Belgium and Luxembourg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

40 INTRODUCING BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

TIMELINE

1500

1506 Margaret of Austria

moves the Burgundian

capital from Brussels

to Mechelen

1539 A rebellion in Ghent

is brutally crushed by

Charles V, and its leaders

publicly humiliated

1519 Charles V,

King of Spain,

becomes Holy

Roman Emperor

THE HABSBURG DYNASTY

Mary of Burgundy had two

children before she died,

leaving Maximilian and the

Habsburg dynasty the rul-

ers of Burgundy. Maximilian

began to raise taxes and

tried to reduce privileges

that had been granted by

Mary to secure the support

of the cities. By 1488,

Flanders was in revolt.

Bruges made the critical

error of holding Maximilian prisoner

in a house in the main square.

Maximilian exacted his revenge on the

city by transferring power to Ghent.

At this time, Antwerp also began to

rise as a leading commercial centre.

In 1494, Maximilian passed his rule of

the Low Countries to his son, Philip

the Handsome. Philip married Joanna

of Castile two years later, and their

first son, Charles, was born in Ghent

in 1500. While his parents ruled in

Spain, Charles was raised by his aunt,

Empress Margaret of Austria, who

acted as Regent of the Low Countries

and moved the capital to Mechelen.

SPANISH RULE

In 1516, Charles inherited the Spanish

throne and in 1519, he became the

Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V.

He was now master of a major

empire that spanned much of Europe,

and also included new overseas pos-

sessions in the Americas and East

Asia. Nevertheless, he considered

Flanders – under the governorship of

his sister, Mary – his real home. The

Low Countries prospered with land

reclamation, canal-building and the

expansion of industries producing

pottery, glass, tapestry and linen. In

1529, Charles V forced François I of

Maximillian of Austria with Mary

and their family, painted in 1516

1521 Erasmus helps

found the College

of Three Languages

at Leuven

Desiderius Erasmus

1520 1540

France to surrender his

claim to Flanders. This

was the result of a series

of battles – mainly for

the control of Italy –

including that of Pavia in

which François I was cap-

tured. However, Charles’s

empire was costly to run,

and in 1539, Ghent rose

up against heavy taxa-

tion and conscription.

Charles brutally crushed

this rebellion in his native city, forc-

ing its leaders to parade before him

in only shirts, with a noose around

their necks. Stroppendragers (noose-

bearers) is still a nickname for the

people of Ghent. Meanwhile, the

Reformation, begun by Martin Luther

in Germany, had started to arouse

serious religious conflict. Its ideas

took rapid hold in the Low Countries

and by the 1520s, Protestant converts

in the region were being burnt at the

stake. Charles V abdicated in 1555. In

1529 France is

forced to abandon

its claim

to Flanders

1555 Catholic Philip II

succeeds Charles V as

Protestant fervour takes

hold of the Low Countries

Tapestry depicting the Battle of Pavia in 1525 between

Francis I of France and the Hapsburg emperor Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor