Alexis – Guillaume – Charles – Prosper Hody was born in Brussels on 29 september 1807 and died there on 27 september 1880.
He is the son of a lawyer at the Sovereign Council of Brabant, Charles Hody, et d'Emérence Van Coeckelberghe Van Dutzele. After secondary studies at the Athenée de Bruxelles, Alexis Hody enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the State University of Louvain in 1825. In 1829, he graduated with a doctorate in law. In 1830, he marries, in Perwez, Marie-Thérèse de Burlet with whom he has two children, Emerence and Louis said Ludovic.
He is first a lawyer at the Court of Appeal of Brussels, before the provisional government appointed him substitute judge at the Brussels Court of First Instance in 1830. The 5 october 1832, he is appointed to the post of Deputy Crown Prosecutor, vacated by the promotion of Gustave Bosquet to the head of the Brussels public prosecutor's office. Four years later, he is promoted to public prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of Brussels. In 1838, he is called by the Minister of the Interior to the post of administrator of the Public Security in place of Emmanuel François. Hody takes office as a director on 3 janvier 1839. At the head of this administration, he uses photography, he hires competent agents and makes sure to maintain links with foreign secret police. This Catholic is renowned for his firmness.
In 1840, it is also responsible for the administration of prisons following a royal decree giving this competence to the Public Security. Hody is in favor of a prison system of the cell type and more precisely of the Pennsylvanian system as he exposes it in a letter to Cardinal Morichini. He asked eight years later to be relieved of this function but he nevertheless kept the title of honorary inspector general of state prisons..
At the same period, his fight and that of the institution he leads is to maintain order. At the beginning of his career, he faces the Orangemen and the conspiracy of the "drilled baskets" ; plot organized by two former generals wanting to overthrow King Leopold I in favor of William II of the Netherlands. Hody also watches over socialist movements, communist and anarchist. At the request of the Minister of Justice, surveillance of aliens is at the heart of Hody's activities. This will work to draw up information sheets on the exiles present in Belgium. Evictions will take place, especially those of great personalities like Karl Marx and his wife or Louis Blanc, member of the French provisional government of 1848, which displeases the Minister of Justice at the time, Haussy's liberal.
Alexis Hody also had friction with the mayors and especially those of Brussels in wanting to centralize the police. What's more, its firmness in its refugee management policy displeases, in particular to the mayor of Brussels, Charles de Brouckere. After the coup d'etat 1851 by which Louis Napoleon Bonaparte overthrows the Parliamentary Republic and prepares the restoration of the Empire, De Brouckère refuses the arrest of two Frenchmen, Bianchi and De Buchy, in Brussels in the name of the right of asylum. This incident causes a scandal. De Brouckère announces he will resign if Hody is not fired for ignoring his prerogatives. The administrator of the Public Security is therefore forced to resign and is replaced, in January 1852, through Napoleon Joseph Verheyen. Alexis Hody then resumes his post as king's prosecutor in Brussels.
In 1869, the magistrate is confronted with a politico-financial scandal. The Free List of the Brussels Stock Exchange, a financial newspaper, denounces fraud practiced by André Langrand-Dumonceau. Information from the prosecutor takes place and it results in a dismissal order with regard to the financier. Journalist Armand Mandel is being sued for defamation because he claimed that the magistrates in the case, Charles de Bavay and Alexis Hody, failed in their duties. When Mandel is acquitted in 1870, Hody is transferred as head of division at the Ministry of Justice, he is then director of 1873 to 1879, year of his retirement. In that case, Hody was personally involved since he had shares in one of Langrand's companies and his son was the latter's private secretary..
In 1839, one year after obtaining his position as a director, Alexis Hody obtained recognition of nobility, he was also knighted in 1843 and promoted to the dignity of baron in 1847. He has also received foreign honors : Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1841), Knight of the Royal Order of the Legion of Honor of France (1841), Knight of the Order of the Ernestine Branch of Saxony (1842), Knight of the Order of Leopold of Austria (1850).
Along with the various positions he held, Alexis Hody was an officer of the civic guard of Brussels. He was also an active member of the Society of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul whose creation dates back to 1843 in Belgium. He was president and secretary of the factory council of the Church of Notre-Dame du Sablon in Brussels.. He was also a member of the Royal Academy of Archeology of Belgium. He is the author of numerous texts, especially on Godefroid de Bouillon and on the architecture of the Sablon church.
Alexis Hody died on 27 september 1880 and is buried in the cemetery of Strombeek.
Sources:
- Nicolas CUPAIN, “The expulsion of foreigners in Belgium (1830-1914) », in Belgian Review of Contemporary History, n°1-2, 2003, p. 5-48.
- "Home", in Directory of the nobility of Belgium, vol. 9, Brussels, Mucquardt, 1855, p. 299-303.
- Present state of the Belgian nobility, Brussels, 1990, p. 287.
- Luke KUNINGS, "Hody-Warrocket Alexis", in National biography, t. 44, Brussels, Royal Academy of Sciences, letters and fine arts of Belgium, 1985, p. 626-634.
- Luke KUNINGS, “The main stages in the development of the secret police in Belgium in the 19th century”, in Quarterly bulletin of the communal credit of Belgium, n°169, 1989, p. 3-30.
Zoe Luc
Notice written as part of the Seminar on the History of the Contemporary Period of the Catholic University of Louvain (LHIST2280, teacher Emmanuel Debruyne).
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