Belgium: the land of art; its history, legends, industry and modern expansion

Front matter

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Preface

"What can an American see in Belgium?" asked a twentieth-century friend. My answer was, " What he has eyes to see." This little book, written after four journeyings in the Low Countries between France and Germany, is intended to give pleasure to the reader at home, and to the traveler the means of enjoying what he sees. Furthermore, it shows how numerous and vital ar^ the points of contact between American and Belgic history. No other land is richer in history or more affluent in art than is Belgium. In none have devout, industrious, patriotic and gifted sons told their country's story more attractively. By pen and in print, on canvas, in mural decoration, in sculpture, in monuments of bronze and marble, in fireplaces and in wood-carving, the story may be read as in an illuminated missal. Belfries, town-halls, churches, guild-houses, have each and all a charm of their own. Yet what avails all this historic and artistic wealth, to the unread and uncultured, if he fail to understand or appreciate what is before his eyes?

I have told in outline the story of savage, Roman, Frankish, feudal, crusading, mediaeval, Renaissance, and modern Belgic land, and of the people in what, until 1830, was the old house of

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PREFACE bondage, with many masters, yet rich in local lib* erties, despite tyrants and oppressors many.

It is one of the wonders of history that a bi: lingual people, of two distinct ethnic stocks, Celtic and Teutonic, and successively in subjugation to Rome, Germany, Burgundian and Bourbon France, Spain, Austria, and to French Revolutionaries, to Napoleon, and to Holland, should finally, in 1830, win unity, freedom, and sovereignty. I have glanced at the eighty years or more of Belgian nationality, prosperity, and expansion by commerce and colonization.

Not less interesting than the story of their po* litical vicissitudes is that of the social, economic, industrial, and artistic development of the Belgians. No people can be understood unless their past is clear. Nevertheless, I have dwelt upon the early mediaeval and Renaissance periods, not with the " backward look," but as the soil from which the present has outflowered. In ages forgotten lie the roots of both their art and their national spirit. It is not to the " dead " past that I have given much space, but rather to those salient events and tendencies which have made fertility for the present and seed for the future. The story of Belgium may be read not alone in text and document, but also in statues and painting, carving and heraldry, lace and tapestry, and the modern natives have used these lavishly, both to express and to interpret the spirit and actions of

PREFACE ix

their predecessors. In this very condensed sketch I have laid emphasis on those phases of history which the Belgians themselves most value, and which they have notably represented in art, so that they are most visible to the tourist to-day. I have utilized not only the conclusions of critical scholarship, but also the results of my own studies and observations. Space, however, permits only a view of the bold headlands of the national history. One admires the experience-wise sons of Belgium, in their frank setting-forth, with pen, brush, and chisel, both the humiliations and the glories of their native land. They know that " Life often jests at what Death makes immortal."

I have been careful to show our debt to the Walloons (who, rather than the Dutch, first made homes in New Netherland, and, with the Flemings, furnished so large a contribution to the American composite), and to call attention to their great symbol of faith, — the Belgic Confession. In my large congregation at Schenectady (1877-1886), yes, and in Boston and Ithaca, were hundreds of people, like the de Forests, van Antwerps, etc., who were descended from forefathers taught by Guido de Bray and fugitives from the Spanish invasion of 1567. Thousands of Americans who say and believe that their ancestors were "Huguenots" are, in reality, descended from the Walloons.

At some future time I hope to add a volume on

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my personal adventures, experiences, observations, and studies, entitled " The American in Belgium," the fruits of my journeyings in the land of the Maas and the Sambre.

W. E. G.

Ithaca, New York.

PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

In this revised and enlarged edition I have scrutinized the text and made such corrections as seemed necessary, after my last visit to Belgium in 1913, when I went over a large part of what became the battle Une of 1914-16.

An additional chapter on * Brave Little Belgium" brings the historical narrative into focus with the initial events of the great world-war. In this, and in correcting the text, I have been aided by correspondents in or from Belgium, whom I thank heartily.

A final chapter glances at military campaigns and at the towering figures of their leaders. Henceforth Belgium must be known as one of the hero nations of the world.

The author ventures once more to remind his countrymen of the forgotten debt we owe to the Walloons, as the first home-makers in the Middle States. The story of the Pilgrims, whose tercentenary in 1920 will have almost world-wide celebration, has only of late been extricated from that of the Puritans. Why should not that of Nova Belgica be recovered?

Despite the atrocious devastation and the inxii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

credible loot of 1914-18, which throws into shadow the Spanish Fury of the sixteenth century, Belgium is still the Land of Art. The inextinguishable fires of genius and industry are steadily re-creating the land of Van Eyck, Memhng, Rubens, and MaeterHnck. The country of the Walloons and Flemings will have a rebirth of freedom as surely as that for which, at Gettysburg, our Lincoln prayed in behalf of the nation of which we are part. May the unbroken friendship between Belgium and the United States expand and deepen for the mutual benefit of both peoples.

W. E. G,

Ithaca, New York, September 17, 1919

Contents

I. The Face of the Country . . . • 1

II. The Roman Dominion and Results . . 10

III. The Coming of the Franks . . • . 20

Chapter I The Face Of The Country

To the American who has planned to enter continental Europe through the gateway of the Scheldt Kiver, making Antwerp his threshold, both the sandy dunes and this arm of the sea have a most fascinating history. At once the name of Low Countries seems appropriate, for from the steamer's deck only church spires are visible above the flats and hollows.

Yet the panorama, to the student of American origins, has many a story to tell. While still off the low French coast of what was once Belgic territory, we catch a view of the spires of Dunkirk. The name is Flemish, not French. It means the Dune-kerk, or church in the dunes. Out of this coign of vantage, in the fighting days of the Dutch Republic, the " enemy," or the " pirates " under the Spanish flag, swooped upon the Amsterdam ships bound to America, bringing the settlers from Old to New Netherland. In the sealed contract with the domine, schoolmaster, or emigrant on his voyage to Manhattan, Long Island, the Raritan, Delaware Bay, or Mohawk Valley, it was stipulated that he would be ransomed and his salary paid while in prison, if captured by the ferocious Dunkirkers.

Here lived Jean Bart, who first served under de Ruyter and then turned his coat and devastated Dutch fishing-smacks. Did the French Government mean a joke, when, at the Hudson-Fulton celebration in 1909, they sent their battleship named after Jean Bart to particij^te in the frolic on the Hudson ? Or was their list of naval heroes so scanty? In September, 1911, one of the six great Dreadnaughts of France took the water, and with the bottle of wine broken over her bow was pronounced the name of the Dunkirker, Jean Bart. To-day the French city boasts a bronze statue of the hero.

Here, too, at Dunkirk were the headquarters of the Yankee privateers during our Revolutionary War, when, out of a hundred and fifty marauding vessels that preyed on British commerce and " lifted" five million dollars' worth of the enemy's property on the high seas, at least seventy-eight were under the flag of the Continental Congress, of thirteen stripes. These American privateers made King George's people want peace in 1783. For a long time the Quai des Am^ricains was a bustling place.

Nieupoort comes next, where, in 1600, the Dutch Republican army under young Maurice, son of William the Silent, and the political father of New Netherland, for the first time in Dutch his-

THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY 3

tory overcame a Spanish army in the open field. Maurice won a victory which, when celebrated by illuminations in Amsterdam, was the occasion of the van Rensselaer motto, which the young general himself bestowed, "I excel all." This victory made possible the safe residence of the Walloons and the Pilgrim Fathers in Leyden, and because of it they were able to get to America to settle the Middle States and New England.

Ostend, with its gay summer throngs, recalls how, in 1854, President Pierce directed our proslavery envoys in Europe — Buchanan, Mason, and Soul^ — to discuss the Cuban question ; how their ultimatum to Spain was to "sell out"; and how such a contention in the " Ostend Manifesto " was denounced by the opposite party platform as "the highwayman's plea that ' might makes right.' "

But let us forget politics, even those old and cold, for in Belgium they are lively and hot enough, between Liberal and Conservative, because religion is mixed with state policy. We shall return to ancient American history, as we enter the broad Scheldt.

From the deck of a Red Star steamer, on our left as we take on our pilot, we gaze at Flushing. Here lived in the seventh century, Willibrord, the first Christian missionary; and hence, in the eighteenth century, came the first English-speaking minister to the Dutch congregations on Manhattan Island, serving from 1763 to 1779. Here on that June morning in 1864 lay the Kearsarge, when her commander Winslow received word to fight the Alabama.

On our right is Breskins, one of the places which suggest the three golden balls of the pawnbroker, for, with Flushing and Rammekins, thrifty Queen Elizabeth held this place as " collateral," before she would let the London merchants advance money or send soldiers to the Dutch in their war of independence against Spain. As we pass farther up " the grayest of gray rivers," we find it hard to discover the country, so low does it lie behind the dikes. Only here and there do we catch a glimpse of even a lofty church spire. Everything seems down in the cellar.

Until we cross the Belgian frontier, near the point at which the stream narrows and turns to the right, the land we see is Zeeland. It lies within the domains of Queen Wilhelmina and belongs to Holland. Motley tells us how, when former queens of commerce, Verona, Venice, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Bruges, had passed the day of their glory and were aging to decay, "Antwerp, with its deep and convenient river, stretched its arm to the ocean and caught the golden prize, as it fell from its sister cities' grasp."

The red-roofed farmhouses, the gardens and the orchards, the herds of cattle and the little low dwellings, the churches, with their graveyards below and their towers above, all come into view.

THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY 5

Everything recalls what we have read about in the southern Netherlands. The arms of the windmills are gyrating on land, and the brown-sailed, thickprowed, heavy-looking boats bump against the waves. Soon we catch sight of the great cathedral spire, the most " ladylike " of all the glorious creations of man that lift their heads to the sky. Here and there other towers, like winged forms of life, seem to fly into view. The houses, with their serrated lines of gables, or crow steps, wear an air of friendly welcome. At last we come into full view of Antwerp, one of the greatest of the world's seaports. Her proud citizens, once hoping that their city, the richest in Europe, would '' on the outstretched forefinger of all time sparkle forever," coined the proverb, "The whole world is a ring, of which Antwerp is the diamond." But that was before Alva and Philip H ! Thus they talked before Spanish oppression drove out the best intellect of the country to enrich rival nations. For two hundred and fifteen years the Belgians were a " hermit nation " so far as intrusion from seacommerce was concerned. She was as truly sealed up from the ocean as was Japan, and for the same length of time.

Our entrance into the land of the Belgae is at the northern end, and farthest from that at which Caesar crossed its threshold. We are in the greatest of Flemish cities — the home of Rubens. Making our way to the great square, we behold a superb fountain surrounded by a small mountain of bronze. It is not so large as that first metallic wonder of the world, the Dai Butsu, or Great Buddha, of Kamakura, in Nippon, but each of these works of art, so far apart, typifies in a sense the long and fascinating story of the country in which it is reared.

At the masthead of our steamer flies a flag with the tricolor, red, yellow, and black, of Brabant, which floats over nearly eight million people. We recall that this, the central province, is the most famous of the nine, while Antwerp is the most renowned of Belgian cities. Yet how did the names Brabant and Antwerp arise ? Even the attempt to answer this question shows that when we dip into the local lore, we are in a world outside of science. Despite the ultra-practical nature of the land and the people, rich in cows, coal, machinery, and money, Belgium has a large fairy population. Her people enjoy themselves in the realms of imagination as well as on the solid earth.

According to a legend which the natives dearly love, there was a famous Fraukish chief named Sylvius Brabo, and Brabant, the land of Brabo, was his domain. On the banks of the Scheldt, a mighty giant, probably a feudal baron, had his castle. This terrible fellow, named Antigonus, was a robber, who compelled every boat that passed his grim stronghold to pay a heavy toll. Should

THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY 7

any captain refuse the mulct, the giant cut off his hand and threw it into the Scheldt. Thus, out of an etymology of myth made in the nurseries, Antwerp means " hand-werpen," or the "hand-throwing." Many sets of five fingers went into the Scheldt.

Young Brabo, the Belgian hero, like his cousin Jack the Giant Killer of England, was as eager to fight this human monster as our dime-novel reading boys once were to shoot Indians. Entering the robber's castle, Brabo killed him and then tossed his big hand into the river. One discerns in the bronze the headless trunk, the huge legs, arms, and feet of Antigonus, and, resting on top of his body, like Mount JEtna above Vulcan's forges, is the castle of Antwerp, on top of which Brabo stands facing the water, with his token of victory. The arms of the city contain on the escutcheon two severed hands.

Yet back of all the legends and guesswork, one finds on mediaeval maps, before Antwerp had become a place of trade, the name " Andhunerbo," or "hand-throwing." InFrankish days the cuttingoff of hands for theft was as common in Europe as in Islam, where the same punishment was meted out to a defiler or seller of a copy of the Koran to infidels.

On this same river some story-tellers locate the legend of Lohengrin, knight of the silver-white armor, who in a boat of shell, drawn by a swan of snow-white plumage, rescues a maiden in peril. Like the mikado myths of Japan, this one was spun to glorify the house of Bouillon, — of which Godfrey the Crusader, whose superb equestrian statue stands in Brussels, was a scion.

Other writers, including Mr. Motley, — who always loved a joke, even in writing his serious history, — found a derivation of Antwerp's name in the fact that the Antwerpers built wharves in very early times and had a flourishing commerce. Hence, says Mr. Motley, Antwerp's name means an t' werf," or "on the wharf."

The Belgian Lion " was another name for the once united seventeen provinces of the Netherlands, of which Belgium has nine. One steps ashore to be confronted with mediaeval emblems, among which he finds that Leo is the chief beast in public heraldry. At least six of the nine provinces have a lion on their shields, while Liege has three of the long-maned beasts standing on their hind legs. This creature does not represent the lion that we see in cages in a menagerie, or that is shot in Africa, but, instead, a composite of curls and claws, with tail and limbs in the most rampant and frivolous attitudes, which are rather more fantastic than natural. In the Netherlands, these funny caricatures of the real beast run riot over coats of blazonry, both public and private. For centuries the home of democracy was in the Low Countries, and ordinary people had family coats

THE FACE OF THE COUNTRT 9

of arms as well as the nobles, who could claim no monopoly of the menagerie, real or imaginary.

In a country so rich in " estaminets," or beer saloons, in which tobacco is burned and alcohol is supposed to furnish stamina, — where the tourist who asks for plain water to drink is apt to be stared at as if he were a lunatic, — the name of Antigonus seems strange. Is it not written that the general bearing this name, who served Alexander the Great, " discharged some of his officers because they spent their time in taverns"? However, it shows that the Belgians consider their country to be very old.

Eoughly speaking, their history may be divided into ten eras: prehistoric, Roman, Frankish, feudal, Spanish, Reformatory, Austrian, Napoleonic, Dutch, and national. It was not until 1830 that Belgium became a united and independent country, whose perpetual neutrality was guaranteed by the Great Powers in 1839.

Chapter II

C^SAR is the godfather of Belgium, for he first introduced the brave Belgae to the world. His deathless " commentaries " contain the initial description of the country.

In 57 B.C. this Roman entered Gaul with eight legions, comprising fifty thousand disciplined soldiers. In the territory now comprised in Belgium, he found that the various tribes had formed leagues for mutual defense. They numbered about a million and a half people and could put on foot an army of three hundred thousand warriors. The Romans marched in from the west, probably in the region of Mons, in Hainault.

The Nervii, or confederated Belgic tribes, had sent into the forests lining the Scheldt all their people except fighting men, had fortified their camp, had gathered a host, which with their allies numbered eighty thousand, and awaited the onset of the Roman invaders. They were led by their chief Boduognat, whose name probably means " Son of Victory."

Caesar, entirely unaware of the nearness of the enemy, on reaching the river ordered a camp to be laid out. He then sent some horsemen across to reconnoitre the hill on the opposite side. Like Indian braves, the young Nervii could not be restrained when a prize was so near, and in one wild rush they rose and with shouts overwhelmed the Eoman cavalry. Then, dashing across the river, they pressed the Romans so hard that the Twelfth Legion began to waver. Caesar, who in his tent had heard the noise, took in the situation at once. He rallied his troops, and by his personal courage saved the day. Had the legions broken their ranks and the savages got inside their squares, they would have been overwhelmed. But Caesar's presence strengthened the wavering lines. As usual, discipline proved superior to valor. The half -naked warriors found confronting them a wall of steel and brass which they vainly attempted to break. For hours the slaughter continued. The Nervii fought to the last man. It was literally true that, towards the end, the chief obstacle between the natives and their foreign foes consisted of a rampart of the dead bodies of their countrymen. Only five hundred survivors were left. The tribes were virtually annihilated. It was the submission only of old men, widows, and orphans which Caesar received. To them, in admiration, the conqueror granted the protection of Rome, the status of a free people, exemption from taxation, and the name, style, and title of allies, instead of subjects. At Rome, in the temple of the Capitoline Jove, for this victory the sacrificial fires of thanksgiving to the gods burned for fifteen days.

Caesar's conquest of Belgic land need not here be told in detail. It was as business-like a " proposition " as the steady fulfillment of a contract. Civilization prevailed over savagery. Another great battle, over the Aduatici, virtually decided the final conquest of the lower Belgian land, the area of hills and valleys, or Walloonia. Thirtythree thousand men were sold as slaves. War was a business with the Romans. After victory, began an auction for the labor market of the time.

It now remained to Caesar to make himself master of the north, where lived the men of the swamps, the Menapii and the Morini. In their impenetrable fastnesses and forests they believed that their dark and spongy land could not be successfully invaded. The legions needed hard ground for their baggage and engines of war, their movements and formations. When Caesar attempted to cut down the forests and open the marshes to sunlight, he realized the magnitude of his task, and gave it up. However, he " pacified " enough of the land of the Morini to carry out his favorite plan of invading Britain, in which he succeeded. He had already bridged the Scheldt River at Xanten, and with five legions assailing the Menapii on three sides, he reduced the tribe to complete subjection within two years.

The Belgic tribes, however, had plucked up fresh courage during Caesar's absence in England, and in the swamps and forests of the Ardennes, they united under Ambiorix to secure independence, and fresh campaigns were necessary. In one instance the Roman soldiers were treacherously ambuscaded in the woods and butchered to the last man. Caesar first relieved his captain, Sabinus, who was surrounded by the enemy, and then, joined by Titus Labienus, led a host of vengeance, numbering a hundred thousand men, across the country to where are now Liege and Maastricht. He subjugated the Eburones with fire and sword. Ambiorix, uncaptured, escaped into the forests. After massacre and famine, the Eburones disappeared from history.

By the year 50 B.C., the bravest tribes were annihilated, the others humbled, and the Belgic land was conquered. After the soldier, Rome sent her statesman. Caesar combined the land of the Belgae, Celtae, and Aquitani into a single province, but Augustus later divided this part of Gaul into three provinces, one of which, in the north, bordering on the sea, was named Belgica. To Caesar belongs the credit of conquest ; to Augustus, the honor of a civil organization which was to endure for five centuries.

Yet Rome never made the same progress in enforcing her civilization upon the Belgae as upon the Gauls, and the reason seems to be plain. The conquest was far from complete in the great for-

U BELGIUM: THE LAND OF ART

ests like those in the Ardennes, while in the impassable swamps and marshes near the coast it was hardly felt. Throughout the ages, Belgic land has ever been repopulated by fresh accessions from the eastward, from beyond the Maas, from Germany, and not from France. Thousands of the prisoners taken in the long wars with the Germans along the Rhine fled to or were established as colonists along the Maas and the Sambre ; that IS, in the region of the Flemings, or fugitives — flander-land, or "Flanders." Thus, reinforced from the forests, these northerners retained the ruder and more robust habits of Teutonic men. The Romans, having already noted their warlike character and aversion to roof dwellings, declared that the Belgic folk were less conquered than dominated.

The conclusions to be drawn from a study of the Roman conquest of this region are, that although the natives could not resist the legions in battle, yet the Belgae, caring neither for houses nor for towns, and proud of their forest origins, preserved to a great extent their ancestral customs and traits. Constant reinforcements from beyond the Rhine enabled them to maintain their original characteristics. So it came to pass that when the Huns from Siberia, in the fourth century, were humbling both the Roman Empire and Germany, the new-coming Franks found refuge in Belgic forests, and there were enabled to consolidate their forces, breast the storm, and reemerge with power.

A survey of the first six centuries of known Belgic history enables us to see that the spirit and sentiment, so necessary for the rearing of an independent state and a free people, were increased rather than decreased by the discipline under the Romans. As rightfully as do the English by London Bridge and near their mighty houses of Parliament, proudly rear in imperishable bronze the figures of Cassivellaunus and Queen Boadicea, as defenders of their native soil, and the French on Mont Auxois the figure of Vercingetorix ; so the Belgians do honor to the courage and rude patriotism of their primitive chieftains. At Antwerp stands the bronze statue of Boduognat, chief of the Nervii, and at Tongres that of Ambiorix.

In its dualism of races, languages, and physical features, Belgium is much the same to-day as the Romans found it. The national household contains two ethnic stocks, — the Walloons, or Celtic, French-speaking people in the south, and the Flemings, or Dutch-speaking people of Teutonic stock in the north. One half of the country produces metals and the other half grain and food, as if Vulcan and Ceres had divided the domain between them. The Walloons, as a rule, work in the foundry and the Flemings on the farm. In the census by languages, the number of those speaking Flemish is somewhat over one half of the total population, but most educated Belgians speak both languages, and the laws are issued in bilingual form. Walloon, which is old Gaulish, and not " corrupt French," is heard only in the rural regions, almost all Walloons now using modern French. Nearly all the cities, towns, and rivers have two names ; as, Doornick and Tournay ; Mechlin and Malines ; Mons and Bergen ; Maas and Meuse, — the former Flemish, the latter Walloon. In this book, as a rule, the Flemish form is used ; as, for example, Maas, instead of Meuse, the name of the country's chief river.

If Belgian humanity is bilingual, soil and geology show the same dualism. The ranges of mountains of central Europe, which re emerge in the British Islands, have their lower curves and upper strata in Belgium, thus making the hilly country of the Ardennes on the east, the great flat heaths of the Campine moorland in the central portion, and the sandy low country on the north, which is diked in from the sea. The south or Walloon country is a factory. The northern or Flemish part is a garden. Brabant, in which is Brussels, is a link between the two, both in languages and in industries. In the " black country," or Hainault, swarms of miners live and delve. Solid beds of coal, discovered in 1906, underlie the Campine, or vast heath of Limburg.

Although one may draw a line across the country from east to west, separating Walloon and

A MARKET TEAM IN FLANDERS

Fleming humanity, and the soils, the products, the languages, even the aspects of civilization, yet in modern Belgium, north and south, Fleming and Walloon, mechanic and farm laborer, make one nation. Throughout all ages of calm or storm since history began, despite despot and demagogue, social unity has been preserved.

Certain factors have ever worked for Belgian nationality. The Flemings, of German descent, being at the west, close neighbors of France, were tied by many interests to the French ; while the Walloons, of much the same blood and speech as the Gauls and French, in the east were set closest to Germany. This curious allocation of the two peoples, despite difference in blood and language, has made the forces of attraction greater than those of repulsion. The long story of the two peoples is like that of Castor and Pollux. Although the words " Flanders," " Fleming," and " Flemish " are the more common in the English language and literature, millions of Americans should not forget their ancestry among the Walloons or French-speaking Belgians.

The note of life, in the Belgium we knew, was industry. By man's toil the wilderness became a garden and the dark wood open to sunlight. Even down to the battle of Waterloo, in 1815, dense forests covered hundreds of square miles where later were rich farms and fine country seats. Within those wooded areas, until the fourteenth century roamed droves of wild horses. In the leafy coverts a rich fauna on hoof and wing found a joyous home, while the tangled woodland in every age gave shelter to the human exile, outlaw and outcast. To-day the bear, the beaver, the lion, the wolf, the oroc, the hyena, the wild boar, and other carnivorous animals, once common in Belgium, live only with dragons, griffins, and creatures of imagination, in the rich heraldry of the nobles, and on the town arms. By the constant toil of fifty generations of men, — yes, and of women, — by the application of skill and intelligence, by the use of labor-saving inventions, and by the importation of fertilizers from many lands, the larger part of the Low Countries became rich and beautiful, the loved home of happy millions.