Charles V, himself a Netherlander, born in Ghent, and still more his son, Philip II, of Spain, strove to extinguish the Reformed opin ions among the Netherland subjects in seas of blood. Philip discarded all respect for the lib erties of the Netherlands and subjected them under his governors, particularly the Duke of Alva, to all the horrors of a hostile military rule. Thousands of victims perished by every variety of execution which a barbarous cruelty could devise— hanging, beheading, • burning, drowning, interring alive, to which tortures and imprisonments were added in still greater num ber. During this period of desolation, great numbers of artisans, abandoning their country, carried elsewhere, especially to England and Germany, which sympathized with their opin ions, the arts that had enriched their own country and which now acquired through thetn a wider scope, and contributed to the industrial progress of Europe. William of Orange, the Silent, now made himself the champion of the liberties of his country. Supported chiefly by the northern states, thwarted by the jealousy of the Flemish nobles and opposed by the Walloon provinces, which remained faithful to Spain and even supplied her with troops, he at length suc ceeded in freeing the seven northern states and forming them into the confederation of the United Provinces, whose independence, declared in 1581, was ultimately acicnowledged by Spain. These events belonged chiefly to the history of Holland.
Requesens, the successor of Alva, had tried too late a more humane policy. At Antwerp and Ghent the Spanish soldiers broke out into excesses. The confederates assembled in the latter town signed the pacification of Ghent, proclaiming liberty of conscience and convok ing the Estates-General. The Estates called in the aid of France and offered the crown to Henry III, who declined to accept it, dreading the Roman Catholic League in his own country. It is a special feature of the history of those days that while the great rulers, particularly those of France and Germany, persecuted their Reformed subjects, each was ready to protect the Protestant subjects of the others when op posed to their political policy. The success of the revolutionary party, consummated in the north, was at length checked in the southern provinces by the ability of Alexander Farnese, DuIce of Parrna, the Spanish commander, and by the reactionary spirit evoked in the prov inces themselves, strengthened by the emigra tion of mani influential refortners to the north ern states, and the Belgian Netherlands re mained attached to Spain. From 1596 to 1633 the Spanish Netherlands were transferred to the Austrian branch of the family by the mar riage of Isabella, daughter of Philip II, with the Archduke Albert of Austria. On the death of Isabella they reverted to Spain. By the Treaty of Rastadt in 1714 they were again placed under the dominion of Austria. During this period they were the subject of continual intrigues and frequently of open warfare among the European states. Twice conquered by Louis XIV, conquered again by Marlborough, coveted by Holland, Spaint Germany, France and England, they lay continually open to the invasions and struggles of foreign armies, and it was at this period especially that they were, as they have been called, the battlefield of Europe. Sozne portions of maritime Flanders, Brabant and Limburg which had remained to Spain were during this period conquered and annexed by Holland, while France acquired Artois and Walloon Flanders, the south of Hainaut and part of Namur and Luxemburg, including the important towns of Douai, Lille, Valenciennes, Dunkirk and many others. From 1714 Austria was left in undisturbed possession of the remainder of the northern Netherlands. Joseph II, styled the Philosophical Emperor, excited by his reforms a revolt, headed or stim ulated by the monks of Flanders and Brabant, whom he had dispossessed of their convents. The Estates of the two provinces refused to vote the imposts and were dissolved. The popu lace took to arms. The Virgin was proclaimed generalissimo of the patriot army. The Aus trian army concentrated at Turnhout was totally defeated. After applying in vain for assistance to Holland and France, neither of which could be expected to have much sympathy with their movement, the insurgents were at length sub dued and the Austrians re-entered Brussels October 1790. Soon after the whole Nether lands were conquered by the revolutionary armies of France and the country was divided into French departments, a change which, as might be expected, provoked as much resistance as the people were able to offer. When Napo
leon ruled France, his brother Louis became King of Holland, in 1806. Before long, how ever, the two brothers quarreled, and when Napoleon sent an army against the Dutch capi tal in 1810 Louis fled to Bohemia. The lat ter's son, Charles Louis, afterward became Napoleon III.
Just before the battle of Waterloo, fought on Belgian territory, had once more changed the face of Europe, Belgium was united by the congress of Vienna to Holland, under the title of the kingdom of the Netherlands. The new ruler was Willem I, of the house of Orange, who commanded Dutch and Belgian troops at Waterloo. This fusion had much to recom mend it. The ports and colonies of the north formed a suitable complement to the arts and industry of the south. The Flemings and the Dutch spoke the same language and had the same origin; but there remained outside of this harmony the Walloon provinces, French in language and extraction. A most injudicious measure of the Dutch government, an attempt to assimilate the language of the provinces by prohibiting the use of French in the courts of justice, excited an opposition which, encouraged by the success of the French Revolution of 1830, broke out into revolt. The electoral sys tem, moreover, gave the preponderance to the northern provinces, though inferior in popula tion, and the interests of the provinces were diametrically opposed in matters of taxation. Belgium was agricultural and manufacturing, Holland commercial; the one wished to tax imports and exports, the other property and industry. Three different languages were spoken in the Chamber — Dutch, German and French; frequently, indeed, the members did not understand each other. Nothing but the most skilful government could have overcome these fundamental differences, and no states man appeared fitted to grapple with them. The King, Willem, was far too bigoted and auto cratic to reconcile his Flemish subjects to Dutch preponderance. The Belgians, though insisting upon a separate government, offered to accept the King's son as viceroy, hut the tactless conduct of that prince snapped the link that might have held the two countries together. The revolutionary movement, which broke out in Brussels on 25 Aug. 1830, became general in the south, and the Dutch troops, at first successful before Brussels, were finally repulsed and compelled by the ever swelling ranks of the insurgents to retire. Austria, England, Prussia and Russia each threatened armed intervention to maintain the union, but France stood behind the Belgian revolution aries. A seven hours' bombardment of Ant werp by the Dutch so horrified and enraged the Belgians that reconciliation passed beyond the bounds of human possibility. Undeterred by the mutterings of the powers, the provi sional government continued to frame a new constitution and to fight the Dutch. They offered the crown to the Duc de Nemours, second son of Louis Philippe; but the father refusing his consent, they next offered it, on the recommendation of England, to Leopold, fourth son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saal feld, who accepted it 4 June 1831 under the title of heopold I (q.v.). In the following year Leopold married, as his second wife, the daughter of Louis Philippe, a circumstance that no doubt contributed toward curbing the French King's designs on the annexation of Belgium to his own dominions. A conven tion of the powers was held in London to determine on the affairs of the. Netherlands and stop the effusion of blood. It favored the separation of the provinces and drew up a treaty to regulate the change. The powers divided Luxemburg, Limburg and the national debt between Holland and Belgium, awarded Antwerp to the latter, declared the Scheldt open to both countries and recognized Belgium as a neutral, independent state. But the Dutch king refused to accept these terms and in sisted on holding Antwerp. A combined French and British fleet sailed for Holland and a French army was sent to besiege Antwerp. These manoeuvres had the desired effect; the Dutch evacuated Antwerp but retained two forts commanding the Scheldt. In retaliation, the Belgians held on to Limburg and Luxem burg. Not until 1838 did King Willem signify his acquiescence to the terms laid down by the powers, and in 1839 the Belgians yielded, most reluctantly and under pressure, the portions of Limburg and Luxemburg— which they had retained since 1832— back to Holland.