Félix de Mérode

Philipp Otto Félix Balthasar Ghislain Count of Merode ( born April 13, 1791 in Maastricht, † February 7, 1857 in Brussels) was a Belgian politician.

His father was mayor of Brussels at the time of Napoleon. During the Belgian Revolution ( in which a brother was killed ) he became a member of the provisional government and taken from the Catholic side as a contender for the royal throne of the new state into the game, which he refused, however. Instead, he supported the election of Prince Leopold as the new king. After independence he was Minister without portfolio, then for a short time Minister of War and later Foreign and Finance Ministers. In 1839 he retired to private life, but promoted in 1842 together with the German count Theophil von Hompesch a Belgian colonization attempt in Guatemala.