Thomas Philip Wallrad de Hénin-Liétard d'Alsace named Cardinal d'Alsace (

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 12 November 1679 – 5 January 1759), was a Cardinal and Archbishop of Mechelen,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. He participated in four conclaves; during the conclave of 1758, in which he did not participate, he was Cardinal

Protopriest The Protopriest of the College of Cardinals ( it, protopresbitero, and, rare, it, protoprete) in the College of Cardinals, is the first Cardinal-Priest in the order of precedence, hence directly after the Cardinal-bishops. This title is always ...

Family

His father, Philippe-Louis de Hénin, 7th Count of Bossu was

Knight of the Golden Fleece This article contains a list of knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Knights of the Burgundian Golden Fleece 15th Century !Year of Induction!!Name!!Born!!Died!!Notes , - , rowspan=25, 1430, , Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, , 1396, , ...

. He was the 11th

Prince of Chimay Prince of Chimay is a title of Belgian and Dutch nobility associated with the town of Chimay in what is now Belgium. The title is currently held by Philippe de Caraman-Chimay, 22nd Prince de Chimay. The main residence of the princely family is Ch ...

: his family belongs to the family of Hénin-Liétard,see also Jean-François-Gabriel de Hénin-Liétard His grandmother was a Princess of Arenberg and Chimay, she was a granddaughter of

Charles de Ligne, 2nd Prince of Arenberg Princely Count Charles of Arenberg, duke of Aarschot (''jure uxoris''), baron of Zevenbergen, knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, (22 February 1550, in Vollenhove – 18 January 1616, in Enghien) was the second Princely Count of Arenberg ...

. Lodewijk Frans Verreycken, 1st Baron of Bonlez was his great-grandfather. The brother of the Cardinal was married to Charlotte de Rouvroy, daughter of the

Duke of Saint-Simon Duke of Saint-Simon (french: duc de Saint-Simon; es, duque de Saint-Simon) was a title in the Peerage of France and later in the Peerage of Spain. It was granted in 1635 to Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Claude de Rouvroy, comte de Rasse. ...

, who mentioned the Cardinal in his writings. One of his nephews Charles-Alexandre de Hénin-Liétard d'Alsace, Count of Beaumont died in 1794 in Paris by

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

Career

In 1696 he was a noble Canon of the Chapter of Ghent. He completed his studies in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and was ordained as a priest on 15 October 1702, in Rome. He was created in 1712 a papal

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...

of honour of Pope Clement XI. In 1714 he was approved by emperor Charles VI as Bishop of Mechelen; his appointment as Archbishop took place on 16 December 1715. In 1716 he was ordained in Vienna by the Apostolic Nuncio to Austria: Mgr. Giorgio Cardinal Spínola. On 29 Nov 1719, age 40, he was named Cardinal, after his support in favor of the

Bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

of ''

Unigenitus ''Unigenitus'' (named for its Latin opening words ''Unigenitus dei filius'', or "Only-begotten son of God") is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713. It opened the final phase of the Jansen ...

''. Cardinal d'Alsace was the first cardinal taking residence in Mechelen, since Cardinal

Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (20 August 151721 September 1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Bisontin ( Free Imperial City of Besançon) statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsb ...

died. He went to Rome to be ordained by the pope. During the episcopate of Cardinal d'Alsace he constructed several important buildings: he had the episcopal palace rebuilt and a new diocesan seminary constructed in Mechelen. In 1747 he pleaded with King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

, who entered

, to have mercy on its inhabitants. The king requested a

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Ch ...

in honour of the victory, but the Cardinal replied: "Only the blood of Christ flows on the altar!" After the anti-government disturbances, the Great Council produced a high number of death penalties; the cardinal begged the emperor for mercy in 1720. This request was honoured by the Emperor. Upon the death of Cardinal

Ruffo Ruffo is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Noble house of Ruffo di Calabria *Fabrizio Ruffo (1744–1827), Italian cardinal *Fulco Ruffo di Calabria (1884–1946), Italian World War I flying ace * Giordano Ruffo (1200-1256), ...

on 18 February 1753, Cardinal d'Alsace became the last surviving Cardinal created by Pope Clement XI.

Consecrations

He was consecrated Bishop during his career. * Hendrik Jozef van Susteren, bishop of Bruges. † (1716) * Charles d’Espinoza, O.F.M. Cap, bishop of Antwerp. † (1723) * Giuseppe Cardinal Spinelli † (1725) * Thomas John Francis de Strickland de Sizorghe † (1727) * Wilhelmus Delvaux, bishop of Ypres. † (1732) * Maximiliaan Antoon van der Noot, Bishop of Ghent. † (1743) * Guillaume-Philippe de Herzelles, bishop of Antwerp. † (1743) * Jan-Baptist de Castillion, bishop of Bruges † (1743) * Daniel O’Reilly † (1748) * Jan-Robert Caïmo, bishop of Bruges † (1754)

Culture

He participated in the 1721

conclave A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. Co ...

. In 1738 he sent his private library of more than nine thousand books to the collection of the

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

and chapter of St Rumbold. This collection was recognised as Flemish heritage last year and was conserved by the support of the Fund Baillet Latour. He left an important gold embroidered pontifical ornament that he brought from Rome, and was restored by Henri Van Severen. He was buried inside the cathedral and succeeded by Cardinal Joannes-Henricus de Franckenberg.

Ancestry

Notes

References

Sources

Thomas Philip Wallrad d'Alsace-Boussut de Chimay

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alsace-Boussut de Chimay, Thomas Philip Wallrad d' 1679 births 1759 deaths 18th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Holy Roman Empire Belgian cardinals Book and manuscript collectors Roman Catholic archbishops of Mechelen-Brussels Canons (priests) Jansenism

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...