National Day (Belgium)
The Belgian national holiday has been July 21st since 1890.
background
On October 4, 1830, Belgium declared independence from the Kingdom of the United Netherlands . The originally planned head of state Louis d'Orléans, duc de Nemours , however, was not enforceable and it was the turn of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg . This first stepped on Belgian soil on July 17, 1831 on the beach of De Panne . Four days later he was the first Belgian king to take the oath on the constitution .
history
After the Belgian Revolution of 1830, which led to Belgium's independence, the National Congress decided that Belgium should be a constitutional monarchy. On June 4, 1831, the Congress appointed Léopold de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha (with 153 of 196 votes) as the first King of the Belgians.
On July 17th the king took a boat from England to Calais and then in a carriage on the beach at Dunkirk to De Panne. He then went to the Place Royale in Brussels, where he was sworn in on July 21, 1831 and thus became the first king of the Belgians. The national holiday was first set for September 27th and commemorates the "September days", a name commonly given to the Belgian Revolution. It was not until Leopold II. On May 27, 1890, that the national holiday was set to July 21, in order to connect this holiday for the country with the person of the king.
See also
swell
- Pierre Blaise, Alain Desmarets, Thérèse Jeunejean, Freddy Cremer, Karl-Heinz Lambertz (eds.): Understanding Belgium. De Boeck, Brussels 2006, ISBN 2-8041-5264-2 .
- Jeroen Janssens: De Belgische natie fourth. Belgian national festivals 1830–1914. Universitaire Pers Leuven, Leuven 2001, ISBN 90-5867-175-5 .