FLANDERS (Mem. Vlaenticren, anciently Vineland, submerged land). The old name of an extensive region embracing, besides the present Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders, the southern portion of the Province of Zealand, in Holland, and the French Department of Le Nord, and constituting in the Middles Ages a powerful and almost independent principality, ruled by counts under the suzerainty of the French King. Under the Franks, the river Scheldt, which flowed through the district, formed the boundary line between Neustria and Austrasia, in consequence of which the northern and southwestern parts of the territory com prised under the term Flanders, although its population was decidedly Germanic, came to be long to France, while the southeast, although to a large extent non-Germanic, was after 1007 in cluded in the Iloly Roman Empire. Flanders ob tained its name from the Iliindergan (pagus Flendrensis), the district around Bruges and Sluis, whose counts had been made wardens of the northern owls of France at the period of the in cursions of the Northmen, in the latter half of the ninth century, and who extended the name of their hereditary possessions to the whole district which they governed. The first count, or mar grave, of the country is said to have been Baldwin, surnamed Bras de Fer ( Iron-Arm), who married .Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald of France, and widow of Ethelwulf. King of Eng land, and received the newly created 'mark,' or county, as a hereditary fief from his father-in law in 864. Baldwin died about 878. He is said to have inaugurated the industrial greatness of Flanders by introducing into the country great numbers of workmen skilled in the manufacture of woolen and other goods. Baldwin IV. With the Beard, one of the successors of Baldwin Bras de Fer, received in fee from the Emperor II. the burgraviate of Ghent. Waleheren, and the island of Zealand, and thus heeame a prince of the Empire. He was succeeded by his son, Baldwin V.. or the Pious (1036-67), who increased his possessions by the addition of the German territory between the Scheldt and the 'bender, belonging to the Duchy of Lower Lor raine. To this lie added Tournai, the supremacy over the bishopric of Cambrai (to which, till the erection of the new bishopric of Arras. the County of Flanders had been ecclesiastically stub ordinate), and the County of Hainaut. During the Middle Ages Flanders figured prominently in the political affairs of Europe—the counts of Flanders being more powerful and wealthy than ninny European kings. Baldwin IX., the founder of the Latin Empire at Constantinople (see 11ALD WIX , died in 1206, leaving two daughters, one of whom died without children ; the other bequeath ed Hainaut to John of Avesnes, her son by her first marriage, and Flanders to Guy of Dampierre, her son by a second marriage. _Meanwhile, the industrial prosperity of Bruges, Ghent, and other cities of Flanders had become so great that the citizens began( to feel their oWn power and to «•ain( independenee. They formed re
publican communities like the free cities of Germany, with this difference, that they ad mitted the nominal suzerainty of the counts. But they were not afraid to take up arms in defense of their liberties against their nom I masters. Their resistance to arbitrary power took the form of opposition both to the counts of Flanders as their immediate lords (see ARTEVELDE, JACOB VAS) , and sometimes, ill con junction with their counts, to the eneroaehment of the French King. In 1214 Philip Augustus of France gained a decisive victory at Bouvines (q.v.) over the united forces of John of England. t he Count of Flanders, and Ot ho IV, of Germany. In 1302 a force of 20,000 pikemen under Guy of Dampierre inflicted a crushing defeat at Courtrai on an army of 50,000 French knights, archers, and foot soldiers. It was largely at the instiga tion of the Flemings that Edward III. of Eng land assumed the title of King of France, and invaded that country, marking the beginning of the hundred Years' War ( q.v. ) . Through the mar riage of the daughter and heiress of Louis 11., Count of Flanders, to Philip the Bold of Burgundy. in 1369. the country was united to the Burgundian's territories (1384), and after wards shared the fortunes of that duchy. The dukes of Burgundy brought a greater part of the former Duchy of Lower Lorraine under their do main, and thus laid the foundation for the subse quent union of the States of the Netherlands, in which Flanders continued to form an important part. Under this dynasty Flanders prospered, and the arts were greatly encouraged. On the death of Charles the Bold the Netherlands, which consti tuted the most flourishing and opulent realm in Europe, passed in 1477 to the House of Hapsburg. by the marriage of his daughter Mary to the Archduke Maximilian. After the Netherlands had passed with Kina Philip II. to the Spanish line of the House of the territory of Flanders was considerably diminished; the por tion called Dutch Flanders was transferred to the States-General by the Peace of Westphalia, and in the time of Louis XIV. France seized upon other portions of Flanders. and was confirmed in her possession by the treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (16681. Nimeguen (1678), and Utrecht (1713). By the last. and by the treaty of peace concluded at. Rastadt (1714), what remained of the Spanish Netherlands again fell into the hands of the House of Austria. In 1704 Flanders. like the other provinces of Belgium. was incorporated with the French Republic. and afterwards formed part of the Empire, as the departments of Lys and Escant (Scheldt). The Congress of Vienna united Belgium with Holland to form the King dom of the Netherlands. In 1830-32 Belgium liberated itself front Holland. See FLEMISH LAN GUAGE AND LITERATURE. Consult: Le Glay, Histoire des comics de Flandre jusqu'd Parene meat de la maisoa de Bourgogne (Paris, 1842) ; Kervyn van Lettenhove, Histoire de Flandre (5th ed.. Bruges, 1898).