A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

Because the victory saved the national independence of Flanders and practically prevented the political absorption of the other Belgian principalities by Philip the Fair, the Flemings, on July 11 of each year, celebrate the anniversary of the battle of the Golden Spurs as a great event in Belgian history.

The victory of Courtrai gave impetus to real national feeling: all classes, and not least the priests, contributed with all their power to organizing further resistance to the French armies. During the first twenty years of the fourteenth century Flanders, by its own forces, without foreign assistance, resisted the onslaughts of three successive French kings. After the battle of Mons-en-Pevèle (1303), which brought neither victory nor defeat for either side, the Flemings arrived with a new army, and Philip the Fair is quoted as having shouted in despair: “It rains Flemings!”

Finally peace was concluded in 1305 at Athis-sur-Orge. As a result of the intrigues of the French agents and the treachery of the Flemish delegates the conditions were very unfavorable for Flanders. The new count, Robert of Béthune, wanted peace; he did not care for the interests of the cities and the victory of the democratic party. The country was obliged to yield and, in 1319, after a new war, caused by the intrigues of the French King, was forced to abandon Walloon Flanders, including the cities of Lille, Douai, and Béthune. As the county of Artois had already been ceded to France in the time of Philip August, Flanders possessed no more Walloon territory. It retained only the old Germanic portions. It was a severe loss, but by that loss Flanders escaped forever absorption by the French monarchy.

The battle of the Golden Spurs not only had far-reaching results from a national point of view; it also confirmed the victory of the democratic elements over the patricians in Flanders. In those Flemish cities where the latter were masters at the time of the battle they were overthrown by the craftsmen after the victory. Moreover, the craftsmen of Liège, in the same year, and under the influence of the defeat of the Flemish patricians at Courtrai, which taught them that they could win if they were organized, inaugurated a revolt against the patricians of their own city. After many years of bloody struggle, they succeeded in wresting from the bishop-prince, Adolf de la Marck, the Peace of Fexhe, that practically founded the liberties of Liège. In Brabant, some years after the battle of Courtrai, in 1306, the craftsmen tried also to imitate their Flemish brethren but here they were severely defeated.

The movement, however, was now everywhere in full swing. The rights of the princes were more and more curtailed by the successful revolts of the craftsmen, and assurances were required that the privileges of the communes would be respected for all time. These demands resulted in the appointment of committees, composed of members of the nobility and members of the cities, the latter preponderating in number, in order to guarantee the privileges granted the commune at its inception and those won during the democratic struggles. We find such a committee in Brabant, where it was called the Council of Cortemberg (1312), and in the principality of Liège, under the name of Tribunal of the XXII.

One of the most famous privileges won by the people during the communal struggles of the fourteenth century is that called the Joyeuse Entrée of Brabant (1354-56). According to the stipulations of that charter of liberty, the territory of the duchy was to remain undivided and undiminished; the seven important cities of Brabant were to keep in their common possession the documents containing the municipal liberties; no offensive war was to be waged, no treaty concluded, no inch of territory ceded, no coin made, without the consent of the subjects. Commerce was to be free, and only legal taxes were to be imposed. The Duke undertook to care for the safety of the roads, to protect his people from arrest in foreign countries, to keep peace between the Rhine and the Meuse, and to respect the treaties concluded with Flanders and Liège. No native of Brabant might prosecute a fellow-countryman before a foreign court. The Duke himself was to be subject to the laws of the duchy.

A comparison of the political situation, as revealed by privileges like these, with the tyranny of the princes in feudal times, brings into a strong light all that was achieved, in point of view of freedom and liberty, by the communes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

The development of civic freedom and the spirit of democracy, such as we have described, in Flanders, Brabant, and Liège, did not exist, however, in the same measure in all the principalities of Belgium. They were the pride only of those regions where industrial and economic conditions had created the necessary basis for such developments. In the more agricultural regions of the country they were less in evidence or were introduced much later, and they did not make so deep an impression on the life of the people.

Luxemburg, for example, was a very large province, but not thickly populated. It was far removed from the large rivers, while the hills and forests made communication very difficult. In the rocky lines the manors of the robber barons were built, and those watched the passing convoys of merchantmen and attacked them frequently. The historian Froissart depicts very realistically the aspect of the country. Speaking of the passing of the French troops through Luxemburg in 1388, he says:

Two thousand workmen were sent ahead through the forests of Chimay and Neufchateau, in order to clear the way for the troops and to construct a road for the passage of the 1,200 carts of the army. When it had passed the picturesque convent of Orval, the army encountered severe difficulties: it advanced only two miles a day toward Bastogne, through the passes of the Ardennes, infested by savage animals and inhabited only by some colliers. The passage became even more difficult in October, when the rivers overflowed from the rain, when the rocks were slippery and the roads impassable. The barons of the Ardennes took advantage of it for attacking the convoys and pillaging the train.