A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

Alexander Farnese was the son of Margareta of Parma, who had formerly governed the Netherlands. He was of a sympathetic nature, loyal, honest, but firm. He was one of the greatest warriors of his age, but at the same time, being an Italian prince, he distinguished himself as a very shrewd diplomat. At last Philip II had found the right man to govern the Netherlands. Alexander Farnese, highly approved by Cardinal de Granvelle—who at this time resided in Madrid—inaugurated a policy of mildness and conciliation that produced the happiest results. He induced the nobles of the southern provinces, and especially the Count of Lalaing, to abandon their scruples and to return to the service of the King. Both clever diplomacy and gifts and promises of large sums of money played a part in these achievements. From these negotiations resulted the Treaty of Arras (1579), concluded between the representatives of Artois, Hainaut, Luxemburg, Namur, and French Flanders and the new governor, as a consequence of which the southern provinces returned to the allegiance of Philip II. A concession made by Farnese was that the foreign troops, which had for so many years pillaged and ruined the country, should leave Belgium.

The Treaty of Arras resulted in the reconquest, without bloodshed, of the southern part of Belgium; it provoked a rupture between Catholics and Protestants, the separation of the Walloons and the Flemings, and crushed the plans of the Prince of Orange. Henceforth it would be no longer possible to unite the whole of Belgium against Spanish rule. William the Silent replied to the Treaty of Arras by the so-called Union of Utrecht (1579), whereby the northern provinces of the Netherlands united themselves in the common struggle and decided to carry on the revolt to ultimate victory. Slowly, but surely, the secession of Belgium from Holland was in progress.

The Prince of Orange, infuriated by the blow inflicted on his policy, now proclaimed the forfeiture by Philip II of the sovereignty of the Netherlands and offered the crown to the Duke of Anjou, brother of the French King Henry III (1584). He himself received the title of governor of Holland and Zeeland and remained the real leader of the union. Philip II replied by declaring the Prince an outlaw and putting a price on his head. Such an appeal to murder was common in the sixteenth century and was even supported by the teaching of many theorists; today it seems cruel and opposed to every principle of civilization. A man fanatical enough to fulfil the desire of the Spanish King was soon found. Balthazar Gérard treacherously assassinated the Prince of Orange at Delft, in 1584. So died the leader of the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. He did not succeed in uniting the whole of Belgium against Philip II, but he initiated the United Provinces of Holland. The Dutch are right, therefore, in calling him the “Father of the Fatherland.”

Meanwhile, supported by the Catholic provinces, Alexander Farnese had successively reconquered all the Belgian cities and won an imperishable fame by the siege and conquest of Antwerp. Only Ostend resisted and could not be taken. It seemed now to be the turn of the north, and already the United Provinces were threatened with invasion, when the unwise policy of Philip II suddenly stopped the advance. The lonely autocrat of the Escurial had planned the invasion of England and the conquest of the throne of France, where Henry IV, a Protestant but the legitimate heir, was at war with the Catholic League. To these plans he sacrificed all the resources of Spain from 1587 to 1592 and forced Farnese to suspend his campaign in Flanders, to assist in the transport of troops for the invasion of England, and to aid with his army the League in France. Both enterprises failed utterly, the invasion of England by the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the conquest of the French throne by the final rally of the country to the support of Henry IV.

The obstinacy of Philip II caused the loss of the northern part of the Netherlands, which Farnese would probably have conquered. Alexander Farnese died in 1592 and at his death the Spanish King lost the best governor he had ever had in Belgium. The last years of the sixteenth century were unhappy years for the country. The long and bloody struggle had utterly ruined the land. The population had been reduced by at least 50 per cent; churches and civic buildings had been burned or severely damaged; trade and industry were in large part gone; Antwerp had lost its commerce, and thousands of people engaged in trade had fled to England, Germany, or Holland. Artistic and literary activity had come to a complete standstill; and the scientific center of Belgium, the University of Louvain, barely escaped complete ruin.

But Belgium remained Catholic and subject to the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs, while the United Provinces (of Holland), overwhelmingly Protestant, had in fact become an independent country. Henceforth Belgium and Holland went each its own way, and their history no longer records common interests, at least until the period of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1814).

CHAPTER VIII

THE REIGN OF THE ARCHDUKE ALBERT AND ISABELLA (1598-1633)

Finally, convinced after a long and painful experience that peace was to be restored to Belgium only by new means and other methods than those heretofore employed, and that by waging war he would not be able to win back the northern provinces, Philip II tried another plan. He thought that by giving national sovereigns to the Catholic provinces he might induce the Protestants of Holland to return to their former allegiance and thus restore the lost unity of the Netherlands. In 1598 he decided, shortly before his death, that the Netherlands should be erected into an independent state, whose crown he gave to his daughter Isabella, after she had married Archduke Albert of Austria. If she and her consort should have no children, the Belgian provinces were to return to Spain. This was an important decision, although nobody in Europe believed in the real independence of Belgium. The country was practically under Spanish influence. But autonomy, at least, existed.

Strange to say, the satisfaction felt by the Belgians was at first mingled with some disappointment. As Albert and Isabella were obliged, as sovereigns of “the Netherlands,” to continue the war against the northern provinces in order to unite them with those in the south already under their power, the Belgians feared that they would be charged with the heavy burden of war, and this time without the aid of the Spanish finances and of the Spanish army. But Philip II had foreseen the difficulty. He sent the famous general Spinola to their assistance, with an army of excellent Spanish troops.