426 Chapter XVIII
embourg were the most important), virtually cut in two by the large Bishopric of
Liège, an independent member- state of the Holy Roman Empire. There had been
no national government or institutions embracing these provinces as a whole, ex-
cept what the Hapsburg monarchy had supplied as a superstructure, until the Bel-
gian revolution of 1789, in which the United Belgian States had asserted their in-
dependence from Austria. The anti- Austrian movement was made up of two
groups with diametrically opposed intentions. One, the Estates party, consisted of
those who objected to Austrian reforms in the 1780’s, and wished to preserve the
historic identity of the several provinces unimpaired. This meant preserving the
position of the great abbots, who led the regular clergy and controlled much of the
land, of the nobility with its seignieurial and political rights, and of certain bur-
gesses of old- fashioned type, gildmasters, burgomasters, and councillors in those
towns which enjoyed representation in provincial bodies. Few groups in Europe
were more conservative and even traditionalistic than the Belgian Statists, whose
“revolution” was entirely exhausted in revolt against the Austrian crown. The men
of the other party called themselves Democrats, and were termed Vonckists by
their opponents. They wished in the Revolution of 1789, while getting rid of the
Austrian overlordship, to introduce internal changes also, by which the special po-
litical role of great prelates and nobles should be reduced, and more of a place
marked out for middle- class people, beyond the sphere of town and gild localism
as inherited from the Middle Ages.
It is a disputed question whether there was any Belgian nationality at this time.
Both parties were anti- foreign and anti- Austrian. The Estates party felt a kind of
cultural nationalism, setting a high value on the rich heritage of town and province
in the old Low Countries. The Democrats moved more toward the modern con-
ception of a political nation, with a degree of equality of rights and opportunity for
participation in public life for all residents of the area. The two were too divided to
create any workable government. Provincial, town, and class barriers were stronger
than all- Belgian national ties. The two parties together drove out the Austrians in
1789; the Statists then in 1790 suppressed and drove out the Democrats, of whom
thousands fled to France; the Austrians then at the end of 1790 put down the
Statists, many of whom fled to England or Holland. The years 1791 and 1792 are
known in Belgian history as the first Austrian restoration.
A shaky regime confronted Revolutionary France when war began. The Aus-
trian officials enjoyed little useful support. The native Belgian leaders were in exile,
and those who remained at home were disaffected, and secretly in touch with one
or the other of the two opposing émigré camps. The Antwerp bankers refused the
war loan of 1792. There were anti- Austrian demonstrations in various towns, and
some young men went off to join the Belgian Legion in France. Paine’s Rights of
Man circulated in French and Flemish. The populace, as in most countries of
Western Europe outside France, tended to uphold their existing superiors. But in
Belgium, more than in most countries, the rural and urban masses were amenable
to direction by monks and abbots, and the great abbots strongly disliked the secu-
that I have been able to learn, that I have made no attempt to split the difference, but have simply
agreed with Miss Tassier. For an account of the Belgian revolution of 1789–1790, see 424–34.