BELGIUM. History. xvii 1)

and the lordship of Malines, which at a later period rendered }

themselves independent of their powerful neighbours. Flanders, on

which attained to great prosperity by means of its manufactures

aud commercial enterprise, carried on a long-continued struggle

gainst France, the result of which, chiefly through the strenuous

rtions of the cities of Ghent and Bruges, was the establishment

of its complete independence. On the extinction of the male line

of the Counts of Flanders in 1385, Flanders became annexed

to Burgundy by the marriage of Philip the Bold with a daughter

of the Flemish princely race, and by the beginning of the 15th

cent. most of the other states were also united, by means of later

marriages and other contracts, inheritance, ete., under the suprem-

acy of the Dukes of Burgundy. This change of dynasty was mos

favourable to the growth of art in the Netherlands. The splendour-

loving Philip the Bold (d. 1404) employed artists of every kind, i

particularly goldsmiths, while the name of his grandson Philip the

Good (41419-1467), to whom Jan van Byck was court-painter, is

inseparably connected with the first bloom of Flemish painting. j
In 1477 the Netherlands came into the possession of the House Ora

of Hapsburg by the marriage of Mary of Burgundy, the daughter

of Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, with Maximilian,

afters Germany. The children of this marriage ie

» Philip the Handsome (d. 1506), Duke of Burgundy and King a te

of Castile (in right of his wife, Johanna the Mad), and Margaret of Alias

Austria, regent of the Netherlands from 1506 to her death in 1530. i

Philip’s son, Charles V., who was born at Ghent in 1500, and sub- ney

sequently became Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, succeeded {

also to the Netherlandish provinces, which on his abdication in 155) et

came under the sway of his son Philip II. Thenceforward the Ne-

therlands were subject to Spanish Supremacy. Philip appointed his

    

 

   

 

       

 

   

 

    

 

ards Emperor of

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half-sister, Margaret of Parma, regent of the Netherlands (4559-67 ), iE
and selected Granvella, Bishop of Arras, as her counsellor and as- ae
sistant. Religious agitations, the excessive increase of the number of } i
the bishops (1559), the burdensome presence of the Spanish troops, | pi

and other grievances led to numerous tumults, to suppress which
the king dispatched the Duke of Alva to the Netherlands with an
army of 20,000 men. The extreme cruelty with which Alva fulfilled
his task resulted in the famous revolt of the United Netherlands
in 1568. Success was achieved by the northern provinces only, |

which now constitute the Kingdom of Holland, whilst the south-

ern districts, the present Kingdom of Belgium, after protract
and fierce strugel still continued to groan under the oppressive
yoke of the Spaniards. At length, under the rézime of Alexander
Farnese, Duke of Parma (1578 96), the third governor after Alva,
Belgium also succeeded in recovering the civic liberties in behalf
of which the war had originally broken out.
In 1598 the ‘Spanish Netherlands’ were ceded by Philip I. as | {
Baxzpeker’s Belgium and Holland. 10th Edit. b i,