The Low Countries

Comprising the lands around the Rhine delta and extending north to the Frisian coast, these regions have had an influence on European and world history all out of proportion to their size, owing to their strategic location and the patient enterprise of the inhabitants.

This has: Antwerp, Arlon, Belgium, Borculo, Bouillon, Brabant, Burgundy, Chiny, Cuyk, Dalhem, Drente, Duras, East Frisia, Ename, Flanders, Frisia, Gelderland, Grimbergen, Haamstede, Hainault, Hamaland, Holland, La Barrière, Lands Beyond the Meuse, Liege, Limburg, Loon, Lower Lorraine, Luikergow, Luxembourg, Maastricht, Mechelen, Moha, Mons, Moresnet, Namur, the Netherlands, Ravenstein, Rechteren, 's-Hertogenrade, Tournai, Twente, Twickel, Utrecht, Valenciennes, Valkenburg, Veere, Vianden, West Frisia, Zeeland, and Zutphen.

 


ANTWERP The second-largest city in Belgium, and a major international port located some 50 miles (80 km.) from the North Sea on the right bank of the Schelde; it is about 25 miles (40 km.) north of Brussels.
BELGIUM Rather unexpectedly, this highway for armies has achieved a sense of national identity despite being one of the newer European states, and despite being divided by two seperate cultures and languages.


BORCULO A small town in eastern Gelderland, about 7 miles (11 km.) west of the German frontier and 14 miles (22 km.) east of Zutphen. Borculo was an autonomous Barony during the Middle Ages.


BOUILLON A small town in eastern Belgium, the base from which the famous crusader and conqueror of Jerusalem, Godfrey de Bouillon, emerged. On the frontier between the Holy Roman Empire and France, it has fairly frequently changed hands; but from the 17th century was under French authority. As an aside, it was the first Belgian town to be liberated in World War II.


BRABANTCounts of Louvain until 1106, Dukes of Brabant thereafter. Brabant is a large province taking up much of central Belgium, and extending into southern Netherlands


BURGUNDY This Burgundy is the second duchy, created as an appanage of the French Royal family in 1363. It swiftly expanded its territories out of France and into the Empire, acquiring by various means lands in Alsace and the Low Countries. The Burgundian Court became a brilliant cultural center, as successive dukes attempted to recreate the ancient Kingdom of Lotharingia as an entity entirely independent of either France or the Empire. Philip the Good was, in fact, offered the title "King of Belgia", within the Empire, but he refused it as not being large or autonomous enough. Burgundian aspirations came to an abrupt end when Charles the Rash fell in battle against the Swiss, and his sole heiress married the Habsburg Emperor, Maximilian I. Their son wed the heiress of Spain, Juana the Mad. The following list records successive Dukes of Burgundy as they governed within the Low Countries (Spain retained the title even after losing the lands in 1713, so also did Austria after 1795, although losing all the territories to France by that year).


CHINY A small town in far southeastern Belgium, on the Semois River about  4 miles (6.5 km.) from the French border and about 17 miles (27 km.) east of the French town of Sedan.


CUYK (Cuijk) A town on the Maas River in the eastern Netherlands, 8 miles (12 km.) south of Nijmegen and 4 miles (6 km.) west of the German frontier.


DALHEM A small county situated astride the frontier between the Netherlands and Belgium, at the southernmost extreme of the Netherlands on the east bank of the Maas (Meuse) River between Maastricht and Aachen. The largest portion of the county is within what is now Belgium.


DRENTE A district in northeastern Netherlands, adjacent to the German frontier to the east, Frisia and Groningen to the north, and Overijssel to the south. The region is sparsely populated, but has been occupied for millenia - there are many dolmens dotting the countryside.


DURAS (Duraz) A minor county in the Belgian province of Limburg, near St.Truiden (St.Trond).


ENAME (Eenham) A region in central Belgium centered on the city of Aalst, just a little west of Brussels, in southeastern Flanders and encompassing some parts of northern Hainault as well.


FLANDERS An important County in northwestern Belgium, along the North Sea coast. Until the Burgundian inheritence passed to the House of Habsburg (1482), Flanders was a province of France, rather than the Holy Roman Empire.


FRISIA The coastal regions in the northern Netherlands, extending into Germany as far as the mouth of the Weser. The Frisian people have lived on these sandy strands for ages, and are notable to speakers of English as having the language most closely related to English. This is unsurprising, as these are the shores from which the Anglo-Saxons embarked upon their conquest of Britain. I include here notes on both East (German) Frisia and West (Dutch) Frisia. The sequence as listed is very long, and reflects traditional lore almost exclusively until the advent of the Romans. Thereafter until c. 800 CE, the list probably reflects real people and genuine events to one extent or another. From the time of Charlemagne on, the list is reliable.


GELDERLAND In the central Netherlands, east of Utrecht. A County 1096, a Duchy 1339.


HAAMSTEDE A small village on an island in the Rhine estuary, facing the North Sea. It was an appanage Barony of the Counts of Holland for about 150 years during in the Middle Ages, before being transfered to a local family and fading from view.


HAINAULT Duchy. In the south of Belgium; the lands between Leige and Brussels to the north, and Lille and Valenciennes in France, to the south.


HollandHOLLAND The County, first described as such from 1101; previous rulers governed the area as "Counts of Frisia" or "Counts of Kennemerland". The coastal lands between the Rhine delta and the Zuider Sea, Holland is the core of what would develop into the Netherlands.


"La Barrière" Some mention should be made of these groups of fortifications, although they never constituted a state in the sense used by this archive. In the latter-XVIIth century, France strove to dominate Europe and expand territorially. French forces invaded the Netherlands in 1672, and were not fully dislodged for two years. As a result, the United Provinces sought to establish a first line of defence against future French aggression and, to that end, set up Barrier treaties on three separate occasions:

The First Barrier Treaty was concluded in 1698, according to the provisions of the Treaty of Rijswijk (1697). The French agreed to evacuate the duchy of Luxemburg and strategic border fortress towns of Charleroi, Mons, Kortrijk, Ath and Chiny. A number of barrier fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, near the French border were to be garrisoned by Dutch troops. The task of these troops was to protect the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands against a French invasion. Spain couldn’t afford enough money nor troops for this task. The Republic paid 40% of the costs, Spain 60%. The Barrier Cities were, from east to west:

Luxemburg
Namur
Charleroi
Ath
Mons
Kortrijk (Courtrai)
Oostende
Nieuwpoort

This Barrier System functioned three years (1698-1701), under considerable difficulties and tension. The local population, nearly all Roman Catholic, strongly objected to the presence of Protestant troops. When the last Habsburg king of Spain, Charles II, died without heirs in 1700, Louis XIV of France claimed the entire Spanish heritage for his grandson Philip (V of Spain), and accordingly, French troops entered the Spanish Netherlands in February of 1701. These troops, helped by the local authorities and populace, forced the Dutch troops to evacuate the Barrier Cities without a fight.

The Second Barrier Treaty  was concluded between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic in October of 1709. The British acknowledged the Dutch claim on a considerable part of the Southern Netherlands (Flanders, South Brabant, Limburg, Upper Gelderland) and its need for a barrier of fortresses against France. However, this treaty led nowhere, because Great Britain changed its policy in 1710, supporting the claim of HRE Charles VI, who obtained the Southern Netherlands (except most of Upper-Gelderland) in 1715.

The Third Barrier Treaty was concluded at Antwerp in 1715. The Dutch Republic obtained the right to garrison (less than claimed) a number of fortified cities and fortresses in the now Austrian Netherlands, near the French border (except Dendermonde, which is located near Antwerp). From east to west:

Namur
Tournai
Menen
Warneton
Ieper (Ypres) *
Veurne
Fort de Knokke
Dendermonde

The garrisons of Namur and Dendermonde consisted of 50% Dutch troops and 50% Austrian troops. The Republic paid the costs of these garrisons, but received an annual Austrian subsidy for the upkeep of their Barrier garrisons. These Barrier Cities fell short of expectations during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). French troops occupied Menen, Veurne, Fort de Knokke, Warneton and Ieper in 1744, the other cities in 1745-1746. When France and Austria became allies in 1756, Austria lost its interest in the Barrier Cities. Subsequently, the fortifications became neglected and understaffed. Eventually,  HRE Josef II unilaterally cancelled the Barrier Treaty in 1781 and sent what remained of the Dutch garrisons packing. As it happens, France did, in fact, invade the Low Countries again - twelve years later. French troops entered the Austrian Netherlands in 1793, and again in '94, annexing the region; the United Provinces' turn came in '95 when French troops occupied all of the Netherlands, abolished the old Republic, and set up the Batavian Republic in it's stead.

* The site of some of the most intense fighting in World War I, exactly 200 years later.



"Lands Beyond the Meuse" (de Landen van Overmaas) Some mention should be made of this region, although it was never a state in the sense used by this archive. The term refers to a region largely comprising three minor lordships in the extreme southern end of what is now the Netherlands, in the vicinity of Maastricht - the counties of Dalhem and Valkenburg, and the barony of 's-Hertogenrade. Each of these emerged in the usual fashion during the Middle Ages, each in turn was absorbed eventually by the Duchy of Brabant, and thence to Burgundy and Spain. In 1544 the region was assigned administratively to the jurisdiction of Limburg, within the Spanish Netherlands. A generation later, open warfare broke out between Spain and the Dutch provinces in the Netherlands - the Eighty-Years War of Dutch independence (1568-1648), and matters in southern Limburg became interesting... See also Moresnet for another district in southern Limburg (now in the Belgian province of Liege) within which specialized and very local arrangements needed to be made, during the 19th century.



LIÈGE (Lüttich, Luik) A Prince-Bishopric in central Belgium holding a large territory. Tongeren and Maastricht are two towns north and northeast of Liege. Tongeren is in northeastern Belgium, Maastricht is located at the end of a narrow southern panhandle of the Netherlands. Each was an ecclesiastic seat, Maastricht superceding Tongeren and being absorbed in turn by Liege.


LIMBURG A Duchy located in eastern Belgium, and ARLON, a small county located in southeastern Belgium. Limburg and Arlon were closely related dynastically; the ruling house of Luxembourg since count Henry V of Luxemburg is known as the house of Limburg-Arlon. Note that the present Dutch province of Limburg was composed of parts of the former duchy of Gelderland and a number of small lordships between Maastricht and Aachen (Ger.). The present Belgian province of Limburg corresponds more or less with the former territory of the county of Loon.


LOON (Looz)A small County in Belgium, comprising much of the present-day province of Limburg.


LOWER LORRAINEA duchy located roughly in what is now Belgium, one of the divisions of Lotharingia in the 10th century. It gradually lost territory as local dynasties grew in power, and was eventually absorbed by Brabant.


LUXEMBOURG A compact district located in the angle between Belgium, France, and Germany. A County, then Duchy, during the Middle Ages, and source of one of the most powerful dynasties in western Europe in the 14th century. Raised to the status of a Grand Duchy in 1814, in personal union with the Kingdom of the Netherlands - owing to differences in succession laws, the ubiob was dissolved in 1890, and Luxembourg became fully independent.


MECHELEN (Malines) A city in north-central Belgium, about 14 miles (22½ km.) south of Antwerp, and a similar distance north of Brussels. It was a lordship within the bishopric of Liege from 915. It consisted of two enclaves (the town of Mechelen and a number of villages; and the city of Heist-op-den-Berg), surrounded by the county of Louvain and the duchy of Brabant. It was ruled by a local dynasty, the Berthouts, also lords of Grimbergen, a territory in Brabant. The Berthout line split 1147/51 into two collateral branches (Mechelen and Grimbergen). After the dynastic union with Flanders in 1357, Mechelen became the smallest of the principalities of the Seventeen Netherlands until it was annexed to France in 1794. After the Napoleonic era, it become an urban district of the Netherlands (1814-1830) and Belgium from 1830.


MOHA A minor county in the Belgian province of Liege, to the north of the river Meuse, near Huy. It was set up in the 9th-10th century.