Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of Prié

Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of Prié (Piedmont, 27 november, 1658 – Vienna, 12 januari, 1726), was interim Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1716 and 1724.

The Italian Marquess de Prié was deputy for the absent governor-general, Prince Eugene of Savoy. Prié ruled in a highly despotic manner, which eventually turned the entire country against him. He overhauled the structure of the Brussels central government, replacing the former Council of State, Council of Finance and the Secret Council by one all encompassing Council of State under his own supervision. Because the reluctance of especially the Brabantine elite to cooperate with Priés new form of government the entire central administration was paralysed for several years, until in 1725 the emperor called Prié back to Vienna.^[1]

Prié also upset the political elites in several towns in the Southern Netherlands. When the labour guilds of Antwerp and Brussels protested vigorously against the government taxes and tried to assert their ancient privileges, Prié caused the aged Frans Anneessens, syndic or chairman of one of these guilds, to be arrested and put to death (1719).

The citizens of Brussels have never forgotten to venerate the memory of their fellow-townsman as a martyr for public liberty. A square and a metro-station are named after Anneessens.

Prié also clashed with Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, the Austrian Master of the ordnance to the Low Countries and placed him in confinement. A court martial was again held upon de Bonneval, and he was condemned to death, but the Emperor commuted the sentence to one year's imprisonment and banishment. De Bonneval then offered his services to the Turkish government, was appointed to organize and command the Turkish artillery, eventually contributing to the Austrian defeat in the Austrian-Ottoman war.

In the fall of 1724 prince Eugene resignated from his governorship of the Netherlands, which caused Prié to lose his only support. Emperor Charles VI decided to intervene and released Prié of his functions. A commission was appointed to examine his rule, but Prié died only a year later, before the commission reached its final conclusions. The emperor left office of governor general to his sister Maria-Elisabeth.

Notes

1. ^ Ghislaine De Boom (1932), Les ministres plénipotentaires dans les Pays-Bas autrichiens, principalement Cobenzl, Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique, pp. 17-23

Literature

M. Huisman, “Prié, Hercule-Joseph Turinetti, marquis de”, Biographie Nationale, XVIII (1905), pp. 231-243.

Ghislaine De Boom, Les ministres plénipotentaires dans les Pays-Bas autrichiens, principalement Cobenzl, Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique (1932).

R. Zedinger, Die Verwaltung der Österreichischen Niederlande in Wien (1714 - 1795), Vienna-Cologne-Weimar, Böhlau Verlag (2000).