Belgium: From the Roman Invasion to the Present Day

The year 1567 marks the beginning of civil war in the Low Countries. Up till then, the nobility and the States General had worked more or less together, acting as intermediaries...

The part played by Belgium during the war is well known. Those who knew the country and its history were not astonished at the attitude observed by King Albert and his people on...

The hotels de ville built during the Burgundian period afford an excellent example of the new economic tendencies prevailing at the time, but they are by no means the greatest w...

One month after the first outbreak of the Belgian Revolution, elections were already taking place. An almost equal number of Liberals (the successors of the Vonckists) and of Ca...

The disaster of Nancy naturally provoked a strong reaction in the Belgian provinces. We have seen that the large towns bore only with great reluctance the centralized rule of Ph...

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 betwee...

Though the seven Northern provinces could be considered as definitely lost after the failure of Farnese's last attempt to reconquer them, the Spanish Netherlands still included,...

Her territory had been gradually reduced during modern times. She stood stripped of all her marches. In the course of the seventeenth century she had lost Walloon Flanders and A...

Literature is perhaps nowadays the most characteristic expression of civilization, just as painting was the most striking mode of expression in the Renaissance and architecture...

Philip II's policy ruined the Southern Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century. Two hundred years later, Joseph II's methods of government provoked a popular reaction wh...

Having failed to repress the revolution, King William appealed to the Powers signatories of the eight articles creating the joint kingdom. Lord Aberdeen answered that the indepe...

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 dis...

The most characteristic monument of the fifteenth century in Belgium is the Town Hall, just as the most characteristic monument of the two preceding centuries is the belfry, wit...

The economic and social development, accompanying the political transformation which we have just witnessed, was entirely dominated by the amazing prosperity of the city of Antw...

The remarkable revival of Belgian Arts and Letters which followed shortly after the 1830 Revolution is one of the most striking examples of the influence exercised by political...

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...

One of the reasons of Joseph II's failure to reform Belgian institutions was that his monarchical power rested mainly on the nobility, the clergy and the peasants, who were boun...

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 warrior...

There are certain periods in the life of nations and individuals when, owing to a combination of happy circumstances, all their best faculties work in perfect harmony. They give...

The Vienna settlement, creating the joint kingdom of the Netherlands, suited the Powers which made it. It suited England, since it placed the Belgian provinces, and especially A...

If it be true that the spirit of a period can best be judged by its intellectual and artistic achievements, we ought certainly to find in the pictures of Rubens (1577-1640) an a...

From the death of Margaret, the emperor's policy became entirely independent. Though absorbed by the affairs of the Empire, distant military expeditions and a recurrent war with...

The fall of Antwerp had doomed all projects of anti-Spanish unity. It had settled for centuries to come the fate of the Southern provinces, which were henceforth attached to a f...

The truce of 1609-21 was used by the Government and the people to restore as far as possible the economic prosperity of the Catholic Netherlands. The relative success with which...

The Austrian regime is characterized by a return to more peaceful conditions, since, with the exception of the period of 1740 to 1748, the country was not directly affected by E...

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...

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 t...

Through a most unhappy coincidence, the prince on whose shoulders the fate of the country was to rest during the critical times to come was the first, since the beginning of uni...

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...

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 afte...

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-...

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...

THE BRABANCONNE 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 refo...

FROM SAINT AMAND TO CHARLEMAGNE 37 Frankish capital transferred from Tournai to Paris--Second Christianization--St. Amand--Restoration of the old bishoprics-- Romanization of th...

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--...

ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE 315 The Belgian Constitution--Influence of neutrality on internal politics--Struggle between Liberals and Catholics--The "School War"--The Labour Party--The...

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 Hapsburg...

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 politic...

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 D...

REGNER 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 re...

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 tran...

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 prosper...

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 i...