Translated

Paris

g n r a l e
1918

l b is t o ir e

Payot
1ly written f o r the English edit ion
,

P R E F ACE

S O M E thirty years ago Ernest Lav isse in answer t o a reques t

from some B elgian students recall ed in a pictures que and
suggestive s u mmary the chief events of Belgian history and
decla red to his yo u n g; correspondents I know o f n o land
which poss ess es more glorious memories than yours
His
words at onc e expressed his warm sym pathy with them and
emphasized the prominence o f the part pl ayed by Belgium in
Europea n history The words o f the eminent historian came
back t o my m emory in the early days o f the war Belgium h as
sho wn herself worthy o f her glorio u s past she has added o n e
more to those many heroic pages which her annals contain
I may perhaps be accus ed o f having dwelt t o o little o n
thos e pages I have done so o n purpos e rst from motives
o f discretion and s econdly from scientic scruples
The grave
preoccupations o f the present hour do not dispens e us from
the demands o f historical truth
We must n o t imitate
the historians o n the other side o f the Rhine in maki ng the
great lines of the past converge towards the point o f view
which o u r present frame of mind impos es on us There is a risk
of distorting their p ersp ective in s eeking t o p redict as it were
past events that is t o say s eeking to estimat e their importance
by the m easure of thos e which we se e before u s t o determine
their signicance by the cons equences which have resulted
from them an d to appreciate the form er solely in the li ght o f the
la tter History do es n o t l en d its elf t o s u ch a system o f nal
causes the method savours t o o much o f Prussian organization
,

Prefa ce

the
truth
it
is
by
n o means easy t o free oneself from
y
the tyrannous obsession o f the present to escape from the
atmosphere o f fever or exaltation in which we live and which
impels us t o regard Belgium as the pivot o f European evolution
No land it is true possesses a more international history
a fact which has been brought o u t with wonderful skill by
Henri Pire n n e and it is n o t paradoxical t o assert that one o f
the characteristics o f Belgian nationality is internationalism
While bearing these results in mind as scientically true
I have devoted myself t o the task o f nding o u t the ruling
factors o f o u r internal history and s electing by preferenc e as
the landmarks of di ff erent periods not the changes which
resulting in general from European conicts have a ff ect ed
the reigning houses but the distinctive phenomena o f social
life In common with the other States of the West Belgium
only achieved political consistency in the fteenth century
but her national character was formed during the course o f
the Middle Ages and if I have not laid more stress upon that
period it is because its history is still enveloped in the mists
of legends
I hesitated f o r some time before writing this book being
convinced that the tragic moments through which we are
passing render it dif cult t o attain that calm of mind whi ch
is essential for the execution o f all historical work However
I am n o w placed in a relatively favourable situation for the
performance o f such a task thanks t o the isolation o f exile
and thanks also t o the bibliographical resources o f a university
town where I have found a generous welcome and where the
echoes of the t e rfibl e conict reach me more faintly By under
taking this sketch I have endeavoured t o serve my native land
intellectually without failing t o observe all those duties of
To

sa

P ref a ce

honesty and impartiality which that s ervice demands I have

tried to condens e and to popularize the results o f the chief
works o n the history o f Belgi um I have more particularly
endeavo u red t o bring out the essential charact eristics o f the
diff erent phas es which that history pres ents t o show that each
of these phases demands a special way o f viewing it In this
way we shall b etter p erceive the caus es whi ch have made the
Belgium o f t o day the land o f refuge and of liberty p ar e xcellence
and the B elgian people the unyielding protagonists o f the ideas
of j ustice and honour thos e imponderables so much ignored
which reach lands beyond the ra nge of
n o w by the Germans
their g u ns
.

F O RD F EB RUARY

191 8

CO NT E N T S
P

1.

FR OM THE EA R L IEST TIMES T O THE PE R I O D O F THE

CAR OL INGIANS
i Th R m a C q
ii Th I mmig a i
f h F a k
iii Th C a l i gia E p h
F OUNDATI ON AND DEVE LOPMENT O F THE PR IN C I
P ALI TI E S UP T O THE THI RTEENTH C ENT UR Y
d L h i gi
i Th D l i
f h C a l i gi a
Fla d
f m Mi lita y F
i
ii F m a i
f h L th a i gia P i ip a li i
d E xp a i
f Fl a d
E mi d S i l T m ta i
i
P liti al Z ith f Fl a d
C i t b w B ab a t
d h C
t y f Li eg
RISE O F THE C ITIES (THI R TEENTH AND F OUR TEENTH
C ENTURIES )
i C i i i Fl a d
ii E m
ip a i f h C t y f Li eg
Ri f B ab a
i
Th D m ra i M v m
v D f iv All ia
d T
it i a l Agg l m a i
i I
ll al d A i ti D v l p m t
THE CONS OL IDATI ON WITH BURGUND Y ( 3 84 55 5)
T it i l P l i y
ii M a hi a l C t a l i z a i
iii E
mi M v m t
d S ia l C h a g
i
A ti ti d I t ll al Fl w i g tim
.

u e st

on

A E

2.

ne o

ro

ec

or

t on o

v.

se o

e e ns

n te

oc

ra n s

on o

e rs .

on

et

o un r

t c

rt s

an

e rr

or

e o

er

v.

on

rc

co n o

c an

en r

n e

en

an

e c tu

on

oc

er n

t o ns

en

ee n

ent

n c e s an

or a

21

ns o n

t o ns

35
43

47

54
59

nt

e c tu

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ar n

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r nc

r n

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an c

v.

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r s s

en

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ro n t e rs

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co no

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67

_J

82

87

91
1 0 4.

es

1 1
3

I 1

C o n ten ts
R VO L T AGAINST SPANISH RUL E ( 5 5 5
Ref m f Phi lip II d th Opp i ti
D i t rb a with g a d t C alvi i m d th

5 THE E
i Th e
.

ii

or

s u

v.

n s

an

t o Granv e ll e

C o m pro mise

cat o n o

ac

ent

ec

en

n e an

r er

co n o

es

oc

c s

s e

en r

on

132

36

13

1 42

1 45

53

56

64
16
9

er

co n o
o

77

79
1 83

i Th e
.

Jo s e p hi s t

i i Th e

B ab a

iii Th e

us r

Rf

e o rm s

191

B lgia R v l

n t in e o r

o u ti o n

A t ia R t a i
THE DIST RI C T O F L I EGE F RO M THE SIXTEENTH C EN
TU R Y T O THE R EVOLU TI O N O F 7 8 9
i G wth f Ab l ti m
i i Th R v l ti
f Li eg
B E L GI UM UNDE R F R EN C H RUL E ( 79 8 4)
h C q t ( 79 4)
i Th F
d A
x ati ( 794 9)
i i M il ita y O
p ati
i G v
m t ( 7 9 9 8 4)
iii Th N ap l
B E L GI UM R E UNITED T O H OLLAND ( 8 4 3 )
d am t l L w
i Wi llia m I
d h F
ii D if lti
f A i m il ti
.

an

r n ce o

e s

no -

e rr

on

A E

9 8)

ce ss o n

v.

os

es

u c c ss s o

re

an

N bl
iii Th D ke f Alv a
d h P i
f O ra g
i
S e e f h R b l ; h P i i f Gh
v Th Se i
TH E C ATH OL I C RENAISSAN C E ( 59 8 7 3 )
i Th H i p a
B elgia Rgim
ii T
it ri a l D i m em b m t
iii E
mi D li
d S ia l C h a g
i
Gr wth f C ath li i m
THE A U STR IAN AUTOCRA CY ( 7 3 8 9)
i Th B ar i
Sy t m
ii E
m i Reviv a l
ii i C m p l t C t a l i z ti
TH E
B RA BANTINE R EVOLUTI O N TH E UNITED
STATES O F B E L GI UM ( 789 9 )
.

s o

nces

o f t he

es o r

on

94
1 6
9
.

1 0.

ro

so u

o u

on o

2 1

ue s

on

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1 1.

c cu

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nne

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an

iii Th e
.

cu

Ui

es o

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ss

en a

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on

98

20 1

20 6
207

2 14

21

222
22

C o nten ts

IO

TH E REVOL UTI ON O F 83 THE KINGD OM O F B E L GI UM

8
( 3 )
i I i ial D i t b a
(A g t 5 S p t m b r 5)
Otbr )
ii Th R v l i a y D ay ( S ep t m b
iii F
da i
f h Ki gd m f B l gi m ( 8 3
)
IND E PE NDENT B E L GI UM D UR ING THE EXP E RIM ENTAL
STAGE ( 83 4 8)
i Th B lg D t h Q
ti
ii Th C a h li Li b a l A
da y

1 2.

1 3.

s ur

o un

on o

o-

t o

iii Th e

Crisis

e r 20

c o

21

0- 1

u c

c-

ue s

on

nc

s cen

er

Y
84 7
d
INDEPENDENT B E L GIUM D UR ING THE PE R I O D O F
MATURITY ( 849 84)
i Th A e d a y f h Li b al
ii C
lid ati f I d p d
iii M a t ia l P g
.

the

of

sc n

o n so

nc

on o

er

an

er

e n ce

en

re ss

ro

I t ll t al d A i ti D v l p m t
5 INDEP ENDENT B E L GI UM D UR ING THE PE R I O D O F
EXPANSI ON ( 88 5 9 4)
i E
mi
d S ia l Ev l ti
ii Th C ath l i C
vativ G v m t
iii C l ia l E xp a i
i
N a i al D f
IND EX
iv

n e

ec u

rt s

an

en

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23 4

23 9
25 9
2 72

2 77
2 88
7-9 7

3 02

co n o

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v.

oc

on

o u

o n se r

e rn

en

ns o n

on

e e n ce

L I ST O F

Fl a

23 2

e a rs

22 9

us

n ces

o ut o n r

A E

ar n

es

es

er

er

re

3 25

33 2
338

3 43

MAP S

L w r Lo th i gi
Th e B e lgian Prin ip ali ti i t h mid d l
f t h Fif teen t h C en t
Th B e l gian P in ip a l iti af t t h T ea t y f M n te r 1 6 8
4
Th e B lgian Prin cip al it ie af t t h T aty f Ut rec h t 1 1
7 3
B e lg i um i n 1 8 3 1
r

n d e s a nd

3 14

e o

95

ur

157

65

2 45

F ro m th e

E a rli es t Ti mes

to th e P eri o d

th e

Caro li n gi ari s
i

The Ro ma n Co nque rt

T HE

very name of Belgium is still a problem At the epoch

Of the Roman conquest when it rst appears in history it
had already b een lo ng in use and was then applied t o a very
extensive t erritory all that d istrict o f Gaul which lay between
the Rhine and the S eine valley The tribe o r collection Of
tribes which rst adopted the name and which sp read its use
o ver the surro u nding area is unidentied a u thorities are
agreed in regarding it as Celtic i n character although its exact
o rigin is unknown The p redominant element in the Belgian
pop u latio n has then always been Celtic or largely intermingled
with Celts
the nal i mmigration o f that tall and fair haired
race which took plac e about the third century before Christ
abso rbed o r exp elled the earlier p eoples those Celts Lig u rians
and Othe rs who do u btless erected the dolmens megalithic
monu ments thou ght to b e burial places A remnant of the
conquered race so u ght refuge in the forest districts where their
form o f wors hi p existed side by side with that o f the Celts
whos e fu neral rites were marked by the b uil di ng o f mounds
Some Ge rman gro u ps had j oined themselves t o the Celtic
tribes and appear t o have been in great measure assimilated
Belgic Gaul was far from being a united whole when it was
invaded by the legions o f Caesar in 5 7 B C The chief tribes
inhabiting it we re settled o n the two great ro ut e s wh ic h in all
ages have been the commercial and strategic roads from the
.

E arli est Ti mes

12

C aro li ii gi aii s

to th e

Rhi ne to the Seine and which passed through the most Op en

and fertile districts The more no rthern Of the t wo routes
was controlled by the Eb u ro n e s (Hesbaye) the Nervii ( Brabant
Hainault Cambresis) the Atrebates (Artois) and the Bellovaci
( Beauvaisis) wh ile t h e Tre v iri Remi and Suessiones dominated
the route Of the Moselle Marne and Ai sne In t hi s region
Treves Reims and Soissons the three chief centres O f p Op ul a
tion grew up
Between the Ardennes and the sea the most powerful tribes
were the Eb u ro n e s (Tongres) and the Nervii ( Bavay) ; th ey
very largely controlled their neighbours the Co n d ru si (C o n
droz) the P ae man i ( Famenne) the Ad u at ic i (Namur) and the
rest these three tribes being like the Eb u r o n e s mingled
with a considerable German el ement T O the west and north
the Morini (Boulonnais and Calaisis) and the Me n ap ii ( Flanders
and the Campine) protected by their marshes and forests
preserved a greater measure Of indep endence and by their
essentially Celtic character afforded a contrast with the Batavi
a German people settled in the delta 0f the Scheldt and Meuse
the maj ority Of the
At the approach o f Caesar ( 5 7
Belgic tribes formed a league with the exception Of the great
tribe o f the Remi wh o submitted immediately The rst
conict took place o n the Ai sne ; the Belgae were forced t o
retreat before the superior arms discipline and military Skil l
o f the invaders
The Nervii led by Bo d u o g n at u s encamp ed
with t wo neighbouring tribes o n the ba nks o f the Sambre
at Hautmont near Maubeuge Caesar began the construction
but being surprised
o f a camp Opposite that O f the natives
he would have been overwhelmed had it not been f o r the
courage and decision with whi ch he rallied h is soldiers After
a fearful struggle in which both sides su ff ered heavy loss
all the warriors Of Bo d uo gn at u s with the exception Of some
hundreds were killed Caesar availed himself o f the o p p o r
.

R o man C o n qu est

Th e
t u ni t

r3

to lay si e ge to the fortress o f the Ad u at ic i ( Namur)

who had not been in time to j oin the Nervii The place was
reduced wi thout diffi culty and the defenders were sold into
slavery but a large number eff ected their escape Finally
Caesar concluded a t reaty with the Eb u ro n e s wh o feigned
sub mission
In the following ye ar ( 5 6
Caesar was less fortunate in
hi s attemp t to conq u er the territory of the Morini He tried
in vain to force them to a pit ched battle and to dislodge them
fro m their forests and marshes He even burned a part of
their woods but the autumn rains compelled him t o retreat
In 5 4 B C an almost universal revolt broke o u t under the
lea ders hi p Of Am b io rix one of the two kings o f the Eb u ro n e s
Af te r p retending to submit he employed against the invader
all t h e resources of hi s active mind and his redoubtable energy
The fortress of Tongres solidly constructed by the Romans
app eared to him t o b e imp regnable and he therefore had
reco u rse to a simple st ratagem by which he succeeded in
inducing the garrison to leave it causing the offi cers wh o
commanded there to believe that they were about to be
attacked by hosts O f Germans and persuading them to retire
t o t h e nearest Roman camp
While the legionaries were
passing through the valley o f the Geer Amb io rix suddenly
attacked them and annihilated them
He attempted the
same plan with the Roman camp in the district Of the Nervii
(possibly Binche) but in vain and was forced t o have recourse
Caesar hastened t o the rescue and relieved
t o a regular siege
the fort In the following year the Roman general devoted
himself solely to the wo rk Of taking vengeance After having
handed over t o his troops the t erritory Of the Nervii which
was entirely laid waste the crops and cattle being carried
Caesar defeated the Tre v iri
O ff and the men taken as slaves
at I zel on the Semois and then formed the plan o f surrounding
y

'

E arli est Times

I4

C aro li n gi an s

to th e

the lands Of Amb io rix with a continuo u s circl e Of enemies

He ravaged the district Of the Me nap ii reached the Rhine
and then wreaked h is rage o n the land whi ch had p roduced
the criminal brood
He organized a regular series o f batt u es
in order t o discover Amb io rix who had taken refuge in the
Ardennes and invited the tribes inhabiting the districts
bordering o n the Eb u ro n e s t o share in the plunder of that
race After that he fancied that he had subdued t h e greater
part of the Belgae and calculated that he would soon eff ect
the capture Of Amb io rix and hi s little band O f fu gitives He
was mistaken When Gaul rose in rebellion under the leadership
O f Vercingetorix a large number Of Belgic tribes the Eb u ro n e s
at their head roused by Ambio rix and the Atrebates led by
Comm took up arms again Caesar ho wever succeeded
in repressing this rising and f o r a second time handed Over
the land o f the Eb u ro n e s to re and sword ( 5 1 E C) O f all
the Gauls the Belgae were the last t o submit
The tribes which formerly inhabited the territory O f Belgium
proper were di vided into four civit ates 0r di stricts whi ch in
cluded the whole of that country : the Me n ap ii Nervii Tu ng ri
(wh o replaced the Eb u ro ne s) and the Tre v iri The resp ective
capitals o f these districts were Cassel replaced in the fo u rth
century by Tournai Bavay Tongres and Treves but only thi s
last town thanks to the existenc e there O f a Roman colony
acquired the character of a capital Each district e nj oyed a
large measure Of autonomy and was ob lige d only t o furnish
contingents to the army and subsidies The contingents
were raised by a voluntary system and the Belgic veterans
when they eventually returned t o their homes rapidly spread
the manners and ideas Of Rome and promoted sentiments of
a ff ection f o r the Queen of the World Except on the frontier
Of the Rhine the Roman garrison was no t large and local order
was maintained by a municipal police drawn from the in h ab i

'

The

R o man C o n qn est

15

ta nts of t h e district Even Tongres was only lightly garrisoned

O n all sides the Romanizing in u enc e spread proceeding
esp ecially along the military roads whi ch had been b ui lt in
the days Of the conquest becaus e they s erved also as rou tes
for commerce Fro m Reims and fro m Cologne nu mero u s
roads radiated to wards the Meus e and the Scheldt fu rni shed
with boundary marks and post houses and forming a great
network of communications Th e main highway which u nit ed
these t wo vital centres p assed through Bavay Tongres and
Maas tricht whi le another import ant road ran by way Of
Arlon and Treves From Bavay started the main road t o the
se a which it reached at Boulogne
Among s u bsidiary ro u tes
t hat fro m Bavay to Treves through Dinant may be mentioned
c ertain re mains Of thi s road such as the bridge of Montignies
Saint Christophe are wonderfully preserved at the present
day Another not eworthy road was that from Arlon to
Tong res thro u gh Bastogne and Marche which in the Middle
Ages was kno wn as the Devil s Causeway
Roman merchants
rst established themselves in shanties near the camps and then
having grown rich by trade acquired lands and formed a new
aristocracy side by side with the o l d n ative nobility
In ad di tio n t o this network of roads a fu rther network of
rive r ro u tes eq u ally aided the Roman penetration o f the
cou nt ry The rivers generally sluggish , formed admirable
means o f communication : the Meuse u ni ted the district
of Tongres with the mo dern Holla nd and with the Ardennes
while the Sambre and the system of the Scheldt and its
trib u taries assisted to bring the cou nt ry Of the Nervii into
relations with the neighbo u ring regions
Ind u strial and commercial activity whi ch had b een consider
able p rio r to t h e Roman p eriod increased after the conq u est
Th e all u vial or sandy and alluvial zone lying between the moors
of the Campin and the forests o f the Ardennes was very rich
.

E arli es t Ti mes

16

to th e

C a ro li n gi an s

in cereals supplying foodstuff s even t o the Rhi n e country

and stockraising also assumed great proportions in that district
The salt marshes Of the lands Of the Me n ap ii and the Morini
and the woo ds o f these districts with their herds Of swine
were largely exploited and there came salt meats such as the
famous Me nap ia n hams wh ich were exported even t o Rome ;
the geese Of these di stricts were appreciated by Italian epicures
As a result Of the cultivation Of ax in the same area a o u rish
ing cloth industry sprang up and the ocks O f sheep supplied
a coarse and durable wool whi ch served excellently for the
making o f the cloth o f Arras Treves Tou rnai &c
the
cloaks manufactured in these towns were sold even in the
Asiatic markets Thanks t o the occurrence o f iron o re and to
the forests Of the Ar dennes the furnaces and forges o f the
district produced from early times iron weapons swords
spears lances daggers j avelin points as well as tools and
various utensils The Romans perfected the process of manu
facture by substituting char coal for wood ; the western extension
o f the Ardennes even became known as the Charcoal Forest
The introduction o f the Roman manner of life revolutioni zed
the whole aspect o f the country In place o f wattled huts and
wood c ab ns the richer members O f the community built them
i
selves villas partly o f brick o r stone heated by means o f under
ground furnaces furnished with glass windows provided with
bath rooms larders arcades on their southern side and adorned
with mosaics fres coes and marbles The ruins which remain
( Basse Wavre Anth ee 8cc ) are inadequate f o r the purpose
o f enabling us t o reconstruct all the opulence of this p eriod
Jewels vases and other valuables a re found only in the tombs
generally buried in the mounds Ease and luxury changed
the diet O f the people ; new dishes and southern fru its some Of
which were acclimatized (cherries raisin s p e ac h e s
appeared
on the tables o f the wealthy as well as wine and Olive Oil

C o n qu est

Th e R o ma n

Intellect u al advanc e became more rapid as a res ult of the

S prea d of ed uc atio n and the introduction of Latin the language
o f the merchants and soldiers
The Celtic t o ngUe disapp eared
Manners were changed and Celtic traditions were combined
with Roma n beliefs
B s u s was identied with Mercury
En t arab u s and T e u t at e s with Mars though the mother
goddesses p erso nifying Fortune the giver o f prosp erity
contin u ed t o b e the Obj ect of fervent po p ular adoration
whi le Epona was always the t u telar geni u s of horses and
h orsemen
and Ne h alle nia that o f navigatio n
Ancient
religious Obs ervanc es s u bsisted ; at the summer solstice res
were l ighted in the elds to maintain the energy o f the su n
the celestial wheel and the streams and groves were p eopled
w ith fairies elves & c
The forest o f the Ardennes preserved
its divine charact er as the domain Of a mysterious h u ntress
O riental religions with their astrological elements spread
rapi dly ; the diviniti e s o f the planets were u nited with the
lo cal divinities and thus was introd u ced the institution O f the
we ek each day o f whi ch was dedicated to a planet
As early as the third centu ry Christianity whi ch in the next
century beca me the Sta te religion of the empire began t o make
p rogress in the south and the east O f the co u ntry The rst
bishop was p robably established at Treves and in t h e 'mi d d l e
Of the fou rth c entury Saint Servais founded the episcopal seat
of Tongres The capitals O f the other districts became in their
turn the sees o f bishops but the work of conversion in these
areas was slow and was everywhere s u ddenly interrupted by the
imminenc e of the German peril
,

f the F ran/e:
For a considerable period as has been seen Germans had
been intro duc ed into t h e country and someti mes in c o m
sal e immi g rat i o n
comp
act
groups
but
any
whole
arat iv e l
p
y
ii

The I mmig ra ti on

8 3 2 -1 2

E arli es t Ti mes

18

to th e

C aro li n gi an s

was prev ented by the organization Of the Rhine fro ntier

From the reign of Augustus , the province o f Germania Inferior
with Cologne as its capital existed for the defence Of thi s
frontier and it absorbed with other places the city o f Tongres
In the middle Of the third century t h e military frontier o f
the empire was o f necessity contracted as a resu lt o f the
increasing pressure o f the Germans The Franks and the
Alaman ni forced the legions t o fall back towards the Meuse
despite the camps and fortresses which had been constructed
along the great roads Arlon Tongres and possibly Namu r
were surrounded with walls In 2 76 the great inroad Of the
barbarians occurred The rich houses Of the province were
pillaged o r burned ; their inhabitants were massacred o r
enslaved ; the elds were ravaged and the towns sacked The
area between the Meuse and the Scheldt exp erienced the
unenviable lo t o f frontier districts
The emperors found only o n e means o f saving the State
that o f opposing barbarian t o barbarian and they allowed t he
Franks to es tablish themselves in the wa sted country Of the
Morini and T re viri Th e coast districts were vigoro usly
defended but the Fra nk s and Saxons could no t be prevented
from establishing themselves there in considera ble numbers
At the close Of the third century availing themselves Of the
revolt o f Carau siu s wh o had been appointed t o guard the
littoral the Salian Franks seized the island Of the Batavi
From that moment they secured a valuable base Of Operations
and ab out the middle o f the next century in spite o f the ill
success o f their attacks they received f ro m t h e Emperor
Julian permission t o colo nize Te x a n d ria ( Campine) At the
beginning o f the fth century they spread in an irresistible
ood over the whole northern part o f the country and
skirting the edge o f the Fo r t Cha rbonni ere turned towards
To urnai
while the Ripuarian Franks advanced to the

E arli es t Ti mes

20

to th e

C a ro li n gi an s

Me ro v e u s and the latter appears to have been a mythi cal

p ersonage As f o r Child e ric wh o died in 48 1 he showed great
activity in the region o f the Loire and hi s favourit e reside n c e
was probably Tournai since it is there that the tomb was
discovered in which he was buried with h is warhors e arms
a n d j ewels
Cambrai and other cities were also royal residences but they
were much decayed at this period rural life having everywhere
secured the ascend ancy Every where in the territory Of the
Fra nks farms isolated rather than grouped in villages aros e
the ruins o f the Roman villas supplying the materials f o r their
construction Municipal life disappeared even in the Wall oon
region and the whole area between the se a and the Ard ennes
was desolated by the constantly recurring wars bet ween the
many Fra nk ish kingdoms divided o r di sputed on each change
o f ruler
Clovis by stratagem and violence reuni ted them
and even extended the dominion o f the Fra nk s over almos t all
ancient Gaul He and his va ssals submitted more o r less t o
the inuence of Roman civilization so rmly established from
the Seine southwards and he resided for choice at Paris whence
he was able to keep watch at once over the o ld Frankish terri
tori es o f the north and hi s new conquests
His conversion to Catholicism
had no immediat e e ff ect
o n his terri tori es
the true Frankish land that country which
the Franks had colonized north o f the Lys and the Foret
Charbonni ere long remained faithf ul to it s ancient creeds
and the protection accorded by Clovis , f o r example to Saint
Vaast Bishop o f Arras hardly assisted the spreading Of Chris
t ia ni t y in this region
In every case the successors o f Clovis
made the bishops the instruments of their greed and o f their
absolutism by frequently raising laymen to episcopal o fc e
The Church became disorganized in the course o f this period
during which t o use the expression of Gregory O f Tours
,

Th e Immi gr a ti o n

th e F ra n ks

21

barba ris m was unchained

many prelates were turb u lent
warriors famou s h u nters but inferior pastors
The a ncient laws such as the Salic Law which was codied
i n the reign o f Clovis and which was int ro d u c e d int o the Walloon
as well as into the Frankish districts were powerless to prevent
bloody quarrels which were always numerous despite the heavy
pe nalties sometimes inhuman in their severity which were
inflicted o n the disturbers Of the public peace The law
bore hardl y upon those o f inferior rank whi le allowing the rich
to compound wi th a money payment f o r their wrongdoing
The va rious branches of the royal house set an exa m
ple O f
every typ e of crime and of privat e revenge Many of the most
dramatic scenes occurred at Tournai o r in its neighbo u rhood
There Often resided F re d e g o n d e the second wife o f Chilp e ric
who introduced the habit o f king killing
She it was who
armed the murderers O f Sig e b e rt King of Austrasia the con
q u e ro r of her husband they slew him at the moment when the
nobles of Neustria were raising him on the shield
,

iii

7 he Ca ro li ng i a n Ep o ch
'

Strictly sp eaking t h e CarO l ing ian epoch begins only with t h e

acc e ssion o f the dynasty o f that name in 75 1 wh e n Pe p in the
Short was elect ed Ki ng o f the Fra nks at Soissons As a matter
of fact the ancestors of Pepin had ruled as Mayors of the Palace
in Au strasia o r East Francia from the begi nni ng o f the seventh
century and in Neustria or West Francia from 68 7 Accord
ingly at least a s far as Belgium is concerne d it is necessary to
i nclude in t h e Carolingian p eriod a large part of the Me ro v in
gian that confus ed and tragic time in which however the
elements of a new political and social order sprang u p t hat o f
Mediaeval Europ e based on religious unity and o n the collabora
tion O f the temp oral and Spiritu al powers represented by two
distinct heads
'

E arli est Ti mes

22

C a ro l i n gi a n s

to th e

It has been said that Carolingian civilization was essentially

European Since the regions o f the Meuse and Scheldt formed
the heart o f the Carolingian Empire this remark may be
qualied by saying that the civilization was essentially Belgic
It was developed on the great estates o f the lay aristocracy
at the head of which stood the family o f Pepin o r the Caro
The
lin g ian s and above all o n the great monastic estates
abbeys played a predominant part and they were situated
mainly in the Walloo nregion which was strongly infected by
the Roman tradition Saint Vaast o f Arras Saint Bertin and
Saint O mer El no n e (afterwards Saint Amand) Saint Martin of
Tournai Lobbes Sainte Wau d ru o f Mons Sainte Gertrude of
Niv e lles and many Others rapidly rose t o prosperity thanks to
the b enefactions o f wealthy landowners eager t o secure the
remission o f their sins
It was specially monks from the south of Gaul who undertook
the conversion o f the real Frankish territory and founded
there at this time the rst monasteries Saint Amand the
enthusiastic Aquitanian apostle did not hesitate to enter
the district o f Ghent reputed savage and dangerous and
h e there founded about 6 1 0 the rst abbey in the Salian
country Saint Peter at Ghent after having destroyed t h e pagan
temples and their idols In his impetuous zeal he advised King
Cl o t aire to have recourse to compulsory baptism a proceeding
which produced revolts and then being discouraged thereby
he abandoned t hi s unreceptive country for the banks o f the
Danube
At a later date however he reappeared in the
neighbourhood of Tournai where he founded the monastery
O f El n o ne which afterwards bore h is name
he abandoned the
diocese o f Tongres at the head O f whi ch he had b een placed
as he could no t accustom himself to the roughness and ignoranc e
Of his barbarous clergy The work of Saint Amand was taken
up by compatriots of his Saint Eloi in the sees of Tournai
.

C aro li ngi an E p o ch

Th e

23

and Cambrai and Saint Re mac h u s in that of Tongres Th e

latt er about the middle o f the seventh century built the twin
abbeys O f Malm edy and Stavelot in the solitudes of t h e
Ardennes ; he t hr e w down the monuments o f the goddess Of
thi s forest and plant ed crosses at the sacred springs But the
conversion of the country o f the Franks was only completed at
the beginning o f the following c entury in the time of S aint
L amb e rt a nd Saint Hubert The latter destroyed the relics
o f the O ld Teutonic faith the memory O f which is preserved
in legends such as that o f the Hunter doubtless O din or
Wodin who ranged the woods with hi s p ack of hounds
The ecclesiastical foundations O f this period which owed
their existence mainly to the monks were n o t devoted solely
to religious p urposes no r did the regular clergy themselves
live a n essentially contemplative life The abbeys were then
t rue workshop s and model farms and played an active part
i n the everyday life of the people with the result that they
poss ess ed a p artially secular character Many o f the abbots
were largely occupied with temporal a ff airs directing their vast
estates which were continually increas ed by genero us donations
and whi ch were often coveted by the lay aristocracy and by
Their constant tendency was to free themselves
t h e kings
from e piscop al j urisdiction and to become what were known
as exempt abbeys
E ach abbot ruled a little world o f h is
own a world whi ch was almost self supporting Its essential
featur e was the church with the cloister generally near it ;
around it were grouped the common rooms the school and the
library the refectory and the dormitory wh ile beyond these
extended the quart ers of the abbot the guest rooms and the
hospital The houses oc cupied by tenants and serfs were
partly in the midst o f the neighbouring elds a n d vineyards
partly scattered further away The abbot Often had control
of some thousands o f agriculturists and o f men enga ge d
,

E arli est Ti mes to th e

24

C aro li ngi ans

in cattle raising in all kinds o f industry and sometimes in

commerce
In every manifestation o f social activity the inu e nce d the
abbeys was decisive Their schools were the chief c entres o f
intellectual life and Charlemagne h a d recourse mainly to
them in order t o create that whi ch he called the new Athens
the Athens o f Christ devoted t o the study Of let ters in prepara
tion f o r the st u dy o f the mysteries o f the Holy Scriptures
The care with which the monks decorated their chu rches
with mural paintings amongst other things assisted to raise the
level of taste But artistic works of this p eriod were generally
anonymous the only painter s name whi ch is preserved is that
O f Mad alu lf
described by his contemporaries as a remarkable
artist o f the diocese o f Cambrai
The monks also played a foremost part in politics It wi ll be
seen that under Charlemagne those to whom the government
was entrusted came not from the ra nk s o f the episcopat e but
from those of the regular clergy The emperor had recours e
especially t o the strangers wh o came to the monasteries O f hi s
empire s u ch as Einhard who although a layman received many
abbeys amongst others those o f Saint Peter and Saint Bavon
at Ghent
The direction o f policy however was determined by other
factors than the monastic elements notably by the lay aristo
cracy composed solely o f great landowners since at this time
land constituted the sole form o f wealth At the head of this
aristocracy were the Mayors of the Palace who became greater
landowners than the kings thems e lves whom they eventually
supplanted The family Of Pepin and Charles which monopo
liz e d this Offi ce disposed o f vast domains in the fertile H e sbaye
along the Meuse and in the Ardennes Like other lords
they t ended t o secure di rect control o f the inhabitants of these
districts t o the detriment o f royal authority It is doubtf u l
-

C aro li n gi a n

Th e

E p o ch

25

whether the predominance O f this family should be attributed

mainly to the military success of such leaders as Charles Martel
the victor of Poitiers and Pepin the Short the conqueror O f
Aquitaine There is no doubt that martial glory assisted the
develop ment o f their fortune but in that development an
important p art was also played b y their practical ability and
that talent for organization which app eared so clearly in
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was certainly less a lawgiver
than an a dministrator o f the rst order He allowed the
various p eoples of his dominions to keep their resp ective laws
and the Salic Law remained the basis of Fra nkish legislation
But he brought all the p eoples under the same system o f
that of the counts the bishops and the
a dmini stration
,

,
.

mm

Charlemagne d id thi s most e ff ectively in the Belgic district

whi ch formed the real heart o f his empire and where his
p atrimony lay Certain institutions such as that o f the
t ribu n al of aldermen ourished there with extraordinary
vigour and were preserved until the close of modern times
In this area t o o he was able to apply with succ ess those
reforms which t ended to the religious unity O f his empire
which he wished t o convert into a sp ecies o f City o f God
while retaining in his own hands the nomination o f the higher
dignitaries Here also ourished what is known as the Caro
l in g ia n renaissance the p rincipal centres o f which were the
monasteries which Charlemagne specially favoured
The
schools o f Li ege a nd Saint Amand shone with a particular lustre
which survived the decline of the Carolingians The Irish
mo nk Se d u liu s contributed to the fame of the schools o f
Li ege by his knowledge o f sacred and profane literature
The di ocese itself was o n e o f the rst to reap the benets of
Carolingia n legislation concerning the spread o f l e arn ing ; 1t
is thanks to a circula r of Bishop G e rb al d that the care W i th
,

E arli est Ti mes

26

to th e

C aro lin gi an s

which Charlemagne watched over the studies o f the clergy

is known
The memory O f Carolingian times is p erpetuated in many
parts of the district o f Hesbaye in the country o f the Meuse
and most O f all in the Ardennes and the legends which have
grown u p around that energetic and wise leader of men
Charlemagne enj oyed there an extraordinary vogu e Roland
the Chevalier Bayard and the four sons o f Aymo n all the
fabul ous personages Of the Get ter have haunted the popular
imagination of the regions in which Charlemagne and his
house found originally the sources o f their power and where
they were in consequence most beloved In the district
o f Li ege the authorship o f the Frankish customary law was
soon attributed to him and until modern times it was known
as the law o f Charlemagne
He was eventually converted
into the founder O f the commune of Li ege t o wh ich he
was said t o have granted letters sealed with gold and to
have presented the famous standard o f Saint Lambert
.

Th e Pri n ci

28

p a li ti es

continu ally rose again between the grandsons of Charlemagne

a nd if the Treaty o f Verdun
was ultimately deemed more
important tha n the rest it was solely because it s provisions
were most often appealed t o by the founders of t h e two great
states o f Medi aeval Europe : France o r the West Fra n ks
and Germany o r the East Franks
The authors o f the partition o f Verdun acted withou t the
slightest consideration for nations o r langua ges wi tho u t the
slightest concern as to natural or tra d itional boundaries their
main idea was to hold the bala nce more o r less equal between
the t hr ee sovereigns whi le taki ng into account their p e rsonal
interests and they succeeded neither in giving cohesion to
their respective states nor in maintai ni ng the unity o f the
empire The region situated o n the left bank of the S cheldt
revert ed to Charles the Bald while all the territory which
stretched on the right o f that river went to the emp eror
Lothaire I This last region became afterwards part of the
kingdom o f Lothaire II o r L o t h a rin gia whi ch stretched from
the North Sea t o the Jura and from France to the Rhine
Al though a bone o f contention between the kings of France and
Germany it maintained a strong individuality and in 8 9 5
wa s actually constituted an indep endent kingdom by Arnulf
o f Carint h ia in favour of his natural so n Zwe nt ib o l d
When
Henry o f Saxony deni tely attached it to Germany
it
formed a duchy with extremely pronounced autonomo u s
tendencies
Despite political instability the springs of wealth were not
dried up ; in any case they remained there more abundant
than in the other western countries They were not seriously
reduced until the second half o f the ninth cent u ry by the
disturban ces res u lting from the incursions o f the Northmen
The mariti me districts were the rst t o fall into the power
o f the Scandinavian warriors
They settled themselves from
,

'

Th e P ri n ci

30

p a li ti es

in the principal harbours at the mouths of the Meuse

the Rhine and the Scheldt sometimes under the pretext o f
trade (all merchants were armed in those days so that it was
hard t o distinguish them from warriors ) They pillaged the
port o f Duurstede four times in succession and destroyed
Utrecht after carrying o ff the treasures o f her churches In
8 5 0 Lothaire II unable t o repulse them ceded the country o f
the Waal as a e f to o n e o f their chiefs and in 8 8 2 Charles the
Fat similarly invested another Northman king with Frisia
O nce in possessi o n o f that extensive maritime base the North
men ventured o n a series o f raids into the interior Their eet
occasionally c o Operated with their land army but was more
frequently employed t o collect their booty and to serve as
a base of supplies The army o f the Northmen well equipped
and disciplined was principally composed o f cavalry whi ch
accounted f o r the astonishing rapidity o f its movements At one
and the same time it p illag e d and devastated the country round
the Meuse and the Scheldt and it select ed f o r choice lands
which were rich in corn and forage and which also contained
the most ourishing abbeys and t h e most frequent ed markets
In 8 8 1 it sacked Saint Vaast at Arras and Cambrai and about the
same time constructed a camp at Elsloo near Maastricht from
which it extended its operations across the whole o f the Hesbaye
and the country o f Lie ge Maastricht Tongres Li ege Saint
Trond Ai x la Chapelle Malm edy and Stavelot became a prey
t o the Northmen
while their populatio ns ed distract ed
ruined by depredations and burnings Shortly afterwards the
army o f the Northmen entered the region o f the Somme and
selected Amiens as its head quarters Carloman King of the
West Franks purchased their retreat
One part o f thi s
army then crossed t o England ; the other fell upon Flanders
and Brabant and established its head quart ers at Louvain
the western extremity o f the Hesbaye the great fertility of
8 34

'

T h e D ecli n e

th e

C aro li n gi a n s

31

which

the Northmen appreciated ; they were able to con

centrat e at leisure all their booty in the camp o f Louvain which
situated at the p ass age o f the Dyle commanded a great part
of the Hesbaye and Brabant
They were so rmly established there that when in 8 8 5
Charles t h e Fat s ent against them the combined forces o f the
West Fra nk s and L o t h arin g ia they O ff ered a victorious re sis
t anc e Fro m 8 8 6 to 8 90 their i n cursio ns were mainly directed
agai n st the W est Franks but in 8 9 1 they agai n invaded the
Hesbaye They inicted a serious check o n t he army o f the
Archbishop of Mayence on the banks o f the Geule near their
former camp o f Elsloo and once mo re made Louvain their
head quart ers a nd base o f supplies There they were attacked
by the army o f Arnulf Ki ng of the East Franks and o f
L o t h a rin g ia and su ff ered a defeat o f some seriousness though
it was indecisive
f o r they were not prevented from
reinstalling themselves at Louvain immediately afterwards
They di d not make up their minds to leave the banks o f the
Dyl e until the following year after having once more ravaged
as far a s the ba nks o f the Rhine and the districts o f the Eife l
and the Ardennes Their departure was really due t o a famine
which raged that year and compelled them to g o over to
E ngland a n d not t o their defeat in 8 9 1 which was grossly
exaggerated by chro ni clers o f that p eriod interested in exalting
the reno wn o f Arnulf and by mo dern German historians who
were anxious to nd in the battle o f Louvain a title o f glory
The settlement o f the Northmen in
f o r German r o yalty
E ngland and Normandy delivered L o t h arin g ia and Fla nders
henc eforward from the danger o f fresh attempts o n their part
Nevertheless sec urity did not return monasteries and castles
assumed more and more the asp ect O f fortresses and even the
churches p rotected themselves by massive towers The chaos
only increased ; each noble from the security o f his donj on
,

Th e Pri n ci p a li ti es

32

deed the royal a u thority waged private war or devoted

himself to robbery shamelessly exploiting the population o f
the neighbourhood by imposing forced labour and all kinds
of exactions upon them Lo t h aringia unceasingly di sputed
by the sovereigns of the two ki ngdoms between which it
lay suff ered p artic u la rly from thi s splitting up o f territory
and power
The only Belgic district which from the twelfth century
acquired a certain measure of political cohesion was Flanders
The Baldwin dynasty succeeded in uniting several c ou nties
and in steadily increasing its power thanks to the unique
position of the country in which its activities lay Flanders
situated at the northern extremi ty o f Wes t Francia was
charged with the work o f defending the line o f the Scheldt
It was transformed into a military frontier and took the name
o f a marquisate
Baldwin I surnamed
o r frontier p rovince
Bras de Fer established the grandeur of his dynasty by the
victorious resistance which he off ered t o the Northmen After
having carried o ff Judith daughter o f Charles the Bald he
threatened t o unite with them but a reconcili ation was
eff e cted through the intervention o f Hinc mar Archbishop o f
Reims and o f the Pope whi ch resulted in an increase o f
fortune and prestige for Baldwin His so n Baldwin I I su c
c e e d e d in enlarging the territory by the addition o f Walloon
Fl anders and o f Artois t h e g re at wealth of which consisted in
rich ecclesiastical domains
Almost the whole region between the Gulf of Zwyn and the
Canche was from the beginning of the tenth century under
the authority o f the Flemi sh marquises whos e prestige in
those days ecli psed that of their suzerain This was derived
from the fact that they were obliged t o keep a standing army
to defend that northern point of West Francia They u sed
these forces f o r their own ends and were the more readily
,

'

Th e D ecli n e

th e

C aro li n gi a n s

33

able to do so sinc e the Frankish kingdom was distracted by

the quarrels of the Caroli ngi ans and Cap etians
L o t h aring ia or Mid Francia including the essential part o f
t h e Fra n kish territory and above all the ancient Carolingian
demesne lands had been created in order t o supply a territorial
basis f o r the empire and to unite the East and West Frankish
states I t s actual destiny was far diff erent It was S plit up
as a result of the fe u dal system into a crowd o f quasi in d e p e n
dent t erritories
The lay aristocracy there o ff ered a serious resistanc e to the
ambitions o f the rulers o f the two rival Frankish states later
France and Germany supporting itself o n o n e or the other
accordi ng to circumstances The most typical representative
O f t his aristocracy was R egnier
A kinsman of the Carolingian
family h e possess ed vast domains in the Ardennes Hainault
Hesbaye and o n t h e Lowe r Meuse and ac quired the abbeys of
Echternach Stavelot Malm edy and Saint Servais at Maas
tricht He commanded thousands of serfs and some hundreds
of vassals both in the Flemish and in the Walloon districts
I n opposition to Zwe n t ib o l d whos e implacable f o e he became
he maintained a policy of complet e independence a nd did
not hesitat e in order to keep the Germans in check to apply
to Charles t h e Simple Zwe n t ib o l d in vain Opposed the
bishops o f L o t h aring ia to him ; he could not withstand the
league of feudatories formed by R egnier and fell himself in
a n Obscure skirmish His myst erious death led to h is being f o r
som e while regarded as a saint but the prestige o f R egnier
was not thereby diminished and it was he who as duke o r
marquis practically governed L o t h arin gia after Zwe n t ib o ld s
death When he died (9 1 5 ) his posit ion was so securely estab
l ish e d that hi s son Giselbert still a c hild succeeded him under
the r e gency of his mother The policy of Giselbert was also
ma rked by frequent changes of attitude but he could not
.

1832 1 2

Th e P ri n ci p ali ti es

34

prevent Henry the Fowler from denitely establishing the

s uzerainty o f t h e German monarchy in Lo t h aringia
He
seized however the rst favourable opp ort u nity of attempting
This occurred in the reign of O tto I when
a rebel lion
a coali t ion was formed against tha t monarch by the feudal
p rinces beyond the Rhi ne Giselbert valiantly defended the
cause o f the Lotharingian aristocracy Besieged in hi s castle
o f Ch evremont near Li ege he succeeded in escaping and led
h is troops as far as t h e ba nk s of the Rhi ne but he was surprised
by a superior force and was drowned in the river while attempt
ing to ford it on horseback
From that time O tto King o f Germany endeavoured to
reduce L o t haringia by converting it into a mil itary province
and by conferring the dignity of duke o n members o f hi s o wn
family : he commanded hi s brother Bru no Archbishop o f
Cologne to assume the government o f Lo t h aring ia to di vide
it into two distinct d u chies ( Uppe r and Lower L o t h aring ia)
and to instit u t e the system o f the Germanic Church This
system consisted in transferring to bishops all the duties o f
the counts so as to prevent these o i c e s from becoming
heredita ry among the lay aristocracy a possibili ty which h ad
almost been realized by them Consequently the nobles
redoubled their eff orts to check the policy o f the S axon
emperors and instigated n u merous risings against these bishops
who being mostly Germans were unable t o gain the sympathy
o f t h e people
despite their talents and their reputation f o r
learning and p iety O f thes e disturbanc es one o f the most
violent occurred at Liege during the episcopate o f E racle
the chief founder of the celebrated Cathedral School o f that
town the mob invaded hi s palace and says the chr oni c ler
ca u sed the Meuse t o run red with hi s Worms wine
Even such notable p ersonalities as No t ke r (9 72 1 008) w ere
unabl e to o b tai n t h e acce tan c e o f t h e Otto nian re ime
p
g
,

'

Th e Prin ci p al i ti es

36

whi ch like the marquisate o f Flanders were destined to secure

complete political independ e nce
Their dynasties were
almost all descen d ed from the same stock and were related t o
the Carolingian family which had remained so popular in thes e
counties Chief amongst them was the dynasty o f R egni er
whose founder had ruled the whole o f Lower L o t h aring ia a c en
tury before It supplied R egni er IV and Lambert I the two
princes wh o founded the grandeur of the houses of Mons and
Louvain The chroniclers of that period were n o t in symp a thy
with them ; reecting the Opinions o f that imperial Church
from the schools of which they came they attributed to these
princes a profane mind uncivilized habits and a quarrelsome
character
They however failed t o point out that thes e
princes who were reputed to be Hostile to the clergy were
in reality hostile only t o the imperial Church and that far
from manifesting profane tendencies they strongly favoure d
the ecclesiastical institutions o n their demesnes The Regniers
were the benefactors of the abbeys o f Maubeuge Lobbes
Sainte Wau d ru &c while Lambert I generously endowed the
c hapter o f Saint Peter at Louvain They thus pursued both
temporal and spiritual aims f o r by these endowments they
bound t o themselves the noble famili es whose younger branches
proted by them
The castles o f Mons and Lou vain were important strategic
points one in the diocese of C ambrai (the former land of the
Nervii) the other in that of Li ege (the former Tu n g ri) The
rst was long defended by counts who were devoted to the
imperial cause but R egnier IV was able t o get possession
of it thanks to the support of Hugh Capet hi s father in law
From that time he counterbalanced the inuenc e o f the
counts o f Valenciennes owners o f the stronghold of that name
which the emperors had built o n the frontier o f the Scheldt
The co unts of Hai na ult then enlarged their territory o n t h e
,

L o th a rin gi a n

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Fl a n d ers

37

side of Bra bant and extended their dominions almost as far as

B russels
As for the castle o f Louvain it was the capital o f a county
of the Hesbaye and its importance was derived from its posi
tion o n the main roa d from Cologne to the sea at the point
where the Dyle begins to be navigable Lambert I n o t only
succ eeded in maintaining himself there but thanks to his
marriage with G e rb e rg a dau ghter o f Charles of Lorraine he
annexed also to his dominions the county o f Brussels in
Bra bant of which sh e was the heiress His successors still
further develop ed their inuence o n the north side towards
the Campine but were unable to acquire Antwerp which
having been creat ed a marquisat e to defend the line of the
Scheldt was entrusted by the emperors to the Hous e of
Ardenne Lambert I however V ictoriously resisted the re p re
se n t at iv e s of the emp eror who attempted to subj ugate him
He even prevented Bal d e ric Bishop of Li ege from constructing
a fortress at Ho u g a rd e near the frontier of the county of Lou
vain He routed the episcopal tr 00ps assembled to protect its
erection but was obliged to engage in a s econd battle at
Florennes against the bishop and h is allies ; the result was
inde cisive but Lambert was killed
This did not
however comp romis e the future of his family and Louvain
remained as before the most important anti imperial fortress
Besides thes e powerful counties o f Mons and Louvain there
were others o f a smaller area like those of Namur (whose rst
count was B erenger son in law o f R egnier IV) Limburg
Avernas o r Looz (the p resent Limburg) whose counts were
connected with the houses of R egnier Luxemburg &c
a lso
Even ordinary lords hi ps assumed the title of county since their
rulers exercised the rights o f counts henc e the confusion of
titles which characterized the feudal period
During this p eriod ducal authority became more and more
.

Pri n ci pa liti es

Th e

38

'

precarious and even those who were invested with it r evolted

against the emperor and his bishops and made common cause
with the territorial p rinces In 1 044 Duke Godfrey l e Barbu
o f the Hous e o f Ardenne at rst devoted to the imperial rule
broke with Henry I IIg
u n d e r pretext of having been refused the
government of the whole of L o t h aringia and formed a powerful
coalition with Herman o f Mons and Thi erry o f Holland He
even obtained the adhesion o f Baldwin V Count o f Flanders
who was anxious to s ecure the course of the Scheldt by eff ecting
conquests on the right bank of that river (This prince followed
the same policy as h is father Baldwin IV who had earlier
obtained in e f from the emperor Valenciennes Walcher en
and the four districts o f Axel Hulst Assenede and Bouchaute
but Valenciennes passed later to Hainaul t ) In order to subdue
the feudal coalition the emperor had recourse to the help o f an
AngloDanish eet and h aving collected an imposing army
he appeared in person in L o t h aringia ac companied by Pope
Leo IX The rebels did n o t submi t for two years and then
only nominally Their forces set at deance those of the two
c hi efs of western Christendom
The Scheldt henceforth ceased to be a true frontier ( as we
see it had only been so for a short time) Indeed Baldwin V
received in e f Brabant as far as the Dendre and by arranging
a marriage between his so n Baldwin (VI) and Ric hild a widow
of Herman of Mons
he prepared the way f o r a u ni on
between Flanders and Hainault Thi s was eff ected in 1 067
but it was of short duration Baldwin VI died in 1 070 and the
unforeseen events which followed on hi s death gave Flanders
a more n ortherly tendency
Robert the Frisian brother of Baldwin V wh o had married
Gertrude widow o f Count Florent of Holland made up his
mind to tear Flanders from Ric hil d a He proted by the
discontent that she had aroused by her despotic tendencies
,

,
,

'

Th e L o th a ri n gi a Pri n ci a l iti e s
p

an d

F l an d e rs

39

and her habit of heaping favours o n the members of her

family whi ch was connected with the imperial house The
rebellion began in maritime Flanders where barrels o f pitch
were hoisted o n p oles and se t re to to announce it far and
wi de and it very soon spread throughout the county Ric hi l d a
invoked the aid o f the King of Franc e Philip I but the
Flemish led by Robert won a victory ove r her troops at
Cassel
It was o n e o f the bloodiest battles of the period
and it s memory was handed down to posterity with all manner
of legendary episodes attached to it which render it impossible
to ascertain the real facts In any case as later a chronicler
of Tournai expressed it
Ensi 0t Ro bie rs li Frisons
Flandres m au g r tous les barons
( So go t Robert the Frisian
Flanders , i n spite o f all the barons )
Ric h il d a strove in vain to inte rest Th e o d win Bishop o f
Liege in her caus e whom she invested with Hainault In
vain did she appeal to the Emperor Henry IV in p erson She
was obliged to submit to the f a i t a c co mp li and her second son
Baldwi n (the elder Arnulf had been killed at Cassel) kept only
Hainault
If the ducal power had p reserved some stability the u n f o r
t u n at e countess would
no doubt have had recourse to it
But Godfrey l e Bossu the prince who had it though entirely
devot ed to Henry IV was incapable of restoring the authority
which his father had so contributed to weaken moreover he
died in 1 076 the victim of a plot He was in reality the last
imp erial governor in Lower L o t h aringia who exercised any
e ff ective authority feeble as that was The bishops alone
remained for a few more years the represent atives and
defenders of the emperor more esp ecially the bishops of Liege
Their cause was however irretrievably lost It was in the
,

Pri n ci paliti es

Th e

40

very di ocese of Li ege during the rst half o f the tenth century
that the reforming movement o f Grard de Brogne had arisen
Founder of the monastery o f that name near Namur this
kni ght turned monk paved the way for the ecclesiastical
reformation afterwards propagated by the mo nks of Cluny
which consist e d in imposing o n the clergy a complete renuncia
tion o f the things of this world What thenceforward would be
the position o f ecclesiastics who were at the same time terri
t o rial princes
The renewal of monastic life in a more austere form began
rst in Hainault and spread t o Flanders Brabant and Hesbaye
and everywhere it met with the support of the counts as well
as the people Many bishops even declared themselves in its
favour A crowd o f new monasteries sprang up (Grammont
Saint Amand near Bruges Messines Ai ig h e m Saint Bernard
near Antwerp Gembloux Waulsort Saint Jacques and Saint
Laurent at Li ege
From that time forward the abbeys
devoted themselves more to the contemplative life and developed
those mystical tendencies which made the idea of the Crusades
popular in the districts of the Meuse and the Scheldt They
were considered the true pillars of the u ni versal as opposed
to the imperial Church which was too much occupied wi th
temporal interests To them n o w owed the bounty and
sympathies of the faithful The religious enthusiasm stirred
up by the monks was especially manifested in the numerous
public calamities of that time plague famines and briga m
dage From the end of the eleventh century dates the famou s
annual procession o f Tournai organized in honour of the Virgin
t o avert the plague from the banks o f the Scheldt t o which
there ocked from the Low Countries and especially from
Flanders thousands o f pilgrims who followed the miraculous
statue barefooted
Pilgrimages to t h e Holy Land also had a new popularity
-

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an d

F l a n d ers

41

and Robert the Frisian undertook this perilous j ourney ac c o m

O n his return in
p a n ie d by an imposing group of knights
1 08
7 he p romised Alexius Comnenus the Byzantine emperor
that he would obtain for him the aid o f Flemish troops against
the pagans When Pope Urban I I p reached the Holy War
numerous companies were formed spontaneously among the
people in the regions o f the Meuse and the Scheldt t o march
to the conquest of Jerusalem with the c ertainty o f nding
happier conditions and into the bargain gaining heaven
Thes e tumultuous c rowds led by adventurers gave themselves
up to pillage and were almost all massacred before reaching
Constantinople But in 1 09 6 the Crusade o f the barons
began led by Godfrey of Bouillon Duke o f Lower L o t h a rin gia
and his brother Baldwin Godfrey o f Bouillon wh o through
his mother belonged t o the House o f A rdenne despite his
rank of duke exercised no real authority save in his patrimonial
dominion and was able to give the emp eror but little support
in the I nvestiture Controversy He lived retired it seems in
his castle o n the banks o f the Semois leading an ascetic life
Accordingly he took the cross with eagerness sold his estates
to t he Bishop of Liege and mortgaged to him his castle of
Bouillon The important p art which he played in the First
Crusa de is well known The chivalrous qualities and con
c il ia t o r
y spirit which he displayed led to his election as the
military head of the kingdom of Jerusalem Robert II o f
Flanders also took part in this Crusade but he did no t devote
himself to it as whole heartedly as the poor Duke of Lo t h aringia
did He ha d p rimarily to a ttend to the government Of his
large dominions whose power and prosp erity he hop ed yet
further to increase ; and he returned to Flanders as soon as
the First Crusade had attained it s goal
Many of the Lotharingian p rinces seem never t o have given
a thought to thes e pious exp editions being t o o fully occupied
.

'

Th e Pri n ci pal iti e s

42

with the task o f establishing their independence and rounding

o ff their territories
such was Henry of Limburg on whom
Henry IV conferred th e ducal dignity after the death o f
Godfrey o f Bouill on O f the same typ e also was Godfrey I o f
Louvain who persuaded Henry V in revolt against hi s father
t o grant him that same di gnity in 1 1 06
It was then that
the unhappy Henry IV found a last refuge in the episcopal
city of Liege where O t b e rt placed at the emperor s di sposal
h is treasures and hi s warriors The bishop s army b eat ba c k
the troops o f Henry V at the bridge o f Vis but the old
emperor died shortly afterwards in Liege where he was rever
e nc e d as a saint
despite the ban of excommunication whi ch
had been laid upon him His dram atic death excited the pity
of the people wh o pictured it to t h emselves as accompa nied
by many miraculous incidents ; peasants crowded about h is
tomb covering it with grains of corn with which they then
sowed their elds in the hop e o f an abundant harvest
This tragic episode in the dispute about Investiture m arked
along with many other indications the irrerne di ab l e ruin o f
imperial rule in Lo t h arin gia The feudal tie which connected
it with t he empire had g ro wn so slack that t h e rival houses of
Limburg and Louvain soon bore the ducal title at the same
time wi thout exercising any sup eriority over other houses
possessing the rank o f counts The emp eror himself became
merely a symbol the representative o f the temporal u nity
of western Christendom o f that Christian republi c which
the popes of the Middle Ages sought to realize From
day to day the individuali ty of the intermediate country
which stretched between the Ardennes and the North S ea
asserted itself more strongly I n one of those interesting
necrologies which in thos e days circulated from abbey to
abbey and where th e principal deceased dignitaries were c o m
me mo rat e d a clergyman o f Saint Lambert at Li ege alluding
,

Th e

44

Pri ncipaliti es

near the fortress of the count Ypres on the Yp e rl e e

then navigable near the abb ey of Saint Martin In Brabant
the principal towns such as Louvain and Brussels had their
origin towards the close of the eleventh century at the inter
section o f waterways and of the great commercial road from
Bruges to Cologne in proximity to strategic points occupied
by strong fortresses The principality of Liege was also
transformed under the inuence of commerce and industry
Towns hi ps developed along the extensive co mmercial line
formed by the Meuse Liege and Maastricht (the latter hel d
in j oint tenancy by the Bishop and the Count of Louvain)
became important markets Huy and Dinant throve on cloth
and copper industries
O n the other side Saint Trond
Tongres and other places in the county o f Looz which was
later annexed to the episcopal principality were also trans
formed into towns tha nk s to their cloth trade
The conditions o f town life the result of commerce
swept a w
ay the obstacles which arose from the o ld manorial
regime forced labour rights o f mortmain and the market
tolls which a ff ected the purchase sale and transport of
merchandise The p o or terr or op id a inr (inhabitant s of the
fortress markets) obtained their suppression and at the same
time acquired privileges which guaranteed the peace of the
to wn and an autonomous administration by the institution
o f a S pecial tribunal o f aldermen
composed o f burghers ;
besides this the territory o f each town was protected by a
fortied enceinte and formed as it were a collective lordship
f o r the benet of the burghers in the midst o f the vast estat es
ruled by the law o f the manor and lordship The privileges
of the towns however only beneted the greater bo urge o isie
that is the mercantile aristocracy which imposed its will on the
artisans who were settled within the j urisdiction of the town
These were so t o speak only half burghers although in reality
Zwyn,

ic

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S o ci a l Tra n smu t a ti o n s

45

they were reckoned a part of the bo urgeo is ie They did not

p ossess political rights : group ed in crafts they were obliged
t o work for the town or the patricians who governed it
They were subj ect to the regulations of the magistracy which
organized labour as it liked The artisans of industries produc
ing goods for export were those who were most closely dep en
dent on the mercantile aristocracy The power of the latter
lay chi ey in it s grouping into associations Each town c o n
stituted a little world in itself where the merchants associated
in gilds gave the tone and arr anged everything to their o wn
a dvantage themselves p rocuring the raw materials, they xed
wages and disposed o f the manufactured goods
They
p ossessed commercial monopolies from which they mercilessly
excluded the artisans and they alone had the right of electing
the members of the magistracy which by its combination of
j udicial and admini strative functions exercised very great
power and sacriced to the upp er the interests of the lower
classes I t will b e seen that this epoch of the Middle Ages
was not as was long believed to b e the case the golden age
of the town artisan It was not until the fourteenth and the
beginning o f the fteenth century that democratic movements
p roduced the full develop ment of corporate life and transformed
the crafts into more o r less self governing groups
I n economics and politics the part played by the towns has
been sinc e the twelfth c entury very evident and at times very
decisi v e This h as not been the case in the intellectual sphere
Ther e the abbeys and churches continued to play the foremost
part and to S pread abroad the inuence of France the chie f
centre of me di aeval civilization Like the Cluniacs of the
preceding century t h e Cistercians introduced into their
monasteries the language and ideas o f their native country
The Templars and Hospitallers also contributed to extend
thro ughout Europ e the inuence o f France They developed
.

Th e Prin ci pa l iti es

46

the vogue of chivalry The courts of the diff erent territorial

princes especially that of the counts of Flanders were modelled
o n that o f the kings of France
Phi lip o f Alsace the feudal
Maecenas entertained Christian o f Troyes the greatest French
poet of that period an d his wife is celebrated for her decisions
in the courts o f love The rst literary works in Dutch are
mostly mere translations o f romances
It was in this way
that Hendrik van Ve ld eke knight o f the county o f Looz
made accessible to the Dutch speaking public the A e ne a s o f
Benedict de Sainte More
However in contrast to the
feudal epic there appeared at this time the animal epic
which was essentially bourgeois As early as the eleventh
century there circulated among the urban population stories
of
animals of O riental Greek or German origin They
supplied the elements of the masterpiece amongst the animal
ep ics o f the Middle Ages the Re ina ert o f Willem full of
a spirit of raillery and satire directed at the nobles and clergy
Artistic activity was still conned to ecclesiastical arc h it e c
ture especially t o monasteries an d cathedrals The cathedral
o f Tournai still bears witness
by its massive grandeur to the
austerity and mysticism of the period but it exhibits certain
reliefs capitals and portals where the Search for plastic form
is already revealed
It combines motives inspired by the great
Norman churches with others borrowed from the churches
o n the banks of the Rhine
Tournai the religious capital of
Flanders was at the same time its artistic capital during this
period and i t s sculptors and architects were the forerunners
o f the Flemish artists
During this epoch the school o f the
Meus e accentuated it s originality and distinguished itself more
and more from it s neighbour the Rhenish school with which
it has so often been confounded The sculptors of the Meuse
district abandoned the conventional types of ecclesiastical art
and drew n e are r to nature The fo nts of Saint Barthol o mew
.

ic

E co n o m

an d

S o ci a l Tr a n smu t a ti o n s

47

at Liege mark a date in the history of plastic art This art

of the twelfth century exp resses by it s symbols the religious
doctrin e s of t h e p eriod which were no longer conned to
books
S tones once mo re b ecam e eloquent
th e y were
transformed int o nud egures decorating the lintels of doorways
or the capitals of pillars &c rep resenting scenes from religious
history and sacred legends O n the other hand the art of the
enameller and the goldsmith continued t o enhance the glory
of religion ; they sho n e resplendent in the marvellous shrines
whi ch were hardly excelled in after days
I n short up to this time art only lent itself t o evoke mystic
thoughts Aesthetic preoccup ations were unknown to the
constructors of the civil monuments of this period A p ractical
and utilitarian spirit dominated feudal dwel lings as for example
the castl e of t h e counts at Ghent whose haughty asp ect s eems
to us to day one of the most signicant memorials of that ep och
which witnessed the apogee of the Flemish monarchy
,

in

P o l i t i ca l

z e ni t h o

F l a nd e rs

Co ni c t be twee n B ra ban t

an

f Liege
It was not all at once that the towns dominated political
evolution Th e process was gradual and began in the princi
Flanders
ali t ie s most favoured by the economic revival
p
was destined to feel its eff ects b efore any of the others mari
time ports industrial centres and centres of river tra ff ic grain
markets all multiplied themselves there tha nks chiey to its
favourable geographical situation This nursery o f towns
enabled the counts o f Flanders to develop an enormous power
which s erved t o consolida t e the indep endence o f the country
and to extend it s S phere of inuenc e But the towns themselves
led the p olicy of the counts into new p aths Tha nk s to com
merc e a nd indust ry they had the disposal of sources of wealth
and
l
m
o
e
ab
dant
tha
thos
of
the
hold
rs
of
r
r
a
de
esnes
u
e
e
n
un
mr
t he

Co untry

Th e

48

Pri n ci pa liti es

they V ictoriously defended their interests against the old social

powers lords and p relates They directed Flanders towards
an alliance with England because that country furnished the raw
material f o r their main industry and constituted one o f their
chief arkets They intervened in dynastic a ff airs and after
the assassination of Charles the Good who left no heirs
they succeeded in removing from the throne of Flanders
William o f Normandy an a nti English prince forced upon
them by the King o f France This p rince made them the
most splendid promises such as a reduction o f m arket to lls and
of the land tax ; but he did n o t keep them and in governing
the country relied solely up 0n the la nded nobility Th e towns
formed into a coalition t o overthrow him Ghent and Bruges
Op ened their gates t o Thierry o f Alsace ; King Louis VI
immediately sent assistance to William but it was useless
William was killed in the siege o f Alost and the king at once
resigned himself to the investiture 0f the protg o f the
Flemish towns
The House o f Alsace found in the towns of this cou nty
powerful auxiliaries f o r its policy of expansion It drew into
the sphere o f Flemish inuence most o f the Lotharingian
principalities which were thus still further separat ed from the
empire What was more it tended to exercise a regular
leadership in France Count Philip o f Alsace became the
tutor and chief adviser of Phi lip Augustus and it seemed as
if Flanders would absorb the ki ngdom of France whose unity
was at that time far from being achieved However the
violent and passionate policy of the count miscarried before the
cunning and the deliberate tenacity of the king The conict
which broke o u t between them abounds in dramatic episodes
Philip Augustus at rst pretended t o desire a close alliance with
his old adviser ; he married his niece Elizab eth of Hainault
wh o brought him as her dower t h e rich province of Artois
.

Po liti c a l Zen ith of Fl a n d ers

49

P h ilip of Alsace discovered too late that he had been taken

in by the young king He hurrie dl y organized a vast league
against hi m which he persuaded Henry I Duke of Louvain
his brother in law the Count of Hainault ( Baldwin V) and the
Count o f Namur to j oin and sought to win to h is side t h e
Emperor F rederic Barbarossa urging hi m to intervene in
order t o extend the boundaries of the empire as far as the

British S ea
But Baldwin V o f Hainault abandoned
Philip ; he made himself the intermediary between t h e K ing
o f France and Frederic Barbarossa
and thus became chief o f
the Franco Ghibellin e party in the Low Countries which wo n
hi m among other things the succession o f the county of Namur
Philip of Al sace vainly strove to recover the frontier of the
Somme ; b etrayed by Jacques d Av e sn e s and obliged to
confront enemies sup erior in numbers he sued f o r peac e
Vermandois and the important town o f Amiens which had
belonged to him through h is wife Elizab eth o f Vermandois
nally p assed out of his possession Then forgetting h is
mo rt ic a t io n he pursued other dreams of greatness O nc e more
he j ourneyed to the Holy Land He had already visited it in
1 1 77 and h e ha d quarrelled with the King of Jerusalem and
the barons of Syria W hom he had off ended by hi s arrogance
He took part now like Philip Augustus and Richard I in the
Crusade which followed the fall of Jerusalem and died at t h e
s iege of Acre
Bald win V took p ossession of Flanders It was thus f o r the
second time u n ited to Hainault which had lost almost the
whole of Artois Boulonnais and o t her t erritories There he
assumed t h e name of Baldwi n VI II His position in Flanders
was extremely d ii c u lt ; the hostility which he had shown to
Philip o f Alsac e was n o t calculated to win for him the sympathy
of the Flemings and moreover Philip Augustus far from being
grateful t o him sought only to u n d e rmin e his power Whe n h i s
.

'

1 8 3 2 -1 2

Th e Pri n c i pa liti es

50

wife Marguerite of Alsace died

he retired to Hainault
and left the government of Flanders to h is so n Baldwin IX
He died the following year and B aldwin IX recovered the
paternal inheritance with the exception o f the district of
Namur which became the ap anage o f his brother Philip
The new count followed from the outset a policy which
was essentially i nspired by the interests of the large Flemish
towns Its keystone was : rie n d sh ip with England which was
linked with Flanders by so many economic ties and he c o n
cluded with King Richard a treaty stipulating that neither
party should make a separate peace with Philip Augustus
Baldwin IX attacked the districts of Cambrai and Tournai and
laid siege t o Arras
The King o f France wished to invade Flanders but his
advisers dissuaded him
Such an enterprise
they told
him could never succeed owing to the multitude of dikes
and the lack of roads
He nevertheless advanced as far as
Ypres but soon found himself red uc ed to such straits that
he was obliged to throw himself on the generosity of the
count Baldwin IX made the mistake o f trusting the word
o f the king who once out of his di ffi culties
forgot all his
promises Baldwin contented himself with a couple of towns
(Aire and Saint O mer) and obsessed by ambitious proj ects
s e t o u t in
on the Crusade which ended in the conquest
of Constantinople This enterprise p roved fatal ali ke to him
and t o his s tates Raised t o the throne of the ancient Byzantine
empire he was taken prisoner near Adrianople by the Bul
g arian s and put to death by them S hortly afterwards
He had left behind b im in Flanders h is two daughters one
still in the cradle and had entrusted them t o the care o f h is
brother Philip Count o f Namur Philip s one idea was to
further his o wn interests by favouring those o f the King o f
F ranc e
J eanne t h e elder of the two princess es married
,

"

'

Th e Prin ci pa liti es

52

episcopal palac e himself piercin g the air with his sword north
south east and west But he soon returned t o Brabant
and when he undertook a new raid into the episcopal principal ity
he was strenuously opp osed by the town of Liege whose
mili tia wo n a decisive victory over him at Steppes near Monte
naken
This battle of Stepp es in which the knighthood
o f Brabant collapsed under the lance thrusts of the infa n try
o f Li ege
Huy and Fosses secured the indep endenc e of the
c o untry o f Liege f o r centuries
The position o f Brabant then became extremely critical
It was invaded at one and the same time by the militia o f
Li ege and the tr00ps o f Ferrand of Portugal The latter
penetrated to the gates o f Brussels and Henry I was obliged
to humble himself before Hugh of Pierrepont Bishop of
Li ege t o appear as a suppliant in the cathedral o f Saint
Lambert and o n his knees t o implore to b e released from
excommunication At the very moment when he was giving
the kiss o f peace he was plan ni ng another return t o the Anglo
Guelph camp which the Count of Flanders had long since
j oi n ed
In fact Ferrand of Portugal ever sinc e his accession
had intended to free himself from the tutelage o f P hi lip
Augustus Reali z ing the necessity o f the allia n c e with England
to Flemish towns essential factors in the prosperity of the
country h e became reconciled with John ( Lackland) and with
the Guelph party in Germany which supported O tto IV
But this coalition t o which Henry I eventually adhered broke
down tragically o n the battle e ld o f Bouvines
The
unfortunate Ferrand was taken prisoner He remained in
captivity at the Louvre until t h e death of Louis VI I I
Countess Jeanne was forc ed to consent to the humiliating
F l e mish towns stigmatized as the
treaty of Melun which t h e Z
pact of iniquity : it deprived Flanders o f the right t o
,

'

Po liti ca l Ze n ith of Fl a n d ers

53

construc t ne w fortress es and even to repai r the o ld without

royal authorization moreover the knights and the towns
o f th e c ounty were comp e lled to pledge themselves to resp ect
thes e c la uses under p ain o f ex communi cation The future of
Flanders was s eriously compromised b ut as the towns o f Li ege
had saved the existenc e o f the episcopal principality so the
Flemish towns were to save that of the county o f Flanders
,

Rise of

Citi es ( Th irteen th
C e n tn ri es )

th e

a nd

Fo nrteenth

Cr is is i n F la nd ers

thi rteenth and fourteenth centuries stand out as an

e poch of extraordinary vital ity f o r all the B el gian p rincipali ti es
but the pre emi nence of Flanders was maintained From the
economic point of view it outstripped the rest as a result o f
the number the popula tions a n d the wealth o f i t s towns
The o ld urban centres had dev e lop ed these with astonishing
rapidity : Ghent Bruges and Ypres exc eeded
imb abi
tants a very considerable gure for that p eriod The t rade
of Bruges was extended owing to the steadily increasing
relations bet ween the north and south of Europ e on the one
hand between Germany and England on the other I t became
a really European market The Italian towns took an active
share in it s maritime trade which was s t ill further develop ed
by t h e creation o f the port o f Damme at t he end o f the twelfth
centu ry Al ong the Zwyn there S prang into e xistence a multi
tude of new towns such a s Te rmu id e n and Sluys which also
proted from international commerce The wines of France
and the wools of England lay S ide by side o n the q uays o f
Bruges together with merchan di se from t h e Mediterranean
( spices dye woods products o f oriental indust ry) and from the
countries o f the Baltic ( wood for building purposes dried sh
timber metals) The centre of gravity of Flanders remained
xed in the north especially after the emigration of the b ankers
of Arras, wh o settled there after the loss o f Artois B ruge s
thus b ecame t he greatest banking town and the greatest harbour
THE

C ri s i s

Fl a n d ers

in

55

of Europ e The Hanse o f Bruges the merchants o f which

imported wool from England collected round it those of most
o f the other towns and then called itself the Hanse o f London
which existed until t h e moment when Bruges itself became
the great mar t o f English wool on the Continent that is till
the b eginning of the fourteenth century
Ghent and Yp res were with Douai and Lille the chief
c en t res o f the cloth indust ry Their cloth acquired a Europ ean
reputation o n account of it s exibility and neness as well as
for it s gorgeous colouring ; it even found it s way to the East
Round these centres were grouped a regular series o f new towns
whos e exp ansion was however to some extent hindered by
the j ealousy of the older cities
The extraordina ry develop ment o f the Flemish towns
diff erentiated Flanders more and more from the maj ority of
the p rovinces under the direct sway o f the crown of France
where agriculture p redominated The economic and social
contrast which it presented to th e other districts drew it outside
their sphere despit e the strong political attraction which was
exercised by the French monarchy This attraction extended
to all the old Lotharingian p rovinc es and co nstitutes one o f
It mani
t h e m ain facts of the latter part of the Middle Ages
f e st e d itself with asto nishing forc e during the reign o f Saint
Louis at the time o f the famous feudal quarrel between the
Avesnes and the D amp ie rre s
This prolonged conict began on the accession
of
Countess Marguerite s econd daughter o f Baldwin IX o f
Constantinople This p rincess had at rst been married to
Bouchard d Av e sn e s a knight of Hainault by whom sh e had
two sons John and Baldwin Bo uchard having quarrelled
with h is sister in law Countess Jeanne M arguerite retired
with him to the castle of Hou ff alize in the heart of the
Ardennes and liv e d for six years amid this wild solitude
.

Ri s e of

56

th e

Citi e s

Accused o f having been ordained subdeacon in his you th

Bouchard went to Rome to v indicate the validity of his
marriage ; but Marguerite became reconciled with her sister
and without waiting to hear the p o n t ic al decision contracted
a n e w marriage with William de Dampierre a cadet o f the
House of Champagne by whom she had several children
She wished t o reserve the whole of her inheritance f o r the eldest
of these children when after the death o f her two husbands
she succeeded her S ister as Countess of Flanders and Hainault
The t wo sons of her rst marriage vigorously laid claim to
their rights supported by the Emp eror Frederic II wh o
recognized their legitimacy To avoid a war the parties had
recourse to the arbitration o f the papal legate Eudes o f
Ch ateauroux and o f t he King of France The decision o f the
arbiters awarded Flanders t o the D amp ie rre s and Hainault
to the Avesnes
I t favoured the former by assigning
to them by far the larger and wealthier portion and it inclu ded
therein the imp erial e f s without consulting their suzerain
Jean d Av e sne s obtained the investiture of these lands vd i e n
Marguerite had conferred t h e title of Count o f Flanders upon
Guy de Dampierre War broke o u t whi l e Saint Louis was
in the Holy Land ; it was disastrous for the countess whose
troops su ff ered a serious reverse at Westcapelle in the island
of Walcheren This was one of the reasons whi ch induced the
King o f France t o return from Palestine At Marguerite s
request he detached some of it s dep endencies from Hainault
for the benet of Flanders with the result tha t t h e hatred
betwee n the rival families was still further increased The
quarrel had not however that degree o f importance which
was so long attached to it
It hardly inuenced the relations of
the peoples of Flanders and Hainault and it did not lead either
to a national conict or to civil wars as was so long believed
The ascendancy o f the French monarchy enabled Guy d e
,

'

C ris is

Fl a nd e rs

in

57

Da mpierre ( 1 2 78 1 305) to brave with imp unity the maj esty

of the emp eror Hi s rival John I I of Avesnes in vain drew the
atte ntion of Rudolf of Habsburg to t h e increasing insolence of
Gaul The Count of Flanders sco ff ed at the blunted sword
of the empire and acted j ust as he liked beyond the Scheldt
He ac quired t h e district of Namur extended his inuence in
the county of Li ege in Luxemburg and in Guelders and thus
became t h e most powerful prince in t h e Low Countries
He owed however the greater part o f these results to t h e
sup port of the King of France and after some time the p ro
t e c t i on which t h e latter had accorded him tended to become
a protectorate Philip the Fair turned to account the quarrels
between Guy and the magistrates of the towns using them to
undermine the authority o f the former The humiliations and
wrongs to which the count was subj ected were such that
when war broke out between h is suzerain and Edward I of
England he at rst gave secret support to the latter
and later consented to the marriag e of his daughter Philippine
with the heir of the English king O n hearing of this prop osed
allianc e Philip the Fair summoned the count before the
Parliament of Paris and consigned him t o it s disposal until
the c hi ld had been brought to the Louvre
Royal governors were installed in the chi ef towns of Flanders
and Philip s eized Valenciennes the inhabitants of which
through hat red of the Avesnes had handed themselves over
to Guy de Dampierre In his wrath the old count concluded
in 1 297 an o ff ensive and defensive alliance with Edward
But b efore t h e troops of the allies had time to assemble a royal
army entered Flanders and penet rated almost to Ypres while
the municip al council o f Bruges sent the keys of their town
to Philip Th e exhaustion of his treasury comp elled the
king t o conclude a three years tr u ce at the conclusion of whi ch
he took p ossession o f the rest of Flanders in a few months
.

Rise of

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Citi es

Count Guy and hi s son Robert of B ethune threw themselves

on his mercy The f l eurs d e lys replaced the li o n sa ble o n the
Flemish banners and the erection of several royal castles was
begun The county of Flanders ceased to exist
If Flanders yielded t o the attraction o f France from the
political point of view it drew farther away from it in its
social evolution which was characterized by the increasing
The progress o f the
p ro p o n d e ra n c e of the urban element
bourgeois o r communal spirit all the membe rs of a com
mune were at that period qualied as burghers was nowhere
more clearly revealed than in literary history It was at that
time that the outstanding gure o f Ma e rlan t app e are d (se c o n d
half o f the thirteenth century) Risen no doubt from the
ranks o f those sheriff s clerks or town secretaries wh o devoted
their leisure hours to S tudy he formally abandoned the
literature of courtesy and the translatio n s o f French romances
in order t o pop ularize didactic works He drew hi s knowledge
from books written in Latin and made them accessible to his
compatri ot s by translating them into the tongue th ey spoke
He handled the most varied subj ects natural history politics
and morals sacred history (Rijmbijbe l) and profane history
( Sp iegel bis t ori ael) His works acquired such popularity that
several of them were translated into French Very j ustly was
he named later the father of all the Flemish poets
The urban spirit was not only manifested by literary produc
tions ; it also inspired new artistic conceptions It created
those imposing halls and splendid belfries which attest so well
the persistent labour of the Flemish bourge o isie and symbolize
at the same time the ideal of indep endence whi ch they pursued
with so much energy The halls o f Bruges and Ypres are
models o f that specially urban form o f architecture which
was later develop ed so rapidly and vigorously throughout the
L o w Countries
,

'

'

Rise of

60

Citi es

th e

wit h in the empire ; h is eff orts proved fruitless This league

which was several times dissolved was always re formed some
times secretly sometimes openly I t united for a common
purpose the Walloon towns of Li ege Huy and Dinant as well
as the Flemish towns of Saint Trond Maastricht and Tongres
and it tended to form the preponderating element in wh at
came to be described as the Opinion of the country
the
earlier equivalent of the States created later in t h e other
princip alities
In po int o f fact t h e princip ality of Liege was fa st devel oping
into a republic It even secured t emporary recognition of
its status from the imperial power itself This occurred when
in 1 2 3 0 Henry VI I during hi s conict with the pop e o n
whose S ide the bishop had declared hi mself withdrew the
prohibition whi ch had been pronounced the year before against
leagu es between towns and solemnly conrmed the privileges
of the ci ty of Liege But Henry VI I followed the same policy
in the c ase of Liege as in the case of Verdun some years before
As soon as he was reconciled with the pope he withdrew the
diplomas which he had previously granted S heltering hi m self
behind the decision of the Diet of Worms
The opposition of the towns t o the prince only grew stronger
and it reached the height o f violenc e during the reign o f
Henry of Guelders ( 1 247
This great feudal lo rd w as forced
upon the chapter by Innocent IV in order to strengthen the
pa r t y of Henry s cousin William of Holland whom the s ame
pope had raised to the dignity of King of the Romans Quarrel
some and arbitrary in his conduct he deed from the outset
these towns which were already con scious of their power Far
from inducing them to forget the p art which his father had
taken in the ranks o f their e n e mi e s at the battle of St e ppes
he never ceased to exact money from them in order to me e t
1
Le s n d u p a y s
.

E ma n cipa ti o n

th e

C o u n try of Li ege

61

the e xp ens e s of hi s milit ary enterprises He seems even to

have dreamed of restoring the imperial rgime under a d i ff erent
form and o f re est ablishing the sup remacy of the p rincip ality
of Li ege over the other Lotharingian principalities
I t was with this e n d in v ie w that he int erfered a mongst
others in the quarrel between the Avesnes and the Dam
pierres At the moment when Hainault was invaded by the
troops of the latter he proclaimed a state of wa r but the
militias of Li ege absolutely refused to take arms
The
head of the opposition was Henry of Dinant who contended
that the city owed military servic e f o r home defence only and
The prince placed the city under an
n o t for foreign war
interdi ct cause d an imperial edict t o be promulgated against
it and further erected the c astle of Sainte Walburge to hold
it in check He outlawed Henry of Dinant and with the help
of an imposing milit ary forc e recruited from the sm aller
feudal nobility contrived to subdue the rebellious to wns
I n 1 2 69 however the c astle o f Sainte Walburge was surprised
by the burghers of Liege wh o o ff ered t h e protectorate o f the
princip ality to John I Duke o f Brabant under the title o f
p atron
I t was only through the mediation of Marguerit e o f Flanders
that they were reconciled with the prince This reconciliation
was only sup ercial There is not the slightest doubt that the
burghers o f Li ege contributed to secure the deposition of
Henry of Guelders in 1 2 74 by the Council of Lyons The pop e
at that time happ ened to b e Gregory X a former canon of
Saint L amb ert He had been in a position to appreciate the
d isq u al ic at io n s of Henry o f Guelders for the episcop al o i c e
Henry had been guilty o f embezzling the public funds o f
s elling ecclesiastical prop erty of debauchery and of every kind
of e xc ess His successors abandoned his ambitious pl ans and
made n o further attempt to revive the former supremacy o f the

'

Ri s e of

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Citi es

bishopric of Liege in Lo th aring ia Moreover the support

which t h e prince bishop s had hi therto obtained from the lesser
n o bility of Hesbaye n o w failed them owi ng to the many
private wa rs which wasted the district f o r nearly fty years
The longest of these that between the Awa ns and the Wa ro u x
made it s effect felt in th e chief cities o f the district o f Li ege
to the patrician families o f which the members of th e t wo parties
were related
Then took place the fall of that warlike little aristocracy o f
whom Jacques de He m ric o u r t secretary to the municipal
cou n cil o f Li ege in the f ollowing century related the prowess
in recording its genealogies in h is Miro ir d es Nobles d e Hes baye
it dragged down with i t a section o f the urban aristocracy
thus giving the democratic movement an irresistible energy
The democratic movement accentuated still more strongly
the independent tendencies of the towns and the principality
of Liege was the rst district in the Low Countries to secure
any real territorial constitution
The peace of Fexhe ( 1 3 1 6) denitely consecrated the
division of government b e tween the prince and the p eople
The princ e undertook t o treat every one according to l a w
and j ustice and to consult the sens d a p ays that is the chapter
of Saint Lambert the nobles and the towns with regard t o
any change to be eff ected in the customary law o f the d istrict
Law was th u s guaranteed against princely despotism
.

ii i

Rise

f B r a ba n t
The extraordinary height to whi ch Brabant ros e in t h e
thirteenth century h as often been attributed to the c o n
t inu it
This fact certainly assisted up to
y o f it s dynasty
a certain point but there are other facts whose inuence
was much more d ecisive
Moreover it must not b e forgotte n
.

Ri s e of B ra ban t

63

that c ertain changes o f reign involved d isturbances and

d ii c u l t ie s
thus o n the death o f Henry II I the regency of
Alix o f Burgundy was marked by grave unrest which com
promised the unity o f the duchy The dowager duchess
wished her second so n John to be recognized as heir inst ead
of the elder Henry who, sh e p retended was unt to reign
A large part o f the aristoc racy rose in arms and Louvain closed
it s gates
Henry of Guelders Bishop of Li ege proted by
thi s conict to make several expeditions o n the territory o f
B rabant It was n o t until seven years later that the duchess
was able to r es tore o rder an d t o secure the t h rone to the so n
f o r whom sh e had designed it
Th e c o op eration between the town s and the o l d aristocracy
s ee ms t o have cont ribut ed more than all else to the politic a l
progress of Brab ant and the ducal power knew how to strengthen
this c o op eration and to increas e its unity The dukes skilfully
turned t o account the military and e conomic resources of their
towns esp ecially those of Louvain Brussels and Antwerp and
under the s emblance of a feudal policy they pursued ends
which were essentially bou rgeois in the original sens e o f that
word that is urban They renounced their former preten
sions to imp erial Flanders in order to devote themselves t o the
extension and S trengthening of their inuenc e towards the
east and to s e c u re that commercial road from the Rhine to
the se a on whi ch the economic prosp erity o f Brabant depended
Henry I had already inaugurat ed this policy : at Maastricht
which commanded thi s road he had consistently restricted the
authority of t h e Bishop of Li ege ; he h ad recruited new
subj ects among its inhabitants by allowing them to j oin the
o f which he was sp ecial
a mil i a of Saint Pet er o f Louvain
f
p rotector and from which the p atrician lineage of that town
originated Moreover he construct e d o n the right bank of
the Meus e the Tower o f Wijk in order to guard the bridge of
,

Ri s e of

64

th e

Citi es

Maastricht He nry I I and Henry I I I were inspired by his

example Henry I I seized among other places the castle
of Dalhem which served hi m as an o u tpost on the right of the
Meuse at the expens e of t h e Archbishop of Cologne Henry III
obtained from Alphonse of Castile Kin g o f the Romans the
title o f guardia n o f the vassals and towns o f the empire between
Brabant and the Rhine
But it was John I ( 1 2 6 1 94) who continued t hi s policy with
most energy and success He proted it is true from the
decline of the empire and from the d ii c ul t ie s in which h is
n eighbours the Avesnes and the D amp i e rre s were involved
owing to their quarrel over Flanders and it s dependencies
and the prince bishops of Liege owing t o their struggle with
internal distu rbances Al though he kept on excellent terms
with the court o f France (his sister Mary married Philip I II )
he did n o t allow himself to be domin ated by the French
monarchs who aspired to extend their inuence as far as the
Rhi ne No r did he allow himself to be c arried away by the
p o n t ic al propaganda in support of new crusades At the time
o f his sister s coronation in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris
( 1 27
he took the cross like the rest o f those who were present but
he made n o reply to the prayers o f Gregory X wh o had believed
that he saw the realization of the political and S piritual union
of Western Christendom The days of an Urban I I and of
an Innocent II I were over To hunt down robbers and to
destroy the castles of rural nobles who gave themselves up
to brigandage and levied contributions o n merchants were
held in those days to be deeds as meritorious as the deliverance
0f the holy places
John I devoted hi mself to thi s task He constituted himself
surety f o r peac e between the Meuse and the Rhine F o r this
purpose he formed a great league with his neighbours on the
east in order to assure the safety of travellers and merchants
.

Ri se of B ra ban t

65

and t o p u rs u e brigands and coiners of base money He also

c am e to an agreement with the towns of Aix la Chapelle and
C ologne Moreover he established his protectorate over the
count ry of Li ege by accepting the position of p atron o ff ered
t o him b y that city He also s u cceeded in neutralizing the
t own of Maastricht and in striking there a common coinage for
Brabant and the c ountry of Li ege
Finally a feudal quarrel furnished him with the excuse t o
s atisfy alike his warlike tastes and the economic needs of his
good towns He purchased from Adolf o f Berg the succes
sion o f Limburg which was disp uted by several claimants in
He was obliged t o face a formidable coalition a notable
1 28 3
m ember o f which was the Archbishop of Cologne He was
able however to prevent John of Flanders Bishop of Li ege
from adhering to it by co n cluding a treaty of friendship with
the burghers of his c apital Moreover he created diffi culties
for the archbishop and even stirred up rebellion among his
burghers thus securing an excuse for intervention In 1 2 8 8
he led his army of knights and town militia reinforced by
contingents from Li ege and elsewhere t o the banks of the
Rh ine in order to besiege the castle of Worringen where a t oll
hateful to the merchants of Cologne was levied Despite their
disparity in numbers the s quadrons o f Brabant well disciplined
and in order broke t h e ranks o f the enemy who lacked cohesion
and mobility The battle o f Worringen created a great
impression I t marked the decisive preponderance o f the Duke
where the
o f Brab ant b etween the Rhine and t h e S c h e l d t
predecessors o f the Archbishop of Cologne had exercised so
considerable an inuence The annexation o f Limburg to
the duchy of Brab ant meant that henceforward there was only
o n e Duke o f L o t h a ri n g i a
Jan v an He e lu member o f a military order c elebrated his
exploits in a chronicle written in vers e for the b enet o f
.

'

'

1 832 1 2

Ris

66

Citi es

th e

Margaret of York the English princess Wh o married John I I

eldest so n o f the victor o f Worringen John I was able t o
maintain an indep e ndent attitude towards the kings of France
whose agg re ssiv e p o l ic y freq uently interfered as has been seen
b eyond the Scheldt He however favoured French culture
and welcomed to his court the trout/i re Ad e n e t l e Roi ; but
in this he only displayed his liking f o r chivalrous customs and
f o r the literature o f the country which was at that p eriod the
principal home of civilization
Brabant long preserved the semi feudal semi urban character
which distinguished it at that time and in the next c entury
when it followed the example of the principality of Li ege by
giving itself in its turn a territorial constitution under the name
of the Joyous Entry this dual character bec ame clearly
evident
The successors of John I (John II and John III ) were often
obliged t o have recourse t o the towns and t o the nobles in
order to provide f o r their ever growing nancial needs They
only obtained the aids they asked by constantly granting
larger privileges permitting them to control the exp enditure
o f the aids and even to take a share in the general affairs of
the duchy After the extinction of the male line of the House
o f Brabant
the towns took the initiative in demanding
(1 35
guarantees from Jane daughter of John I II and from her
husband Wenceslas o f Luxemburg In agreement with the
nobles they exacted in return for their recognition o f these
princes the act of the Joyous Entry ( 1 3
the p rinces
undertook to maintain the indivisibility o f Brabant to appoint
only Braban cons to the offi ces o f the d uchy to conclude no
alliance t o undertake no war and to coin no mon ey without
the consent o f the three Orders the clergy the nobility and
the towns (later known by the name o f States)
As in the
country of Li ege princ ely power was thu s li mited by a c o n
,

'

Ri s e of th e

68

Citi es

but it p aid m u ch more attention to it s own interests than those

The p at r1c 1ans transformed the shrievalty
o f the commune
into a kind o f here d itary e f everywhere the sheri ff s formed
a regular clique and generally retained their o i c e s f o r life
among them were old men invalids and lepers totally incapable
of fullling their duties They arbitrarily xed the scale o f
wages and in order t o prevent the emancipation of artisans
they steadfastly refused them the right of association Artisans
engaged in the cloth industry in particular were kept in
tutelage ; they only formed trades ( amba ch ten) economic
groups f o r the s ervice o f the town If the artisans o f
industries working f o r local commerce s u ch as bakers butchers
blacksmiths &c occasionally succeeded in forming clubs f o r
mutual assistance they did so only under the supervision of
the communal authorities and in n o case were they able to
establish re al asso c iat io n s such as those of the merchants
whi ch were known as h ansas o r gilds
The contrast between the two classes o f the urban p o p u l a
tion is revealed by all kinds of obvious ind ications : the dwellings
of the patricians were s te e ne n o r hous es of stone the battle
ments o f whi ch proudly overlooked the thatched huts of the
workmen whi ch were often relegated to the suburbs The
communal army was practically composed o f the patricians
who served on ho rseback ; many of them were even admitted
t o the order of knighthood and all of them claimed the title
o f sire (he re)
From the middle of the thirteen th c entury the towns o f
Flanders and Liege were disturbed by revolts o f the com
mons
the little people found many sympathizers among
the priests and the mendicant friars ( Dominicans and Francis
c a ns) who while preaching the doctrine o f Christian hu mility
u n intentionally spread scorn and hatred of the rich O n
several occasions the superiors of Franciscan or Dominican
-

Th e

D emo cra ti c Mo v emen t

69

c onvents were s elected to arbitrate in disputes between rich

and poor
Moreover the p atrician rgime became so exclusive and so
narrow that even p art of the urban aristocracy broke away
from those who monopolized the direction o f a ff airs and made
common c ause with the p eople Complaints daily multip lied
concerning the faulty administration of the directing body ;
they were accu sed o f arbitrarily increasing the taxes o f wasting
the public funds and even of embezzling them for their o wn
b enet I n 1 2 5 3 Henry of Dinant one of the masters of the
city of Li ege in p rovoking a rising against the prince over
threw by the s ame stroke the patrician clique But after his
banishme nt an aristoc ratic reaction took place simultaneously
with the re establishment of p rincely authority I n many of the j
towns however the sheri ff s often c ame into collision with
the p ower of the p rinc e owing to their autonomist tendencies
When in 1 2 8 0 a democratic revolution broke out in Bruges
Ghent Ypres and Douai Guy o f Dampierre made use of it
to overthrow the oligarchy of the patricians He abolished
almost everywhere the heredity of shrievalties and allowed
the workmen o f the trades representation 1n the town councils
The oligarc h ic al p arty in the Flemish towns found a powerful
ally in the King of France Philip the Fair ; shelt ering them
sel es behind the eurs d e lys the emblem o f French suzerainty
they braved the authority of the counts The democ rats
henceforth called them Le l i a er ts (people o f the lys) while
they themselves took the name of Cl a u zo aer ts (people o f the
claw that is the claw o f the lion of Flanders) and supported
the count in the lon g conict which broke o u t between him
and King Philip the Fair They found allies among the
p eas ants of the maritime district But Guy o f Dampierre had
no faith in the futu re o f the democracies and preferred to
give himself into the custody of the King of France rather
.

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Citi es

than to attempt a struggle which he believed t o be doomed to

failure
The rgime establishe d in Flanders by P hi lip the Fair in
1 3 00 strengthened there the abuses o f the oligarchy of the
wealthier classes and the p etty rural nobility He entrusted
the government of the country to a member of the latter
Jac ques o f Ch atillon a man o f haughty and violent character
His administration only favoured the feudal lords and the
grandees of the t o wns ; completely ignoring the interests
of the artisans and even o f the merchants it imposed on them
exorbitant taxes and all kinds of exactions I t was n o t long
however, before a violent reaction m anifested itself At
Bruges t h e expenses occasioned by the fetes in honour of the
king s visit had necessitated the levy of a tax which c aused
great discontent am ong the men of the trades and more
especially among those engaged in th e great industry weavers
fullers c l o t h wo rke rs & c
O ne weaver Peter de Co ninc
a small man of mean appearance but endowed with over
powering eloquence and with a c apacity for organization of
the rst order gave the rising o f the commons the necessary
unity and cohesion
In the month o f June 1 3 0 1 a violent riot broke out at
Bruges The artisans armed themselves and captured the
count s ste e n in which the richer classes and the knights had
taken refuge It was only owing to the support o f t h e French
garrison of Courtrai that Ch atillon was able to subdue the
rebels The t o wn of Bruges was then deprived of its privileges
its ramparts were destroyed while the governor laid the
fou n dations of a solid fortress intended to prevent any new
revolt But even before this was completed de Co nin c
wh o had ed to Zealand with a great number o f h is com
panions c ame to an understanding with some members of the
family o f the count (John and Guy of Namur his sons an d
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William o f Juliers h is nephew) in order t o overthrow the

common enemies both o f the prince and of the little people
His return t o Bruges resulted in the ight of Ch atillon and
a c rowd of h is partis ans while the destruction o f the rampart s
and the construction of the royal fortress were interrupte d
I n other towns the democ rats also ros e in rebellion but
Ch atillon soon returned with an imposing forc e O n May 1 7
1 3 0 2 he entered Bruges with a threatening array o f tr 00 s
p
The p eople far from being terrorized plotted the massacre
of thos e who they believe d were prepari n g to inict on them
an exemplary punishment and in the dea d of night Ch atillon s
soldiers together with a certain n umber of the wealthier
burghers were murdered in their sleep The rallying c ry of
the art isan s was S ch ild e n urie nd and in order to escape from
being mass ac red some of the French attempted to raise it
but they were betrayed by their accent and butchered with
the rest
This event which henceforth Went by the name of The
Matins of Bruges b y analogy with the Sicilian Vesp ers
made it p ossible for William of Juliers an excellen t soldier
who possessed like de Co n in c the gift o f electrifyi ng crowds
to organize a rising of nearly all the Flemish towns and of the
whole population of the maritime district Ghent alone
remained under the sway o f the Le li a er ts but seven hundred
ar t isans escaped t henc e to j oin the democratic army which
was to defend the soil of Flanders This army repaired to
Courtrai the citadel of which was still occupied by a royal
garrison and it was under the walls of that town that o n e o f
the bloodiest battles in the whole history of Belgium took place
and o n e of those which have had most inuence o n its destiny
The royal army commanded by Robert of Artois was almost
entirely composed o f the nobility of Artois, Champagne and
Pic ardy and a great number of Le l i ae r ts As foot soldie rs it
,

,
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possessed only Genoese archers ghting as mercenaries The

Flemish army o n the contrary possessed no cavalry I t was
entirely made up o f infantry weavers fullers and other
artisans as well as p easants from the Franc de Bruges all armed
with a heavy pike (g oe d e nd ag) At rst they gave way under
the shock of the enemy cavalry but immediately recovered
themselves and threw back headlong into the ditches a crowd
of knights whose charge had already been t o some extent
broken by these obstacles The disposition of the ground was
certainly favourable to the artisans and they were help ed
as much by the talent and experience o f their chief William
o f Juliers as by the blind hatred of the enemy who in their
i mpatience to crush t h is rabble ung themselves o n it in
disorder But the chief fac tor which secured t h e victory to
the Flemish democrats was the erce and heroic energy with
which they were inspired by the certainty that they had
alternative but t o conquer or t o die T hey pitilessly
no
massacred the knights ev en those who surrendered to their
mercy ; there followed an appalling rout o f the French army
the remains of whi ch scattered that same evening as far as
the outskirts of Tournai
The golden spurs which were
collected from the battle e ld were off ered up by the victors
as a trophy to Notre Dame de Courtrai
This defeat o f the army o f the e urs d e lys as unexpected as
it was humiliating created a sensation throughout Europe
In order to explain away the catastrophe Philip the Fair
spread the story that the Flemings had drawn their e nemies
into a snare : that they concealed the ditches o n the battle
eld by covering them over with branches o f trees Curiously
enough this tale eventually secured credence in Flanders and
it has survived t o the present d ay not on ly in purely literary
and artistic writin but in historical works
g
The battle of Courtrai excited on the other hand in d e sc rib
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able e nthusias m in democratic c entres alike in Flanders in

Brabant and in the city of Li ege and the eff ect was terrible
The battle had taken place o n July 1 1 Three days later
de Conine and William o f Juliers entered Ghent as victors
Lille and Douai op ened their gates to the conquerors Disturb
an c e s more or less violent occurred in the towns o f Brabant
and Li ege ; at Li ege the artisans exacted s everal concessions
from the oligarchy the c hi ef of which was that one of the
t wo m asters of the city should be chosen from amo ng them
selves
The gra nd s made strenuous e ff orts t o restore their
authority ; they formed an allianc e with the knights of
Hesbaye but the undertaking misc arried and a great number
of them who took refu ge in the church o f S aint Martin perished
amid the ames o f that building which were kindled by
popula r bands This day of the Male Saint Martin had
a result similar to that o f the Matins of Bruges
The deci
mated p atriciate of Li ege was u nable to recover itself and lost
all politic al inuenc e : the peace of Angleur ( 1 3 1 3) p rovided
that in order to become a member of the municipal council of
Li ege a man must rst be inscribed on the roll of a trade
I n Flanders an aristocratic reaction took place with the sup
port o f the French monarchy It only succeeded however
after a long struggle and it was never able t o e ff ac e completely
the memory o f the democratic triumph o f 1 3 02 o r to crush
the hope s to which that t riumph had given birth Fresh
disturbanc es were constantly breaking o u t as a result o f the
economic crises arising from the strained relations between
Franc e and England a conict in which Flanders being
a French e f was inevitably involved The p easants o f
maritime Flanders rose in 1 3 2 7 to destroy the rich ; the
weavers of Bruges instantly lent their support but this time the
rebellion was rapidly quelled by Philip of Valois wh o crushe d
the democratic militia at Cassel
,

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Cities

th e

That same year was marked at Li ege by the decline of the

trade associations after the revolutionary movement which
they had set on foot against Adolf o f La Marck O n hearing
o f the rising in maritime Flanders they attacked the c astles o f
the bishop expelled his o ff ici als and attempted t o assume
It was in va in
c ontrol of the government of the principality
t hat Adolf o f La Marck placed the city under an interdict ;
he implored the pope and the King o f France t o assist him
against the brutal plebeians
Adolf gathered round him
a band o f knights and some weeks after the battle o f Cassel
inicted a terrible defeat o n the army o f Li ege at O reye The
prince bishop restored his authority and at the same time
transformed the municipal gov e rnment of the city by dividing
offi ces equally between the gr and s and the p e ti ts and b y
suppressing the trade associations as political bodies
.

nic t s we re so o n to revive with increased

The social
violence A second democratic outbreak marked the beginning
of the Hundred Years War as the result o f the rupture o f
economic relations between England and Flanders
Since the death o f Robert of Bethune
the real
interests o f Flanders had been entirely misunderstood by the
gn e w count who was a mere instrument in the hands of the
f King of France Louis of Nevers Robert s grandson wh o had
b een educa ted at the court o f France and who was surrou n ded
by French advisers was ignorant of the very language of his
subj ects (since the loss o f Lille and Douai Flanders had
become entirely Flemish in language) married to a daughter
of
Philip V he regarded himself as a seigneur o f the
e urs d e lys He consequently had no hesitation in appeali n g
to h is suzerain f o r assistance to suppress the rising o f 1 3 2 7 8
the battle o f Cassel which secured his restoration had been
a royal victory and Louis o f Nevers always displayed his
-

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Saviour When Edward II I landed at Antwerp with the

ower o f his chivalry t h e Co u n t o f Flanders was in a sense
a prisoner in the hands o f van Artevelde O n August 2 1 3 3 8
the cap t ain of Ghent c aip t u re d t h e castle of the counts and
caused o n e of the advisers of Louis o f Nevers to be killed
there Meanwhile Edward I II in h is c apacity of Vicar of the
Empire a title conferred o n him by Lewis the Bavarian i ssued
a summons to all the imperi al vassals including the Count of
Flanders many o f whos e e f s were in actual fact imperial
and ordered them to ght against the King of France as
the enemy of the empire
Louis o f Nevers vainly attempted
to bring about a reaction with the help o f the Leli aer ts twice
he secretly left the country refusing all reconciliation with
van Artevelde Ghent meanwhile inclined more and more
towards an alliance with E ngland and demanded from the
King o f France the restoration of French Flanders which was
one o f its sources of corn supply
But the most characteristic sign o f the change in the direction
o f policy brought about by James van Artevelde was the
commercial and defensive alliance concluded between Flanders
and Brabant at the end o f 1 3 3 9 As Louis o f Nevers had
denitely ranged himself on the side of his suzerain van
Artevelde caused the banker Simon of Mirabel seigneur o f
Haelen t o be appointed regent to govern the county in the
absence of the count As a matter of fact van Artevelde c o n
t in u e d to exercise a dictatorship and directed all the foreign
policy O n his advice Edward III wh o had already taken the
title of King o f France claimed actually to exercise the royal
authority and in his capacity as natural lord c aused feudal
homage to be done to him by the three great Flemish cities
in return for larger commercial privileges in England
Despite the interdict which was laid upon Flanders at the
request o f Philip o f Valois and despite the intervention of the
.

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pop e in favour of the French king the An glo Flemish alliance

was maint ained and Flemish troops took part in the siege o f
Tournai Van Ar tevelde however by attempting to direct
the op erations against that city independently drew upon
himself the hat red o f John I I I Duke of Brabant who had
always sec retly favoured the policy of the King o f France
and a truc e whi ch was concluded between the warring ki n gs
brought the siege of Tournai to an end This check clearly
imp aired the prestige of van Artevelde but he was still more
s eriously compromised by the fact that Edward I II found it
impossible to full hi s engagements he was unable to furnish
the amount o f wool which he had promised in fac e o f the
unyielding opposition of a section o f the English people
He had further b een still less able to fur nish food f o r the
support of the Flemish population Scarcity resulting from
the state of war produced s erious troubles esp ecially at Ghent
Bruges and Ypres At Ghent van Artevelde found himself
oppos ed by the t rade o f weavers and especially by its head
Gerard D enys who prepared hi s overthrow In t h e c o u rse
of a riot van Artevelde was murdered in hi s o wn house
Thi s mur d er however di d not as had been expected bring
the English alli ance t o an end ; it was maintained by the
demagogy of the weavers
I t is somewhat d ii c u l t to form a correct estimate o f the
c haracter of van Artev e lde F no issart h as popularized a hi ghly
coloured but somewhat imaginative portrait o f the c elebrated
dictator of Ghent Contemporary chroniclers hardly enable
us to do more than divine some traits in the character of this
grea t gure and these moreover have often been wrongly
i nterp reted Thus the surname of Sage homme whi ch
posterity h a s given to van Ar tevelde ros e from the fac t that
t hi s exp ression was used i n an entirel y di ff erent sense by the
chroniclers of that p eriod from t h e sense in whi ch it was used
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at a later date
Sage homme meant in the fourteenth
c entury a man o f law a master Th e sage homme de Gand
But
was therefore no more than the dictator o f Ghent
whatever may be the real truth the part played by van
Artevelde was not lacking in epic gra ndeur I t is proved tha t
n o Count o f Flanders ever exercised such a measure o f power
even in the time of the Flemish
o r acquired such prestige
monarchy as did this burgher o f Ghent
A year after the death o f van Artevelde the regent o f
Flanders was put to death by order o f Louis of Nevers who
some days later himself fell at Cressy ghting in the ranks
of the royal army The city o f Ghent fell under the control
of the weavers whose domination was in its turn destroyed
by a coalition between the other trades and the wealthy
burghe rs and as a result of the constantly increasing dispu t es
between the three chief towns of Flanders
Proting from this state o f disorder the new count Louis
o f Male was able to secure the recognition o f h is authority
and t o make peace with the King of England in 1 3 47 In n o
case however did the party o f t h e e urs d e lys regain its
power the aristocratic rgime was dead
Like their sister towns in Flanders the cities of Brabant and
Li ege felt the eff ect of the stru ggle between France and
England and saw the lower class of their citizens take a dvantage
of economic crises t o demand a share in the government
The democratic movement was especially vigorous i n the
principality of Li ege over the capital of whi ch the pe ti ts
regained control A preliminary rising led by one o f the
masters the furrier Peter An d ric as failed ( 1 3
but some
ye ars l at e r the cause o f the lower class denitely triumphed
The letter o f Saint Jacques established an equilibrium between
the two sections o f the urban population : each section was
equally represented in all municipal o ffi ces

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I n the s ec ond half o f the fourteenth c entury a third period

of democ ratic disturbanc es begins in all the important towns
I t coincided with the resump tion o f hostilities between Franc e
and England but the ever inc reasing competition of the
English cloth merchants lengthened the p eriod o f disorder
a nd m ade it m ore s tormy
From about 1 3 5 5 to 1 3 8 0 a regular series o f revolts t o ok place
alternating with aristocratic reac tions This time the towns
of Brabant were the most disturbed At rst sp ecial favours
had been lavished on them by the English kings henc e they
were the more severely a ff ected by the p rotectionist measures
which England adop ted at this p articular period Their
p rosp erity was also diminished by the annexation of Antwerp
t o Flanders brought about by Louis of Male in 1
3 5 7 ; this
great marke t was thus dominated by their Flemish rivals
At Louvain the ca u se of the vulga r found an ardent
defender in the person o f one o f the prince s o ffi cials Peter
C o u t e re e l the b ai l iff
Belonging to o n e o f the wealthy
families of that town and wieldi n g in his capacity o f bailiff
very far reaching authority Co u t e re e l with the help o f the
a rtisans overthrew the oligarchy o f the patriciate But this
part he played was limited t o the capital o f Brabant and did
not like that of van Artevelde inuenc e general policy
I n 1 3 5 9 he refus ed to execute a j udgement which the sheriffs
had p ronounced the discharge of a sh m o n g e r arrested by
his agents The sheri ff s retorted by ceasing to consider him
a ducal offi cial He then complained to the prince o f the
extravagant p retensions o f the shrievalty o f Louvain and
i ncited the artisans to free themselves from th e opp ression o f
which they were the vic tims The tra des organized themselves
a s an armed forc e s eized the communal h ouse and imprisoned
a c ertain number o f the a ristoc racy
The revolt ended
i n a divi sion o f municip a l powers be tween the aristoc racy
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and the commons but in reality Co u t e re e l exercised a kind

of dictatorship The maj ority o f the aristocracy refused t o
c o 0perate in political reform and brought about t h e f ail u re
of the new administration Having large fortunes a t their
disposal they coalesced against the destroyers o f their tradi
They were moreover supported by the
t io n al privileges
aristocracy o f the other towns and by the maj ority of the
petty nobility of the rural districts t o whom they were related
Many of them went into exile and found a warm rec eption in
the neighb ouring ca stles in which they took refuge like beasts
in their dens The nancial resources which they commanded
attracted to their side Duke Wenceslas who was always short
He banished Co u t e re e l with some o f his most
o f money
devoted partisans and restored the aristocratic rgime But
ere long a fresh revolt broke out and this time the duke
granted a charter inaugurating a regular system of propor
t io n al representation f o r the di ff erent groups o f the urban
population analogous to that which had already existed at
Li ege since 1 3 43
The old city did not even yet nd peace It su ff ered from
the counterstrok e of the revolution provoked in Flanders by
the weavers o f Ghent and i t s streets were once more the s cene
o f bloody conicts while the castles of the surrounding plain
sheltered the irreconcilable patricians At the close o f the
year 1 3 78 some of these brought about at Brussels the assassina
tion o f the plebeian burgomaster o f Louvain which caused a
violent riot among the artisans o f that tow n I n the course o f
it a ce rtain number o f patrician magistrates were thrown from
the win d b ws o f the house in which they sa t Finally the duke
ordered the banishment o f the leaders o f the two rival parties
The political equilibrium which was then established through
the employment o f the system of 1 3 78 was a singular contrast
to the unstable constitution o f the Flemish to wns where
,

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the di ff erent tra des were constantly contending f o r p re

dominanc e
The most dramatic episode o f this third phase of democratic
u n rest occurred in Flanders I n 1 3 79 Louis of Male having
authorized the p eople of Bruges to construct a canal from the
Lys to their city in order to facilitate the transport of grai n
the men o f Ghen t found in this an attack on the privileges o f
their city whic h was the centre o f the wheat trade Yo e ns
the hea d of the boatmen of Ghent went with armed troops
and cu t i n pieces the diggers o f Bruges who were working at
this c anal The Ghent weavers proted by this opportunity
to poss ess themselves of municipal power and the cloth workers
followed their example in Bruges Ypres and many other
towns Everywhere demagogy triumphed amid violenc e and
pillage
Louis o f Male contrived however to quell the rebels
exc ept a t Ghent where Philip van Artevelde so n o f the great
tribune took the command The latter rst led the army o f
Ghent t o Bruges into which town he penetrated after routing
its forc es a t Be v e rh o u t sv e l d I n order to subdue Ghent
t h e count was comp elled to app eal t o the aid of the King o f
France Charles VI hastened to supply the required assistanc e
the more willingly because he held that the Flemings were
schismatic as being pa rtisans o f Urban VI He considered it an
act of piety t o make wa r against them His troops encountered
the a rmy of Philip va n Artevelde at Westroosebeke ( 1 3 8 2)
they ha d not much d ii c ul t y in surrounding that unorganiz ed
mass i n wh ic h the men of Ghent alo n e fought with tenacity
and rather than su rrender allowed themselves t o b e killed to
the las t man The king s army ha d n o more pity for them than
if they were dogs said F ro issart Philip va n Artevelde himself
was su ff ocated in the c rowd His corpse was found in a ditc h
Cha rles VI o n rec ogni z ing it c aused it to be hanged o n a tree
.

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The French army then se t re to Courtrai after carrying o ff the

golden spurs of the knights wh o had fallen at the battle of 1 3 02
All the Flemish to wns surrendered except Ghent which main
Louis o f Male died
t ain e d a desperate resistance until 1 3 8 5
without seeing the end of the s truggle
The n ew count Philip the Bold consented t o negotia te
with the reli e l town proclaimed an amnesty and conrmed
the privileges o f Ghent He appeared t o admit o f a com
promise between his sovere ign prerogative and the urban
franch ises and to be willing t o accept the t wo irreconcilable
principles formulated at the time in these word s : Let the
count be a free lord and h is people a free lord
I n most o f the towns the democratic movement had ended
by establishing a kind of proportional representation o f the
different social groups in the town councils and magistracies
At Ghent f o r example the three members of the town
were the burghers the weavers and the little trades But
in other places the weavers did not enj oy so important a posi
tion At Brussels where the aristocratic r gime continued
until
the weavers were confounded with the mass of
the other trades whi ch were group ed in nations o r political
corporations and the c entral governing body of the city
consisted o f the patriciate and these nations
,

v.

Def e nsive Alli

a nce s a n

d Terri t or i a l Aggl o mer a ti ons

Their common economic needs and the similarity of their

social evolution brought together the Belgian p rincipalities
which had at rst seemed likely to follow very diff erent politi
cal destinies The prepondera nce o f the urban element made
in most cases the interests o f commerce and industry the ruling
inuence with the result that the aims pursued were usually
pacic At an early date the towns tended to settle their
disputes by arbitration rather than by force o f arms Jus t as
,

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the two contracting parties I t was an important stage in the

unication of all t h ese principalities full of a mass o f people
unable to exist without trade
Some months later Hainault adhered to this ess enti ally
commercial alliance I n 1 347 the district of Liege concluded
a similar treaty with Brabant Finally an article in the
famous Braban con charter known a s the Joyous Entry o f
Jane and Wenceslas ( 1 3
declared that the union o f
Flanders an d of the country o f Li ege with Brabant was indi s
soluble These alliances were o nl y temporary but they su i c e
to bear witness t o the common aspirations and to the common
needs of the more important Belgian principalities They
are the result o f the doctrine clearly expressed in the treaty
of 1 3 3 9 that commerce can only be carried o n in a land which
enj oys peace good order and freedom
The economic unication o f the Low Countries made progress
despite the rivalry o f the princely houses I t wa s further
favoured by the disappearanc e of several important families
that disappearance having the e ff ect of grouping together
principalities by means of a personal union In the early
days of feudalism the disappearance o f a princely line had
generally led t o partitions At this period it is int eres ti ng to
note that each p rincipality constituted a distinct entity
a species o f tiny nation and that its territory was owing
to this fact regarded a s being indivisible ; it belonged rather
to the people than to the prince Thi s entirely modern
conception was in a large measure due t o the towns
The House o f Holland was the rst t o become exti n ct
with John I in 1 2 99 His successor was h is uncle John I I
of Avesnes wh o was already Count o f Hainault and con
sequently these t wo essentially distinct principalities came to
share the same political destinies But the princes o f the
House of Avesnes proved able t o foster both the agricultural
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Territo ri a l A ggl o mera ti o n s

85

and feudal interests of Hainault and t h e commercial and

urban inter e sts o f Holland and of their outlying possessions
i n Friesland and Zealand
William I ( 1 3 04 3 7) was especially distinguished for his
diplomatic ability Towards all his neighbours he constantly
observed t h e stric test neutrality and towards the Ki ng o f
France the ancient patron of his family he adopted an
attitud e of complete indep endence He maintained excellent
relations with E ngland to the great prot of hi s towns in
Holland ; his brother John of Beaumont at the head o f the
chivalry of Hainault assisted the Prince of Wales ( Edward I II )
to seize the throne an d the marriage o f that prince t o Phi lippa
daughter of William I cemented t h e all iance between the
Plantagenets and t h e Hous e o f Avesnes o n the eve o f the
Hundred Years War After having ac quired a great rep utation
the House o f Avesnes be came extinct in 1 3 45 with William I I
( William IV of Holland) His domains then passed to the
House of Bavaria ; Margaret o f Avesnes having married the
Emp eror L ewis the Bavarian left her paternal inheritance to
one of his sons William the B avarian His accession was not
The King o f England Edward III
u n a t t e n d e d wi t h d ii c u l t ie s
who through his wife Phi lippa had also a claim to the succes
sion only consented to abandon his rights in return for certain
advantages among them the marriage o f William with Matilda
of Lanc aster Eventually however the whole patrimony
o f the House o f Avesnes p assed intact into the hand s of the
Hous e of Bavaria which became rmly rooted i n the Low
Co untri es despit e the rival House of Luxembu rg which also
desired t o obtain the prep onder ance in that region
The death of John I I I ( 1 3 5
last duke o f the Hous e of
Brabant the oldest of all the great hous es of the L o w Countries
sinc e i t traced i t s desc ent from Lambert I led to disp utes
b et w
een his t wo sons in law Wenceslas of Luxemburg and
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Louis o f Male an d these disputes re sulted in territorial losses

f o r Brabant
To maintain the indivisibility of Braban con
territory the nobles and towns of the duchy had taken the
precaution of indemnifying the claimants who might have
disputed the rights o f Princess Ja n e eldest daught er of the late
duke and wife o f Wenceslas However Louis o f Male a n
n o u n c e d that he was not satised with the su m of money
which had been assigned to him and demanded the town of
Malines He sent an army into Brabant and that country
taken by surprise could o ff er no effective resista nce A victory,
gained at Scheut to the west o f Brussels s ecured Louis the
maj ority of the Braban con towns but the citizens o f Brussel s
commanded by Everard T se rc l ae s expelled the Flemish
garrison from their town and soon Jane and W e nc e sl as wh o had
taken refuge i n Limburg were recalled by their good towns
The Braban con towns and their p rinces however
o f Brabant
were forced to submit t o the loss of the command of the
Scheldt The Treaty of Ath ceded to the Count o f Flanders
Malines in full sovereignty and Antwerp as a Brab ancon e f
The territorial power of Flanders was still further increased
a s a result o f the able policy of the last count o f the House
of Dampierre Unlike his father Louis o f Male at rst showed
himself particularly friendly to England but abandoned that
conne xion when Charles V King o f France promised him the
restora tion of Walloon Flanders in return for the marriage of
Margaret sole heiress of the cou nt with Philip the Bold
br o ther o f the king This marriage took place in 1 3 69 an d
it appeared to be probable that Flanders would in future be
a mere s atellite of France Louis of Male as has been seen
was also induced t o beg f o r royal intervention o n the occasion
of the famous revolt c aused by the democrats o f Ghent in 1 3 79
The accession o f the House of Burgundy in Flanders ( 1 3 84)
marks a new epoch in the hi story o f the Belgian princip alities
,

T errito ri al A ggl o m era tio n s

87

They henceforth formed four main groups : ( 1 ) Fla nders

with it s various outlying possessions east of the Scheldt ;
( 2) Brab ant Limb urg and Luxemburg ; ( 3) Hainault
Holland and Zealand and (4) the country o f Li ege the only
episcop al princip ality remaining a territorial power and which
was increase d in 1 3 6 1 (as a result mainly of the energetic action
of the towns ) by the ac qu isition o f the county of Looz ( the
modern Limburg north of Tongres and S aint -Trond)

vi.

I ntellec t ua l

an

d A r tis t i c De v e l op ment

Despite the wonderful development o f the towns the world

o f c ulture retained
until the end of the fourteenth century
a fundamentall y feudal and ecclesiastical character I t derived
it s inspira tion from the court o f Franc e and more p articularly
from the Un iversity of Paris I n the words of Mae rl an t him
s elf the father o f all the Flemish poets Franc e was then the
land of all knowledge and all philosophy I t is accordingly n o t
surp rising that the courts o f the princ es and seigneurs con
tin n ed to be important c entres of French literature and above
all those of Flanders a nd Hainault which were so closely
connected with the court of France From Hainault came the
rst great writer o f French p ros e in the fou rteenth c entury
Jean Le Bel Canon of Li ege ( died
Attached to John
of Beaum o nt b rother of William o f Avesnes he shared in the
a dventurous life o f that princ e and with o thers accompanied
him to England where he took part in the kni ghtly exploits
valiant and gentle King Edward
He was a member
o f the
of the warlike lesser nobility o f Hesbaye which explains h is
a dh erenc e to an essentially knightly ideal I n h is chronicles
he celebrates famous sword strokes brilliant fetes romantic
a dventu res
The work of Jea n Le B el was the model for the work of the
greatest trouv ere a nd historian o f this p eriod F ro issart o f
,

Ri s e

88

Citi es

th e

Valenciennes ( died
This gentle story tell er (d ise ur)
was a friend o f all the princes but lived mainly a t the cour t o f
Philippa wife of Edward I II o f Jane and Wenceslas Dukes
and of Guy of Blois His fair words and his
o f Brabant
ne stories charmed the courts of Windsor and Blois no less
than they charmed those o f Beaumont and Tervueren HlS
many j ourneys enabled him to secu re information with regard
to great feats of arms from eyewitnesses Thanks to his know
ledge o f the t wo national languages he could converse as freely
with Flemings and Braban con s as with the men o f Hainault
and Liege At the request of his patrons he wrote those
chronicles which reec t the gorgeous and elegant feudal life
o f that p eriod and are marked by a real desire for impartiali ty
Froissart no more regarded himself as a F f e n c h m an than did
~
His point o f view varies with that o f the princes
L e Bel
whom he served and his attitude towards F rance depends
on that adop ted by each of his patrons in turn
The vogue of courtly literature was so great that bourgeois
authors writing in the language o f the people laboured only
to copy it They interested themselves sp ecially in knightly
exploits in genealogies and i n the deeds o f p rinces and feudal
lords Their didactic tendency however is a new and highly
signicant fact By it they satised the demands of the
bourgeois mind essentially p ractical and positiv e Ma e rl an t
led the way in this resp ect The Braban con van Velthem
continued Mae rl an t s Sp iege l h is t ori a e l
and his com
patriot Jan Bo e n d ale ( died I
wrote not only the Ges te s
o f the dukes o f Brabant but a number o f didactic and moral
works The chronicler Jean d O u t re me u se of Li ege ( died
like Bo e n d al e a clerk of the shrievalty wrote S imilar
works though o f a more romantic and more legendary character
The clergy no longer conned themselves to Latin which
was the n the language of learning and of the Church
They
-

In te ll e ctu a l

and

A rti s ti c D e v el o pmen t

89

followed t h e example of the urban writers and began to mak e

use of the vulgar tong ues The rs t prose writer of the Low
Countries was the Augustinian monk Jan Ru u sb ro e c ( died
the c elebrated Prior of Groenendael His writings
largely composed amid t h e solitude of the fores t of Soignes
where h is monastery was exalt the contemplative life a nd
endeavour to sp read mysticism to laymen thus developing
it if not outside at lea st S ide by side with the Church O ne
of his disciples Ge rard Groote o f Deventer ( died
founded the order of the Brothers of the Common Life
who despite the opposition of the monks spread among t h e
p eople a number of edifying tracts
I f literature despite its cons tantly inc reasing popula r
c haracter scarcely yet departs during the fourteenth c entury
from traditional i deas the plastic arts reveal a striking originality
reall y national and heralding the splendid renaissance of the
following c entury I t was due to the e i o re sc e n c e o f city life
so strikingly manifested in Belgi um to which it gave hence
forth a distinc tive characte r The towns rivalled the courts
of princ es in luxury and became the chief artistic c entres ;
goldsmiths pai nters sculp tors formed constantly increasing
corp o rations and devoted their labour not only to the decora
tion of the churches of the towns but also to that of the
market plac es the halls o f the gilds and the houses o f the
ric h bu rghers The lay socie t y in whi ch they lived inuenc ed
the form o f their p ro d uc tions which are distinguished from the
monastic works of earlier periods by their increasing realism
The t o mbiers or sculptors o f funereal monuments had been
the rst im age makers in the true s ense of that phrase
since they laboured to rep roduc e fa ithfully the features of the
dead From them began the mov ement of artistic reform
Ar chitecture turned towards a new ideal and lost its exclu
I t emancipated itself
siv e ly religious and feudal charac ter
.

'

'

Ri s e of

90

th e

Citi es

by throwing o ff French inuenc e ; it adapted itself t o town

dwellings and by its exuberance exp ressed the extraordinary
vitality which marked the Belgian cities If the sheriff s house
at Malines and the cloth hall at Louvain ( 1 3 1 7) still retain
a certain simplicity the town hall at Bruges ( 1 3 76) began
the series o f magnicent and elegant municipal palaces which
exhibited all their splendour in the fteenth century
Despite new tendencies in literary and a rtistic life religious
sentiment remained very active in the towns no less than in
the rural dis t ricts but it felt the eff ect o f the constant social
and economic c rises which disturbed them both Piety
became exal t ed in the working classes and by its alliance with
mysticism produced numerous heresies During epidemics
as for example during the great black plague o f 1 3 48 bodies o f
Flagell ants who devoted themselves t o public m o rt ic a t io ns
S pread over the country and secured m any disciples
Religious fervou r also showed itself in the spread o f the c ult
o f the Virgin
At the end of the fourteenth cent u ry the people
o f Bruges attributed t o her intervention the defeat o f Philip
van Artevelde at Westroosebeke The strengthening o f the
faith of the laity was due partly to the preaching o f the monks
but above all t o the spread of books o f e d ic a t io n in the
vulgar tongue favoured by the order o f the Brothers o f the
Common Life wh o without abandoning their lay character
lived together under a rule of work and praye r and especi ally
employed themselves in education Their schools replaced the
o l d monastic and cathedral schools
which had fallen into
profound decay above all those o f Li ege onc e so celebrated
By the inuence of these new places o f education the religious
spirit permeated more and more the lay population and it
is possible to assert that in the fourteenth century religious
sentiment was secularized
,

Th e C

92

onso li dati on

with B n rgn n d y

advantage not merely by reason o f the extent of it s territorial

possessions held as they were by a single individual and of
their economic wealth but als o o n account o f the ascendancy
which it exercised through it s kinship with the reigning
House o f France I t s diplomatic action was i n consequence
far more e ffi cient than that of the houses of Luxemburg and
Bavaria
The Burgundian dynasty wa s assured o f succ ess ; and
p rovided that it maintained i t s independenc e a s against the
Cro wn it Wo uld be able to bring about the poli tical consoli da
tion o f the Belgian principali ties whi ch were already united
by community o f economic and social interest Moreover
it was particularly favoured by circumstances The House
of Luxemburg entirely disappeared from Brabant immedi ately
after the reign of its rst representative in th at duchy
Wenceslas who died childl ess
His widow Jane wh o
was in close and friendly relations with the court o f Franc e and
the princely courts whi ch gravitated ro u n d i t was easily won
over t o the cause of Philip the Bold She willi ngly assisted
to bring about the marriage of h is eldest so n Jo h n later
surnamed the Fearless with Margaret o f Bavaria and at the
same time that of Margaret of Burgundy sister to John
with William of Hai n ault and Holl and This double marriage
by defe ating the hop es of a matrimonial union cherished by
England rendered the position o f the Burgundian dynasty
impregna b le in the L o w Countries
When William Duke of Guelders e ndeavoured to provoke
a quarrel between France and England so as to unsettle the
political situation between the Ardennes and the se a Phi lip
had no di ffi culty in frustrating h i s attemp t He replied to
the appeal o f Jane whose states William was attacking by
sending a French army t o the frontier o f Guelders and there
in consideration of the assistance which he had rendered to the
,

'

T errito ri a l Po li cy

93

duchess he p res ented himself before the States of Brabant

and p rop osed tha t in return for the restoration o f Mali nes and
An twerp he should be recognized as heir I n face o f the
p rotests o f Wenzel King of the Romans whom Jane had
already acknowledged as heir the Braban con States hesitated
Then Jane herself declared ( 1 3 9 0) that her niec e Margaret
o f Male
wife of Philip should succeed her by reason and
right of nat u re and that moreover after her death Philip
wa s the only p rinc e capable of assuring peac e and quiet to
her s tates This wa s a public slight on imperial power which
ha d it is tru e steadily decli ned sinc e the twelfth century
And the fac t that the emp eror was powerless to enforce the
fullment of a pledge which a ff e cted the future o f h is o wn
family was a striking manifestation o f the independence o f
the former Lotharingian p rincipa lities
The Braban cons anxious to p reserve their territorial
autonomy s ecured from Philip the assuranc e that he intended
his s econd so n Antho n y t o become the succ essor of Jane
But the destinies of Brabant were denitely linked with thos e
of Flanders and those t wo principalities were to constitute
the foundation of the Burgundian state of the Low Countries
or Lower Burgundy In
John the Fearless succeeded
his father and two years later his brother Anthony succeeded
Jane of Bra bant The two brothers agreed t o give each other
support and p rotection and worked together for the extension
of B urgundian inuence I n contrast to his father John the
Fearless devoted his chi ef attention t o the a ff airs o f the L o w
Countries where he resided by preferenc e His palac e of
P r i me n b of a t Ghent was more often honou red by his presenc e
than was the Hotel d Art o is a t Paris His denite aim was
to found a new state whereas h is father had only aimed at
c rea ting f o r himself a solid basis in the north o f France t o
enable him to conduct personally the government o f that
,

Th e C

94

onso li dati on

with

B u rgu n d y

kingdom John the Fearless certainly interfered in the a ff a i rs

o f France : as is known he caused the Duke of O rleans to b e
assassinated in order to secure power but his chief aim was the
development o f his authority in the L o w Countries O n the
death o f his brother Anthony who fell in the battle o f Agin
court
he demanded and obtained the leas e of Luxem
burg This former county now a duchy was the apanage of
Anthony s widow Eliz abeth of Goerlitz Comprising almost
the whole exten t o f the Ardennes it had unlike the Burgun
dian p rincipalities preserved its rural and feudal character
but possessed a strategic value o f the highest order as a rampart
against Germany The German suzerains were absolutely
devoid of power at that p eriod but their succ essors might
some day be able t o resume the policy of the Saxon emp erors
and t o revive historical rights which had become entirely
obsolete Moreover Luxemburg would help to form a c on
mee ting link between the duchy of Burgundy and the Low
Countries John the Fearless had already intervened in the
principality of Li ege in support of the bishop his brother in
law John of Bavaria and the victory which he h ad won at
O thee in 1 408 over the artisans o f Liege wh o had revolted
against the latter secured to him the protectorship of the
principality
The territorial consolidation o f the Belgian provinces had
thus made great advances by the time this princ e expiated the
murde r o f the Duke of O rleans by being assassinated himself
o n the bridge o f Montereau
Philip the Good therefore
is wrongly considered the founder of the dominion of Bur
gundy ; in point o f fact he merely reaped the fruits of the
policy o f his father and his grandfather His enormous nancial
resources together with h is diplomatic skill enabled him still
further to increase his power He disposed at will o f the
bishoprics o f Cambrai and Tournai and applied to the
.

Th e C

96

onso li da ti on

with B nrgn n d y

principality o f Utrecht the same kind o f protectorate as t o

Li ege I n
he bought the district o f Namur Brabant
wi t h i t s dependencies passed to hi m after his two cousins
John IV and Philip o f Saint Pol had reigned there in succes
sio n ; neither o f them leaving any male issue their inheritance
reverted t o the elder branch of the House o f Burgundy ( I 43 0)
Three years later after long and tragic conic ts Phi lip the Good
dispossessed his cousin Jac queline o f Bavaria o f the counties
o f Hainault and Holland
His reconciliation with Charles VII whom he had at rst
vigorously Oppose d as being responsible f o r the murder o f
John the Fearless secured f o r him the county of Boulogne
Artois and subj ect t o a right o f repurchase a group o f lord
ship s o n the Somme (Treaty of Arm s I 43
He then ac quired
Luxemburg from Elizabeth o f Goerlitz ( 1 43 5
Later he
annexed the district o f Utrecht imposed a protectorate o n
Guelders and in Li ege replaced John of Heinsberg by his
nephew Louis o f Bourbon I t was his dream to restore the
ancient Lotharingian kingdom o f Mid Francia adding to it
Flanders and he was eve n ambitious o f reviving the tradition
of the Crusades and o f thereby putting himself at the head of
Western Christendom
In 1 45 4 in the cours e o f splendid fetes given a t Lille he
with the lords o f his court took a solemn o ath before a pheasant
solemnly bro ught in for this purpose to assume the cross
He was unable however to full the o ath o f the pheasant
Being anxious to erect into a kingdom h is imp erial e f s which
included almost all the former L o t h a rin g i a he went to Ger
many to mee t Frederic and to demand from him the grant
But the emperor avoided him and even
o f the royal title
failed t o attend the meeting which had been arranged at Ratis
bon He was unwilling t o aid in the re establishment o f a
Lotharingian kingdom which would have involved the d enite
.

,
,

'

T errito ri al Po l i cy

97

loss of a large number of e f s to the empire ; he would not

even i nvest Philip with thes e e f s
So rapid a nd so brilliant a ris e to fortune necessarily excited
j ealousy Vassal though it was the House of Burgundy
rivalled that of Valois Charles VI I and later Louis XI
d e v o t e d all their energies to holding it in check
Louis XI
s ecretly won over the House o f Croy the counsellors of Philip
the Good but the duke s son Count Charles of Charolais
succeeded i n unmasking the schemes of the king and his
accomplices
As early as I 465 Charles was appointed lieutenant general
by h is father who ha d become old and inrm Possessed of
a thoroughly southern temp erament and insanely violent in
disposition Charles who was later surnamed the Rash engaged
in the most a mbitious and danger o us enterp rises I nstead of
employing diplomacy he believed that he could overcome
every obstacle by force and terror ; the cruelty with which he
p unished the towns of the distric t of Li ege for their alliance
with Louis XI amazed contemporary observers accustomed
though they were to such brutal exhibitions of princ ely
j ustic e
Charles had impos ed up on t h e district of Li ege a h u miliat
i n g p eace at the time when he forced Louis XI to restore to
him the Somme towns thos e keys of Franc e ( I 465 ) But
the King of Franc e still hoped to rouse the men of Li ege
agains t h is rival The town of Dinant moreover controlled
by the pa rty of the lesser artisans to whom were j oined
a c rowd of outlaws forei gners and adventurers had not
accep ted the terms of p eac e exac ted by Charles and adop ted
a p rovoc ative a nd hostile attitude But o n August I 8 I 466
Charles appeared with an army under the walls of Dinant and
thanks to h is artill ery reduced the town af t e r a s even days siege
Determined to make an example
His vengeanc e was terrible
.

1 83 2

Th e C

98

onso li da ti on

with B n rgnn d y

he ordered the sack of the city which was then se t on re ;

only the churches and religi o us hou ses were spared ( August
I n the following year Li ege which had given shelter to a
number of the ruined citizens o f Din ant and which was seduc ed
by Louis X I s promises of support adopted in its turn a recal
The war party which had adopted the name
c i t ran t atti t ude
Vrais Ligeois established a revolutionary government
of
in which Raes de Heers a knight of the Looz district a true
played the part of p ractical
c ond o tt i ere eager for adventure
dictator The news of the death o f Ph ilip the G ood caused
deep delight at Li ege and it was decided to assume the offensive
Bii t the army of the city was defeated at Brusthem ( O ctob e r 2 7
Charles proceeded to occupy t h e principality ordered
all its towns to be dismantled and the land t o be wasted with
re and sword ; he established in it o n e of his most faithful
adherents the Sire de Humbercourt who really ruled the
district in plac e of its bishop Louis of B ourbon
I n order to paralyse the King of France Charles had allied
with the King o f England Edward IV and-i n I 468 he married
Margaret o f York the sister o f that monarch He then
believed himself t o be invincible whi le many German p rinces
such as the Duke o f Bavaria the Elector Palatine and the
Archbishop o f Cologne sought his allianc e and the emperor
himself off ered h im the title of king But Louis XI con
s t a n t l placed all manner of obstacles in his p ath
he encouraged
y
the exiled o f Li ege to undertake a fresh revolt an d they actually
returned in the absence of the bishop and the governor and
roused the workpeople with the cry Vivent l e roi e t l e s fran
c h ise s
Charles was aware o f h is rival s plots and forced hi m
t o accompany him t o the pu nishment of the re bels
Unwalled
and almost unarmed Li ege made a desp erate resistance
Goes de S t rail h e with some hundreds of men from Franchi
mont attempted during the night t o c apture Charles and the
,

Th e

1 00

C o nso li d a ti o n

with B nrgnn d y

willingly accepted the scheme of a marriage between Mary

Charles s sole heir and the dauphin They also let themselves
be persuaded that the duchess was surrounded by traitors
and this conviction was further strengthened when Mary o n
her return to Ghent having already been ai an c e d by her
father to Maximilian met their suggestions with an explicit
and obstinate refusal despite the pressure wh ic h was brought
to bear on her The p eople o f Ghent on their own initi ative
arrested the councillors Hug o n e t and Humbercourt and
illegally condemne d them to death By a p eculiar irony of
fate these victims o f anti royal policy were afterwards held to
have favoured the schemes o f Louis XI
A violent and very rapid reaction took place however at
the news that the King o f France had broken h is pledges and
had sent a large army to invade Hainault and Artois I mme
d ia t e ly the cry of Vic e B o urg og ne / resounded and the towns
closed their gates
Saint O mer and Valenciennes o ff ered
a victorious resistanc e Arras fell and it s inhabitants were
expelled but the havoc wrought on the c rops and the burni ng
of towns and villages only served to stiff en the resistanc e O f
other places At length Maximilian arrived with help and
then took place the marriage which united the Habsburg with
the heiress of the Burgundian dominions the consequences
o f which were t o p rove fatal t o the Low Countries since they
were deprived until the nineteenth century o f a national
dynasty The treasure of Burgundy silver plate and precious
stones served to cover the cost o f war Despite a victory
wo n at G u in e g a t e ( I 479) Maximilian was unable to compel
Louis to make peace and h is position became extremely
critical when Mary o f Burgundy unexpectedly died of inj uries
received by a fall from her horse ( I 48 2)
The Flemish towns refused t o recognize Maximilian as regent
and g uardian of his two children Philip and Margaret and
,

T errit o ri al Po li cy

I OI

demanded peac e at any p ric e The people of Ghent even sent

ambassa dors to the king who in the name o f Maximilian
n egotiated a treaty a t Arras which stipulated for a marriage
b etween Margaret and the dauphin and settled Artois and
other Burgundia n territory o n the princess a s her dower
This last p olitical act o f Louis XI was a brilliant triumph f o r
him Ghent subordinated the whole of its foreign policy to
its momentary interests but its militia was unable to stand
against the l a nz kne eh t: and other merc enaries Of Maximilian
The town lost its rank as a p rinc ely residenc e which it had
a cquired by monopolizing the regency and the guardianship
o f young Phili p and that prince was transferred t o Malines
However the city Of the Arteveldes concluded an alliance
with Charles VI I I the succ essor o f Louis XI Maximilian
taken prisoner during a riot at Bruges found himself comp elled
to abolish monarchical government in order to recover his
libe rty Anarchy which wa s increased by the adherence of
a grea t number o f the nobility to the Gh e n t ish movement
raged until the day when the forces of Albert o f Saxony
Maximilia n s lieutenant succeeded in reducing Bruges
( November I 49 0) Ghent resisted for nearly two years longer
but nally submitted t o acc ep t Maximilian as p atron I n
p eac e was concluded between the archduke and
1 49 3
Charles VI I I and young Margaret o f Austria repudiated by
th e latter two years earlier j oined her brother at Malines
Philip th e Handsome who attained his maj ority in 1 494
at the age o f sixteen resumed the traditions o f Burgundian
policy and re established the cohesion of the L o w Countries
Having been brought up by Belgian nobles his education was
ess entially national and for a long time there was no visible
sign that he was h eir p resumptive to the Archduke of Austria
He nevertheless fell under the inuenc e of his father and lent
hims elf to the anti French designs of Maximilian by marrying
.

Th e C onso li da ti o n with B nrgnn d y

1 02

Juana of Castile daughter of his father s allies Ferdinan d and

Isabella ( I 496)
But in 1 5 00 when h is wife found herself called upon to
inherit some day the Spanish kingdoms he completely changed
h is line of c onduct and on the death o f h is mother in law
Isabella took the title o f King of Castile From that time
he neglected the L o w Countries inaugurating the dynastic
policy which was to be continued by his so n Charles V For
some cen t uries the destinies of the country o f Belgium were
t o be associated with those of the great Europ ean powers
The Belgian princip alities howeve r were n o t in subj ection
to these powers ; they preserved an existenc e o f their o wn
although they were unable to determine f o r themsel ves their
international attitude They remained the state of Burgundy
Maximilian formed them ( 1 5 1 2) into the circle Of Burgundy
which p ractically enjoyed complete indep endence
The
p rincipality of Li ege alone by reason of its character as an
episcopal principality retained its connexion with the empire
and was included in the circle o f Westphalia
The nal phase o f the territorial unicatio n took place
during the reign o f Charles V who devoted himself to con
solidating and completing the work o f his Burgundian ancestors
He annexed Friesland which thus covered the Low Countries
seized the country of Utrecht and O veryssel
o n the north ( 1 5 2
from Charles of Egmont Duke of Guelders ( I 5 2 8) ac quired
Groningen which delivered itself into his hands to secure
protection against the l anz /zne ch tr o f the Duke Of Gu elders
and nally completed the consolidatio n o f the country
by incorporating Drenthe Guelders and Zutphen and by
extending h is protectorate t o Cambrai I n the rst war
against Francis I he had conquered Tournai , the ecclesiastic al
metropolis o f Flanders and a commercial and military centre
o f the high est order, as well as its district and he had denitely
,

'

Th e

1 04

C o ns o li d atio n

with

B urga nd y

manner the indivisibility of the Low Countries :1 dream O f

the dukes o f Burgundy was guaranteed ; the task undertaken
by them was accomplished by the most illustrious representa
tive of the House o f Habsburg
,

ii

M onarchi cal Ce ntraliz a ti on

The p eople o f this country are rather sovereign than

subj ect
Such was the Opinion o f an English resident at
Antwe rp at the beginning o f the sixteenth century after
a hundred years of monarchical action and this opinion was
conrmed by many foreigners Thus it may well be i magined
how great must have been the autonomy of each principality
and how strong a hold the ruling classes clergy nobility and
towns must have had on their privileges at the moment when
P hi lip the Good undertook to merge the various p rincipalities
into one state and t o place them under a syst e m o f central
institutions
The Burgundian innovations
were therefore badly
rec eived Philip completely reorga nized t he ducal council
which was henceforth known as the Grand Council By means
of an ordinance o f 1 446 b e transformed it into a permanent
governing college which was a real instrument in the hands of
the p rinc e The division of work led to the di vision o f thi s
council Charles the Rash made i t into two distinct colleges
charged with clearly dened functions O ne of them which
p reserved the name o f the Grand Council formed the Council
of State ; the other which received the name o f Parliament
and was established at Malines became the sup reme court for
the whole Low Countries The dukes o f Burgundy esp ecially
incre ased the nancial power of the government with j ealous
care they saw t o the supply of their treasury by a highly
developed system of institutions I t was by their t o o frequen t
recourse to direct taxation that they made themselves at times

'

Mo narchi ca l C en tra li za ti o n

1 05

unp op ular the aid or be d e which had b een temporary and

occasional became one of the normal resourc es of the princ e
moreover it b ec ame heavier and heavier and eventually
excessive during the time of the great wars of C harles the
Rash The p rovincial States accorded it to him rst a nnually
then f o r s everal years When in 1 47 1 Charles the Rash
formed a p ermanent army 1 he demanded but was refused the
vote o f a p erp etual impost
I n order to facilitate and acc elerate the grant o f imposts
h is father h ad c re at e d a new organi zation the States General
I nstead of c arrying on separate negotiations with each of the
p rovinces as had formerly been the practice the princ e
assembled together delegates from them all ( 1 463
He did
not foresee that this innovation would later favour autonomis t
tendencies a nd would serve as a check on absolutism
Without destroying territorial institutions the Burgundian
p rinces perverted their working by sup erimposing on them
other institutions designed to control them or partially to
s upplant them s uch as the Chamber o f Council (at onc e
C ourt of Justice and Accounts) which was established at Lille
by P hi lip the Bold a nd s oon afterwards divided into the Chamber
o f Accounts a t Lille and the Council o f Flanders ( the latter
Brabant a nd i t s
was deni tel y established at Ghent in
so

Th i

army whi
f o rd n an ce

p anie s o
a m ilita r

a n a rb

a le

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t h ree

Th e f e u d al

re d e c e sso rs .

u n d i s c ip l in e d ,

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e

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t b y a p ag
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Ch a les th e Rash
c a mp a i g n
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mi li ta y s t ab li h m t o f hi
an

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s e r ic e f ro m t h e ir

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Th e m e n -a t a rms

mo u n t e d , t h e rs t b e in a t t e n d e d a t h is o wn c o s
I n a d d it i o n t o t h e c o mp a ni e s o o r
swo rd sm a n
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m e rc e n a ri e s h ire d f o r
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la n c e s

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vassals an d to wn s

Th e C onso li da ti on wi t h

1 06

B urga n d y

depende n cies and nally the other principalities were placed

under a similar administrative and j udicial rgime
Among the privileged orders t h e towns were particularly
hostile to the introduction of the new rgime which was
largely an imitation of the French monarchy I n Fla nde rs
the three members
Ghent Bruges and Ypres were
unwilling to surrender the general direction of the country
I n Brabant the States which fully represented the three orders
but in which the towns had the p reponderance frequently
proved refractory o n the demand of subsidies T h e towns
however weakened by their discords and internal strife were
un able t o maintain the struggle against the princ e who in
fou nd allies among the p easants
v o kin
g t he
p ublic good
and the small towns oppressed by the large Philip the Good
collaborated t h ro u g h h is agents in the nomination o f urban
magistrates audited their accou nts prevented the great
com m
unes from exploiting the rural districts and the little
towns and subj ected the decisions o f their tri bunals to an app eal
to h is courts (councils) of j ustice Bruges and Ghent were
the only towns which o ff ered an Open and revolutionary
resistance they wished at all costs t o maintain their p re ro g a
The artisans o f Bruges revolted
t iv e s and their monopolies
i n 1 43 7 because Philip the Good had allowed Sluys and other
neighbouring localities t o shake o ff the yoke of Bruges They
massacred the soldiers of the duke who himself narrowly
escaped capture But the men of Bruges were compelled to
submit and their chiefs were reduced t o imploring mercy
bare footed and bare headed From that time forward all
attempts at rebellion were punished by conscation of prop erty
As for the town of Ghent which had always been sp ecially
well treated by Philip the Good a s his sovereign town o f the
country it refused his proposed tax upon salt sooner than
pay this tax which would hit the burghers as well as the in h ab i
,

The Conso li da ti on with B nrgnnd y

1 08

The two chief privileged orders the clergy and the nobility
rallied more easily than the commons o r urban class to the
monarc hi cal rgime The sovereigns lavished on them honours
and favour They p eopled the bishop rics and abbeys with
their dependants and granted to the most devoted o f the
nobles the chief milita ry com mands and the government of
provinces I n 1 43 0 Phi lip the Good group ed round himself
those who had distinguished themselves by the extent of their
services o r could by their rank contribute to the p restige Of
h is house by instituting the O rder of th e Golden Fleece
He reserved f o r hi msel f the masters hi p of it and nominated the
rs t members who were to b e gentlemen without rep roach
They swore to the duke that they would bear to him good
and true love
They pledged themselves to honour and
exalt the noble order of knighthood and to work for the
reverenc e of G o d and the upholding O f the Christian faith
There was thus created a national chivalry which in a measure
replac ed the d ecayed chivalry o f the Middle Ages The
nobility in general showed great loyalty there were few such
c ases o f treason as that o f the Croy family o r o f desertion as
that o f Philip de Commines Even more than the clergy the
nobles assisted to p roduce the p olitical unication o f the
Burgundian state and to conrm the cohesion o f the Belgian
principalities by subordi nating them to the central power
But the nobles gradually realized their strength and became
ultimately hostile to foreign absolutism Hugh de Lannoy
even produced a scheme o f dual government in which the
States would have acted as a counterpois e to the power o f the
prince by having the right to intervene both in the imposition
o f taxes and in the management of po l icy in general such as
questions of war and peac e
The catastrophe o f Nancy provoked a formidable reaction
against the Burgundian innova t ions Th e great to wns gained
,

Mo n arch i cal

C entra li zati o n

1 09

the ascendancy and extorted from Mary of Burgundy the

Great Privilege
which broke u p the state by re estab
lishin g all the p rovincial autonomies urban corporate and
Others :
Maximilian vainly attempted to imitate the uncompromising
attitude of Charles the Rash A kind o f equilibrium was
established between the franchises o f the country and the
p rerogatives of the p rince Compelled to have recours e to
the S tates General to obtain military su b si dies the so vereigns
were obliged to t reat with respec t the ancient privileges o f
eac h principality and o f each of the three orders and they
were reduced to adopting a kind of comp romise between the
m ediaeval tradition and the modern system of absolutism
which was in force i n the great s tates then in p rocess of forma
tion ( Franc e England Cas tile)
Philip the Handsom e restored the government its national
charac ter by surrounding himself with councillors who were
natives o f the country Despite his Spanish te n dencies
Charles V did not depart from this practice even when he
organized the three colla teral councils ( the Privy Council the
Council of Financ e and the Council o f S tate) o ff shoots o f
the ancient ducal c ouncil and designed to strengthen the
centralization of the admi n istration I n order to accomplish
this work more easily Charles secured from Pop e Clement VI
releas e from his oath to observe the p rivileges granted on the
occ asion of his Joyous E ntry i n Brabant The unpopular
side of the Habsburg system was the nancial ; the rulers
dema nded m any nancial sacrices from the p eople in order to
meet the exp ens e of purely dynastic wars
Charles V even met with op en resista nc e from the town O f
Ghent The p roud city had been h alf ruined owing to the
decline of its cloth industry ; i t s main sourc e o f wealth n o w
c onsist ed in its grain market The corporation o f the bargemen

Th e

1 10

C o nso li d a ti o n

with B nrgn n d y

almost the only body to prot from this the other trades
declined rapidly and the proletariate augmented t o an alarming
extent At the time o f the invasion o f Artois by the army o f
Francis I the ci ty of Ghent refused the money aid which was
demanded off ering assistance in the shap e of the local militia
C h a rl e s V vigorously reproached the town magistrates writing :
We hoped that you more than any others would have helped
us sinc e We ourselves are a native of Ghent and were born in
our town o f Ghent But the city maintained its refusal and
even attempted to p revent the agents Of the treasury from
collecting the necessary contributions to the aid from the
inhabitants o f the rural districts in the area Of whi ch Ghent
was the chief place Moreover the town magistracy was
overruled by the members of the trade associations wh o
t Oo k up arms and seized the town hall
They regarded the
former sheri ff s as responsible f o r the p revailing economic
distress they suspected them o f connivanc e with the govern
ment They sent to the sca ff old the senior sheri ff Lievin Pyn
aged seventy v e who was falsely accused o f having handed
over t o the government charters deposited in the secret
o r archive room of the town
The demagogy o f Ghent then appealed to Francis I against
the emperor but the King of France far from answering them
informed Charles V of their proposals to him and facili tated
the rep ression of the rising by allowing Charles to p ass through
France The emperor surrounded the exemplary punishment
which he inicted on the town with all the forms of j ustice
He referred the case to the Grand Council of Malines which
declared the city guilty Of rebellion and of l ere maj ert and
o n this ground c ondemned it to the loss of all i t s p rivileges
and to an enormous ne The j udgement further ordered that
Roland the great bell i n the belfry should be unhung
that the city should assist in the co nstruction of a fortress to
was

C o nso l id a ti o n

Th e

1 12

with

B urgund y

had b een alre ad y greatly reduced under the dukes of Burgundy

and the order now lost almost all i t s privileges C harles V wh o
posed as the defender of the Church required complete su b mis
sion from the clergy the abandonment o f their nancial a nd
j uridical immunities ; h e further secured from Leo X and
Clement VI I the right Of nominating to vacant b e n e c e s in the
Low Countries Almost all the bishops were his creatures
and consequently supported his schemes Briefs and bulls
sent from Rome were n o t valid in the Netherlands until
they had received the royal app roval in writin g Charles V
reformed publi c charity ( 1 5 3 1 ) by taking from the clergy
the ir former monopoly in this respect The o nl y opposition
which the government encountered o n occasion from the
Church c ame solely fro m the p relates the abbots o f the
chief abbeys who had t h e right o f sitting in the States in
several provinces Finally the nobility was entirely devoted t o
the Crown and resumed the authority which it had lost since
the twelfth century ; unlike the Old feudal caste of which there
remained only some representatives in t h e wild region of the
Ardennes the nobles were created and enriched by their
loyal service Side by side with the native families of Lalain g
Ligne Be rgh e s Egmo n t Are n b e rg were found the descendants
o f Burgundi ans or Pi cards who had come in with the dukes
of
Burgundy the families O f Me g h e m Glyme s Croy o r
German counts wh o had followed Maximilian such as those o f
Nassau I n return for their military and nancial services they
secured either the governors hi ps o f provinces o r the erection o f
some of their lands into principalities duchies counties or
marquisates o r the collar of the O rder o f the Golden Fleece
the highest mark o f princely appreciation which c arried with
it important privileges a s after 1 5 1 7 the right o f being tried
only by members of the order But a ll this nobility remained
essentially national and in a measure preserved it s Bur
,

M o n arch i cal C en trali zati o n

g u n d ia n

II

cha rac ter when the p rince sacric ed the interests

of the country to his dynas tic policy I t appeared as the bul
wark o f the autonomy o f the Low Countries against Sp a nish
penetration under Charles V and it enj oyed great popularity
The Sabre of Burgundy which app eared o n the collars of the
Golden Fleec e became a national emblem I t gures among
the ornaments of a nu mbe r of buildings and was found much
later o n the m edals struck by the B eggars
Despite the Spanish tendencies o f Charles V the Lo w
Countries retained the essentially national admi nistration
whic h ha d been given to them by Ph ilip the Handsome
The o fcials were all drawn from the native population ;
such were magistrates a s Wie l a n t D am h o u d e r and Vig liu s
and c ontrollers such as Thomas G r amaye wh o were distin
g uish e d for their talents and activity Without breaking wit h
tradition they favoured State intervention in social life assisting
to ght or to p revent the abuses of the age They contributed
to reform public charity by supporting the edict of 1 5 3 1
whi ch gave it a secular c harac ter ; they repressed excessive
speculation and forbade gambli ng on the Bourse They were
una ble however t o render eff ective the p rovision of the edic t
of I 5 3 1 which limited to a single day the h er me rrer of t h e
country in o rder to avoid the riots and murders f o r whic h those
fetes gave occasion They were hardly more successful in the
applic ation of another article o f this edict which ordered the
codication by the p rivy council o f the innumerable customs o f
the p rovinces At the end of the reign o f Charles V t en
customs only had been published
,

,
,

i ii

E con o mi c

Mo v e me nt

d S o ci al Ch a ng e:

an

Until the great wars of Charles the Rash and of Charles V

the Low Countries enj oyed real economic p rosperity The
p rinces interested themselves in dev eloping it knowing well
,

i ti o n

Th e Co n so l d a

1 14

with

B urgund y

that it was the source of their power They p rotected industry

and the cloth trade against English competition favoured
the extension of commercial relations especially with England
saw to the establishment of good money and encouraged the
development o f the port o f Antwerp and other c ommercial
centres I n 1 470 Charles the Rash undertook the dredging
of the Z wyn in order t o p revent the decline of Bruges I t
was in the fteenth century that this town attained i t s greatest
splendour I t s market presented extraordinary activity The
great Italian banks had important branches there and the
colony of foreign merchants included not only I talians but also
Spaniards and Portuguese Bretons and O st e rlin g s that is
members o f the Hanseatic League Merchant vessels small
and large bore thi ther the p roduce o f the south o ra n ge s
pomegranates lemons attar o f roses Eastern carpets Spanish
wool &c while the ships of Hamburg and of other Hanseatic
towns supplied furs corn aii d metals
The O st e rling s weakened by wars against the Danes and
Dutch and by English competition were the rst to c ease
frequenting the port of Bruges and by the end of the fteenth
century t hat town had lost almost all it s trade The silting up
o f the Z w n separated the town from the s e a altho u h it still
y
g
remained f o r some time the chief nancial centre o f the L o w
Countries Antwerp took its plac e attracting to itself the trade
o f Bruges
with the greater eas e owing t o the fact that its
communications with the se a were improved at the beginning
o f the ftee nth ce n tury by the enlargement o f t h e western
Scheldt Prior t o this time ships had only be en a ble to
p roceed from the se a to Antwerp by means of the eastern
Scheldt a route which was indirect since it involved the cir
c u mn a v ig a t io n of the island o f Walcheren
The O st erlin g s
and the English founded the fortune o f Antwerp which became
t h e gr e at market for English cloth
The Braban con and
.

1 16

Th e

C o nso li d a ti o n

with

B urgun d y

lso in their indu stry The competition of the English cloth

makers p roved f a t a l t o many towns ; Louvain and Yp res saw
the emigration o f their labouring population and owing to
their corporate system which was bas ed on a number o f hamper
ing regulations they were unable to recover their prosp erity
The old cloth industry s till la nguished in a f e w of its ancient
it took refuge in the more r u ral dis tricts where labour
c entres
was plentiful (Armentieres Ho n d sc h o o t e Wa rn e t o n Tourcoing
Pop eringhe Verviers) A new form Of cloth indus try the
making of light fabrics at a l o w price developed with good
results se rg e s an d worsteds being produc ed in place o f the
ner types o f cloth which were specialities o f the English
producers Many towns owed a return o f prosperity to the
new cloth industries which establishe d themselves t here
The making o f tapestry tho s e marvellous frescoes o f the
was established and ourished at Arras Tournai
O udenarde and Brussels among other p lac e s wh ile lac e making
e mployed a numb er o f workers drawn from the poores t class es
The central power favoured among other industries that of
tapestry making f o r which it created a new reg ulation the
tendency o f which was to bring the wholesale trad e under
its cont rol as the towns had done l n the Middle Ages each
branch of the indus try being kept distinct An edict of 1 5 44
inaugurated the Mercantile System which favoured the
foundation of large manufac tures
Th anks t o abundance of capital the resources o f the
Ardennes in the shap e o f water power and timber were more
largely exploited Smelting works increased in this distric t
which G u ic c ia rd in i compared to the shops and blazing forges
o f Vulcan
The collieries of t h e district of Li ege increas ed
their output to supply the needs o f the metal industry Coal
up t o the sixt e enth century had only been used by blacksmiths
and the poor I n the following c entury its employment

,
!

E co n o mi c

'

Mo v emen t and

S o ci a l Ch anges

'

1 17

bec ame more general and the Meus e and its tributaries made
its transport easy The wealth in iron poss essed by the
neighb ouring dis tricts en abled the smiths of Li ege to compete
s ucc essfully with their rivals I n the sixteenth c entury they
inaugurated a new indus try that of rearms and musket
making bec ame the chief indus try o f the city of Li ege Collieries
inc rease d around the old Walloon city near which sheltered or
gathered round it a c rowd of miners and musket makers
Bold e n trep re ne ur: further established in the L o w Countries
a number o f new indus tries At Antwerp Plantin a native
of Touraine es tablished his famous p rinting works in 1 5 5 0 ;
the a rt of cutting dia monds was introduced as well as the
manufacture of glass resembling Venetian glass
Economic activity was still further intensied by the im
p rovemen t o f means of communic ation The pos t the us e
of which had been conned to g o vernment c arriers was
allowed to carry merchants letters and a s ervice of p ub lic
c arriers was org anized The c anal o f Willebroek complete d
i n 1 5 60 j oined Brussels wi th the Rupel and the Scheldt ; in
the s ame way, the Terneuzen Canal in the following year
unite d Ghent with the s ea
Agriculture and the industries dependent on it p roted
from the almos t total abolition of s erfdom ( excep t in the
Ardennes where the rural nobility maintained feudal traditions )
and from the fairer ass essment o f taxation The a rea of culti
land was further increased by r eclaimin g marshland
vat e d
by means of dikes a nd by fu rther disa ff orestation which
p roc eeded for example i n Luxemburg Methods of cultiva
tion improved especially in Flanders where despite the poor
s oil the yield of the c rops excited the admiration o f foreigners
I n the sixteenth c entury th is district was termed the garden
of Europ e The corn trade was the great sourc e of wealth in
c ertain towns , s uc h as G h ent and Douai which were con
,

'

Th e C onso li da ti on wit h

118

B u rgun d y

with the s ea by a navigable river As Flanders partly

depend ed for i t s food supply on f o re ign s o u rc e s war p ro
d u c e d scarcity in Flanders a n d even frequent fami n es
there
All these commercial and industrial changes did n o t occur
witho ut shocks o r dif culties
If they gave birth to a class o f
n o uve a ux ri ch e r the modern b o urg e o isi e they at the same time
vastly increased the numbe rs o f the wage earning class
There aros e a c rowd of ne w wage earners thos e employed in
manufacturing industries who produced articles n o t made by
the old trade associations and wh o were consequently in a
p eculiarly precarious situation
Exclud ed from membershi p
of the corporations they were isolated and at the mercy o f
t heir capitalis t employer o r his agents
Possessing no resou rces
they were at times of economic crisis often reduced to
beggary or vagabondag e
Up to this time begging the scourge o f the later Middle
Ages had h ardly met with any Oppos ition
I t was rather
encouraged by private c harity ; a number o f able bodied
men lived in idleness owing t o the fact that their s ubsistenc e
was assured by charitable institutions which were very numer
ous The cities took t h e initiative in bringing about a reform
o f the granting o f relief
while f o r reasons of police the
government endeavoured to reduce the number of mendicants
b y threatening them with the punishment of the pillory o r o f
ogging As early as the beginning o f the sixteenth c entury
the town magistrates c entrali z ed c h aritable ins titu t ions
established committees for the insp ection o f the poor and
took measures to ensure that the children who were s upported
by c harity should be app renticed to s ome trade
Such
measures were rs t adopted by the magis tracy o f Ypres which
in 1 5 2 5 drew up a s eries of regulations inspired by the ideas
of the great humanist Louis Viv es I n 1 5 3 1 an edict imposed
nec t e d

The C onso li da ti o n with B urgun d y

1 20

bes t exp resses its exuberant vitality and splendid energy The
archi tec ture is really overpowered by the sculp t ure which
itself displayed as tonis hing originality an d wealth Buildings
were overladen wi t h orname nts and statues yet without
losing their elegance and harmony The town halls o f the
period as sumed the aspec t o f real palaces and lost almos t all
resem b lance to the imposing halls and proud towers from which
they were derived The town hall of Brussels and that o f
Louvain built during the rst half of the fteenth century
W ere the rst of the sumptuous edices which were the pride
ma n y Belgian cities ( Mon s Damme Alost Ghent
o f so
O udenarde
Some o f the wealthy burghers built them
selves S plendid p rivate houses such as tha t o f G ruu t h u se at
B ruges The c h urches also display an unheard O f magnicence
and denote an extraordinary boldness o f conc ep tio n At
Antwerp Ghent Malines Louvain and Mons churches of
magnicent proportions were built decorated with stone
t rac e ry an d with fa cade s designed to be completed by towers
o f extraordinary height which could never be nished according
t o their original plan
The internal decoration o f the buildings corresponded with
their rich exterior ; painters sculptors and goldsmiths c o m
p l e t e d the work of the arc hi t e c t s wh o themselves often practis ed
many Of the arts Among the crowd of a rtists the image
maker Claus Sluter of Dutch origin was pre-eminent ; the
sculptures with which he decorated the gateway o f the Char
treux and the Puits des Pro p h et e s at Dij on marked a decisive
breach with all convention and by their imitation of nature
p repared that realistic evolution whi ch led fr om Gothic to
Renaissance art His contemporary Melchior Bro e d e rla m
at the request o f Philip t h e Bold painted f o r the Chartreuse
at Dij on the rst pic tures which made famous the a rtistic school
of the Low Countries That school soon af rmed i t s really
.

'

A rti s ti c

an d

In te ll e ctu a l Fl o weri n gti me

1 21

national charac ter and was distinguished by its sc rupulous

observanc e of nature a nd its p ower o f expression The Flem
ings Hubert and Jan Van Eyck ,and the Walloon Roger de la
Pasture impresse d on thei r cre ations a n intensity o f life and
a poetic fervour which were i ncompa rable Many painters
wer e attached to the duc al court such as J an Van Eyck who
was frequently employed o n delicate missions O thers were
o i c ial p ortrait painters to
important towns Thus Roger
de la Pasture left Tournai his native town to take up under
the na me of Van der Weyden the position of o fcial painter
of the city o f Brussels
Me mling o f Main t z s ettled at
Bruges and in his turn attained eminent ra nk by drawing his
inspiration from the new forms of art which he discovered
there The d ecline of Bruges was an advantage to Antwerp
which from the beginning of the sixteenth century became
the artistic c api tal of the Low Countries I t was there that
a school o f painting arose which aiming at the humanization
of art expressed p rofane emotions as well as the religious
sentiment Quentin Metsys wh o was born at Louv ain was
most noteworthy representative o f this school
He
t he
s ucceeded in uniting a typically southern grace t o his native
qualities rmn e ss of colouring and exact observation o f
na ture
His portraits are indeed strikingly lifelike
Sir
Thomas lVIo re Lord Chancellor of England whose portrait
he p ainted c ould say with j ustice that his works would
be imp erishable
if horri d Mars did n o t triumph over
Minerva
Admiration f o r the a rt of Raphael and Michelangelo
favoured by the spread of humanism attracted very many
a rtists to I taly Jean Gossart of Maubeuge ( died I 5 4 1 ) there
a dopted t he subj ec ts a n d the style of the Southern Renaissanc e
Bernard Van O rley ( died I
imitated the form the theatrical
postures and the m agnic ent s ettings of the Sout h his pup i ls
,

'

C o nso li d a tio n

Th e

1 22

with B nrgnn d y

Michael Co xie
the Flemish Raphael ( 1 499
and
Peter Co u cke of Al ost ( died 1 5 5 0) went beyond him in the
imitation of the Italian masters From this time painting
ceased to be workmanlike as it h ad been in the Middle Ages
it tended to become cultivated this fact appears in the mass
o f savants and littrateurs such as Lambert Lombart of Li ege
wh o wa s a painter o f the Roman school and the
( 1 5 05
famo u s Fra ns Floris or de Vrie n d t ( died I 5 70) at Antwerp who
enj oyed a Europ ean reputation and had a number of pupils
An twerp became a veritable factory of I ta lian paintings
Breu g hel was almost the sole representative o f truly Flemish
art and he did not enj oy the same vogue as his colleagues
who rivalled the epic art of Michelangelo in I taly and who
have settled in Spain 1 France England and Germany
All the plastic arts felt the inuence of the I talian Renais
sance Following o n this strictly individual and rich c reation
o f the architects o f the rst half of the sixteenth century 2
Corneille Floris or de V rie n d t drew inspiration from the
P a l a z z i o f Rome as for instance in t h e c a se of t h e t o wn hall
o f Antwerp
which was built in I 5 6 1 Jacques D u b ro e u c q
o f Mons was both an architect and a sculptor ;
he built in
the same style the sumptuo us p alaces of Mary o f Hungary at
Binche and Mariemont The sculptors went farther than the
architects in this imitation o f the I t alian st yl e by adding t o the
Gothi c buildin gs o f the rst half of the sixteenth century
,

'

'

S vill
e

d e K e mp e n e e re ,

e te r

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Th e

o u rs e a t

t h e W a t e rm e n
at

the
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ru

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e s,

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Lieg

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53 1

at

f th e

ala c e

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B russe ls

oo

f o un d e d

Gh

t h e B ro o d h ui s

(
(a

( 1 52 9 33 )

th e f a ca d e

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en t

an d

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3 5)
b o ut

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sch o o l

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O u d e n a rd e , t h e t o wn h ll

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33
5

f whi ch wa s

a na ,

5 t h e t o wn h a ll

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51 5

a nt

p o r ch

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Th e Co n so li cl uti On with B urg und y

'

'

1 24

also o n ac c o u n t of its rened cultu re its real courtesy I ts

historians such as Mo n st re l e t ( died 1 45 0) an d Ch ast e llain
undertook the task o f celebrating it but a surer
( died
title to fame was supplied by the library created by the dukes
of Burgundy the richest and noblest library in the world
which is now the Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique I n the
time o f Philip the Good it contained
volumes mainly
consisting o f the romances o f chivalry o f the cycles o f Al exander
Charlemagne and Arthur ; accounts o f travel in the East
such as that o f Marco Polo were also found there in large
numbers an indication of the interest aroused by adventurous
and distant j ourneys The dukes of Burgundy further assisted
the sp read of knowled ge by collaborating in the foundation
a nd development o f a national university at Louvain
Established in the chief town of Brabant whic h was situated
in the diocese of Li ege t h is university (or rt ud i um ge neral e
as it was then described) was the produc t of c o operation
between ducal power in the p erson o f John IV ecclesiastical
authority represented by the chap ter of the church o f Saint
Peter at Louvain and communal authority that i s the
magistracy 0f the town The duke in conj unction with the
chapter and magistracy o f Louvain solicited and secured
from Pope M ar tin V authority to establish this foundation
which at rst did n o t contain a faculty of theology
since the pope W as n o t prepared t o deprive t h e University of
Paris o f t h e care of the future theol ogians of the Belgian
provinces There could be no better in d ic ai io n o f the impor
ta nce of the urban element in Belgian national life than the
part taken by the commune of Louvain in the foundation
o f this centre o f higher education within its walls
I t is
instructive t o compare the origin of this university with tha t
of the University of Dole which was born about the same
time
I n its organization t h e Duke of B urgundy and
.

A rti s ti c

In t ell ectu a l Fl o weri n g

an d

time

1 25

the Arc h b ish o p o f B esan con alone took part The University
of Louvain p reserved its triple character down to the time of
i t s supp ression at the end of the eighteenth cent u ry O riginall
y
intended f o r the training o f clerks ( mas ters of arts) j urists
a nd doc tors it was authorized by Pope Eugenius IV to add
a fac ulty of theology
Alike from the ecclesias tical and
fro m the politic al poin t o f view this insti tution tended to
u n ify the Belgia n provinces
Future p relates and legists
were no longer comp elled to pursue their s tudies a t Paris
a t C o l o g n e o r i n some other foreign university
The U n iversity of Louvain assisted to form that aristoc racy
o f intelligenc e which
in the course o f the fteenth century
grew up b eside the aristocracy o f wealth and the aristoc racy
of birth Among the c reators of this new class there gured
also the Brothers of the Common Life who continued to
sp read literary and scientic culture in the ranks o f the laity
They trained pupils such as Thierry Martens the c elebrated
p rinter of Alost and Eras mus the greatest of the humanists
Though essentially aristoc ratic in the sense that it used
a la nguage L atin which s epa rated it from the p eople
humanism exercised a p rofou nd inuenc e o n society It
aspired to e ff ec t a refo rmation o f society on more rational and
more scientic lines Erasmus wished t o bring the wisdom o f
the ancients within the reach o f h is contemporaries t o plac e
the exp erienc e of the p ast at the s ervic e of the p resent o r the
future
The revival o f l e arnin n as in his eyes o n ly a means
for effecting social regeneration He sought to humanize
everything politics religion morality I n order t o realize
his ideal he wished to instruc t and to enlighten the governing
classes who in their turn were to educate the rest His
in which he summarized the wisdom o f
Ad ag i a
a ntiquity had a p rodigious succ ess as did also his P r a is e of
F olly and his Coll o qu i a I n them he employed all the resou rces

C o n so li d ati o n

Th e

1 26

with B urgun dy

of h is biting and sarcastic wit to combat mediaeva l tradition

He declared himself against asceticism against scholasticism
against superstitious practic es he condemned the c elibacy o f
the clergy ; he saw in religious worship nothing but pure
symbolism ;
he a frmed the superiority of life in the world
over life in a cloister The essent ial principles of his proposed
reform were the free development o f individuality so that the
individual might be able to play a useful part in the world
In the appli cation o f these p rin c ip l e s he even decla red hi mself
i n favou r of the abolition o f class di stinctions and the supp re s
sion o f frontiers His writings excited re al enthusiasm but he
early came into conict with the theologians through seeking
to impose upon them historical and philological criticism o f
the Bible The quarrel broke o u t ove r the foundation at
Louvain o f the College o f the Three Languages (Hebrew
Greek Latin)
The university opposed this school f o r
fear that it would become a centre o f here sy Attacked by the
Dominicans and by the Carmelites who discovered heretical
doctrines in his works Erasmus left the university city and took
'
refuge at Basle The hostilit y o f the theologians o f Louvain
towa rds him only c eased when Clement VI I imposed silence
o n them
As for the College of the Three Languages it
continued bu t with the loss of its original cha racter being
conned t o the stud y of philology The ideas o f Erasmus
however were not entirely sti ed in the Netherlands ; the
spirit o f huma nism and tolerance continued to sp read an d thus
favoured indirectly the progress of heresy
From that period the humanists o f the L o w Countries
were almost all orthodox and although still contribu ting
t o the progress o f learning they c eased to play a part in social
progress Classical learning and the sciences ou rished ; side
by side with the philologists such as Cl n ard and D o rp iu s
ap peared the bot anists , Do d o e ns a nd de l Esc lu se , t h e

C o n so li d ati o n with

Th e

1 28

B urg un d y

seeking nobles the greater part o f the c are: we re incapable

o f discharging the duties o f their ministry
Among them were
to be found adventurers and outcasts So their rapacity was
boundless and owing t o the immunities and p rivileges o f the
clergy in general it was diff icult to repress it
The hostility of the public towards religious franchises
manifested itself o n many occasions ; from the end of the
fteenth century chroniclers declared the presence o f e c c l e si
ast ic s in the government an intolerable abuse
for God had
not destined them f o r that
The central power o n its s ide
took measures to restrain ecclesiastical j urisdiction and during
the reign o f Charles V diminished the inu ence o f the clergy
on society by secularizing the organization o f charities
At the same time the Church t o some extent lost her control
over education which became half secular under the inuence
of the Brothers o f the Common Life
Without wishing to break with Catholicism Erasmus
damaged it by the raillery and sarcasm directed against the
monks t h e worship of relics and the c elibacy o f the clergy
His attempts to revive the life o f the Church by means o f
good learning and t o rej uvenate Catholicism by the spread
although his ideas were shared even by
o f knowledge failed
popes and cardinals At all events the religious S pirit either
emancipated itself o r grew weak on the one hand in d ividual
mysticism developed o n the other indiff erence and the masses
o f the p eople lost condence in the clergy and eventually in
the Church herself
The rst symptoms o f the Reformation app ea re d at Antwerp
in 1 5 1 8 a few months after Luther had nailed up his theses at
Wittenberg Lutheran books S pread rapidly in this city
where there was a very large German colony The Augus
t i nian s in conjunction with their German brothers preached
the doctrines o f Luther publicly and obtained enormous
,

,
.

A rti s ti c

and

In tell ectu a l Fl o weri ng

time

1 29

succ ess At rst the government failed to app reciate the

gravity o f the situation The regent Margaret o f Austria
imbued with humanist ideas was rather inclined to sympathize
with the reformers but soon sh e was obliged to adop t a different
attitude owing to the breach between the pop e and Lut her
and the condemnation o f the latter by the emp eror
Charles V in accord with the p apal legate adopted rigorous
measures in order to extirpate heresy in the Bu rgundian
p rovinc e s
The magistrates were obliged to dep rive the
a dherent s o f Luther o f their o f cial positions and to punish
with death as well as conscation no t only thos e disciples
but also any one who withou t the app roval of the ecclesiastical
authorities printed books dealing with religion Everywhere
Lutheran writings were burned and the episcopal inquisition
proceeded with great severity agains t the heretics Never
t h e le ss the new doctrines continued to spread
Charles V
then organized a repressive system modelled as closely as
p ossible upon the Spanish Holy O f ce and es tablished a real
S tate I nquisition P e p e Adrian VI however was unwilling
to aban d on his rights and hims elf nominated the I nquisitor
General
That o f c er p rosecuted two Augustinians o f
Antwerp who were burnt at the s take and were the proto
martyrs of the Reform ation
From this time the new religion was only practised in s ec ret
To destroy it the emp eror redoubled h is s everity The death
p enalty was threatened against all who without being t h e o lo
gians s hould discuss religion ; against all who made and
dis tri b uted pictures insulting God the Virgin o r t he saints
agains t all wh o knowing heretics failed to denounce them
This ferocious legislation intended to supplement the Inquisi
tion s truck terror into the country ; it checked the spread o f
Lutheranism but the disp ersion of the Lutheran congregations
s ec u red adherents for new and far more radical sects whi ch
.

1 83 2

Th e

30

C o n s o li d a ti o n

with

Burgu n d y

soon appeared in the Belgian provinces The doctrines of the

Anabaptists who announced the app roaching end of the world
and the coming of the reign o f Christ made a special app eal
to the masses o f the p eople who made ready to overthrow
Church and State in order to establish a new world the
heavenly city founded upon liberty and j ustice love and
charity
O wing to their revolutionary character thes e
sub verters of the social order wh o made p ros elytes especially
in the indus trial areas me t with Oppos ition fro m Catholics
and Lu therans alike
By new proclamations the government endeavoured to
reach the sec ret press books from which circulated under the
cover of anonymity disguised titles and forged ecclesiastical
impri maturs Charles V established a closer accord b etween
the e ff orts of the Church and Sta te The union of thes e two
a uthorities was denitely regulat ed by a proclamation o f I 5 5 0
which conrmed the penalties announced in previous edicts
and required a c erticate o f Catholicism from every one
settling in the country and at the same time assimilated the
inquisitors t o State functionaries and ordered all public o f cials
to assist them by every means in their power As a result o f
a protest by the city o f Antwerp the emp eror dispensed with
the certicate o f orthodoxy in the case o f foreign merchants
and exempted the great commercial city from the direct control
o f his agents
The spread o f heresy was undoubtedly re t arded
by this regim e of terror But about 1 5 43 a new and more
dangerous doctrine effected its entry into the L o w Cou ntries
Calvinism which claimed to reform the State and to sub
ordinate i t entirely to the Church assumed from the beginning
a revolutionary character I t s radicalism early enabled it
to absorb in those provinces the other Protestant confessions
Calvinism really involved the subordination o f lay to e c c le si
ast ic al authorit y b y i t s claim to brin g the Sta t e u nder divine
.

5
Th e
i

R e v o l t a g a in s t

The Refo r m:

Span i sh
a nd

P hil ip I !

t he

Ru l e

( 5 5 5 98 )

Opp osi ti on

Gr a nvelle

to

accession o f Phi lip I I makes a tragic moment in the

history of the Belgian p rovinces I t occurred in solemn
circumstances the solemnity of which is increased if all the sad
era which they inaugura t ed be considered O n O ctober 2 6
1 5 5 5 before the assembled S tates General Charles V publicly
handed over his authority to hi s so n In the farewell a ddress
which he delivered to t h e delegates of the provinces the
emperor recalled the aff ection which they ha d constantly
displayed towards him and exhorted them to maintain their
unity t o defend the right and to combat heresy He was
unable to master h is emotion when he reached the point o f
declaring it to be h is duty to part f o r ever from such devoted
vassals and the audience was deeply moved although it was
noted with displeasure that Charles addressed h is so n in Spanish
that Philip s few words were spoken in the same tongue and
that it was a native o f Franche Comt G ranv e lle Bishop of
Arras who spoke on behalf o f the new ruler Ostensibly
Phi lip s ac cession eff ected no change in the government of
the Netherlands He swore to observe faithfully the privileges
of the various provinces and conrmed all ofc ials in their
charges If he caus ed G ranv e lle to enter the Council of State
he was careful to summon to it also t h e young nobles whom his
father had indicated t o him among whom were the Prince of
O range and Count Egmont As a matter of fact he really
re volutionized the political system by perverting the machinery
TH E

R ef o rms of

Th e

Ph ilip II

1 33

of e xis ting ins titutions and from the very rs t he devoted

hims elf to a reform of the govern ment in an absolutis t s ens e
According to his view every one should b end b efore h is will
Even while he was s till resident at Brussels he displayed h is
great dis trus t for the hi gher nobility and hardly co nsulted a ny
o n e outside hi s Castilian retinue
O range and Egmont soon
realized that their admission to the Council of State was only
a matter of form Phi lip caused the p roclamatio ns agains t
heretics to be rigorously enforced and authorized the Society
of Jesus to establish communities in the Low C ountries without
c onsulting even the most orthodox o f h is Belgian advisers
His sole aim was the res toration o f religious unity by the
extermination o f thos e wh o threatened at once the Catholic
faith and the maj esty o f the Crown He made hims e lf p eculi arly
unpopula r by maintaining in the c ountry a large number of
Spanis h s oldiers whos e p ride and insolenc e caus ed them to be as
much hated as they were feared for their courage I t is true that
he made use o f them i n 1 5 5 7 in the campaign which he under
took agains t France but this new war caus ed lively disconte nt
i n the Belgian p rovinces owing to the exac ti ons t o which it
gave rise They showe d thems e lves recalcitrant being unwilling
to bea r the burden o f a war which did not concern them
In the very year o f the victory o f Saint Quentin
gained by Egmont Philip I I found himself o n the verge of
bankrup tcy and was compelled to require further sacrices
The S tates General boldly formulated their complaints and
showed a wish to se e the custody o f fortresses committed
to the nobles of the land and t o have two thirds of the army
c ompos ed of native tr 00ps Two years later they demanded
from Philip I I a t the moment o f his dep arture f o r Sp ai n
the dismiss al of the foreign soldiery who remained in t h e
cou ntry despite the conclusion of peace with France and t h e
conduct of the government by natives The king who was
,

Th e

34

R ev o l t a g a i n s t

Spa n i sh

Ru l e

o ff ended at these demands promised to recall the Spanish

troops but delayed to d o so
The absence of the sovereign caused the changes which he had
surreptitiously introduced into the political organiz ation o f the
country to appear more clearly Philip had instructed the
regent Margaret o f Parma to have recourse o n all important
matters t o the advice o f a c onsul ta o f three members G ran v e lle
Bishop o f Arras Vigliu s and Berlaimont all o f whom were
s ervilely devoted to the Crown I n reality G ranv e lle directed
the whole administration under the inspiration o f Phil ip II
A native of Franche Comt he had n o real fatherland ; h is
delity t o the king took with him the plac e o f patriotism
I nsatiable in h is love of o i c e s and greedy of power he served
the caus e o f absolutism from principle as well as from interes t
himself neither fanatical nor violent nor c ruel he obeyed
blindly his master s orders Despite his diplomatic talent he
could not conceal his dislike f o r the liberties o f the Low
Countries and more es p ecially for the privileges o f that high
nobility the members o f which despised him as a parvenu
The extraordinary luxury which he displayed f o r example
in his sumptuous villa of La Fontaine near Brussels is further
an indication o f his vanity Ere long the Prince of O range
wh o was then Governor o f Holland and Zealand and the Count
of Egmont Governor of Flanders and Artois gathered all the
nobility arou nd them in opposition t o G ranv e ll e the i nst ru
ment of the tyranny o f the prince
Educated like mos t o f
the nobles of this period by the humanists they did not share
in Philip s hatred against heretics least of all was that hatred
shared by O range who was himself the son o f a Lutheran
although he had been educated in the Catholic religion at
the court of Charles V The nobles demanded the withdrawal
of the Spanish troops and aroused so vigorous an agitation
on this question that the king eventually granted their demand
,

Th e

36

ii

Rev o lt

Dis turba nce: wi t h

i t

a ga n s

reg ar d t o

th e

Span i sh

Calvini rm

an

Rule
d

t he

Co mp ro mise

No hle r

Far from solving the c risis this concession only s erved to

aggravate it Revolutionary symp toms made their appear
ance more especially in the centres of heresy Lille Tou rnai and
Valenciennes and in th e ports o f Holland and Zealand where
Calvinism had made p rogress during t h e p re c e ding twenty
years Antwerp owing to it s large foreign colony which
included a number o f English merchants became the rallying
point of all the Calvinistic congregations Among them were
included many nobles and many merchants but the main
body of the Calvinists was drawn from the poorer class the
wage earners who were converted t o this creed in the hop e
of bettering their lo t
Despite the express orde rs of Philip II the magistrates in
general did not dare to take severe meas ures agains t the thou
sands o f Calvinists The repression of heresy roused open
resistance ; at Valencienn es the mob releas ed t wo heretics
who were condemned to the stake
Troops s ent by
the regent however p revented preaching and dispersed the
reformers who were obliged to g o into hiding o r t o take t o
ight Repression now became everywhere more rigorous
in order t o impress that evil beas t called the people to use
G ran v e lle s phrase Seeing the disasters caus ed by the enforce
ment o f the proclamations O range Egmont and Hoorn
advocated their more lenient application and the maj ority
of the Catholic s shared this point of V iew
The Council of State s ent Count Egmont to Philip I I to
s uggest t o him not only a modication of the proclamations
b ut also the nationalization of the government by increasing
the share of the Council of S tate and the S tates General in it
The victor of Saint Quentin was received with a great show
,

D is tu rba n ces

with

re ard

to

C a l v i n i sm

37

of resp ec t b ut did not s ecure the slightes t co n cession ; the ki n g

even declared in h is letters tha t he would ra ther sacrice
a
hundred thousand lives than give way on the religious
ques tion
Like the Hugu enots in Franc e the Calvinists soon e stablished
i n the Low Cou ntries an active and energetic party under the
leadership of such m en as John de Ma rn ix and his b rother
Philip the bitter polemical writer who later wrote the Ta bl e a u
d e r d iere nd r d e l a re l ig i o n and the Bye n co rf
They availed
themselves skilfully of the discontent aroused by the rec ent
failure o f Egmont in order to attract the maj ority of the
opposition the chief of whom were the nobles both Catholic
and Protestant During the su mmer of t h e year 1 5 65 secret
conferenc es held at Spa p repared the way for the formation
of a leagu e analogous to the confe d eration o f the Hugu enots
in Franc e which inclu ded almost the whole nobility The
p rogramme of the party was ably drawn up by Gilles Le
Clercq a lawyer of Tou rnai it included a p romise on oath t o
prevent the maintenanc e o f the Inquisition without doing
anything which woul d tend to the dishonou r of God and the
king
Margaret of Parma was ready to follow the advice of
G ran v e l le who p reached the necessity o f a struggle agains t
these men of wa r ( the nobles com manded the militia bands)
who armed themselves against the Church and j ustice
thus threatening the overthrow o f the State But what could
s h e do against those who in ac tual fac t controlled the arme d
forc e E She was obliged even to submit to receive a deputation
from the noble company who p resented to her in the
p alac e at Bruss els a p etition suggested by the Prince o f O range
She p romised to transmit this p etition to the king
and to moderat e provisionally the proclamations relating
to the rep ression of heresy O n the evening o f the day o f this
audience the nobles wearing as badges wallets and small
,

1
'

Rev o l t

Th e

38

i t

R u le

S pa n i sh

a ga n s

bowls like the mendicants and beggars no doubt an allusion

to the misery produced in the country by the king s measures
met together at a banquet where the c ry Long live the
b eggars was heard f o r the rst time This was the rallying
cr
y o f all the malcontents but i t was n o t understood in the
same sense by all who used it Some were political beggars
Spanish tyranny ;
a n d aime d only at the abolition of the
others were religious beggars and were esp ecially opposed
to that which they called the Roman idolatry
The second o f these two p arties secured the ascendancy
and was early able t o divert the revolution into a religious
channel The success o f the Compromise emboldened the
Calvinists wh o imagined that f o r the future their religion
would be tolerated Calvinistic merchants off ered the funds
necessary f o r hiring mercenaries in order that the leagu e of
nobles might Oppose force to force So irresistible was the tide
of revolution that the o ff er was acc epted
Bands of iconoclasts suddenly appeared in the industrial
districts of southern Flanders (Au gust
The churches
were sacked by bands of zealous Calvinists swollen by a mo b
of unemployed who were very numero u s as a result o f the
extreme scarcity o f this year The movement spread like a train
o f po wder ;
it infected Ypres O udenarde Antwerp Ghent
and Tou rnai an d S pread into the north o f Zealand Holland
and Friesland These troubles b roke o u t so suddenly that the
authorities were nowhere ab le t o check them But a reaction
followed and produced the formation among the Catholics
of a p art y o f anti b eggars The regent presently demanded
from the of cials a new oath of ab solute fealty to the
sovereign Egmont consented t o take it but O range and Hoorn
ref used With the assistance o f regiments raised in Germany
the regent expelled the Calvinist pastors and established garri
sons in Tournai and Valenciennes ; everywhere the small

R e v o l t a gai n s t

Th e

1 40

Spa n is h

Ru l e

Troubles and was christened by the people the Tribunal o f

Blood merely pronounced the s entences dictated by the duke
or his creatures Wholes ale executions took plac e at Brussels
and the duke ac quired a vast fortune from the conscation of
At this time also
t h e property o f those wh o were condem n ed
Alva had a citadel constructed at An t v rp which was intended
to overawe the commercial metropolis ordered the young
Count of Buren so n of the Princ e o f O range t o b e sent
prisoner to Spain despite the protests o f the University Of
Louvain whose privileges were thus violated ; and he also took
energetic measures t o check the emigration resulting from the
reign of terror He s ent to the sca ff old many signatories o f
the C ompromise of the Nobles But the event which esp ecially
struck terror into the p eople was the execution o f Egmont and
Hoorn The Council o f Troubles declared them guilty of
high treason and condemned them t o death although as
members of the O rder of the Golden Fleece they were not
liable to be tried except by that order They were b eheaded in
the M arket Square O f Brussels on June 5 1 5 68 in the presence
of a strong military force As f o r Montigny the brother of
the Count o f Hoorn nothing more was heard of hi m ; he was
secretly strangled in his cell at Simanca s and this drama
carefully concealed remained u nk nown until the hist o rical
discoveries of o u r own time
The Prince of O rang e who had raised an army in Germany
was held in check by the skilful strategy o f the Duke of Alva
wh o commanded superior forces much better armed and
organized Louis o f Nassau brother of O range after gaining
a victory at Heiligerlee in Friesland su ff ered a terrible defeat
at Jemgum To celebrate this succ ess the duke caused h is o wn
statue to b e se t up in the cit adel of Antwerp he was depicted
as taming rebellion
By order of Philip I I he then proclaimed a general pardon
,

Th e D u ke

f A lva

an d

th e

Pri n ce of Ora n ge

1 41

which contai n ed it is t ru e many excep tions and was to come

i nto forc e only when the whole work o f vengeance was c o m
He then devoted hims el f to a task whi ch he confessed
ple t e d
to b e extraor d inarily dif c u l t the s uppression as he pu t it
of
cu sto ms rooted in a p eople a s free as this on e h as always
b een
He wished to make everything Sp anish and esp ecially
to i nt rodu c e the system o f taxation which p revailed in Spain 5
the hu ndredth p enny o n all prope rty p ersonal and real
the twentieth o n the sale of real property and the tenth o n
the sale o f p ersonal p rop erty He thu s b u rdened the B elgians
with heavy charges intended to pay the army which held them
u nder the yoke
Indu stry and commerc e soo n completely
c eased ; merchants emigrated and work generally stopp ed in
the i n dustrial districts The levy o f the tenth met with an
ob stinate resist ance whi ch i n tu rn produced forced sales and
military executions fo llowed b y heart -rending scenes in many
town s i n the poorer quarters
News s u ddenly came (April I 1 572) o f the captu re o f Brill
by the Sea B eggars who had for some tim e found an asylum
i n England and this blow was the p relu de to a general rising
i n the north A crowd of refugees retu rn ed and the Prince o f
O range availed hi ms el f o f the naval inferiority o f the Spa ni ards
to su pport the S ea B eggars who soon b ecame masters of the
river mou ths The cap tu re of Flu shing amongst other places
gave them the key o f Antwerp I n the south of the country
Mons was surprised by Louis o f Nassau and many towns in
B rabant an d Flanders fell into the hands o f the Princ e o f
O range Disconc erted by the success of the rebels the Duke
of Al va could o nl y recover Mons after a fou r months siege
that is after the massacre of Saint Bartholomew (August 24
which deprived the i nsurgents i n the Lo w Countries
of the help of the Hugu enots The s econd campaign of O range
then failed as pitifully as his rst The repression was terrible
,

'

Th e

1 42

Revo lt

i t

Spa n i s h

a ga n s

Ru l e

Malines and other towns were given up to be sacked by Spanish

soldiery even the churches and monasteries were not spared
But Holland and Zealand easily provisioned by the sea and the
rivers and secretly favoured by the Queen o f England made
head against the Sp aniards
Discouraged by these reverses and more and more embarrassed
by lack of money the king nally recalled the Duke of Al va
Some m o nths befo re the bishops had begged
( O ctober I
for his recall and p ro t e it e d against the cruelty of the governor ;
war sho uld b e made they had written if not in a holy at
least in a Christian manner
The king replaced the Duke
o f Alva b y Don Louis de Requ esens Governor o f Milan who
had commanded the galleys at the battle o f Lepanto
.

f Ghe nt
The new governor had b e en instructed t o abandon the
rep ressive system which had b een in force hitherto : b u t he
had also strict orders to act in accord with the duke and was
persuaded b y him to lay aside gentleness and clemency an d
to rely upon arms alone
Requesens was soon as u npopular
as his predecessor had been and when he attempted t o enter
into negotiations with the rebels it was t o o late
Despite the victory gained by the Spaniards over the forces
o f Louis and Henry o f Nassau at Mook near Nim e u e n
the
g
revolution triumphed in Zealand and in Holland in the
latter of which the sie g e o f Leyden made little progress
Requesens announced the abolition o f the Cou ncil o f Troubles
as well as o f the tenth and twentieth p enny The S tates
General regarded this as a sign o f weakness and demanded
the removal o f the foreign tr00ps who ravaged the cou ntry
and treated the inhabitants like slaves
The reb ellion soon made new and rapid p rogress The
Spanish army b lockadin g Leyden was surp rised by t h e waters
iv

Su cce::e: of

t he

th e

Re be l:

P a eic a ti o n

R e v o l t a ga i n s t

Th e

1 44

S pa n i s h

Rul e

States of the other provinces to unite with them in deanc e

of the prerogatives of the sovereign The States General
substituted themselves for the king by forming a real congress
They sent to Philip I I
o f the whole o f the Low Countries
a letter protesting their loyalty but expressing their determina
tion to put an end by their o wn action to the su ff erings which
the land had endu red since the coming o f the Duke o f Alva
and demanding the withdrawal o f the Spanish soldiers The
troops of the States General exp elled the Spanish garrisons
who however collected again at Antwerp and completely
sacked that city The Spanish Fury served t o hasten the
conclusion o f the famous treaty known as the P ac ic at io n o f
Ghent
This act established an accord b etween the
States General and the States o f Holland and of Zealand with
the obj ect o f freeing the country from the foreign yoke It
left the religious question in suspens e stipulating that the
States General should ult imately regulate the exercise of
religion but the States of Holland and o f Zealand secured that
the reformed religion should remain provisionally the only form
These t wo provinc es
o f worship authorized in their provinc es
formed a Species of state within the State a S p ecial political
community under the direction of the Princ e o f O range wh o
had been raised in r5 72 t o the position o f Sta dtholder
Philip II had designed his natural brother Don John the
victor o f Lepanto as the successor Of Requesens with the
mission o f repairing the dis astrous work o f his two predecessors
He had advised him to restore the system of Charles V and to
make every possible concession provided that the Catholic
religion and the royal supremacy were maintained intact
Immediately upon h is arrival which coincided with the
publication o f the P ac ic at io n of Ghent Dori John declared
himself ready to negotiate ; some months later he signed the
edict o f Marche appro ving the P ac ic at io n and promising
-

S u ccess es of

th e

R e bel s

1 45

the departu re of the Spanish troops within twenty days

But by the sam e edic t he reserved the exclusive maintenanc e
of the Catholic religion in consequ ence o f which Holland and
Zealand were unable to acc ep t it
The Prince o f O range soon began an active prop aganda
agains t Don John and this propaganda Wa s so successful
that ma ny even o f the Catholics became suspicious of
t he intentions of the governor
Finally when Don John
discovered that men in the pay o f the Princ e o f O rang e
were proposing to s eize h is p erson he retired hurriedly
to Namur seized the citadel of that town by surp rise and
recalled the Spa nish regiments who had left the count ry
O n their side the States by bribing part of the Walloon com
p ani e s quartered in the citadel of Antwerp succeeded in making
themselves masters Of tha t place the most important in the
country They summoned the Princ e O f O range t o Bru ss e lS
a nd he made hi s entry into the great Braban con city o n S eptem
b er 3 1 5 77 in the midst o f indescribable enthusiasm and was
p roclaimed r uwae rt o r regent o f Brabant He immediately
declared Don John an enemy o f the country and O ff ered the
government to the brother of the Emp eror Rudolf I I the
Archduke Matthias who recognized the Princ e Of O range
as h is lieutenant This was the triumph of the O range party
but at the very moment signs of division appeared ; the
Calvinists showed thems elves aggressive and monopoli z ed
commu nal Of ces a t B russ els Ghent and other t o wns while
many o f the Catholics feared the ascendancy acquired by the
P rinc e o f O r ange a nd were unable to forgive him f o r his
religious toleranc e
.

72

Th e Se ce::i on
.

I n the cou rs e o f the year 1 5 78 the federation o f the Belgic

p rovinc es or federated Belgium as it is describ ed in a numb er
b roke u p amid inc redible
o f medals struck at this p eriod
,

Th e

1 46

Re v o lt aga i n s t

S pan i s h

Ru l e

narchy As often occurs du ring revoluti ons the moderates

were ove rwhelmed by the extremists The hottest Calvinists
committed numerous excesses and p ersecuted n o t only the
Catholic s but also the Lutherans and such o f their own
lukewarm Pastor
as they regarded as t o o
c o religioni sts
D at h e nu s preached at Ghent against the Princ e of O range
whom he describ ed as Antichrist At Brussel s the Calvinists
S eized the magistracies o f t h e city in order to e stablish their
system o f a theocratic republic The Calvinists o f Ghent
followed this example and imprisoned the Duke o f Aerschot
Governor o f Flanders as wel l as the bishops of B ruges and
Ypres and various prominent Catholics The States General
by their protests could only succeed in sec u ring the releas e of
Aerschot Bruges was surprised by a body o f Calvinists from
Ghent and in it s turn fell under the control of the theoc ratic
demagogy Many other towns su ff ered t h e same fate and
experie nced at the hands of the Calvinists a veritable reign
of
terror ; p riests and monk s were maltreated churches
were closed or converted to other us es convents were
sacked
The fury o f these extremists grew still hi gher after the
victory gained at Gembloux by Don John over th e army o f the
States General (Janua ry 3 1
These excesses produced
a violent reaction ; in Artois and in Hainault the Catholics
formed the party o f the Malcontents which fou nd many
a d herents among the nobi lity They ref used to subscrib e to
the reli gious p eace procla imed by the States General and
the result Of a suggestion made by t h e Prince o f O range
O range preached religious toleration as a means of avoiding
civil war and o f s ecuring the expulsion of the common enemy
He would have left t o a council o f Catholics and Protestants
the regulation o f the religious question which the Pac ic at io n
o f Gh e n t h ad reserv ed to the States -General
Hi s religiou s
a

'

Re v o lt a ga in st

Th e

I 48

Spa n i sh

Ru l e

necessary to expel the c ru el tyrant and common enemy o f

all the Belgic ra ce
O n their side the Protestant p rovinc es
t
Holland
Zealand
Gu
elders
U
recht and Groningen) to
(
which the Calvinistic town s o f Flanders and Brabant soon
j oined themselves concluded shortl y afterwards the Union
This treaty p reserved in the case o f the
o f Utrec h t
prov inces o f Holl and and Zealand the excep tional settlement
o f the religious qu e stion which had b een esta blished by the
Pac ic at io n of Ghent and introduced the religious peace
into the other provinc es The di vision b etween the re vo lu
t io n ary parties was completed
W hen Farnese sub mi tted t o the king h is scheme for an
alliance with the signatories o f the Union of Arras he suggested
that it would b e possible to render harmless those clauses
which were contrary to the Pac ic a t io n of Ghent by the
method of interpreting them The agreement was concluded
in May 1 5 79 Farnese under its terms consented t o withdraw
the Spanish troops but did no t full his promis e until March
in the following year He made us e o f those troops t o capture
Maastricht which s u rren dered after a long siege I mmediately
after the fall of that city Malines and Bois l e Duc declared in
h is favou r
Calvinism however triumphed denitely in the north and
the Prince of O range was thus led to abandon the full appli ca
tion of the religious peace
He b egan at the same ti me to
practise C alvi nism in plac e o f Lutherism t o whi ch he had
b een earlier converted I t was then that Phi lip I I o n the
advice Of G ranv e lle se t a pric e o n h is head designating him
the sole chief author and promoter o f the troubles
as
The Silent O ne answered this indictment to mu rder by an
Apology in the shap e o f a letter to the S tates General
I t is a n eloqu ent and passionate plea in favour o f the sovereignty
of the nation represented by that assembly The princ e

'

Th e S ec ess i o n

r49

declared his readiness to die for his country : If you think

he told the States General that my death will serve you
I a m ready to Ob ey you
Here is my head over which no
p rinc e or monarch h as power but only you He thus deni ed
the legitim acy of royal authority and opposed to it the
authority of the nation
I n o rder to ca rry on t h e struggle against Philip I I he
s ought the h elp o f Queen Eli zab eth o f England but obtained
only indirect support Thanks to her however he succeeded
i n secu ring the allianc e of the Duke of Anj ou He was obliged
to employ all his diplomatic skill t o convince the S tates General
Of the need fo r recognizing the French duke as p rince O f the
L o w Countries in order to assu re the military c o Op eration Of
France O n July 2 6 1 5 8 1 the S tates General ass embled a t
the Hagu e solemnly p roclaimed the deposition of Philip I I
thu s a ffi rm ing the sovereignty of the people
Meanwhi le F a rnese prepared to resume the attack on the
Protestant p rovinces He s o successfully won the condenc e
of the p acied p arty that he p ersu aded them to ask f o r the
retu rn of the Sp anish tro op s He captured Tournai ( Novemb er
1 5 8 1 ) and granted esp ecially moderate terms to that city
Abandoning the policy of s triking terror which h is predec essors
ha d p r actised he allowed the Princess d Ep in o y who had
heroically defended th e city to retire with the honours of
wa r ; he granted a complete amnesty to the burghers and
authorized the Protestants to leave the place after selling their
p rop erty or even to reside there whi le p ractising their religion
only in p rivate He treated other t o wn s in a similar manner
a nd this moderation s ecu red him the symp athy of many
As for the Duke of Anj ou he came to take possession of the
Netherlands but withou t a su i c ie n t forc e to check the
p rogress of Farnese Dissatised with the restrictions placed
o n his authority he planned to overthrow the sup remacy of t h e
-

Re v o l t a g ai n s t

Th e

150

Spa n i sh

Ru l e

His troops suddenly

S tates General by a su dden S troke
occupied Antwerp the burghers o f the plac e drove them o u t
after a terrible battle in the stre ets a n d t h e pitiable r e sult of
this French Fury forced it s originator to retire to France
beaten and ashamed
During this time the Operations of Farnese methodically
progress ed At the b eginning Of the year 1 5 8 3 he continu ed
his siege warfare ; he blockaded the various places which had
in the course of t h etroubles fortied themselves in the Hu g u e
not fashio n that is by earthworks and reduced them by
famine Du nk irk Ypres Bruges and the m
aj ority o f the
smaller towns in Flanders capitulated in this year Ghent fell
the following year some weeks after the a ssassma t i o n Of the
Prince o f O range by Balthazar Gerard at Delft ( I
Brussels
exhausted by hunger capitulated at the beginning of 1 5 8 5
which year was also marked by the fall o f Antwerp That last
bulwark of the southern provinces defended by Marnix de
Sainte Al degonde was blockaded in its turn after the Italian
engineers O f Farnese had barred the ri ver below the city by
means of a boom thrown across it failing to secure any fresh
supplies the town could not escap e famine and the men
of Holland and Zealand were unable to assist it by breaking the
blockade It s capitulation took place o n August 1 7 1 5 8 5
Farnese had revived the prestige of the Spanish arms
He was unable however to accomplish the more di f cult
part of his work the conquest o f the mouths of the Scheldt
Meuse and Rhine the last refuges of the Reformation and of the
republic
He achieved some further successes capturing
Sluys (L Ec lu se ) amongst other places bu t he was diverted
from the pursuit of h is aims by Philip I I himself who comp elled
him to c o Operate in the famous expedition o f the I nvincible
Armada against England and then after the lamentab le failure
of that undertaking to take part in the war in Franc e against
-

,
,

Th e

152

Revo lt

i t

a ga n s

Spa n i sh

Ru l e

inhabitants Louvain an e specially loyal city which had

inhabitants at the beginning of the sixteenth c entury had
n o more than
at it s end But to material ruin and social
d isorder intellectual decay was added
The University o f
Louvain was only the shadow o f its former s elf This once
ourishing place Of education which had contained some
students ( Erasmus gave it even
had seen i t s scholars
dispersed and its professors reduced t o such straits that Pope
Gregory XIII s ent them nancial help
Philip I I had foreseen these d isasf e rs In I 5 66 he had
written t o his ambassador at the Holy S ee asking him t o tell
the pop e that if he found hi mself obliged to us e force it
would involve the utter destruction of this c ountry
But
he added that he would resolve on that rather than b e in
thought or will a lord o f heretics
.

C a th o li c R en a i ss an ce ( 1 5 9 8

Th e

71 3 )

The Hi:p o na- B e lg i a n Reg i me

TH E

personal u nion whi ch existed between B elgiu m and

Spain down to the beginni ng o f the eig hteenth century h as
long been misu nderstood I t h as been supposed that it
involved the complete su bordi nation of the former to the latter
the total absorption o f the B el gian lands in the dominions of
the Sp aish Habsbu rgs The p eriod du ring which thi s personal
union lasted h as accordingly been termed that o f the Spanish
rgime and even that of the Spanish domination I n reality
Belgium shared the destiny o f Spain only with rega rd to
foreign relations whi le preserving her own individuality and
her nationa l institutions She enj oyed therefore a sort of
semi indep endenc e
The succ essors o f Philip I I n ever attempted to assimilate
B elgiu m e nt ire ly t o the rest o f their monarchy they reigned
in the B el gian principalities as the loc al sovereign Of each o n e
While
o f them
( Duke o f B rabant Count of Flanders
aiming a t making their rule more and more absolute in practice
they never attempted to abolish the traditional rights o f the
count ry where the S pirit o f s elfgovernment had so s trongly
developed I n opposition to the growi ng power Of the princ e
based on divine right the cou ntry always claimed the ancient
franchis e liber t y and s overeign t y of the nation A c o m
promis e was thus established a S pecies o f mixed government
which whi le tending always towards pu re monarchy p ermitted
a c ertain number of local and p rovincial priv il ege s to survive
I f the c ontinued p resenc e of the Spanish troops gave Belgiu m
.

'

Th e

r5 4

C a th o li c R en aissa n ce

the appearanc e o f a camp the country yet nev e r had to submit

The kings o f Spain were content
t o a military govern ment
t o be able to use the territory as a base o f Operations in c ase
The act o f cession t o
o f war against the n e ig h b o u rin g st a t e s
the Archdukes Albert and Isabella formally reserved to the
King of Spain the citadels o f the most important places
Antwerp Ghent and Cambrai and some other fortresses
The King of Spain f ulrt h e r retained the ultimate authority
over the government o f the Belgian provinces ; the sam e act
p rovided that the eventual successors o f the archdukes migh t
not contract marriage without the a uthorization of the king
and that in default of issue the Low Countries should revert
t o Spain
As early a s 1 6 1 6 Philip I I I caused hims elf to b e
recognized as sovereign by the provinces
The archdukes ( 1 5 9 8
and the governors who succeeded
them were mere instruments in the hands of the kings o f
Spain and they often had at their side as secreta ry of state
o r o f war royal agents o f Spanish nationality
who really
directed the general course o f their policy The nobles were
excluded from the collateral councils and were replaced by
the magistrates who were far more tractable and were inspired
by the principles of absolutism preached by the regius pro
f e sso rs o f the University o f Louvain
Despite the servility o f the lesser councils the governors in
many cases abstained from consulting them and entrusted the
control o f important a ff airs to special or j oint commissions
which were mainly composed o f foreigners
Even the Council of State ceased t o be summoned and the
knights of the Golden Fleece lost all collective inuenc e The
result was lively discontent among the chief o f the nobility
which produced in 1 6 3 2 3 an actual conspiracy agains t the
government The conspiracy was led by Co u nt Henry de
Bergh who hoped to produce a national movement analogous
,

Ren ai ssan ce

'

Th e Cath o h c

156

to have control over t h e collective a ffairs of the ir

resp e c tive provinces su c h as t he repair and constru ction of
dikes and bridges the making of c an al s and other p ublic wo rks
Municipal S pirit remained particularly ac tive above all in
Brabant I n the towns of that province which h ad preserved
their mediaeva l constitution better than their Flemish sisters
had done a new governing class grewup claiming to descend
from that o f the Middle Ag es and perpetuated the ancient
such as taking arms at the appeal o f
c o m rriu n a l traditions
the magistrate either to prevent disturbances o r to increase
the pomp of religious ceremonies o r local f t e s But the
government intervened more in the election of magistrates
and caused them to be supervised by it s commissaries I t
did n o t however attempt to combat the parochial spirit and
the exclusiveness o f the towns in economic matters I t was
above all the corporations of artisans that maintained this
exclusive system by asserting their ancient privilege s and
monopolies But some magistrates made away with the charters
of corporate privileges the magistracy o f Brussels hid a larg e
numb e r in a tower where they were found again at t h e end
o f the seventeenth century whe n the tower was half destro ed
y
during the bombardment of the city by Villeroy
t in u e d

ii

Te rri t or i al Dis me mbe rme nt

The policy o f Spain was fatal to Belgi u m I t involved her

in a series of disastrou s wars no t only against the United
Provinces but also against France By the Peac e o f Ve rvins
( 1 5 9 8) Phi lip I I had attempted to s eparat e F ranc e and
Holland but Henry IV continued to render s ecret support
to his ally Maurice of Nassau invaded Flanders in 1 600 and
gained a victory over t h e Archduk e Al bert at Ni e uport
b u t was unable t o follow up h is succ e ss To ant ic i a t e a f u rth e r
p
n vasio n Albert attempt e d t o c apture O stend in t h e following
.

C ath o li c Ren ai ssan ce

Th e

1 58

yea r t h e D u tch eet so effectually revict u alled the place that

due
it hel d out for three years The capture o f O stend
t o Ambrose Sp inola sent by King Philip I II to command the
Spanish troops was soon counterbalanced by the loss of Sluys
Spinola then took the off ensive but secured n o decisive succ ess
and in 1 609 a twelve years truce was concluded recognizing
the independ enc e of the United Provinc es and maintaining
the closing of the Scheldt
At the expiration o f this truce Spinola rendered more
great services t o the Catholic king He c aptured B reda ( I 6 2
b ut the nances o f Spain depleted b y military expenses did
After t h e recall o f
n o t allow him to continu e the o ff ensive
that eminent general Bois l e Du c and Maastricht fell into
the hands o f the Dutch
The allianc e concluded in 1 63 5 between France and the
United P rovinces led to new disasters f o r Belgium After
having attempted to provoke a risi ng o f the Belgian nobles
the allies agreed o n the partition of the conq u es ts whi ch
were to be made in Belgium and o n the conversi on o f the
remains o f that country into a barrier state this in order to
prevent conicts between themselves
The Cardinal I nfant Don F erdinand brother o f Philip IV
at rst offered a vigorous opposition but later lost Breda
Arras La Bass ee and Bap au me The defeat o f h is successor
Don Francisco de Melo at Ro c ro y
wo u ld hav e been
a catastrophe if the United Provinces o n their side had
followed i t up with vigo u r Their inaction was the outcome
of the fact that they had n o wish to extend their conqu ests
The capture o f Dunkirk by the F rench ( 1 64 6) led them to
fear French competition in the waters o f the North S ea
Consequently when the Congress of Munster Op ened the
D u tch delegates came to a speedy arrangement with t h e
ambassadors of Spain
.

C ath o li c Ren ai ss an ce

Th e

1 60

and Av esnes ( that is the we stern pa rt of Hainault) Marie m

bourg and Philippeville ( t wo fortresses built at the close of
the reign o f Charles V in territories detached from the princi
the
e
Thionville
and
s
ev
ral
other
places
in
o f Li ege)
al it
y
p
duchy of Luxemburg From this time Louis XIV held the
keys o f the country the whole of which he p roposed to annex
By the same treaty of the Pyrenees he obtained the hand of
The b rid e
h is cousin Maria Theresa daughter of Philip IV
gold crowns in consideration
wa s to receive a dowry of
o f which she renounced all rights to her fath er s succession
The rep u blic of the United Provinces feared the aggressive
policy of the French king and the Grand Pensionary John
de Witt reverted to t h e idea o f Richelieu the c reation o f
a bu ff er state b etween the t wo rival powers with a view to
preventing any dangerous friction and a rectication of
frontiers for their b enet the state would have b een deprived
o f all her se a coast since Nieuport would have passed to France
and O stend to the United Provinces Louis XIV rej ected
this scheme and on the death of Philip IV ( I 667) without
a declaration o f war sinc e he was ostensibly only taking posses
sion o f his own property o rd e re d T u re nn e s tr00ps t o occupy
many places in maritime Flanders and later a whole s eries of
towns in the interior Alarmed at this new advance England
and the Un ited Provinces then at war made p eac e with each
other and off ered Louis favourable terms o f s ettlement t he
annexation o f a network of strong places in Belgium distributed
in a wide semicircle from Furnes to Charleroi and including
Oudenarde Binche and Ath which threatened respectively
Ghent Mons and Brussels The Congress of Aix la Chap elle
( I 668) presided over by the Nuncio a phantom arbitrator
b etwe en phantom ambassadors forced Spain always anxious
about her colonial empire to accept the decision of the
maritime powers
,

Terri to ri a l D i smembermen t

r6 1

Lo u is XIV did not abando n h is design convinced that the

tru e way to attain it was t o overthrow the D u tch t o anni
h il at e them if possible
he decided to make war on them
He s u cc eeded in isolating Holland by diplomatic means and
then hu rled h is armies upon it they reached the Rhine some
p art of th e m p assing through the territory o f the Bishop o f
Li ege Co u nt Monterey governor general o f the Spanish
Netherla nds sent help t o Holland at the moment when the
Frenc h armies were greatly imp erilled by the op eni ng o f the
dikes Lo u is XIV thereupon ordered the invasion of Belgium
( 1 673) a nd occupied the territo ry o f Li ege D espite the
victo ry of h is troops at Seneff e he agreed t o make p eac e in order
to dissolve the coalition by which he was threatened England
was esp ecially conc erned not to leave Flanders in the hands
of Louis XIV I t was a t this time that t h e amb assador o f
F ranc e repo rting t o his government the unanimou s Opinion
wrote the famo u s phrase The
o f the Ho u s e of Commons
English will give the shirts o ff their b acks to prevent the French
from p enetrating i nto the Low Countries
Lou is XIV
agreed to the establishment of a b arrier demanded by Holland
He was u nwilling to comp romis e his dearly bo u ght conquests
D u ring the p rogress o f the negotiations which op ened at
Nime g u e n however h is armies took Ghent and Yp res
to the grea t dissatisfac tion o f E ngland Finally the Treaty
of Nime g u e n ( 1 679) established the famous b arrier f o r the
c reation of which the K ing of Franc e c eded Charleroi Binche
Ath O udena rde and Cou rtrai bu t ob tained in exchang e
for these plac es a much larger numb er of new acq u isitions
notably Valenciennes Camb rai Mau beu ge Charlemont &c
He also acq u ir ed the duchy of Bouillon taken from the
princip ality of Liege
The dependencies of all the towns c eded to Franc e had not
been cl e arly dened by the treaty The ministers of Lou is XIV
.

1 8 3 24 2

1 62

Th e

C ath o li c R en ai ssan ce

were thus able by the erection of Chambers o f Reunion t o

eff ect conquests during peace ; the French troops refused to
evacuate numerous localities in Flander s and fu rther seized
new points in Luxemburg and even invested that city itself
Spain thereupon appealed t o Holland which regarded Luxem
burg as essential to the barrier Louis XIV consented t o raise
the siege provisionally but soon categorically demanded the
cession of all the lands which he alleged to belong to him
Holland however distrusting the weakness o f t h e line o f
fortresses from the sea to the Meuse wished to extend it to
the Moselle She further placed at the disposal o f Spain troops
t o defend all these places but owing to her internal dissensions
did not intervene in an eff ective way Louis XIV laid siege
to Luxemburg which fell after some weeks An arrangement
was arrived at between Franc e and the United Provinces by
which the fortress was left in the hands o f Louis XIV (Truce
of Ratisbon
When William III formed the Grand All iance against
Louis XIV Spain also j oined it
but h er armies were
defeated a t Fleurus O n the suggestion of William III
Charles II then entrusted the governorship general o f the
Netherlands with quasi sovereign powers to Maximilian
Emmanuel o f Bavaria whos e military reputation was well
established Nevertheless the French armies succeeded in
forcing the line o f the barrier fortresses and gained the
victories o f S t e e nke rk an d Ne e rwin d e n ( I 69
O nly two years
later did the allies regain some o f their lost ground including
Namur the captur e of which in 1 69 2 by t h e Grand Monarch
had been particularly celebrated Finally L o u is X IV was
forced t o restore Luxembu rg (Peac e of Ryswyk I 69 7)
The death o f Charles I I ( 1 700) produc ed the War o f the
Spanish Succession in which the Belgia n provinces were agai n
involved Lou is XIV accepted the will of the dead king who
,

'

C ath o li c R en ai ss an ce

Th e

64

but in 1 706 Marlborough succeeded in piercing this line by

gaining a victory at Ramillies Al most the whole o f Belgium
then fell into the hands o f the allies Three yea rs later
a renewed o ff ensive by the French in Flanders was repulsed
and Marlborough in conjunction with Princ e Eugene forc ed
them t o evacuate Hainault after defeating them at Mal
near
Mons
a uet
l
p q
Negotiations op ened at Ut recht at the beginning o f the
year 1 7 1 2 and cam e t o a conclusion in the S pring o f the
following year By the Treaty o f Utrecht
Franc e and
Sp ain c e d e d the Catholic Netherlands to the United Provinces
by whom they were t o be handed over t o the Hous e o f Austria
after an agreement had been reached with it o n the question Of
a barrier The E mperor Ch arl e s VI an Austrian Habsburg thus
succeeded in Belgium t o Charles I I the last Spanish Habsburg
.

'

iii

E co no mi c D e cli ne

an

d S o cia l Ch a ng e :

The numerous wars which the Habsburgs o f Spain drew

upon the land o f Belgium hastened the economic decadence
which began with the establishment of the United Provinces
The latter enslaved the count ry commercially by closing
the Scheldt and by preventing the ports on the coast from
sharing in international trade The Spanish fleet was unable
t o break the blockade maintained before those ports by the
Dutch during the various wars O n its side the Spanish
government forbade all trade with the revolted provinces
but in view o f the impossibility o f e n f o rc in g t h is prohibition
it sold passports o r licences t o certain merc hants and eventually
even exempted from the prohibition a number of commodities
levying instead very heavy import and export duties
The country was really e xploite d by the neighbouring
powers and despite numerous protectionist measu res was
The merchandise o f France
fl ood e d with foreign goods
.

Th e

I 66

C a th o li c Ren ai ss an ce

ente red fraudulently in large amounts and often with the

connivance of the government England poured on the Belgian
market her manufactured goods and the products o f her mines
and colonies while absolutely prohibiting the entry of certain
Belgian goods cloth lace and haberdashery into England ;
she levied enormous duties o n others ax cloth and velvet
Holland adopted an analogous line of conduct requiring
reductions and exemptions from d u ty for her merchandise
while insisting on the free export to her o f those Belgian
products which she needed such as wood iron stone & c
T h e government o f Brussels occasionally attempted t o resort
to reprisals but was forced to abandon them in fac e o f the
menaces of the maritime powers
Internal commerce was hampered not only by the almost
continuous wars but also by the defective means o f c o mmu nic a
tion The roads were badly maintained and the network of
canals was still very incomplete (there were only the canals
from Brussels t o the Rupel and from Ghent t o Terneuzen)
the States o f Flanders began a s early as 1 6 1 4 the canal from
Ghent t o Bruges but it was not completed till the following
century Bruges was li nk ed t o the sea by the canal o f O stend
in 1 665 As f o r industry already greatly reduced by the
migration o f many workers owing to the religious wars it
could scarc ely meet the competition o f neighbouring countries
and more especially o f France in the sphe re of articles o f
luxury Colbert created a formidable rival t o the Belgian
tapestry trade by establishing at Paris ( 1 662) the Royal
Manufactory o f Household Goods of the Crown known as
the Gobelins
In addition to this artisans from Flanders
and Brabant also introduc ed the art o f tapestry making into
E ngland
I t was in vain that the government prohibited the
export of the raw materials o f the weaving industry its ruin
was i rr e trievable
.

I 6S

Th e

C ath o li c Ren a i ss an ce

The relative prosperity o f the rural districts enabled the

nobility to increase their resou rces and so t o play once more
an importan t part in the social organization The class was
increased by the accession o f new elements magistrates o i c ials
who as the c rown of their careers or f o r services rendered
to the government received from it letters o f nobility Side
by side with the nobles o f the sword a real nobility o f the robe
wa s formed drawn from the ra nk s of the bo urge o isie a class
greatly reduced by the decline of industry and o f the trade
it included the descendants of al l those who had
o f towns ;
held the higher posts in the j udicature or in the nancial
administration
The lower and middle ra nk s o f the bo urg e oisie suffered
most from the economic distress To combat i t s disastrous
e ff ects the corporations of workers demanded the strict
enforcement o f their old p rivileges T hi s merely served t o
accentuate the rivalry between them Tailors and dealers
in clothes shoemakers and cobblers surgeons and barbers
were constantly in conict and engaged in endless suits as
t o the monopoly o f the sale of certain commodities
At this time the towns had lost the social preponderance
which they had s o long possessed in the great principalities
they sank for a time below the t wo older privileged classes the
nobles and still more the clergy
The last named class bec ame beyond qu estion the rst
estate in fact as it had always been in theory Thanks
to generous gifts i t s wealth increased to vast proportions
Moreover its privileges were not reduced by the growth o f
monarchical centralization
The clergy preserved in particular a special j urisdiction the
right o f being tried only by their o wn courts ; they also
secured the almost complete control of charity and education
Th e Church enj oyed the support no t only of the government
.

E c o n o mi c

D ecli n e

S o ci a l

an d

C h an ges

1 69

but also o f t h e gr e at and of the middle class families from which

it was recruited and possessed the condenc e of the whole
p eople whos e material an d moral co ndition it labou red to
improve Bu t it was hindered in it s works by various circum
stanc es As a result o f the extraord i nary ascendancy of the
monastic orders and o f the Society o f Jesus the mass of the
lower s ec u lar clergy the proletariate o f the Church found
their condition growing constantly more wretched and became
unable to full the duties o f their o f c e The choice o f the
lower clergy left much to be desired d e S p it e the foundation
o f seminaries
Just as in Franc e there were many candidates
for the more p romin e nt positions but few ready to labou r
in the ru ral districts
-

it)

Growth

Ca t h ol i cis m

The Catholic Renaissanc e was more b rilliant and more

vigorous in B elgiu m than in any o ther land Placed on the
connes o f the Catholic world the country was the obj ect
of special attention on the pa rt of the Chu rch and above all
The Jesuits may be said t o have
o f the O rder of the Jesuits
made it t h e most Catholic country in Europe Thanks to the
protection o f th e govern ment and more particularly o f Al bert
and Isabella the society rec eived s u bsidies and exemptions
from taxation and founded houses in most towns in addition
By t h e end o f the sixteenth
t o a large numb e r of colleges
c entu ry they p rovided in a measu re f o r the education o f the
bo urg e o isi e and the aristocracy They thus penetrated all social
life and their w o rk was completed by the mendicant orders
whos e inuenc e was exercised over the poor as well as o ther
classes The a rchdukes su mmoned from I taly the barefooted
Carmelites and Carmelit e nuns from Spain and took under
their p rotection the M inorites the sisters of Saint e Claire and
thos e o f t h e third ord e r of Franciscans Th e country was
.

Th e

1 70

C ath o li c Ren ai s san ce

covered with convents of the Capuchins and Carmelites who

were very popular The immigration of foreign monks
especially English and Irish assumed such proportions that
Philip IV forbade the foundation o f new convents without
the express authorization o f the governm e nt h is aim being
to prevent monasteries from growing weak choking each
other and dying like trees in a garden when they are t o o
numerous
Jesuits and monks largely determined the direction of literary
e ff ort Under the archdukes an ordinance laid down that to
become a printer o r bookseller the authorization both of the
bishop and o f the magistrate must be secured No book was
t o be published without the dual approval of royal and episcopal
who might inspect when it seemed good to them
V isitors
the printing works a nd book shops
The intellectual horizon was thus res tricted t o the subj ects
tolerated by the civil and ecclesiastic al authorities S avants
who transgressed these bounds were in da n ger o f heavy punish
ment ; Van Helmont was condemned by th e I nquisition f o r
his researches into animal magnetism O n t h e other hand
among the clergy themselves theological disputes reached
such a height a s t o a ff ect civil and political life The theories
of J
an se n iu s Bishop of Ypres troubled Church and State for
many years They were made public after the death o f their
author by the publication o f his book A ug us t i nus
In
it he defended the Augustinian doctrine of grac e in Opposition
to the doctrine held on this subj ect by the Jesuits and others
Essentially o f a mystical temperament J
an se n iu s wished to
restore what he believed to be Christian antiquity and for
this purpose he desired to reduc e the gulf xed between p riest
and layman bringing the latter in a sense nearer to G o d by
according a greater part to the individual conscience I n their
conict with the Jesu its the Ja nsenists tended to adopt a more
,

C atho li c R en ai ssan ce

Th e

72

but devoted themselves above all to the production o f elegies

idylls odes and epigrams
Ecclesiastical history was especially studied by the Jesuits
At the beginning o f the seventeenth century Father Ro swe yd e
conceived the idea Of editing the lives of the s aints from the
most ancient texts His work was resumed and rev ised by
Father John Bollandus who began the publication o f the
monumental A cta Sa nc t orum
The Jesuits also included a certain number o f promi n ent
scientists especially mathematicians But scientic life scarcely
manifested itself outside rel gious circles Many savants from
a mong the laity became famous abroa d
among them in the
sphere o f physics and mathematics Simon St evin of B ruges
who emigrated to Holland Amon g those wh o
( died
remained in Belgium the most famous was Van Helmont
o n e of the founders o f p neumatic chemistry wh o
( died
also gave a vigorous impulse to physical and geological science
From the second half o f the seventeenth century there was
a persistent decline in the scientic movement and Belgium
h a d n o share in the great advance which marked this period
Under the inuence of the Jesuits education assumed a new
character being devoted mainly to the Spread o f the classics
and of mathematics The Society founded colleges in such
numbers that before the end of the sixteenth century they
provided secondary education almost everywhere
The
activity o f the Jesuits also a ff ected t h e University of Louvain
which was at rst unfavourably disposed towards them Colleges
wer e also opened by the Augustinians the Rcollets and the
O ratorians while the Ursulines undertook the education of
girls o f wealthy families But neither the Jesuits nor t h e
monks took much interest in primary education which was left
t o the local clergy
Religious instruction was the obj ect of particular care
,

Gro wth

f C ath o li ci sm

1 73

S u nday schools were organized befo re the end o f the sixteenth

c en tu ry ; parents were obliged to send thei r children and
masters their s ervants The numb er of day schools increased
at the beginning o f t h e seventeenth cent u ry O rdinances
specially charged the magistrates t o see that the child ren o f the
poor attended them
The unparalleled exuberance o f Lati n culture t o some exte n t
st i ed national literary eff ort French literature in Belgium
especially s u ff ered from this state of a ff airs and was nev er at
a lower ebb than in the age o f Lo u is XIV As f o r Fle mish
literature it vegetated in the chambers of rhetoric Its chief
repres entative was Willem O gier (died
the a u thor of
vigorous popular co m edies (lelu cb te n) o f a moralizing tendency
His contemporary the Jesuit Po irt e rs ( died
enj oyed
an equal reput ation owing to his popular sermons and his
writings whi ch were full o f allegories anecdotes j ests in
co n trast with D u tch severity but which scourged indirectly
t h e faults of the bo urg e o is ie and people
If literature prod uced few outstanding works in the s even
t e e n t h c entu ry the converse is tr u e o f the plastic arts
They
a dmirably expressed the magnicence the religious splendo u r
the epoch ; they brilliantly celebrated the revival o f
of
Catholicism This artistic outburst was u na ff ected by the
declin e o f commerce and indust ry it was however followed
by e arly decay I t had been favoured by the existence o f an
extravagant a n d l u xury loving aristocracy Antwerp did not
a t onc e los e her bank ers and remained f o r a long while a money
ma rket and it was Antwerp that was the great artistic c entre
The Catholic Renaissa n ce also produc ed mainly by t h e Jesuits
vigorously seconded the developmen t of religious art by l ling
plac es o f worship with pictures and statu es I t di d not main
tain however the I talian tradition which ha d prevailed from
the s ixteenth c entury The most gifted interpreter o f this
.

C a th o li c R en a i ss an ce

Th e

1 74

renaissance was P P Rubens ( 1 5 77

A p u pil of Van
No o rt and Van Veen he studied according to custom t he
I talian masters in their o wn land but he did not allow himself
to be wholly abs orbed by thi s artis t ic atmosphere and preserved
always a vigorous i n dividua li ty a s a resul t o f his intense re alism
his ery exuberance and hi s brill iant and vigorou s colou ring
His admiration for the productions o f Greco Roman antiqu ity
did not dest roy hi s fondness f o rl u xu rian t massive forms and
hi s gu res preserve an e s sential ly national cha racter
From
his stu dio at Antwerp came forth hun d re ds of pictures o f
religiou s history and mythology allegories portraits landscapes
which went to adorn churches and palaces
Around the prince of Flemish pai nters th e re gathered
a crowd of imitators the most distinguished of whom were
In t he m the Flemish spirit was
d e Crayer and Jordaens
least aff ected in it s expression by Italian i nuence Jordaens
especially h as depicted the life of his class in striking tones
The n u merous disciples of Rubens followed and exaggerated
the traditions of h is art Van Dyck however was marked
by a more tender feeling an entirely aristocratic distinction
He was essentially a society painter and soon left the country
The school
t o s ettle at the court o f the kings o f England
of Rubens was not the only a rtistic school that ourished
in Antwerp Side by side with it was that o f Teniers David
Teniers is above all the painter of Flemish manners whi ch he
illustrated with extraordinary satiric S pirit and in wa rm and
glowing colo u rs Before the end o f t h e sixteenth centu ry
the decline o f the schools o f Antwerp had already begun ;
they had acquired a very great reputation but from this time
there were only copyists and imitators
Sc u lpt u re and architecture were inspired to a greater degree
than painting by Italian traditions but soon fell u nder the
in u ence o f Rubens who himself designed the fa cades of many
.

76

C ath o li c R en ai s s a n ce

Th e

Renaissance But eventually the pursuit of the picturesqu e

destroyed beauty of line (house of Ru bens at Antwerp I 6 I I
houses o f the corporations at Brussels Antwerp
Unlike the plastic arts music was singu larly neglected ; it
fell under the inuence o f Italy and France National c o m
posers t u rned mainly to sacred subj ects and it was from abroad
that there came the lyric operas which were performed at
Brussels and in the princip al towns from the middle of t h e
s e venteenth century
.

7
Th e A u s tri an A u to cra cy
i

1 71

3 89)

The B arrie r Sys t e m

Charles VI at rst declined to accept the

sovereignty of Belgium coupled with the onerous obligations
associated with it The United Provinces claimed to make
the whole Belgian territory a barrier and t o transform it i nto
a buff er sta te Negotiations opened at Antwerp in 1 7 1 4 were
d ii c u l t and lasted over a year The resultant treaty denitely
established the barrier limiting it to one long line of fortresses
in the sou th ( Fu rnes Knocke Y pres Warneton Menin
Tou rnai and Namur) with the addition o f o n e fortress in
the interior Termonde which was t o receive an Anglo Dutch
g a r fiso n the other points being occupied by Dutch troops
The upkeep o f these places was charged to the Belgian provinces
which we re t o contribute f o r that purpose
o rin s as
an annual subsidy for this purpose Belgium was thus placed
under the guardianship o f the maritime powers and more
particularly under that of Holland
The policy o f the Austrian Habsbu rgs was as disas trous
to B elgiu m as t h a t of the Spanish Habsbu rgs had been
Charles VI and his succ essors endeavou red to free themselves
from the inu enc e of the maritime po w ers b u t only with the
idea o f inc reasing the p restige o f their o wn monarchy When
the O st end Company was founded ( 1 72 3) to give the Belgian
p rovinc es a share in overseas trade the Du tch Indian com
pani c s fearing its competition a t once d emanded i t s s u p p re s
T H E Emperor

1 8 3 2 -1 2

Th e A u s tri a n A utocra cy

1 78

sion an d threatened to declare war Charles VI w ish e d t o

s e cure f o r his eldest daughter her inheritance in i t s integrity
for the welfare of Europe to susp end t h e
a n d wa s obliged
O stend Company for seven years ( 1 727) and ultimately to
dissolve it Bel gium was thus left in depend e nce o n the two
maritime powers in order that the emperor might win their
support and s ecure the ratication o f the Pragmatic Sanction
regulating the succession to his dominions
Maria Theresa however found that her rights were dis
The
War
ut e d
o f the Austrian Succ ession led t o the invasion
p
o f Flanders by the armies of Louis XIV in
I n the follow
ing year Marshal Saxe the lieutenant o f the French king
utterly defeated the Anglo Dutch troops at Fontenoy near
Tournai and compelled them to e vacuate Flanders In
Saxe surprised Bruss els and defea t ed Princ e Charles o f Lorr aine
Governor General of the L o w Cou ntries at Rau c o u x north
of Li ege All the Belgian provinces except Limburg and
Luxembur g fell then into h is power ; they were crushed by
contributions o f every kind but were nally restored t o Maria
Theresa by Louis XV hims elf in exchange f o r colonial c o n
c essions to which England agreed The Peac e o f Aix la
Chapelle ( 1 748 ) did n o t mention the abolition of the annual
subsidy paid to t h e United Provinces f o r the maintenanc e o f
the barrier but that abolition followed as a natural result of
the p olicy adopted by the Dutch who instead o f I ncreasing
their forces in the barrier fortresses withdrew them on the
e xpected approach o f a French army at the beginning of the
Seve n Y ears War
The accession o f Joseph II
whom h is mother associated
with her in the government from 1 765 onwards was the signal
f o r a new orientation o f Austrian policy
Taking advantage
o f the wa r which the United Provinc es were waging against
England
the e mp e ror order e d the demolition of the
.

'

'

'

Th e A us tri a n A uto cra cy

1 80

pro vi nces
I n the following year the Burgundia n ag
appeared for the rst time in the Eas t I ndies Th e chief
expedition reached Surat the great commercial city o f the
Mogul Empire and despite the Opposition of the Du tch who
held the trading supremacy there brought back a full cargo
The sale o f oriental products secured
o f its goods and stuffs
f o r the partners in the venture a prot of about a hundred
per c ent This brilliant result gave rise to a sch e me f o r the
foundation o f an E ast I ndia Company and the imperial
government caused the proj ect to be examined by its Councillor
During this time trade with the
o f Commerc e de Castillon
Indies rapidly increased thanks to the assistance o f a c ertain
number o f naturalized foreigners especially Dutch merchants
a s estab
and English captains An Austro Belgian factory w
lish e d at Canton and another at Gabelon o n the Coromandel
Coast
Finally in 1 72 2 the government o f Vienna with
the support of the chief merchants o f Antwerp founded u nder
the style o f the Imp erial and Royal Company o f the Indies
a chartered company modelled o n the similar associations
existing in Holland and England The directors were chos en
from the heads o f the leading rms of Antwerp and Ghent
and the sales were to take plac e at O stend and Bruges The
United Provinces at once made representations to the Austrian
government Charles VI replied to their representative that
he wished t o maintain a good understanding with the repu blic
but that the se a being free t o all no one could deprive
his subj ects o f the right o f navigating it The United Provinces
induced E ngland and France t o j oin them in dema n ding the
suppression o f the O stend Company The emperor refused
t o be intimidated and ordered the charter of the Company to
be published ( 1 72
The success o f the o t at io n the capital
was subscribed in two days still further alarmed the merchants
of London and Amsterdam who forthwith increased their
.

E co n o mi c R evi val

181

e ff o rts t o sec u re j oint action on the part of their govern ments

They were so s u cc essf u l that in 1 72 7 the Company which ha d
in a short Spac e of time attained a vigorou s exist en ce was
su sp ended and fo u r years later was s u pp ressed
Although deprived o f it s factories and s u pp ress e d by formal
treaties the Company actually continu ed to exist until the
clos e o f the Au strian regime I t engaged in various u nder
takings at home and abroad and the sharehold e rs long received
high di vidends Bu t it was in vai n that they pressed Maria
Theresa who s u cceede d her father in
to compensate
them for the loss e s suff ered in the Indies Maria Theresa
who heap ed favou rs and privileges u pon the Adria tic ports
t o o long neglected O stend
The trade o f that port rapidl y
dev el oped as soon as war broke o u t between England a nd
Holland
I t proted from that conict which paralysed
the trade of the two belligerent countries I n 1 78 1 Joseph II
who was partic u larly interested in economic q u estions declared
O stend a free po rt and the town soon became the centre o f
a considerable trade The population so incr eased that it was
nec essa ry to extend t he limits of the commune to level the
walls and to constru c t what was really a new city
I nternal tra d e was favoured by the government whi ch
developed the network o f ways o f commu nication D u ring
the reign o f Maria Theresa and under the administration o f
her brother in law Charles of Lorraine the cent ral a u thority
exhibited a feverish activity in this respect ; the canal from
Bruges to Ghent w as completed the rs t boat from O stend
arriving at Ghent in 1 75 3 Louvain was linked up by a canal
b u ilt between 1 75 0 and 1 75 3 to t h e j u nction of t h e Senne
and the Dyle The city increased it s trade with the Rhenish
districts as a res u lt of the b u ilding of a high road from Li mbu rg
by way o f Li ege and Herve t o Ai x la Chapelle O ther towns
were reached by roads t o the great rou te between O stend
.

Th e A ustri an A uto cra cy

82

and Cologne Menin and Cou rtrai being th u s li nk ed with

Bruges Grammont with Gh e nt Nivelles an d Namur with
Louvain
The epoch of Maria Theresa also contributed to the revival
The government encouraged the setti ng up o f
o f industry
new manufactu res It s attempts to revive Flemish weaving
failed but o n the other hand weaving in Limburg attained
great prosp erity The cloth industry revived greatly in Flanders
and in the district o f Tournai Ghent and Courtrai with
Tournai becoming it s principal centres The last named city
was the seat of an imperial and royal manufactory ( 1 78 9) for
the dyeing of linen yarn and cloth Equal prosperity attended
the carpet industry the character of which was complet e ly
transformed carpets f o r t he oor being produced in place
of hanging tapestries Antwerp remained the centre o f the
silk manufacture in which thousands of hands were engaged
In the eighteenth century the lace industry reached its height
despite French and English comp etition
I n Hainault and the district o f Namur pottery and glass
aff orded new sources of wealth ; at Tournai a porcelain and
crockery factory was set up while glass factories were created
at Charleroi Gosselies Ghlin and Namur
Coal mining
increased in the centre ; the exploratio n of the Charleroi
area began The employment o f st eam pumps made possible
the satisfactory working of the mines ( about
The iron
trade continued t o languish i n the Austrian Netherlands
which were in this respect dependent upon the principality o f
Li ege But at Namur the working of copper was su ffi cient
to make export possible
Agriculture and cattlefarming beneted even more than
industry by the favou r o f the government They prote d from
the more equ itable distribution of taxation and from the
suppression o f ab u s e s connected with the collection of the

1 84

The A ustri a n A uto cra cy

h e ads of c rafts refused to take the oath which had f o r some

years been imposed o n them an d demanded the re scinding
contrary t o t heir privileges published du ring
o f all decrees
the previou s t wo hu ndred years His obj ect was to revert to
the system of the fteenth c entu ry As a former doyen o r
commander o f t h e Great O ath (military gild) Ann e e sse ns
wielded vast inuence over the burgher militia and he avail ed
himself o f this fact t o oppose the government Disorders
broke o u t in the course o f which the hall o f the Counci l o f
Brabant was sacked and the militia either d id nothing o r were
able t o do nothing t o stop them The Ma rquis de Pri ordered
pros ec u tions after havi ng call ed in enough troops to maintain
order Anne e sse ns wh o had attained the age o f f t y-nine
defended himself with remarkable energy b u t was s entenced
to death for treason He refused to ask for pardon Th e
Marquis de P ri in order to prevent b y intimidation a renewal
The
o f similar demonstrations ordered him to be exec u ted
execution took place in the G ran d Plac e where the s u mptu ou s
palaces o f the corporations recalled the memo ry o f the self
governed c ommunities of the past
Among the burghers
and the people o f Brussels many mourned Anne e sse ns as a
martyr and the maj ority o f the clergy o f that city celeb rated
h is obsequies which was never done in the case o f tho s e
sentenced t o death His name soon came t o symbolize the love
o f liberty and was honoured by all the enemies of absol u tism
Pri thought that he had stru ck d own the rep ublican spirit
he had at all events a cted in conf ormity with the princ iple
enunciated in these words by Charles VI u se re and sword
with persistency till chastisement h as produced general sub
mission and obedience
There was in act u al f ac t n o further seriou s dist u rbance in
t h e towns down to the time o f the Brabantine Revolu tion
and the government everywhere increased it s i n u ence over
,

'

'

C o mplete C en tralizati o n

8S

m u nicipal life by nominating magistrates at its pleasu re

Louvain Brussels Antwerp Arlon Malines and Luxemburg
alone retained some elective magistrates The central power
often nullied privileges by pensioning off individuals who
were e xclu ded from communal off ices But the actual functions
of the mu nicipal magistrates were hardly restricted except
in the case of certain o i c ial s such as the pensioner or the
gre er whos e nomination the government reserved f o r itself
Provincial exclusiveness which had developed so greatly
under Spanish rule was systematically broken down by a variety
o f measures
The competence o f the governors was limited ;
they lost their military and ju dicial powers as well as the right
o f reappointing municipal magistrat es and o f conferring im
portant offi ces
This was true o f all the provinces except
Hainault where the powerful House o f Arenberg monopolized
for a long period the o i c e o f governor and that of grand bailiff
and preserved a W ide asc endancy The provincial governments
were eventually successively abolished and at the accession o f
Joseph II ( 1 78 0) only that of Namur rem
ained
The instru ments o f provincial government became more
a nd more the cou ncils o f j ustice and the scal bureaux They
inherited some o f t h e functions o f the governor But the
councils o f Brabant Hainault and Guelders which still
exercised certain sovereign rights s u ch a s the grant o f tolls
and the publication o f edicts saw these powers gradually
reduced
Everywhere the c entral power insensibly threatened the o l d
constitutional traditions in virtue of which the provinces
res e rved to their o wn natives the right o f lling provincial
of ces But the Braban cons and Limburgers continuing to
exclude foreigners from public o i c e in their respective terri
tories saw themselves similarly e xc lu d e d in t h e other provinces
Th e agents o f t h e central power devoted the mselves solel y
"

'

Th e A ustri an A u to cra cy

1 86

to the work of removing by e very means t h e obstacles whi ch

the privileges of corporations or mu nicipalities off ered t o
absolutism ; they wished t o destroy the last traces o f the o l d
provincial privileges Bu t they were unable t o prevent the
States of Brabant and Hainault from j ealously preserving their
nancial rights
From the reign of Charles VI central institutions were so
reorganized as t o st re n g t h e n the personal action o f the sovereign
A special ministry was established at Vienna with the title
of
Supreme Council o f the Low Countries
at a later date
during the reign o f Maria Theresa it was suppressed an d
incorporated in the Chancellery o f the Court and State
an entirely Austri an institution By creating the o i c e of
minister plenipotentiary and by making it practically p erma
nent from
onwards the sovereign secured a more docile
instrument than the governor general wh o owing t o his
exalted position h e was normally a prince of t h e blood
generally acquired a certain measu re of independence The
minister plenipotentiary supervised the conduct of the governor
general and acted as his deputy during his absence
The collateral councils which had been at rst absorbed into
a single council we re restored with purely consultative powers
and were in actual fact merely honora ry bodies Governmental
or
j oint commissions were substituted f o r them to deal
with special ques ti ons strictly dened and even with questions
which were of o ld within the competence of the pro vincial
States
The government however could n o t deprive the
estates of the right t o vote the taxes I t claimed that these
bodies could n o t refuse grants but were empowered only t o
decide their incidence It laboured t o suppress illegal e xe mp
t rons
In the j udicial sphere the royal authority devoted itself
t o the regulation and reformation o f repressiv e instit u tions
.

'

'

Th e A ustri an A u to cra cy

1 88

erected among other institutions at Brussels an o i c ial l it e rary

society
which became three years la ter the Imperial
and Royal Academy
This institution assisted the spread
In its Me mo irs ther e appeared
o f the works of men of science
learned dissertations o n mathemat ic s physics botany and
che m
istry Min ke l e rs published in them his studies o n t h e
application of coal gas f o r lighting purposes
The centralizing policy o f Austrian absoluti sm made itself
felt in every sphere o f social activ ity If it accomplished it s
aims slowly and if it su ff ered occasional checks this was du e
t o the fact t h at the very structure o f society was essentially
opposed to it having preserved in a very marked degree it s
archaic individualism thus retaining also its old character
even down t o the middle o f the eight een th century despite
the energetic eff orts o f the central government
The clergy constantly maintai ned their pre eminenc e
despite the successive restrictions o f their political privileges
e ff ected b v the central government The nobles kept con
sid e ra b l e power in the rural districts
o wing t o their landed
wealth and t h eir prestig e an d continued t o despise commerce
and industry although compelled to admit into their ranks
certain merchant princes such as Cloo ts ( Baron de Schilde)
The rOl e o f the n obility remained essentially rural ; moreover
they generally held aloof from the government The offi cial
aristocracy was strengthened and formed a kind of n e w order
while the central au t h o rit v laboured t o suppress class privileges
Among other ins t itutions it gained control over the magis
tracies of the chief t o wns the members of which were t h e sole
representatives o f the third es tate in the pro vincial states
forming in reality a privileged order and often making common
cause with the t wo othe orders i n resistin g the government
In the la rge towns more especially in th ose of Brabant the
lesser bourge o isie still retained a corporate o rganizatio n which

'

C entralizati on

Co mpl ete

1 89

assur e d c e rtain p rivileges and monopolies and formed wi th

t h e artisan s a thi rd es tate
Th e maj ority of t h e workmen were still excluded from the
corporate organizations owing to the constant growth o f
ma nufactures and t h e exclusiveness o f the artisans inclu sion
in the n u mb er o f whom be came more and mo re diffi cult owing
to the sys tem of long apprenticeship heavy admission fees
and costly sp ecimen pieces o f work The great mass o f the
pop u lation the inhabitants o f the s mall towns work men and
p easants remained without political inu ence being entirely
outside the social o rga ni sm from whi ch it became more and
more divorced du ring the eighteenth century I t s ignorance
contrasted with the culture o f the higher classes
The cultu re was essentially French a circ u mstance explained
by the fact that at th is time the language and civilization o f
France were reno wned throughout Europe
L a tin wit h
di ffi culty m aintained itself as the learned tongue and was
conned t o a great extent to the sphere of higher education
French taking it s plac e in seconda ry ed u c ation t h at is the
education of the governing classes Fren ch inuence was so
preponderant in all s pheres of intellectual activity that Belgian
writers and artists lost all originality all individu ality overcome
Painters sculptors
a s they were by the prestige o f France
col
an d architects did n o more than im itate their southern
leagues The styles O i Louis XV and of Louis XVI ourished
more in Belgiu m than elsewhere the p ro d u c t ivit y o f Belgian
a rtists was very limit ed and it may be said that in the eighteenth
centu ry the cou ntry lost o n e of the chief natio n al character
ist ic s it s artistic s kill
In such circu mstances it is n o t surprising that the ideas
of the French philosophers and economists easily permeated
Belgium They however found few adherents there as
compared with the principality o f Li ege This fact may b e
,

Th e A u stri an A uto cra cy

1 90

attributed to the reforming tendencies of the sovereigns who

pursued the p o licy of enlightene d despotism and t o the
in-v e t e ra t e localism of t h e Belgian provinces in which mediaeval
ideas were preserved
The maj ority o f the reforms favo u red by French writers
were designed t o suppress privileges and social inequalities
and seemed to the Belgians bound to strengthen the central
power The policy advocated was that of the sovereigns
themselves who in applying such reforms endeavoured to
destroy the ab u ses of the o l d system based upon privilege and
monopoly In Belgium the old system was oppos ed only by
a small minority o f educated men great merchants i n dustrial
leaders advocates and doctors supporters o f the sovereignty
o f the nation
They gave little help however t o the central
power when open war was declared between it and the privile ged
classes
,

Bra banti n e R evo luti o n

Th e

1 92

In the course o f a j ourney which he had made in Belgium

shortly after h is accession to the throne he had noted
a certain number of abuses anomalies and irregu larities in the
administration and in j ustic e and he attributed them to the
continued privileges still enj oyed by the three orders clergy
nobles and third estate Hen ce c ame h is desire denitely to
suppress privilege in order to establish the reign o f equality
O n the other hand under the inuence of the doctrines o f the
philosophers and economists of the period he considere d it
to be the function o f a government t o guide the whole o f society
with a view t o promoting the general well being F o r this
purpose he wished t o avail himself o f all the energies i n d all
the support of his people without d i st l n c t i o n o f party class o r
religious belief O ne o f h is rst acts , after the death o f Maria
Theresa was t o proclaim toleration o r as he expressed it liberty
By a s eries o f edicts he then attempted t o
o f be l ief
bring the Church under the control o f the State o r at least
t o restrict its action u
pon society so as to make it c o 0perate
in the purs u it o f his ideal He revived the regulations o f
Philip I I as to the publication of papal bulls and decrees which
were valid only if they received the royal p la ce t He forbade
the religious orders to maintain relations with their foreign
superiors without the a u thorization o f the government
secularized marriage suppressed such conven ts as he regarded
as usele ss that is those o f the purely contemplat i ve orders
and prohibited pilgrimages o n the ground that they led t o
disorders Finally in i mitation of his policy in his hereditary
dominions he replaced the episcopal seminaries by t wo
seminaries under government control a principal seminary
at Louvain and a branch at Luxemburg
Although he
was ready t o leave the episcopate the supervision and inspection
o f the n e w s e minaries this measure arou sed vigorous discontent
among the clergy a di scontent which found expression in the
,

Th e

j o sephi st

R efo rms

93

revolt of the s tu dents at Louvain The edict relating t o

kermesses p u blished in the same e ar aro u se d a certain excite
y
m ent amo n g the masses because it xed all these local festivities
to take plac e on the s econd S u nday after Easter with t h e obj ect
o f reducing the excesses by which they were accompa n ied
I n the mind of the emperor these measures h ad no anti clerical
tendency Deeply pious Joseph I I was much attached t o
the Chu rch b u t like h is mother Maria Theresa and his
p redecesso rs Charles V and Philip I I he wished t o limit the
activity of the clergy to pu rely religiou s matters and believed
that he did not err in h is duty to the Chu rch by interfering
with her external organization
In 1 78 7 Joseph I I turned the whole administrative and
j u dicial system u pside down by separating entirely administ ra
tive from j u dicial functions and by replacing the old co u rts o f
j u stice and the courts of t he ecbevins by a complete series of
new institutions each provinc e o r circle was to b e ad minis
t e re d by an intendant and a j u dicial organization o f t h ree
degrees ( t rib u nals o f rst instance council o f appeal supreme
council) was to b e established
The governors general (Duke Albert of Saxe Teschen and
the Archdu chess Maria Christina siste r o f the emperor) were
An advocat e
u n able to calm the agitation which now b roke o u t
o f Bruss e ls Henry V a n der No o t formed at Brussels a corps o f
ostensibly to maintain order really t o organize
vol u nt e ers
the fo rces of the malcontents This example was followed in
several -other towns The governors general o n their o wn
responsibility suspended the more unpopular ed icts and went
in pe rso n to Vienna to explain the dangers o f the sit u ation
to the emperor Joseph d emanded that in the rst place all
such as the institution o f the arme d
revolutionary measures
volunteers should b e abandoned When these indispensable
p reliminaries h a d been accepted he wou ld agree to the
.

1 8 3 2 -1 2

Th e

94

B ra ban tin e R ev o lu ti o n
'

suppression of the edicts contrary to provincial and urban

privileges with the implication that the edicts dealing with
ecclesiastical matters should be maintained
Meanwhile Van der No o t plotted against th e government
in alliance with a party in the States o f Brabant he exhausted
t h e funds of the province on propagand a and secured f o r him
self from the heads of some o f the Brussels gilds the title of
plenipotentiary o f the Braban con people
In this capacity
he addressed himself t o England Holland an d France in order
t o secure the intervention of t h o sq
p o we rs He proposed the
conversion of the Belgian provinces into a federation analogous
t o that of the United Provinces or even the fusion of the two
federations In general he met with n o support but the
Prussian government promised to act energetically in favour
of the revolutionaries Van der No o t trusted to such diplomatic
promises and negl ected t o make military prep a ration for his
meditated revolt This was the work o f Vonck another
Bru ssels advocate leader o f the progressive party equally
hostile to the Austrian government but advocating equality
and the sovereignty of the people Vonck did not share
Van der No o t s c ondence in diplomacy which he said would
be the ex tinguisher o f the revolution
,

ii

The Br a ba n t ine

or

B e lg zc m Re v o lu ti o n
'

The winter of 1 7889 was peculiarly s evere ; famine and

misery contributed t o increase the distress of the people and
t o pave the way f o r di sturbances
At the end o f January
the States of Hainault having refused the subsidy demanded
an imperial edict annulled the fundamental charter of the
province
In June the States o f Brabant expressed their
vigorous disapproval o f the reforms o f the Emperor and
Joseph presently annulled the Joyous Entry
which he
h a d through his re presentatives the govern ors general sworn
.

B ra ba n tin e

Th e

1 96

R evo l u ti o n

province formed a distinct state entirely autonomous The co n

gress decla red that the provi n ces should form a federation under
the title of United Sta te: of B elg ium and that in every state t h e
o l d system of privileges should be completely restored
Th e
only innovation introduced by Van der No o t was t o add to
the members o f the States o f Brabant himself his secretary
and some o f the heads o f the corpora t ion s o f Louvain and
Brussels The Vo nckist s energetically protested by publishing
libels and pamphlets against the omni potence o f the Lords
States and by demanding tha t the whole nation should be
consulted and select a national assembly to give Belgium a new
constitution
Brussels and the great towns were now torn by internal
struggles Clubs a n d oaths (military corporations) were
divided into two camps the Vo n c kist s and the Statists or
partisans of Van der No o t The latter demanded the removal
of Van d e r Mersch a friend o f Vonck The Vo n ckist s provoked
riots at Brussels
Down with the
where the cry resounded
Sovereign States I Long live the sovereignty of the people !
Vonck and forty of his adherents were then proscribed by
Van der No o t who roused the mo b against them and allowed
the houses o f h is opponents to be sack ed Vonck took refuge
in France while Van der Mersch was thrown into prison and
replaced by the Prussian general Schonf el d The defective
a rmament and equ i pment of t h e patriot troops combined with
the failure o f the promised support obli ged this general wh o
was also lacking both in forethought and decision to retreat
when the Austrians assumed the o ff ens ive
.

'

'

iii

The A us tri a n Res tora tion

Pru ssian intervention was limited to diplomatic action in

which sh e was j oined by the United Prov inces and England
By t h e Conv e nt io n o f Re i ch e nba c h ( 1 790 sh e assur e d t h e
)
.

A u s tri an

Th e

R es to ra ti o n

97

estab l ishment of the authority of the Austrian House in

Belgium in return f o r a promise given b y Leopold who had
succeeded Joseph I I that he would restore the institutions
of the Belgian provinces and grant an amnesty to the rebels
L eopold then s ent an ultimatum to the congress which
answered by proclaiming his third so n the Archduke Charles
heredita ry grand duke
The emperor w as no t satised by
this h alf measure His troops rapidly captured Namur and
B russels and on December 2 1 79 0 he was master of the whole
country He restored the system of government which had
existed under Maria Theresa As an eminent historian has
said to safeguard h is authority he counted upon the interest
that the two parties had in rallying t o his government the
S tatists becaus e he conrmed their privileges and the Vo n ckist s
becaus e he continu ed to carry on the work of his predecessors
in the di rection of equality
Joseph I I who had b een painfully a ff ected by the Brabantine
Revolution and had broken down as a result o f the fa t igues
which he h ad undergone in the T u rkish war died without
realizing the mistakes which he had made
A general insanity
seems to be a ff ecting all peoples he said to Count de S egur
The people o f Brabant f o r example have r evolted against
me becaus e I wished to give them that which your people are
loudly dema n ding
re -

9
The

D is tri ct of Li ege f ro m th e S i xte en th C en tury

th e R e v o lu ti o n of 1 78 9

to

f Absolu tism
As the result of its character of ecclesias tical principality
the district o f Li ege maintained a certain connexion with the
Empire Maximilian had attached it to the circle of West
p halia but in actual fact it s dis tinct character wa s more securely
guaranteed than that o f t he other Belgian provinces after
Philip II had reduced them to the position o f a distan t posses
sion of Spain It remained a species o f republic which strength
ened its independence by proclaiming its perpetual neutrality
and which thus freed itself from the protectorate exercised
over it by the rulers o f the Netherlands I t became a real land
of refuge and liberty and in this respect it may be said that
the principality o f Li ege was the most Belgian of all the
provinces which united in the nineteenth century to form the
kingdom of Belgium If its bishops sometimes drew close to
the Spanish o r Austrian Habsburgs in order to increase or to
restore their o wn authority the people o f Li ege themselves
generally showed hostility to the Habsburgs and often made
common cause with the Opponents o f the absolutist system
in the Catholic Low Countries
The gilds of the city fa v ourably received the overtures made
t o them b
y t h e States General o f the Netherlands in the time
o f Don John
and in agreement with the whole population
of t h e district compelled the bishop Gerard de Groesbeck
to observe a policy of neutrality
His successor Ernest
of Bavaria however elected by the chapter because he was
a member of one of the most Catholic families in Europe
i

Gro wt h

D is tri ct of Liege

Th e

2 00

Provinces p rOt e d from this conict and secretly supported

the republicans o f Li ege agains t the prince who was the ally
of the House of Austria and appealed for help to the Cardinal
I nfant Ferdinand Governor General of the L o w Countries
I n the p rincipality his only supporters were drawn from the
ra nks of the Chiroux o r aristocrats The democrats nick
named the G rigno u x by their Opponents on their side
invoked the aid of Richelieu to whom the democratic burgo
master La Ruelle addressed an urgent demand f o r assistance to
save the liberty and neutrality of Li ege threatened by S panish
br u tality But La Ruelle was murdered ( 1 6 3 7) by Spanish
soldiers treacherously introduced in t o the city by a tra itor
the Count de Warfus ee who after serving the King of Spain
and the United Provinces wished to gain the favour o f the
Houses of Bavaria and Austria The fury of the people l e d t h e m
to all kinds of excesses T O restore tranquillity Ferdinand of
Bavaria was forced to reaf rm the neutrality of Li ege and t o
declare that the principality while remaining under the wing
fealty and obedience o f the Holy Empire should be exempt
from all contributions except in event o f war against the
1
Turks
The bishop took his revenge after the Treaties o f
Munster and Westphalia
which reconciled Spain with
the United Provinces and France Henceforward those states
had n o motive f o r intervening in the principality an d the
,

'

p it e i t s

S p e c ia ll

( 1 672
ad

ra

Vi

e rse t ,

Th e

it s

e rn o r.

re b u ilt

t h e t e rri t o r

re n c h

vill

es

a rm ie s

f t h e p rin c ip a lit

d u rin

we re p illa

th e

Lieg

wa r wi t h

gd T g
on

re s ,

h a in

wa s

llan d

re f u s e d

wa s t ak e n b y a ss a u lt a n d sa c e d f o r th re e
ie e wa s s o l d t o th e re n c h in b y a ro n

t ro o p s ,

cit a d e l o f

gv
o

ns and

t o th e f o re i

6 7a)

th e

an

ay (

de

y v g d by
M yt w

mi ss i o n
s

n e u t ra l it

es

L g

I t wa s d e s t ro

L v

ydi

1 6 73 .

T g
on

k g

re s

wa s

sc

L g

rc e l

b e f o re i t wa s b urn e d b y o u o is
Th e p rin c ip alit o f
i e e wa s
a lso in a d e d b
y t h e allie s a n d s u ff e re d m o re f ro m t h e wa r t h a n d id t h e
p n ish p ro in c e s Th e sa me is t rue o f la t e r wa rs , n o t b l th e W a r o f t h e
.

Sa
Sp i h S
an s

'

uc c e s sio n .

G ro wth of A bs o lu tis m

201

authority of the prince was restored Between 1 649 and 1 68 4 ve

burgomasters mounted the sca ff old Finally Maximilian Henry
of Bavaria imposed on the city and the good towns the regula
tion of
which greatly increased the inu ence o f the prince
i n the choice of memb ers of the magistracy Despite the growth
o f princely power the actual form o f the mediaeval institutions
was u nchanged ; everythi ng continued to be formally c o n
ducted upon a dual basis the prince and the sense o f the
cou ntry
D uring the eighteenth century the theories o f the French
philosophers found many disciples in the country o f Li ege
There the prerogatives of the prince and the privileges o f the
clergy appeared to be exorbitant ; criticism was especially
directed against special ecclesiastical jurisdictions and clerical
exemptions from imposts
Numerous books and j ournals
c arried on an active propaganda in favour o f new doctrines
inspired by an ideal of liberty and equality and a club was
established at Li ege under the name Society of Emulation
w
The
censorship
was
so
po
erless to prevent the publica
I
( 779)
tion o f subversive writings that in 1 77 1 the works o f Voltaire
e
with
a
false
imprint
issued
from
the
presses
of
Li
ge
)
(
.

ii

The Re v o l u t i o n

Li g e

I n contrast to the Austrian Netherlands in the country o f

Li ege absolutism was favoured by the support of the privileged
classes and found a powerful ally in the chapter o f Saint
Lambert the mediaeval prerogatives of which had remained
unimpaired and had even been extended From the end o f
1
the seventeenth century the chapter nominated a p atron
at each vacancy in the see ; instead of summoning the States
according to ancient usage After the regulation of 1 68 4 the
,

M a mbo u r

D is tri ct of Liege

Th e

2 02

princes found means of making the sense of the country

a mere instrument in their hands : in agreement with the
chapter they reduced the number o f the delegates o f the estate
of the nobles Moreover since they controlled the communal
magistracies the third estate in actual fact represented only
t h e pa rty devoted to the central power a party which was
especially at Li ege where the bourg eo isie
s mall in numbers
and the workmen aspired to throw o ff the yoke o f the priests
Absolutism in short appeared there in a theocratic form and
i t was owing t o this fact that the writings of the school of
Voltaire met with so much success in the principality
The accession o f Ho e n sb ro e c k in 1 78 4 exasperated the
opponents o f absolutism Educated for the priesthood at
Notre Dame of Aix la Chapelle the new bishop a man o f
austere piety and Of a most obstinate character had grown
up in an atmosphere into whi ch the philosophic movement
had not penetrated From the very rst he showed his in t e n
tion of maintaining the old rgime and of relying entirely
upon the support of the aristocratic party When in 1 78 5
a merchant o f Li ege named L e v o z wished t o open a casino
at Spa near that which already existed the proprietor o f the
Older establishment appealed to the grant from the prince
conceding t o him a monopoly o f the gaming tables an d resisted
the Opening o f the new hall L e v o z then applied to the privy
council o f the bishop with the obj ect o f proving that the
monopoly in question was irregular as having been arbitrarily
granted by t h e prince without the advice of the sense o f t h e
country
The aff air at rst triing assumed such importance
that the Imperial Chamber of Wetzlar to which L e v o z
appealed ordered the appellant by decree to Obey the edicts
of the prince and Ho e n sb ro e ck proceeded at once to close
forcibly L e vo z s club a step regarded by his partisans as a
violation of a private residence The numbe r o f the supporters

The

2 04
th

Dis tri ct of Liege

ep at rio t s o f Li ege in their Opposition Many of the promoters

.

the revolution such as Fabry an ex mayor who had been

removed from his Of ce without cause by the prince fancied
that the Prussian king would act as mediator and made
representations at Berlin in thi s sense F o r a time it appeared
possible that this mediation would be carried into eff ect The
t ro o p s m ainly Prussian who occupied the citadel ( November 3 0
in actual fact took no steps to enforce the execution o f
the sentence of the Imperial Chamber The chapter per
sist e n t l
and supported
y opposed the smallest concessio n
HOe n sb ro e c k in his uncompromising attitude After that the
King o f Prussia recalled h is troops (April 1 6 1 790) and the
chapter at once withdrew to Aix la Chapelle The States of
Li ege elected according to the system existing prior to
then proclaimed the deposition o f Ho e n sb ro e c k and selected
Ferdinand de Rohan Archbishop o f Cambrai as p atron
of the principality This was a deance t o the German
princes charged with the restoration o f Ho e n sb ro e c k and
among them t o the King of Prussia whose attitude now
changed entirely He had a ccepted the proposals of the court
o f Vienna with regard to a second partition of Poland
made
o n condition that he abandoned the rebels o f Belgium and Li ege
t o the discretion o f the emperor
The Imperial Chamber
o f Wetzlar then entrusted the execution o f its decision to t he
emperor in his capacity o f head of the circle o f Burgundy
O n their side the Ligeois abandoned to their o wn resources
submitted themselves t o the supreme will of the Emperor
The entry o f the K aise rlic ks into Li ege (January 1 2 1 79 1 )
marked the return to the a ncie n reg ime and the triumph o f
reaction From that moment many of the patriots o f Li ege
turned their eyes towards France ; their chief club the
Patriotic Society founded in 1 78 5 became in 1 790 the
Society of the Friends of Liberty
Accordingly D u mo u rie z
o

R e v o lu ti o n of Li ege

Th e

205

after his victory at Jem appes was received as a liberator

( November 2 8 I 79 2) His plan for uniting Li ege and the
Belgian p rovinces into o n e nation found considerable support
among the moderates but the extremists as generally happens
in revolutio n ary times carried the day and secured the triumph
of the idea of reunion with France That country found in
the district o f Li ege some great admirers such as the composer
Gret ry wh o bought J ean J acques Rousseau s hermitage at
Montmorency and himself exercised great in uence o n the
country o f h is adoption by regenerating music there O ne
o f the songs which he composed M ouro ns p our l a p a tr ie a e com
p an ie d the M arse illa ise in the wars of the Revolution and of
the Empire
,

IO

B elgiu m

u n d er

Fren ch R ul e ( 1 79 2 1 8 1 4)

i The F ren ch Co nques t

)
T HE rst ac t o f the great struggle between revolution ary
France and the conservative monarchies took place mainly
in Belgium When the National Assembly had declared
war upon the Emperor Francis II who was Openly planning
a counterrevolutionary campaign (April 20,
three
French armies invaded Belgium the most vulnera ble part of
the Austria n dominions But they were at once repul sed
Tha nks to D umo urie z a new attempt was made the republi can
armies j oined by a Belgian legion gained the victory of
Jemappes (November
which Opened Belgium t o them
Du mo u rie z then issued a proclamation to the Belgians which
had been previousl y approved by the Convention and in which
he declared that his soldiers were com ing as alli es and as
brothers
O n November 1 4 he entered B russels the magis
trates o f which city according to custom , brought to him
the keys of the place He refused them saying Keep the
keys yourselves and keep them carefully Let no foreign er ru le
you any more for yo u are n o t made for such a fate
Soon
afterwards he entered the principality 0f Li ege where he was
welcomed with enthusiasm Meanwhile a French squadron
a sc ended the Scheldt to Antwerp in pursuance o f a decree of
the executive council of t h e republic whi ch had procl aimed
the freedom o f the Scheldt and Meuse
The disappearance o f the Belgian barrier alarmed England,
which had broken O ff diplomatic relations with France afte r t h e
Tenth of August and the cam p aign o f D u mo u rie z in Holland
.

1 79 2- 4

B elgi u m

2 08

Fren ch R u l e

u n d er

ruin and desolation more especially in the country districts

Whole communes were handed over to pillage Business
transactions ceased entirely a s a result of the introduction
of the maximum a n d the assignats The scarcity reached
such a pitch that recourse was had to a census o f all provisions
and the issue of bread cards The hard winter o f 1 794 5
which made it p o ssible for Pic h e g ru t o conduct a campaign
in Holland on the ice still further increased the calamities of
the country
Hainault which at the very beginning had been transformed
into the department of Jemappes was forced t o submit to the
same system of government as was the district o f Li ege which
had voted f o r reunion with France Despite the numerous
complaints o f the Belgians the situation was only improved
in a slight degree d uring the year 1 79 5
The country was then divided into nine departments which
were designated the reunited departments
From O ctober I
1 7 5 the date o n which annexation w as voted by the Conve m
9
tion all French laws were henceforth applicable t o Belgium
but the Committee of Public Safety controlled their applica
tion so that the principles which had inspired the French
Revolution were modied in Belgium by the administrative
centraliz ation o r by the military rule I n place o f granting t o
the people the free choice of their o i c ial s the government
commissaries intervened without compunction in the elections
and imposed the election of such offi cials as they approved
The sovereignty o f the people was no more than an em
O n the other hand the principle o f equality
better applied All the o l d provincial local o r miih ic ip al

Th e

B g
ru

es

a as t ri c h t

Namur ;

a ri o u s

E
;

d e p a rt me n t s , wi t h th e i r

s cau t ,

Gh

O u rt h e ,

en t

Lieg

Je m a pp e s, Mo n s

an

e u x -N t h e s ,

F e L
d D yl B
or

t s,

e,

a pi t

als ,

we re

M
g S mb

we rp ;
u x e mb u r
;
nt

ru ss e ls .

Lys , c a pi t a l
e u se in f ri e u re ,

M eu

re -e t -

se

Mil it ary

O ccu pati o n

and

A n n e x a ti o n

2 09

institutions va n ished since they were based upon privilege

Collec tive or individual ex emptions from taxation were
abolished as were the tithes and the corve es All citizens were
liable t o the same taxes which were imposed by their rep t e
se n t a t iv e s
Civil equality involved religious equality All
citizens to w hatever religion they belo n ged w ere equally
eligible for all dignities ofces and public employments
according to their capacity and without any distinctions other
than those created by their virtues and ability
The principle
of equality further involve d the suppression o f the sale o f
ofces by which a monopoly had been c reated in fa vour of the
wealthy I n civil life the rule o f succession was entirely
transformed ; primoge niture that is the rule by whic h the
eldest male succeeded to the exclusion o f all other children
to the whole o f his parents property was abolished The
result was a speedy division o f large properties and a corre
s o n d in
p
g decline in the inuence o f the nobility The applica
tion of the principle o f civil equality deprived the clergy of the
care o f registers o f births marriages and deaths ; since n o n
Catholics were in future on the same level as other citizens
it was necessary to entrust the business of registration t o civil
authorities and especially to the municipalities Finally all
the customary laws which had been so complicated and which
had varied from province to province and even from town to
town were replace d by a general code o f simple laws which
was o n ly completed under the Consulate and eventually received
the n ame of the Code Napol eon This unity o f legislation was
accomplished with very benecial results
I n virtue o f the principle that the law should be equal fo r
all the new penal code completed the work of Joseph I I :
torture and uselessly cruel punishments were abolished together
with the penalty of conscation which aff ected the family
of the delinque n t Arbitrary imprisonment was forbid d en
,

r8 3 2 1 2
o

B elgi u m

21 0

Fren ch Ru le

u n d er

All institutions were not merely regulated but were also

completely transform ed as a res u lt o f the separation O f powers
(legislative executive and j udicial) The tribunals no longer
formed as they ha d done under the ancien reg ime bodies at
once administrative and j udicial ( the sheriff s were replaced by
mere municipal offi cers) The j udicial organization resembled
that which Joseph I I h ad in vain attempted to introduce
justices of t h e peace correctional tribunals tribunals of rst
insta n ce courts o f appeal court of cassation
The a d min is
t ra t iv e system exhibit ed an equal care for simplicity a n d
uniformity the communes being grouped into cantons t h e
cantons into districts , and the districts into departments
The Directory whi ch exercised the executive power after
O ctober 27 I 79 5 imposed extraordinary contributions upon
Belgium alleging in excuse that it ought to contribute t o t h e
cost o f th e war of liberation
I t then proceeded to apply
to Belgium the French scal system by which the charge s o n
the various districts were increased more especially o n the
former country of Liege I n striki ng at the citizens in easy
circumstances the Directory stru c k a dual blow ; it attacked
the privileged classes and it bled them for the prot o f the
government Rigorous measures were employed to recover
arrears : the military and the gendarmes employed force
against the recalcitrant The Directory was moreover ill
s erved by unscrupulous agents wh o regarded their missions
as giving t hem the right to irritate and pillage freebooters
in a hurry to make their fortune men o f tarnished reputation
l o wborn Jacobins
The general result was a shameless
exploitation both of the property of the State and of t hat
o f
private persons
The government at rst had recourse t o less violent means in
order to deprive the clergy by law o f the social functions whi ch
they had exercised in the past I n 1 797 it issued orde rs for the
.

B elgium

21 2

u n d er

Fren ch Ru l e

the Directory But their opposition did n o t develop into

insurrectionary movements In their turn the rural classes
were especially aff ected by the d e c ge e of the Directory ordering
a large l evy o f militia to me c i the prospect of war wh ich grew
constantly more threatening ( I 79 8) The law o f c o nsc rip t io n
calle d to the colours all citizens between the ages o f twenty
and twentyv e but it had no t been applied to Belgium owing
to the fear that it would provoke risings analogous to those
o f La V end ee
The rst manifestations of resistance o n the part of the
conscripts occurred in the district o f Waas where they were
dispersed by the gendarmes But t he agitation spread from
district t o district and bands of young men cut down the
trees o f liberty destroyed the registers of the civil state o n
which conscription was based and molested the o i c ial s wh o
were known to be attached to the government The in su rre c
tion spread most widely in the Campine The rebels attacked
Malines in order to c u t the communications between Antwerp
and B russels but were repulsed T h e t o c sin sounded in almost
every part o f Flanders ; the peasants arme d t h e mse lve s with
muskets pistols or swords such as they possessed ; many had
only forks o r clubs The troops sent against these brigan ds
a s they were termed by the agents of the Directory dispersed
them and proceeded t o a general hunt a domicil iary vi sitation
of the houses in the insurgen t villages The repression was
p itiless bands Of peasants surprised in the suburbs o f Turnhout
fell back o n Herenthals where they attempted a defence ;
the little town was carried by assault and se t o n re by the
troops O ther bands concentrated on Diest and then o n
Hasselt where t h e y h ast ily repaired the old fortications o f
the place For almost a whole day they withstood the attack
of the soldiery but eventually retreated after su ff ering heavy
losses This defeat marke d the end of this peasants war
.

'

'

Mi lit ary

O ccupa ti o n

A nn exa ti o n

an d

21 3

which g ave t o Henri Conscienc e the inspiration for one of his

most moving romances
Thi s insurrection which was attributed by the Directory
to the i ntrigues of the p riests formed the pretext for a series
of opp ressive measures directed against the clergy and the
prac tic e of t he Catholic faith I t o rdered the bell s of the
chu rches to be taken down b roken up and the metal sold to
the Creusot works Lists of those priests who had n o t taken
the required oath were drawn up and large numbers o f them
were deported O f thes e many were se n t to the I sle o f R ;
others were dispatched to Guiana where they fell victims
to the dry gu illotine as the fever was call ed Many of t h e
parish priests escaped the search for th em lying hid in the
houses of their compatriots but a large number of parishes
were dep rived of their pastors and it was in these places that
there were held blind masses that is masses celebrated in
the absence of an offi ciating priest
During more than a year Belgium was placed under a rgime
of e xception The Directory and it s agents devised various
m ea ns o f terrorizing the country : mil itary occupation of
places deportation of hos t a ges nes an d exacti on s o f money
The troops gave them selves up to such excesses that their mere
approa c h was often enough to produce a general panic in the
vill ages
The admin istra t i on was entirely arbitrary ; the
communes through whi ch the bands o f peasants had passed
were held responsibl e f o r the spread of the revolt and the very
areas whi ch had b een most wasted were condemned to pay the
heaviest nes Finally a fresh purgation of the municipal and
departmental council s was undertaken and the election s
ordere d In general the commissaries o f the D irectory acted
un d er t h e p retext of regenerating
as ve ritable tyrants ;
institutions they prolonge d beyond all reason the reg ime
of the conquest
.

B elgiu m

2 14

iii

u n d er

Fren ch Ru l e

The Nap ole o ni c Go ve rnme nt

1 799 1 8 1 4

The co up d e ta t o f 1 8 Brumaire ( November 9 1 799) was

received in Belgium with indiff erence Expectation that the
French control of the country would be o f brief duration
prevented the former not ables from rall ying to the new
rgime The Consulate endeavoured to restore order and to
reorga n iz e the administration
The prefects who were
placed at the heads of the Belgian departments were all
foreigners but they were instruct e d to select o i c ials not merely
from such Belgians as were supporters of the government but
also from those who were opposed to it The la tter however
in general declined t o exercise their functions and many o f
the municipal councils remained incomplete By degrees
p ublic security was re established and brig and age ceased
Commerce revived and the Bourse at Antwerp was reopened
in 1 80 1
Bonaparte was not co n cerned solely with the restoration o f
civil peace but was anxious also to secure religious peace
although with the proviso that the bishops should be converted
into ecclesiastical prefects All the bishops appointed in
Belgium after the conclusion of the Concordat ( 1 8 02) were
foreigners He aroused violent opposition among the Belgian
clergy by the organic articles which in reality modied the
Concordat and made the imperial church a State church
S tevens former vicar of the chapter o f Namur refused to enter
into communion with the new bishops and attacked the
imperial catechism which in his opinion gave too great a pl ace
to t h e worship of the emperor
The censors hi p decreed under the Directory an d denitely
organized under the Consulate in 1 8 00 restricted political
liberty but was not exercised with regard to scientic and
The French language was imposed on t he
literary works

'

B e lgi u m

21 6

u n d er

R u le

F re n ch

Antwerp and the construction of a eet the ag of which

should be constantly displayed between the Scheldt and the
Tha mes Antwerp was the chief obj ective of the English
expedition which to ok place in 1 8 09 and resulted in the
i
occupation of the island of Walcheren The hesitation a r d
lack of skill o f the English commanders resulted in the failure
of this enterprise Bernadotte hurried from Wagram and
had time t o collect the scanty forces which he found in the
neighbourhood of Antwerp ; he succeeded in intimidat ing
the enemy who decimated by fever abandoned Zealand
The same year Napoleon ordered the construction of vast
works f o r the extension and defence of the port of Antwerp
I n 1 8 1 1 he visited them and was struck by the activity which
prevailed in the newly built basins ; the Flemings h e said
cannot complain of the French a dministration : in a few
years it has created the elements of industrial and commercial
wealth in a country hi therto abandoned to its own resources
The emperor was deceived as t o the b enets of hi s govern
ment I t is true that at rst Be lg iu m beneted from the large
market which France off ered f o r it s industry and commerce
b u t the continental blockade soon an n ih ila t e d t h e se advantages
Antwerp declined as a commercial port to become a formidable
military harbour and an arsenal The whole of Flanders was
organized with a view to the defence of the positio n of Antwerp
and Ghent became the seat o f the h igh command of the army
of la Tete de Flandre
Economic distress only increased
and it helped to intensify the feeling of passive hostility which
had never ceased to exist
The efforts of the imp e fi al government to Gallicize the
Belgian people were especially obstructed by the clergy
particularly after the breach between Pius VII and Napo leon
At the natio nal council of 1 8 1 1 the bishops of Ghent
Tournai and Namur demanded the release of the pope ; the
,

'

Th e N a po l eo n i c

G o v ernment

21 7

rst two were interned in a fortress and forced to resign their

pos i tions
Antipathy always existed between the conquerors and the
c onqu ered The imperial offi cials were feared ; they failed to
m ake the mselves popular or to make the Napoleonic rgime
b eloved That rgime was ch arac terized by an ever increasing
despotism an e xampl e of whi ch was aff orded by the in solence
of the gov e rnment in the case o f We rb ro uck Mayor of Antwerp
This magistrate accused of conniving at frauds committed
agains t the customs was acqui tted b u t the em peror at once
annulled the j udg ement by a sena tus consul tum Never did
N apoleonic despotism show itself m ore impatient o f any
obstacle o r less respectful of indi vidual liberty Aversion to
the sovereign increased in proportion to the increasing number
of men whom he demanded for waging hi s murderous cam
.

p ai g n s.

Belgium s h ared the destinies of France down to

when
the allies invaded the Napoleonic empire O n February I in
that year B russels was evacuated ; Antwerp defended by L azare
Carnot who distinguished hi mself by hi s care for the civil ian
population capitulated some days later Almost at the same
time the C ongress of Ch i t illo n decide d tha t France should be
reduced to her fronti ers of 1 79 2 and tha t Holland should
receive an a ccession of territory The Congress o f Vienna
declared the former B el gian provinces t o be ownerless lands
and united them with Holl and to form the kingdom of the
Netherla nds
The occupation of B elgium by the a ll ies
produced serious c ala mities requisi ti ons pill age and a food
c risis Finall y the battle of Waterloo (June 1 8
at which
the Belgian contingent excited attention by i t s bravery in the
assault of Mont S aint J ean secured the deliverance o f the
country By the second Treaty of Paris ( 1 8 1 5) F rance was
compelled to cede P hi lipp eville M ariembourg and Bouill on
.

B elgiu m

218

u n d er

Fren ch R u le

which had been acquired by her un d er t h e Peace o f the

Pyrenees
For more than twenty years Belgium had been subj ected
to a Galliciz ing process : her n ationality had remained La
Tour d u Pin Prefect of the Dyle ( Brabant) bore witness to
this fact when he left Brussels in 1 8 1 3
This people he said
is neither English n o r Austrian nor a n ti French ; it is
Belgian
As a result o f the foreign domination patrioti c
sentiment was strengthened But on the other han d the whole
political organization had been remoulde d society had been
revolutio n ized and no o n e wished to return to the o ld state
of things The fact was that the rgime o f the privileges
monopolies and monarchy by right divine had seen it s day
Belgium emerged from this time of trial entirely renovated
by the ado ption o f the principle of the equality o f citizens
before the law and by the propaganda in favour o f modern
liberties and of national sovereignty
.

,
.

B elgi u m

2 20

reu n

ited

to H o ll a n d

contributed to their diff usion

These social diff erences
arose mainly from the divergency in the economic activity
of the two countries : Holland Was essentially commercial
whil e Belgium was agricultural and manufac t uring Economi
cally the two districts might have completed one another
and promoted the material development o f each other
Unhappily the nancial situation o f the two countries was very
far from similar : Holl and had a debt o f almost two mill iards
of o rin s while that o f Belgium amounted only to thirty
millions
William I had hi mself limited his power by means of the
fundamental law
which permitted the nation to
share the legislative power ; two chambers representing the
nation under the archaic and misleading title o f States General
we re to assemble alternately at a Dutch and at a Belgian town
But the me mbers of the u pper chamber or Senate were nomi
n a t e d f o r li fe by the king persona lly and those of the second
chamber were elected from among the members o f the provin
c ial S tates over which t h e royal commissio n ers or governors
exercised a preponderati ng inuence These chambers voted
the ordinary budget f o r a term of ten years with the result
that their control over the executive was appreciably reduced
The ministers were n o t responsible
The constitution
guaranteed civil liberties and freedom of worshi p but all
the laws and decrees o f the Napoleonic period subsisted with
the result that the cen tralization o f the a dministration allowed
the king to exercise his personal power He maintained f o r
example in order to pr eserve hi s control over the press a
decree issued by Napoleon during the Hundred Days against
j ournals which disturbed the publ ic peace or whi ch showed
themselves favourable t o the rule of a foreign power This
decree established a special court for the punishmen t of such
crimes o r off ences
.

Wi ll i am

an d

th e

Fun d amen ta l

Law

22 1

As

a m atter of form the fundamental law was submitted

to the notables of Belgium The Belgians protested against
the article under which the second chamber was to contain
an equal number o f Belgian and D utch deputies on the
ground that the population of Belgium formed three f t h s of
that o f the whole kingdom The Belgian episcopate resisted
the provision for the equality o f all creeds The vicars ge n eral
of the diocese of Ghent solicited from the Congress o f Vienna
the restoration in Belgium o f all the privileges which t h e
Catholi c Church had enj oyed prior to the French conquest
Prince Maurice de B roglie Bishop of Ghent published a
pastoral letter recommending the rej ection o f the fundamental
law A large m aj ority of the notables ( 5 27 o u t of 796) ac t ually
declared in favour of rej ection About a quarter o f these
voted against the equality Of creeds while more than a hundred
abstained from recording their votes at all The kin g regarded
the ab stentions a s votes in favour o f the law and setting
aside the negative votes based o n Opposition t o the equality
declare d that the fundamental law was approved
o f c reeds
This method of treating votes was described as Dutch
arithmetic
The bishops headed by the ery Bishop of Ghent at on ce
proclaim ed that to take the oath to the constitution would
be to betray the most sacred interests o f religion
Thanks
to the concil iatory attitude o f the Vatican how e ver the
government found a solution o f the diffi culty ; the oath was
considered as indicating merely political adhesion to the
principle s em bodied in the fundamental law But the
Bishop of Ghent continued his campaign against the govern
m ent
By order of the king proceedings were instituted
against him ; he ed and was condemned t o deportation f o r
contumacy
.

B elgium

22 2

r eu n

ited

to H oll a n d

f A ssimila ti on
Willi am I off ended t h e aristocracy and the Ieisured classes
by the fact that he selected from their number only a few
Of his ministers diplomatists and high offi cials He off ended
them still further by the fact that he imposed the Dutch
language as the only o i c ial tongue in the Flemish districts
many careers were thus closed to the sons of those
families wh o had received a purely French education The
increase of French culture among the bo urge oisie had been
accelerated by immigration ; a large number of refugees and
political fugitives Bonapart ists and Republicans had crossed
the frontier from France and Belgian art itself rel ied upon the
prestige o f the great David who was an exile at B russels As
f o r the lower class in the Flemish districts they were so ignorant
that they prided themselves on S peaking a diff erent language
from the Dutch
The king believed that he co uld gain the sympathy o f the
Belgians by showing particular regard for their m aterial
interests He gave vigorou s support to Belgian industry by
securing f o r it the aid o f many Dutch capitalists and he shared
in the foundation o f several manufactu res
From the economic point o f vi ew the union with Holland
promised great advantages being esp ecially favourable to the
development of external trade and of industry on a large scale
The Dutch colonie s constituted valuable markets and the
commercial expansion o f Holland could not fail to prot
Belgian manufactures William I always paid very special
attention to the economic interests of his realm He completed
the system of communications : Maastricht was united t o
Bois l e Duc by the William canal
Ghent to Terneuzen
by a wide canal ( 1 8 25 7) the canal o f Pommeroeul t o Antoing
made possibl e the conveyance by water o f coal to the Scheldt
ii

Diicul ti es

B elgi u m

22 4

re u n

ite d

to H o ll a n d

I n order to m aintain n ational industry the government from

1 8 2 1 remitted more than a mi llion o rin s annually o f the
receipts of the d ou a ne although at the same time in order to
encourage commerce it reduced the protective tariff with t h e
result that Belgian industries were forced to en gage in a d ii c u l t
struggle against foreign compe tition The economic interests o f
Holl and as a commercial country were in opposition to those
the former
o f Belgium whi c h was ag ricultural and industrial
desired free trade the latter protection The situation was still
further complicated as a result of the nancial diffi culties with
which the government had to contend Holland had a vast
debt in 1 8 1 4 and under the Treaty of Eight Articles Belgium
I n order to meet thi s debt
was forced to bear one half o f this
and to make good the decit in the budget the king had
recourse to new imposts which weighed heavil y upon the
Belgian provi nces
The economic change resulting f m the establ ishment o f
great capitalistic enterprises and the use of mac hi nery had their
effect upon social l ife O n the one hand there developed
a powerful industrial aristocracy which recall ed the no u vea u x
r i ches o f the sixteenth century and the inuence of which
wa s constantly increasing
O n the other hand there came into
exi stence an ever growing prolet ariate the situation o f which
w as precarious since it s members were at the mercy o f economic
crises and were not organized in defence o f their o wn interests
The king and the government were ready to come to the
assistance o f the unemployed but they devised no means o f
permanently remedying the evils o f the position of the
industrial proletariate Their situation like that o f the agric ul
tural labourers was rendered still more unsatisfactory by the
scal policy o f the government
William also relied upon the spread o f education t o draw
the two nationalities t o gether and to e ff ec t tha t complete
,

'

D i

cu l ti e s

f A ss i mi l a ti o n

2 25

and i ntim ate assimilation wh ich was desired by the powers

He organized three universities (Ghent Louvain and Li ege)
'
man y se c o n d a ry schools and primary schools under government
control
D espite everything the assimilation did n o t take place An
acute observer the Austrian minister at the court of the
Netherlands declared from the rst The kin gdom o f the
Netherlands will never be consolidated and will never full
it s mission in Europe as long as the constitutional and a d min is
t ra t ive union is not replaced by a federal system
The rst breach bet ween the Belgian and Dutch deputies
occurred in 1 8 2 1 on the subj ect of the measu res needed t o meet
the ever growing decit The government scheme proposed
the imposition o f taxes upon the grinding of corn and the
slaughter of cattle and was vigoro usly although ineff ectively
combated by the Belgian representatives on the ground that
these taxes would weigh more heavily upon the rural classes
in Belgi u m tha n upon those in Holland f o r the latter con
sumed potatoes to a much greater extent than the Belgians
and there were in Holland only a small number o f p etty
cattle farmers raising beasts for their o wn consumption
The e ducational policy o f the government aroused a lively
opposition on the part of the clergy I t aimed at monopolizing
public i nstruction or at least securing State control o f all
educational establish ments Many religious houses refused to
ask for the authorization required for conducting s chools
and were closed
But what excited still more discontent among the clergy
was the attempt of Will iam I t o form a national clergy
imbued with L iberal principles an d devoted to the government
I n 1 8 2 5 he establ ished a philosophical college at Louvain
which was intended to replace the classes in philosophy which
prepared for the seminaries all intending t o ente r the seminaries
.

1 8 3 2 -1 2

B elgium

22 6

reu n

ited

to H o ll a n d

for training priests were compelled rst t o attend this coll ege
The king was convinced that he did not exceed the limits of
hi s civil authority since u nl ike Joseph I I he did not regulate
the seminaries thems e lves but only the institutions preparatory
to them
De G e rl ac h e a lawyer made himself the exponent o f
the Catholic grievances in the rst States General and the
champion of liberty of education
William I attempted to
calm the Catholic agitati on by negotiating a concordat with
the pope ( 1 8 27) regulating the election of bishops and stip u
lating for the crea t ion of three new bishoprics in the Dutch
provinces Through the Vatican he let the Belgian clergy
know that attendance at the p hi losophi cal college would n o t
be required from future seminarists This retreat o n the part
of the king off ended the Liberals who opened a violent cam
p aig n in the press by means o f the organ o f Louis de Potter
William then wish e d t o draw back and maintained the system
o f the philosophical coll ege
De Potter still continued his
attacks upon the government and published in the Courrier d e s
P ays B as an article urging the Liberals to cease their campaign
against the Jesuits and instead to deride cover with shame
and proscribe the supporters o f the government
For this
he was sentenced t o eighteen months imprisonment and a ne
His d efenders Van Meenen and Van de Weyer delivered
eloquent speeches the political allusions in which aroused real
enthusiasm and the Liberal deputies vigorously demanded
liberty of the press as the L iberals o f France were doing at
the same period
.

'

i ii

The Uni o n

f 1 8 28
From 1 8 28 there began at rst at Liege and later at Brussel s
and in the rest of the count ry a r appro che me nt between the
Catholics and the Liberals which e ventually developed into the
.

B elgiu m

228

re u n

ited

H o ll a n d

to

repressive measures Except a few extremists however no

one thought of a revolution ; the aim was merely a change in
the political system on the lines o f the programme o f the
Union The j ournalist de Potter o n e of the chiefs of that party
who had been condemned t o eight years banishment demanded
liberty in all things and for all an d Oppos ed the sovereignty
o f the constitutio n
al charter to that of the king
.

"

12

Th e

R e v o lu ti o n of

83 0

(
i

in gd o m of B elgi um

th e K

8 3 0

I n i ti a l D is tu r ban ces (A ugu s t

Sep te mber

)
AT rst sight it appeared to be probable that the July
revolution in Franc e would produce no corresponding e ff ect
upon the L o w Countries I t is true that the Liberal press
celebrated the three glorious days o f the Barricades and that
they predicted the fate o f Polignac f o r the Minister of Justice
Van Maanen who w as reputed to be the king s evil geni us
But the general t emper o f the people remained calm and the
king noticed no signs of unrest when in August he visited the
brilliant industrial exhibition which was in progress at Brussels
Certain high offi cials however warned him n o t to rely t o o
condently upon appearances and the Chamberlain Count
Mercy d Arg e n t e au even p ressed him t o remain in Belgium
None the less it wa s with the most complete condence that
the king return ed to his ch ateau of L o o in Guelderland
Meanw hi le the emissaries of the French Radical party
conducted secret intrigues with the more extreme opponents
of the Dutch system such as the advocate G e n d e b ie n who
attempted although without success to secure the c o Opera
tion of the g overnment o f Louis Philippe French cockades
p resently appeared in the streets of Brussels ; the cri es Vive
V i v e l a l i be r t
were raised and it was clear that
l a F r a n ce
the most trivial incident might produce an explosion Such
an incident w as supplied o n August 2 5 the day following the
king s birthday : Som e weeks before the public had been much
excited by the p resentation of an Opera called L a Mue t te d e
.

15

R ev o lu ti o n of

Th e

23 0

83 0

it had frantically applauded a piece which by the

nature o f its subj ect the revolt o f the Neapolitan Masaniello
against the Spaniards lent itself t o demonstrations against the
government The chief o f police however did not think it
necessary t o prohibit a further production of the piece at th e
Th eatre de la Monnaie
Before the close o f the performance the crowd m ad e its
way to the off ices of Le N a t ional the windows of which were
broken and then proceeded t o sack the residence o f L ib ry
and t o set o n re tha t of Van Maanen Next day the m o b
began t o pillage shops and t o destroy factories Taken unawares
t h e police and the military authorities did nothi ng to check
these disorders and a civic guard was organiz ed by a few
energetic citiz ens including some former offi cers such as
Van der Smissen and Pl e t in c kx with t h e approval of the
governor O rder was actually resto
b ut as early as August 2 8
the Liberal j ournalist D u c p t iau x
hoisted the Belgian ag
o n the tower o f the
town hall and the movement thus
assumed a denitely national character O n the evening o f
the same day fteen notables met in the former hall of the
States General in the same building and instructed Van de
Weyer to draft an address to the king demanding the abolition
o f the
disastrous system which had been set up by his
ministers and the immediate summoning of the States General
While these events were taking place at Brussels the king
a ngered by the excesses which had been committed in that
city resolved on the advice o f Van Maanen to dispatch thither
a force o f
men under the command o f P rince Frederic
who was accompanied by his elder brother the Prince o f
O range Neither however received the necessary instructions
as to the attitude which they sh ould adopt towards the council
o f notables and the commanders of the communal guard
They secured that a delegation from these irregular bodies
P o r t i ci

R ev o lu ti o n of

Th e

232

83 0

intensied owing to the refusal o f the king to establish

In a speech delivered
at once a separate admini strative system
at an extraordinary session o f the States General he declared
his opposition to any concession t o faction and to any measures
which would s acrice the well being o f the fatherland to
passion and violence
was

The Re v o lu tio nary D ays (Sep te mbe r

O c t o ber

)
September 20 marked the beginning of a new phase in the
history o f the revolution Some popular bands mingled with
the volunteers from Li ege invaded the town hall and
demanded arms in order to meet force by force according t o
the wish of the leaders of the Central Union Anarchy was at
it s height when there arrived ( September 2 1 ) an ultimatum
from Prince Frederic who was approaching the city with
men
The notables including even G e n d e b ie n
Van de Weyer and Count Felix de M erode had left the town
All despaired o f the future knowing that Brussels was not
prepared f o r defence
We are in want of arms munitions
and money wrote G e n d e bie n to de Potter who was then
at Paris
O n September 2 3 the main body of the Dutch army
easily forced an entry by t h e gate o f Schaarbeek and installed
itself in the Park and the palaces But it was hardly able to
penetrate into the neighbouring streets where the rebels
had erected barricades Three small columns which attempted
t o enter the city by other gates were checked near them by
a cross re from the barricades and neighbouring houses O n
the 24t h news arrived that the Dutch general C o rt h e ylig e rs
after a battle fought to the north o f Louvain had abandoned
the idea o f taking that city and hundreds o f peasants called
t o arms by the tocsin hurried to Brussels
At the news o f
these unexpected successes Van d e We ye r and G e n d e b ie n soon
ii

zo

21

"

'

Th e

R ev o lu ti o n ary

D a ys ( S ept

0ct

2 0

23 3

made their way back to B russels distributing an

Appeal to

the people
Thenceforward a certain number of the bourge o isie
helped to swell the ranks o f the revolutionaries wh o continued
their victorious resistance to the Dutch troops At thi s stage
a p rovisional government was established at the town hall
S eptember 26 saw a further increase in the resistance and during
the course of that night Prince Frederic di scouraged secretly
left the city with h is exhausted troops
All reconciliation with the king was now impossible
The
memory of the martyrs of September inamed patriotic
sentiment and secured the triu mph o f the idea o f complete
independence for Belgium
The provisional government
entru sted a central committee ( de Potter Rogier Van de
Weyer de M ro d e G e n d e b ie n) with the executive power and
summoned a national congress ( O ctober
an imitation of the
National Assembly of the American Republic
I t was in vain that the Prince o f O range issued a proclama
tion from Antwerp in order to secure for himself the govern
ment of the country in the name o f his father Simultaneously
King W illia m addressed a vigorous appeal t o arms to all his
faithf ul subj ects and urgently demanded the intervention
of England Pru ssia Austria and Russia to subdue the re vo l u
tion He disavowed his so n when the prince in a new proclama
tion recognized B elgium as an independent state Meanwhile
the p atriotic party made rapid progress ; Belgian soldiers
from the garrisons j oined the rebels ; all the towns including
at last G h en t an d Antw erp expelled the Dutch troops and
placed themselves under the authori ty o f the provisional
government The citadel of Antwerp alon e remained in the
power o f the king s forces o n O ctober 2 1 Wil liam I being
anxious to gain time to prepare coercive measures asked
for an armistice and at h is request the conference o f the ve
powers as sem b led in London forthwith imposed one thus
,

'

'

R ev o lu ti o n of

Th e

23 4

83 0

ecognizing the Belgians as belligerents Despite the armistice

the city o f Antwerp was bombarded by the Dutch tro ops
who had been attacked by the m o b during their retirement to
the citadel (O ctober
r

B e lg i um

)
(
f
O n November 1 0 1 8 30 the National Congress met at
Brussels I t was representative of the upper and wealthier
classes its members having been elected by direct su ff rage
by citizens paying a moderate amount in taxes or qualied
f o r the vote on the ground o f the positions held by them
After conrming the powers of the provisional government
the congress proclaimed the independence o f Belgium and by
a large maj ority declared in favour of the establishm ent o f
an hered itary constitutional monarchy I n thi s way it con
ciliated the powers who were very hostile at that time to the
republican system o f government O n the other hand it
off ended them by excluding f o r ever from all au thority the
members o f the House o f O ran ge LNassau th is made impossible
the personal o r family union which was desired by the maj ority
o f the powers
and which was to have been brought about by
the accession to the Belgian throne o f the Prince o f O range
the eldest son o f William I However the Conference o f
London composed o f representatives of the ve powers soon
afterwards proclaimed the principle of the future independence
o f Belgium
William I at once protested and
(December
made every eff ort t o induce the rulers of Prussia Russia and
Austria t o assist him to regain Belgium The year before he
had attered himself that he had only to whistle to bring
the Prussians into Belgium But the King of Prussia Frederic
William II I although urged to intervene by the Russia n
general D ie b it c h was unwilling to take the risk o f undertaking
a European war practically the whole burden of which would
iii F o und a ti o n
.

t he

K i ngd o m

1 8 3 0 1

Th e K

23 6

ingd o m of Belgi u m

of Luxemburg and left ground for hoping that this province

would be preserved f o r Belgium Will iam I refused to su b
scribe to these preliminaries and suddenly declared war on
the King of the Belgians His arms Ee c u re d an easy triumph ;
the Belgian forces badly equipped and badly organized were
defeated at Hasselt and Tirlemont At the moment when they
were driven back o n Louvain they secured the assistance o f
a French army hurried up at the request o f Leopold The
campaign had only lasted ten days ; but it secured for the
King o f Holland a revision o f the p reliminaries The Confer
ence of London decided by the Twenty four Artic l es to grant
t o him the eastern half of Luxemburg and a sect ion o f Limburg
equivalent t o the portion Of Luxemburg left to Belgium
William I however did n o t accept these terms until 1 8 3 9
with the result t h at f o r eight years Belgium provisionally
held the whole o f Limburg and Luxemburg except the
fortresses o f Maas t richt and Luxemburg The Great Powers
however by the treaty o f November 1 5 1 8 3 1 guaranteed the
execution o f these articles and the independence and neutrality
of Belgium
The National Congress whi ch dissolved itself after the
inaugu ration of Leopold I (July 2 1
had determined by
the constitution completed as early as February 2 5 1 8 3 1 the
basis o f the new state I t applied in it the essential principle
o f national sovereignty
thus diff erentiating it from all the
constitutional charters of the Middle Ages ; it declared
formally that all powers emanate from the nation
It
entrusted to the king whose p erson was recognized as inviolate
the executive power as well as a share in the legislative and
j udicial powers The ministers the instruments of executive
pow er were responsible to the legislative chambers ( the
Senate and the Chamber of D eputies) These chambers
which were elected d irectly according to the method prescribed

Fo u n d a ti o n of

th e K

in g d o m of B el gi u m

23 7

by the constitution were to vote the b u dget annually and also

to settle the annual contingent of the army The constitution
p roclaimed in addition to the liberty o f the individual freedom
of association and the right of public meeting and the free
u se o f languages
as w ell as the liberty of the press liberty o f
wors h ip these t wo last rights being pressed for by t h e Liberals

and liberty of education which was especially demanded

by the Catholics who further secured the complete in d e p e n
d ence of the Church The co n stitution was the most liberal in
Europe and L am e n n ais was j ustied in saying that its spirit
m a d e Belgium the natural enemy o f P russia This constitution
was the product o f the unio n o f the Catholics and the Liberals
which had been formed a s has been seen t o check the extension
of S tate control designed by the King o f Holl and Moreover
a s a result of the reaction against this centralizing policy it
assigned a considerable share o f authority to the communes
but within limits c ompatible with the unity o f the state ; the
constitution thus revealed the prestige of the o ld self governing
civic communities and supplied a link between the present
and the past O n the other hand it left in existence practically
the whole structure of centralized administration as well as
the civil and penal codes which had resulted from the French
government o f the country and had been maintained under
Dutch rule These codes had been moreover elaborated in
accordance with the principle o f the equality of citizens which
was also p roclaim ed by the constitution
Thus t h e new state rested on three essential bases the
sovereignty of the people liberty and equality I t will be
seen that there was no connexion between the constitution and
the m ediaeval charters of the Belgian principalities Those
c harters emanated from the sovereign power of the prince
and sanctioned privileges or monopoli es to the advantage o f
orders poli tical or religious corporations associations or
,

Th e K

23 8

i ngd o m of B elgiu m

even of private persons The Belgian constitution was the

work of the representatives o f the nation or at least o f the
representatives o f what is known as the pays lgal that is
the body consisting o f all the classes deemed to be enlightened
and it was inspired by the ideal of combining the maximum
o f liberty with the
greatest possible measure of equality I t
also realized f o r the rst time the complete unity o f Belgium
it fused into a single nation possessed o f national consciousness
all the small states Flanders Brabant the district of Liege
Limburg the district o f Namur Hainault and Luxemburg
which had for many centu ries been united by common political
and social traditions by economic needs by their aspirations
and by their memories of their past
The constitution thus opened a new era while it was the
result o f age long strivings towards autonomy and independence
It was singularly well adapted to the land o f those e nergetic
and obstinate communities wh o deed despots and conquerors ;
who often as they were subdued bore themselves after every
storm as did the Ligeois of the Middle Ages o f whom it was
said in foreign lands touj ours ils redressent leurs cretes
( they always raise their heads again)
.

In d epen d en t

2 40

B elgi u m

E xper me n

ta l S ta ge

magazine may be said t o day with still more truth of the

Dutch
Fearing that he would hav e to bear the whole bru nt of war
Frederic William II I resigned hi mself to accept thef a i t a cco mpli
In a letter to
o f the separation o f Belgium f rom Holl and
Nicholas I he emphasized the fact that their union had been
e ff ected in 1 8 1 5 not in the interest of the House of O range
but in that o f Europe ; and he insisted o n the paramount
necessity of safegu arding the latter in the present circum
stances He silenced his heart he said so as to hear only the
d ictates of public reason
Metternich severely blamed the King o f Prussia for failing
to intervene from the rst in the Belgian revolution and in
n o measured terms
described the treaty o f November I 5 as
scandalous
but he found himself crippled by the re v o lu
He
t io n ary movements whi ch disturbed the north of Italy
aimed n evertheless at the establishment o f close c o operation
between the three absolute powers with the obj ect o f destroying
as far as possible the work of the Conference o f London by
dissolving it
The Tsar o n his side seem ed determined never to recognize
the prince who was placed at the head of this republican
monarchy which had shatt e red one of the chief creations o f
the Congress o f Vienna the kingdom of the Netherlan d s
He declared that in any case he would n o t recognize t h e King
of the Belgians until the King of Holland had done so
Thus the ratication of the treaty of November 1 5 was
extremely problematical especially as even France f o r a time
looked o n it with disfavour Louis Philippe was annoyed at
the concessions which Leopold had made to t h e four other
powers with regard to the fortresses In h is speech from th e
throne in July 1 8 3 1 h e had ostentatiously laid stress on the
destruction of the b arrie r created against France boasting
'

Th e

B el g o

Q u esti o n

Du tch

24 1

of it as the most brilliant result o f his diplomacy Moreover

Talleyrand had persu aded him from the rst that no sooner
was the neutrality of B elgium recognized than the fortre sses
would so to speak fall of their own accord
The wish
w as father to the thought
He did not ignore the fact that
his colleagues at the Conference believed in preserving as far
as possible the work o f the Congress o f Vienna They admitted
however that the independence and the neutrality o f Belgium
e n tailed modic ations in it s military situation ; that it was
necessary in p articular to demolish the fortresses the upkeep
of which would henceforth be a useless drain on the country
U nprovided with adequate garrisons they would prove rather
a danger than a safegu ard to B elgium So the absolute powers
imposed o n King Leopold as a condition of their adherence
to the twenty four articles special arrangements i n the
determination of which England also took part which c u l
m in at e d in the Conventio n o f the Fortresses ( December 1 4
only the town s of Menin Ath Mons Philippevil le
and M ariembourg were to be deprived of their fortications
while the other fortresses of the o l d barrier were to be main
The convention was
t ain e d in good condition by Belgium
further conrmed by secret articles which stipulated that in
the e vent of the violation of Belgian territory by France Prussia
and E ngland should assist in the defence of Belgium by occupy
1
n
u
t
in g t h e fortresses in q es io
The list of fortresses to be demoli shed diff ered from that which
had been drawn up a few months earlier as the result o f an
arrangement betwe e n France and Belgium Philippeville and
h f arie m b o u rg ceded by France in 1 8 1 5 had been substituted
for Tournai and Charleroi which were the keys to the valleys
of t h e S cheldt and the S ambre Louis Philippe wrote at once
Th ese l a s s we e a ct ally q te d re tly by ju rist o f Germ a y in
f
d r t j tif y th G erm n i v a i
.

'

or

us

8 3 a-1 2

u e

c en

uo

s on o

242

I ml epen d en t

B el g i u m

Exp eri mental

S ta g e

Leopold : I hope that you will not ratify the convention

which your plenipotentiary has allowed himself to sign and
whi ch we hold to be contrary t o your engagements He even
threatened not to ratify the treaty of November I 5 should
satisfaction be refused him He vigorously urged Talleyrand
t o obtain from E ngland a modication o f thi s measure which
he regarded as humiliating The o l d diplomatist d id not look
at the question in the same way as Lo u is Philippe wh o was
anxious t o parry the attacks which were directed against him
by the Party o f Movement that is the faction which favou red
war Talleyrand s great obj ect was above all n o t t o compromise
t h e English alliance and with it the peace of Europe
If we
maintain peace he wrote to Princess de Vaudemont who
acted as an intermediary between him and Lou is Philippe
the Belgian fortresses will fall o f themselves since no o n e will
undertake their maintenance : if we engage in war we shall
have to take them But he sec u red f o r Louis Philippe a certain
measure o f satisfaction O ver thi s question Van de Weyer
a
displayed real skill by the w
y in which he spared the su sc e p t i
b ilit ie s o f the different powers : he was the chief author of
the declaration o f January 2 3 1 8 3 2 in which the four powers
which had xed the convention concerning the fortresses
recognized that this convention did n o t in any way impair
the sovereignty o f Belgium or her ne u trality I n the course
of the negotiations which p re c e d e d t hi s declaration Van de
Weyer insisted o n the fact that the King of the Belgians
succeeded solely to all t h e rights of the King o f Holland with
regard to these fortresses The absolute powers wished in
like manner to bind Leopold to all the obligations o f the
Dutch king but the Belgian plenipotentiary pointed out t o
them the impossibility o f ad opting such a course of action by
reason of the very neutrality guaranteed to Belgium by the ve
powers All that the powers which distrusted France could
to

In d e p en d en t B elgzn m

Experi men ta l

2 44

S ta g e

which was to swell its numbers to a hundred thousand by t he

end o f the year 1 8 3 2 But by thus displaying it s sympathy
with the Polish revolution Belgium beca me yet more odious
to the Tsar Accordingly he categorically reproved the
conciliatory attitude of h is representatives at the Conference
an attitude which consisted according to the
o f London
words o f Ma t u sc e wic o n e o f their number in bringing about
a compromise between the principles of j ustice and the
demands o f re ality
Nicholas I then sent Count Alexis
O rloff to whom he had often before entrusted delicate
missions t o The Hague The secret instructions whi ch he gave
him enj oined him t o prevent by any means in his power
a close alliance between France and E ngland in o rd e r t o keep
them from taking coercive measures with regard t o Holland
But before the Tsar s condant had time t o reach the Dutch
court he received from his master new and totall y diff erent
instructions In fact in the interval the Tsar had obtained
knowledge o f a new draft for a Belgo Dutch treaty devised
by William I in which that king put forward the most absurd
pretensions ; Nicholas even suspected the French Legitimist s
of having urged the Dutch king t o take up this u n compromising
attitude in order t o provoke a general c o n ag rat io n whi ch
they might exploit f o r their own prot He immediately
directed his ambassador t o observe an attitude o f prudent
reserve and to inform King William that Russia would play
a purely passive part that she would take no share whatever
in the coercive measures which the Co nference was preparing
to take against Holland ; but that o n the other hand she
would not oppose their execution William I reaped the fruits
o f his uncompromising policy which imperilled the peace o f
Europe T o quote the Princess o f Lieven wife o f the principal
representative o f Russia at the Conference of London
The
King of the Netherlands has made an unfair use of the p ro t e c

'

'

246

I n d e p en d en t

B e l gi u m

E xp eri men tal

S ta g e

tion off ered to him and found in it an encouragem e nt to

resistance which forces the other powers ( France and England)
to declare themselves in favour of the treaty She fores aw
before O rlo ff s mission the part that Russia would play at
this j uncture
After all she added to her appreciation
the chief interest of all is to preserve
o f Will iam s tactics
peace and in order to preserve it E ngland must be kept in
the ranks of the all iance and t o keep her there it is absolutely
necessary for all to associate themselves in an act which it
is n o longer humanly possible f o r E ngland to repudiate
By adopting this passive attitude the Tsar in actual fact
although indirectly associated himself with the essential act
elaborated by the Conference of London : he thus gave it
h is tacit approbation
The representatives of Prussia an d Austria at once approved
o f this attitude o f Russia and
at the same time made the
necessary arrangements f o r proceeding t o exchange rat ic at io n s
o f the treaty of November 1 5 subj ect to reserv a
tions with regard
t o the rights o f the Germanic Con f ederation over Luxemburg
This exchange took place o n April 1 8 I 8 3 2 The protocol
was left open in order to enable Russia to p articipate in the
ratication of the treaty But her delegates m ade reserves
with regard to three articles ( the navigation of the Scheldt
the construction of a road across that part o f Limburg which
wa s ceded to Holland the proportion of the Dutch debt t o
be borne by Belgium) observing however that the obj ect o f
these articles did n o t longer require the intervention of the
powers and was a matter only for negotiations between Holland
and Belgium ; and that consequently the latter would
benet despite these reservations by all the pledges made to
her by the ve powers This momentous declaration implied
the adherence of Russia to the essential provisions of the
treaty of November 1 5 The exchange o f the Russo Belgian
,

2 48

In d ep en d en t

B el gi u m : E xp eri mental

S ta g e

monarchy In Belgium patriotic enthusiasm h ad reached

such a height as to imagine that it wou ld be easy to avenge
t h e dis asters of August 1 8 3 1
The government worked feverishly at the mobilization of
a consi d erable army but was met by criticisms o f the war
budget in the chambers Be that as it may Leopold o n the
advice o f St o c km ar adhered to his conciliatory intentions
He informed the Conference that he was willing to enter into
negotiations before the complete liberation of the territory
I n spite o f all this Willi am I persisted in his policy o f obstinate
refusal I t was then that the Conference at length decided
but it s members were far from
o n measures of execution ;
unanimous as to the kind of meas u res t o be employed Wh ile
the delegates o f the absolute courts merely wished t o deprive
Holland o f a part o f those pecuniary advantages which had
been promised to her the English and French delegates were
in favour o f coercion And there was disagreement even
among the two last powers The E nglish min ister ob j ected
to the fresh intervention o f a French army in Belgium ; he
however nally approved o f the report o f Lord Durham
Lord Privy Seal , son in law of Grey and a friend of Leopold I
which pointed out the necessity of in t e rve n t io n in favour o f
the Belgians in order t o put them in possession of Antwerp
a place guaranteed by us and by all Europe
A Franco
English agreement regulat e d the method of intervention
The resul t was that the Russians re tired from the Conference
which was thus momentarily suspen ded France and England
then showed special deference towards Austria and Prussia
and e ven suggested that the latter should occupy a portion of
Limburg which according to the treaty o f November 1 5
should h ave passed t o Holland and was still in Belgian posses
sion : But at the iT sar s instigation the King o f Prussia
refused to lend hims e lf to any measure which might prove

new

B el g o

Th e

Q u esti o n

D utch

2 49

prej udicial to William I and in deance of France disp atched

an army o f observation to the Rhine and concentrated troops
at Aix la Chapelle
O n Nov ember 1 5 1 8 3 2 M arshal Grard crossed t he Belgian
frontier at the head o f an army o f sixty thousand men and
accompanied by the princes of O rlans and Nemours Simul
t an e o u sly an Anglo French squadron was sent to blockad e
t h e Dutch coast while an embargo was laid o n Dutch ships
under orders from the French o r English governments The
Belgian army was unable t o c o o perate in the siege of the
citadel of Antwerp an d remained encamped in the neighbour
hood o f Diest King Leopold however establis hed his head
quarters at Lierre ready to rep u lse a possible invasion by
the Dutch army on the frontier The Prince of O range wh o
was there dare d no t giv e them the order t o advance at the
moment when he heard the noise of the bombardment of the
famous cit adel The Dutch garrison commanded by General
Chass o ff ered an heroic resistance and refused t o capitulat e
until spent by exhaustio n and lack of water The citadel was
handed back to Belgium but the forts o f Lillo and L ie fke n s
hoek rem ained in the possession of Holland which furnishe d
the Belgian government with an excellent excuse for refusing
to evac u ate th ose parts of Limburg and Luxemburg wh ich
were to be ceded to Holl and in accordance with the treaty o f
November 1 5 William I still hoped to recover the Belgian
p rovin ces by t h e help of a counter revolution or a crisis in
Eu ro pe Belgiu m was in a state o f exasperation at the slowness
of the diplomatic negotiation s The Chamber of Representatives
attacked the ministry in its impatience to put an end to this
system of temporization : I t is hi gh time cried one o f its
most inuential members Charles de Bro u c k re wh o had
formerly been Minister for War that we stop being English
and b e com e Belgians
The Belgian chamber
o r French

In d ep en d en t

25 0

B el g i u m

xp eri men ta l

S ta g e

ignorant of the details of the diplomatic negotiations did not

realize the attitude actually assumed by the cabinet during
their course It was j ust then under the inuence o f the
impression which had been produced by an unseasonable
demonstration from deputy Man guin in the French chamber
this man had insisted o n two occasions that Belgium should
herself bear the expense o f expeditions undertaken in order t o
force the King of Holland to agree t o the decisions reached by
the powers General Goblet wh o had taken the direction o f
foreign aff airs had addressed vigorous protests t o t h e cabinet
at the Tuileries ; but he had not informed the Belgian
chamber o f this for fear of endangering the peace of E urope
It was useless f o r him t o insist on the fact that France an d
England had undertaken n o t to relax their coercive measures
with regard t o Holland s o long as t h e latter neglected t o c o n
c l u d e some kin d of agreement with Belgium whether nal
o r provisional
as a proof of their determination loyally to
full all obligations laid upon them by the treaty o f Novem
ber 1 5 The Belgian chamber continued to assail the ministry
with such bitterness that t h e latter ended b y resigning It
was then that Leopold I availed himself for the rst time o f
a prerogative to which he only had recourse in exceptional
circumstances namely the dissolution o f the chamber During
this period almost the whole o f the press kept up the agitation
accusing the former ministers of too much submission to the
foreign powers The O range party o r advocates o f a recon
ciliation with Holland who were still numerous in Ghent
and Antwerp proted by the occasion The M a nager d e
Ga nd called the national representation The Assembly o f
I diots and the king an I dle Usurper surrounded by
intriguers and imbeciles At Antwerp the O range party
formed into a group and founded th e society of Loyalty
Bu t like their friends at Ghent and Brussels they were e xposed
,

25 2

I n d e p en d en t

B el g i u m

E xp eri men ta l

S ta

ge

From t hat time the King o f Holland practicall y recognized

the head of the new kingdom Accordingly all the powers
with t h e exception of Russia immediately entered into diplo
matic r e lations with Leopold
An immediate renewal of the Conference of London Was
thus made possible and t he Dutch and Belgian ministers
for foreign aff airs were called upon to take an active share in
No agreement could however be reached o n the
t hem
questions o f the navigation o f the Scheldt and the Meuse ;
o f the roads whi ch were designed t o unite Belgium and Ger
many across the part of Limburg ceded t o Ho lland ; and of
the share t o be assigned to Belgium in the Dutch debt con
tracted prior to 1 8 3 0 William I on the other hand contri
buted to postpone the settlement o f the Luxemburg question
by demanding from the Germanic Diet its renunciation of all
rights o n that portion o f Luxemburg which reverted to him
by virtue o f the treaty of November 1 5
B e that as it may the convention of May 2 1 1 8 3 3 wh ich he
h ad signed with King Le opold h ad strengthened t h e inter
national position o f Belgiu m and assured it A s Lord Grey
said to the Princess o f Lie ven
It is a matter o f indiff erence
whether the business is brought t o an end or is left where it
n o w rests
the country is very prosperous and as the convention
o f May 2 1
guarantees peace this provisional state may last
thi rty years and I regard the aff air as settled until bankruptcy
puts an end to the opposition of Holland
Thi s provisional
situation meanwhile obliged Belgium to keep its army o n
a war basis Leopold s attention to military questions dis
pleased amongst others Prince Talleyrand wh o declared t o
Van de Weyer : Your king really ought to be a good arch
duchess protecting the arts and laying arms aside ; in this way
he would cause no anxiety whereas a militarist position and
attitude will please nobody
.

'

Th e

B el g o

D u tch

Q u esti o n

25 3

Willi am I always counted o n som e Eu ropean convulsion

to enable hi m to recover t h e Belgian p rovinces He did
not rega rd as of any acco u nt the partial coercion which
w as exercised ag ainst him by F ranc e and E ngland :
We
wish he de c lared in M ay 1 8 3 4 to b e forced by the ve
po wers and will take no account of a partial coercion like that
of 1 8 3 2 I f the powers are not u n animou s we shall continu e
to refuse any denite arrangement At the worst we prefe r
the road to Siberia to recognizing Leopold
The powers did not agree over the exec u tive measures of
the trea t y o f November 1 5 ; b u t they were u nanimous in
their determination to prevent Belgiu m from acquiring
mil ita ry solidity a nd to reduce h e r capacity for defence unde r
the conviction that the fact o f her neutrality would ensure her
adequate prot ection Most statesmen lost sight of the principle
expressed by Wellington apropos o f the international con
st it u t io n imposed u pon Belgium :
The po wers o f Europ e
Are these
are t o guarantee t h is independence and ne u trality
advantages to depend only upon the good faith with whi ch
each is expected to perform his engagements
Must they not
likewise dep end upon the ability of the guaranteed po wer
to p rotect itself !
This policy o f paralysing Belgi um was
p u rsu ed d u ring the years that followed W hen the German
Diet accepted ( 1 8 3 6) the territorial basis of the treaty o f
November 1 5 it added o n e onerous c ondition namely that
no fortications be established in that part of the grand duchy
of Luxemb u rg which Was left t o B elgium and especially that
Arlon rem ain for ever an u n f o rt ie d town The Brussels
c abinet imm e d iately put in a vigorou s protest but this had no
effect Next year a fresh complication occurred t hi s time
with regard to Prussia The Belgian government had completed
the fortications o f Diest in order to strengthen the line o f the
D e mer which wo u ld have played an important part in t h e
.

25 4

In d e p e n d e n t

B e l gi u m

xp eri menta l

S ta

ge

event of a Dutch invasion The Berlin cabin e t protested

against these measures and even recall ed it s minister ; but
t h e Be lg ian government backed by the cabinet of London
remained rm and completed the works o f d efence
During this period constant diffi culties arose in the province
stirred up by the Prussi an commandant o f
o f Lu xemburg
the city which had remained in the possession o f the federal
troops This offi cer distinguished himself by his brutal and
arbitrary conduct ; on his o wn authority he extended the
radius of the fortress until it nally reached t o a distance o f four
leagues thus inc reasing the disputes with the Belgian au t h o ri
ties O n one occasion he cause d a Belgian to be ogged
under the pretence that this man had ind uce d a Prussian
soldier to desert an d this method of repression rem arked
Treitsc h ke was a very salutary thing anoth er tim e he arreste d
a troop o f Belgian cu stom house offi cers because they were
carrying o n their business within the radius of the fortress ;
he lost no opportunities of preventing militiamen from the
neighbourhood of Luxemburg from j oining their re giments
When the Germa n ic Diet remonstrated with him on this
score he at on ce declared h is inability to comply with it s
wishes The Fren ch and English ministers to the Diet were
frequ ently obliged t o interfere in order to restrain the zeal
and arbitrariness o f this offi cer but they were met at F rankfort
by a vigorous opposition an d were told that these aff airs o f
Luxemburg were n o concern of theirs
The longer the territorial rta tu: quo lasted the more convinced
were the Belgians that their two largest provinces Limburg
and L u xemburg would be left t o them intact with the
exception of the fortresses o f Maastricht a n d Luxemburg
whi ch were occupied respectively by the Dutch and the
Germanic Confederation They were therefore unpleasantly
surprised to learn in the spring o f 1 8 3 8 that William I agreed
.

25 6

Ind epend ent

B el gi um

Experi men tal

S ta ge

of Br u ssels that it was determined to maintain the territor ial

provisions in question I t had been cautioned against France
by Metternich wh o was ever ready to create diffi culties f o r
that country and moreover it was bound t o avoid all European
complications o n account of the growing hostility which it
met with in parliament
Louis Philippe on his side was unable owing to the isolation
o f France
to give t he assistance asked for and diss u aded hi s
so n i n law
from resisting the wil l o f the powers by force
as public opinion in Belg ium f o r the most part where the army
had already been mobilized wished him to do Lou is Phili ppe
ve ry wisely pointed out to him the disa d vantageou s position
o f the western frontier o f the country :
Maastrich t and
L uxemburg in enemy possession render the defence o f the
di stricts o f Limb u rg and Luxemburg impossible
Meanwhile the agitation in B elgium continu ed to increase
and it became the more dangerous from the fact that at this
period the relations between the cabinets o f Brussels and Berlin
were more o r less strained The latter was displeased with
the encouragement lavished by the Belgi an press o n the neo
Catholic movement in the Rhenish provinces The arrest o f
Droste Visc h e ring A rchbishop o f Cologne Was roun
con
d e mn e d by it as also were all the proceedings of the Prussian
governm ent with regard t o the Catholic clergy De Potter a
former publi cist who had played an important part in the
revolution of 1 8 3 0 but who had retire d to Paris after the
defeat o f h is plan f o r a Belgian republic addressed an appeal
t o the Rhenish people in t wo newspapers :
We are free
he said because the people desired liberty D o likewise
O Rhenish ! D are ! And you will be free ! He started
the notion o f a Belgo Rhenish confederation as he h ad
formerly labou red for a Franco Belgi an o r a Belgo D u tch
confederation But the people o f the Rhine provinces
,

B elg o

Th e

Qu esti o n

D u tch

25 7

m ad e no attempt to e ff ect a political rappro c hement with

B elgiu m
At the clos e o f the year 1 8 3 8 the i rrevocable decision of the
powers was m ade known all they consented to was a red u ction
in t h e pecuniary burdens imposed on B elgium This fu rther
in amed the spirit o f patriotism and a National Association
was constituted with a view to c o p p e rat ing by all possible
means in the maintenance of territo rial integrity O n hearing
of these occurrences Metternich exclaimed : I se e what they
are aiming at ; they want to make Belgiu m a city of refu ge
for the J a cobins o f the neighbouring co u ntries We shall no t
al low it ! O ne would think that Belgiu m aspired to become
a s e cond Cracow And his conv i ct i on was further strengthened
when he learnt that the Belgian government had admitted
into the ranks o f the army the Polish general Skrzyn e cki who
would have had th e comm and o f a division which was to be
created in the event of an emergency Austria and P ru ssia
immediately broke o ff diplom atic relations
I n addition t o external complications the Belgian govern

m ent was at t hi s moment faced by internal diffi culties The

Rep u blicans and the O range party t u rned the sit u ation to
their prot and started an active propaganda thro ugh the
press and in meetings Moreover an economic crisis had
broken o u t throwing mill io ns o f artisans o u t o f work and
stopping the Operations o f the B ank o f B elgium so that it was
obliged to s u spend payment
I t was at this grave conj uncture that the chamber was obliged
to prono u nce on the adoption o f the t reaty o f April 1 9 1 8 39
which conrmed in its essentials that of Nov embe r 1 5 1 8 3 1
The acceptance of it was proposed by the min istry which was
reduced to three members s everal ministers having resigned
rather than agree to the dismemberm ent o f the co u ntry
The minist ry itsel f as well as the king refused to b o w before
.

1 8 3 2 -1 2

I n d e p e n d en t

258

B e l gi u m

E xp eri men ta l

S ta ge

the will o f the powers until reduced to the last extremity

and until convin ced that resistance was futile O n the very
day o f the signing o f the treaty Leopold had addressed t o
Queen Victoria a lament over the arrangements forced o n
This country feels now humbled and dre nchan t with
us
it s ro i d iran i political independence as it pleased t h e Confer
ence to settle it T h e y will take a dislike to a political state
whi c h wound : the ir v a ni ty and will in con sequence o f this
A position which it thinks t o o
n o t wi rh i t to con tinue
.

humili a t ing

To

see after eight years of hard work blooming and thriving

political plantations cut and maimed and that by those who
have a real interest t o protect them is very melancholy
The chamber devoted thirte e n sittings to the discussion o f
the Belgo Dutch treaty imposed by the powers as a condition
of the existence o f the kingdom o f Belgium
The ministry (d e Theux No t h o m b ) was subj ected to V i gorous
attacks it was reproached for not having at the outset shown
the impossibility o f extorting territorial concessions an d f o r
having insisted too much o n obtaining pecuniary advantages
B Nothomb who was the moving spirit o f these negotiations
pointed o u t that all these questions were bound up with each
other and that the government had hoped t o be able t o forgo
pecuniary benets in exchange for improved territorial c o n
d it io n s
He eloquently defended the policy which he had
followed and managed to persuade the maj ority of the chamber
to a c cept the treaty after a stirring speech in which he showed
that there was n o dishonour in giving way to Europe (March 1 9
Y et the day before the opposition had seemed f o rmid
able and G e n d e b ie n had created a great sen sation by explaining
his vote against the treaty by the declaration : No three
hundred and eighty thousand No e s o n behalf of the three hundred
and eighty thou sand Belgians whom you sacrice t o fear
,

In d ep en d en t

2 60

B elgi u m

E xp eri men tal

S ta g e

tion so apparen tly revolutionary it s spirit tha t many statesmen

even among those who were most susceptible to the inuence
o f new ideas questioned whether it could be put into practical
operation whether it was consistent with the maintenance of
order and public security Leopold I himself felt doubts on
this point When the representatives o f the Congress off ered
him the crown in the name of t h e nation they communicated t o
him the text of the constitution which the newly formed state
had devised f o r itself and Leopold thereupon expressed t o
his adviser St o c km ar h is misgivings as to the durability o f
the work achieved by the Congress St o c kmar agreed that
the power o f the king and his ministers w as reduced to
very narrow limits but declared that he had full condence
in the nation and recommended his master t o make a loyal
and conscientious eff ort to put into force such liberal c o n st it u
If after some time yo u discover he said
t io n al principles
that good government is incompatible w ith the organic
statute address a message to the chambers and point out to
them the modications necessary Rest as sured that the nation
wil l be with you and that it wil l be glad to accep t changes
which may be shown to be advanta geous
The king shared in the three powers o f government the
legislative executive and j udicial ; but in practice he was more
particularly called upon to exerc ise executive authority and
at the same time t o d irect foreign policy His ministers it is
tr ue were respon sible t o the chambers which thus determined
the political orientation o f the governmen t and o f the head o f
the State The action o f the king was essentially t o regulate
an d to hold the balance
It tended to diminish the strain of
conicts and diff erences bet ween the t wo chambers
At rst these conicts tended to be serious enough The t wo
chambers d id n o t represent the same social classes and cons o
q uently did no t always defend the same i n terests The Senate
,

'

Th e Catho li c-L iberal A scen d a n cy

26 1

consisted only o f mem be rs o f the land e d aristocracy the ne c e s

sa ry qu alication f o r membership o f the body being ve ry high
At rs t the nobles were in such a maj o rity in it that it s eemed
simply a Hous e o f Lords
Amongst them there were
only a few Liberals ; the number of Catholic Liberal s was also
very small but it inclu ded some men o f m arked personality
such as Cou nt de M erode and Vilain XIIII who had played
an important p art in the revolution and continued to exercise
a considerable ascendancy during the period in which Belgian
independence was on its trial M ro d e owing t o hi s family
alliances h e was the father in law of Montalembert and
owing to his intellect u al bias was strongly in sympathy with
the Frenc h Neo Catholic movement O n various occasions
he showed breadth of mind freedom from aristocratic pre
j udices and from t h e dull pride wh ich lled the minds of a
certain nu mber of nobles essentially conserv ative A supporter
he regarded titles o f rio b ilit y as
o f the p rinciple o f equality
having a merely re lat ive imp o rt anc e and declared that their
holde rs should in every case be treated in the same manner
O n o ne occasion he adj ured the presiden t
a s any other citizen
of the Senat e not to call him Cou nt when addressing him in
his cap acity as a senato r S uch reformers however were few
in numbe r in the uppe r chamber The m aj ority o f that body
was attached to the m aintenance o f the social prerogatives
o f the class which they represented and so it rej ected a proposed
law of s u ccession which would have imposed special b u rden s o n
larg e inheritances
The Chamber o f D ep u ties rep resented essentially the wealthy
bourg e oisie I t inclu ded a large n u mbe r o f barriste rs and also
prior to 1 8 48 a considerable body o f civil servants while the
other elements of the hourg e o irie m anufacturers me rch ants
engin eers doctors and the like supplied very few depu ties
I n the lower chamber L iberal Catholicism had mo re adhe rents
,

'

'

2 62

In d e p e n d e n t

B e l gi u m

E xp eri menta l

S ta g e

than in the Senate and amongst them there were some ery
democrats such as Dumortier o f Tournai and the Abb de
F o e re deputy f o r Thielt (western Flanders)
At rst parties were far from being strictly dened The
most important question was that of the foreign relations
and by this question the various orien tations o f
o f Belgium
policy in the chambers were determined The king relied upon
the mode rate elements the supporters of a pacic conciliatory
policy w
h o were at the s ame ti me rmly resolved t o maintain
and even t o develop the military resources of the State in order
that Belgium might be ready t o meet all eventualities
As early as 1 8 3 3 signs o f the approaching dissolution o f the
Union appeared that is from the moment of the provisional
settlement of the Dutch Belgian question The Union h a d
always been regarded by the Conservatives as foredoomed t o
failure and the cardinal Secretary of State had already char
ac t e riz e d it briey as
monstrous
Besides that the principles
upon which it rested were formally condemned in 1 8 3 2 by the
encyclical Mira ri
Liberty of the press and liberty of
opinion which have spread to the misfortune o f religious and
civil society were condemned in vigorous terms The pope
more especially combated indifferentism in France an d
stigmatized as absurd and erroneous (o r rather perfect madness)
the maxim that it was necessary to assure and t o gu arantee to
any o n e liberty of conscience The word s of the sovereign
pontiff were in fact actually addressed t o the French Neo
Catholics ; but the terms which he used were capable o f general
application and this fact did not escape the attention o f the
higher clergy in Belgium wh o had become so powerful owing
t o the existence of the Catholic Liberal union
The encyclical at rst greatly disturbed the ecclesiastical
leaders in Belgium but it was presently interpreted as being
an enunciation o f p rinciples without reference t o politic al
,

In d e p e n d e n t

2 64

B el g i u m

E xp eri men tal

S ta g e

social organization and giving her among other rights the

monopoly o f education and charitable relief He was the chi ef
founder o f the Catholic University established at rst at
M alines the seat o f the archbishopric and later transferred
This institution was entirely free from any Stat e
t o Louvain
control and its foundation antedated that of the two State
universities of Ghent and Liege
In his o wn diocese
he was careful that the primary schools and colleges shou l d be
entirely under the control of the ecclesiastical authorities and
resisted to the utmost of h is power the organization by the
city o f Liege of educational establishments o n a secular basis
He fou nd powerful supporters not only among the j esuits
but also among the Redemptorists o n e o f the c hi ef houses o f
which order that of Wittem was established in his see
Side by side with the higher clergy the monastic orders
were with the Jesuits the principal factors in securing a revival
of the principle of authority which had been so seriously
compromised by the spread of Liberal principles The Re d e mp
t o rist s who like the maj ority o f the monks wh o established
themselves in Belgium at this time came originall y from
France contributed greatly to this movement by the vigour
of t h eir propaganda They relied mainly upon the pulpit
and the confessional urging frequent devotional practices
increasing the number o f pilgrimages the use of retreats and
so forth Their activities were as fruitful in the Walloon district
thanks t o their establishments at Tournai ( 1 8 3 1 ) and Liege
as they were in the Flemish district where they had
important centres such as Wittem and S aint Trond founded
at about the same time O ther monastic communities estab
l ish e d themselves by preference in the Flemish district where
they had the special support of the landed aristocracy Which
continued t o be very powerful and very conservative The
Dominicans o r Preaching Friars established their chief house
,

Th e

C ath o li c

L i ber a l A sc en d an cy

2 65

Ghent ( 1 8 3
while the Rcollets had theirs at Thielt
( 1 8 3 3)
The Premonstratensian monks re established themsel ves in
the m aj ority o f their former abbeys s u ch as Averbode
P arc nea r Lou vain
Tongerloo and Grimberghen
and Postel
the Cistercians founded monasteries at
Saint Be rnard Westvleteren and Achel and at Bornhem
I n short charitable and educational orders developed with
an extraordinary rapidity
I n addition to these religious societies associations o f laymen
contrib u ted to assist the growing in u ence of the Church upon
all
sides of social life They ourished more especially in
Flanders where the most important that o f S aint Francis
Xavier had been originally founded The rule o f the Xavie rian s
drawn up by a Jesuit aimed at increasing devo tional practi ces
at the creation o f schools o n a strict confessional basis and at the
establishment of u nions or clubs for religio u s intercourse I t s
founder a disciple of the Red emptorists sec u red the support
of the Bishop of Bruges and o f the banker Duj ardin Similar
organizations were p resently established by the Third O rder
of S aint Francis and by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
The Church exercised an ascendancy which
( after
became daily more considerable It seemed to aspire to play
the p art whi ch it had played in the epoch o f Al bert and
I s abella and found itself in som e respects in a still more favou r
able position than it was the n Freed o f the Concordat which
bound it in the period of French rule and during the last days
of the Dutch government it was completely enfranchised ;
it had n o obligations towards the State while the latter was
obliged to provide at least in large measu re f o r the support
of the clergy Thus it came to pass that t h e Chu rch in Belgium
w a s more Catholic that is more universal than anyw here
it s international character was more strongly emphasized
e lse
at

In d ep en d en t

2 66

B elgi um

E xp eri mental Sta ge

there since its relations with the Holy See

were

no

t subj ect ed

any supervision by the State

The tendency o f the Church towards autonomy was the
outcome o f the re action against the policy of King Wi lliam ;
the power of the government had been singularly dimin ished
This decentralization also assisted the eff orts o f the large
towns which gradually recovered the traditions of local inde
p e n d e n c e which had been interrupted in the majority of them
since the seventeenth and in the towns of the district o f Liege
since the eighteenth century After an e clipse o f more than t wo
centuries the town s began to recover the brilliant position
which they had lost at the beginning o f modern times All at
once the municipal spirit revived so vig orously that people
have imagined that it was never suppressed and that it was
handed down directly from the Middle Ages Y et as we have
seen local selfgovernment was not secured until 1 8 3 0 But the
towns were concerned t o guard it j ealously and for this reason
they assumed some of the social functions which the S tate
failed t o exercise and which the Church coveted above all
the organization of education and of poor relief The towns
claimed the direction o f public primary education and it
was as a result of their eff orts that secular col leges existed side
by side with those which were under ecclesiastical control
I t was under the auspices o f the city o f Brussels that the
Masonic lodges created a free university whi ch acted as a
counterpoise t o the Catholic University by championing the
principles o f free thought Thanks also t o the towns public
primary education was established o n a defi nitely municipal
basis The law regulating primary education was not voted
until 1 8 42 It was the result o f a compromise between the civil
and religious powers The latter preserved absolutely free
from all State control their purely confessional schools and o n
the oth er hand the former secured the right t o intervene in

to

2 68

In d e p en d en t

B e lgi um

E xp eri men ta l

S ta g e

not been already granted to private persons At a later date

he declared in favou r o f the active intervention of t he
government in the organization o f secondary education Urged
by the bourge o isie o f the towns which was eager t o b e freed
from ecclesiastical tutelage he proposed in conj unction with
Lebeau whose colleague h e was in the Moderate Liberal
ministry which secured power in 1 8 40 a law o n secondary
education Wh ile declaring that he wished t o combine it with
complete liberty of teaching He at once became the obj ect
of vigorous criticism o n the part o f the Conse rvatives wh o
accused him of wishing t o exclude religious instruction from
the educational programme The Liberal doctrine which he
defended and which had for its aim the independence of the
civil power was condemned as anti social intolerant and fatal
t o t h e co u ntry
The scheme was adopted by the chamber
but only t o be rej ected by the Senate There the debates we re
extremely bitter an d one o f the members o f the upper h ouse
went so far as t o dema n d the dismissal o f the ministers on the
ground that it was the only way t o assure the repose and
welfare o f the State
Eventually the Sen ate even took the
initiative a step o f which the legality was later disputed
i n sending an address t o the king in order to point o u t t o h im
the dangers which were likely to result from the deplorable
divisions whi ch had arisen in parliament
The cabinet resigned ( 1 8 41 ) without having accomplished
one o f the reforms in the new political programme advocated
by such men as Devaux o n e o f the leading spirits in the former
Liberal Catholic union wh o was convinced that this unio n
had tended only to the advantage o f the reactionaries and
had boldly denounced the prevailing system in the Rev ue
Na t i o na le which he had founded in 1 8 3 9
The period from 1 8 41 to 1 8 46 was marked by an increasing
alienation bet ween the ministry which pursued a unionist
,

C ath o li c

Th e

L i bera l A s cen d an cy

2 69

policy and p u blic opinion which was profoundly divided by

the dissensions between Catholi cs and Liberals The Nothomb
cabi n et despite the ability energy and activity of it s head
was able to maintain itself in power only by resort to all
manner of expedients It s cond u ct in the matter of the e p isc o
pate secured for it the hostility o f the anti u nionists whose
number daily grew
O n the initiative o f the M asonic lodges Liberal leagues were
form ed at Bru ssels ( 1 841 ) an d at Liege
and later in other
towns in order t o centralize the eff orts of the party in t h e
political struggle and more especially at the elections These
leagues were denounced by the Catholi cs as clubs dangerous
to the public peace and as dens o f Jacobins
Thanks to this
organization the Liberal movement grew at Liege Ghent and
To u rnai
B ru ss e ls and Antwerp
always declaring
itself in favo u r o f the doctrines o f Rogier and Deva u x and
even Tou rnai sent a R e p u b lic an deputy to the chamber in the
person of Cast iau A schism between the Y ou ng L iberals
men o f his type and the O ld L iberals o r doctrinaires nearly
comp romised the success o f t h e Liberal campaign at Brussels
and at Liege Bu t the p arty reunited in face of the common
danger That danger was the control which the Church was
sec u ring ove r almost every side o f the educational life of the
cou ntry
The Nothomb cabinet ( 1 8 4 1
it is tru e had tried t o eff ect
a compromise between Church and State by the law which
organized prima ry ed u cation ( 1
and whi ch imposed upon the
comm u nal au thorities t h e obligation o f having at leas t one ele
mentary school in which religious e d u cation sho uld be supplied
by the ministers of religio n and over which the ecclesiastical
authorities shoul d exercise supervision in conj u nction with t h e
civil a u thorities Nothomb refused the bishops the right to
inte rfe re with the appointment o f m as t ers In the actual
,

2 70

In d ep en d en t

B elgi u m

Exp eri men ta l S ta ge

working of the law the large towns with their Liberal ad minis
t rat io n s safeguarded the l ay character of their public schools
w hile in the rural comm unes the clergy were entrusted with
a large share in the direction o f the schools In the towns o f
moderate size there were somewhat violent conflicts betwe en
the civil and ecclesiastical authorities While the government
endeavoured to secure the autonomy of the Church it weakened
that o f the communes by altering the mo de of appointing the
burgomasters wh o might in future be chosen outside the
communal council and by dividing the urban commu n es into
sections in order to secure representation of the anti Liberal
elements in the councils themselves
A section of the Catholics discontent ed with the relative
moderation o f the Nothomb administration united with the
Liberals t o overthrow it The Van de Weyer ministry which
succeeded (July 3 0 1 8 45) only lasted eight months ; its p ro
je c t e d law o n secondary education involved an increase of the
power o f the State in this matter alienated the C atholic
maj ority from it and forced it t o resign
Rogier was asked by the king t o form a n e w ministry but he
demanded as a condition o f his acceptance that he should have
the right t o dissolve the chambers in the event of a conict with
them The king would n o t give him this authority and was
thus led f o r the rst time to entrust power to a homogeneous
Cat h o lic c ab in e t
Its members exhibited so reactionary
a spirit that a moderate Catholic declared that the ministry
was an anachronism or a deance
The opposition was merely roused to further eff orts and the
Liberal congress which assembled in the same year at the town
hall at Brussels adopted a programme which was designed
to deprive the episcopate o f eff ective power
This p ro
gramme due in large measure to Frere O rban then communal
councillor at Liege proposed in order to secure the in d e pe n
,

'

In d epen d en t

27 2

i ii

The Crisis

B e l gi u m
f

the

E xp eri men ta l

"

e ar: 1

8 46 ,

18

47,

S ta g e

and 1 8 48

The revolution of 1 8 3 0 had profoundly aff ected the economic

life o f Belgium which it had deprived o f many sources of
wealth by closing to it the markets o f Holl and and of the Dutch
colonies External trade for a while interrupted found it
is true new outlets Brazil and the West Indies more parti
but the total volume o f
c u l arly replacing Java and Sumatra
the export trade was still reduced
Manufactures were
especially injured by the limitation o f the market and were
able t o maintain themselves only by means o f protective
tariff s Metallurgy thanks to the introduction o f improved
machinery and the rapid development of the railway sys t em
even succeeded in making progress and in 1 8 3 4 many new
establishments were se t up on the banks o f the S ambre and in
the area o f Liege o n those o f the Meuse Textile industries
centred at Ghent and Verviers equally proted from the new
mechanical inventions at Ghent about 1 8 3 3 the manufacture
o f cotton fabrics on the Jacquard loom began and soon af t er
wards axspinning began to take the place o f the distaff and
the spinning wheel Verviers became an important manu
f ac t u rin g centre ; the cloth industry prospered greatly there
thanks t o industrial concentration and t o the spirit o f initiative
displayed by the captains o f industry
Protective tariff s on manufactured goods wh ich were further
increased in 1 844 produced only a small rise in the price of
certain articles o f prime necessity such as linen and cloth
The co n sumer was much more adversely a ff ected by the
protective tariff on agricultural p ro d u c e an d live stock Th e
sliding scale f o r cereals established in 1 8 34 and the re st ric
tions imposed o n the import o f foreign cattle especially after
1 8 2 increased the price o f food st u s
From 1 842 the govern
4
ment pursued a policy of high protection It encourage d
,

C ri si s of

th e Y e ars

8 46

8 47

and

8 48

273

exports by granting bounties and rai sed to the highest possible

point the customs barriers I n 1 844 a new law raised the tariff
on cereals and was at once nicknamed the law of fa m ine
Governmental intervention in economic m atters increased
the severity and the number o f the crises The crisis which
took plac e in Flanders in 1 8 45 and 1 8 46 was extraordinaril y
s evere since it aff ected both the urban and rural districts I n
the towns the development o f machine ry resulte d in a glut
of commodities in the fa ctories more especially in the case of
woven goods of all kinds The disposal o f these stocks became
more and more diffi cult owing t o the fact that the French
and Sp anish markets were closed and that E nglish competition
w a s becoming more formidable
A large number o f workpeople
were thrown out o f employment owing to this over production
At the same time the f aihi re of the potato cr0p as a result
o f a disease which attacked t h at plant
had d isastrous c o n se
q u e n c e s f o r the labouring and peasant population to whom the
potato had become a necessary o f life
The Flemish districts in which f o r three centu ries spinning
and weaving at home had served to make up f o r the inadequate
incomes deriv ed from agriculture were especially a ff ected by
the competition of machine made goods and o f foreign commo
Then population rapidly diminished ; the birth rate
d it ie s
declined and the death rate increased to alarming proportions
Num erous bodies of unemplo yed m igrated t o Lille , Roubaix
Tou rcoing Arrn e n t iere s and the Walloon mining area F o r
m any years great misery prevailed I n a large part o f eastern
Flanders and all western Flanders more than a third of t h e
population were paupers The ax district (Courtrai and
Roule rs) was especially impoverished ; the Lys which was used
for the rotting o f the ax and the waters o f which were Specially
adapted f o r this purpose ceased t o be the golden river f o r
the home workers after the mills cam e t o compete with th e m
.

'

'

1 8 3 2 -1 2

In d ep en d en t

274

B el g i u m

Exp eri men tal

S ta g e

The famine was terrible and was aggravated by three s u ccessive

bad harvests In many places hunger drove people to forms
of food unt f o r cons ump t ion and the culminati ng point in
the misery was reached when cholera broke o u t t o increase their
suff erings and t o carry off a large part o f the population already
weakened and living in deplorable hygienic conditions
The government attempted to deal with the situation
Rogier created a special bureau for the affairs o f Flanders and
entru sted it with the consideration o f a certain number o f
remedial measures I t recommended a greater variety in the
types o f cloth manufact u red and advised t h e ax manu facturers
no t to conne their attention t o the production o f their special
product but to t u rn also to the m aki ng o f wooll en goods
cotton goods and even mixed tissues The same minister
created model workshops and i n structional workshops in m any
towns in the ax distric ts granted assistance to private factories
and made loans t o employers of labour At the same time he
ca u sed a large number o f public works to be undertaken in
order to give work t o the u n e mp lo ye d l ab o u re rs
The other provinces su ff ered le ss from the economic crisis
than did the t wo Flanders but at the s ame time they felt the
e ff ects o f the distress whi ch overwhelmed so large a part o f
the pop ulation and experienced themselves the initial eff ects
of the transiti on to manufacture o n a large scale which system
was gaining ground both in the c h ief urban centres and in the
coal mining districts The condi tion of the lower c lasses becam e
d eplorable and they were unable to help themselves owing t o the
lack o f all solidarity associations o r combinations o f workpeople
being prohibited Except in some large towns there was no
movement of opinion in favour o f social reforms Such schemes
as were produced for this purpose were the ou tcome o f the work
o f foreign thinkers : at Liege a vigorous propaganda was under
taken f o r the realization o f so cial harmony by p acic means
.

2 76

I n d e p en d e n t

B e l gi u m

E xp eri men tal

S ta

ge

aff airs A m ember of the chamber having alluded t o the ideas

o f the French Revolution one of h is colleagues answered that
these ideas in order to make their way round the world
had n o n eed to pass through Belgium
The February revolution merely led t o an extension o f the
franchise Rogier met democratic aspirations by proposing
a reduction o f the electoral qu alication t o the minimum
provided by the constitution The Right supported this
suggestion in the hope of regaining power by mean s o f the
votes o f the lesser hourge o irie and of a greater number o f
peasants
The government said D e c h amp s o n e o f the
leaders o f the Right wished by this bold reform to disarm
all sincere and constitutional opposition and n o t t o permit
other nations to o ff er Belgium more liberal institutions than
its o wn The reform resulted in an advantage f o r the Liberal
party owing t o the increased voting power o f the large towns
where henceforward the electoral system n o longer diff ered from
that o f the country districts as the system established in 1 8 3 1
had done
The Liberal ministry further assisted the development o f
the press that fourth estate in parliamentary lands which is
even able t o control all the other estates by suppressing the
stamp duty on newspapers
In these critical circumstances Leopold I exhibit ed an
entirely diff erent spirit from that which was displayed by his
fathe r in law Louis Philippe whose tendency towards autocracy
produced the re v o lu t io n w h ic h cost him his throne Leopold
showed great tact in allowing full play t o parliamentarianism
and assisted as has been said to rehabilitate constitutional
monarchy which had been compromised by the personal
policy o f a number o f his fellow kings He thu s strengthened
the international position o f Belgium which was resolved as
he announced in 1 8 40 to maintain sincere loyal and strong
neutrality
.

In d ep en d en t

B e l gi u m

4
d u ri n

M a tu ri ty ( 1 8 49

The A rre nd a ney

th e

Peri o d of

8 4)

f t he Li beral:
D UR I N G a period o f nearly forty years ( I 846
political
power was almost continuously in the hands of the Liberals
I t p assed into those of their opponents wh o were styled at
rst Conservatives and later Catholics on t wo occasions only
between 1 8 5 5 and 1 8 5 7 and between 1 8 70 and 1 8 78 periods
it is clear t o o brief t o allow any decisive reaction t o be e ff ected
by them
The activity of the Liberal cabinets was mainly directed
towards the settlement of economic questions They further
centralized the m anagement o f the S ta te railways and from 1 8 48
placed their a dministration which until that time had been
semi independen t under the direct control of the State O n
the other hand they turned commercial policy in a new direction
by steadily moving towards free trade I n 1 8 49 the govern
m ent was authorized by law to annul by royal decree p ro h ib i
tions upon export and to reduce o r even to suppress entirely
the export duties impose d by the customs tariff In order to
secu re favourable commercial treaties B elgium began by re m o v
ing the barrier which it had erected against the export o f its
products A further meas u re p assed in the same year per
mit t e d most kinds o f foreign goods to pass through the country
free of duty Where agricultural products were concerned
the government was obliged to make various concessions and
was only able to develop its policy gra d ually and cautiously
No t until 1 8 5 3 could it obtain from the chambers a law
authorizing provisionally the free import of cereals and this
.

2 78

In d ep e n d en t

B e l gi u m

f M a tu ri ty

P e ri o d

provisional permission did not become den itive until twenty

years later Belgium thus followed at an early date the example
o f England
and concluded with the various neighbouring
powers except France treaties o f commerce ( 1 8 5 7) whi ch
to a great extent abolished diff erential duties ; when France
also entered o n the path o f free trade Belgium was granted
the same advantages which had been accorded t o England
.

The Liberal ministries further pursued a scal policy which

was designed t o relieve the working classes as far as possible
from the burden of taxation and t o favour indirectly by these
means the output o f n ational industry Frere O rban proposed
a succession duty Representing the middle class he had a
high idea as to the mission o f that class it was not t o content
itself with governing but also he said t o concern itself with
the welfare of the greatest number with the fate o f the workers
He persuaded the Chamber of Deputies to adopt his ideas
but was checked by the S enate which mutilated hi s Bill as
t o successions o n the ground that it was revolutionary and
subversive
F r re O rban was more successful in the realization of his
proj ected reform o f institutions o f credit He created the
National Bank ( 1 8 5 0) and established the commercial credit
of Belgium o n a rm basis This bank was engaged solely
in operations of national importance it received the exclusive
right to issue notes w h ich were intended to replace to some
extent the metallic currency The bank was further to serve
as an intermediary between the capitalists and the producers
in order to distribute capital among all classes of society I t s
sphere of action was strictly dened ; it might no t engage in
commerce or industry as t h e older banks had done the Bank
o f Belgium and the Socit Gnrale which banks it replaced
as the issue bank
-

In d e p en d en t

2 80

B el g i u m :

Pe ri o d

f M a tu ri ty

retaining them In 1 8 5 0 Rogier introduced a measure for the

organization of ten higher grade and fty secondary schools
The clergy at once got up a violent protest when the ministers
o f religion were invited t o supply and t o supervise the religious
education in these establishments resenting the fact that they
were n o t to possess control Some rural communes presented
widely signed petitions in order to prevent the application o f
the socialistic ideas of the minister the eff ect o f which they
declared would be the creation of a S tate monopoly o f educa
tion The bishops addressed a petition to the Senate and
Pope Pius IX himself made known his opinion in a secret
consistory where he alluded t o the perils which threatened the
Catholic religion in Belgium The law was voted in it s original
form but in the process o f applying it a number o f mo d ic a
tions were introduced A compromise was reached especially
at Antwerp between the communal authorities and the
episcopate and a certain n umber o f towns adopted thi s
Antwerp Convention which in practice left these educ a
The
t io n al establishments a distinctly confessional character
majority o f the larger towns however did not adopt this com
promise and carried into eff ect the principle o f the complete
independence of the civil power which was the basis o f the
programme of the Liberal party predominant in these centres
The reactionary movement which began about 1 8 5 2 coin
cided with the organization o f the Second Empire in France
in which count ry the Catholics inaugu rated a campaign against
the Belgian constitution called by them the secular concordat
and parliamentarism They charged the Belgian government
with wishing t o convert that state into a species of revolutionary
oasis the refuge o f those expelled and exiled from other lands
in the midst of a pacied Europe When the Catholic party
attained power ( 1 8 5
it did not interfere with the existing
e duca t ional legislation o r with the existing economic legisla
.

'

Th e A s ce n d a n cy

th e L i ber a ls

281

tion but it attempted t o regulate anew the relations between

Church and S tate in the m atter o f poor relief Since the
period of the French government of Belgium poor relief h ad
been secularized The Catholic minister de Decker aimed
at restricting the part to be played by the lay authorities
and at creat ing side by side with the public service for the
administration o f poor relief a wider organization under the
direction of the clergy He proposed to m ake the clergy t h e
dispensers of alms the inspirers and the executors of the wills
o f the rich
and the guardians o f the poor He proposed for
this purpose t o authorize legacies to religious communities
I n the view of the Liberals this was a return t o the a nc ie n
r e i me and a restoration o f mortmain
A formidable press
g
campaign was organized against the ministry and when the
chamber began the discussion of the Bill a lively agitation
broke o u t at Brussels and in many provincial towns Ban d s
p araded before the convents with cries o f A bar le r c o nv en t:
A ba r l es j eru i ter The commotion increased to such an
extent that the minister deemed it advisable to abandon his
p roj ect
The communal elections which followed ( 1 8 5 7)
were a striking defeat for the government I t was obliged to
resign against its will at the instance o f the king who decided
under these circumstance t o use a prerogative reserved f o r
exceptional cases only and proceeded to the dissolution o f
t h e Chamber of D eputies and the nomination o f a Liberal
ministry under Rogier The king was careful to deliver n o
opinion o n the Bill elaborated by the late cabinet ; he advised
that discussion o f i t should be deferred pointing out the
danger of any measure which was capable of being regarded
as tending to establish the perm anent supremacy o f o n e Opinion
over the other
From 1 8 5 7 to 1 8 70 the Liberal governments were again
chiey absorbed in economic and nancial questions O ne of
,

282

In d e pen d en t

B e lg i u m

P e ri o d

f M a tu ri ty

their principal reforms was the suppression o f the o e tro ir

the towns w ere compensated and this contributed
still further t o the centralization o f government This reform
gave a remarkable impulse t o exchange and reduced the cost
of food stuff s in the towns At the same time commercial
pro sperity increased as a result o f the opening o f the Scheldt
Holland consenting in return f o r a money payment to remove
tolls which sh e imposed on river traffi c by virtue o f the treaty
o f 1 83
9 Antwerp forthwith becam e one o f the great fn arke t s
o f central Europe
The tendency o f these ministries towards the establishment
o f equality and towards centralization was displayed in the
educational sphere A l aw on the scholarships in aid o f students
deprived the University o f Louvain of the almost complete
monopoly which it had hitherto enjoyed This measure was
based o n the principle that such endowments are public
establishments by their long existen ce
But the measure
aroused such anger among the bishops that Leopold I felt
hi mself obliged t o calm it by expressing a hope that in practice
some modi cations would be introduced
O n the other hand the establishment o f adult schools
due t o the initiative o f the government led to serio us conicts
with the ecclesiastical authorities wh o claimed to apply to
them the principles o f the law o f 1 8 42 with rega rd to primary
schools and hence t o bring them in large measure under their
o wn control
But it was less by the passing o f new laws than by administra
tive means that the Liberal governments attempted to carry out
the essential part of their programme the extension of the power
Of the State in those spheres which the Catholic Church
regarded as reserved to itself education and poor relief
Despite their preoccupation with the campaign against
clericalism however the Liberals continued to interest them
.

28 4

In depe n d e n t

B elgi u m

P er

of M a tm i ty

io d

the congresses o f German Catholics (who were themselves

ghting against Prussianism) in order to formulate a p ro
gramme and t o discuss methods o f propaganda At the same
time the convents which as a result o f legacies and donations
had centraliz ed and locked up a part o f the public wealth
increased still further their nancial power by means o f the
banks Langrand Dumonceau which were directed by leaders
in the Catholic world The number o f convents had c o n
sid e rab l
y increased but the increase in t h e number of monks
and nuns was n o t proportionate to that o f the general population
o f the country
The ranks o f the Catholic party were further increased by
the anti militarists especially at Antwerp who were opposed
t o the extension of the fortications of that city which was
proj ected by the government T o the ministry was attributed
a design o f extending military defences and o f modifying the
recruiting system for the army by including those wh o served
through substitutes in an army of reserve and this alienate d
from the government a part of the electorate Further causes
contributed still further to increase the u npopularity of the
ministry an d in 1 8 70 it was overthrown
F o r eight years power remained in the hands o f the Catholics
but th is did not enable them t o introduce any legislative
reforms of moment with the exception o f the reduction o f
the electoral qualication f o r the communes and provinces by
which means they secured a maj ority in a large number o f
small towns and in the greater part o f the provincial councils
I n general they contented themselves with acting by means
o f administrative measures
by the nominat ion of numerous
of cials devoted to their cause by the interpretation o f
existing laws in such a way as t o favour the increase o f clerical
authority and by similar means The government stead
fastly refused t o meet the wishes o f the extreme Catholics o r
,

Th e A scen d a n cy

Li bera ls

th e

2 85

Ultramontanes who insistently demanded the restoration o f

the a n cie n reg ime in matters ecclesiastical and who supported
amongst other ideas the claim of the papacy that religious mar
ria e should precede the civil m arriage alone requi red by law
g
During this period the already large number o f religious
communities was still further increased as a result of the
immigration of the Germa n religious expelled owing to the
K ulturkampf
The J esuits made Belgium the chief centre o f their activity
( founding there the apostolic school o f Turnhout in 1 8 72)
and o f their international propaganda more especially o f
their prop aganda in Germany The Benedictines 0f the con
g re g a t io n o f B euron settled at Maredsous in 1 8 72 and the
L azarists in the province o f L iege near t h e German frontier
( I 8 73)
The extension of monastic inuence alarmed the bourge o isie
who especially feared their competition in various industries
and dreaded the return of the system o f a network o f monastic
1
establishments which had subsisted prior to the French
conquest
Anti cleric al demonstratio n s thus increased the most
signic ant being the celebration of the tercentenary o f the
The Educational League
P a c ic a t io n of Ghent in 1 8 76
formed by the p artisans o f secular and compulsory edu cation
,

Th e f o ll o win

g g

u re s re p r e s e n t

R el igi o u s h o u s es

Tea r
I

84 6

8 66

th e

ro wt h o

f t h e s e b o d ie s
I n ma t es

Ma le

F e male

To ta l

77 9
I

r 880
r

900

Th e

nu

t h e t o t al

mb e r
p

f mo n

o p u la t io n o f

an

d f ria rs in c re a s e d m o re

yw

t h e c o un t r

as n o t e

en

t h a n t h re e f o ld ,

d o u b le d

wh ile

In d epen d en t

28 6

B el gi u m

f M a tu rtty

Pe r i o d

issued a manifesto demandin g a reform o f primary edu cation

in all its stages more especially in the matter o f the normal
schools an d in order that thi s obj ect might be obtained the
abolition of the law of
In 1 8 78 the Liberals regaine d power and attempted to
realiz e their design o f establishing secular and free primary
education side by side with the educational establishments
under ecclesiastical control The law o f 1 8 79 compelled every
commune to have and to maintain a communal school save
in cases specied in the text o f the measure Such religious
instruction as the priest might w ish t o give was to be given o u t
Further the priest might n o longer
o f school hours only
enter the school as o f right and might exercise n o control over
the teacher who was dependent only on the communal
authorities and o n the educational committees established by
the go vernment The Catholic party resisted these regula
tio ns which it regarded as an attack upon communal autonomy
and o n the rights o f the Church and as ten ding t o interfere
with the performance o f the Church s educational missio n
I t stigmatiz ed the new schools organiz ed in accordance with
the law as the godless schools
The bishops wh o had
addressed a circular letter to the king praying him n o t t o
sanctio n the law created a number of private schools ordered
the s acraments t o be refused to the teachers of the of cial
schools and in general t o all who in any manner took part
in the application o f this law
O n the passing o f this law the Liberal cabinet broke o ff
diplomatic relations with the Vatican Pope Leo XIII had
not dared openly to take the side o f the bishops He had
advised them not merely t o abstain from attacks upon the
constitution which various leaders o f t h e Catholic party
had assailed but even to defend it because it had produced
in the actual condition o f mode rn society the system mo st
,

2 88

I n d epen d en t

B elgi u m

P er

i o d of Ma turity

all citizens able t o read and write and other democratic

reforms
The fall o f the Frere O rban ministry in 1 8 8 4 produced
a strong reaction against centraliz ing tendencies and against
that movement towards secularization and equality which had
been so accentuated in the course o f the preceding years
The M alou cabinet was inspired by the formula that the
m aximum o f liberty is the minimum of g overnment and
increased by all manner o f measures the inuence of the Church
I t abrogated the law o f 1 8 79
o n all spheres of public life
o n primary education and replaced it by a law which limited
the number o f public elementary schools by assistin g free
schools that is Catholic schools o n condition that they c o n
formed t o a certain number o f government regulations The
ministry suppressed a large n u mber of normal schools primary
and secondary and all the normal schools intended to prepare
teachers for the a thne: royaux ( State colleges)
With such haste did the cabinet proceed and with such
violence that a revolution was produced in public opinion
and at the communal elections o f O ctober 1 8 8 4 the Liberals
secured such success in the towns that the king regarded it as
advisable to relieve t wo ministers Woeste and Jacobs o f their
portfolios these ministers being distinguished f o r their u n c o m
promising views Malou the head o f the cabinet also left
the ministry the direction o f which passed to Beernaert
a moderate Catholic and a supporter o f certain Liberal
reforms
to

ii

Co nsolid a tio n

f I nd epe nd e nce
The social and economic reforms brought about by the
Liberal ministries had n o t only a considerable eff ect up on the
internal evolution o f Belgium but also led t o certain c o m
plications in the foreign relations o f that country These
.

C o n so li d a ti o n of

In d epen d en ce

2 89

complic ations in their turn reacted upon the political struggle s

in Belgium The contrast which existed between the system
p revailing in Belgium and that prevailing in France after t h e
cou
p d t a t of D e cember 2 1 8 5 1 necessarily produced a certain
irrit ation between the two countries Besides that Belgiu m
became the refuge of the proscribed and the sympathetic
reception accorded to them off ended the French government
which s aw in her neighbour a centre of intense opposition and
o f liberty
To the att acks of the Belgian newspapers France
replied by a violent p ress campaign against the spirit of Belgian
institutions and a demand for a change in the policy of the
St ate supporting the dem ands o f Catholic Opinion The
commerce o f Belgium was inj ured by the suppression o f the
most favoured nation treatment previously accorded t o Belgian
coal and iron in the hope of thus reaching the Liberal press
o f that country m aintained by the captains of indu stry
The
conict with Franc e w as intensied by the fact that the revision
of the commercial agreements between the two countries was
then under consideration and the king called to the direction
of a ff airs a ministry o f very moderate Liberal character
de
The task of the new cabinet was to reach
B ro u c k re
an accord with France
It s rst step was the passing of a
law designed to prevent insults agains t the persons of foreign
sovereig n s and spiteful attacks upon their authority
I n 1 8 5 3 when the Eastern Question produced a conict
between France and Russia the former power allowed it to be
understood at B russels that if existing treaties were disregarded
in the E ast they might be equally disregarded in the West
The Belgian government alarmed at this unexpected message
brought it to the knowledge o f the powers which had guaranteed
the neu trality of Belgium and the powers undertook no t to
depart from their engagements O n her side Belgium when
the Crimean War broke ou t announced to Europe that she
.

29 0

In d epen d en t

B elgium

f Ma tu rity

Pe ri o d

would observe an attitude of strict neutrality acting thus in

She reinforced her
agreement with France and England
to
army bringing the number of the eff ectives from
men She followed the advice which Thiers had given
to Leopold I as early as 1 8 5 0 : Without adequate means o f
defence you will be the sport o f every one Belgium soon had
reason still further to accentuate the defensive character o f
her neutrality and to determine for herself the obligations
which it imposed upon her When in 1 8 55 Sardinia joined
the Anglo French alliance against Russia the Western powers
brought a certain degree o f pressure to bear on the other
secondary states and notably on Belgium in order to bring
them into the alli ance o n the ground that the balance o f
power in Europe was at stake and that the common interest
of all states was thu s involved But the Belgian government
refused to enter into any engagements and laid down that
Belgian neutrality involved obligations which outweighed all
other considerations In this way it a f rmed the full sove
re i n t
g y o f Belgium and the right o f that state itself to interpret
the duties resulting from its neutrality Lebeau o n this occa
sion delivered a remarkable speech in the chamber in whi ch he
warned h is countrymen against indulging too great a sense o f
security
He recalled t h e fate which had befallen neutral
states which had regarded themselves as su i c ie n t ly protected
by a treaty by what is sometimes called a scrap of paper
We
must guard against the belief he said that this neutrality
does n o t involve duties and important duties It is essential
that we should in case o f need ensure the inviolability of our
t erritory ourselves at least up t o a certain point
Shortly
afterwards the neutrality o f Belgium was discussed in the House
o f Commons in connexion with a proposal f o r the neutrali
z a t io n
of
the Dan u bian principalities
Lord Palmerston
f o r his part insi ste d o n the p recario us charac t er o f a neutrality
,

In d epen d en t

29 2

B elgi um

Peri o d of M a tu rity

Meanwhile the government interested itself in the reorganiz a

tion of the defensive forces o f the country ; in conformity
with the views of a committee appointed t o deal with the
question in 1 8 5 1 Antwerp was converted in to a fortied camp
which was i n tended to shelter the government in tim e o f war
and t o serve as a refuge f o r the army Kin g Leopold I vigor
o u sly u r e d the re aliz ation o f this proj ect which in his Op inio n
g
would double the defensive capacity of the country He
regarded the m atter as o n e Of personal concern and o n e day
conded t o an English diplomat O n one subj ect I cho ose
to have a will o f my o wn and that is the d efence (o f the
country)
But it was only the Liberal cabinet of 1 8 57 which
gave the scheme it s denitive form and which ensured its
adoption Napoleon III regarded it as an indication o f
distrust of his designs and showed annoyance at the measures
o f security which the Belgian government regarded as indis
pensable The Consti tutionnel his of cial organ declared that
Belgium had nothing to fear that the treaties were the best
assurance o f her safety Across the Channel The Time :
replied that Belgium whi ch had so often been the battle e l d
Of Europe might well become it again and that it was t o the
interest of the Continent that the barrier which separated the
great military monarchies should be as st rong as pos sible
It was then the eve of the I talian War which might have well
developed into a general European c o n ag rat io n Precautio ns
were taken hastily in a large measure owing t o the insistence
o f the king perso n ally
Belgian statesmen were more and more disturbed by the
annexationist ideas o f Napoleon Il l and more especially after
the incorporation o f S avoy and Nice with France
They feared that the emperor might come to an understanding
with Prussia and this fear w as shared Outside Belgium In
O ctober 1 8 61 the Prince C onsort O f. Englan d wrote t o Lord
,

'

C o n so li d ati o n of

Ind epend en ce

293

Clarendon What could be easier for Prussia than t o come to

an arrangeme n t with France in accordance with which th e l atter
would aid the former to conquer the seconda ry states of
Germ any receiving B elgiumas paym ent
Englan d would
have to ght alone for Belgium Napol eon II I acco rding t o
the evidence pu b lished much later by Emile O ll ivier French
Prime Minister at the outbreak of the Franco Prussian War
regarded B elgium as an articial creation directed against
the greatness o f France and without any right to inviolability
He instructed his press to propagate the theory of great
territorial unities before whic h small sta t es were bound to
disappear and by whi ch they would be absorbed
At thi s
time B enedetti hi s envoy at Berlin negotiated wi t h Bismarck
a secret treaty leaving France full liberty for the annexation o f
territory Bismarck did not reveal the existence of this treaty
until 1 8 70 but that existence was al ready divined
After
S adowa statesmen were continually obsessed by the French
danger They saw with reason in the pretensions of Napoleon II I
to the grand duchy of Luxemburg the rst step towards the
conscat ion o f Belgium A conference of the powers met in
London with the obj ect of preventing war and succeeded in
persu a d ing Prussia to agree to the demolition of the f o rt ic a
tions of Luxemburg and the neutralization o f the grand duchy
The Austrian representative m ade a propos al having f o r its
obj ect the handing over to France of the cantons o f Philippe
ville and Mariembourg in order to restore the frontiers of 1 8 1 4
and the compensation of Belgium by means of the grand duchy
But the Belgian government made known to
O f Luxemburg
its plenipotentiary tha t it was not prepared to cede any part
of it s territory
Having failed o n this side Napoleon I II considered for
a time the imposition upon Belgium o f commercial union
with France He here met with insurmountab le oppositio n
,

2 94

In d epen d en t

B elgiu m

f Ma tu rity

Peri o d

the part o i the Belgian government supported by the

other powers which had guaranteed Belgian neutrali ty The
emperor thereupon sought to gain possession o f an impor
tant part o f the system o f Belgian railways more especially
o f those of the line of the Meuse the administration of which
had been undertaken by a French company under the guarantee
o f the French government
F r re O rban who had become
head of the cabinet in 1 8 68 showed real ability in these cir
in the course o f a mission t o Paris he informed
c u mst an c e s ;
those wh o were in the emperor s condence why the Belgian
government must oppose the cession o f these lines to a French
company He showed them that this attit u de arose from the
necessity of observing strict neutrality; He further alluded
t o t h e advantages accruing to France fro m the maintenance of
this neutrality among them the preservation of good relation s
with England ( a power sp e c iallv interested in the independence
of Belgium) which relations were so much valued by the
emperor The political dispute ended in a complete agreement
int e rcommunication in particular
o n commercial questions ;
was organized across Belgian territory between the F ie n ch
and Dutch railway systems The increasing sympathy o f
Belgium f o r France dev eloped at the very moment when that
state ent e red upon her unfortunate war with Germany
As early as j uly 1 5 I 8 7O Gramont the French Minister
o f Foreign A ff airs
gave a spontaneous promise t o respect
absolutely the neutrality of Belgium as well as that of Luxem
burg Holland and S witzerland provided that it was not
violated by Prussia It was only ten days later that Bismarck
published in The Time: the Benedetti Treaty which arrange d f o r
an off ensive and defensive allia nce between France and Prussia
an d permitted the
former to annex Belgium and Luxem
burg in the event of the incorporation o f the south German
states in the North German Confederation Soon after this

on

'

In d epe n d e n t

296

i o d of Ma tu rity

B elgi u m

P er

staff insisted more and more on these views and on the duty Of
Belgium to fortify Liege and Namur owing to the danger
that the French would by that route attack the Germans
Nothing had been accomplished in this direction when
in 1 8 75 there was fear that a new general war was imminent
Bismarck annoyed by the Opposition he met with amongst
the German Catholics W ished to deprive them o f the support
which they received from their Belgian and French c o reli
He eve n suspected the Belgian ministry the
g io n ist s
Catholic party having attained o i c e in 1 8 70 o f giving under
hand support to the manoeuvres of the German Catholics
A Munich paper described Belgi um at this time as a nest
o f Jesuits
and accused that co untry and France of being
in league with the Vatican against the policy O f the chancellor
It was in vain that the Germ an minister in London requ ested
the English ministers to bring pressure to bear on the govern
ment of Brussels in order to p u t a stop to clerical agitation ;
the ministers refused to do so Germany then app roached the
Belgian cabinet directly with regard t o certain actions o f t h e
Catholic bishops and laymen and with regard t o a strange
letter in wh ich Duchesne a coppersmith placed himself at
the disposal o f the Archbishop o f Paris for the purpose o f
killing Bismarck The Belgian government took the initiative
in framing a Bill by which the off er to commit an act of violence
against any person would be p u nished by severe penalties
The resentment of Bismarck towards Belgium was especially
vi gorous A condant of the Crown Prince Henri G e ff cke n
informed Morier the English minister at Darmstadt that the
aim O f Bismarck was the dest ruction Of Belgium which he
declared to be the home of clerical conspiracies He would
have agreed readily to the partition o f the country between
Holland and France and wished to compensate the la t ter in
order t o induce her t o accept denitively the los s of Alsace
,

'

'

C o n so l i d a ti o n

f In d e pen d e n ce

297

and Lorraine In any case the war scare of 1 8 75 led the

Belgian governm ent to increase its prec a u tionary measures
I t is interesting to note that from this time forth the views
of the Germ an military authorities as to the defence o f the
Meuse were modied ; convinced that their army would
always be concentrated before that of France they considered
that the building of fortresses on the Meuse would tend rather
to check a German than a French invasion It was French
Of cers who now pressed o n Belgium the idea o f completing
this work of national defence The aims of the Germ an govern
ment bec ame indeed daily more evident I n 1 8 8 2 the Nord
d e u trche Ze i tung of M arch 9 (the O f cial organ o f the I mperial
Chancellor) wrote : Germany has no political motive f o r
v iolating B e l ian n e u t ral it
g
y b u t the m ilit a rv advantage t o be
gained m ight force her to do so
The plan proposed b y Brialmo n t aimed at holding the passage
of t h e Meuse at Liege and N amur with t h e smallest possible
force King L eopold I I who from the date o f h is accession
to the throne in 1 8 65 was always actively interested in military
questions urged the completion o f the scheme as vigorously
as p ossible Finally in 1 8 8 7 the chambers voted the necessary
credits
.

i ii

M a ter ial

P rog re rr

As early as
Belgium had begun to transform her
economic life ; m achinery and the development o f means of
communication had rem arkably stimulated her industry an d
her commerce Yet frequent crises such as those of
and 1 847 hindered their progress Moreover it is an
1 838
error to attribute to these new factors of m aterial activity any
imm ediate and profound inuence upon social evolution
That inuence only made itself felt gradually in 1 8 48 agric u l
tu re was still the basis of the economy of the nation ; 2 5 per
,

In d epen d en t B elgi u m

29 8

Per i o d of M a tu rity

cent o f the population were engaged in it while only 7 per cent

were engaged in industry
It was only during the period from
to 1 8 8 6 that
Belgium became really an industrial state and assumed the
aspect which is o n e o f it s essential ch aracteristics t o day
The most important factor in the economic evolu tion which
then occurred in the country was the extension of the rail way
s y stem The scheme of 1 8 3 3 4 o nl y included four lines of
a t otal length o f some 600 kilometres radiating from Malines
The main obj ect was to replace another mode of transit the
river communication between the Scheldt and Rhine being
then closed by Holl and
This scheme took ten years to carry out After 1 845 a certain
number of branch lines were added to the main routes an d
entrusted to the management o f private companies the idea o f
Rogier being that only the four great lines should be exploited
by the State In general the concessions were granted t o
English companies there was in England a veritable railway
mania
The Great Luxemburg railway owed its success t o
t h e fact that it was regarded a s an essential part o f a route to
I n dia : London Trieste Calcutta Bet ween 1 844 and 1 8 70
numerous concessions covering over
kilometres were
granted especially in the industrial areas The Belgian govern
ment eventuall y appreciated the need f o r buying them up ;
the railway system of the coal area competed disastrously with
some of the State lines ; t hi s was true also of other systems
while the Great Luxemburg railway might be a danger to
Belgian neutrality in the event of a conict between France and
Germany by being utiliz ed by o n e o f the belligerents The
Northern and the Great Central rail ways of Belgium however
still remained important private owned systems the latter
until 1 89 7 when the nationalization of the entire railw ay system
of Belgium was extended
.

3 00

In d epen d en t

B elgi um

f Ma turity

P eri o d

In actual f act the productive cap acity o f Belgian industry

increased more rapidly than the outlets for the p roduct of
that in d u st rv But the commercial p olicy Of the Belgian
government contributed t o develop the growth o f business ;
it procured new outlets f o r industry o n a large scale and
by exten d ing the markets facilitated the acquisition o f raw
materials At the same time the consumer was supplied
with more abundant food at a lower price ; between 1 8 5 0
and 1 8 70 the importation of cattle butter and grain increased
tenfold
The movement of commerce progressed very rapidly as
appears from the following statistics :
'

'

G l
mm
Sp i l
mm
Ta i
e n e ra

e rc e

co

ec a

co

r ns

e rc e

I mp
Ep
I mp
Ep
x

84 1 50

o rt s

336 0

o rt s

2 83

8 5 1 - 60

o rt s
o rt s

1 67 1

Milli

8 61 70

f ra n c s

o ns o f

8 71 - 8 0

88 1 90

73 7 3

70 9 0
8
37 9

74 1

-8

3 5 06

6
59 6

3 58 3

6 2 3 -1

1 16

7
216 8

9 99 3

Commercial activity was also intensied by the progress

o f electric telegraphy which developed especially after 1 8 0
5
and of that of the telephone the rst installations of which
date from 1 8 8 3
Despite everything the commercial and industrial enter
prises O f the great capitalists or o f associations of capitalists
hardly hampered those of the possessors of moderate capital
The middle and lesser bo urg e o irie proted greatly from the
development of material prosperity Individualist traditions
were vigorously maintained As evidence o f this may be
mentioned the continuance of domestic industries arms at
Liege the making of clothing at Brussels knives at Gembloux
linen in Flanders the weaving of straw in the Geer val ley
shoemaking in the Walloon area and lace making in Flanders
,

Ma teri al Pro gress

3 01

and the Campine : the product of all these industries often

competed successfully with the output of the factories and some
of them enabled Belgium to keep the production o f certain
specialities
During this period agriculture hardly felt the e ff ect o f
the new sources of wealth resulting from improved transport
facilities and the concentration o f capital Belgium remained
the best cultivated and relatively the most productive country
in Europe She owed this to the obstinate industry o f her
peasants more especial ly those of Flanders who had already
m ade their country in general sterile 21 region o f extraordinary
productive power The system of small agricultural holdings
combined with stock raising continued to develop and prosper
while the greater part of the soil continued to be held by
the m iddle and large proprietors Agricultural pro d uction
doubled between 1 8 40 and 1 8 8 0 despite the crisis which
occurred after 1 8 70 The purchase value o f land wh ich was
fra n cs a hectare in 1 8 30 rose to
francs in 1 8 5 0 and
francs in 1 8 66
The notable growth of circulating capital as a result O f the
prosperity o f commerce and industry had a profound eff ect
upon the whole structure of society Capitalists great mer
chants and manufacturers gradually replaced the old nobility
who up to 1 8 5 0 had played an important part in political strife
The middle bo urge o isie equally proted from this material
prosperity and increased as a res u lt of the addition to their
class o f a certain number of new me n who rose from the ranks
o f the less er bourg e o isie and even from those of the workers
This was the golden age o f the bourgeo isi e That class took the
largest part in the direction Of publ ic opinion and it may be
s aid that public opinion at that time was the bourge oisie
The p ress did not as yet touch the lower classes its inuenc e
was conne d entirely to the m id d le and upper classes who
,

3 02

In d epend en t

B elgi u m

f Ma tu rity

Perio d

were the only governing classes and the only classes able
to prot from the liberties embodied in t h e constitution
The reign of the bo urge oisie was that of energetic and hard
working individualists of self made men The mercantile
spirit produced a fruitful initiative in political no less than in
economic aff airs and if it was somewhat averse from l iterary
and scientic activity it yet developed aesthetic tastes owing
to an increased demand for articles o f luxury I t h as not
stied the sentiment of national solidarity and it h as been from
the class of the parvenus the bou rgeois aristocra c y that
there have been drawn the F r re O rba n s the Solvays t h e
Waro c q u s to whom Belgium owes so many institutions
designed to improve social c onditio n s
However despite the facilities which certain gifted in d ivi
duals enjoyed for t h e amelioration of their s o cial condition
the number of the proletarians constantly increased and
an ever deeper abyss ya wned between them and the wealthier
classes The problems o f poverty became daily more acute
and the prevalent individualism showed itself incapable of
solving them
,

i n I ntelle c tua l
.

a nd

A r tis ti c Devel opme nt

In view o f the multiple problems originating from such rapid

and profound economic and soc ial changes it is not surprisin g
that the attention of a large number o f men of science h as been
directed towards their solution Herein may probably be
found the chief cause of the tendency o f Belgian savants to
concentrate upon practical questions during the rst decades
of the independent e xistence of their country Among them
the gure o f the mathematician Qu etelet is promine n t He
created the science of statistics and thus supplied a scientic
method of studying social problems He was t h e real p recurso r
,

In d e pen d en t

3 04

B e l gi u m

P er

i o d of Mat urity

The extreme Galliciz ation which had followed the revolution

o f 1 8 3 0 f o r a long time paralysed the eff orts O f men such a s
Willems an d van D u yse towards the revival o f litera ry life in
Flanders by the medium o f the language o f that country Ri
lin gu ism was at that time generally regarded as an obstacle
to the intellectual development of the nation Flemish was
only used as a literary tongue in some few chambers of
rhetoric more especially o n e at Ghent ( 1 8 3 4) and o n e at
Antwerp
I t was only very slowly that a change o f Opinion took place
among a section o f the educated public in the Flemish districts
wh ich realized the ad vantages which b il ingu ism had f o r
Belgium As an eminent French savant Camille Ju llian
remarked the b ilingu ism whi ch has been sometim
es employed
as an argument against the future Of Belgium is o n the contrary
an additional strength to her ; it permits h e r to receive t wo
inuences t o know more o f facts and of situations t o learn
more and to do more
It has been generally thought that
the Flemish movement is a product O f Germanism o f German
culture I t is true that there are points O f contact and they
will be noted between Flemish and German literature But
relatively speaking these points Of contact are very rare The
Flemish movement is o n the contrary as a result o f the
sim ilarity of language closely united with Dutch literature
while it always preserves a character of it s o wn spontaneous
and eminently national I t is curious t o notice that in every
instance it h as rst shown its revival through the medium o f
the historical novel
Con science so n o f a French sailor settled at Antwerp
and o f a Flemish mother not only taught the Flemings t o
read but interested them in their national legends and
revived their patriotic sentiment by describing the most
moving pages in the annals o f Belgium His Wo nd erj aar
,

'

I n tell ec tu a l D ev el o pme n t

3 05

that is the year I 5 66 which m arked the outbreak of the revolt

against the religious and political despotism O f Philip I I an d
his Li on of Fl and ers in which he celebrated the victors Of
Cou rtrai
were the brilliant prelude to a lo n g serie s
of works which became very popular The most pleasi n g
featu re in them was the idyllic sentiment which they breat h ed
and more especially the sincere and feelin g picture of the
districts in which the various scenes o f his romances took place
He showed himself a delightful story teller but was above all
the p ainter of the Campine and has idealized the peasant life
which he had learnt t o know in his younger days when he
served as a volunteer in the patriot army O f 1 8 30 He repro
d u c e d with more truth and knowledge scenes o f the life o f
the people of Antwerp among whom he lived O ther Flemish
rom ance writers and novelists were equally distinguished by
their fondness for scenes o f popular l ife which they rendered
with great ac c u rgc y and remarkable feeling f o r form W hile
Flemish p rose thus displayed a sudden and surp rising exu
berance poetry likewise began t o revive under the breat h o f
patriotic enthusiasm and o f the passion f o r liberty R o m antic
indivi d u alism inspired by Byron S c h iller an d Lam artine is
especially represented by L e d e g an c k who sang in odes o f n e
exaltation the three sister cities Ghent Bruges and Ant
Van Rijswijc k rej uvenated
we rp and their glorious memories
the lyric the ballad and the s atire ; Van Beers composed
idylls and elegies o f captivating charm and skilful rhythm
Finally Ge z elle surpassed all his predecessors by his familiar
and mystical poems which were strongly original an d at the
s ame tim e o f a touching simplicity He was the emotional
interpreter of the district of West Flanders a land of dead
towns but one where t he landscapes have a homely poetry
and the manners a s avou r o f the olden time He wrot e f o r the
p eople as a whole in his review R ond d e n He e rd (Round t h e
,

1 8 3 2 -1 2

3 06

In d epen d en t

B elgi u m

P eri o d

M
t
u rity
a
f

Heart h) in which he had the aid 0f many o f h is friends and

pupils He was f o r many years a master at a normal school at
Roulers but was eventuall y removed from h is position by the
Bishop o f Bruges who like the maj ority of the higher clergy
was hostile to the Flemish movement
Belgian literature in French was m ore slow to develop its
originality than that in Flemish But when it started it
showed an extraordinary vitality The rst prose writer to
produce anything essentially Belgian was Charles de Coster
He revived in a vivid and stirring form the legend of Thyl
Uyl e n sp ie g e l glorifying the epic struggle maintained by the
tenacious and ind omitable Belg ians against Spanish despotism
Side by side with t h is national Bible with these visions
of the past magnied by the intensity of their expression other
writers reproduced with an almost excessive realism the scenes
o f everyday life
Among them was Camille Lemonnier wh o
excelled in rendering his impressions in strong colou rs and in
.
bold relief He wrote reali stic novels in it rich vocabulary
In collaboration with the ba rrister E Picard a writer who was
al ways in the van he prepared the movement from whi ch re
At rst however this movement
su l t e d the Jeune Belgique
was much inuenced by the literary evolution o f France and
appeared to follow in the track of the Parnassiens devoted
m ainly to the form and choosing by preference words full of
colour and splendid phrases I t was essentially a reaction
against middle class and out o i date ideas Such was the
programme o f the review, entitled La 7e une B e lg ique founded
by Max Waller a poet and au thor of short stories who died
too young to give the full measure o f hi s po wers ( d
His associates ho wever soon entered upon n e w pa t hs and
developed plastic powers of extraordinary exuberance and
re ; showing themselves able t o depict in vivid colours
scenes of natural and o f sensual life they excelled in revealing
,

In d epen d en t

3 08

B elgium

Perio d

f Ma tu rity

scenes in the life o f the bourge o isie othersst ill have resuscitated
tragic mome nts in their nation s past the energy and heroic
suffering o f the towns and the rural districts The language
of these writers is rich and picturesque instinct with the jo y
of living and o f creating of producing works o f art Rodenbach
is the sole representative o f a diff erent temperament and that
little Flemish b y the morbid fascination which he exercises
in his B r ug es l a Mor te a study of neurasthenic love Maeter
linck h as succeeded in expressing and in suggesting ideas and
emotions which hitherto had found their interpretation rather
in music
The unco nscious self o r rather the subcon scious
self s ays E V e rh ae re n recogniz ed in the verse and prose
o f Maeterlinck its languag e o r rather it s stammering attempt
at language From the outset of his literary career Maet e r
linck settled in France which he made his adopted country and
it is to French literary history that he more properly b elongs
Despite the extent and the richness o f this literary renais
sance it was as not hi ng compared with the artistic revival by
which it was accompanied Belgium resumed th at position
in the world o f art which sh e had occup ied at all the decisive
moments o f her history Numerous p ainters and sculptors
reviving the realism of their
acquired world wide fame
predeces sors but at the same time displaying a m arked in d iv i
duality I m
mediately after the revolution of 1 8 3 0 there
was nothing t o foretell an artistic revival so wonderful and so
rapid Belgium from the point o f view of art was n o more
than a Fren ch province The s ame conict as in F rance
between declining n e O classicism and rising rom anticism was
visible there N av e z represented the rst tendency in hi s
portraits vigorous but cold O n the other hand Wappers
was under the inuence o f triumphant romanticism and sought
f o r theatrical eff ects in his great historical paintin gs ; violent
gesticulation tragic faces articial light mark his pictures

'

A rti s ti c D ev el o pmen t

3 99

pursued the s ame path but paid m

ore a t tention to
technique he was as has been s aid magnicently mediocre
in his art
Leys also followed the s ame romantic tendencies
he em ancip ated himself from them only somewhat later under
the inspiration o f the Bouts and the Metsys
O ne o f the s al ient characteristics of the artistic evolution o f
Bel gium c onsists in the number of centres in whi ch it devel oped
The chief were Antwerp Ghent and B russels but Liege
and many other towns also produced artists o f distinction
Hence the variety which shows itself in the Belgian school
whi ch h as also gradu ally asserted its originality Ye t side by
side with thi s variety it h as displayed a general t endency
to wards that realism whi ch was so characteristic o f the old
Wall oon and Flemish artists
This movement appears to
have begun simultaneously from Ghen t and Antwerp Leys
here revived the aesthetic traditions Of the fteenth and
sixteenth cent u ries by d r awing with a marked sincerity and
in m arvell ously fresh colours portraits o f contemporaries in
the surroundings of those ages
But he sometimes copied
the errors in perspective whi ch had been m ade by the
old m asters and failed to achieve real decorative p ainting
which was best represented mu ch later by D elb eke the pro
d u c e r o f the admirable fres coes in the halls o f Ypres which
w e re destroyed in the cours e of the war At Ghent Flix De
Vigne revived hi storic al p ainting in hi s eff orts to reproduce
faithf t
scenes of everyday life in the Middle Ages He
instructed in the art of re ali stic interpretation his pupils such
as D e Winne a vigorous and sober portraitist an d Jul es Breton
the French m aster who gav e so strong an impulse to re alistic
tendencies in his o wn country and to whose success his Flemish
relations seem to have contributed in no sm all measure
Finall y at Brussels the tendency towards the direct o b se rva
t ion and faithfu l reproductio n of nature was still further

G allait

'

310

In d epen d en t

B elgium

Peri o d

f Ma tu rity

accen tuated but in a somewhat French spirit L ike Courbet

in France de Groux painted the unhappy interpreting sad
mournful tragic realities ; h e created a new emotion altogether
pathetic but his technique broke away from Flemis h traditions ;
his grey and cold colouring contrasted with the b right and
shining colours o f hi s contemporaries
The need f o r closer and closer communion with nature f o r
absorbing in a measure the open air and at the same time f o r
discovering new artistic formulae which should be nearer
t ruth early attracted the Belgian artists t o landscape And in
art o i this type they excell ed
displaying their best native
characteristics rmn e ss in execution richness in colouring
a taste for things material solid and rich
The Ardennes and the Campine found many attentive
interpreters some o f whom such as L amo rin iere were even
too meticulous and they became t h e tracts specially affected
by landscape painters after the new impulse given to Belgian
art b y H Bo ule ng er In subtle and vigorous manner he
exp ressed the very varied aspects o f the lovely Brabancon
d istrict round Tervueren ; he transferred into his works t h e
silence o f the forests the murmurs o f the plain Side b y
side with the Tervueren school developed that of Termonde
the master o f wh ic h
Ro sse e ls was especially devoted t o the
Campine heath with all its changing moods, full of contrasts
a nd
bathed in so enveloping an atmosphere His pupils
I Meyers and c rab e e ls remained faithf ul to the region which
it may be recalled inspired the rs t Flemish rom ance writer
Heymans and Artan excel in se a pieces an d in depicting river
landscapes veiled in mist Co u rt e n s surpassed hi s co n tem
p o rarie s in the vigour of hi s colouring and in h is power o f
making scenes live
I Verheyden at once a landscape and a portrait painter
o f talent is di stinguished f o r h is acute and nervous power
.

In d e pen d en t

312

B elgi u m

f M a tu rity

Peri o d

cent u ry Drawing his inspiration from these he produced a type

of art really original and wholly spontaneous he united the
grace of Florence with the vigour o f expressio n and plasticity
Flanders ; his marble l l m mor ta li t e n the Museum o f
of
Brussels and his numerous busts and p as reliefs of youths
attract both by the sobriety of their lines and by their d is
tinction and intensity o f expression D ill e n s followed analogous
paths though adopting a style more akin t o that of Rubens
while Lambeaux attempted to adapt to sculpture the traditions
of the Flemish renaissance by exaggeration of movement and
attitudes (as in the f ountain of Brabo at Antwerp) although
full of spirit vigour and brill iance
C Meunier whose reputation has surpassed that of all those
already mentioned found a new style worn but pathetic
to express the tragic grandeur of labour the poet ry of modern
industry At rst a painter he preserved in his sculptures
a very pronounced tendency to reproduce colour and the
contrasts of li ghts and shades This is the explanation of hi s
special fondness for the h as relief of which he was the u n
doubted master
The artistic revival appeared equally in architec t u re at the
time of the most intense industrial activity Af ter futile
eff orts to revive the Gothic Belgian architects found their
inspiration mainly in the Flemish renaissance and in the
French architecture o f the eighteenth century But they
combined all styles ; o ne o f the most remarkable creations
in this connexion is the Palais de Justice at Brussels of Po el ae rt
with its Babylonian dimensions and its mainly Doric Roman
mo t if s
The more frequent employment of iron in building
led to a new style the chief exponent o f whi ch is Horta
Finall y domestic architecture was inspired by all manner of
models drawn from all lands and all ages but mainly from the
Flemish renaiss ance It displayed extraordinary variety and
,

A rti s ti c D e v el o pmen t

313

elegance in the new qua rters of the great towns and in the
holiday resorts on the sea coast and in the Ardennes
I n addition to the plastic arts music equally revived with
vigour in the land of Roland de Lassus Benoit eloquently
t ranslated into popular tunes the emotions of the m asses and
Ces ar Franck the great master o f Liege in h is wonderful
lyrical productions was one o f the most delicate interpreters
O f contemporary sensibility
The numerous schools o f music
all free like the academies o r s chools of the ne arts largely
contributed to re ne the musical taste which seems to be
innate in both Flemings and Walloons Their folk song has
become famous as a result o f the initiative of the municipalities
and of such societies as the Socit de littrature wall onne and
the Wille m sf o n d s which aims at raising t h e intell ectual and
moral level of the people by the medium of writing and song
-

'

In d epen d en t

B e lgiu m d u rin g th e Peri o d of

E xpa n s i o n ( 1 88 5 1 9 1 4)

E co no mi c

an

d So ci al Ev ol u ti o n

As yet the third period of the life of independent Belgium

does no t reall y belong t o history It is hardl y possible yet to
determine the signicance or estimate the relative importance of
the events whi ch took place in it O f those events many would
s eem to indicate a movement in the direction of an increased
solidarity in every part of national life and a simul taneous
tendency t o take a greater share in the general activities o f
mankind NO certainty however can as yet be reached o n
this point since only movements which are completed can be
properly comprehended ; not those j ust beginning Be that
as it may in all departments of social activity Belgium has
shown a more intense vital ity I n the domain o f the intellect
she h as continued to exhi bit a marked predilection f o r appli ed
science although sh e has produced men o f marked ability in
somewhat speculative spheres such as hi story and international
law
She h as maintained in a marked degree that artistic
and litera ry aptitude so signall y displayed in the previous age
I t is hard to distinguish the various currents o f the general
intell ectual movement and t o decide which are destined t o
become of greater importance than others S avants n o less
than artists and writers tend to become increasingly in d iv i
dualistic t o specialize more and more ; and the result is that
the task of forming a synthesis of contemporary intellectual
evolution grows less and less easy The very scope o f this
General Sketch of Belgian history compels me to omit this

3 16

In d epen d en t

B elgiu m

P er

i o d of

E xpa n s

io n

ending 1 900 to an average of

millions it grew persistently
from 1 90 1 t o 1 9 1 3 reaching in the latter year the gure of
millions
The development of the foreign exchanges and generally
of all economic a ctivity was greatly assisted by improved
transport facilities Belgium retained her position as the land
best served by railways the charges on which were kept at
a very low gure owing to the fact that t h e great maj ority of
the lines were worked by the government
Th e B elgian
government adopted the principle o f working the railways
on a non p ro t basis regarding the lines as a public service
The passenger traf c was further increased by the in t ro d u c
tion o f season tickets more especially for workmen a practice
which has also made the movement of labour easier than it is
elsewhere
In addition to the system o f main lines whi ch presently
amounted to some
kilometres there were so o n l o c al
lines with a length of over
kilometres These local lines
were constructed and worked by a gro u p of capitalists who
formed the Socit Gnrale des Chemins de Fer vicinaux
with the c o operation of the State the provinces and the
communes concerned A large number of villages were thus
linked together by light railways and in consequ ence o btained
with more ease mac hi nes chemical manures and all the
materials and implements required for the new methods of
agriculture They were also brought into closer contact with
the towns The diff erence between town and country was
diminished o n the one hand by the continual movement to
and f ro of the rural labo u r utili zed in the factories and works
of the towns and on the other by the removal to districts
whi ch had been purely agricultural before of large industrial
enterprises As a result Belgium assumed a more and more
o rig i nal character
In no other land was the extension o f
,

ic

E co n o m

S o ci a l E v o lu ti o n

an d

317

industrial life so happily combined with the p artial m aintenanc e

of an individu alist system o f agriculture Belgium however
the classic land of the lesser bo urge o isie saw the inuence o f
that class gradually diminishing as a result o f new economic
factors
I ndust ry on a large scale tended to replace industry on
a moderate o r a small scale as commerce on a large scale
graduall y replaced commerce o n a moderate or small scale
Factories killed domestic workshops as stores did the small
shops
The n u mber of large industrial enterprises employing more
than ve hun d red workmen increased from 1 8 96 to 1 9 01 to
an astonishing extent growing from I 3 3 to
The number
o f workmen employed in these industries i ncreased by 60 per
cent in the same period from
to
The medium
and sm all businesses diminished during this same period to
such an extent that the total number was less in 1 90 1 than it
had been in 1 8 9 6 and in the following years this tendency w as
further accentuated I t manifested itself especially in the
vital industries such as collieries metal works spinning and
weaving mills breweries distilleries and quarries
The advance in large enterprises as against those conducted
by individuals or on a sm all scale was due not only to t h e
division of labour which m ade production more rapid and
cheaper but also to the association o f allied undertakings This
phenomenon app eared more especially in the mining and metal
industries forms of production which are essentially divorced
from the consumer As a result o f the combination of metal
and coal works further formidable concerns were created
The colliery proprietors had raised their prices without regard
to the uctu ations in the metal market and such metal estab
lish m e n t s as those o f Cockerill O ugr ee Marih aye and others
acquired co al mines themselves and began to supply their o wn
.

In d epen d en t

318

B elgiu m

Pe ri o d

E xpa n s

io n

fuel Th anks to this developm e nt they were able to meet the

competition o f German imported goods which had become
very acute owing t o the prevalence o f dumping The zinc
industry had been practically monopolized by the Vieille
Montagne Company w
hich possessed foundries rollingmil ls
factories f o r blan ching z inc furnaces f o r it s calcin ation 810
distributed in various countries
The decline of the lesser or bourgeois ind ustry was inevitable ;
only feeble eff orts were made by the government and local
authorities to preserve it
The Catholic ministries which
were in power during the whole of this period ( 1 8 84 1 9 1 4)
were however especially interested in the lesser bourge o isie
They encouraged the leagues an d the congresses organized
on it s behalf and appointed a commis sion to inquire into the
whole situation Subventions were granted to assist the pur
chase o f mechanical appliances by the small and moderate
businesses Various towns also seconded the eff orts of the less er
bourge o isie ; f o r example by the creation o f professio n al schools
Nevertheless the number of small employers constantly
declined ; they hardly saw their way to unite and to nd in
c o operation a means of remedying a situation which grew
daily more precarious
As everywhere happens the great establishments b y c o ll e c t ing
together m asses o f workmen had given rise to unions amongst
them which s upplied the starting point o f a reaction against
the economic individualism which had existed since t h e French
Revolution
The Sociali st movement in Belgium originated from two
manufacturing centres Ghent and the district o f Liege In
the rst of these towns it led to the formation o f economic
groups which in turn produced the creation o f c o operative
societies ; in the area of Liege it translated itself into strikes
meant to secure immediate political reforms calculat e d t o
.

'

'

3 20

Peri o d of E xpa n s i o n

In d epen d en t Belgi u m

tion of capital and in this way it was essen tially diff erent from
the corporate movements o f t h e Middle Ages which left to
the various masters the free disposal o f their private capital
The mutual aid societies and professional associations were
much more like the mediaeval craft gilds and unions o f this
kind long endured at Liege Ve rviers and in the industrial
areas o f Hainault In the Charleroi district the professional
u n ions were aff ili ated not to the L ab our party that is to the
Sociali st party but t o the Knights of L abour o f the United
States
By d egrees the system o f consumptive and productive
where the
c o o eration spread t o the Wall oon districts also
p
c o operators were organized by the Socialist p arty and grouped
together into federations Each federation remained self
govern ing in the economic sense but depended on the general
council o f the Socialist p arty in the matter o f poli tical p ro
,

p ag an d a
F o r several
.

years some o f t h e foremost members o f the

Catholic party had been occupied with endeavours to discover
some solution o f the new social problems by means of organiza
tions of a religious character as had been the former workmen s
corporations In Germany trade associations of this nature
had been in some measure reconstituted although they were
strictly u nder the control of the government o r the municipal
authorit ies T h e Catholic party did n o t at rst have recourse
t o such organizations
In opposition t o the socialistic c o operative societies the
party created Catholic c o operative societies which met with
success only in certain towns Ghent Louvain an d Antwerp
O n the other hand they spread rapidly in the agricultural
districts and o n all sides there appeared c o Operative creameries
and associations o n c o operative lines f o r the purchase o f the
prim ary needs of agric u lture

E co no mi c

S o ci a l Ev o luti o n

an d

32 1

At rst in m any ru ral areas the c u r became the chief agent

the working manager Of these c o operative b Od ie s but by
degrees there appeared an increasing t endency to leave the
initiative to the me m bers themselves Father Rutten p reached
the system of allowing the workmen t o d irect the institutions
which had been establis h ed or which it was proposed t o estab
lish for them and from t h at moment the Catholic syndicates
and the numbers of their members increased until in a few
years they numbered about half as many as the socialistic
syndicates
I n order to esc ape the inuence of the syndicates of workmen
and to get cheaper labou r a certain number o f men of business
established factories in the country ; chimneys became as
numerous though not so thickly planted in the Flemish
districts as they were in the industrial W alloon area Bit
by bit these rural workmen were in their turn t o follow the
example of the workers in the t owns and t o organize themselves
for the defence o f their collective interests S o there w as
formed a mixed prolet ariate half agricultural half industrial
m ainly in consequence o f t h e e n o rmo u s extension of the sugar
industry
The substitution of beetroot and o f garden p roducts such
as c au lio we rs chicory grapes & c f o r c ereals the return
f o r which was in adequate owing to foreign competition led
The extension o f t h e
t o a veritable revolution in agriculture
grow ing o f beetroot took place at the expense of that o f food
s tu ff s such as beans and of industrial plants such as ax But
after 1 8 8 0 the cul t ivation o f cereals became very u n re mu n e ra
tive and there has been a rapid increase in the growing o f
beetroot ( of the types suitable for sugar fodder and distill ing)
which sometimes resulted in over production as in 1 900 The
results of this form o f cultivation aff ected all oth er forms o f
activity ; by obliging t h e peasa nt s t o employ
agricultural
,

8 3 2-1 2

3 22

In d epen d en t B e lgi u m

Pe ri o d

E xpa n s

ion

powerful fertilizers t o turn up the soil t o a considerable depth

and to free it carefull y from weeds it gave the cultivators
a professional education as well as improving the soil O ne
result amongst others was an increase in the production o f
potatoes and oats and o f other grai n suitable for feeding stock
This similarly led to an increase in the number o f ca t tle
raised a pursuit already favoured by the cultivation o f beetroot
The exploitation o f pasture land also became very protable
and at the same time horse breeding was introduced the best
animals being gen erally p urchased by Germany The head o f
Belgi an cattle so increased that the country became propor
t io n at e ly the richest in Europe in this regard
Agricultural
production was also so intensied that Belgium attained the
rst ra nk in this eld also This was especially the case in
Flanders where the population devoted itself t o making the
country more fert ile despite the harshness o f nature Mean
while the variety o f cultivation tended to guarantee the
agriculturist against the crises which periodically overtake
a particular form of activity Unfortunately the available
labour was hardly su ffi cien t : besides the diff erent industries
of Belgium itself foreign countries especially France attra cted
away a large number o f agricultural labourers ; it is true
howeve r that many of them conned themselves to migrating
during the season and returned home after it
The economic and social changes of thi s period have occurred
mainly in connexion with the formation and distribution o f
movable wealth ; real property has been little aff ected Cultiva
tion o n a small scale has remained the general system but land
is as a rule let t o the cultivator O nly some 3 1 per cent o f
the cultivated area o f the country is exploited directly by
the owners leaving 69 per cent some t wo thirds exploited
by farmers a proportion which is almost three and a half
times as great as the proportion in France and over four times
,

3 24

In d epen d ent

B elgi u m

Pe ri o d of E xpa n s i o n

O ne of the

distinctive characteristics of the social evolution

o f the quarter century prior t o the war has been the radical
t ransformation o f poor relief which is n o longer based exclu
siv e l
y o n charity as in the past but more and more o n the
conce ption of national solidarity
The Englishma n Seebohm Rowntree was struck in the course
of his inquiry into the organization o f labour in Belgium by
the vast number of charitable institutions and by the religious
or political character o f the maj ority of them They disposed
sometimes of considerable resources but were devoted mainly
rather t o the relief o f distress than to the examination o f its
Their action was thus rather palliative than curative
c auses
and in some cases especially in Flanders they break down the
manly independence o f t he people
O n the other hand the
obligation to conform t o the practice o f religion imposed by
institutions of confessional tendencies as by that of Saint
Vincent de Paul inclined to produce hypocrisy
The situation has been somewhat modied by the growth
o f the democrat i c movement and b y the greater part taken in
public a ff airs by the lower class The assistance granted to
school children in the form d food clothes & c by the
communal bodies o f the towns is more and more distributed
o n a principle o f strict equality and with n o distinction either
o f reli gion or political opinion
O ne of the most fertile experiment s in the domain of public
assista nce was taken by t h e communal council o f the city o f
Ghent which in 1 900 established a communal out o i work
fund t o supplement the eff orts made by the workmen themselves
against unemployment All the g re at syn d ic at e s o f workmen
Socialist C atholic Liberal n o n party were af liated to this
and the result o f t h e undertaking was so satisfactory that the
example was followed by v arious other towns by six provinces
by the govern ment and by a certain nu mbe r of industrial
-

E co n o mi c

S o ci a l E v o lu ti o n

a nd

3 25

centres abroad The municipal autonomy j ealously preserved

in B elgium thus produced o n e really benecial result
.

ii

The Ca tholi c- Co nserv a tive Governme n t

In 1 8 8 4 the Catholic p arty succeeded t o power with a pro

gramm e of frank opposition to the extension of State inter
v e n t io n to l aicism and to militarism
I t aimed at restraining
within the narrowest possible limits the action of the govern
ment and of the civil authorities in general in the domains of
education and charity at in c re asing t h e inuence o f the
Church and if not at the actual reduction at least at t h e
p revention of any augment ation of the military establishment
The rst minist ry of the p arty h owever lost it s ultra
clerical character in the course o f a few months Woeste and
J aco b s being fo rced to resign as a result o f the demonstrations
di rected again st them in the chi ef towns Woeste nevertheless
continued to inspire the m aj ority of the cabinets and remained
t h e real leader of t h e Right until 1 909
His brief ministry had b een especially marked by radical
measures directed t o the reduction to the absolute minimu m
o f the State educatio n al establishments and t o placing those
establishments as much as possible under the indirect control
The law o f 1 88 4 introduced a system o f
o f the C hurch
recognized schools side by side with those of the State private
schools were enabled to obtain subsidies from the governmen t
if they confo rmed to certain regulations This system was
afterwards still further developed and by degree s the private
schools W ere subsidized almost in the same way as the public
T he C atholic p ar t y however failed to induce the State t o
deprive itself entirely o f it s share in the work o f education
and to give the Church that preponderating inuence which
it h ad e n j oyed du ring the rst twenty years of Belgian inde
that
is
during
the
Catholic
Liberal
government
e nd e n c e
p
,

'

3 26

I n d epen d e n t

B elgi u m

Pe ri o d

E xpa n s

io n

In f ace of the so called free ecclesiastical institutions which

received among others the monks and nuns later expelled from
France the educational institutions o f the State and o f the
great to wns maintained the tradition of an essentially secular
education based upon neutrality that is upon respect f o r all
shades o f opinion The inuen ce of the Church on the educa
as f o r example its indirect
t io n al institutions of the State
intervention in the appointment of professors and masters
daily increased although it was never su i c ie n t t o give them
a confessional character I n this regard it may be said that the
Catholic party remained d e spite itself faithful t o its offi cial
designation of Conservative
O n the other hand the party was led by force of circum
stances t o depart completely from its Conservative programme
and to abandon the maj orit yo f those political traditions by
I t advanced by degrees
which it had been characteriz ed
towards that centraliz ation which it had so strenuously resisted
and an important section within it the 7e une Dro i te incl ined
towards democratic reforms and even o n occasion made
common cause with the opposition parties
In any case the Catholic ministries were forced it would
appear to carry o u t or t o continue many articles of the former
Liberal programme and in the rst instance with regard t o
the settlement o f labour questions which became a matter o f
urgency from 1 8 8 5 The e conomic unrest which foll owed
o n th e years of industrial development drew the attention o f
m inisters ever more and more towards social problems
Beernaert in 1 8 8 5 ordered an inquiry into the organization o f
labour The speech from the throne in the foll owing year
adumbrated a series o f reforms in the direction o f State inter
v e n t io n
such as the formation o f professional unions councils
of arbitration councils of conciliation the regulation o f
labou r 8cc This was the starting point o f important social
-

3 28

In d epen d en t

B elgiu m

P eri o d

E xpa n si o n

detached t h emselves more and more from t hose

Liberals who represented e ssentially the middle class and
remained faithful t o the ideal o f the greatest possible measure
of liberty Thus a n e O progressive p arty was formed which
adhered to the doctrine of international Socialism and tended
The latter party produced
t o coalesce with the Labour party
rather by the threat o f a general strike
so great an agitation
than by actual strikes that in 1 8 9 2 it was decided t o revise
the constitution in o rder to extend the franchise The
chambers chosen t o eff ect t hi s revision did not support
wholehea rte dl y the doctrine o f universal s uff rage the less so
as they were themselves the represe ntatives o f t h e former
They eventually adopted in 1 89 3 as a result
e lectoral system
a mixed system that
o f the union of the two extreme parties
by whi ch the franchise was gran ted to all
o f the plural vote
citi z ens who fullled certain requirements as to residence
and a s u pplementary vote was accorded u p to a maximum
capacity and family O ne import ant
o f three to wealth
innovation was the e stablishment o f the compulsory vote
The elections held under the new system in 1 894 completely
changed t he character o f the chambers From t hi s time there
were three main parties the Catholics wh o possessed a sub
the last
st an t ial majority ; the Socialists ; and the Liberals
named standing midway between the rst two and suff ering very
severely in the political conicts o f the last few years The
e xtreme factions the Socialists and a section o f the Catholics
represented the lower classes and gave the d e b at e s in the
parliament a more irregular character and a more heated
atmosph ere Some years later in 1 899 the L iberal party
revived in importance as a result o f the introduction of p ro
portional representation and the violence o f parliamentary
de bates was somewhat reduced although the orientation o f
government policy was scarcely modied

P rogr essives

'

C a tho li c C o n serv a ti v e G o v ern men t

Th e

32 9

From the moment of the appearance of the Socialists in t h e

chambers the government t ook the initiative in t h e introductio n
of m
easures designed to regulate the relations between workmen
and employers and entered resolutely upon the path o f Stat e
inte rvention I n 1 8 9 5 a minist ry o f L abour was established
increasing still further the bureaucracy which had constantly
developed in other departments o f the government since
central ization began to m ake progress
The C atholic government however pursued a policy o f
decentralization in the matter of education in order t o increase
the social inuence of the Church and a law o f 1 8 9 5 granted
to free that is Catholic schools regular subsidies The
policy of the government was inspired by the prin ciple dened
by the leader o f the old party o f the Right in the following
terms : E ducation i s not a public service it is the fu nction
of the father not of the State The old ght over t he sc h o o ls
continued and the Li berals united with the Socialists to oppose
the pretensions o f the Church which aimed at monopolizing
the dire ction o f the conscience the bishops had already
with this end in view succeeded in establishing by law com
unless
exemption
from
it
was
u l so ry reli gious instruction
p
form ally demanded
Prim a ry education did not become
compulsory until 1 9 1 3 Bet ween 1 8 9 5 and 1 900 a series o f
laws were passed f o r the regulation o f labour these enactments
having as their purpose the control o f the relations between
employers and employees But this control was not in general
as vigorous as that exercised in similar cases in other countries
I t was established as a principle that the legislator ought no t
to create rights but to explain and dene them Thus the
B elgian laws of 1 8 9 6 o n the regulation of workshops and that
of 1 9 00 o n contracts f o r labour were preceded by careful
inquiries intended to conciliate all the interests concerned to
the greatest possib le extent The law xed a standard contract
,

'

330

In d epen d en t

B elgiu m

E xpa n s i o n

i o d of

P er

in cases where the conditions o f labour were not dened by

the contracting p arties but permitted it s modication by the
ad vice o f the trade counc il and by the labour inspe ctors
Thus while leaving employer and employed free to enter into
m utual engagements according to the customary conditions
of the district the government desired to establish the principle
t hat every o n e apart from h is private interest h as h is duties
and responsibilities
The employees of the great industries however continued
to demand reforms in order to improve the lot o f the workers :
In 1 8 9 7 and 1 89 8 the government passed a law on the subj ect
o f the inspection o f mines under which State inspectors and
also inspectors representing the workmen were created thes e
being selected by the coal sections o f the councils of industry
and labour The Socialists protested against thi s method
of choice and demanded that the inspectors representing the
workmen should be sel ected by the workmen themselves
They therefore termed this law a lo i de fa cade
The
Socialists further complained that the number o f in spectors
was in su i c ie n t
As a result further laws were soon passed and decrees issued
for the regulation o f labour In 1 903 the Workmen s Compensa
tion Act f o r injuries &c was passed and in 1 9 05 a royal
decree restricted the hours o f work for children under thirteen
to six per diem In t h e same year a law limiting the working
days for all operatives t o six per week was passed excepting in
cases where special exemptions Were granted These e xemp
tions were numerous The law with regard to the limitation
o f the working day in mines
gave rise t o very lively
( 1 906
debates
The government did no t d are t o introduce compulsory
insurance f o r o ld age pensions but was content to encourage
providence by granting pensions to workers who were either
,

332

Ind epen d en t

B elgiu m

Peri o d of E xpa n s i o n

reforms grew to su ch an extent that a maj ority containing

representatives of the three parties adopted a measure in
1 8 8 which declared that Flemish was an o f cial to n
gue o n
9
the same basis as French and that all future laws should be
drawn up in both languages The linguistic situation in the
Flemish area remained very abnormal because an important
section o f the bourge o isie continued t o employ mainly French
and showed great reluctance t o learn thoroughl y the la nguage
o f the lower orders
A law o f 1 8 8 3 attempted t o remedy this
sta t e of things by ordering that Flemish should be the language
u sed in part o f the educational course in all s econdary schools
to wit in t h e study of the Germanic tongues and in t wo
other courses But this l awwas only imperfectly carried out
and higher education remained still essentially French At
the time when the war broke o u t a new policy was taking
shape the policy o f organizing in the State universities courses
given both in French and Flemish
,

iii

Co lon i a l E xp a m ion

As early as the reign of Leopold I various attempts at colon ial

expansion had been made in order to compensate the country
f o r the closing o f the Dutch colonies to its commerce
In
an expedition was undertaken to the Rio Nu nez and
seven years later a p rotectorate wa s established there but
the government ceased to maintain it in 1 8 5 6 A Belgian
colonization company formed in 1 8 4 1 transported a certain
n umber of emigrants t o Guatemala but they failed to become
acclimatized and in a short time the settlement disappeared
Further attempts made in Brazil at 8 5 0 Thome Santa Catharina
and 8 5 0 Paulo met with n o greater success But as the markets
o f Europe became more and more restricted
the need f o r
colonial outlets b ecame increasingly imperative
Belgian
.

'

C o l o n i al

E xpa n s i o n

33 3

c apitalists preferred t o employ their resources in industrial

enterprises in European countries they formed a large number
of comp anies for the exploitation of mines factories railways
in Sp ain It aly and Russia wherever t hey saw possibilities
of industrial development Their investments everywhere
l acked security from the mere fact that they were in foreign
lands ; only gradually did they appreciate the advantages o f
colonial dependencies
As early as 1 8 5 5 L eopold I I who was then only Duke o f
Brabant delivered a speech in the Senate in which he pointed
o ut
the urgency of nding new openings f o r the industry
and activity o f Belgium At rst he hoped to nd them in
the F ar E ast and in Egypt Between the years 1 8 5 5 and 1 8 60
the Belgian government attempted to obtain a concession
at the mouth of the Yangtse kiang but without success
The proj ect of founding a settlement in Formos a was then
formed but this scheme was no more suc cessful Then in
1 8 76 the interior of Afric a began t o be kno wn thanks t o the
expeditions of Cameron and the publication of L ivingst p n e s
jo u rnals Leopold I I at once turned his attention to this
qu arter ; he fores aw the future of these vast areas in the
D ark Contine nt which had so long remained wrapped in
mystery
I n 1 8 76 he assembled at Brussels forty geographers and
travellers of different lands with the obj ect of c o ordin ating
e ff orts to solve the African p roblem of freeing the negroes
f rom slavery and of opening at last to civilization the only
p art of our globe which has not yet been penetrated
At
rst the idea was an international undertakin g The interna
t io n al African Association formed in the following year o r
a n iz e d several expeditions t o Lake Tanganyika from Zanzibar ;
g
six expeditions mostly directed by Belgian ofcers went out
between 1 8 77 and 1 88 3 The Comit d Et u d e s d u H au t
,

334

In d e pen d en t

P eri o d of E xpa n si o n

B elgiu m

Congo created in 1 8 78 under the honorary presidency o f

the king accomplished a more considerable work than the
association Its mission was no t merely humanitarian and
scientic but political and economic Th e king ably calmed
the greed of the colonial powers by declaring that the most
absolute commercial freedom should prevail in the new state
and that the basin o f the Congo should become as it were the
common heritage of all nations
With the help o f Stanley
aided by Belgian soldiers he secured the recognition o f his
authority by numerous chiefs of th e Congo district from the
mouth o f the river t o the Stanley Fall s Become a sovereign
p o wer the committ ee took the title o f Association inter
nation ale d u Congo
It s work was opposed by France
and Portugal the latter being supported by England The
French ag was planted by Brazza o n the right ba nk of the
Pool and barred Stanley s march O n the other hand Portugal
claimed the lower course o f the river o n the ground of historic
rights and her pretensions were favoured by England But
thanks t o the able diplomacy o f the king the other powers
w e l c dm e d with sympathy the foundation o f the new state
The Association came t o terms with France with which
country it concluded an agreement which gave France pre
f e re n t ial rights in the event o f the Association desiring t o dispose
o f its possessions
After lengthy negotiatio n s the association
nally obtained f ro m P o rt u g al authori z ation to take possession
of a corridor ess ential t o give it access t o the sea Meanwhile
the new state had been recogniz ed rst by the United States o f
America and later by Germany and the other powers in the
course o f a diplomatic conference held at Berlin ( 1 8 8 4
This
conference decreed that there should be freedom o f trade in
the area whi ch it described as the conventional ba sin o f the
Congo and liberty of settlemen t for all ; it laid down special
provisions f o r combating the slave trade and also proclaimed
,

In d epe n d en t B elgi u m

336

f E xpa n s i o n

P eri o d

hands o f the state o r of such comp anies as the state approved

since the greater part o f these l an d S h ad not been worked in
All lands declared unoccupied were ultimately divided
1 88 5
in the following way : ( I ) The domaine priv converted after
domaine national from which the sovereign
1 9 06 into th e
drew the revenues applied t o meet public charges ; ( 2) the
domaine de la Couronne which comprised the richest p art
of t h e Congo and which was separated from the domaine
priv
the revenues of this portion were devoted to public
works and institutions o f ge neral utility both in Bel gium and
in the Congo ; and ( 3) the lands granted as concessions to
the great commerci al companies such as those o f Kassai
Comptoir Commercial Mongala and Abir The excesses
ome o f the agents of these companies were guilty
o f whi ch s
compelled the state under the pressure o f public opinion to
put an end to their operations But the agents o f the state
themselves be ing interested in increasing the returns resulting
from the labour imposed upon the natives owing to the fact
that they received a percentage o f the prot often abuse d
their power In default of legislation o n the matter they
the mselves xed the amount of the tax and eff e cted its
collection in any way they pleased Despite everythi ng the
natives li ving in the rubber producing areas continued to be
overburdened with forced labour and th e agents resorted to
every means to make up the amount of the tax Vigorous
protests were made in England where the press began an
energetic campaign against the system prevailing in the Congo
Sir Charles Dilke even demanded that the govern ment o f
England should take t he initiative in calling an in t ernational
conference with a view to taking steps with regard to the
treatment o f the natives The proposal was adopted by t he
Hous e o f Commons in 1 9 03 It was then that R Case
ment English consul at Boma was instructed b y his govern ,

'

C o lo n i a l

E xpa n s

ion

337

ment to conduct an inquiry in the Upper Congo the re port

resulting from which in general conrmed the criticisms
which had been brought against the Free State Leopold I I
nally decided t o order an inquiry himself ; it resulted in
a somewhat modied form in a complete indictment of the
administration of the Congo The sovereign loyally recogniz ed
the reality o f the abuses which his administration and that of
the comp anies had committed but he deceived himself as t o
their cause His administration itself was a vast commercial
undertaki ng ; its of cials were com mercial agents
This
confusion of duties rendered futile all the humanitarian
regulations issued by the sovereign Urgent reforms were
needed Public opinion in Belgium loudly demanded them
and o n various sides it was suggested that the best method
of e ff ecting them would be the conversion of the Congo into
a Belgian colony As early as 1 8 8 9 Leopold II had left the
Free State by will to Belgium but he did not show any disposi
tion to cede it at once without burdening his gift with onerous
charges such as the reservation o f the royal domain The
Ho u s e o f Commons refused to agree to these demands while
on the other hand the B ritish government continued t o
press f o r a complete transform ation of the Congo After
long negotiations L eopold I I at last agreed to give up his
claims with regard to the royal domain ( 1 908) and the
From that moment
C ongo becam e a Belgian colony
the Belgian p arliament exercised eff ective control over the
government of t he Congo by means of the vote f o r the
colonial b udget The acts of the sovereign had in future
to be countersigned by a minister responsible to p arliament
The supreme administration was entrusted to a special minister
f o r the colonies who was assisted by a colonial council the
members of which were named partly by the king and p artly
by the chambers The Congo was still regulated by its
,

8 3 2 -1 2

In d epen d en t

338

B elgiu m

Peri o d of E xpa n s i o n

particular laws and its administration remained absolutely

distinct from t h at o f Belgium proper
The Belgian governmen t published a very denite declara
tion as to its resolve t o full scrupulously all the obligations
resulting from international conventions and more especially
from the Treaty of Berlin It further declared that it would
speedily take measures to end forc e d labour in the colony
Nevertheless it continued t o be the subj ect o f violent attacks
on the part o f certain English writers such as Morel and other
rep resentatives of the Congo Reform Association! The
disappearance of the Leopoldine system was however an
a ccomplished fact
,

iv

N a t i o na l Def e n ce

The organiz ation o f national defence had been the subj ect o f
very special consideration as early as the rst years o f the reign
o f Leopold I I
It continued to be for him a
( 1 8 65
matter of the rst importance and he nev er ceased t o press it
The development at the
u pon the attention of parliament
gates o f Belgium o f the formidable German Empire inspire d
h im wit h a lively apprehensio n which he showed by the in sis
tence with wh ich he urged the defence of the li ne o f the Meuse
He succeeded in obtaining this from the chambers in 1 88 7 at
a time when relations bet w een France and Germany were
strained as a result o f the Boulangist agitation but he failed
t o secure the increase of the standing army necessitated by
su c h an extension o f the defensive system At all times and
particularly o n the occasion o f any patriotic manifestation
he made such an increase the s u bj ect of pressing re c o mme n d a
t ions one of the most sensational occasions being the speech
which he delivered at Bruges in 1 8 8 7 at the time of the
unveiling o f the monu m ent t o Bre yd e l and de Co n in c t h e
heroes o f 1 3 02
The lion o f Flanders he said ought no t
,

3 40

In d epen d en t

B elgiu m

Peri o d of E xpa n s i o n

This reconstruction involved an expenditure of more than

a hundred millions It w as voted in the following year and
completed soon afterwards by a reform of the artillery From
that time army reform b ecame absolutely necessary ; it was
essential t o raise the eff ectives t o a number whi ch should be
in accord with the importance of the fortresses which were
to be defended At this time under the voluntary system
the number of men with the colours had fallen from
in
in 1 907 The chamber appointed a commission
1 01 t o
9
which recognized the failure o f voluntary service but showed
great diff erence of opinion as to the system whi ch should be
introduced
Finally S c h o ll ae rt Prime Minister in 1 909
evolved a mixed system that of one so n per family which
was a step towards universal se rvice His scheme was a d opted
thanks t o the u n ion in this matter o f the 7e une Dro i te with the
parties o f the Left and thanks in part also to the influence o f
the king Leopold II o n his death bed secured by h is personal
intervention a favourable vot e in the Senate after that in the
chamber Always the foremost of patriots he had t h e supreme
satisfaction of leaving Belgium strongly armed an d capable
of arming herself still better in face of external peril The
reform o f 1 9 09 denitely abolished substitution and was thus
of considerable social im portance All citiz e n s who were in the
position d e termined by the law were in future o n the same
fo oting as far as concerned their duty to their fatherland
In 1 9 1 3 the chambers increased the contingent with the result
that the army would have amounted in 1 9 1 8 to
men
half o f whom would have composed the eld army Before
this measure came into eff ect Belgium was called upon to
face the most formidable military power in the world F o r
purely strategic reasons Prussia without hesitation violated
that neutrality which she had bee n the rst of cially to propose
in 1 8 3 1 But little Belgium was able to show that she was no t
.

N a ti o n a l D ef en c e

3 41

ripe for slavery and to justify the words used by Leopold I !

in h is inaugural speech I have always regarded the future o f
Belgium wi th the condence which is inspired by a nation free
honourable and brave which wills its independence which
has known how t o conquer it and t o show itself worthy of it
and will know how to guard it
The whole nation ranged itself round King Albert in face
of t h e invader and showed its unbreakable resolution to pre
serve intact the sacred patrimony o f its ancestors
The two
chambers unanimously approved the prou d attitude o f the
k ing and in their memorable sitting of August
sanctioned the answer t o the German ultim atum which the
king himself expla ined in these terms : If we are called upon
to resist the invasion o f our soil and to defend o u r threatened
hearths this duty hard as it may be will nd us armed and
ready t o endure the greatest sacrices Everywhere in Flanders
and the Walloon land in the towns and in the country o n e
sole feeling lls all hearts patriotism
one sole thought
occupies all minds our threatened independence ; o n e sole
duty imposes itself on o u r wills obstinate resistance
,

In d e x

3 44

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L o n d o n Qu a r t e r ly R e v iew
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T H E G UA RDIANS O F T H E G ATE

His to ric al L e ct u re s

l T

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L A F F A N , W it h a f o r e w o rd b y V ic e - d mira E . .
th e S e r s
TR O U B R m GE. 1 9 1 8 P p 3 00, w i t t w e n t -t w o i us ra io ns a n d th re e ma p s
65 6 d ne t

Th e o o h a s a p e c u iar e c e e n c e d ue t o t h e fa c t t at it is a t o n c e t he wo r o f a n hi s
t o r ic a l s c o ar, a n d o f a m a n wh o h as c o s e p e rs o na e per ie nc e o f t h e t h in gs a b o u t w i c
W i e it t u s a i ns in re a is m, a nd o c c as i o na as i n t he t d a c c o u nt o f
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s o ws i n f o rm e d b y a c are fu
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W e c anno t pra is e Mr L a a n s o o t o o i y
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85

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inca

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a n wh o h as
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oo s
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se e n D r
g a r B e e t in t h e L o n d o n u a r te r ly R ev ie

win t o h i s a s t k n o wle d e o f mo d e rn E ur O p e a n d it s a f a i r s a n d h is rea t s i a s

a wr ite r (
r
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-P ro fe sso r
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19 18.

DS .

xi

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o f t h e t e xt s o f t e p r in c ip a E uro e a n t re a t ie s o f t h e n in e t e e nt
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f o r th e u id a n c e o f is t o rica s tu d e n ts and c o n s ist in o f a n e s s a o n D i l o ac

)
and t h e C o n d u c t o f
o re i n P o ic
f o o we d
a b ib l io g ra l c a l se c t io n i in a
ic e a
,
t o t h e s t ud
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n t e rna t io n a R e a t io ns G e ne ral
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is to r , t h e S o e re i nt o f th e
,
S eas , Tr ea t i e s , & c.