Frans Anneessens (in Dutch) or François Anneessens (in French) (25 February 1660 – 19 September 1719) was dean of the Nation of St. Christopher, one of the

Guilds of Brussels The Guilds of Brussels (french: Guildes de Bruxelles, nl, Gilden van Brussel), grouped in the Nine Nations of Brussels (french: Neuf Nations de Bruxelles, nl, Negen Naties van Brussel), were associations of craft guilds that dominated the eco ...

, Belgium. He was beheaded on the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels' main square) because of his resistance to innovations in city government detrimental to the power of the guilds and for his suspected involvement with uprisings within the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...

Background

The end of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phili ...

saw the Spanish Netherlands awarded to Austria. In 1716 the Austrians raised new taxes on the Flemish and Brabantine cities to fund the Dutch occupational forces installed by the

Barrier Treaty The "Barrier Treaties" (, ) were a series of agreements signed and ratified between 1709 and 1715 that created a buffer zone between the Dutch Republic and France by allowing the Dutch to occupy a number of fortresses in the Southern Netherlands, ...

and questioned their old medieval privileges. In 1717 these issues caused riots in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest i ...

, Antwerp,

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

and Brussels. The Italian Marquess de Prié, deputy for the absent governor-general,

Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano, (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736) better known as Prince Eugene, was a Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th a ...

, suppressed the riots with brute force. In the same year, the newly elected deans of the

were to swear to uphold the law, including a supplementary rider to the liberties of the city imposed in 1700. They refused to swear to uphold this last, with Anneessens apparently the ring-leader in the refusal. To restore order de Prié ordered the arrest of those he saw to be the ringleaders in both the rioting and the refusal. Frans Anneessens was seen as the most important of these and was lured to a business conference with an Austrian colonel to discuss victuals for his regiment. There Anneessens was arrested. Anneessens and four other leaders were kept in confinement for six months. During this period they were denied contact with their families and denied Catholic services. On 12 September 1719 Anneessens was condemned to death, the four other guild leaders to perpetual banishment. The full trial records were published in two volumes in 1862–1863. Louis Galesloot, ''Procès de François Anneessens, doyen du corps des métiers de Bruxelles''
vol. 1
an
vol. 2
on Google Books.

Execution

The day set for Anneessens' execution was 19 September 1719. As the government feared trouble they had forced the priests to remove the ropes of the church bells and all major streets and squares were occupied by Austrian soldiery. At 8 o'clock Frans Anneessens was brought from prison, and placed on a cart while bound by his hands and feet. After the reading of the sentence, Anneessens refused to sign it, claiming to be innocent in the eyes of God. He was then brought to the scaffold on the Grand-Place where his wig was removed. When Anneesens tried to address the crowd, his words were drowned by drum rolls. The executioner then beheaded him with a sword. After the execution Anneessens body was removed by the Alexian Brothers and he was buried in the

Chapel Church nl, Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Kapellekerk , native_name_lang = , image = Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Kapellekerk Brussel 30-4-2017 08-20-19.JPG , imagesize = , imagealt = , caption = Chapel ...

Legacy

Anneessens is commemorated in Brussels with a statue, a street and a

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

named after him.

Anneessens premetro station Anneessens premetro station is a ''premetro'' (underground tram) station in central Brussels, Belgium, located under the Place Anneessens/Anneessensplein, along the /. It is part of the North–South Axis, a tram tunnel crossing the city centre b ...

takes its name from the square.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* M. Huisman, "Prié, Hercule-Joseph Turinetti, marquis de", ''Biographie Nationale'', vol. 18 (1905), 231–243. * A.H. Wertheim-Gijse Weenink
"Een kwarteeuw burgerverzet in de beide Nederlanden (1698–1719) Voorspel van de 'democratische revoluties'
'' BMGN'' 99/3 (1984), 408–434. (In Dutch) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anneessens, Frans 1660 births 1719 deaths People from Brussels People of the Spanish Netherlands People of the Austrian Netherlands Executed Belgian people People executed by Austria by decapitation