Ercole Giuseppe Lodovico Turinetti, marchese di Priero e di Pancalieri also marchese di Priè (in Italian) or Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis de Prié (in French) (

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, 27 November 1658 –

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, 12 January 1726), was interim Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1716 and 1724.

Biography

Rise to power

He was born in Turin in 1658, the second son of Giorgio Turinetti, Director of finances of the

Duchy of Savoy The Duchy of Savoy (; ) was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy. It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy f ...

, and Maria Violante Valperga di Rivara (1630-1690).
Upon the death of his father in 1673, he adopted the title of Count of Pertengo, as second-born. In 1678 his elder brother entered a monastery, leaving Ercole the title of head of the house."TURINETTI DI PRIERO, Ercole Ludovico"
at treccani.it In 1680, Queen-Regent

Anne Marie d'Orléans Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...

appointed him Ambassador of Savoy in London. Returning to Turin, in 1683 he acquired all the assets and titles of the Turinetti family following the death of his uncle Giovan Antonio, and assumed the title of Marquis of Priero, while his younger brother adopted that of Count of Pertengo. In 1691, he was appointed by

Victor Amadeus II Victor Amadeus II (; 14 May 166631 October 1732) was the head of the House of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 12 June 1675 until his abdication in 1730. He was the first of his house to acquire a royal crown, ruling first as King o ...

as Ambassador of Savoy to the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

in Vienna. He had to leave Vienna a few years later, when Victor Amadeus II made an alliance with France. When Victor Amadeus switched sides in 1703 and re-established his alliance with the Holy Roman Empire, Turinetti returned to Vienna in 1704. He then went directly into the service of the Habsburg Empire and in 1706 became an Imperial councilor of state. In 1708, Emperor Joseph I of Habsburg appointed him Imperial Ambassador to the Pope. As ambassador, he succeeded in having the Austrian Archduke Charles recognized by

Pope Clement XI Pope Clement XI (; ; ; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721. Clement XI was a patron of the arts an ...

as the rightful King of Spain in 1709. His intervention in this capacity was fundamental for the development of Austrian rule in northern Italy. He returned to Vienna in 1714.

In the Habsburg Netherlands

In 1716, the Italian Marquis di Priè was deputy for the absent governor-general,

Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736), better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty durin ...

. Turinetti ruled in a highly despotic manner, which eventually turned the entire country against him. He overhauled the structure of the

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

central government, replacing the former

Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...

, 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 Prié's new form of government the entire central administration was paralysed for several years, until in 1725 Emperor Charles VI recalled Prié to Vienna upon the resignation of Prié's supporter, Prince Eugene.Ghislaine De Boom (1932), ''Les ministres plénipotentiaires dans les Pays-Bas autrichiens, principalement Cobenzl'', Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique, pp. 17-23 Prié also upset the political elites in several towns in the Southern Netherlands. When the labour guilds of

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

and Brussels protested vigorously against the government taxes and tried to assert their ancient privileges, Prié caused the aged

Frans Anneessens Frans Anneessens (in Dutch)Paul F. State, 'Historical Dictionary of Brussels', Rowman & Littlefield, 16 abr 2015, p. 33

, syndic or chairman of one of these guilds, to be arrested and put to death (1719). Prié also clashed with

Claude Alexandre de Bonneval Claude Alexandre, Count of Bonneval (14 July 1675 – 23 March 1747), was a French army officer who later went into the service of the Ottoman Empire, eventually converting to Islam and becoming known as Humbaracı Ahmet Paşa. Life The descenda ...

, the Austrian Master of the ordnance to the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

and had him arrested and imprisoned pending his court martial at which he was convicted and condemned to death. The Emperor commuted the sentence to one year's imprisonment and banishment. De Bonneval then offered his services to the Turkish government, and was appointed to organize and command the Turkish artillery, eventually contributing to the Austrian defeat in the Austrian-Ottoman war. In the autumn of 1724 Prince Eugene resigned his governorship of the Netherlands, which caused Prié to lose his only support. The Emperor intervened and relieved Prié of his duties. 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 the office of governor general to his sister Maria-Elisabeth.

Notes

Literature

*Augusto MAESTRI, Ercole Giuseppe Luigi TURINETTI (Marquis di Priè.), "Accordi segreti fra Rinaldo d'Este, Duca di Modena, ed il Marchese di Prie, ambasciatore cesareo, per l'acquisto della Mirandola, 1708-1711". Documenti inediti tratti dalla Biblioteca Estense (MSS. Campori) e dall'Archivio di Stato di Modena (1911) *Enzo Piscitelli
''Legazione Sarda in Vienna (1707–1859''
Roma (1950), pp. 16–17 *A. Reumont, "Il marchese di Priè nel Belgio". In: ''Archivio Storico Italiano'' IV, 17 (1886), pp. 213–242 *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). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hercule-Louis Turinetti, Marquis of Prie Prie, Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of 1658 births 1726 deaths People from the Savoyard state