THE GREAT DUKES OF THE WEST
There are certain periods in the life of nations and individuals when,
owing to a combination of happy circumstances, all their best faculties
work in perfect harmony. They give us a complete and almost perfect
image of the man or the land. It is towards such periods of
efflorescence that we turn when we want to judge a great reformer, a
great writer or a great artist, and it is only fair that we should turn
to them also when we want to appreciate the part played in the history
of civilization by all nations who have left their mark in the world.
Illustration: THE NETHERLANDS UNDER THE RULE OF THE DUKES OF
BURGUNDY.
Such a period of economic, political and artistic splendour may be
found in Belgium when the whole country became united under the dukes
of Burgundy. The fifteenth century is for Belgium what the Elizabethan
period is for England and the seventeenth century for France. Not only
did the territorial importance of the unified provinces reach its
culminating point and the national princes play a prominent part in
European politics, but, from the point of view of economic prosperity
and intellectual efflorescence, Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp rivalled,
at the time, the great Italian Republics of the Renaissance.
[_DECLINE OF THE COMMUNES_]
Considering the common interests linking the various States, and their
remoteness from the political centres of France and Germany, the
unification of the country under one crown seemed a foregone
conclusion. In fact, we have seen that, already at the beginning of the
twelfth century, the division of the country between the two great
Powers had become purely nominal. Lotharingia ceased to exist owing to
the decreasing influence of the Empire following the struggle of the
Investitures, and the counts of Flanders were so powerful that they
were practically independent of their French suzerains. They began to
take an important share in political life east of the Scheldt, and
would no doubt have succeeded in uniting the whole country under their
sway but for the rising power of the Communes and for the political
recovery of France. The Communes substituted economic divisions for the
political divisions created by Feudalism. The efforts of the French
kings, while unable to crush Flemish independence, succeeded,
nevertheless, in checking the power of the counts, while other States,
such as Brabant, were allowed to develop more freely beyond the
Scheldt.
At the close of the fourteenth century, the Communes, which had proved
such a powerful means of liberating trade and industry from feudal
restrictions, had, to a great extent, ceased to fulfil their part in
the development of the nation. Instead of using their privileges to
further economic relations, the large towns oppressed the smaller ones
and the country-side was entirely sacrificed. Internal strife, war with
France and the decadence of the cloth industry had brought about a
state of economic depression and social unrest out of which the country
could only emerge through the support of a strong and centralized
administration. On the other hand, the French kings were, for the
time, reconciled to the idea of an independent Flanders and too
exhausted by their struggle against England to make further warlike
attempts in this direction. So that when Philip the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, became Count of Flanders, in 1384, the country, exhausted by
civil war and independent of foreign hegemony, was at last prepared to
submit to parting with some of its local privileges in order to obtain
peace and prosperity under a wise central administration.
Philip was the brother of Charles V, King of France, and succeeded
Louis de Male after marrying the count's daughter. He was supposed to
bring back Flanders under French influence, but, as a matter of fact,
pursued a policy distinct from that of the French. Once more, as in the
case of Guy de Dampierre and of Ferrand, the French king was deceived
in his plans, and the interests of the country proved stronger than the
personal relations of its ruler. One of the first acts of the new count
was to secure Artois, thus reconstituting the bilingual Flanders of the
previous century. He then proceeded to extend the power of his house by
obtaining, for his second son Antoine, the succession of Brabant in
exchange for military help given to the Duchess Jeanne. Such a scheme
was opposed to the emperor's projects, but his influence could not
outweigh the advantages which the Brabancons expected from the House of
Burgundy. It thus happened that, when Philip the Bold died, in 1404,
his eldest son John inherited Flanders and Artois, and Antoine acquired
Brabant and Limburg. The latter's possessions were further increased by
his marriage with Elisabeth Gorlitz, heiress of Luxemburg.
The two brothers supported each other, and when Antoine died at
Agincourt (1415), John the Fearless obtained the lease of Luxemburg. He
had previously intervened in the affairs of Liege and received the
title of protector of the bishopric. Only Hainault, Holland, Zeeland
and Namur remained independent of the Burgundian House when John died,
in 1419, assassinated on the bridge of Montereau. Like his father, his
policy had been inspired far more by the interests of the Low Countries
than by those of France. He resided in Ghent during the greater part of
his reign.
Illustration: PHILIP THE GOOD.
From a portrait by Roger Van der Weyden (Madrid).
[_PHILIP THE GOOD_]
Philip the Good, his son, reaped all the benefits of his father's
efforts. He completed the work of unification by extending his
protectorate over Tournai, Cambrai and Utrecht and buying Namur. John
IV of Brabant, son of Antoine and Elisabeth, had married Jacqueline of
Bavaria, Countess of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland. When he and his
brother had died without heir, Brabant and Limburg reverted to the
elder branch of the House of Burgundy. So that, after having
dispossessed his cousin Jacqueline of her inheritance, Philip became
practically the sole master of all the principalities founded on
Belgian soil since the Middle Ages.
No doubt the dukes of Burgundy were helped in their work of unification
by a series of most favourable circumstances. Within a remarkably short
time, many marriages and deaths occurred which favoured their plans to
a very considerable extent. But it would be a great mistake to
attribute their success to fate alone. Their power was so great that,
through political pressure and offers of money, they might, in any
case, have induced the less favoured princes of the country to part
with their domains. And, what is far more important, economic and
political circumstances were such as to render the old system of local
divisions obsolete and to necessitate the formation of a central
administration pooling the resources and directing the common policy of
all parts of the country. It was not through the process of Burgundian
unification that Belgium became a nation. It was because Belgium had
already practically become a nation, through the gradual intercourse of
the various principalities, that one prince, more favoured than his
neighbours at the time, was able to concentrate in his hands the power
of all the Belgian princes.
It is not without reason, nevertheless, that Justus Lipsius, the
Belgian humanist of the seventeenth century, calls Philip the Good
"conditor Belgii," the founder of Belgium. If this prince benefited
from the efforts of his predecessors, if he enjoyed tremendous
opportunities, he was wise enough to make full use of them. While
enlarging his possessions and even contemplating, no doubt, the
foundation of a great European Empire, he proceeded step by step and
did not launch into any wild enterprise which might have jeopardized
the future. While building up a centralized State such as the legists
of the Renaissance conceived it, a State independent of local
institutions and possessing a distinct life apart from the people and
above them, he endeavoured, as much as possible, to respect local
privileges, superimposing modern institutions on mediaeval ones and
preserving, if not wholly, at least formally, the rights of each
province and town.
[_THE GREAT DUKE OF THE WEST_]
The "great duke of the West," as he was called, "could," according to
his own words, "have been king if he had only willed it"--that is to
say, if he had been prepared to pay homage to the Emperor. After some
protracted negotiations, he preferred to remain a duke and to preserve
his complete independence. He was Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders,
Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainault, "Mambourg" of Liege, etc.; he was,
in short, the head of a monarchic confederation in which he succeeded
in establishing a few central institutions common to all the
principalities, a private Council, the "Council of the Duke," a
government Council, "the Grand Council," and the "States General," on
which sat delegates of the various provincial States and which the duke
called together when he deemed it opportune. The States General's
approval was necessary whenever fresh taxes were to be levied or when
the sovereign intended to declare war. Following the example of the
French kings, the duke was nearly always able to conciliate the States
General by giving the majority of the seats to members of the clergy or
to the nobility. The latter he succeeded in converting into a body of
courtiers by grants of money, land or well-paid offices, also by
founding, in 1480, the privileged order of the Golden Fleece.
Philip's external policy was judged severely by his English
contemporaries, whose views are no doubt reflected in the First Part of
Shakespeare's _Henry VI_, where we see Burgundy abandoning his allies
at the instigation of the Maid of Orleans. His "betrayal" was followed
by riots in London, during which some Flemish and Walloon merchants
lost their lives. Considered, however, from the point of view of the
period, when diplomacy and politics were not inspired by a particularly
keen sense of justice and morality, the duke's decision is easy to
explain. Drawn into the English alliance by the traditional policy of
Flanders, which always sought support in this country against France,
and by the murder of his father, for which he sought revenge, he never
lost sight of the possible threat to his power and independence which
an overwhelming English victory might constitute some day. English
ambitions in the Low Countries had been made evident by the expedition
of the Duke of Gloucester, Henry V's brother, who had championed
Jacqueline of Bavaria's cause against the duke. A permanent union of
Hainault, Brabant and Holland, under English protection, had even been
contemplated. It would, therefore, have been contrary to Burgundian and
to Belgian interests, if the power of France had been absolutely and
irremediably crushed, since such a victory would have upset the balance
of Western power, on which the very existence of the new confederation
depended.
Philip's quarrel with Henry VI was, however, short-lived, and, during
the last part of his reign, he succeeded in re-establishing the
Anglo-Burgundian alliance on a sounder basis. His wife, Isabella of
Portugal, a granddaughter of John of Gaunt, used her influence to bring
about a reconciliation and the resumption of trade relations. The
marriage of Charles, son of Philip, with Margaret of York, sister of
Edward IV, which was celebrated in Bruges in 1463 amidst an amazing
display of luxury, definitely sealed the bond of union.
Illustration: CHARLES THE BOLD.
From a portrait by Roger Van der Weyden (Berlin Museum).
[_CHARLES THE BOLD_]
For France had recovered from her trials; and when he succeeded his
father, Charles, surnamed the Bold, was confronted by an adversary all
the more formidable that, through his impulsive temperament, he
literally played into the hands of the cunning French king. Faced, as
Philip had been, by the opposition of the Communes and by the
separatist tendencies of certain towns, the new duke, scorning
diplomacy, tried to impose his will through sheer force and terrorism.
The sack of Dinant in 1466 was destined to serve as an example to
Liege, where the agents of King Louis maintained a constant agitation.
Two years later, the duke obliged his rival to witness the burning and
pillage of the latter city, which had revolted for a second time,
following the instigations of the French.
Charles might have resisted his enemy's intrigues, if he had limited
his ambitions to the Low Countries. Like his father, he entered into
negotiations with the Emperor with the hope of acquiring the title of
king. His Burgundian domains were separated from the Low Countries by
Alsace and Lorraine. Had he been able to join Low and High Burgundy
through these lands, he would have very nearly reconstituted the old
kingdom of Lotharingia, by unifying all the borderlands lying between
France and Germany, from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. The
success of such an enterprise might have had incalculable consequences.
But Charles was the last man to succeed in an endeavour requiring at
least as much skill and diplomacy as material resources. He obtained
rights upon Alsace and conquered Lorraine, but fell an easy prey to
Louis XI's artifices by launching an expedition against the Swiss.
Defeated at Granson and Morat, he was killed before Nancy, leaving the
whole responsibility of his heavy succession to his young daughter
Mary.
According to Philip de Commines: "He tried so many things that he could
not live long enough to carry them through, and they were indeed almost
impossible enterprises." But his external policy remained all through
perfectly consistent. He was a faithful friend to the House of York and
gave his support to Edward IV, with whom he intended to divide France,
had he succeeded in conquering Louis.
[_POSITION OF BELGIUM_]
Philip the Good, by his work of territorial consolidation, had
succeeded in obliterating from the map of Europe the frontier of the
Scheldt, which, since the Treaty of Verdun, had divided the country
between France and Germany. Charles the Bold failed in reconstituting
the short-lived kingdom of Lotharius, which had stood, for a few years,
as a barrier between the two rival Powers. Such a dream was indeed
outside the scope of practical politics, though, considered from the
point of view of language and race, it was not entirely unjustifiable,
the population of the Rhine sharing with that of the Low Countries both
their Romanic and Germanic characteristics, and asserting from time to
time their desire to lead a free and independent life. This desire was
never fulfilled, owing partly to the main direction of the line of
race-demarcation running from north to south, parallel to the political
frontier, and partly to the narrowness of the strip of territory
involved. Had such a boundary extended through Belgium along the
Scheldt, for instance, instead of being deflected from Cologne to
Boulogne, the same result would have occurred. Belgium owes her
independent state to the presence of the Coal Wood which, in the fourth
century, broke the invaders' efforts along a line running from east to
west across political frontiers, not parallel to them. Thanks to the
exceptional richness of her widespread plain, easily accessible from
the sea, she remains, in modern times, as the last fragment of the
great Empire of Lotharius, which, for a few years, gathered under one
rule all the borderlands of Western Europe.