A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

His work was nearly destroyed by the extravagant plans and the ambition of his son, Charles the Bold, who succeeded him in 1467. The reign of Charles was dominated by the struggle with the shrewd King of France, Louis XI. This king watched with anxiety the increasing power of one of his vassals, and tried to circumvent his plans in all possible ways. The schemes of Charles the Bold were fantastically extensive, and the historian Philip de Comines said of him: “He tried so many things that he could not live long enough to carry them out, and they were indeed almost impossible enterprises.”

As the house of Burgundy tried to dominate the principality of Liège, Charles followed that policy by imposing upon the citizens of Liège the candidacy of Louis of Bourbon as bishop-prince. The people of the principality, stirred up by the French King, rose against the mighty duke. They paid a heavy price. In 1466 the town of Dinant was sacked by the troups of Charles the Bold, and in 1468 Liège shared the same fate. Unspeakable atrocities were committed by the Burgundian army, and fire and sword nearly decimated the populace. These disasters placed the principality for at least ten years under the domination of Charles.

The states of the Burgundian dukes were composed of two sections, separated from each other by independent principalities. In the south, they possessed the duchy of Burgundy and the county of the same name, also called Franche-Comté; in the north, Belgium and a large part of the Dutch provinces were in their hands. From 1469 on, Charles tried patiently but relentlessly to bring together both parts of his state. He took Lorraine by force and got in engagère Alsace, Brisgau, and other minor principalities. In the north he succeeded, in 1472, in winning, by the testament of the late Arnold of Gueldre, the duchy of that name and the county of Zutphen.

Adopting the plan which his father had devised, but enlarging it considerably, he began negotiations with the Emperor for the reconstitution of the former mediaeval kingdom of Burgundy, and for his appointment as King of the Romans and successor to the Empire. He failed where Philip the Good had failed.

He intended next to conquer the country of his enemy, Louis XI. After the conquest he planned to divide France between himself and his brother-in-law, Edward of England. In order to avoid the danger, the French King cleverly entangled his vassal in a war with the Swiss. Charles fought the battle of Nancy under very unfavorable circumstances. His army was severely defeated and he himself killed. His body was discovered in the ice of a frozen pool, pierced by three deadly wounds and half devoured by wolves.

His young daughter Mary took on her shoulders the heavy burden entailed upon her as his successor.

The territorial federation of all the Belgian principalities by the Burgundian dukes involved as a consequence the political unification of these provinces. Having but one prince, they also had but one government. It was necessary, of course, that the individual institutions of each principality should disappear, and the political life of the country was subjected to the centralizing tendency of a common monarchy. Above the local institutions were established central institutions, common to all the territories: the council of the duke, an advisory body; the chancellor of Burgundy, a kind of prime minister; the Grand Council, a governmental body, which Charles the Bold, more autocratic than his father, divided into two new colleges, with distinct functions—the Council of State, a political college, and the Parliament of Malines, a supreme court of justice (1473).

Such a centralization of the national institutions was quite necessary if the danger of being dominated by France was to be avoided. France was rapidly becoming united under the leadership of its kings, who possessed a permanent army, the right to impose a perpetual taille, and the exercise of sovereign justice. In the face of this united and powerful monarchy, the Burgundian state could not remain separated. The Belgian provinces could no longer remain isolated from each other and limit themselves to an individualistic and egotistic policy. It was seen that everything ought to be concentrated in the hands of a strong prince. That was the new idea that was introduced into the constitution of the Belgian principalities, an idea that had never appeared prior to the fifteenth century. Throughout the Middle Ages the antiquated idea of the state as a collective person distinct from its members never clearly appears. The concept of sovereignty—absolute power subject to no control—was also lacking. The individual life dominated the life of the community. Little by little the renascence of the study of Roman law introduced other concepts, namely, those of state and sovereignty. The students of Roman law, the “legists,” stood for a government that would be one, indivisible, strong, absolute, and active. They believed that all that tended to limit the complete exercise of public authority should be discarded: the state was held to be impersonal and almighty. That new concept of the state was embodied in the politics of the Burgundian dukes during the fifteenth century. Centralization and the absolute power of the prince took the place of the former personal and collective privileges. This idea triumphed, not only because the Burgundian dukes were strong, but also because it was in accordance with the needs of the time and the wishes of the majority of the people.

Of course, the dukes, when they tried to realize their political centralization, met with some resistance on the part of the powerful communes. But Philip the Good cleverly avoided any open fight. He simply tried to subject the cities to his control—to prevent them from being a state within the state. He took part in the appointment of the magistrates, ordered their accounts to be examined by his officers, forbade advantage to be taken of the small cities and the peasantry, and made the judgments of their tribunals subject to review by his own councils of justice. Flanders endeavored to evade the results of that policy. There were serious revolts in Bruges (1436-47) and in Ghent (1450-53), and the cities of Brabant, particularly Malines, seemed unwilling to adapt themselves to the new situation.

All this local resistance was ruthlessly broken by Charles the Bold when he became duke. The autonomy of the cities was completely disregarded, the traditions were changed without consideration, the privileges remained unrecognized. Charles kept the appointment of all the municipal charges in his own hands. The omnipotence of the sovereign was, according to him, the only warrant for order and justice, such as he himself desired for his possessions.