The history of Flanders concerns not only the modern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, which is now called "Flanders" (), but also several neighbouring territories and populations. Its historical core territory was in western Belgium between the coast and the Scheldt river.
The original medieval county of Flanders spread from the area of Bruges, and later had its capital in nearby Ghent. Its core territories came to include French Flanders, now in France, the Belgian provinces of West and East Flanders, and part of the modern province of Hainaut. During several periods during the middle ages it was a powerful semi-independent state based within the Kingdom of France, but stretching into the neighbouring Holy Roman Empire. It was influential in all neighbouring regions including England, and at its greatest extent its political hegemony stretched north into Zeelandic Flanders in what is now the Netherlands, and deep into French-speaking northern France.
Today, "Flanders" is a term referring to the Flemish Region, which is defined as the Dutch-speaking part of the Kingdom of Belgium. It contains within it the original core of the old county, West Flanders and East Flanders, plus three more culturally-related provinces to the east which were not part of medieval Flanders. These are the provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant which were historically part of the Duchy of Brabant, and the province of Belgian Limburg, which was part of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. The city of Brussels, historically part of Brabant, is now politically part of the Flemish Community, but not of the Flemish Region.
Early history
Written records of the Flemish region begin in Roman times. Julius Caesar left his Commentaries of the Gaulish War about his time in the region. Caesar described "Belgium" or "Gallia Belgica" as the northernmost of the three distinct parts of Gaul, and all definitions of Flanders are within this large Belgic area. The inhabitants were collectively called Belgae. The boundaries were the North Sea, the Marne and Seine rivers in the southwest, the Ardennes in the southeast, and the Rhine in the north and east.
Within the Belgic region, the old County of Flanders was inhabited by the Menapii (and possibly also some of the Marsacii and Morini) whose territory stretched from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta to the modern Flemish coast. More inland, across the Scheldt, stretching from Brabant into modern France, lived the Nervii. The most eastern part of modern Flanders was inhabited by the Eburones, whose territory encompassed all or most of modern Belgian Limburg, and also stretched into neighbouring areas of Germany. The exact borders of these tribal groups are not known, but they were all part of a Belgian alliance which fought against Caesar. Later, under Roman rule, each of these tribal groups had its own "civitas" or state, each with a Roman administrative capital. For the Menapii, this was Cassel, and for the Nervii it was Bavay. Both of these are now in northern France and were within the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. The only civitas capital now in Flanders was Tongeren, the capital of the Tungri, who replaced the Eburones (or were the Eburones under a new name).
To what extent these tribes were Celtic, or Germanic, or something else is still subject to historical debate. But as a whole, the Belgic area was certainly influenced by both Celtic and Germanic languages and culture. Caesar describes tribes and individuals who had Celtic names, but also recalls a story that the majority of the Belgae had ancestors who had come from east of the Rhine, some time before the migrations of the Cimbri and Teutones in the second century BCE. Caesar describes northern Belgic tribes such as the Menapii and Nervii as being particularly far removed from Celtic Gaulish norms found in what is today central France, and he specifically refers to their eastern Belgic neighbours, such as the Eburones, as "Cisrhenane Germani". He reported German ancestry amongst these tribes and by the first century BC Germanic languages may have already become prevalent amongst the northern Belgae.
In late classical times, as the Roman empire came under increasing pressure from outside tribal groups, the coast of Flanders itself became a part of the "Saxon Shore", which was a militarized area under attack from seaborne "Saxon" raiders and invaders, coming from the direction of northern Germany. Inland parts of modern Flanders, Brabant and especially Limburg, came under pressure from the Frankish group of Germanic tribes, from across the Rhine. It is at this time that the fortifications underlying Oudenburg were built up. Eventually the inland Salian Franks converted to Christianity and came to rule what is now northern France, and the entire Belgian area. They were treated as successors of Rome, spreading their rule into Germany and even as far as parts of Italy and Spain. But problems continued with invasions and raids from more northerly Germanic Vikings until well into the Middle Ages.
Historical Flanders: County of Flanders
The County of Flanders was created in the year 862 as a feudal fief in West Francia, the predecessor of the Kingdom of France. After a period of growing power within France, it was divided when its western districts fell under French rule in the late 12th century, with the remaining parts of Flanders came under the rule of the counts of neighbouring Hainaut in 1191.
Increasingly powerful from the 12th century, the territory's autonomous urban communes were instrumental in defeating a French attempt at annexation (1300–1302), finally defeating the French in the Battle of the Golden Spurs (11 July 1302), near Kortrijk. Two years later, the uprising was defeated and Flanders indirectly remained part of the French Crown. Flemish prosperity waned in the following century, however, owing to widespread European population decline following the Black Death of 1348, the disruption of trade during the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (1338–1453), and increased English cloth production. Flemish weavers had gone over to Worstead and North Walsham in Norfolk in the 12th century and established the woollen industry.
The entire area passed in 1384 to the dukes of Burgundy, who eventually united it politically with their Duchy of Brabant within the Holy Roman Empire. By 1556 the Burgundian Netherlands were being ruled by their successors, the Habsburg kings of Spain. By this time Flanders had been removed from the territory of the Kingdom of France, except that some western districts of Flanders came under French rule under successive treaties of 1659 (Artois), 1668, and 1678.
During the late Middle Ages Flanders' trading towns (notably Ghent, Bruges and Ypres) once again made it one of the richest and most urbanized parts of Europe, weaving the wool of neighbouring lands into cloth for both domestic use and export. As a consequence, a very sophisticated culture developed, with impressive achievements in the arts and architecture, rivaling those of Northern Italy. Ghent, Bruges, Ypres and the Franc of Bruges formed the Four Members, a form of parliament which exercised considerable power in Flanders.Philip the Good: the apogee of Burgundy by Richard Vaughan, p.201
Flanders in the Low Countries
Beeldenstorm
In 1500, Charles V was born in Ghent. He inherited the Seventeen Provinces (1506), Spain (1516) with its colonies and in 1519 was elected Holy Roman Emperor.William Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V (NY, 1874), p 116 The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, issued by Charles V, established the Low Countries as the Seventeen Provinces (or Spanish Netherlands in its broad sense) as an entity separate from the Holy Roman Empire and from France. In 1556 Charles V abdicated due to ill health (he suffered from crippling gout).William Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V (NY, 1874), p 456 Spain and the Seventeen Provinces went to his son, king Philip II of Spain.
Meanwhile, Protestantism had reached the Low Countries. Among the wealthy traders of Antwerp, the Lutheran beliefs of the German Hanseatic traders found appeal, perhaps partly for economic reasons. The spread of Protestantism in this city was aided by the presence of an Augustinian cloister (founded 1514) in the St. Andries quarter. Luther, an Augustinian himself, had taught some of the monks, and his works were in print by 1518. The first Lutheran martyrs came from Antwerp. The Reformation resulted in consecutive but overlapping waves of reform: a Lutheran, followed by a militant Anabaptist, then a Mennonite, and finally a Calvinistic movement. These movements existed independently of each other.
Philip II, a devout Catholic and self-proclaimed protector of the Counter-Reformation, suppressed Calvinism in Flanders, Brabant and Holland (what is now approximately Belgian Limburg was part of the Bishopric of Liège and was Catholic de facto). In 1566, the iconoclasm (Beeldenstorm) began as protest against Philip II and promoted the disfigurement of statues and paintings depicting saints. This was associated with the ensuing religious war between Catholics and Protestants, especially the Anabaptists. The Beeldenstorm started in what is now the arrondissement of Dunkirk in French Flanders, with open-air sermons (). The first took place on the Cloostervelt near Hondschoote and the largest sermon was held near Boeschepe on 12 July 1562. These open-air sermons, mostly of Anabaptist or Mennonite signature, spread through the country. On 10 August 1566, at the end of the pilgrimage from Hondschoote to Steenvoorde, the chapel of the Sint-Laurensklooster (Monastery of Saint Lawrence) was defaced by Protestants. The iconoclasm resulted not only in the destruction of Catholic art, but also cost the lives of many priests. It next spread to Antwerp, and on 22 August, to Ghent. One cathedral, eight churches, twenty-five cloisters, ten hospitals and seven chapels were attacked. From there, it further spread east and north, but in total lasted not even a month.
The Eighty Years' War and its consequences Subsequently, Philip II sent the Duke of Alba to the Provinces to repress the revolt. Alba recaptured the southern part of the Provinces, who signed the Union of Arras, which meant that they would accept the Spanish government on condition of more freedom. But the northern part of the provinces signed the Union of Utrecht and settled in 1581 the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. Spanish troops quickly started fighting the rebels, but before the revolt could be completely defeated, a war between England and Spain had broken out, forcing Philip's Spanish troops to halt their advance. Meanwhile, the Spanish armies had already conquered the important trading cities of Bruges and Ghent. Antwerp, which was then arguably the most important port in the world, also had to be conquered. On 17 August 1585 Antwerp fell. This ended the Dutch Revolt for the (from now on) Southern Netherlands. The United Provinces (the Netherlands proper) fought on in what came to be known as the "Eighty Years' War", until 1648 – the Peace of Westphalia.
While Spain was at war with England, the rebels from the north, strengthened by refugees from the south, started a campaign to reclaim areas lost to Philips II's Spanish troops. They managed to conquer a considerable part of Brabant (the later North Brabant of the Netherlands), and the south bank of the Scheldt estuary (Zeelandic Flanders), before being stopped by Spanish troops. The front line at the end of this war stabilized and became the current border between present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. The Dutch (as they later became known) had managed to reclaim enough of Spanish-controlled Flanders to close off the river Scheldt, effectively cutting Antwerp off from its trade routes.