Patriots (Belgium)

The Patriots (Dutch: Patriotten; French: Patriotes) were a political faction in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) who opposed Austrian rule. They were the driving force behind the Brabant Revolution and the formation of the United Belgian States.

In 1787, Emperor Joseph II implemented various civil and judicial reforms within the Austrian Netherlands, many of which were unpopular, giving rise to rebellions within the region's various provinces. These uprisings continued, even after the Austrian governor reversed many of the controversial reforms.

These unrests occurred during the same period in which the French Revolution began. In the neighbouring Dutch Republic, citizens who campaigned for democratisation and opposed the perceived absolutism of Stadtholder William V, called themselves "patriots", as did many other movements at the time, such as the American patriots who fought against Great Britain in the American War of Independence.

In the 1770s and 1780s, two contesting groups emerged in the Southern Netherlands: the conservative Statists, who were followers of Henri Van der Noot, and the more progressive Vonckists, who were followers of Jan Frans Vonck. These two factions were ideologically opposed to each other, but cooperated in order to drive the Austrians out of Belgium, eventually resulting in the formation of the United Belgian States in January 1790. Shortly after this, the Statists purged the Vonckists in what became known as the 'Summer Terror', with many prominent Vonckists (including the faction's leader Jan Frans Vonck) being forced to go into exile.^[1]

The name 'Patriots' was applied mainly to the movement's military wing. A Patriot army was established under the command of General Jean-André van der Mersch, nicknamed the 'Belgian Washington'. The terms 'Statists' and 'Vonckists' were used at the time, but were given more importance in later historiography, to describe the opposing beliefs of the two factions.

In August 1788, several Patriot leaders who had fled to the Dutch Republic founded the Committee of Breda, with the goal of forming an army to liberate Belgium.^[2] On October 24, 1789, the army crossed the border with the Austrian Netherlands in Hoogstraten under the command of Van der Mersch. This started the Brabant Revolution. On 27 October, the army defeated the Austrian general Schröder at the Battle of Turnhout. In November the army took Ghent and defeated the Austrian army at Diest, Tienen and Zoutleeuw. In December the army took Brussels.

The Patriots won many battles against the Austrian army and pro-Imperial forces in 1790. Despite this, the Austrian army recovered by August 1790 and advanced as far as Limburg, where they defeated the Patriots at Herve on 13 August. The Patriots quickly recovered and won a small battle at Coutisse on 13 September.

The patriots were decisively defeated at the Battle of Falmagne on 22 September 1790, which led to the end of the Belgian independence by December that year. The remnants fled to Flanders, where they disbanded shortly after.

At the start of the revolution, all Patriot officers were Belgian. The first commander-in-chief of the army was Jean-André van der Mersch, an experienced military commander. After the Statist faction purged the Vonckists, the Vonckist Van der Mersch was replaced with foreign generals, namely the Prussian Nikolaus Heinrich von Schönfeld and the British George Koehler. They commanded the Patriot forces for most of 1790.

The ranks of the Patriot army were the same as all other armies of their time. The army was organized before and during the beginning of the Brabant Revolution by its commander-in-chief Van der Mersch. Van der Mersch had served in the French and Austrian armies, and as such he organized the Patriot army like theaforementioned armies. One notable difference was that the army always fought with the help of the local population and preferred to fight in urban areas instead of on open fields as was usual for the time. When Von Schönfeld and Koehler took command of the army, they stopped fighting in cities due to a lack of experience with said strategy.

• Patriottentijd
• Brabant Revolution
• United Belgian States

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