A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

The resistance of the Flemish communes to autocracy and centralization was henceforth shattered. Broken and impoverished, they no longer questioned the authority of the prince. Philip the Fair and Charles V continued at peace and achieved the work of monarchic centralization initiated by the Burgundian dukes.

CHAPTER VI

BELGIUM UNDER CHARLES V (1506-55) AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG

Philip the Fair was made duke and count of the different Belgian principalities in 1494. Meanwhile the international situation in Europe had become dangerous for Spain and the Empire. Charles VIII of France had conquered the countries of Milan and Naples. The Hapsburgs and the King of Spain, threatened by the common danger, united against the policy of France and strengthened the coalition by the marriage of Don Juan, heir to the Spanish throne, to the daughter of Maximilian of Hapsburg, and the union of the latter’s son, Philip the Fair, with the Spanish infanta, Jeanne. As all the heirs to the Spanish throne died in a short space of time, Jeanne inherited all the rights, and Philip the Fair, sovereign of the Netherlands, became King of Spain.

This event proved of the utmost importance in the history of Belgium. Although regarded as a separate territory, the Netherlands—both Belgium and Holland—became a mere annex of the Spanish branch of the Hapsburg monarchy. For more than two centuries Belgium was ruled from Madrid by sovereigns who were first of all kings of Spain.

This was not yet, however, the case in the time of Charles V, the great emperor of the sixteenth century. Archduke Charles, son of Philip the Fair, known as Charles V at the time of his accession as Emperor in 1519, assumed control of the Netherlands in 1515. The latter included Belgium and Holland, in addition to the county of Artois, and was commonly spoken of as the Seventeen Provinces. The following year (1516) Charles also became King of Spain. His reign was occupied by protracted wars with France, constituting a continuous strife with the powerful sovereign for the hegemony of Europe. In the course of this struggle the Netherlands were continually attacked by Francis I, the French King, and his allies, the Duke of Gueldre, and the La Marcks, Lords of Sedan and Bouillon. The advantage was always with Charles, however, and he was thus enabled to continue the territorial concentration of all the provinces of the Netherlands which was begun by the dukes of Burgundy.

Peacefully or by force, Charles successively annexed East Friesland, Tournai and Tournaisis, the Overyssel, Groninge and Ommelanden, Gueldre and Zutphen to his domains. In the ecclesiastical principalities, which the Burgundian dukes had never been able to annex but only to control, Charles succeeded in winning the temporal power in the bishopric of Utrecht; destroyed Térouanne, the seat of the bishopric of the same name; erected Cambrai and Cambrésis into a duchy in favor of the bishop; and purchased part of the principality of Liège, where he built strong fortresses.

After these achievements, Charles V could call himself the mightiest sovereign in Europe. But a very intricate question yet remained to be settled, namely, what the political relation of the Netherlands should be toward the Empire. The feudal tie between the Empire and the provinces, called into existence while Lotharingia was yet a fief, had never, theoretically at least, been broken; and at the beginning of the sixteenth century Germany still affected to recognize the union (the feudal vassalage) of the provinces with the Empire, in order that they might be the more easily compelled to share in the heavy financial burdens of the latter. The Netherlands, on the other hand, maintained that the union no longer existed. The question was a difficult one for Charles, he being at the same time German Emperor and sovereign of the Netherlands. It took him twenty-five years of negotiations. In 1548, after his victory over the princes of the Protestant League at Schmalkalden, he settled the question by the celebrated Augsburg transaction.

By this provisional arrangement the Empire was divided into “circles.” The episcopal duchy of Cambrai, Liège, and the small principality of Stavelot-Malmedy became a part of the so-called circle of Westphalia; the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands and the Franche-Comté constituted a new circle, called the “circle of Bourgogne.” These states were placed under the armed protection of the Empire, which undertook to defend them as members of the whole. They were recognized, however, as independent and free states, not subject to the laws of the Empire. At the same time, fearing that, through the application of the varying rules of succession existing in each Belgian principality, the union might some day become imperiled, Charles V, by a special act, ordained that the Netherlands or Seventeen Provinces should forever be considered an indivisible whole, in which the first-born son should be regarded as the heir to the throne. In case of deficiency of a male heir, however, the female heir was to be recognized in the succession. This was really a constitutional law sanctioned by the States-General, officially gathered in solemn meeting in Brussels in 1549. The early work of the dukes of Burgundy was now completed and firmly established.

Another task of tremendous importance now engaged the attention of Charles. This was the fight against heresy. The new difficulty presented an entirely novel problem.