A few miles to the south-west of Alost, on the borders of East Flanders, the River Dendre, on its way to join the Scheldt, forms the boundary of Brabant. From Denderleeuw, the frontier station, to Brussels is about fifteen miles by train, through a district which gradually loses the bare flatness of the plains of Flanders, and becomes wooded, undulating, and hilly as we approach the city.

And Brussels is quite different from the fallen towns of Flanders. There are no mouldering ramparts here, and very few uneven causeways, but broad boulevards, shaded by trees; handsome modern houses; wooden pavements in some parts; a Bourse; arcades and bazaars; tempting shops, their windows decked with Parisian art; theatres and music-halls; glittering restaurants and expensive hotels. It is all modern, spacious, full of movement. While Bruges and Ypres live chiefly in the past, Brussels lives chiefly in the present and the future. But in the middle of the city is the famous Grande Place; and the tall houses, so gloriously picturesque with pointed gables and gilded cornices; and the exquisite HÔtel de Ville with its curiously carved faÇade and steep roof pierced by innumerable little windows, above which the graceful spire, that 'miracle of needlework in stone,' has towered for 500 years. Here, as everywhere in the Netherlands, the traditions of the past are imperishable; and we may look back and see how this bright, gay, pleasant city—the 'petit Paris,' as its people love to call it—rose and grew.

Old Brabant extended from beyond Tournai on the west to what is now the Dutch frontier beyond Turnhout on the east, and from the neighbourhood of Ghent nearly to LiÉge. Just north of the forest of Soignies a ridge of undulating hills overlooked the little River Senne, which wound along eastwards through sandbanks and brushwood. On an island in this stream, according to tradition, a chapel was built by St. Gery, Bishop of Cambrai; a watch-tower, afterwards named the Tower of St. Nicholas, was erected on a hillock near the island; wooden houses, with thatched roofs, began to appear on the banks and here and there on the up which steep hillside pathways, afterwards to become streets, clambered towards a promontory called the Coudenberg, or Cold Mountain; a market was established; and the village became known as Bruxelles, or (at least so it is said) 'the house in the swamp,' from bruc, swamp, and celle, house.

BRUSSELS
Place de BrouckÉre.

From a long time, in the early tales about Brabant, there are the usual legends of warriors and saints; but when we reach the period of authentic history there are four chief towns, Louvain, Brussels, Antwerp, and Bois-le-Duc. Of these the most important was Louvain. In 1190 the Counts of Louvain became Dukes of Brabant. They built a castle on the Coudenberg, and for the next 300 years the Court of Brabant was celebrated for its power and splendour.

Lying in the midst of a fertile district, and on the trade-route from Flanders to Germany, Brussels was a convenient stopping-place for travellers. But in the Middle Ages, when Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, and other places were so prosperous, the history of Brussels is less eventful; and it was only when the famous Flemish cities were about to fall that the town on the Senne became an important centre of industry. Its population, too, increased rapidly, owing to the numbers of workmen who came from Louvain in consequence of commercial troubles there.

So trade flourished, and Brussels grew rich; but the continual wars which desolated France, the chief market for the manufactures of the Netherlands, did harm to the linen trade, which suffered also from the keen competition of English merchants. The raw material came from England, and by prohibiting the exportation of wool England was able to wellnigh ruin this branch of the trade of Flanders and Brabant. Fortunately, however, for Brussels, the introduction of new industries at this critical time made the damage to the linen trade less fatal, and with the growth of flax-weaving, the art of tapestry-making, dye-works, and the production of valuable armour, the town more than held its own.

Luxury and display followed, as usual, in the train of wealth, and Brussels became a city of pleasure, of fÊtes, and gorgeous festivals. The Court of Brabant was one of the most luxurious and dissolute in Europe. The Dukes set an example of extravagance which was followed by the Barons who surrounded them, and also by the rich bourgeois. 'The people alone,' we are told, 'that is to say, the men without leisure, the artisans, remained apart from excesses.' There was luxury in dress, in armour, in furniture. The rich went about clad in gold brocades and other costly stuffs, attended by servants in fine liveries. Their horses were richly caparisoned, and their wives and daughters spent large sums on magnificent robes, and decked themselves with jewels, and garlands from the rose-gardens for which Brussels was already famous.

Every occasion for a fÊte was eagerly welcomed. Not only was there the yearly 'Ommegang,' that time-honoured procession through the streets of triumphal cars, bands of music, and giants, which delighted the people of Brabant and Flanders, but each separate guild and confraternity had its own festival. In private life every event—a birth, a baptism, a marriage, or a death—was an excuse for spending money on display. To such an extent, indeed, was this carried, that rules were made forbidding invitations being sent except to near relatives, to prevent people going to fÊtes without being asked, and at length even to put some limit on the value of the presents which it was customary to give to guests. The licentious and wasteful habits of the jeunesse dorÉe became so notorious, that there was a lock-up at each of the city gates for the benefit of young men who were living too fast. In such a state of society the money-lender saw his chance; but a law was passed making it illegal for anyone to sign a promissory note, or anticipate his inheritance, before reaching the age of twenty-eight. Brussels was full of taverns, and there were parts of the town where every house was occupied by women of easy virtue. Fortunes were recklessly squandered, and most of the nobles are said to have been insolvent, and to have left heavy debts behind them.

Not a vestige remains of the wall which surrounded this mediÆval Brussels except the Porte de Hal, at the corner where the modern Boulevard de Waterloo meets the Boulevard du Midi; and the HÔtel de Ville and the guild-houses in the Grande Place have undergone many changes since the fourteenth century. A great part of the Church of Ste. Gudule, however—the choir and transept, part of the nave, and the south aisle—was built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and during that period Notre Dame de la Chapelle and Notre Dame du Sablon rose on the foundations of more ancient churches. The houses, even of the rich, were still of wood, with sometimes a tower of stone, built irregularly on the hillside which rose from the valley of the Senne, each house standing by itself, with its thatched roof, from which in winter the rain or melted snow poured (there were, of course, no gutters then), and found its way down to the lower ground, which was thus little better than a swamp, even long after Brussels had become an important city. It was in the midst of this mixture of discomfort and luxury, so characteristic of the Middle Ages, that the people of Brussels, and of Brabant generally, passed their lives—gay, joyous, dissolute, but always with an eye to the main chance, and growing richer and richer. And in one thing Brabant differed greatly from Flanders. While in Flanders the towns were generally at deadly feud with each other—Bruges fighting with Ghent, and Ghent at enmity with Ypres, with each town divided into hostile factions, such as the Leliarts and Clauwerts, within its own walls, the people of Brabant seem to have lived at peace with each other, and, as a rule, to have made it their first business always to combine for the defence of their common interests. And in the middle of the fourteenth century came a time which called for mutual reliance.

The last Duke of Brabant in the male line of the House of Louvain was Jean III. He died in 1355, leaving no heir male; and thus the succession fell to his daughter Jeanne,[30] who had married Wencelas, brother of Charles IV. of Luxembourg.

From time immemorial the rulers of Brabant, on succeeding to the throne, had taken an oath to maintain the liberty of their subjects; and many charters confirming ancient rights and privileges had been drawn up for the towns and communes. Before recognising the Duchess Jeanne and her husband, the towns of Brabant addressed to them a series of demands, which they requested the new rulers to accept. These took the form of a charter enumerating and confirming all the points which constituted public liberty in Brabant; and this charter received the name of the Joyeuse EntrÉe (or Blyde Incompste), because it was hailed with such applause by the representatives of the people. The inauguration of the Duchess Jeanne and Wencelas took place at Louvain on January 3, 1356, when they swore to maintain all the ancient privileges of the country. Thereafter the act of inauguration of each ruler of Brabant was known as his Joyeuse EntrÉe, and each Joyeuse EntrÉe was a development of acts declaring public rights which had previously existed, just as Magna Charta was founded on the older liberties of England. Each Duke had his Joyeuse EntrÉe, which he accepted sometimes with as little goodwill as King John felt at Runnymede. Thus, this famous constitution, the best known and the most liberal of all the free charters in the Netherlands, was not a parchment drawn up at one time, but a declaration of public rights which gradually developed.[31]

'The inauguration of a Duke of Brabant was a splendid and imposing ceremony. The Prince, who was lord of the noble Duchy, went to make himself known to his subjects, and to confirm the relations which secured both his and their happiness. He arrived, with his courtiers, at the ancient capital of Brabant, Louvain. As he descended the Brussels road he saw from afar the cradle of his ancestors, with its steeples, towers, and majestic walls, in the rich valley of the Dyle. Before entering, the heir of the old Counts of Louvain stopped for a little at the gates of the city, in the Monastery of Terbanck, where, in the midst of an immense crowd, the clergy, the officers of the University, and the magistrates, came to greet him. The brilliant assemblage then went into the chapel, where the Abbess of Terbanck, at the altar, took the crucifix and gave it to the highest dignitary of the Church who was present, and he, approaching the Duke, gave it him to kiss. The Rector of the University made an oration in the name of the University and the clergy. The Mayor placed in the Duke's hands the red staff of justice, emblem of his office. The Burgomaster gave him the keys of the city; and the Pensionary of Louvain welcomed him on behalf of all the local magistrates. Then the procession, to the sound of trumpets, went forth on horseback through the gates, the Duke and his Councillors, the States of Brabant, and the magistrates of Louvain, to the Church of St. Pierre, where they all dismounted and entered the choir; and there, after prayers had been said, the Prince swore to maintain the liberties and privileges of the Church in Brabant. Thence they went to the market-place, which was between the church and the HÔtel de Ville. The Duke took his stand on a platform with the representatives of the people of Brabant, and the Chancellor announced that he was about to swear his Joyeuse EntrÉe. The Act of Inauguration was read, first in Flemish and then in French, and the Duke repeated it word for word, and took an oath to the barons, nobles, towns, and franchises of the Duchy, that he would be their good and loyal seigneur, and that he would not treat them otherwise than justly, and in accordance with all their rights. They clothed the Duke in a robe of crimson trimmed with ermine, and put the ducal coronet of Brabant upon his head. The States swore fidelity to him. The trumpets sounded. The air was filled with acclamations; and the heralds' voices crying, "Long live the Duke of Brabant!" told the Duchy that another ruler had taken possession of his heritage in accordance with ancient custom.'[32]

The 'States' of Brabant grew out of the primitive method of government by an assembly of the people in the market-place, where each vassal voted in person. Later, chosen representatives alone voted; and at the end of the fourteenth century the clergy began to attend as a separate order in the assembly. The name of 'États' was not used in Brabant till 1421, when the nobles, clergy, and commons called themselves the States of Brabant.[33] Side by side with the States grew up the Council of Brabant, which was originally a consulting body, a judicial council to assist the Duke in administering the law, but which gradually came to concern itself with the management of local affairs, while the States conducted the public business of the duchy.

Soon after the inauguration of Jeanne and Wencelas, the jealous and ambitious Louis of Maele, Count of Flanders, who had married Jeanne's sister Marguerite, made war upon Brabant, and the struggle continued for years. Wencelas, whom Froissart describes as a wise and gallant man, was at last quite worn out by the troubles which beset him. He spent the winter and summer of 1382-1383 at Brussels with his wife, and tried to forget his sorrows in hunting, and in a round of balls and tournaments. But his health was ruined, and, having gone to breathe his native air in Luxembourg, he died there on December 3, 1383.

The Duchess Jeanne, who survived her husband for thirteen years, years of constant trouble, died on December 1, 1406, at the age of eighty, after a reign of fifty years, and was buried in the old church of the Carmelites at Brussels. On her death the duchy of Brabant passed, by a family arrangement, to the House of Burgundy.[34]

Under the House of Burgundy, during the fifteenth century Brussels became more than ever a city of pomp, gaiety, and pleasure. For nearly half a century of this period the history of Brabant is full of the names of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. Philip lived generally at Brussels, and this brought to the town so many Frenchmen that French became the language of the Court and the fashionable tongue amongst the noblesse. The old castle or palace of the Dukes of Brabant on the Coudenberg was enlarged, and beautified by the addition of the Great Hall, where the Knights of the Golden Fleece, whose Order Philip founded, used to hold their Chapters, and which in later days was to witness the imposing spectacle of the abdication of Charles V. The boundaries of the park were extended, walls were built round it, and it was stocked with game. Bishops and nobles built themselves great mansions. The first stone of the magnificent HÔtel de Ville had been carved at the beginning of the century, and in 1444 Charles the Bold, then only ten years old, laid the foundations of the lofty spire, on the summit of which ten years later was placed that gilded statue of St. Michael which is there to this day. The Burgundian Library still remains, with its wealth of illuminated manuscripts and rare books; and the paintings of Roger van der Weyden and his cotemporaries show how art flourished at Brussels in the fifteenth century.

Unlike Philip, Charles the Bold detested the people of Brussels. His father, he said, had increased their riches and their pride beyond measure. He attacked the States of Brabant, and threatened to pull down the walls and gates of Brussels.

And when, after sweeping like a tempest over Europe, he died before the walls of Nancy in 1477, and the male line of the House of Burgundy came to an end, it was seen that the wide domain over which his family had reigned so proudly, and which he left to his daughter Marie, was torn by internal dissensions, and that the people of Brabant and Flanders were smarting under the inroads which had been made upon their ancient privileges.

BRUSSELS
Entrance to the old church of the Carmelites.

The Duchess Marie succeeded to a splendid inheritance, but her position was full of difficulty. Her treasury was empty. She had no army at her command. Popular discontent was growing. Her father had made the haughty burghers of Ghent bow before him, but as soon as he was dead they rose again. Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, all Brabant, were seething with disaffection. Payment of the taxes was refused and the officers of the Government were ill-treated. And, moreover, Hannibal was at the gates, in the person of Louis XI., who had rejoiced on hearing of the fate of Charles the Bold. The inauguration of Marie took place at the end of May, 1477, five months after her father's death; and her Joyeuse EntrÉe not only renewed the public rights which Philip and Charles had infringed, but placed fresh restrictions on the power of the future rulers of Brabant.

The marriage of the young Duchess to some husband who could defend her rights was seen to be the only means of preserving the peace of the country. Her distrust of Louis XI. led her to refuse an alliance with a French Prince. She chose the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, and thus the fortunes of Brabant and Flanders were united with the fortunes of the House of Hapsburg, and the opportunity of peacefully absorbing Belgium was lost to France.

The marriage was celebrated in August, 1477. Five years later Marie died, leaving a son—the boy, then four years of age, who was afterwards known as Philip the Fair. He in turn married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain; and the offspring of this marriage was the Great Emperor Charles V., during whose reign the capital of Brabant was more brilliant than ever.

No story is better known than the story of how in the evil days, when Philip II. ruled the 'Spanish Netherlands' in the interests of the Church, BrÉderode and his friends, hearing of Berlaimont's scornful words, assumed the name of 'Beggars,' by which their party was afterwards known. But how typical it is! How full their doings are of the gay spirit of Brabant! It is springtime, fresh and bright, when the confederate nobles leave the mansion of Count Kuilemburg,[35] a brilliant company of handsome, hot-blooded men of fashion and high birth, bearded all, and dressed in the elaborate finery of that time, and walk to the palace, where Margaret of Parma awaits them. They pass along the roadway which crowns the ridge, overlooking the multitude of pointed roofs below them to the left, with the spire of the HÔtel de Ville rising from where an opening among the housetops marks the situation of the Grande Place, where so many of them are afterwards to lay down their lives. The majestic towers of Ste. Gudule stand out above the houses which cluster round them on the plateau of St. Michael. In front of them is the palace, and beyond it the green glades and pleasure-grounds of the park. A crowd of people, who have climbed up from the lower town by the long steep way known as La ChausÉe and the Montagne de la Cour, greet them with cheers at the entrance of the palace. The doors of that magnificent dwelling receive the glittering band, who go with gay insouciance to their momentous interview, and come out from it in the same spirit. They walk about the streets, and pass Berlaimont, who is talking to Arenberg. 'Look at our fine beggars!' says Berlaimont. 'How they ruffle it before us!' They sup at Kuilemburg's. BrÉderode repeats Berlaimont's jest against them. They take it up. They toast 'The Beggars.' They dress themselves up as beggars, with leathern wallets and wooden bowls. They laugh, and spill their wine about, drain more bumpers to the Beggars' health, dance on the tables, and shout 'Vivent les Gueux!'[36] Not even the grave face of Orange, who comes in, can stop the revel. And next day they lay aside their fine clothes, dress themselves, their families, and their servants as beggars, shave off their beards, and go about with wallets and bowls.

This was the spirit of the masquerade, of the carnival, the Kermesse; and thirty years later, when for a whole generation the country had suffered unexampled miseries, and most of the beggars of 1566 had perished by a violent death, [Pg 193-194] the arrival of the Archduke Ernest as Governor of Brabant was made the occasion for a grotesque display—'a stately procession of knights and burghers in historical and mythological costumes, followed by ships, dromedaries, elephants, whales, giants, dragons.' A strange people. The Dutch had fought with all the courage of the Nervii, and gained their freedom. The Belgians, descendants of the Nervii, had been slaughtered, defeated, tortured, and made slaves, had seen their country laid waste, and their cherished liberties taken from them wholesale; and yet, when all was lost and the heel of the oppressor was planted firmly on their necks, they were made happy by a circus procession.