THE TOWN HALLS
The most characteristic monument of the fifteenth century in Belgium is
the Town Hall, just as the most characteristic monument of the two
preceding centuries is the belfry, with, or without, its Cloth Hall.
Illustration: THE TOWN HALL, BRUGES (FOURTEENTH-FIFTEENTH CENTURY).
_Ph. B._
[_GOTHIC TOWN HALLS_]
It may seem strange that it should be left to great municipal palaces
to express the spirit of a period of centralization, when local
privileges were progressively sacrificed to the general interest of the
State, and when the prince gathered under one sway the various States
among which the Netherlands had been divided. When looking at the
Gothic Town Halls of Brussels, Louvain and Bruges, with their flowered
traceries and luxury of ornament, one might be misled into taking them
for the palaces of the prince rather than for the expression of
municipal freedom. There is nothing about them of the strength and
defiance expressed in the great "halles" and belfries of Ypres, Bruges
and Ghent. The latter were, as we have seen, erected for two purposes.
They were, so to speak, a central citadel raised in the middle of the
town, from the towers of which the sentinel sounded the alarm and
called the citizens to arms to defend their privileges and protect
their homes against the attacks of any enemy from outside, not
excluding the prince himself. Behind their thick walls and
battlements, the archives and charters of the towns were jealously
preserved. On the other hand, the "halles" afforded a meeting-place for
foreign and local merchants and a warehouse where their goods were
stored. They constituted fortified covered markets, and the combination
of these military and economic characteristics is visible in every
outline of the building and reveals the dominant aspirations of an age
which succeeded in emancipating the city from the autocratic rule of
the suzerain and in safeguarding the trade and industry of its
inhabitants.
None of these features is apparent in the "hotels de ville" of the
Burgundian period. Their slender outline and small proportions exclude
any idea of defence. Compare, for instance, the graceful spire of
Brussels with the proud and massive belfry of Bruges, and the almost
feminine aspect of the Louvain Town Hall with the forbidding
masculinity of the destroyed Ypres Cloth Hall. Again, the profusion of
ornament and statuettes, the delicate flanking towers, especially in
Bruges and Louvain, contrast with the austerity of the old "halles."
These luxurious mansions were built neither for military nor for
economic purposes. They are far too small to be of any use as covered
markets. In fact, the new municipal buildings of the fifteenth century
only preserved one characteristic of their predecessors. They were
still the seat of the "echevinage," and it was within their walls that
the magistrates of the town met the duke's representative, the
"bailli."
Economic activity had left the central hall and migrated to the
Exchange. The achievement of the Hotels de Ville of Brussels (1454)
and Louvain (1463) coincides with the foundation of the first European
Exchange in Antwerp (1460). In this transformation of the municipal
buildings from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance, we may read a
parallel transformation in political and social institutions. The
municipal spirit was still predominant, and the resistance made by
Bruges in 1436, and still more energetically by Ghent from 1450 to
1453, to the increasing influence of Philip the Good, shows clearly
that the communal spirit was still prevalent, especially in the old
towns. But the relatively more modern towns, such as Brussels and
Antwerp, were ready to accept the beneficial protection of the princes.
The villages and the country, which had suffered for a long time from
the tyranny of the large towns, were all on his side. The
transformation of industry and trade contributed to break down local
mediaeval customs and privileges, to the greater benefit of the State.
The result was a compromise, and it is that compromise which is
revealed by Burgundian municipal architecture. The town was still
exalted, but it was no longer the free defiant town which wrested its
charters from a reluctant suzerain; it was, if one may so express it, a
tamed town, developing its resources under the protection and the
control of its master, while still keeping alive its pride by a great
display of luxury. The failure of the Ghent revolt marked the decline
of the communal militias, which were no longer able to resist the well
disciplined ducal mercenary army. The defeat of Gavere (1453) sealed
the fate of citizen armies, just as the Battle of the Golden Spurs
(1302) had revealed their strength.
[_POLICY OF THE DUKES_]
It must, however, be remarked that this success was only obtained by a
complete change of policy on the part of the dukes. They no longer,
like their mediaeval predecessors, opposed the development of the towns
by oppressive measures. On the contrary, they did all in their power to
protect and expand this prosperity, not only by securing peace and
commercial liberty, but also by taking special measures in case of
emergency. Philip the Good, on several occasions, attempted to arrest
the decadence of Ypres caused by the development of the English cloth
industry. In spite of the opposition of Ghent and Ypres, Charles the
Bold undertook important works in order to dredge the estuary of the
Zwyn, which was rapidly silting up, and thus to keep open, if possible,
the port of Bruges. At the same time, the dukes encouraged the trade of
Antwerp and gave the first impulse to the maritime activity of the
ports of Holland. The Burgundian princes did not live isolated in their
feudal castles; they made it a rule to reside in their large towns,
either Ghent, Bruges or Brussels, where they held their courts and
where they contributed, by their display of luxury, to the general
prosperity. This solicitude for the welfare of the large towns was not
altogether disinterested. The dukes realized that their power rested
not so much on their military forces as on their wealth, and that their
wealth depended on the riches of their towns. They understood,
according to a contemporary historian (Chastellain), that "in the
fullness of substance and money, not in dignities and highness of their
rank, lay the glory and the power of princes."
The substitution of the Renaissance Hotel de Ville for the old Cloth
Hall is also the symbol of the decline of the cloth industry. The wool
industry in Flanders had passed through three consecutive stages which
directly affected the relationships between Belgium and England. We
have seen how, during the early Middle Ages, Flemish wool being
sufficient for Flemish looms, the cloth industry was almost entirely
independent, and how, as the industry increased, Flemish weavers
depended more and more on the imports of English wool during the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. During the fourteenth century,
however, owing partly to the immigration of Flemish weavers encouraged
by Edward III and partly to the natural course of events, which must
induce a country to work up its own raw material, the English cloth
industry had become very active, and the quantity of wool available for
Flanders consequently decreased, while its price increased, and the
Flemish industry was faced by the double difficulty of preserving its
market from the import of English cloth, through Hanseatic ships, and
of obtaining the necessary raw material. The restrictive measures taken
against the import of English cloth proved ineffectual, and Spanish
wool, which was tried as a substitute for English, was of inferior
quality. Ypres was the first to suffer, in spite of the solicitude of
the dukes, who reduced commercial taxes in its favour. Its population
fell from 12,000 in 1412 to 10,000 in 1470, and in 1486 one-third of
its inhabitants were reduced to begging. Bruges succeeded in
maintaining herself for a time through her banking establishments,
while Ghent benefited from the staple of grain, Brussels from the
presence of the dukes, Malines from its parliament, Louvain from its
newly created university and Antwerp from its rising trade.
[_LINEN AND TAPESTRY_]
Besides, when the resistance to English rivalry proved fruitless, in
spite of the repeated prohibitions decreed by Philip the Good, the
country turned, with extraordinary adaptability, to the linen industry
as a substitute for the woollen. Linen replaced cloth, and the same
processes and looms which had been applied to the old industry were
successfully applied to the new. Clothmaking took refuge either in the
Flemish country districts, where the wages were lower, or in some
remote parts of the Walloon country. The existence of Verviers as a
clothmaking town dates from 1480. The decline of the cloth industry was
also to a certain extent compensated for by the introduction in
Northern Flanders and in Brabant of tapestry, whose centres, until
then, had been in Arras and Tournai.
* * * * *
I have already alluded to the ornamental character of Burgundian Gothic
contrasting with the severity of the communal period. Luxury rather
than strength is aimed at by the architects of the hotels de ville and
other well-known monuments of the period, such as the Hotel Gruuthuse
and the Chapelle du Saint Sang in Bruges. This richness is real, and
not artificially confined to the prince and the upper classes of
society.
At the beginning of the Burgundian regime, under Philip the Bold,
Flanders was partially ruined by internal and external wars. Its towns
were depleted of their craftsmen, its polders converted into marshes by
the incursions of the sea, and wolves and wild boars again wandered
through the country as in the early Middle Ages. Brabant, Holland,
Zeeland and Liege, though less severely affected, passed through a time
of strife and civil war. Fifty years later (about 1430), the Low
Countries were again the most prosperous States of Europe, and the
historian Philip de Commines was able to call them "a land of promise,"
while Gachard contrasts them with the southern domains of the duke,
"Burgundy, which lacks money and smells of France." Chastellain
eloquently vaunts their banquets and gorgeous festivities. The dukes
themselves took every opportunity to display their wealth, especially
in the presence of foreign princes. It seems as if they wanted to make
up for the title of king which they vainly coveted by an ostentatious
luxury which no king of the time could have afforded. When, in 1456,
the Dauphin Louis visited Bruges with the duke, the decoration of the
town amazed the French, "who had never witnessed such riches"
(Chastellain), and when Margaret of York entered the town, on the
occasion of her marriage with Charles the Bold, in 1469, the streets
were covered with cloth of gold, silks and tapestries, and the
procession had to stop ten times before reaching the market-place to
admire tableaux vivants illustrating the periods of sacred and profane
history: "By my troth," wrote John Paston, one of the English gentlemen
who attended Margaret's wedding, "I heard never of so great plenty as
there is, and, as for the duke's court, as for lords, ladies and
gentlewomen, knights, squires and gentlemen, I heard never of none like
to it save King Arthur's court."
[_MANNERS OF THE TIMES_]
This astounding economic recovery must not, it is true, be attributed
only to the beneficial action of the dukes' administration, but it
seems evident that a long period of peace, guaranteeing order, security
and free communication with other countries, combined with wise
administrative and financial measures, contributed greatly to hasten
it. Measures were taken to lighten the restrictions and monopolies of
towns and corporations and to regulate and control the minting of
money. As early as 1483, Philip the Good was able to boast that his
money was better than that of any of his neighbours. The right of
coining money was no longer farmed out, but entrusted "to notables well
known for their wealth, who could provide the country with gold and
silver money and exchange any money which might be brought to them by
the merchants." In 1469 Edward IV of England and Charles the Bold
agreed to call a conference in Bruges to determine a common currency
for both countries and to suppress the exchange.
[_ANTWERP AND BRUGES_]
These financial regulations are intimately connected with the
transformation which trade underwent at the time, and which was one of
the main causes of the transfer of the economic centre of the country
from Bruges to Antwerp. The reason generally given for this change is a
geographical one. It is pointed out that while, at the beginning of the
fifteenth century, the widening of the western branch of the Scheldt
through inundations in Zeeland afforded a direct road from Antwerp to
the high-seas (formerly ships had to go round the island of Walcheren),
all the efforts made to prevent the silting up of the Zwyn from 1470 to
1490 were fruitless. In 1506, it was possible for carts to drive safely
at low tide across the end of the harbour. The progress of navigation,
increasing the tonnage of ships, and the Spanish and Portuguese
discoveries acted also in favour of the deeper and safer harbour, but
there are other reasons which might have ruined Bruges in favour of
Antwerp, even if the geographical advantages of both ports had remained
equal.
From the beginning of the fifteenth century the conditions of trade
underwent complete transformation. Powerful companies, disposing of
large capital and wide credit, took the place of the old local merchant
companies. Transactions became so considerable and involved that
mediaeval regulations, instead of controlling commerce, only hampered
it. Any protective measure detrimental to foreigners became fatal to
home trade. Antwerp, which then appeared as a new metropolis, had no
difficulty in adapting itself to modern capitalist conditions. At the
end of the fourteenth century the town had already lost its Brabancon
character and had become almost cosmopolitan. It had adopted economic
liberty. Foreign merchants meeting at its fairs were protected by safe
conducts. The positions of brokers and money-changers were open to all,
and citizenship easily accessible. Bruges, on the other hand, hampered
by old regulations and closely attached to its privileges, was not able
to adapt itself to the new situation. As late as 1477 measures were
taken to prevent foreigners from introducing on the market wares
purchased elsewhere, and their position was no longer in accordance
with the principle of free trade. It thus happened that, while the
population of Antwerp increased by leaps and bounds, from 3,440
families in 1435 to 8,785 in 1526, the trade of Bruges decreased
steadily, owing to the emigration of foreign merchants. Protective
measures against the import of English cloth estranged the Hanseatic
merchants, and, in 1442, the "Merchant Adventurers" established
themselves definitely in Antwerp, where they were soon followed by the
Italians, Spanish and Portuguese. It is true that Bruges remained, for
a time, the centre of banking activity, which accounts for the fact
that it preserved its architectural and artistic splendour at the very
time when its trade was failing. But in the natural course of events
the financiers had to follow the merchants, and at the end of the
century the decadence of Bruges as a great seaport was almost as
complete as that of Ypres as an industrial centre. It was
characteristic of the new trade conditions that no "halles" were built
in Antwerp, the mediaeval emporium being replaced by a modern exchange.
Antwerp, however, possessed with Bruges one common feature. It was,
like its predecessor, the great clearing-house of Western Europe, and
derived its prosperity not from the goods either consumed or
manufactured in its own country, but from its position as an open
market where all merchants could conveniently sell their own wares and
buy those of distant lands.
Illustration: THE FIRST ANTWERP EXCHANGE.
From an old print (1531).
It must also be noticed that, while Bruges resisted as far as lay in
its power the centralizing influence of the dukes and of the princes
who succeeded them, Antwerp remained loyal to the new political regime
which brought it so many advantages. The troubles which arose in Bruges
under Maximilian may be considered as the death-blow to the prosperity
of the old town.
Illustration: THE TOWN HALL, OUDENARDE (FIFTEENTH CENTURY).
_Ph. B._
The rule of the dukes was equally beneficial to the smaller towns and
villages of the country-side. It put an end to the mediaeval regime and
to feudal and ecclesiastical dues. The nobility had no longer the
monopoly of landownership, and many bourgeois enriched by trade bought
large estates. This change contributed, to a certain extent, to
decrease the number of small landowners and to create a larger class of
farmers and agricultural labourers. This was, however, partially
compensated for by the reclamation of land from the sea (polders)
through the building of dykes and by the impulse given to cattle
breeding, which rendered more intensive cultivation possible. It was at
that time that the old system of leaving a third of the land fallow was
to a great extent abolished through a larger use of manure. With the
exception of the famine of 1348, due to bad crops, the Burgundian
regime was free from the terrible calamities which had never ceased to
devastate the country during the previous centuries.
[_POPULATION_]
Through the census made for Brabant in 1435 and for Flanders in 1469,
it is possible to estimate the total population of the Burgundian
States in the Netherlands at two millions, to which 700,000 ought to be
added if we include Liege. This, considering the size of these States
and the economic conditions of the period, is a very high figure, and
implies an economic activity at least equal to that of modern Belgium.
How far such a rise in the population was due to the wise
administration of Philip the Good is shown by a closer inspection of
the facts. The years from 1435 to 1464 are marked by a steady increase,
while the period from 1464 to 1472, when Charles the Bold imperilled
the prosperity of the country by his foreign wars, shows a slow
decrease, which becomes far more accentuated after the death of the
duke and during the troubled period which succeeded the Burgundian
rule.