Alexandre Dechet
Alexandre Dechet Jenneval | |
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![]() Sketch of Jenneval | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Hyppolyte Louis-Alexandre Dechet |
Also known as | Jenneval |
Born | (1801-01-20)20 January 1801 Lyon, French First Empire |
Died | 18 October 1830(1830-10-18) (aged 29) Lier, Belgium |
Occupation | Poet |
(Hyppolyte) Louis Alexandre Dechet (alternatively, spelled Dechez; Lyon, 20 January 1801 - Lier, 18 October 1830) was a French actor and is regarded the author of the lyrics of the Brabançonne, the Belgian national anthem. His pseudonym was Jenneval, possibly named after the drama Jenneval, ou le Barnevelt français (1769) of Louis Sébastien Mercier.
Dechet worked in Ajaccio, Marseille and in 1826 at the Paris Odéon. Via Lille he finally came to Brussels, where he played at La Monnaie. In 1828 he returned to Paris in order to work at the Comédie Française, but returned to Brussels immediately after the July Revolution in 1830. He there served with the city guard which was responsible for maintaining law and order.
Dechet is said to have written the text of the Brabançonne during the first revolutionary gatherings at the café "L'Aigle d'Or" in the Brussels Greepstraat in August 1830, shortly after the performance of the opera La Muette de Portici, which triggered the Belgian revolution.
During the Belgian Revolution Dechet became a volunteer in the revolutionary army and joined the corps of Frenchman Charles Niellon. He died during a combat against the Dutch near Lier.
On the Place des Martyrs/Martelaarsplein in Brussels, a column honouring Dechet is to be found, which was created by the sculptor Alfred Crick and inaugurated in 1897.
Gallery
- Portrait of Jenneval by Pierre-Louis Delaval, 1821
- Jenneval declaiming his Brabançonne for the first time
- Monument to Jenneval on the Place des Martyrs/Martelaarsplein in Brussels
External links
- Historical background of the Brabançonne by the Compagnie Royale des Francs Arquebusiers (in French)
- v
- t
- e
- Belgian Revolution
- Rattachism
- Orangism
- La muette de Portici (August 1830)
- La Brabançonne (August 1830)
- Provisional Government of Belgium (September 1830 – February 1831)
- National Congress of Belgium (November 1830)
- Constitution of Belgium (February 1831)
- Érasme, Baron Surlet de Chokier (Regent; February 1831 – July 1831)
- Leopold I (King of the Belgians; July 1831 – December 1865)
- Charles Niellon
- Alexandre Dechet (Jenneval)
- Frédéric de Mérode
- Juan Van Halen
(see also List of members of the National Congress)
- Alexandre Gendebien
- André Jolly
- Charles Rogier
- Louis de Potter
- Sylvain Van de Weyer
- Feuillien de Coppin
- Félix de Mérode
- Joseph Vanderlinden
- Emmanuel Van der Linden d'Hooghvorst
- King William I
- Prince William
- Ten Days' Campaign (August 1831)
- Siege of Antwerp (1832)
- London Conference of 1830
- Treaty of the Eighteen Articles (1831)
- Treaty of London (1839)
- Treaty of Maastricht (1843)
- Iron Rhine Treaty (1873)
- Monument to the Martyrs of the 1830 Revolution
- Congress Column
- Civic Guard Merit Medal
- 1830 Star of Honour
- Iron Cross
- 1830 Volunteers' Commemorative Cross