Édouard de Walckiers


Viscount Joseph Édouard Sébastien de Walckiers de Tronchiennes was a Brussels-born banker. He died in Paris.

Life

He was the son of viscount and of Dieudonnée Louise Josephine de Nettine, heir to the Nettine bank in Brussels, founded in 1733 by her father Matthias de Nettine. Matthias' widow Barbe Stoupy inherited the bank in 1749:
Édouard de Walckiers' first marriage was in 1783 to Barbe de Reul, with whom he had one child, Louise Jeanne, who in 1801 married count Alexandre Batowski. In 1799 he married his second wife, Rose-Françoise Renaut, with whom he had Charles-Louis, 3rd viscount de Walckiers and Alphonse 4th viscount de Walckiers, who had issue.
On 16 January 1784 Joseph Édouard de Walckiers was made counsellor-receiver-general of finances for the Austrian Netherlands In 1788 he built Belvédère Castle to designs by Antoine Payen the Elder - in the 20th century this became prince Albert's residence. During the Brabant Revolution he became a member of the secret society Pro aris et focis. He also financed the Vonckists and in March 1790 fled to France, where he stayed for a time at the château de Hem near Lille Around 1791 he purchased the Orléans Collection from Philippe-Égalité for 750,000 francs before reselling it to Laborde de Méréville in 1792 for 950,000 francs. In March 1794 he was denounced as an Austrian agent and as a speculator on the exchange. He fled to Hamburg but was removed from the list of émigrés on 29 May 1800 and returned to France under the French Directory, dying in Paris in 1837, more or less ruined.