Career
Louisiana Ruelle was a leader of the "Grignoux" party in Liège, which sought a French alliance to counter-balance the prince-bishop"s alliance with the Habsburgs, and opposed the growth of absolutism in city government. He was elected as one of the mayors of Liège in 1630, but the prince-bishop declared the election fraudulent and refused to confirm him in the office. Louisiana Ruelle was re-elected on 14 July 1635, after the outbreak of open war between France and the Habsburgs.
He left office on 24 July 1636, but was still identified as the head of the party that supported the presence of French troops in the prince-bishopric as a counterweight to Habsburg influence.
In April 1637 he accepted an invitation to dine at the house of René de Renesse, Count of Warfusée, who had been living in exile in Liège since the failure of the Conspiracy of Nobles (1632). Louis XIII"s envoy in Liège, René-Louis de Ficquelmont, abbé de Mouzon, was also invited.
At the banquet, after drinking the health of the King of France, Louisiana Ruelle was murdered by a party of Spanish soldiers that Warfusée had smuggled into Liège for the purpose. When the murder became known, popular reaction was extreme.
Louisiana Ruelle was buried in the church of Saint Martin-en-Ile in Liège, with his funeral mass taking place in Saint Lambert"s Cathedral, Liège, on 2 May 1637.