The Marquis Arconati Viscont – An eccentric Freemason

In the minutes of the London Lodge “The Nine Muses” is recorded that on 13th February 1783  the “Marquis Paul de Arconati, Viscount of Milano” was admitted as a member.

Since it was founded on 14thJanuary 1977 at the Thatched House Tavern in James’s Street, “The Nine Muses”  Lodge has had a large number of Italians in its lists , so it comes as no surprise that Paul de Arconati fancied it over all the others. The esteemed Chevalier Bartolomeo Ruspini[1]  – jointly with few other respectful characters –  had established “The Nine Muses” and had been its Grand Master in 1976.  His name still appears on a Lodge Certificate dated 1801 as a testimony not only of his longevity but also that he may have been occupying the Chair for period much longer than it is custom nowadays.

But exactly which noble title did Arconati hold, Marquis or Viscount ?

He was a Marquis with the double barrelled family name of Arconati-Visconti/  Perhaps the casual omission of the hyphen in his name might have confounded the Lodge’s secretary and the “Marquis Arconati-Visconti” became the “Marquis Arconati, Viscount of Milano”. It is not uncommon to find in old   Masonic lodge minutes, members’ names which have been recorded with an unintelligible handwriting, are mis-spelt or even incomplete, particularly if those names were foreign.

Paolo Arconati-Visconti was born in 1754 and was the third son of Giangaleazzo Arconati-Visconti, third Marquis of Busto Garolfo[2]and most importantly :  Chamberlain of the Austrian Empress Marie Therese ! The Arconati-Visconti was a family from Milano that even to these days is highly regarded for having been patrons of the arts in its generations.  One of Paolo’s ancestors – Galeazzo Arconati – possessed for a while the collection of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches known as “The Atlanticus Codex”, which contains some of his futuristic visions on subjects like the flight, new weaponry, mathematics and so forth.  In 1747 Giangaleazzo had married the youngest daughter of the last Baron Scockaert [3]Count of Tirimont , one of the richest and  most influential Flemish aristocrats of the time. The couple moved to Milano in 1750.

In the circle of aristocracy only the first born male child has the right to inherit the title, but Paolo received that privilege following the unexpected death of both his two older siblings. When the Marquis  inherited a large estate in the Flanders he  took off  there and made the Castle of Gaasbeek his summer  residence whilst holding lodgings at the  Hotel De Croy  in the Place Royale, Bruxelles , for when he travelled there on business. It is claimed that he joined the  Lodge “Les Vrais Amis de l’Union” in Bruxelles and that he was involved , whilst there, in many charitable and philanthropic projects.

The Marquis had began his adult life as a captain in the light cavalry regiment of the Hussars, fighting for Austria in the seven years war; a conflict in which all the European nations were involved from 1756 to 1763 and that saw Great Britain and France fighting as usual on opposite sides,  each one forging rather fluid alliances  with other smaller Countries which often swapped sides during the conflict.

The Marquis  travelled far and wide and everywhere he went he studied and immersed himself in the culture of that Country. It was during that time of his life that he visited England and was initiated into Freemasonry. He was a liberal man but his eccentricity was not seen in the right light and  people often assumed  that he was a revolutionary.

Italian by birth, raised in Austria and French by circumstances, he was only able to occupy official government positions after the French revolution of 1795 , when he was elected to represent the department of Dyle.[4]

Paolo greatly admired Napoleon Bonaparte for having successfully  brought order where,after the revolution, there had been chaos. So when Napoleon visited Liege, the Marquis made sure he attended the presentation and gave the First Consul his personal welcome.

Napoleon was swayed by him. Perhaps the fact they shared a common Italian-French  heritage played a good part into that. Certainly the First Consul’s opinion of the natives was quite shocking for he is reported as having said : “You Belgian are quite different from the French, Austrian, Dutch or English. You like yourselves too much and your main characteristics  are apathy and selfishness”. No wonder even to these days the dislike between the two nations is still latent !

During a visit to Turkey, the Marquis had developed a great taste for the oriental fashion. He loved the satin tunics, the turbans and yellow slippers and on his return home he regularly dressed as an Ottoman nobleman ,with turban and sabre. It is reported that after Napoleon had appointed him Mayor of Bruxelles, the Marquis attended meetings and received the local officials dressed as a Turk !  He also travelled in a carriage pulled by six horses and driven by coachmen with blackened faces.  His jaunts were such a great spectacle to watch that the desperate local impresarios had to beg the Marquis to reschedule his pleasure outings so that there would be no clash with the theatre performances, many of  which were being cancelled because of him.

Paolo Arconati’s admiration for Napoleon was such that he even attempted to erect a 100 meter tall pyramid on the road to Bruxelles-Mons, with the bust of his hero displayed at the top.  The material for the construction would have had to come from the demolition of the Amiens Cathedral. It was a foolish idea and was rejected,  of course. In the end, he had to settle for an arch of triumph erected in the middle of the park of his residence in Gaasbeek.

A physical description of the Marquis is provided in a report that an English officer wrote during the battle of Waterloo.   The 23rd Battalion of the King’s  Light Dragoons had been posted in Gaasbeek  and its commander had decided to turn the Marquis’s Castle into the sleeping quarters for the British officers. But when he arrived outside the Castle he was met by a bunch of reservists and farmers whom  the Marquis had assembled to protect his property. In perfect English, the Marquis asked the captain  why he wished to invade his home. The captain, being aware of the eccentricity of the Marquis’ character, removed  his hat in sign of respect and  explained that he was simply following the rules of war but that no harm would be brought to anyone there.  The gentlemanly manner with which the officer had spoken, greatly impressed the Marquis who then relented.

The British captain ‘s name was Mercer and he described the Marquis as a person with a tanned look and of above average height although , because of his age, his spine was a little curved. He was  otherwise quite active  and of a very alert mind and dressed like a Turk, with a dirty turban enriched by many precious stones. In his right hand he held a “lance” and in his left a horn. The old man was not only flamboyant but probably a little  deaf too !

The Marquis’ other residence in the centre of Bruxelles  had been occupied by the Allied Forces Commission whose members committed a considerable amount of damage, estimated in the region of 11,500 francs. The Marquis attempted to recover the sum from the Duke of Wellington but his claim was rejected and he sold off the property in disgust. After the Treaty of Vienna, William I (King of Holland) became the ruler  of the Low Countries. Paolo Arconati-Visconti had to lay low for a while as all privileges and noble titles from the old regime were abolished.  He became known simply as “citizen Arconati” until in 1816 King William restored  the Marquis tile to him. From then on he called himself Paul Marie Remy Arconati-Visconti, Marquis of Busto. It was however dutifully pointed out to him that a carriage pulled by 6 horses  was a privilege reserved only to  Kings. “No matter” he replied and he then ordered that his coach be pulled by only five horses plus a  mule !

The Marquis had a daughter , Sophie,  in 1789 but their relationship was rather strange right to the  very end. She addressed  him as  “tutor” or “guardian” but never as her father and he never recognised her as his child. Sophie went on to marry a Frenchman who fought with  General Lafayette. The couple  did not  inherit any part of  the Marquis’ fortune which went instead to Paolo’s nephew: Giuseppe Arconati-Visconti.

In his final days,  the old eccentric  Freemason slept in a coffin lined with  wool and red brocade to become  accustomed to the place where he would rest when his time came. But when in 1821 he suffered a heart attack, he was unable to reach for the sarcophagus; having climbed onto the nearest table , he laid himself there and died.  The Marquis Paul Arconati-Visconti was buried at Gaarsbeek and the epitaph on his tomb reads:

“Man is born to enlighten his soul for only a very short time”.

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I based most of the material of this paper on an article written by P.J.Dawson, Past Grand Master of the Lodge of the Nine Muses in London. It had been translated into Italian and published in a Masonic magazine that I had seen displayed in a newspaper kiosk in Bologna over fifty years ago. My curiosity drove me to buy it, and I never anticipated I’d become a member of the Craft decades later. I hid it in a safe but forgotten part of my house, and it was only recently found by chance.

[1] Born in Romacoto near Bergamo , Italy,  in around 1727 or 1728 , Ruspini  came to England in 1750  and died here in December 1813. He was the founder in 1788 of a Charity now known as  the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls.

[2] This is a village 30 miles north east of Milano

[3] Alexander Louis Scockaert of Tirimont

[4] Dyle was a department of the First French Empire in what is now Belgium