CHAPTER I

. THE PERIOD OF FORMATION 8

II. THE PERIOD OF FEUDALISM 17

III. THE RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE COMMUNES 36

IV. THE POLITICS AND STRUGGLES OF THE TIME OF THE COMMUNES 55

V. THE UNION OF THE BELGIAN PRINCIPALITIES UNDER THE DUKES OF BURGUNDY 74

VI. BELGIUM UNDER CHARLES V (1506-55) AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG 94

VII. PHILIP II AND THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS AGAINST SPANISH RULE (1555-96) 101

VIII. THE REIGN OF THE ARCHDUKE ALBERT AND ISABELLA (1598-1633) 120

IX. THE LAST YEARS OF THE SPANISH RULE (1633-1715) 125

X. BELGIUM UNDER THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA (1713-89) 130

XI. BELGIUM UNDER FRENCH DOMINATION (1792-1814) 141

XII. THE DUTCH RULE AND THE BELGIAN REVOLT OF 1830 145

XIII. INDEPENDENT BELGIUM 163

XIV. THE GREAT TRIAL 170

BIBLIOGRAPHY 183

INDEX 187

INTRODUCTION

There has been much discussion about the time at which Belgian history should be said to begin. Belgium, as an entirely autonomous, independent kingdom, has existed only since 1830. But the Belgium of 1830 was, in a certain way, a creation of European diplomacy and the result of centuries of struggle for personal and political freedom. Belgium, as a country, and the Belgians, as a people, existed long before. Since the time of Caesar (57 B.C.), history tells us of the Belgians, “the bravest of all the people of Gaul,” and, although the Germanic invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries have added a new ethnical element to the old Belgian stock, it is from the time of the Roman conqueror that the history of the Belgian people really begins. As for Belgium as a united political body, one must go back to the fifteenth century, when the dukes of Burgundy succeeded in unifying all the Belgian duchies and counties under one dynasty. Before that time, Belgium had practically consisted of two very distinct parts, Lotharingia in the east, Flanders in the west, separated by the river Scheldt. Lotharingia was, politically speaking, a part of the mediaeval German empire; Flanders was in subjugation to the kingdom of France. Each succeeded--Lotharingia first, then Flanders--in evading the political domination of Germany and France, respectively, and drew closer and closer together during the last centuries of the Middle Ages. That work of union was achieved by the Burgundian dukes, who inherited from the local Lotharingian and Flemish dynasties, in the fifteenth century.

But in the Middle Ages not only did the increasing tendency of union between Lotharingia and Flanders exist, but there was also a strong factor of national union, the common civilization, the common culture, of Lotharingia and Flanders. The inhabitants of the different duchies and counties were united by the same religion, the same artistic and economic aims, the same political institutions, although there were, of course, some local differences of minor importance. Since early in the Middle Ages the Belgian people had possessed a distinctive though mutually common civilization, and the local differences which existed and which were more or less well defined at the outset disappeared gradually as the different parts of the country drew closer together politically.

The history of Belgium and the Belgian people does not begin to date merely from 1830, not even from the fifteenth century. It dates in fact from the time when, during the fifth century, Gallo-Romans and Germanic invaders intermingled and laid the basis of that ethnical and linguistic duality that has been for many centuries the characteristic of the Belgian populace and has impressed its mark on the whole course of Belgian history.

The real unity of the history of Belgium in ante-modern times has been brought into notice by one of Belgium’s leading historians, Henri Pirenne, professor in the University of Ghent, in his admirable work, _Histoire de Belgique_. Before the publication of this work, few scholars understood how to treat the history of Belgium during the Middle Ages. Having in mind only the political aspect of that history, they were lost in the particular history of the various duchies and counties; they saw scarcely any link between the facts of these different historical sections, and they forgot entirely to take account of the unifying factor--the common culture and civilization.

Since historians have had their attention called to that unifying factor, the history of Belgium has been looked upon in a different manner. It is in the light of that method that I shall try to explain the course of the historical development of the country.

The national culture of Belgium is a synthesis, if I may so call it, where one finds the genius of two races--the Romance and the Germanic--mingled, yet modified by the imprint of the distinctively Belgian. It is in that very receptivity--the fact that it has absorbed and unified the best elements of Latin and Teutonic civilization--that the originality of the Belgian national culture resides.

These distinctive marks of national culture, denoting the unity of a people, and serving, both in the Middle Ages and today, to distinguish the Belgian nation from the other nations of Europe, may be described as a common desire for independence and freedom, a jealous regard for those popular rights which serve as a guaranty of the continuance of independence and freedom, and a deeply religious spirit. In the course of their history the Belgians have always cast off the yoke of those princes who, like Philip II, Joseph II, and William I of Holland, attacked their liberties and privileges, or who, like Joseph II and William I of Holland, tried to impose their own religious beliefs on them.

Those characteristics of the Belgian nation, as well as its common civilization, were born during the Middle Ages. For that reason I shall deal in a special manner with the different aspects of religious, artistic, literary, and economic life during that period. After the treatment of the political unity of the Belgian provinces achieved in the fifteenth century, more attention will be given to the political aspect of events, without, however, entirely neglecting the different forms of popular life and social activity.

The history of Belgium may be divided into the following periods: (1) the formative period, including the time of the Roman occupation, the invasion of the Franks, and the reign of Charles the Great and his immediate heirs (57 B.C. to 843 A.D.); (2) the period of feudalism; (3) the rise of the communes (eleventh to fourteenth century); (4) the political centralization of the dukes of Burgundy (fifteenth century); (5) the Spanish rule (sixteenth to seventeenth century); (6) the Austrian rule (eighteenth century); (7) the French régime (1792-1815); (8) the Dutch rule and the revolution of 1830; (9) the period of national independence.

During all these periods of history the names “Belgium” and “Belgians” have not been uniformly those by which the country and its people have been designated. The name “Belgae,” of Celtic origin, was given in Caesar’s time to the confederation of Celtic tribes which occupied the territory of Belgium, when for the first time the Roman legions came in contact with them. The name Belgium, “Belgica,” disappeared with the Roman occupation and does not reappear until the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth century, and especially at the beginning of the seventeenth, the name “Belgium” is to be found in books, but seems not to have been used as a common designation. As a distinctive name for a race or people, the term “Belges” became generally used at the end of the eighteenth century, its adjectival form being then “belgique” (_les provinces belgiques_, “the Belgian provinces”). Between the end of the Roman occupation and the end of the eighteenth century the Belgians were successively known as “Franks,” “Lotharingi,” and “Flemings.” Since the thirteenth century, the country itself has been called “Netherlands” (_partes advallenses_), when the name Lotharingia disappeared as a political term. The term “Burgundian provinces” was sometimes used in the fifteenth century, while the name “Flanders,” “Fiandra,” “Flandes,” was mainly applied during the Spanish rule. During the Austrian rule the name “Austrian Netherlands” was the prevailing designation.[1] The term “Netherlands” was applied, not only to the actual territory of Belgium, but to the countries which today correspond to the territories included in the kingdoms of Belgium and Holland. From the time of the Roman occupation until 1588 Belgium and Holland have, indeed, a somewhat common history. Since 1588, when the provinces of the north separated from the south as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Belgium and Holland have existed as separate states, and have no longer a common history.

We shall not attempt to deal here with the history of the northern provinces from the early Middle Ages down to 1588, for that is the task of the historian of Holland, and although, politically speaking, the provinces of Belgium and Holland both shared the same vicissitudes until 1588, yet, as has been pointed out by Professor Colenbrander,[2] from the point of view of artistic, literary, and economic life the national culture of the two was quite distinct.

On the other hand, included in this history is that of the principality of Liège. Liège was never a part of the Netherlands; until 1795 it was an ecclesiastical state with a separate entity, ruled by bishops, princes of the Holy Roman Empire. But Liège had a civilization, and especially institutions, common to those of the other Belgian provinces, and, geographically and historically speaking, it was really a part of Belgium.

Having thus indicated what is to be dealt with in this _Short History of Belgium_, it remains only to mention the bibliographical list appended at the close of the work, which includes the most important books on general Belgian history. A reference to these will facilitate a deeper study of the subject and will enable the student to enter more in detail into the history of the country.[3]

LÉON VAN DER ESSEN

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The editors have urged me to add in this edition a final chapter on the history of Belgium during the Great War. These events, of course, do not yet belong to history, but it seems possible to give at least a brief sketch of what happened in Belgium during the invasion and the German occupation. The knowledge which we have acquired in the year that has elapsed since the armistice has enabled us to establish the facts.

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