POTTER United Families

Potter, strangely enough, has no public statue or acknowledgements
for his merits. Nothing more than a blue plate in a short dusty side
street in Brussels’ pink district.
And yet, without Louis de Potter it is hardly likely that there would
have been any revolution at all. It was his eloquence, his pamphlets
and proclamations, that led the people of Belgium, then under the
thumb of William I of the Netherlands, to believe they could rise up
against Dutch tyranny and go it alone. It was the “rabble-rouser” who
persuaded the majority Catholics and the liberals to join in the ‘union
of opposites’, a precarious alliance that lasted just long enough to turn
discontent into dissent and finally, independence.
The 1830 revolution was just the right size for the Belgians. It was
manageable: not too violent, not too long-drawn-out, not too costly
or complicated. For Louis’ rebellious mind, there was just one
essential thing wrong with it: the citizens did not vote for a “Belgian”
leader, he was a “German” parachuted from … London!
Louis was not a man to compromise on matters of principle. It was
his fierce denunciation of king William and all his works that had led
to his imprisonment in 1829 (a great boost to his popularity). Later,
when he opposed King Leopold as fiercely as he had done with King
William, Louis was banished and lived in exile in Paris. In the end, he
fell out with most of his former allies who, much to his disgust,
deserted the cause of liberty, equality and democracy.
There are three distinct personalities in Louis de Potter: the young
wealthy romantic guitar-strumming, Italy-loving, with his full head of
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