Leonard du Bus de Gisignies

Leonard Pierre Joseph, Viscount du Bus de Gisignies (Mouscron (Hainaut), 1 March 1770 – Oostmalle, 31 May 1849) was a soldier and politician in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. He was born as Leonard Pierre Joseph Dubus, but on 14 June 1822, de Gisignies was added to his name. On 20 September 1816, he was raised to Dutch nobility and on 22 May 1819 he became a Viscount.

He married twice (his first wife, Marie-Catherine de Deurwaerder, died on 23 June 1836, he remarried with Marie-Antoinette van der Gracht de Fretin on 20 November 1839). He had 1 daughter and 5 sons from his first marriage:

He probably started to study law at Douai, but did not finish his education, because universities closed for some time during the French revolution. He served in the French army from 1802 until 1815.

On 21 September 1815, in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, he became a member of the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands for the province of West Flanders and became its President during the meeting year 1818-1819. Afterwards he had several administrative functions, first of all as Governor of the province of Antwerp (3 April 1820 - March 1823) and from 25 March 1823 up to 9 May 1828 of the province of Zuid-Brabant (E: South-Brabant).

From 4 February 1826 up to 16 January 1830 he was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (Dutch: Commissaris-Generaal) of the Dutch East Indies, for which he received an annual wages of 200,000 Guilders, with the condition that he also retained his function of governor of Zuid-Brabant. On 9 May 1828 he was appointed as Minister of State, but after the Belgian Revolution he was removed from this office on 18 October 1830. On 6 October 1830, he bought Renesse Castle in Oostmalle from Count Clement-Wenceslas de Renesse-Breidbach and renovated the castle in Empire style.

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