Several military units have been known as the Belgian Legion:

French Revolution

The first Belgian and liégeois

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

 legions were formed in 1792 from volunteers who had come to serve the First French Republic from the Austrian Netherlands and Principality of Liège respectively. It was in one of them that general Lahure

Louis Joseph Lahure

Louis Joseph Lahure was a general from the Southern Netherlands in the service of the First French Republic and First French Empire. He was the son of Nicolas Lahure and Marie-Thérèse du Buisson...

 did his first military service.

Restauration

Temporarily regaining control of the Southern Netherlands

Southern Netherlands

Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...

, on 2 March 1814 Austria formed military units from regional recruitment - these were known as the Belgian Legion. Administrated by the baron of Poederlé, secretary general for armamaments, this Legion was made up of 4 line infantry regiments (from Brabant

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...

, Flanders

County of Flanders

The County of Flanders was one of the territories constituting the Low Countries. The county existed from 862 to 1795. It was one of the original secular fiefs of France and for centuries was one of the most affluent regions in Europe....

, Hainaut

County of Hainaut

The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries with its capital at Mons . In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault....

 and Namur

Namur (province)

Namur is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and on France. Its capital is the city of Namur...

), a light infantry regiment, two cavalry regiments and an artillery regiment. This unit merged into the army of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...

 on 1 September 1814, when that nation annexed the territory that would later form Belgium.

French Revolution of 1848

In March 1848, during the French Revolution of 1848

French Revolution of 1848

The 1848 Revolution in France was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France, the February revolution ended the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the French Second Republic. The February Revolution was really the belated second phase of the Revolution of 1830...

, Belgian workers living in Paris, led by the wine merchant Blervacq and an old officer called Fosses, formed an "Association des démocrates belges" (94, rue de Ménilmontant). This gave rise to a new Belgian Legion. Informally supported by Ledru-Rollin, Caussidière

Marc Caussidière

Marc Caussidière was born in Geneva in 1808 and died in Paris in 1861. He was a significant personality of the French republican movement of the first half of the nineteenth century.-Biography:...

 and other members of the French government dreaming of a Republican uprising in the Southern Netherlands and a subsequent French annexation of that area, this Legion's aim was to overthrow the monarchy and establish a Belgian republic. Commanded by Blervacq, Fosses and Charles Graux and escorted by students of the école Polytechnique

École Polytechnique

The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

, a troop of 1100 to 1200 unarmed men in three corps left Paris on 25 March. Passing via Douai

Douai

-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...

 then Seclin

Seclin

Seclin is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is part of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole.Ghana national football team footballer Andre Ayew was born in Seclin.-Twin towns — Sister cities:...

 (27 March), they were resupplied by the commissioner of the Nord department

Nord Department

Nord is one of the ten departments of Haiti. It has an area of 2,106 km² and a population of 872,200 . Its capital is Cap-Haïtien.-Arrondissements:The department is divided into seven arrondissements:...

, Charles Delescluze, and by general Négrier

François-Marie-Casimir Négrier

François-Marie-Casimir Négrier was a French general who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the 1848 Revolution. Aged 12 he accompanied Jean Lannes on his embassy to Portugal. From 1830 he was colonel of the 54th Infantry Regiment.-Source:...

. However, France's Minister for War

Minister of Defence (France)

The Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs is the French government cabinet member charged with running the military of France....

, Cavaignac

Louis Eugène Cavaignac

Louis-Eugène-John-Jacob-Cavaignac , French general, second son of Jean-Baptiste Cavaignac and brother of Éléonore Louis Godefroi Cavaignac, was born at Paris.- Military career :...

, alerted by a recent incident provoked by Belgian workers who had returned to the frontier at Quiévrain

Quiévrain

Quiévrain is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On 1 January 2006, the municipality had 6,559 inhabitants. The total area is 21.22 km², giving a population density of 309 inhabitants per km²....

 by train, demanded that Négrier give no assistance to any violation of the Belgian frontier. Négrier obeyed by ordering the polytechniciens to turn back and by closing the gates of Lille. On the evening of 28 March, however, the Legion broke camp and seized the arms and ammunition gathered by Delescluze before crossing the frontier between Neuville-en-Ferrain

Neuville-en-Ferrain

-References:*...

 and Mouscron

Mouscron

Mouscron is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. The Mouscron municipality includes the old communes of Dottignies , Luingne, and Herseaux .-Middle Ages:...

. They then confronted Belgian troops under general Fleury-Duray in Risquons-tout (then a hamlet in the commune of Rekkem, but now part of Mouscron) and were defeated, with 7 killed, 26 wounded and 60 captured. Some of the captured democrats were imprisoned in the citadelle

Citadelle

Citadelle is the French word for "citadel". It may refer to:*Citadelle of Quebec, in Quebec City, Canada*Citadelle Laferrière, in Northern Haiti...

 of Huy

Huy

Huy is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia, home to about two-thirds of the Walloon population...

 and 17 of them condemned to death and executed at Antwerp.

Mexico Expedition

During the Mexico Expedition

French intervention in Mexico

The French intervention in Mexico , also known as The Maximilian Affair, War of the French Intervention, and The Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire, supported in the beginning by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain...

, some volunteers formed a Belgian Legion to fight in the army of emperor Maximilian

Maximilian I of Mexico

Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...

, whose wife, princess Charlotte of Belgium

Charlotte of Belgium

Charlotte of Belgium is remembered today as Carlota of Mexico as empress consort of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, ex-Archduke of Austria.-Princess of Belgium:The only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians by his second wife,...

, was Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...

's daughter. This Legion was severely beaten at the Battle of Tacámbaro

Battle of Tacámbaro

The Battle of Tacámbaro took place on April 11, 1865 in the state of Michoacán in western Mexico during the French Intervention in Mexico. The engagement, named for the town in which it was fought, pitted 300 members of the Belgian Foreign Legion against approximately 3,000 Mexican...

 on 11 April 1866.

Second World War

There was also a Belgian Legion

Free Belgian Forces

The Free Belgian Forces were members of the Belgian armed forces in World War II who continued fighting against the Axis after the surrender of Belgium and its subsequent occupation by the Germans...

 during the Second World War.