Barthold Douma van Burmania (bapt. 17 November 1695 in
Hallum
Hallum is a village in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It is a village in the municipality of Noardeast-Fryslân and it had a population of around 2,746 in January 2017. The primary language spoken is West Frisian. Before 2019, the vil ...
– 24 March 1766 in
Vienna)
was a Dutch statesman and ambassador to the court of
Vienna in the eighteenth century.
Van Burmania was born in a small village in
Friesland as the son of Jeepke van Douma and Sjuck van Burmania, a military man and later a councillor at the Court of Friesland from 1710 to 1721.
After a military career, Barthold became an ambassador in
Cologne in 1739
Inventory
of the legation
A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, minister. Ambassadors diplomatic rank, out ...
with the German Emperor, 1699-1807 and later at the court of Vienna.
He was a man of broad humanitarian sympathies and an especially staunch friend of the Jews. When, in the 1740s, Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' (in her own right). ...
ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Prague (to take place before the end of January 1745) and from all Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
(before the end of June 1745) Burmania, at the request of the Jewish communities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague, exerted all his influence at the court to have the edict revoked. He was assisted by the English minister, Sir Thomas Robinson
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, (c. 169530 September 1770), of Newby, Yorkshire, was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British diplomat and politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons between 1727 and 1761.
Early l ...
. The result of his efforts was the postponement of the date of exile to the last day of February 1745. Again the Jewish communities of Holland appealed to Burmania, and again he pleaded, urged, and remonstrated with the Austrian Reichskanzler (Chancellor), that "sovereigns, more than other persons, are responsible to God and man for their deeds." Another month of grace was granted, but on 31 March 1745 the Jews of Prague were exiled. Thereupon, Burmania, supported by the ambassadors of England, Poland, and Turkey, directed his energies toward averting the expulsion of the Jews from the whole of Bohemia, which was to take place in June.
A royal edict was issued on 8 April 1745, ordering all Jews of Moravia also to emigrate within a short time. Again Burmania pleaded for them, and the edicts were modified on 15 May 1745, the Jews being allowed to remain in Bohemia and Moravia "until further orders". Burmania endeavored to have repealed the edict which was issued on 25 June 1746, prohibiting all Jews from coming within two hours' distance of Prague; but he was not successful. Finally, however, on July 1748, Maria Theresa revoked the edict of 18 December 1744 "on account of the pressure from the foreign ambassadors" and the Jews were allowed to return to Prague.
Sources
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burmania, Barthold
1695 births
1766 deaths
18th-century Dutch diplomats
Jewish Austrian history
People from Ferwerderadiel