Belgium

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.

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