This chapter investigates the commission, creation and inauguration of the monument to Godfrey of Bouillon in Brussels. In doing so, it reveals key features of the state-sponsored ‘statuomania’ of nineteenth-century Belgium. The monument functions here as a case study, one that illuminates in close detail the efforts of political elites in Belgium to use public monuments as instruments for articulating the teleological narrative of national history. Successive Prime Ministers and their administrations maintained a firm hold on the project from start to finish, and in continuity from one government to the next. Their efforts also exemplify early Belgian political Unionism, with Catholic and Liberal politicians cooperating to advance it. The mixed (that is, collaborative Catholic-Liberal) administration of Jean-Baptiste Nothomb (1841 to 1845) commissioned the monument in 1843 and committed considerable state funds to pay for it, including all but 3,000 of Simonis’ fee of 90,500 francs. The project continued under the mixed administration of Sylvain Van de Weyer (d.1874) from 1845 to 1846, and then the single-party Catholic cabinet of Barthélémy de Theux from 1846 to 1847. While the election of Charles Rogier's Liberal administration in 1847 is often framed as the end of Unionism, this project continued to benefit from bipartisan support after this point down to its inauguration the following August. The crusader had an appeal to both constituencies. The memory of a warrior who had answered the papal call to fight in defence of the faith had an obvious appeal to Catholics. Liberals also aligned him to their interests; at the monument's inauguration, for example, Rogier described him as a key figure in the history of Christian civilisation.

In the Belgian national parliament, the project was supported by Catholics (chiefly Félix de Mérode) and Liberals (including Rogier when he held no governmental positions between 1841 and 1847), regardless of who held the reins of government at any point.