 1830, Rogier went there with a militia of about 300 citizens of Liège. In Brussels he gained recognition as one of the most active among the patriot leaders. He became a member of the provisional government established in October of the same year, and after the election of Leopold I as King in June 1831, he was made Governor of Antwerp. During his first stint as Interior Minister, from 1832 to 1834, he brought into existence the Belgian railway system. From 1840 to 1841 he was Minister of Public Works and Education, and from 1861 to 1868 he served as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Today, one of central Brussels' landmarks, the Place Rogier / Rogierplein, commemorates his name.

Honours

 * 🇧🇪 Belgium:
 * Minister of State, By Royal decree.
 * Iron Cross.
 * Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.
 * Austrian Empire: Grand Cross in the Austrian Imperial Order of Leopold
 * 🇫🇷 France: Knight Grand Cross in the Legion of Honour.
 * Kingdom of Italy: Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
 * Kingdom of Portugal: Grand Cross in the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa.
 * Russian Empire: Knight Grand Cross in the Imperial Order of the White Eagle.
 * 🇪🇸 Spain: Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Charles III.
 * 🇸🇪 Sweden: Grand Cross in the Order of the Polar Star.
 * Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: Grand Cross in the Saxe-Ernestine House Order.
 * Kingdom of Prussia: Grand Cross in the Order of the Red Eagle.