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BELGIUM FROM THE ROMAN INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY

    Illustration: ALBERT I.
    Frontispiece.
    _Photo Langfier._

BELGIUM

From the Roman Invasion to the Present Day

by

EMILE CAMMAERTS

With 36 Illustrations and 9 Maps

T. Fisher Unwin Ltd
London: Adelphi Terrace

Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1921
(for Great Britain)

Copyright by G.P. Putnam's Sons
(for the United States of America), 1921

First published     1921
Second Impression   1922

(All rights reserved)

PREFACE

We possess happily, nowadays, a few standard books, of great insight
and impartiality, which allow us to form a general idea of the
development of the Belgian nation without breaking fresh ground. The
four volumes of Henri Pirenne's _Histoire de Belgique_ carry us as far
as the Peace of Münster, and, among others, such works as Vanderlinen's
_Belgium_, issued recently by the Oxford University Press, and a
treatise on Belgian history by F. Van Kalken (1920) supply a great deal
of information on the modern period. To these works the author has been
chiefly indebted in writing the present volume. He felt the need for
placing the conclusions of modern Belgian historians within reach of
British readers, and believed that, though he might not claim any very
special qualifications to deal with Belgian history, his knowledge of
England would allow him to present his material in the way most
interesting to the English-speaking public.

_Belgium_ is neither a series of essays nor a systematic text-book.
Chronological sequence is preserved, and practically all important
events are recorded in their appointed time, but special stress has
been laid on some characteristic features of Belgian civilization and
national development which are of general interest and bear on the
history of Europe as a whole.

The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to his friend,
Professor Van der Essen, who has been good enough to revise his work.
He is also indebted to Messrs. Van Oest & Co. for allowing him to
reproduce some pictures belonging to _l'Album Historique de la
Belgique_, and to the Phototypie Belge (Ph.B.), Sté anonyme, Etterbeek,
Bruxelles, and other holders of copyright for providing him with
valuable illustrations.

CONTENTS
                                                                       PAGE

  PREFACE                                                                 5

  INTRODUCTION                                                           15

  CHAPTER I

  THE COAL WOOD                                                          29
  Celts and Germans--Roman conquest--Roads of Roman civilization--First
  Christianization--Germanic invasion--Natural obstacle presented by
  the "Silva Carbonaria"--Origins of racial and linguistic division.

  CHAPTER II

  FROM SAINT AMAND TO CHARLEMAGNE                                        37
  Frankish capital transferred from Tournai to Paris--Second
  Christianization--St. Amand--Restoration of the old bishoprics--
  Romanization of the Franks and germanization of the Walloons--
  Unification under Charlemagne--Aix-la-Chapelle, centre of the
  Empire--First period of economic and intellectual efflorescence.

  LOTHARINGIA AND FLANDERS                                               47
  Partition after Charlemagne--Treaty of Verdun--The frontier of
  the Scheldt--Struggle of feudal lords against the central
  power--The Normans.

  CHAPTER IV

  RÉGNER LONG NECK                                                       52
  Policy of the Lotharingian princes--Influence of the German
  bishops--Alliance with Flanders against the Emperor--Decadence
  of the central power--Religious reform of Gérard de Brogne--The
  Clunisians and the struggle for the investitures--The first
  crusade.

  CHAPTER V

  BALDWIN THE BEARDED                                                    60
  Policy of the counts of Flanders--Imperial Flanders--The English
  alliance--First prospect of unification--Robert the Frisian.

  CHAPTER VI

  THE BELFRIES                                                           66
  Origin of the Communes; trade and industry--Resistance of feudal lords;
  Cambrai--Protection given by the counts of Flanders and the dukes of
  Brabant--Social transformation extending to the country-side--The
  meaning of the belfries.

  CHAPTER VII

  THE GOLDEN SPURS                                                       78
  Attraction of Flanders on the rest of the country--Attempts at
  maintaining neutrality between France and England--Thierry and Philippe
  d'Alsace--Baldwin IX--Ferrand of Portugal--Bouvines--Increasing French
  influence--Flemish reaction--"Matines Brugeoises"--Consequences of the
  Battle of Courtrai--Edward III and Van Artevelde.

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE CATHEDRAL OF TOURNAI                                               88
  Religious spirit of Belgium in the Middle Ages--The Romanesque
  churches--Introduction of Gothic; Period of transition, early
  Gothic, secondary period, third period--French and Flemish
  languages during the Middle Ages--Picard writers in Walloon
  Flanders--First translations and chronicles in French--Origin
  of Flemish letters, Willem's _Reinaert_, Van Maerlant.

  CHAPTER IX

  THE GREAT DUKES OF THE WEST                                           102
  Decline of the Communes--Policy of the Burgundian dukes: Philip
  the Bold, John the Fearless, Philip the Good--Territorial
  unification and political centralization--Philip's external
  policy--Charles the Bold--Dream of a new central Empire.

  CHAPTER X

  THE TOWN HALLS                                                        112
  The meaning of Belgium's Gothic Town Halls--Result of a compromise
  between centralization and local liberties--Decline of the cloth
  industry--Economic prosperity under the new régime--Transformation
  of trade--Antwerp succeeds Bruges.

  CHAPTER XI

  THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB                                             124
  Civilization under Burgundian rule--French and Flemish;
  bilingualism--Flemish letters: Jean Boendaele, Ruysbroeck--The
  Brothers of the Common Life--Writers in French: Jean Le Bel,
  Froissart, Chastellain--Development of music: Dufay, Ockeghem,
  etc.--Life in fifteenth-century Belgium--The early "Flemish
  School of Painting"--Its place in the history of Art--The
  brothers Van Eyck--Origins of the school; sculpture, illuminating.

  CHAPTER XII                                                           140
  Reaction after the death of Charles the Bold--The "Great
  Privilege" of Mary of Burgundy--Her marriage with Maximilian;
  its consequences--Conflict between Burgundian and Hapsburgian
  policies--Philip the Handsome--Margaret of Austria--Accession
  of Charles to the Empire--Projects of founding a separate
  kingdom--Margaret's second governorship.

  CHAPTER XIII

  THE LAST STAGE OF CENTRALIZATION                                      154
  Mary of Hungary--Revolt of Ghent--Complete unification--Augsburg
  transaction--Pragmatic Sanction--Abdication of Charles V.

  CHAPTER XIV

  ANTWERP                                                               163
  Development of modern trade--Rural industry--Humanism and
  Lutheranism--The placards--Anabaptism--Calvinism.

  CHAPTER XV

  THE BEGGARS                                                           174
  Philip II--Marguerite of Parma and the Consulta--Resistance
  of the Council of State--The "Compromise"--The
  Iconoclasts--Catholic reaction.

  CHAPTER XVI

  SEPARATION                                                            182
  North and South--The Duke of Alba and the Council of
  Blood--Requesens--"Spanish Fury"--Pacification of Ghent--Don
  Juan--Policy of Orange--Archduke Matthias--The Duke of
  Anjou--The "Malcontents"--Confederation of Arras--Union of
  Utrecht--"French Fury"--The fall of Antwerp.

  CHAPTER XVII

  DREAM OF INDEPENDENCE                                                 204
  Albert and Isabella--Catholic reaction--Siege of Ostend--Policy
  of the Spanish kings--The Walloon League--The States-General.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE                                               213
  Period of reconstruction--Ruin of Antwerp--Revival of industry
  and agriculture--Social conditions under Albert and
  Isabella--Influence of the Church.

  CHAPTER XIX

  RUBENS                                                                221
  Contrast between Flemish Art in the fifteenth and seventeenth
  centuries--Italian influence--Intellectual action of the
  Jesuits--Neglect of Flemish--Popular Art: Breughel, Jordaens.

  CHAPTER XX

  POLITICAL DECADENCE UNDER SPAIN                                       230
  Situation of the Southern Netherlands between the United
  Provinces and France--Projects of Partition--Münster
  Treaty--Wars of the Spanish Succession--The Anglo-Batavian
  Conference--Treaty of Utrecht--The Barrier system.

  CHAPTER XXI

  THE OSTEND COMPANY                                                    245
  Economic Renaissance under the Austrian régime--Efforts
  to liberate Belgian trade--War of Austrian Succession--Charles
  de Lorraine--Intellectual decadence--Popular restlessness.

  CHAPTER XXII

  THE BRABANÇONNE REVOLUTION                                            254
  Joseph II and Philip II--Strength of the Burgundian tradition--
  Suppression of the Barrier--The "War of the Cauldron"--The emperor's
  internal reforms--Popular resistance: Van der Noot and Vonck--The
  "Etats Belgiques Unis"--"Statists" and "Vonckists"--The Reichenbach
  Convention--Restoration of the Austrian régime.

  CHAPTER XXIII

  LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY                                         268
  Jemappes--Excesses of the "Sans Culottes"--Neerwinden--Treaty
  of The Hague--Policy of the Convention towards occupied
  territory--Annexation--The "War of the Peasants"--Napoleonic
  rule--The Vienna Treaty.

  CHAPTER XXIV

  BLACK, YELLOW AND RED                                                 279
  The Joint Kingdom--Causes of failure--Belgian grievances--Policy
  of William I--Reconciliation of Catholics and Liberals--The
  September days.

  CHAPTER XXV

  THE SCRAP OF PAPER                                                    289
  The Conference of London--Attitude of the Belgian delegates--The
  "Bases of Separation"--The Luxemburg question--The XVIII
  Articles--Prince Leopold--Dutch invasion--The XXIV Articles--Their
  final acceptance--Guaranteed neutrality.

  CHAPTER XXVI

  NEUTRAL INDEPENDENCE                                                  301
  The meaning of neutrality--The question of national defence--Risquons
  Tout--The policy of Napoleon III--The entrenched camp of
  Antwerp--British action in 1870--Leopold II and Emile Banning--Liége
  and Namur--Military reform.

  CHAPTER XXVII

  ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE                                                  315
  The Belgian Constitution--Influence of neutrality on internal
  politics--Struggle between Liberals and Catholics--The "School
  War"--The Labour Party--The Franchise--Economic prosperity:
  agriculture, industry, trade--The opening of the Scheldt--The
  search for colonial outlet--Leopold II and the Congo Free
  State--The Belgian Congo.

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE                                              331
  Architecture and Sculpture in modern Belgium--The Modern School
  of painting--A National School of Literature in French and
  Flemish--The Flemish movement.

  CHAPTER XXIX

  CONCLUSION                                                            342
  Part played by Belgium in the Great War--German occupation--The
  "Making of a Nation"--The "Resistance of a Nation"--Result of
  the Treaty of Versailles--Future of Belgium.

  INDEX                                                                 349

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  ALBERT I                                                   _Frontispiece_

                                                                FACING PAGE
  CLOTH HALL, YPRES                                                      66

  CASTLE OF THE COUNTS, GHENT                                            67

  CLOTH HALL AND BELFRY, BRUGES                                          75

  SEAL OF THE TOWN OF DAMME                                              78

  SEAL OF GUY DE DAMPIERRE                                               78

  TOURNAI CATHEDRAL                                                      88

  BRONZE FONT, ST. BARTHOLOMEW, LIÉGE                                    91

  SAINTE GUDULE, BRUSSELS                                                93

  PHILIP THE GOOD                                                       105

  CHARLES THE BOLD                                                      109

  TOWN HALL, BRUGES                                                     112

  THE FIRST ANTWERP EXCHANGE                                            121

  TOWN HALL, OUDENARDE                                                  124

  THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB                                             133

  THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB                                             135

  PLOURANT                                                              137

  MARY OF BURGUNDY                                                      140

  MAXIMILIAN I                                                          142

  PHILIP THE FAIR                                                       146

  JUANA OF CASTILE                                                      146

  CHARLES V                                                             152

  MARGARET OF AUSTRIA                                                   152

  THE INFANTA ISABELLA                                                  204

  ARCHDUKE ALBERT                                                       204

  PULPIT OF SAINTE GUDULE, BRUSSELS                                     225

  THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS (BREUGHEL)                              229

  PROCLAMATION OF THE PEACE OF MÜNSTER                                  236

  JOSEPH II                                                             254

  VAN DER NOOT                                                          262

  SCENE OF THE BRABANÇONNE REVOLUTION                                   265

  LEOPOLD I                                                             293

  LEOPOLD II                                                            310

  PALACE OF JUSTICE, BRUSSELS                                           332

  "THE PUDDLER" (MEUNIER)                                               334

LIST OF MAPS

  BELGIUM IN ROMAN TIMES                                                 29

  DIVISION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE                                       47

  FEUDAL BELGIUM                                                         52

  THE NETHERLANDS UNDER THE RULE OF THE DUKES OF BURGUNDY               102

  BELGIUM UNDER THE RULE OF THE KINGS OF SPAIN                          204

  BELGIUM UNDER THE RULE OF THE EMPERORS OF AUSTRIA                     245

  BELGIUM UNDER FRENCH RULE                                             268

  THE UNITED KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS                                 279

  MODERN BELGIUM (TREATIES OF 1830-39 AND 1919)                         289

INTRODUCTION

The history of the Belgian nation is little known in England. This
ignorance, or rather this neglect, may seem strange if we consider the
frequent relations which existed between the two countries from the
early Middle Ages. It is, however, easy enough to explain, and even to
justify. The general idea has been for a long time that the existence
of Belgium, as a nation, dated from its independence, and that previous
to 1830 such a thing as Belgian history did not even exist. All through
feudal times we are aware of the existence of the County of Flanders,
of the Duchy of Brabant, and of many other principalities, but, in no
official act, does the term "Belgique" occur. Even after the
unification of the fifteenth century, when the country came under the
rule of the Dukes of Burgundy, the notion of a distinct nationality,
such as the French or the British, remains hidden to the superficial
student, the Netherlands forming merely a part of the rich possessions
of the most powerful vassals of France. Through modern times the
Belgian provinces, "les provinces belgiques" as they were called in the
eighteenth century, pass under the rule of the kings of Spain, of the
emperors of Austria and of the French Republic, to be finally merged,
after the fall of Napoleon, into the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The
word "Belgium," as a noun, is only found in a few books; "belgique" is
a mere adjective applied to the southern portion of the Netherlands.

It must be admitted that the Belgian official historians of the old
school did very little to dispel this wrong impression. In their
patriotic zeal they endeavoured to picture Belgium as struggling
valiantly all the time against foreign oppression. They laid great
stress on Cæsar's words: "Of all the Gauls the Belgians are the
bravest," and pictured the popular risings of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries in the same light as the 1830 revolution. If we are
to believe them, the Belgian people must have been conscious from their
origin of their unity. They considered national princes, such as the
Burgundian Dukes, in the same light as Philip II or the Austrian
Emperors, and, instead of clearing the air, added to the confusion.
Their interpretation of history according to the principles of national
liberty of the Romantic period could not be taken seriously, and the
idea prevailed that, if the Belgian nation was not merely a creation of
European diplomacy, its existence could only be confirmed by the
future, and rested on but frail foundations in the past.

This idea was strengthened by the knowledge that the country possessed
neither strong natural frontiers, like Great Britain, France, Italy or
Spain, nor the bond created by unity of language like Germany. Other
European countries, it is true, like Holland or Poland, did not
constitute strong geographical units and lacked definite boundaries
but their people talked at least the same idiom and belonged, as far as
the word may be used in a broad sense, to the same race. Others, like
Switzerland, were divided between various languages, but possessed
geographical unity. Belgium could not claim any of these distinctive
features. Her boundaries remained widely open in all directions. From
the cultivated plains of Flanders to the wild hills of the Ardennes she
offered the greatest variety of physical aspects. What is more, her
people were nearly equally divided, by a line running from the south of
Ypres to the north of Liége, between two different languages, two
different races. According to recognized standards, the very existence
of the Belgian nation was a paradox, and though the history of mankind
presents many similar contrasts between the hasty conclusions of the
untrained mind and the tangible reality of facts, these cannot be
recognized at first, and require a deeper knowledge of the past than
that which can be provided by the study of warlike conflicts and
political changes.

It was therefore left to the modern school of Belgian historians, and
more especially to Professor Pirenne, of Ghent, to place the study of
the origin of the Belgian nation in its right perspective and to show
that, in spite of diversity of race and language, lack of natural
boundaries and centuries of foreign domination, Belgian unity was based
on deep-rooted traditions and possessed strong characteristics in every
department of human activity which could be recognized from the early
Middle Ages to the modern period. By a close study of the economic and
intellectual life of the people and of their institutions, Pirenne and
his disciples made evident what every artist, every writer had already
realized, that, in spite of all appearances, Belgian unity had never
been impaired in the past by the language barrier, and that both parts
of the country presented common characteristics, common customs, and
common institutions which no foreign rule was able to eradicate. They
showed furthermore that these characteristics, determined by the common
interests and aspirations of the whole people, were so strong that they
inspired the policy of many foreign princes who, by their birth, would
naturally have been led to disregard them. They may still be found in
the country's old charters, in ancient chronicles, in the works of the
so-called Flemish School of painting, and in every monument of the past
which has survived the devastation of war. To these witnesses Belgian
historians will not appeal in vain, when they endeavour to show that
the origins of Belgian national unity may be sought as far back as
those of any other nation in Europe, and that if more exposed than her
powerful neighbours to the vicissitudes of war, Belgium always
succeeded in preserving, throughout her darkest days, some living token
of her former prosperity and of her future independence.

If, as we trust, the reader is convinced after reading this short
sketch of Belgium's history that Belgian nationality is more than a
vain word, and that the attitude adopted by the Belgian people in
August 1914, far from being an impulsive movement, was merely the
result of the slow and progressive development of their national
feeling throughout the ages, he will also realize that this development
has received many checks, and is therefore very different from that
which may be traced in the history of England, for instance, or even in
that of France. Nowhere would the familiar image of the growing tree be
more misleading. Belgian history possesses some remarkable landmarks,
under Charlemagne, for instance, at the time of the Communes, under the
rule of the Dukes of Burgundy, under Charles V, and during the recent
period of independence. But, between these periods of prosperity and
even splendour, we notice some periods of stagnation due to internal
strife or even complete decadence, when the country became a prey to
foreign invasion. Few peoples have experienced such severe trials, few
have shown such extraordinary power of recovery. Peace and a wise
government coincide invariably with an extraordinary material and
intellectual efflorescence, war and oppression with the partial or
total loss of the progress realized a few years before, so that the
arts and trades of Belgian cities which shine at one time in the
forefront of European civilization seem totally forgotten at another.
In more than one way Belgium has lived under a troubled sky, where
heavy showers succeed bright sunshine, while the towers of Ypres,
Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Louvain and Brussels appear and disappear on
the horizon.

How can we explain the tragedy of these abrupt changes? How can we
justify these sudden alternations in the life of a hard-working and
peace-loving people who never indulged in any dreams of imperialism and
foreign conquest?

A look at the map will help us to solve the mystery. The plain of
northern Europe may be divided into two wide areas, the French plain,
whose waters run from East to West into the Atlantic, and the German
plain, whose waters run from South to North into the North Sea and the
Baltic. These wide expanses are connected by a narrow strip of
territory through which all communications skirting the hills and
mountains of the South must necessarily be concentrated, and whose
waters follow a north-westerly direction towards the Straits of Dover.
This small plain, only 90 miles wide from Ostend to Namur, constitutes
a natural link between Germany and France, and plays, from the
continental point of view, the same part as the Straits, on its
northern coast. Even to-day, in spite of the progress of railway
communications, the main line from Paris to Berlin passes along the
Sambre and Meuse valleys, through Namur, Liége and Aix-la-Chapelle, and
the events of August 1914 are only the last example of the frequent use
made of this road throughout history, by invaders coming from the East
or from the South. For peaceful and warlike intercourse, Belgium is
situated on the natural highway connecting the French and German
plains. This geographical feature alone would suffice to influence the
historical development of the country. But there is another.

It so happens that by an extraordinary arrangement of the map, which
one may be tempted to call a coincidence, the sea straits are placed
in close proximity to the continental narrows, so that the natural
route from Great Britain to central Europe crosses in Belgium the
natural route from France to Germany. This appears all the more clearly
if we take into consideration the fact that the seventeen provinces
extended in the past from the Zuyder Zee to the Somme, and that Bruges,
and later on Antwerp, benefited largely from the trade of the Thames.
This then is what is meant when Belgium is spoken of as being placed at
"the cross-roads of Europe." Most of the continental communications
between Great Britain and Germany or Italy, on the one hand, or between
France and Germany on the other, were bound to pass through her
provinces. She was, and is still to a certain extent, the predestined
meeting-ground of British, French and German culture, the market-place
where merchandise and ideas from the North, the West, the East and the
South may be most conveniently exchanged, and she derives her
originality from the very variety of the influences which surround her.
The division of languages and races helped her in her task, and,
instead of proving an obstacle to national development, contributed to
it whenever circumstances proved favourable. The original contribution
of the people to this development may be somewhat difficult to define,
but the result is no less evident. Belgian, or as it is sometimes
called, Flemish culture, though intimately connected with France and
Germany, is neither French nor German, still less English. Its
characteristics are derived from the combination of various European
influences strongly moulded by long-standing traditions and habits.
"The will to live together" which, according to Renan, is at the root
of every nationality, and proves stronger than unity of race and
language, finds nowhere a better illustration than in the strange part
played by the Belgian nation in the history of Europe. Common
interests, common dangers, common aspirations produced and maintained a
distinct civilization which, according to all the laws of materialistic
logic, ought to have been wrecked and swamped long ago by the
overwhelming influences to which it was subjected.

As early as the ninth century, under the rule of Charlemagne, these
characteristics began to show themselves. The Emperor chose
Aix-la-Chapelle for his capital, not only because he possessed vast
domains in the region, but also because, from this central position, he
was better able to keep in contact with the governors of a vast Empire
which extended from the Elbe to Spain and Italy. Aix-la-Chapelle, "the
Northern Rome," became the metropolis of commerce as well as the
political capital. The various intellectual centres created in the
neighbourhood, at the monasteries of Liége, Tongres, and Maesyck
attracted English, Irish, French and Italian poets, musicians, lawyers
and theologians.

Later, in the twelfth century, when the free Communes developed all
over Western Europe and succeeded in breaking the power of feudalism,
it was left to Ghent and Bruges to raise the free city to a standard
of independence and prosperity which it did not attain in other
countries, placed under a stronger central power. In the shadow of
their proud belfries over 80,000 merchants and artisans pursued their
active trade, and Bruges, "the Venice of the North," became the
principal port of Europe and the centre of banking activity.

The part played by the Burgundian Dukes in European politics during the
Hundred Years' War is well known in this country, but the importance of
their action in unifying the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands is
not sufficiently realized. In fact, in spite of their foreign origin,
their policy was so much inspired by the interest of the country that
they may be considered as national princes. The "Great Dukes of the
West" did for Belgium, in the fifteenth century, what Louis XI did for
France, and what Henry VIII did for England, half a century later. They
succeeded in centralizing public institutions and in suppressing, to a
great extent, local jealousies and internal strife which weakened the
nation and wasted her resources. Under their rule the Belgian provinces
rose to an unequalled intellectual and artistic splendour and gave to
the world, by the paintings of the brothers Van Eyck and their school,
one of the most brilliant expressions of the early Renaissance.

This prominent situation was maintained, in spite of the fall of the
Burgundian dynasty, when, through the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with
Maximilian, Belgium passed under the sway of the Hapsburg dynasty.
Under Charles V, Antwerp inherited the prosperity of Bruges, and
became the principal centre of European commerce. It was visited every
year by 2,500 ships, and the amount of commercial transactions made
through its exchange was valued at forty million ducats per year.

Even after the disastrous wars of religion which separated the Northern
Netherlands, or United Provinces, from the southern provinces, and
ruined for two centuries the port of Antwerp, there was a short
respite, under the wise rule of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella
(1598-1633), during which the art of Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens
threw a last glamour on Belgium's falling greatness.

This rapid sketch of the happy periods of Belgian history would not be
complete if we did not allude to the wonderful recovery made by the
country as soon as the Powers granted her the right to live as an
independent State after the unhappy experiment of the joint Kingdom of
the Netherlands (1815-1830). Her population increased twofold. The
Scheldt was reopened and Antwerp regained most of its previous trade.
At the time of the German invasion modern Belgium occupied the first
rank in Europe with regard to the density of her population, the yield
of her fields per acre, the development of her railway system and the
importance of her special trade per head of inhabitants. In spite of
her small area, she occupied the fifth rank among the great trading
nations of the world, and the names of Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, César
Franck and Meunier show that she had reconquered a great part of her
former intellectual prestige.

There is one striking resemblance between all periods of Belgian
development. Whether in the ninth, the thirteenth, the fifteenth or the
nineteenth century, they express the civilization of the time, and
succeed in producing a typical example of essentially European culture,
imperial under Charlemagne, communal in the Middle Ages, centralized
under national princes during the Renaissance, highly industrialized
and colonial in modern times. This trait must be considered when
Belgium is represented as the "kernel of Europe," as combining the
spirit of the North, East and South. It is not enough to say that the
country seems predestined to this task by her geographical position and
her duality of race and language bringing together the so-called
"Germanic" and "Latin" tendencies; it must be added that, whenever
historical circumstances allowed it, the people made full use of such
advantages. Whether under local princes, or under foreign princes who
understood Belgian interests, given peace conditions at home and
abroad, the country never failed to rise to the occasion.

But these periods of greatness were short-lived compared with the
periods of decadence which succeeded them. After the division of the
Empire of Charlemagne the Belgian counties and duchies found themselves
plunged in the throes of feudal disputes and divided between the Kings
of France and the Emperors of Germany. The power of the suzerain was
nowhere weaker than in these distant marches, and the Belgian princes
were left free to pursue their quarrels with complete disregard of the
common interest. The prosperity of the Communes in the thirteenth and
beginning of the fourteenth centuries, was rapidly undermined by
internal strife and by the difficulties the Counts of Flanders
experienced in trying to conciliate their duty to their French suzerain
with the interest of the people which prompted an English alliance. The
fall of Charles the Bold provoked a fresh outburst of the spirit of
local independence, which greatly endangered the country's peace, and,
if the situation was restored, under Philip the Fair and Charles V,
during the first part of the sixteenth century, the second part of this
century witnessed the gradual exhaustion of the Southern Netherlands
divided against themselves and subjected to the attacks of both Spanish
and Dutch.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which are for other
countries, like France, a period of exceptional national prestige, mark
the deepest stage of Belgian decadence and humiliation. The Scheldt was
closed, trade and industry were practically dead, foreign troops,
French, Dutch, Spanish or Austrian, ceaselessly pursued their work of
devastation. A foreign possession, open to the incursions of her
possessors' enemies, sacrificed by her masters at every stage of the
peace negotiations in order to save their native country, Belgium lost
Dutch Flanders, Northern Brabant and part of Limburg to Holland, French
Flanders, Franche Comté and Artois to France. The Treaty of Münster
sealed the fate of Antwerp, and the Treaty of the Barriers left the
Dutch in possession of all the country's most important fortified
positions.

Though it gave back to Belgium her natural frontier in the North and
reopened the Scheldt for a short time, the French régime did not
greatly improve the economic situation. After the union with Holland
(1815), the political struggle which followed prevented the people from
enjoying the full benefit of the change, so that we must wait until
1830 before being able to notice any considerable improvement.

This general survey will suffice to show that Belgian history may be
divided into periods of progress and decadence. The same may be said,
it is true, of the history of all nations. But nowhere else is the
difference between the higher and lower levels so pronounced and the
intervals between the acts so protracted. As we have already said, the
country passes suddenly from the brightest limelight of fame to the
darkest recess of mediocrity and oblivion. Some of these contrasts,
such as those existing between Charlemagne's united Empire and feudal
divisions, are shared by the rest of Europe. Others, at the time of the
Renaissance and the Reformation, and when the country came under
Spanish, Austrian and French rule, are peculiar to Belgium. To the slow
development of national unity, her history adds the obstacles of
foreign domination and foreign invasion. The exceptional situation of
the country on the map gives equally great chances of ruin and
recovery. The same conditions which bring about Belgium's downfall
contribute largely to her restoration, the same roads which bring
wealth in time of peace, are followed, in time of war, by foreign
armies. She is not only the cross-roads of Europe, she is the
battlefield of Europe. From Bouvines (1214) to Waterloo and Ypres,
almost all the great battles which decided the fate of Europe and
determined her balance of power were fought on Belgian soil. Sometimes
the inhabitants took a share in the struggle, oftener they were not
even given the chance to interfere, while the Powers settled other
quarrels at their expense.

The Belgian people have acquired a remarkable reputation for their
sturdiness and their power of recovery. But, while they are entirely
irresponsible for their weakness, which can only be attributed to the
small size and the defenceless character of their country, they cannot
be considered as entirely responsible for their strength. A port like
Antwerp, if at all accessible, is bound to prosper under any
circumstances. A town like Brussels cannot fail to benefit by its
unique situation, from an international point of view. With her rich
coal mines among her fertile fields, Belgium, considering her size, is
perhaps more richly endowed by Nature than any other country in Europe.
But such exceptional advantages have been more than compensated in the
past by the heavy risks which this richness implied.

    Illustration: BELGIUM IN ROMAN TIMES.

CHAPTER I

THE COAL WOOD

It is usually assumed that, while human conditions alter throughout the
ages, natural surroundings remain sensibly the same. This may be true
with regard to people whose history is only affected by the streams
which cross their land and the hills and mountains which protect them
by natural barriers. When dealing with a country like Belgium however,
widely open on all sides, we cannot be content with such wide
generalizations. We must ask ourselves if some important physical
features have not been altered by the work of man and if some natural
obstacles, which have since disappeared, did not affect the earlier
stage of Belgian history.

The traveller who crosses the country to-day from Ostend to Arlon will
at once recognize its main features: first a low-lying plain, between
the sea and Brussels, then a district of smooth hills, as far as Namur,
and finally, beyond the Meuse, the deeply cut valleys and high plateaux
of the Ardennes, reaching an average of 1,500 feet above sea-level. In
this last region only will the aspect of the country suggest to him the
idea of some natural obstacle to free communications, though it could
in no way appear forbidding when compared to the mountains of Scotland
and Wales.

But at the time of the Roman conquest (57 _B.C._), Belgium, that is to
say the country peopled by various tribes designated by Julius Cæsar
under the name of "Belgæ," was very different from what it is to-day.
The flat coast, unprotected against the incursions of the sea, was
bordered by wide marshes, while all the southern part of the country
was covered by a thick forest, the "Silva Carbonaria," which merged in
the wild plateaux of the Ardennes and formed, at the time, a serious
obstacle to any incursion coming from the north or the east.

These physical conditions must have favoured the guerrilla warfare
waged for four years by the various Celtic tribes against the Roman
invader, and it is no doubt partly to them that the old "Belgæ" owed
their reputation of courage and fortitude. These tribes, occupying the
Scheldt and Meuse valleys, formed the rearguard of the Celtic wave of
invasion which, coming from the East, had spread across Western Europe.
At the time of the Roman conquest they were already closely pressed by
a vanguard of Germanic tribes which had settled in Zeeland and on the
left bank of the Rhine, so that even at this early stage of Belgium's
history we find the dualistic character of Belgian civilization marked
in the division of the country into two Roman provinces, "Belgica
Secunda," in the west, and "Germania Inferior," in the east.

    [_ROMAN INFLUENCES_]

The immediate effect of the Roman conquest, which was far more rapid
than in Britain, was to stop for a time the influx of German tribes by
the establishment of a solid barrier along the Rhine. The colonists of
German origin were soon absorbed by the old inhabitants of the country,
and were subjected with them to the powerful influence of Roman
culture. Celts and Germans alike became Belgo-Romans, and adopted the
trade and the institutions of their conquerors.

As far as we can make out from the scanty documents at our disposal,
Roman civilization moved along the Rhine towards Cologne, whence a
great Roman highway was built towards the West, crossing the Meuse at
Maestricht and, following the edge of the Coal Wood, through Tongres
and Cambrai to Boulogne. This road, known through the early Middle Ages
as the "Road of Brunehaut," was for a long time the main way running
from east to west in a country where all the important streams, such as
the Meuse, the Scheldt and their tributaries, ran from south to north.
The extent of Roman influence may be gauged by the position which the
various parts of the country occupied towards this highway. Tongres and
Tournai still possess Roman remains. The foundations of Roman villas
are found in the provinces of Namur, Hainault and Artois, while all
traces of Roman occupation have disappeared from Flanders. The sandy
and marshy nature of the soil in Northern Belgium may to a certain
extent account for this fact, and we know that, in some instances, the
stones provided by old Roman structures were used, in the Middle Ages,
for the construction of new buildings. But it can nevertheless be
assumed that, generally speaking, communications remained the principal
factor of Roman civilization in these far-away marches of the Empire,
and that Roman influence, so strongly felt on the Rhine and along the
Meuse, became gradually less important as the distance increased. The
country was almost exclusively agricultural, but it is interesting to
note, in view of later developments, that, even at this remote period,
the Menapii, who dwelt in Flanders, had acquired a reputation for
cattle breeding and manufactured woollen mantles which, under the name
of "birri," were exported beyond the Alps.

Though strongly influenced by Rome in their trade and methods of
agriculture, the Belgo-Romans had retained their language and religion.
Romanization, in the full meaning of the word, only began during the
last years of the third century, under the influence of Christianity.
During the third century, the bishopric of Trèves included the whole of
"Germania Inferior." A special bishopric was established subsequently
at Cologne, and, about the middle of the fourth century, at Tongres.
Others appeared later at Tournai, Arras and Cambrai. This gradual
spread of Christianity, which moved along the same roads as Roman
civilization, from Cologne towards the West, only reached Flanders half
a century later.

The Christianization of the country must have been far from complete
when the incursions of the Germanic tribes, greatly encouraged by the
gradual decline of the Roman Empire, brought a sudden and dramatic
change in the life and development of the two Roman provinces.

    [_THE FRANKS_]

During the third and fourth centuries, the pressure of the Germanic
tribes, which had been considerably delayed by the Roman conquest,
reasserted itself. The Rhine frontier was subjected to repeated
assaults, which the depleted legions were no longer in a position to
repulse effectively. The Franks attacked from the east and the north
through Zeeland, while part of the Saxons who attacked Britain raided
at the same time the Belgian coast. In spite of the military successes
of the Emperors Constantine and Julian, the situation became so
threatening that a second line of defences was fortified on the Meuse
and along the great Roman highroad running from Tongres to Tournai. In
358, Julian authorized the Franks to settle in the sandy moors east of
the Scheldt (Toxandria), and when, at the beginning of the fifth
century, Stilicon recalled the legions in order to defend Italy against
the Goths, the German tribes, finding themselves unopposed, invaded the
country of the Scheldt and the Lys, reducing into serfdom the old
inhabitants who had escaped massacre. The Rhine ceased henceforth to be
the Empire's frontier. The latter ran now along the great highway from
Tongres to Arras. Before their second line of defences the Romans,
under Ætius, put up a last fight, but they were defeated by the
Frankish king Clodion, who extended his kingdom along the coast as far
as the Somme and established himself at Tournai (431), where his grave
was discovered twelve centuries later.

    [_LANGUAGE FRONTIER_]

It seemed as if the Franks, in their irresistible advance, were going
to wipe out from Belgium and Gaul all trace of Roman civilization, and
such a catastrophe would no doubt have occurred, if a natural obstacle
had not broken their impetus. We mentioned above that, south of a line
running from Dunkirk to Maestricht, the country was covered with a
thick forest, the "Silva Carbonaria." This wall of wood did more to
stop the invaders than the heroic efforts of Ætius. It sheltered the
Celts from the Franks in Belgium as the mountains of Wales and the
hills of Cornwall sheltered them from the Saxons in Great Britain.
Conquests were pursued by the Frankish kings and their nobles, but the
invasion stopped. The movement ceased to be ethnical and became
political. The Franks reached the clearings of the forest and nominally
subjected Gaul to their power, but they were now in a minority, and the
conquered soon succeeded in absorbing the conquerors. It is significant
that the "Lex Salica," the oldest document in which the name of the
Coal Wood is mentioned, describes it as "the boundary of the
territories occupied by the Frankish people." To the north of this
boundary the country was entirely in the hands of the invaders; to the
south, the "Wala," as the Franks called the Belgo-Romans, succeeded in
maintaining themselves and in preserving to a certain extent the Roman
language and civilization. The old limit, running in a northerly
direction and dividing in the past "Germania Inferior" from "Belgica
Secunda," had been bent under the pressure of the Frankish invasions,
and ran now from east to west, but the dualism which we noted above had
not disappeared. The Franks settled in the north, the romanized Celts
or "Walas" occupied the south. The first are the ancestors of the
Flemings of to-day, the second of the Walloons, and the limit of
languages between the two sections of the population has remained the
same. It runs to-day where it ran fourteen centuries ago, from the
south of Ypres to Brussels and Maestricht, dividing Belgium almost
evenly into two populations belonging to two separate races and
speaking two different languages. The ancient forest has disappeared,
but its edge is still marked on the map. We cross it to-day without
noticing any alteration in the landscape, but the distant voices of the
peasants working in the fields remind us of its ancient shadow and
impassable undergrowth. The traveller wonders, one moment, at the
change, then takes up the road again, adding one further unanswered
question to his load of unsolved problems. The historian evokes the
terrible years of the fifth century, when the fate of Europe hung in
the balance and when the surging waves of Pagan Germanism spent their
last energy along that leafy barrier which saved Christianity and Roman
civilization, and incidentally gave the Belgian nation its most
prominent and interesting character. The singsong of a Walloon sentence
may thus suggest the rustling of the leaves and the piping of early
birds, while the more guttural accents of a Flemish name remind us of
the war-cry of wild hordes and the beating of "frameas."

The Frankish invasions of the fifth century may be considered the most
important event of Belgium's early history. Whether the unity of the
Belgian nation is questioned or upheld, we must inevitably go back to
the cause of its real or apparent division. If such division, from
being racial and linguistic, had become political or economic--that is
to say, if the language boundary had coincided with some of the
boundaries which divided the country at a later stage--the idea that
Belgium was born in 1830 and constituted an "artificial creation of
European diplomacy" might not be groundless. Here, as in many other
countries of Europe, nationality would have been determined mostly by
race and language. This, however, is not the case. At no period of
Belgian history did any division follow the linguistic frontier. On the
contrary, most of the political and ecclesiastical units created during
the Middle Ages included both elements of the population, and, through
frequent intercourse and common interests, these two people, speaking
different languages, became gradually welded into one. When in the
fifteenth century the various duchies and counties came under the sway
of the dukes of Burgundy, national unity was realized, as it was
realized in England or in France at the same time, through the
increasing power and centralizing action of modern princes. A few
prejudiced writers have vainly endeavoured to exaggerate the racial or
linguistic factor, and contended that, in the eyes of science, Belgian
nationality could not exist. The duty of a scientist is not to distort
the manifestations of natural phenomena in the light of some more or
less popular idea. His duty is to explain facts. The development and
permanence of Belgian nationality, in spite of the most adverse
conditions, is one of these facts. The existence of the Swiss nation,
far more deeply divided than the Belgian, shows that it is not unique.
But even if it were unique, it ought to be accounted for. It is far
easier to indulge in broad generalizations than to devote oneself to a
close study of nature or man. It is not the rules, it is the exceptions
which ought to retain our attention, for only exceptions will teach us
how imperfect are our rules.

CHAPTER II

FROM SAINT AMAND TO CHARLEMAGNE

Pursuing their conquests in Gaul, the Frankish kings soon abandoned
Clodion's capital and established themselves in Paris. Clovis and his
successors, surrounded by their warriors, could not resist the
Gallo-Roman influences to which they were subjected. They gave their
name to the country they conquered, but adopted its customs and paid
but scant attention to their old companions left behind as settlers on
the banks of the Scheldt. With the Belgo-Roman population, Christianity
had been swept from Northern Belgium, and it took the Church two
centuries, after the baptism of Clovis (496), to reconquer the ground
she had lost.

This long delay is easily accounted for. The conversion of Clovis and
of his followers, which affected so deeply the course of French
history, scarcely reacted on the creeds and customs of the Pagan
Frankish tribes established in the northern plain. The organization of
the Church, which had had no time to consolidate itself, had been
utterly shattered by the invasions. Between the fourth and the seventh
centuries, the shadow of Paganism spread again across the land in
Northern Belgium as in Britain, and when St. Amand arrived in Flanders,
he found the Franks as little prepared to receive him as the Saxons had
been, a few years before, to receive Augustine.

In Northern Belgium, as in Britain, the work of rechristianization had
to be undertaken from outside. The regular bishops, confined to their
towns, could not possibly cope with it. Their influence was limited to
a small area, and their frequent change of residence suggests that
their situation was rather precarious. During the sixth century, the
bishops of Tongres established themselves at Maestricht, those of
Tournai at Noyon, and those of Arras at Cambrai. Later, Maestricht was
abandoned for Liége (early eighth century). The old titles of "episcopi
Tungrorum" and "episcopi Morinorum" had lost all meaning since the
disappearance of the old Celtic tribes, but the bishops, in preserving
them, showed that they still hoped to increase their influence towards
the north.

This ambition would have remained an empty wish but for the action of a
few ardent missionaries who undertook to convert the German conquerors,
in the seventh century, as the vanquished Celts had been converted in
the third. We have already drawn the attention of the reader to the
simultaneous events occurring on both sides of the sea, in Britain and
Belgium, during the early stage of their history--Roman conquest,
German raids, retreat of the Celtic population among the forests and
the hills--but none of these concomitant events is more striking than
the appearance, almost at the same time, of St. Augustine in Kent and
St. Amand in Flanders.

    [_ST. AMAND_]

The latter's mission, however, was not official. On his way to Rome, he
saw in a vision St. Peter, who ordered him to preach the Gospel to the
Northern Pagans, and forthwith he established himself at the confluence
of the Lys and the Scheldt. In this place he founded two monasteries,
which were to be the origin of the city of Ghent (610). Emboldened by
his first successes, he attempted, supported by the king, to render
baptism compulsory, which caused the Franks to revolt against him.
After long wanderings among the Danube tribes, he came back to Flanders
as Bishop of Tongres in 641, but soon gave up the cross and the mitre
to resume the monk's habit, and sought martyrdom among the Basques. The
palm being refused him, he again took the road to Belgium, where he
died at the monastery of Elnone, near Tournai, towards 661.

For fifty years, with some intervals, he had worked unceasingly, as a
monk and as a bishop, for the conversion of Northern Belgium. His
efforts were not nearly so systematic as those of Augustine. He did not
organize in the same way his spiritual conquests. He contented himself
with bringing Pagans into the fold of Christianity, but did little to
retain them there. His burning enthusiasm, however, set an example to
many disciples and followers, who wandered after him through the
country--St. Eloi along the Scheldt, St. Remacle along the Meuse, St.
Lambert among the barren moors of Toxandria and St. Hubert through the
forests of the Ardennes. Beside these, English and Irish missionaries
took a large share in the conversion of Northern Belgium. The fruit of
these individual efforts was reaped by the various bishops who had
never ceased to claim the northern plain as an integral part of their
dominions, according to Roman tradition. All that was necessary, after
Christianity had been reintroduced, was to render again effective a
bond which for four centuries had remained purely nominal. The
bishopric of Liége extended between the Meuse and the Dyle, within the
limits occupied formerly by that of Tongres; that of Cambrai, between
the Dyle and the Scheldt (Nervii); that of Noyon, between the Scheldt
and the sea (Menapii); and that of Térouanne, along the Yser valley
(Morini). Thus were re-established, through the action of the Church,
the old frontiers of the Celtic tribes, adopted by the Roman
"civitates," long after the disappearance of the Celts and the fall of
Rome. Liége was attached to the archbishopric of Cologne, the three
others to Rheims, reviving, for ecclesiastical purposes, the old
division between "Belgica Secunda" in the west and "Germania Inferior"
in the east. This division never changed until the sixteenth century,
when the northern part of the country ceased to be under the religious
influence of the episcopal cities of the south.

    [_BISHOPRICS_]

It will be noticed that none of the ecclesiastical boundaries which we
have mentioned run in an easterly direction. Instead of coinciding with
the language frontier, they cross it everywhere, uniting in the same
religious community "Walas" and "Dietschen," Celts and Germans. For
eight centuries the Church, which was at the time the supreme moral
influence, unconsciously devoted all its energy to bringing together
the two groups of population. They met in the same churches, they
prayed before the same shrines, they joined in the same pilgrimages,
they studied and meditated within the walls of the same monasteries. No
wonder if such intercourse succeeded finally in uniting those whom
nature had so strongly separated, and in creating in Belgium a new
type of civilization neither Celtic nor Frankish, neither romanized nor
germanized, but combining some of the strongest qualities of both races
and well prepared to act as a kind of intellectual, moral and artistic
link between them. This rule suffers only one exception. When the
progress of Christianity permitted the foundation of a new bishopric at
Utrecht, this religious metropolis was not subjected to any Romanic
influence. It remained purely Germanic in character, and, already at
this early stage of the history of the Netherlands, gave a distinct
character to their extreme northern districts, which reasserted itself
so strongly at the time of the Reformation.

The Merovingian kings gave a kind of sanction to this gradual
separation of the Salian Franks, established in Northern Belgium, from
the bulk of the Germanic tribes. It is significant that the limit which
for a time separated their kingdom into Neustria in the west and
Austrasia in the east, and which followed, in Eastern Gaul, the
language frontier, assumed another course in Belgium, and, instead of
running from east to west, as might have been expected, ran north and
south along the frontier separating the bishopric of Liége from that of
Cambrai, bringing Walas and Franks together on both sides of the line.
Another proof of the romanizing influence of the Church may be found in
the fact that the Franks established in Belgium forgot their tribal
affinities. While in the seventh century Ripuarians, Alamans and
Thuringians constituted themselves into so many distinct duchies, no
attempt was ever made to found a Salian duchy in Northern Belgium. The
very name of Franks ceased to be applied to the Walas' neighbours, and
it is as "Dietschen," or "Thiois," that they were known through the
Middle Ages.

It ought not to be assumed, however, that the movement was one-sided
and that the ancient Franks adopted the religion and, to a certain
extent, the language of the southern people without influencing them in
their turn. The romanization of the Franks was accompanied by the
germanization of the Walloons, who adopted the laws and customs of
their conquerors. The latter became, in many instances, the great
landowners of this part of the country, while the Frankish settlers, in
the North, preserved the economic tradition of their native country and
remained small farmers. Even this last contrast gradually disappeared
under the influence of powerful landlords and through the foundation of
rich monasteries, which gradually drew towards them, as tenants or
clients, the bulk of the population in both parts of the country. So
that, when the Carolingian dynasty superseded the Merovingian, and when
Charlemagne received the imperial crown from the hands of the Pope
(800), the work of unification was very nearly accomplished. Through
reciprocal influences, Dietschen and Walas lived under the same
economic, political, religious and judicial régime. The linguistic
distinction, on both sides of the Tournai-Maestricht line, was the only
notable difference, and even this distinction tended to disappear
through the common use of the Roman dialect.

    [_CHARLEMAGNE_]

One thing only remained to be done in order to crown the work
accomplished during the two last centuries: the creation of a strong
centralizing political power. The country was prepared to play the part
which she was predestined to play through natural and racial conditions
in the history of Europe, but she was still without guidance, a mere
borderland, forgotten and neglected, on the fringe of the Frankish
kingdom. The instrument was ready, but no artisan could yet use it. As
long as the centre of political activity remained on the Seine, the
characteristics of Belgian civilization could not be revealed. As long
as the balance between Germanic and romanized culture inclined steadily
towards the West, the European qualities of this Germanic,
semi-romanized people could not be tested. It would be perhaps too much
to say that Charlemagne founded Belgian nationality, in the same way
that Clovis established French nationality in unifying Gaul, or that
Alfred revealed the English to themselves in his triumphant struggle
against the Danes. But, by carrying the frontiers of his Empire as far
as the Elbe and establishing his headquarters in the centre of his old
domain, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in a central position midway between France
and Germany, Charlemagne gave at least an opportunity to almost every
trait of Belgian social life to assert itself.

During the first part of the ninth century the region of the Scheldt
and the Meuse became a beehive of activity. From every part of the
world, merchants, theologians, artists and musicians crowded towards
the new economic and intellectual centre of Europe. Arnon, a pupil of
Alcuin, came to Elnone, the Irish Sedulius to Liége, the Italian
Georgius to Valenciennes, while the schools of St. Amand, under
Hucbald, acquired a world-wide reputation. Everywhere new monasteries
were established, new churches and palaces built. The arts of
illuminating, embroidery, carving and stained glass were brought to an
unparalleled degree of perfection and refinement. Bishops and abbots
competed in attracting to their courts and monasteries the best-known
doctors and poets of the time. We have lost most of the artistic
treasures and manuscripts of the period through the subsequent Norman
invasions. Every vestige of Carolingian sculpture and architecture in
Belgium has been destroyed. But, through the works accomplished in
other countries and with the help of a few documents such as the
inventory preserved in the _Chronicle of St. Trond_, we are able at
least to appreciate not only their intrinsic value, but also the
interest they awoke among clerics and laymen. That the great emperor
encouraged this movement and took a direct part in it in attracting to
the various centres of learning the best masters in Europe is
sufficiently shown by his letter to Gerbald of Liége. Under his
direction, European civilization was definitely established in the
northern plain of Europe and Aix-la-Chapelle became indeed the
"Northern Rome." The capital, with Tongres, Liége, St. Trond and other
neighbouring cities, formed a centre from which civilization spread
east and west towards Germany and France, just as it had spread, a few
centuries before, from Central Italy towards the Eastern and Western
Mediterranean.

    [_FRISIAN CLOTH_]

The old Roman road, along which the monasteries founded many
hostelries, was followed by streams of travellers of every description.
The Meuse, Scheldt and Rhine were dotted with the sails of many ships
bringing foreign wares and taking away the products of home industry.
The most important of these was a special kind of cloth, "the Frisian
cloth," for which the northern plain, covered with rich pastures and
producing great quantities of wool, was already renowned. It was a
specialized industry, the natural development of the ancient
clothmaking of the Menapii mentioned above, and the predecessor of the
cloth-weaving for which Flanders acquired a world-wide reputation
during the subsequent centuries. The "Frisian cloth" was already
exported, by the Rhine, as far as Central Europe and, by sea, towards
Great Britain and Scandinavia. Pieces of money from the ports of Sluis
and Duurstede have been found in both countries, and the frequency of
intercourse with the North was such that a monastery was established at
Thourout, near Duurstede, for the special purpose of training
missionaries for the conversion of the Danish traders.

It is true that the prosperity realized under Charlemagne was
short-lived, and that, a few years later, Northern Europe, and more
especially Belgium, became the prey of the Normans, who destroyed most
of the literary and artistic treasures accumulated with such enthusiasm
during his reign. It is true also that Belgian unity was destined to
break up, and that the country was to be divided between Germany and
France and their respective vassals. But if Charlemagne came too soon,
at a time when ethnographic conditions had not yet been sufficiently
stabilized, and if his Empire did not survive him, his influence has
nevertheless been felt through many centuries. If his dream of a
European Empire could not be realized, the mission assigned to
Belgium, as a natural link between East and West, remains even to-day
one of the main features of European politics. History has shown that
no annexation, no territorial division, of the dualistic country could
ever guarantee peace between France and Germany. Such a peace is only
possible, if the intervening nation is allowed to play its part in the
concert of nations, and it has only been realized, when this part has
been played. Belgium will never be what Charlemagne made it, the
nucleus of a great Empire; but, unless it remains a free factor in the
history of Europe, as it was for the first time under the great
emperor, conflicts between the two rivals, abruptly brought together
along the same frontier, become inevitable. There is a big jump from
the ninth century to the Congress of Vienna, between the glory of
Aix-la-Chapelle and the establishment of Belgian neutrality; there has
been a great deal of ground covered since, but there is a kind of
permanency in human affairs which cannot vainly be disregarded, and the
policy of Charlemagne teaches us lessons which no modern statesman
ought to ignore.

    Illustration: DIVISION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE.

LOTHARINGIA AND FLANDERS

The central position occupied by ancient Belgium, which had been the
cause of its efflorescence in the first years of the ninth century, was
also the cause of its decadence after the death of Charlemagne (814).
From the competition which arose at the time date the age-long
rivalries between France and Germany and the tribulations of the
territories lying between them, which, though claimed in turn by both
Powers, and including a half romanized and half Germanic population,
were neither French nor German, but possessed an individuality of their
own. If these territories had been widespread and strongly defended by
nature, like ancient Italy in the Mediterranean world, they might have
become the seat of a new European Empire, or at least played the part
of a strong third partner with which both French and German rivals
would have had to reckon. This would have entirely changed the course
of European politics and perhaps greatly increased the chances of a
peaceful and stable régime. As it was, the intermediate country, widely
open in the East and in the West, too weak to resist foreign
aggression, became, at best, a weak buffer State, and, at worst, a bone
of contention between two powerful hereditary enemies.

    [_FEUDAL PRINCES_]

The wars and treaties which brought about the division of Charlemagne's
Empire show plainly that the creation of a central Power was doomed to
failure, this third Power being too vulnerable to resist combined
attacks from East and West and being far too heterogeneous to maintain
its unity. The treaty of Verdun, in 843, divided the Empire between
Charlemagne's three grandsons. Charles received France, Louis Germany,
and Lotharius, the youngest, the rich region lying between both
countries and extending from Holland to Italy, including the largest
portion of Belgium, with the title of emperor. After the death of
Lotharius I, his son, Lotharius II, inherited the northern part of his
father's domains, which, for want of a better name, was called "Regnum
Lotharii"--Lotharingia. But both Charles and Louis were already
endeavouring to conquer their nephew's possessions. Soon after his
death, they met at Meersen, near Maestricht (870), where the partition
of his lands was decided, Charles obtaining the whole of present
Belgium, as far as the Meuse. The death of Louis was the signal for a
new conflict. Charles was defeated at Andernach by Louis III (876), and
the frontier between France and Germany was fixed on the Scheldt,
Charles retaining Flanders, Louis obtaining Lotharingia (879). After
the short reign of Charles the Fat, who restored for a few years the
unity of the Empire, these two parts of Belgium remained thus separated
for three centuries. It is important to notice that both included
Flemings and Walloons, and that, on either side of the frontier, there
was a strong tendency not to let Lotharingia or Flanders be drawn into
the circle of German or French policy. The spirit of independence
remained alive, and when, in the eleventh century, political
conditions became more favourable, an entente between the Belgian
princes on both sides of the Scheldt was the natural result of the
weakening of the central power. Such an entente brought about finally,
in the early days of the fifteenth century, the complete reunion of
both parts of the country. So that the history of Belgium, from the
tenth century to the early Renaissance, may be considered as the
history of a small part of France and a small part of Germany, which,
after struggling for independence against their respective masters,
gradually joined hands in order to submit themselves to the rule of
common national princes.

It would be an error to attribute the separatist leanings of the nobles
in Flanders and Lotharingia to national feeling, at a time when this
feeling scarcely existed in Western Europe. No doubt, the resistance
offered by the Belgian nobles to their foreign sovereigns might be
simply represented as the direct effect of the feudal system and of the
jealous pride which every vassal entertained towards his suzerain. But,
if local ambitions became supreme in Europe in the tenth century, we
may at least point out that, owing to the mixed characters of language
and race prevailing in Belgium, and to the peculiar position occupied
by Flanders and Lotharingia, nowhere were those tendencies more evident
than in these distant marches of France and Germany. Just as, at a
later stage, Bruges and Ghent became the most accomplished types of the
independent mediæval communes, the counts of Flanders and the princes
of Lotharingia offered the most perfect examples of the restless feudal
princes.

The origin of feudalism is well known and is common to all European
countries. It springs from the weakening of central authority, after
the death of Charlemagne, the increasing influence of the big
property-owners and the gradual subordination of the small owners to
the nobles who gave them the benefit of their protection. Its
development was greatly hastened, in Belgium, by the invasions of the
Normans. These were particularly severe in a land which had become,
under Charlemagne, the richest in Europe, and which was easily reached
from the sea, owing to the navigable character of its rivers. They
coincided with the Danish invasions in England and with the
Scandinavian raids on the coasts of Germany and France. It seemed, at
one time, as if the invaders were going to settle in Holland, as they
settled later in Normandy. In 834 they established themselves at the
mouths of the Meuse, the Rhine and the Scheldt, and, from this centre,
pursued their systematic expeditions almost unhindered. Great camps
were organized by them at Louvain and Maestricht, at the farthest
navigable limit of the Dyle and Meuse, where all the treasures of the
surrounding monasteries, churches and palaces were accumulated.

Lotharius II allowed Ruric to establish himself on the lower Meuse, and
Godfried, another Norman chieftain, received Friesland from Charles the
Fat. When the victory of Arnulf of Carinthia at Louvain (891) put a
stop to their activity and compelled them to retreat, the Normans left
behind them only barren deserts dotted with ruins, separated by a
series of entrenched camps where tenants dwelt under the protection of
their masters' strongholds.

    [_THE NORMANS_]

The Normans not only hastened the advent of feudalism, they wrecked
Carolingian civilization as effectually as the Franks had wrecked
Belgo-Roman culture. Once more the threads had to be picked up one by
one, and the fabric of European civilization patiently rebuilt, and
once more the Church became the most important factor in this work of
reconstruction and succeeded in preserving the spiritual heritage of
St. Amand. For the third time, she endeavoured to bring charity, art
and culture into a world of violence and barbarism. After civilizing
the Pagan Celts in the third century and the Pagan Franks in the
seventh, she had now to civilize the Christians of the tenth century,
and this was not destined to be an easier task.

CHAPTER IV

RÉGNER LONG NECK

Let us now deal briefly with the general course of events in Eastern
Belgium, or Lotharingia, attached to the Germanic Empire since 879. It
is merely, as we said, the story of the efforts made by the nobles, who
appear, for the first time, as a power in the State, to free themselves
from the control of their imperial suzerain. The aristocracy was
divided between the partisans of the German emperors and those of the
local chiefs, and between these parties no compromise was possible.

It would be without interest for the British reader to follow every
episode of this quarrel, but some of its aspects cannot be ignored in
the study of the formation of Belgian nationality.

    Illustration: FEUDAL BELGIUM.

    [_LOTHARINGIAN NOBLES_]

Two features characterize the policy of the native aristocracy: their
attachment to the Carolingian dynasty and the way in which they
endeavoured to preserve their freedom of action by concluding a series
of alliances either with France against Germany or with Germany against
France. It is easy to understand that, in these districts, which owed
so much to the Carolingian régime, the Carolingian tradition had
retained its prestige. The way the descendants of Lotharius had been
despoiled of their heritage by Charles and Louis became the pretext for
a series of insurrections against the new masters imposed on the
country by the second treaty of Verdun. The first of these movements
was led by Hugh, a natural son of Lotharius; it failed through the
capture of its leader. The second, which was far more important, was
led by a native lord, Régner Long Neck, son of one of Lotharius's
daughters, who possessed vast domains in Hainault, the Ardennes, the
Liége country and on the lower Meuse--that is to say, on both sides of
the language frontier. Régner may be considered as a typical
representative of this Lotharingian nobility, which, though defeated at
first, succeeded in the end in freeing itself from imperial control.
Speaking both languages, he was attached neither to the French nor to
the German party, but was ready to pass from one to the other according
to the interest of his policy, which was merely to preserve his own
independence. Régner differed entirely from the other nobles of the
Empire, such as the dukes of Saxony, Bavaria, etc., inasmuch as he did
not represent any ethnographic group. He was the ideal type of the
feudal lord for whom no interest prevails against his own. Thanks to
his alliance with the French king, he succeeded in defeating
Zwentibold, the son of the emperor, and established his rule over
Lotharingia. His capital was at Meersen, near Maestricht, on the
language frontier, midway between his Walloon and Flemish possessions.
From the point of view of international politics, his son Gislebert is
a still more striking personality. Threatened by Charles the Simple, he
concluded an alliance with the Emperor Henry, and succeeded thus in
shifting his position from France to Germany and from Germany to France
no less than four times. He was finally obliged to submit to the
emperor, whose power was steadily growing, and married his daughter
(925). Having risen against Otto, Henry's successor, he was defeated at
Andernach and drowned in the Rhine. Otto experienced further
difficulties in controlling his Belgian possessions, and only succeeded
by delegating his power to his brother Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne,
and germanizing the Lotharingian bishoprics of Liége and Cambrai.

For over a century, the German or germanized high clergy became the
strongest supporters of the emperor's influence in the country. Their
loyalty never failed, and was emphatically expressed by Wazo, Bishop of
Liége, who declared that "even if the emperor had his right eye put
out, he would not fail to use the left for his master's honour and
service." Bruno and Notger of Liége (974-1005) undertook to reform
their clergy and to encourage intellectual culture. Under their
guidance, Liége became once more a great centre of learning. Besides
theology, grammar, rhetoric and poetry, music and mathematics were
taught in the city, which could boast of being a "Northern Athens." The
movement reached Cambrai and Utrecht, and one of the most important
chronicles of the time, Sigebert's _De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis_--a
first attempt towards a universal history of Europe--was written in
the monastery of Gembloux. The prestige derived from this intellectual
movement helped considerably to increase German influence and brought
to Liége a number of foreign students from Germany, France, England,
and even from the Slav countries.

    [_BALDWIN V_]

For a time, the resistance of the local aristocracy was overcome.
Régner of Hainault, nephew of Gislebert, had been exiled by Bruno, the
Carolingian dynasty was supplanted in France by the Capetian, and its
last representatives, Duke Charles and his son, lay buried side by side
in Maestricht. The descendants of Régner Long Neck nevertheless
remained powerful, owing, partly, to the marriage of Régner V of
Hainault with a daughter of Hugh Capet, and to the marriage of Lambert
of Louvain to the daughter of Duke Charles. From the first years of the
eleventh century, feudalism prevailed not only in Hainault and Brabant,
but also in Namur, Holland and Luxemburg, so that the only means the
emperor and his loyal bishops had to maintain their power was by
provoking rivalries among the nobles. The title of Duke of Lotharingia
was therefore not given to one of Régner's descendants, but to Godfrey
of Verdun, who succeeded in defeating his adversaries at Florennes
(1015), where he was killed. His successors did not show the same
loyalty to Germany, and when the Emperor Henry III attempted to divide
the duchy in order to diminish the duke's power, he found himself faced
by a powerful confederacy, including not only Godfrey the Bearded, the
counts of Louvain, Hainault, Namur and Holland, but also Baldwin V of
Flanders (1044).

The date is important, for it marks a turning-point in the mediæval
history of Belgium. For two centuries Flanders and Lotharingia had
remained separated, dependent respectively on France and Germany for
their political life. By crossing the boundary established by the
Verdun treaty and interfering directly in the internal affairs of
Lotharingia, Baldwin inaugurated a new policy and rendered possible a
system of alliances between the Belgian nobles which brought about the
reunion of both parts of the country under the same sovereign and,
ultimately, the foundation of Belgian nationality.

The emperors might have resisted more successfully if they had
preserved to the last the support of the bishops, who had been for so
long their trustworthy agents. In order to understand how they lost
this support, we must describe briefly the conditions of religious life
during the tenth and eleventh centuries.

When the Normans left the country, it was again plunged in barbarism.
The monasteries were in every way similar to any other feudal
residence, and the ascetic rule of St. Benedict was entirely forgotten.
The abbots rather distinguished themselves from the other nobles by
their greed and violence. They married and indulged in drinking bouts
and predatory expeditions. A reform was urgently needed. Once more it
was not accomplished by the high clergy, but quite spontaneously by the
people themselves, whose faith had survived the ordeal of invasions.

    [_REVIVAL_]

Gérard de Brogne, an obscure nobleman, possessor of the small domain of
Brogne, near Namur, after a visit to the Abbey of St. Denys, decided to
restore the Benedictine tradition. On his return, he founded an abbey
on his own land, gave up the world, and retired with a few disciples to
the solitude of the woods. The nobles soon heard of his exemplary life
and endeavoured to secure his services. Almost against his will, he
was made to go from one monastery to another under the patronage of
Duke Gislebert and of Arnulf of Flanders. St. Ghislain, St. Pierre, St.
Bavon (Ghent), St. Amand and St. Omer received his visit in turn, and,
by the middle of the tenth century, the old rule was re-established
from the Meuse to the sea. The bishops of Liége, Cambrai and Utrecht
joined in the movement and, with their help and that of the nobility, a
number of new monasteries sprang to life in a very short time on both
sides of the linguistic frontier. An extraordinary religious revival
took place, which was not limited to an intellectual aristocracy, like
the reform brought about almost at the same time by Bruno and Notgen in
the schools of Cologne and Liége. It was not concerned with science or
politics, and was essentially religious and popular in character. The
chronicles of the time tell us of many examples of religious fervour.
At St. Trond, the people volunteered to bring from the Rhine the stones
and pillars for the erection of a new church. Near Tournai, a colony of
monks established in the ruins of an old abbey were fed, year after
year, by the citizens. At the end of the eleventh century a great
procession was instituted in that town, in which the whole population
of the neighbouring districts took part, without any distinction of
rank or class, the people walking barefoot behind a miraculous image of
the Virgin. In order to put a stop to local conflicts, so frequent at
the time, it was enough to send a few monks carrying some sacred
shrine. At the sight of the relics, the contending warriors laid down
their weapons, forgot their quarrels and became reconciled.

Gérard de Brogne prepared the way for the Clunisian reformers, who,
coming from Lorraine, spread rapidly during the first part of the
eleventh century through Belgium towards Germany. This new movement,
however, which became extremely popular not only among the people and
the nobility but also among the high clergy, was bound to react on the
political situation of Lotharingia at a time when the question of the
supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power was brought to the
fore. The Clunisians, like most mystics at the time, were bound to
reject any interference of the emperors in the affairs of the Church.
They only recognized one power, the spiritual power of the Pope. In the
struggle for the investitures, all their influence was thrown against
Henry IV and his German bishops. The latter, after a long resistance,
were obliged to give way before the popular outcry and the relentless
opposition of the feudal lords, who found in the new movement a
powerful and unexpected ally. French influence had come once more to
their help in their efforts to shake off German hegemony.

    [_GODFREY OF BOUILLON_]

Against the combined action of the Clunisians, the Lotharingian nobles
and their new allies, the counts of Flanders, the emperors were still
powerless. After the death of Henry III, Count Baldwin V obtained some
territories between the Scheldt and the Dendre (Imperial Flanders) and
the supremacy over Hainault, through the marriage of his son to
Countess Richilda (1051). The Duke of Lotharingia, Godfrey the
Hunchback, the last Belgian supporter of imperial rule, after checking
the progress of the coalition, died, murdered in Zeeland (1076). His
son, Godfrey of Bouillon, sold his land to the Bishop of Liége and left
the country as the leader of the first crusade.

The Belgian princes, talking both languages, in close relations with
France and Germany, were bound to take an important part in the great
European adventure. They were, as far as the word may be used at this
period of history, more European than national lords. And it is no
doubt owing to this essentially Belgian character, as well as to his
personal qualities, that Godfrey was chosen by the crusaders as their
chief rather than other princes who, in spite of their greater riches
and power, were not so well placed to understand and conciliate rival
claims.

The same reasons which made Aix-la-Chapelle the capital of
Charlemagne's Empire gave the leadership of the mightiest European
expedition of the Middle Ages to a humble and ruined Belgian prince.

The first years of the twelfth century mark the triumph of local
feudalism over imperial rule. While Henry IV, under the ban of
excommunication, found a last refuge in Liége, his son gave the ducal
dignity to Godfrey of Louvain. Thus the house of Régner Long Neck,
after two centuries of ostracism, came into its own once more.

CHAPTER V

BALDWIN THE BEARDED

While, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Lotharingian lords
were striving to retain their independence under German rule, the
counts of Flanders acquired very rapidly a considerable influence in
France, and were practically left free to administer their domains
without any interference from outside. No duke, no bishops stood in
their way. They were directly dependent on the French kings, and the
latter were so weak, at the time, that they could not use the power
they possessed. From this point of view the story of the two parts of
mediæval Belgium presents a striking contrast. On one side of the
Scheldt, an enfeebled and divided nobility struggled against a powerful
suzerain; on the other, a powerless suzerain was vainly attempting to
assert his authority over one of his most overbearing vassals.

    [_COUNTS OF FLANDERS_]

There is, however, one characteristic which the house of Régner and
that of the Flemish counts had in common. Both owed their initial power
to their alliance with the Carolingian dynasty. Just as Régner's father
had abducted one of Lotharius's daughters, Baldwin Iron Arm succeeded
in abducting Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, and widow of the
English king Ethelwulf (862). This gave him a pretext to intervene in
French affairs, of which his son Baldwin II (879-918) made full use.
After extending his domains as far as the Somme and annexing Walloon
Flanders and Artois, this prince consolidated his power by marrying a
daughter of Alfred the Great.

Flanders was definitely established as one of the richest fiefs of the
French crown, in close contact with England. Like Lotharingia, it
possessed two essentially Belgian characteristics. It had neither
racial nor linguistic unity, the north being Germanic and the south
romanized, and it was placed between two rival Powers, France and
England. The counts, or "marchios" as they preferred to call
themselves, sought alliance at one time with their suzerain, at another
with their neighbour, according to circumstances. When the power of the
French kings increased, they leant more and more towards England, as
the Lotharingian nobles had towards France when threatened by the
German emperors.

Arnulf I, having secured Douai and Arras, turned his attention towards
Normandy, but his progress was soon checked in that direction. His
seal, which has been preserved, is the oldest feudal seal known, and
the story of his life, the _Sancta prosapia domini Arnulfi comitis
gloriosissimi_, was the origin of the collection of annals and
chronicles in Latin, French and Flemish which formed, in the sixteenth
century, the well-known _Excellente Cronijke van Vlaenderen_. His son
and grandson gave up all attacks against Normandy and endeavoured to
extend their possessions towards the east and south. Baldwin IV seized
Valenciennes, in Hainault, and held it, for some time, against a
coalition including the emperor, the King of France and the Duke of
Normandy. He was finally obliged to restore the town in 1007, but, a
few years later, succeeded in obtaining a portion of Zeeland and
Zeeland Flanders ("Four Métiers"). In spite of the efforts made by the
emperors to fortify the line of the Scheldt at Antwerp and
Valenciennes, his successor, Baldwin V, the Bearded, crossed the river,
and, after pushing as far as the Dendre, obtained from Henry II the
investiture of the country of Alost and Zeeland. This was called
"Imperial Flanders," as opposed to French Flanders, and the count,
though nominally subjected to the rule of king and emperor, acquired
from his intermediate position a new prestige. Like the dukes of
Burgundy, four centuries later, he only lacked the title of a
sovereign. "The kings," according to William of Poitiers, "feared and
respected him; dukes, marquises, bishops trembled before him." When
Henry I of France died, Baldwin was unanimously chosen to act as regent
until young Philip came of age. The latter called him "his patron, the
protector of his childhood"; he called himself "_regni procurator et
bajulus_."

The regency ended in 1065, at a time when William of Normandy, who had
married one of Baldwin's daughters, was preparing to invade England.
The mere threat of a diversion on the Somme would have prevented this
expedition, whose consequences were to prove later on so dangerous to
France. But Baldwin acted as a Belgian, not as a French prince. It
suited his policy to create a rival to his suzerain. Far from hampering
William, he allowed a number of his subjects to take an active part in
the enterprise.

    [_BRUGES AS CAPITAL_]

The marriage of Baldwin's eldest son with Richilda of Hainault and of
his second son Robert with Gertrude of Holland suggested the
possibility of an early unification of Belgium under the counts of
Flanders. According to Gilbert of Bruges, the two sons of Baldwin were
"like powerful wings sustaining him in his flight."

The reunion of Hainault and Flanders was, however, destined to be
short-lived. Baldwin VI died in 1070, leaving his widow Richilda with
two young children; Robert, her brother-in-law, rebelled against her.
After his victory at Mont Cassel, where he defeated a French army sent
by the king to Richilda's help, he left Hainault to his nephew and took
possession of Flanders.

Up to then, the counts had resided most of the time in the southern
part of their possessions, where they had their richest domains. Robert
the Frisian established his capital at Bruges, whose trade was
beginning to develop rapidly, and which had opened relations with
England and the Baltic countries. The fact that Robert's first
possessions were in Holland might have influenced his choice, but the
change marks, nevertheless, an important stage in the evolution of
Flanders from a purely agricultural country into an industrial and
commercial one. It looked at one time as if war was going to break out
between England and Flanders, as the Conqueror, owing to his marriage,
had some claims on the country. Robert, who had given his daughter in
marriage to King Canute of Denmark, concluded an alliance with him, and
even projected a combined attack on the English coast, which, however,
never materialized. He proved an irreconcilable enemy to the German
emperors, and entered into close relations with the Pope. His
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in 1083, added to his prestige, and the
Emperor Alexis, who had received him with great pomp in Constantinople,
asked his support against the Turks. The letter which the emperor
addressed to him at the time, as to the "staunchest supporter of
Christianity," and which was given wide circulation, had a considerable
influence in preparing the first crusade, in which his son Robert II
(1093-1111) took a prominent part under Godfrey of Bouillon.

The rich and powerful Count of Flanders did not remain in the Holy
Land, like the ruined Duke of Lotharingia. His home interests were far
too important. He gave up the Danish policy of his father and allied
himself to the King of France against the English kings, whose power
was rapidly increasing. The French alliance stood him in good stead
when, making a pretext of the struggle of the investitures and of his
relationship with the Pope, he renewed his ancestor's claim upon the
emperor's possessions. More successful than Baldwin IV, he succeeded in
detaching the bishopric of Arras from Cambrai, and in spite of the
obstinate resistance of Henry IV and Henry V, in obtaining the
suzerainty over Cambraisis.

    [_POLICY OF FLANDERS_]

On the other hand, by encouraging and protecting the first Capetians,
Robert of Jerusalem and his son Baldwin VII made a very grave political
mistake. Too preoccupied by the imminent danger from England, they did
not realize that, owing to its geographical position, this country
could never threaten Flanders's independence in the same way as France,
which had, besides, the right to interfere in its internal affairs. It
is, however, characteristic of the Count's policy that, on several
occasions, in 1103 and 1109, they signed separate agreements with Henry
I, in which they promised him to use all their influence in his favour
in case the French king contemplated an expedition against England,
and, if their efforts failed, not to give their suzerain more help than
they were strictly bound to. Even at the time when the alliance with
France was most cordial, the door was never closed on possible
negotiations with England. To call such a policy sheer duplicity would
be to misunderstand the spirit of the period and the special position
in which the Belgian princes, whether of Lotharingia or of Flanders,
were placed. Their diplomacy was the necessary result of the central
situation occupied by their possessions. Unless they endeavoured to
maintain a certain balance of power between their neighbours, they were
in direct danger of losing their independence. Periods of hesitation
coincided with a divided menace. As soon as the danger became evident
on one side, the Belgian princes invariably turned towards the other.
The same reasons which bound the descendants of Régner Long Neck to
France soon brought about a closer entente between the counts and
communes of Flanders and the English kings.

CHAPTER VI

THE BELFRIES

On several occasions in the course of the eleventh century, the
constitution of Belgian unity seemed to come within sight. The Scheldt
no longer divided the country into two distinct political units. The
powerful counts of Flanders were still practically independent of their
French suzerain, while the Struggle for the Investitures had ruined the
emperors' authority in the Meuse region, where the native nobility was
again exerting its supremacy. Both parts of the country were brought
more and more into contact by military alliances and dynastic
intermarriages. In spite of these tendencies, three centuries were
still to elapse before the reunion of the various counties and duchies
under the same house and the foundation of what may be considered as
the Belgian nation, in the modern sense of the word. While in France
and England the central power was making great progress against the
separatist tendencies of the feudal barons, in Belgium the work of
political centralization was delayed by the considerable influence
exerted on social conditions by the towns, or communes.

    Illustration: CLOTH HALL AND BELFRY, YPRES (DESTROYED 1914).
    (THIRTEENTH CENTURY.)
    _Ph. B._

    [_FIRST COMMUNES_]

The development of urban institutions in the twelfth century was not
peculiar to Belgium. Almost in every European country the progress of
trade and industry had the same result, but, just as Feudalism had been
more feudal in the region of the Meuse and the Scheldt than in any
other part of Northern Europe, Communalism became more communal. The
same reasons which favoured separatism from the point of view of the
feudal lords allowed the spirit of the guilds to assert itself more
energetically than in the neighbouring countries. The very remoteness
of any strong centralizing influence, the linguistic and racial
differences, favoured the new régime, while the resources of the
country and its geographical position on the map of Europe gave to its
trade and industry an extraordinary efflorescence. The communes found
in Belgium a well prepared ground. Politically, they met with a minimum
of resistance; economically, they benefited from a maximum of
advantages.

    Illustration: THE CASTLE OF THE COUNTS, GHENT (TWELFTH CENTURY).
    _Ph. B._

Up to the twelfth century, it must be remembered, only the lay and
ecclesiastical aristocracy had been allowed to play a part in Belgian,
and, for the matter of that, in European history. The feudal system had
reduced the ancient free peasants to bondage; most of them were tied to
the soil and deprived, of course, of all political rights. The
foundation of large towns of 50,000 to 80,000 inhabitants, whose
citizens possessed their own militia, their own tribunals and their own
privileges, was nothing short of a social revolution. The merchants and
artisans made their influence strongly felt in the State; they had
money and military power, and the impoverished nobility became more and
more dependent on them. The spirit of separatism and local
individualism passed thus from the castle to the town, and it was only
when some balance was re-established between the different classes of
society, and when altered economic conditions necessitated a closer
co-operation of the whole nation, that unification became possible in
the early days of the fifteenth century.

The story of the formation of the first Communes is well known. It is
the same in all parts of Western Europe, though the essential
characteristics are nowhere more evident than in Belgium. Trade gave
the first impulse. It had been practically annihilated by the Norman
invasions and the wars of the ninth century. Using the natural
waterways of the country and the sea routes, it revived slowly, and we
know, through the discovery of Flemish coins in Denmark, Prussia and
Russia, that the Belgian coast was already in frequent communication
with Northern Europe at the end of the tenth century. The Norman
Conquest was the main cause of the rapid progress of trade in the
eleventh century. Many Flemings accompanied William in his expedition,
many more followed as colonists, and a constant intercourse was
established between the Thames and the Scheldt. The development of the
trade of Bruges was the natural consequence of the increasing
importance of London. Singing the _Kyrie Eleison_, Flemish sailors came
up the Thames, bringing to England wine from France and Germany, spices
from the East and cloth from Flanders.

    [_MERCHANTS_]

Meanwhile, great fairs had been established in Southern Flanders at
Lille, Ypres and Douai, where French and Italian merchants met the
Flemish traders; so that Flanders was kept in close contact with the
romanized countries by the continental routes, while the sea brought
her into touch with the Germanic world. Wharves and storehouses were
built on the main streams where the merchants made their winter
quarters, usually in the vicinity and under the protection of some
monastery or some feudal castle. Though the commercial settlements were
more dependent than the latter on the geographical features of the
country, most of the best situated spots, at the crossing of two main
roads (Maestricht), at the confluence of navigable streams (Liége,
Ghent), at the highest navigable point of a river (Cambrai), etc., had
attracted the monks and the barons before the merchants. The new
settlements were, however, quite distinct from the old, and their
population lived under an entirely different régime. The name given to
them at the time is characteristic: they were called either "porters"
or "emporia" (storehouses); even after the industrial population had
joined the merchants, the inhabitants remained for a long time
"mercatores."

The nobles--especially the lay nobles--protected the traders. At a
time when landed property diminished considerably in value, they were a
source of revenue. They paid tolls on the rivers, on the roads, at the
fairs. They provided all lingeries, silks, spices, furs, jewels, etc.;
their ships could be equipped for war. These were sufficient reasons
for the princes to grant the wandering traders a certain freedom and a
privileged position in the State, and even to fight any noble who
persecuted them and robbed them of their wares. At the beginning of the
twelfth century, trade not only moved from south to north, on Belgium's
many navigable streams; it ran also from east to west along a new road
connecting Bruges with Cologne, through Maestricht, St. Trond, Léau,
Louvain, Brussels, Alost and Ghent, all these places occupying some
favourable geographical position. The origin of the prosperity of
Antwerp dates from this period, a certain part of the wares being
transported to this spot by the Scheldt from Ghent. The Bruges-Cologne
road eventually ruined the trade of the latter place, to the great
advantage of agricultural Brabant, which was, by this means, drawn into
the economic movement then revolutionizing social conditions on the
Meuse and the Scheldt.

    [_ARTISANS_]

Had this movement continued to be purely commercial, social conditions
would not have undergone such a rapid change, for the number of
settlers would have remained relatively small. But, already in the
eleventh century, the "porters" and "emporia" proved a centre of
attraction, not only to discontented serfs and would-be merchants, but
to skilled artisans, mostly clothmakers in Flanders and metal-workers
on the Meuse. From the early days of the Menapii the inhabitants of
Northern Belgium had a reputation for working the wool of their sheep.
Under Charlemagne, it had already become their principal industry. In
the eleventh century, with the conquest of new "polders" upon the sea
and the extension of the area of rich low meadows, the quantity of wool
increased considerably, and, more raw material becoming available, the
cloth industry developed accordingly. From the building of a protective
dyke to the weaver bending over his loom and to the ship carrying
valuable Flemish cloth from Bruges to London or any other part of the
European coast, there is a natural chain of thought. But the progress
accomplished along the coast may also be connected with the foundation
and development of the first towns and the chimes of the belfries.

In the hills of the south, industry was very likely determined by the
presence of copper and tin mines. The latter, however, were rapidly
exhausted, and, as early as the tenth century, the artisans of the
Meuse were obliged to fetch their raw material from Germany, especially
from the mines of the Geslar. The industry, however, remained in Dinant
and Huy, and coppersmiths and merchants met in these places, as
clothmakers and merchants met in the Flemish towns. So that, in the
early Middle Ages, the contrast between agricultural and industrial
Belgium was already apparent.

The migration of artisans towards trade centres in the eleventh century
is as easy to understand as the attraction exerted in the present day
by commerce on industry. But, in the Middle Ages, the union was bound
to become closer still, owing to the resistance offered by the old
régime to the social transformation and to the necessity felt by the
"guilds" (either of merchants or of artisans) to unite against a common
enemy.

Though, in some instances, the new towns received their privileges from
the princes, who rather encouraged than opposed their development, the
burgesses were frequently obliged to fight in order to obtain their
liberty. The case of Cambrai is typical. A settlement of traders and
artisans had been established close to the walls of the episcopal
castle at the beginning of the eleventh century. In 1070 it was
surrounded with walls and became a "bourg" (borough). The "bourg" was
placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop's officers, who
administered it without making any allowance for new conditions, the
laws applied to peasants and serfs being vigorously applied to traders
and craftsmen. Meetings took place in the "Halle" (Guildhall), and the
members of the guilds swore to shake off the bishop's yoke as soon as
an opportunity arose. When, in 1077, Bishop Gérard left Cambrai to
receive his investiture from Henry IV, the burgesses overwhelmed the
soldiery, seized the gates and proclaimed the Commune. It was not a
rising of the poor against the rich, for the leaders were the richest
merchants in the town, neither was it a rising of Guelphs against
Ghibelines, though the bishop had lost much of his prestige owing to
his loyalty to the emperor. It was essentially a fight of the new
"bourgeoisie" against feudalism, of a commercial and industrial culture
against a purely agricultural civilization. The rising was soon
crushed, but, a few years later, Bishop Walcher was obliged to grant to
the citizens the charters which Bishop Gérard had refused them, and
even when, in 1107, the Emperor Henry V tore up Cambrai's charter, the
town preserved its sheriffs and magistrates. The burgesses kept up the
struggle for two centuries, until they succeeded in taking from the
bishops every shred of temporal power and in obtaining the entire
control of the city.

    [_NOBLES AND COMMUNES_]

Cambrai was, with Huy, one of the first communes in Belgium, and the
rising had a great influence in Northern France. It is an extreme
example of the resistance of the feudal lords to the rise of the
bourgeoisie. Generally speaking, this resistance was greater among
ecclesiastical than among lay nobles, and in small fiefs, where the
prince was in direct opposition to the people, than in larger ones,
where the communes frequently supported him against his vassals or even
against his suzerain.

While the imperial bishops opposed the movement, for instance, the
counts of Flanders encouraged it. During the eleventh century, the
merchants had already enjoyed the protection of the counts, and, in the
beginning of the twelfth century, the erection of a wall surrounding
the "porters" was accompanied by the grant of special privileges. When
Charles the Good was killed in 1127, the people rose to avenge his
death and besieged his murderers in the castle of Bruges. The count
having left no heir, Louis VI of France upheld the claim of William of
Normandy, but the burgesses, fearing that the duke would not maintain
their privileges, opposed his candidature and selected Thierry of
Alsace. A war ensued, during which most of the nobles sided with the
first, whilst the towns and free peasants took the part of the second.
After his victory, Thierry showed his gratitude by extending to all
towns in the country, whether Walloon or Flemish, the same freedom.
Strangely enough, it was not the charter of Bruges which was chosen,
but that of Arras. The towns enjoyed a kind of self-government. The
citizens were judged by their own sheriffs ("échevins"), the prince
being represented on their council by a "bailli." They had their own
seal, their own hall and archives. They owed allegiance to their
prince, and, in case of war, had to give him military help. Their
rights were shown by the gallows erected at the gates of the town and
by the belfry, whose bell called the burgesses to arms when the city
was threatened by the enemy.

    Illustration: THE CLOTH HALL AND BELFRY, BRUGES
    (THIRTEENTH-FOURTEENTH CENTURY).
    _Ph. B._

In Brabant also the communes enjoyed the protection of the duke, but
they developed later, owing to the agricultural character of the
region. The importance of Louvain and Brussels dates from the twelfth
century, when the Cologne-Bruges road brought commercial activity into
the country and when the weaving industry began to spread in the duchy.
As for Liége, which was a purely ecclesiastical town, where, for a long
time, the number of priests and monks exceeded that of the ordinary
citizens, it enjoyed a smaller share of local liberties than the other
centres of the Meuse valley where industry was more developed, and the
citizens never succeeded in freeing themselves completely from the
bishop's authority.

    [_PEASANTS_]

If the imperial bishops opposed the new movement, it was mainly owing
to the influence of the monks, and especially the Cistercian monks,
that it spread to agricultural districts and that the rise of the
communes coincided with the abolition of serfdom. The direct
consequence of the development of trade and industry was the
depreciation of the land, and it became necessary to open new districts
to agriculture. The Cistercians were pioneers in this direction. They
established their houses in barren heaths and marshy districts, and
applied their skill and patience to converting them into fertile
fields. Unable to carry on the work unaided, they appealed to lay
brethren, who established farms in the neighbourhood of the
monasteries. These peasants were no longer serfs but free peasants, as
had been their forefathers after the Frankish invasion. Under the
supervision of the monks and of the stewards of dukes and counts, who
soon realized the advantages of the Cistercian method, they created new
"polders" along the Flemish coast, cleared the forests of Hainault and
Namur, and reclaimed the heaths and marshes of Flanders and Brabant.
The reclaimed ground was divided among the workers, so that, at the
beginning of the thirteenth century, a new class of free peasants
replaced the old class of feudal serfs. The farm produce was no longer
for local consumption alone; it was taken to the market-place, where
the farmers met the merchants and artisans. The social transformation
begun in the town halls spread thence to the country-side, and the
whole country began to share the same economic and political interests.

The belfry remains the living symbol of this rapid and widespread
transformation, and the few mediæval belfries which remain standing in
Belgium date from that period. Those of Ghent and Tournai, built at the
end of the twelfth century, stand alone, in the centre of the town,
while in Ypres and Bruges (thirteenth century) the tower was erected
above the centre of the "halles." In both cases, however, the meaning
of these old monuments is the same. They are far more typical of
Belgian mediæval civilization than the Gothic churches of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such as St. Bavon (Ghent), Ste.
Gudule (Brussels) and Notre Dame (Bruges), and even than the great
cathedrals built later in Antwerp and Malines. Belgium's ecclesiastical
architecture, though distinct from the French, is strongly influenced
by the French Gothic style, while her civic monuments can only be
compared to the Palazzi publici of Florence and Sienna. They stand as
living witnesses of the heroic times when the alliance of the guilds
was sought by the princes and when common artisans did not hesitate to
challenge the power of the French kings. The spirit which raised them
has left its mark on the people, who still cherish to an extraordinary
degree their local institutions, and for whom communal privileges
constitute the very basis of social liberty. This "love of the
clock-tower" is not only Belgian, or Italian, or English; it is
essentially a European trait, as opposed to Asiatic Imperialism, and
may even be found in Republican Rome and in ancient Greece.

    [_TOWN CITIZENSHIP_]

It is not without interest to notice that this European conception of
town-citizenship coincided with an exceptional artistic and economic
development strongly subjected both to Latin and Germanic influences.
While in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Ghent became the
centre of Flemish-German trade, owing to its privileged position on the
Cologne road, Bruges was the most cosmopolitan centre in Europe. It
communicated with the sea by a canal, whose great dykes are mentioned
by Dante (_Inferno_, XV, 4, 6), and its market-place, deserted to-day,
was then crowded with traders from England, France, Spain and Germany
and brokers from Lombardy and Tuscany. Seventeen States were
represented in the city, where the Hanseatic towns had their main
warehouses. Ships, laden with stores from all parts of the world, took
with them Flemish textiles, which were celebrated for their suppleness
and beauty of colour, and which were exported, not only to all parts
of Europe, but even to the bazaars of the East. When local raw material
became insufficient, wool was imported from England, and the Hansa of
London centralized the trade between the two countries. England and
Flanders were thus brought close together, and their commercial
relations reacted on the policy of both countries.

In the shadow of the Bruges belfry, amid English, French, German and
Italian traders, a new civilization was born, which, combining the
Latin and Germanic influences to which it was subjected, was soon to
assert its own originality. Belgium had definitely broken down the
barriers of feudalism. The same causes which had liberated her people
had brought them into contact with the outside world.

CHAPTER VII

THE GOLDEN SPURS

The political history of the last centuries of the Middle Ages is
entirely dominated by the development of the Communes. Their influence
is twofold. On one hand, they prevented the absorption of the country
by the French kings; on the other, they delayed its unification under
national princes. By safeguarding local liberties, they checked foreign
ambitions, but, through their efforts to maintain their privileges and
through their petty rivalries, they impeded, for a long time, the
establishment of central institutions. During the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries they fostered trade and industry by affording due
protection to the burgesses and forcing the princes to follow a policy
in accordance with the interests of the country. During the fourteenth
century they were weakened by internal struggles between classes and
cities, and, through their trade restrictions, became an obstacle to
the free development of the economic life of the nation.

    [_FLANDERS' INFLUENCE_]

The cardinal event of the period is the Battle of Courtrai (1302), also
called the Battle of the Golden Spurs, owing to the great number of
these spurs collected on the battlefield after the defeat of the French
knights by the Flemish militia. It was hailed at the time as a
miraculous triumph for the commoners, the disproportion between the
opposing forces being somewhat exaggerated by enthusiastic
contemporary chroniclers. But its influence was not only social, it was
national, for it definitely secured the independence of Flanders and of
the other Belgian principalities against the increasing power of the
French kings, and this rendered possible the unification of the
country, which was accomplished, a century later, under the dukes of
Burgundy.

    Illustration: SEAL OF THE TOWN OF DAMME. (1376).

    Illustration: SEAL OF GUY DE DAMPIERRE, COUNT OF FLANDERS
    (1278-1305).

At the beginning of the twelfth century the old distinction between
Lotharingia and Flanders had practically ceased to exist. The emperor's
prestige, greatly diminished by the Struggle of the Investitures, was
no longer strong enough to keep the Belgian princes east of the Scheldt
within the bounds of their allegiance. The most loyal of them, the
Count of Hainault, would not even depart from neutrality during the war
waged between Frederick Barbarossa and the French king. "He was not
obliged," he declared, "to put his fortunes in the hands of the
imperial troops and to grant them passage across his territory, as that
would bring devastation to his country." The development of trade and
industry had shifted the centre of interest from Germany, which
remained purely feudal and agricultural, to Flanders, which represented
a far more advanced civilization, based on the free development of the
cities. When the princes of Brabant, Hainault and the other principal
cities looked for an example or for some political support, they no
longer had to seek it outside the country. Even Liége was gradually
drawn within the circle of Flanders's influence. This lead, given by
one Belgian principality to the others, over the Scheldt boundary,
marks the break-up of the division of the country between France and
Germany inaugurated at the treaty of Verdun, and prepares the work of
centralization which brought about the creation of Belgian nationality.

The policy of Flanders was determined by the desire to preserve peace
with England and with France, Germany playing only a very secondary
part in European affairs at the time. Good relations with England were
essential to the Flemish cloth industry, since most of the wool was
imported from this country through Bruges. As the power of the French
kings increased, the Flemish counts endeavoured also to avoid any
conflict with their suzerains, since their northern allies could not
bring them sufficient military help to prevent the country's invasion.
Counts and Communes tried in vain to remain neutral. Neutrality was
impossible, and, whenever it was infringed, Flanders had invariably to
suffer from the consequences, either through the ruin of her trade or
through the loss of her liberties.

    [_BOUVINES_]

The House of Alsace came into power at the death of Charles the Good.
Its representative, Thierry, had been opposed by the French king, who
wanted to give the county to the Duke of Normandy. The Communes,
fearing that the duke's attitude would bring difficulties with England,
upheld the claim of Thierry, who prevailed after the death of his
rival. His son, Philip, acquired further territories in France
(Amiénois, Valois and Vermandois). His influence and his prestige were
so considerable that the French king, Philippe-Auguste, is supposed to
have said: "France will absorb Flanders or be destroyed by it." To his
suzerain's policy of "absorption," the Count of Flanders opposed the
British alliance, which he, however, broke in 1187, when he thought
himself threatened by his ally. Philip of Alsace died in the crusade,
during the siege of St. John of Acre (1191). Philippe-Auguste at once
attempted to seize his possessions, but his attempt was frustrated by
Count Baldwin V of Hainault, who invaded the country and, having been
recognized by the Communes, succeeded in uniting both counties.

Baldwin V of Hainault and IX of Flanders preserved a friendly
neutrality towards England during the struggle between Coe de Lion
and Philippe-Auguste. When the Count of Flanders, who had become
Emperor of Constantinople, died before Adrianople (1205), the French
king hoped at last to annex definitely the rich county. He had given
Baldwin's daughter in marriage to one of his creatures, Ferrand of
Portugal, who thus became the legitimate successor. As soon, however,
as he arrived in Flanders, Ferrand recognized that he could only
maintain himself in power by pursuing an independent policy friendly to
England. Though a foreigner, with little knowledge of the country, he
observed the same attitude towards France as his predecessors,
concluding an alliance against his liege with the Duke of Brabant, King
John of England and the Emperor Otto. The confederates were severely
defeated at Bouvines (1214), and, for nearly a century, the hegemony of
France became paramount in the Low Countries. Not only did the kings
henceforth rule in their own estates of Flanders, but they were able to
extend their influence over the whole country as far as Liége. The
wishes of their representatives were considered as orders, and the
complete absorption of Belgium by France seemed the foregone conclusion
of their tireless activity.

Two obstacles, however, stood in the way--the fact that Flanders drew
from England most of her raw material and the independent policy of the
dukes of Brabant.

Henry III took the hansa of London under his special protection and
promised the Flemish traders that they should not be molested even if
war broke out between England and France, unless Flanders took an
active part in the conflict. The Flemish trade constituted a large
source of revenue for the English kings, and it was still as essential,
at the time, to the prosperity of England as to that of Flanders. Since
the increased power of the French crown had rendered direct opposition
impossible, the British kings did their best to favour Flemish
neutrality and to enter into close friendship with the only Belgian
princes who had preserved their full independence, the dukes of
Brabant.

The latter belonged to the last national dynasty ruling in the country
and were therefore particularly popular. The Battle of Woeringen
(1288), in which Duke John I succeeded in defeating the powerful
Archbishop of Cologne and his allies, established his supremacy between
the Meuse and the Rhine and gave him the full control of the road from
Cologne to Ghent, through Louvain and Brussels, which brought Brabant
into line with Flanders's trade and industry. Brabant became thus the
national bulwark against foreign influence and the political stronghold
of Belgium, a position which it never completely relinquished, even
through the cruel vicissitudes of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.

    [_BRABANT_]

If the prosperity of Brabant did not yet equal that of Flanders, the
dukes possessed greater authority over their subjects and enjoyed far
more independence. Edward I, when preparing for war against France,
fully appreciated these advantages, and gave his daughter Margaret in
marriage to the son of John I. Antwerp benefited largely from the
Anglo-Brabançonne alliance, since, when the English kings forbade the
importation of wool into Flanders, following some conflict with France,
the English merchants found a suitable market in the Scheldt port in
close communication with the centres of Brabant's cloth industry,
Louvain, Brussels and Malines.

The cities of Flanders, however, were not prepared to see their trade
ruined to suit the plans of the French. The economic reasons which
forbade a hostile attitude towards England would have afforded
sufficient ground for an anti-French reaction. The crisis was hastened
by internal trouble. The merchants and the craftsmen of the Communes
had not remained united. The rich and influential merchants had
gradually monopolized public offices and formed a strong aristocracy
opposed by the craftsmen. Count Guy de Dampierre declared himself for
the artisans, Philip the Fair of France, seizing the opportunity of
interfering in the affairs of Flanders, declared himself in favour of
the aristocracy. At the same time, he opposed the projected marriage of
the count's daughter with King Edward's eldest son. The popular party,
or "Clauwaerts" (the claw of the Flemish lion), was not sufficiently
organized to resist the "Leliaerts" (partisans of the lily), helped by
Philip's forces, and for five years the land remained under French
occupation, Count Guy being imprisoned in France. In July 1302 a
terrible rising, known as "Matines brugeoises" and led by the weaver
Pieter de Coninck, broke out in Bruges, when all the French in the town
were murdered in the early hours of the morning. Philip immediately
sent a powerful army to punish the rebels, which was defeated under the
walls of Courtrai by the Flemish militia, which some nobles, partisans
of the count, had hastily joined.

The consequences of the Battle of the Golden Spurs were considerable.
It reversed the situation created, a century before, by Bouvines. From
the social point of view, it gave a tremendous impulse to democratic
liberty throughout Belgium. As a result, the people of Liége obtained,
in 1316, their first liberties, symbolized by the erection of the
"Perron." The "Joyeuse Entrée" of Brabant was published in 1354 and
became the fixed constitution of the central principality. Charters
were enlarged and confirmed even in the least industrial districts of
Hainault and Namur, Luxemburg remaining practically the only purely
feudal State in the country. Duke John of Luxemburg, who became King of
Bohemia and who fought at Crécy, was considered at the time as one of
the last representatives of mediæval chivalry. The Prince of Wales's
motto "I serve" was supposed to have been borrowed by the Black Prince
from this noble enemy.

    [FLANDERS AND ENGLAND]

From the national point of view, the Battle of Courtrai is no less
important. Had the Flemings again failed in their bold bid for liberty,
the principle of Belgian nationality might have been irretrievably
jeopardized on the eve of the period when it was to assert itself, and
the efforts of centuries towards the reconstitution of political unity
might have become useless. It is, of course, entirely wrong to
attribute the rising of 1302 to purely patriotic motives, as some
romantic Belgian historians have endeavoured to do; but one may
legitimately believe that part at least of the blind and obstinate
heroism displayed during the struggle may have been inspired by an
obscure instinct that Flanders was, at the moment, waging the battle of
Belgium--that is to say, of all the lands lying between France and
Germany, and which, if permanently annexed by one or other of the
Powers, must necessarily upset the balance of Europe and wreck all hope
of European peace based on national freedom.

Flanders did not, however, reap the full benefits of her victory. The
peace concluded in 1319, after further military operations, took away
from the county all the Walloon district, considerably reducing the
cattle grazing area and making Flemish industry more dependent than
ever on England for its raw material. From the beginning of the
fourteenth century, the counts, who had, up to then, sided with the
people, went over to the French party, so that, when the Hundred Years'
War broke out, Flanders found herself again faced by the cruel
alternative of breaking her allegiance and being exposed to the
disasters of an armed invasion from the South, or keeping it and seeing
her industry ruined owing to the stoppage of her trade with England.

As early as 1336, Count Louis de Nevers having ordered the arrest of
English merchants, Edward III, as a reprisal, interrupted all
intercourse between the two countries. This measure was all the more
disastrous for Flanders because, helped by the immigration of some
Flemish weavers and fullers to England, an English cloth industry had
been started across the Channel. The English were therefore far less
dependent on the Flemings than the Flemings on the English, and it was
to be feared that the new industry would greatly benefit from the
monopoly created by the stoppage of trade. The prosperity of Bruges was
further threatened, since the prohibition did not include Brabant, and
Antwerp remained open to British trade.

    [VAN ARTEVELDE]