Chokier and its dominating château seen from the Meuse Château de Chokier Chokier () is a village and section of the municipality of Flémalle in the province of Liège in Belgium, located on the left bank of the river Meuse. The village is dominated by the Château de Chokier, an 18th-century rebuild of the earlier medieval castle, standing on a cliff overlooking the Meuse valley. Chokier Castle belongs to the Florani family For centuries the castle was owned by the prominent Surlet de Chokier family, which included the Baron Surlet de Chokier who was Regent of Belgium in 1831 before the establishment of the independent monarchy after the Belgian Revolution. The strategic and defensive advantages of the cliff where the château now stands were recognised as early as the Palaeolithic period, from when traces of human habitation have been discovered.
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Available on Google Books. He died at Chokier Castle on 24 August 1725.
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After the Belgian Revolution started, Surlet de Chokier was sent by the Arrondissement of Hasselt as a deputy to the National Congress. Elected Chairman of the Congress, Surlet de Chokier was active in the creation of the Belgian Constitution. After the Duke of Nemours refused the Belgian crown that had been offered to him, Surlet de Chokier was appointed Regent of Belgium on 24 February 1831. He served as Regent until Leopold I took the oath as King of the Belgians on 21 July 1831.
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In 1800, Surlet de Chokier was elected mayor of Gingelom and member of the départemental council of Meuse-Inférieure. In 1812, he became a member of the French parliament. After the fall of Napoleon, Surlet de Chokier entered the House of Representatives of the Staten-Generaal as leader of the Southern opposition, where his opposition to the government gave him the nickname Surlet de Choquant. Although he was made a baron by the king in 1816, his opposition had angered King William I so much that the monarch personally made sure that Surlet de Chokier was not re-elected in 1828.
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Count Ferdinand de Berlo (1654—1725), lord of Brus and Chokier, was the eleventh bishop of Namur.Eugène Coemans, "Berlo, Ferdinand", Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 2 (Brussels, 1868), 269-270.
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The seat of the Cabinet of the French Community, place Surlet de Chokier The Cabinet of the French Community of Belgium () is the executive branch of the French Community of Belgium, and it sits in Brussels. It consists of a number of ministers chosen by the Parliament of the French Community and is headed by a Minister-President.
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At this time Rattachists in Verviers were a majority.Els Witte (trad. du néerlandais par Anne-Laure Vignaux), « La Construction de la Belgique : 1828-1847 Rattachists argued that in order to preserve their economic prosperity they must unite with France and that culturally the place was French. The Regent of Belgium, Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier was a supporter in this period, as was Charles de Brouckère, Charles Rogier and Alexandre Gendebien.
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Together they had a daughter, Maria, who in 1625 entered the Carmelite convent in Valenciennes. In 1603 Rudolf II employed Belgioioso as captain general of imperial troops in Hungary. He was so shaken by the death of his brother Francesco in 1605 (killed in a quarrel with another imperial commander, Hermann Christof von Russwurm) that he eventually resolved to retire from active service. Belgioioso spent his final years at Chokier Castle, near Liège.
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Nemours refused the offer. With no definitive choice in sight, Catholics and Liberals united to elect Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier, a minor Belgian nobleman, as regent to buy more time for a definitive decision in February 1831. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg had been proposed at an early stage, but had been dropped because of French opposition. The problems caused by the French candidates and the increased international pressure for a solution led to his reconsideration.
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In 1829 he was vice president of the Association constitutionnelle. In September 1830 he became a member of the commission of public safety of Liège, then governor of the province of Liège. The regent Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier asked him to form independent Belgium's second government. Sauvage asked Joseph Lebeau to form this government, going against the wishes of the Francophile regent (Lebeau had become known for fighting against Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours's candidature in the National Congress of Belgium).
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Apart from the Central Committee, there also were Special Committees for War, Internal Affairs, Finance, Justice, Public Safety and Diplomacy. The Provisional Government exercised both executive and legislative power until 10 November 1830, when the National Congress met for the first time. On 12 November it formally returned its powers to the National Congress, which subsequently decided to entrust executive power to the Provisional Government. It was dissolved on 25 February 1831 after Erasme, Baron Surlet de Chokier had been appointed Regent by the National Congress.
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When the Belgians became independent in 1830 the National Congress chose a constitutional monarchy as the form of government. The Congress voted on the question on 22 November 1830, supporting monarchy by 174 votes to 13. In February 1831, the Congress nominated Louis, Duke of Nemours, the son of the French king Louis-Philippe, but international considerations deterred Louis- Philippe from accepting the honour for his son. Following this refusal, the National Congress appointed Erasme-Louis, Baron Surlet de Chokier to be the Regent of Belgium on 25 February 1831.
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The National Congress was elected by approximately 30,000 voters on 3 November 1830 and consisted of 200 members. Its president was Baron Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier. The assembly chose a constitutional popular monarchy as the form of government for Belgium and chose the son of the French King Louis-Philippe, Louis, Duke of Nemours, as the new head of state. Other candidates included Auguste de Beauharnais and Archduke Charles of Austria, younger brother of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and the last Governor-General of the Austrian Netherlands.
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The choice of Louis of Nemours, was unacceptable to the government of the United Kingdom and another candidate had to be found. Surlet de Chokier was appointed Regent while awaiting a new decision and was replaced as president of the National Congress by Etienne Constantin, Baron de Gerlache. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was definitively chosen to become the first King of the Belgians. The National Congress appointed him king on 4 June and six weeks later he was sworn in by swearing allegiance to the Belgian constitution in front of the Saint Jacques Church on Coudenberg in Brussels.
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Tielemans belonged to the small minority of liberal republicans who preferred unionist cabinets. He was the only member of the Constitutional Committee in favour of a republic, whilst all the others favoured a constitutional monarchy. From 26 February to 23 March 1831 he was minister of the interior in the first cabinet under regent Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier, but he was dismissed after only one month. Next, on 4 June 1831, he was made governor of Liege, holding it until 4 October 1832, when he was appointed advocate-general to the court of appeal by the conservative minister of the interior Barthélémy de Theux de Meylandt, who wished to replace Tielemans as governor with a Catholic.
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He was sent by his native district to the National Congress, and became minister of foreign affairs in March 1831 during the interim regency of Érasme-Louis Surlet de Chokier. By proposing the election of Leopold of Saxe- Coburg as King of the Belgians he secured a benevolent attitude on the part of the United Kingdom, but the restoration to the Netherlands of part of the duchies of Limburg and Luxembourg provoked a heated opposition to the 1839 Treaty of London, and Lebeau was accused of treachery to Belgian interests. He resigned the direction of foreign affairs on the accession of King Leopold, but in the next year became minister of justice. He was elected deputy for Brussels in 1833, and retained his seat until 1848.
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Born at Messancy in Luxembourg on 3 July 1805, he was educated at the Athénée de Luxembourg and the University of Liège, and was in Luxemburg when the Revolution of August broke out, but was nominated a member of the commission appointed to draw up the Constitution. Nothomb became a member of the national congress, and became secretary-general of the ministry of foreign affairs under Érasme-Louis Surlet de Chokier. He supported the candidature of the Orléanist Louis, Duke of Nemours, and joined in the proposal to offer the crown to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, being one of the delegates sent to London. When the Eighteen Articles of the Treaty of London were replaced by the Twenty-four less favorable to Belgium, he insisted on the necessity of compliance, and in 1839 he faced violent opposition to support the territorial cessions in Limburg and Luxemburg, which had remained an open question so long as the Netherlands refused to acknowledge the Twenty-four Articles.
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