A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

When Charles the Bold tried to impose French as the only official language, vigorous discontent was the result, and in 1477 the so-called “Grand Privilege” of Mary of Burgundy resulted in the re-establishment of Flemish. The knowledge of Flemish also spread through the Walloon country. Walloon merchants settled in Antwerp and Flemish merchants went to Namur and Dinant.

Under these favorable conditions, Flemish literature developed rapidly; but the development mainly affected Brabant. Brabant now took the place formerly occupied by Flanders. The Brabantine dialect, instead of the Flemish one, soon became dominant in literature. One of the best writers of this time was Jan Boendale (†1365), the famous author of the Brabantsche Yeesten (“Deeds of Brabant”). Boendale was serious and practical, and had no sympathy for France, like Van Maerlandt. He was an enemy both of the democracy and of the nobility; the merchants and the peasants were the classes with which he showed the most sympathy. Another Flemish author of great fame was Jan Van Ruysbroeck (†1381), also a native of Brabant. He was the herald of mysticism and of divine love, and occupies the first rank among all the religious writers of the Middle Ages. He wrote in a wonderful prose and surpassed everyone in inspiration of thought. The Flemish literature owes also much to another mystic, Gerard de Groote (†1384), of Deventer, founder of the “Brethren of Common Life.” The members of that community issued a large number of religious tracts, all of them written in Flemish. They founded excellent schools, where instruction was given by teachers from the University of Paris, and they were the first to introduce the art of printing into the Netherlands. The most famous printer of the Netherlands, Thierry Martens, of Alost, was one of their pupils. Wherever they founded communities and schools they introduced the art of printing, e.g., in Alost, Bruges, Brussels, Deventer, Gouda, Louvain, and Utrecht.

As for French literature in Belgium during the Burgundian period, its output was mainly devoted to the aristocracy, and consisted chiefly of historical material. The names of the historians Jean le Bel, Jean Froissart, Monstrelet, and Chastelain are well known. Froissart was a cosmopolitan writer, and most of the historians of this school showed only a dynastic learning. There was no question of patriotism. They praised the Burgundian dukes because these dukes were their protectors and benefactors.

Artistic life, on the other hand, was not divided into two separate currents, as was the literary life. In matters of art, Flemish and Walloon collaborated during the fifteenth century and together produced a real Belgian art. The masters of this period were the Flemings Jan and Hubert Van Eyck and the Walloon Roger de la Pasture or Van der Weyden.

Since the end of the thirteenth century Belgian art had become completely original. It was the wealth of city life that rendered that phenomenon possible. The wealth of the burgesses served to found many art industries. Sculpture, painting, and the goldsmith’s art were no longer exclusively religious; they became more and more secular. The erection of large churches ceased. Painters were busy decorating guild halls and city halls, banners and tents, and painting for craft guilds and for dramatic societies. The oldest products of Belgian art are to be found in sculpture, especially monuments in stone or yellow copper. The cleverness of technique and the realism of outline compel admiration. The artists copied with exactness what they noted in their surroundings. For the stiff meagerness of the Gothic style they substituted a more rounded form, and produced a truer art as a result. One of the most famous sculptors of this period was Claus Sluter, native of Zeeland, creator of the celebrated sculptures of Dijon. Those masterpieces, made when Ghiberti and Donatello flourished in Italy, enable the Netherlands to share with that country the first place in art of this period.

The painters forsook more slowly than did the sculptors the traditions of the preceding period, but during the period of the Burgundian dukes they made rapid strides. The painters are to be found among the Flemings and the Walloons; they were not influenced by the foreign schools, and they dwelt in the cities of Flanders and Brabant, where the presence of wealthy merchants and the residence of the court afforded them the opportunities for the exercise of their art. Hubert Van Eyck, of Limburg, came to Ghent about 1430; his brother Jan settled in Bruges in 1425; Roger Van der Weyden left Tournai and located in Brussels in 1435. Other famous names are those of Peter Christus, of Brabant; Simon Marmion, of Valenciennes; Juste Van Wassenhove, of Ghent; Hugo Van der Goes, of Ghent; Thierry Bouts, of Haerlem; and the anonymous “Master of Flémalle.” This is a period in which art and craftsmanship meant quite different things; the personality of the painter was now in free course of development.

Music also now began to be recognized as the expression of the genius of both Belgian races, although musicians were chiefly found among the Walloons, whereas the painters were mainly Flemings. The names of the musicians Jan Ockeghem (1494-96), a Fleming, and Josquin des Prés (1450), a Walloon, may be mentioned as having substituted the choir with many voices for the choir with one voice, and as having introduced counterpoint in musical composition. Architecture now came to be regarded as of less importance than sculpture. Its tendency was to a profusion of ornaments; the simplicity of lines and the severe majesty of the Gothic style of the thirteenth century disappeared. The prominence of sculptural decoration was especially noticeable in the city halls of Brussels and Louvain (1444-48), the latter the masterpiece of Mathieu de Layens and one of the richest examples of sculpture in the fifteenth century. Louvain was fortunate also in possessing its no less famous university (1425). That seat of learning was founded at the request of Duke John IV of Brabant by Pope Martin V. The faculty of theology was added to the three other faculties (arts, law, and medicine) by Pope Eugen IV in 1432. During the first quarter of the sixteenth century the University of Louvain played an unparalleled part in the intellectual life of Belgium.

Such was the splendid achievement of Belgian culture in the times of the Burgundian dukes. The untimely death of Charles the Bold on the battlefield of Nancy threatened ruin to the marvelous results of their policy. The news of his death was scarcely made public when the strong Burgundian state he dreamed of collapsed. Lorraine, Alsace, and the neighboring countries regained their independence, Liège threw off the yoke, and the shrewd Louis XI, notwithstanding the treaties, annexed the cities of the Somme and of Picardy to France, conquered Artois, and took possession of the duchy of Burgundy and of the Franche-Comté.

This was a disastrous beginning for the young daughter of Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgundy. It was necessary that she be married and so obtain a protector as promptly as possible. The States-General accepted the candidacy of Maximilian of Hapsburg, son of the Emperor Frederick III of Germany. That marriage laid the foundation for the European supremacy of the house of Hapsburg, and gave to Belgium a dynasty which remained in power until the French Revolution.

Prior to the marriage of Mary, the States-General had taken advantage of the disastrous situation in which the young princess found herself, and wrested from her the so-called “Grand Privilege” (February 11, 1477), whereby the Parliament of Malines was abolished and a “Grand Council” was established, with limited power and including representatives of all the Belgian provinces. At the same time, each principality succeeded in obtaining collective provincial privileges. Thus most of the new institutions and rules introduced by the Burgundian dukes were abolished, and the former privileges of the communes were again recognized. After the death of Princess Mary (1482), the reaction of the communes became even more violent. A son named Philip had been born to Mary and Maximilian; history knows him as Philip the Fair. The Belgians immediately recognized the infant archduke, but they continued the fight against his father Maximilian. After a bloody struggle in which both France (assisting Flanders) and Germany (assisting Maximilian) interfered, victory remained in the hands of the Hapsburgs (1492).