CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XIV CHAPTER XV CHAPTER XVI CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XIX CHAPTER XX CHAPTER XXI CHAPTER XXII CHAPTER XXIII CHAPTER XXIV CHAPTER XXV CHAPTER XXVI CHAPTER XXVII CHAPTER XXVIII CHAPTER XXIX CHAPTER I 1 CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XIV CHAPTER XV CHAPTER XVI CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XIX CHAPTER XX CHAPTER XXI CHAPTER XXII CHAPTER XXIII CHAPTER XXIV CHAPTER XXV CHAPTER XXVI CHAPTER XXVII CHAPTER XXVIII CHAPTER XXIX Belgium, by Emile Cammaerts The Project Gutenberg eBook, Belgium, by Emile Cammaerts This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Belgium From the Roman Invasion to the Present Day Author: Emile Cammaerts Release Date: December 7, 2008 [eBook #27442] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BELGIUM*** E-text prepared by Brownfox, Hélène de Mink, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Belgium, by Emile Cammaerts 2 Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 27442-h.htm or 27442-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/7/4/4/27442/27442-h/27442-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/7/4/4/27442/27442-h.zip) Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Text that was printed in bold is enclosed by equal signs (=like this=). The page advertising other books in the series has been removed to the end of this e-book. The Latin number [i] in the text refers to a transcriber's note at the end of this e-book. 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, by Emile Cammaerts 3 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 Belgium, by Emile Cammaerts 4 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 I 5 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. CHAPTER II 6 CHAPTER III 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 III 7 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 IV 8 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 V 9 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 VI 10 [...]... 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. .. 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... 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... 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. .. 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... 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... 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... 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... 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 CHAPTER XXIX 35 as Belgian history did not even exist All through feudal times we are aware of the existence of the County of Flanders, of the . at the end of this e-book. BELGIUM FROM THE ROMAN INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY Illustration: ALBERT I. Frontispiece. Photo Langfier. BELGIUM From the Roman. under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Belgium From the Roman Invasion to the Present