HISTORY 



23 



For more than a century this kingdom was 

 contended for by the kings of France and the 

 emperors of Germany. In 953, it was conferred 

 by the Emperor Otto upon Bruno, archbishop 

 of Cologne, who assumed the title of archduke, 

 and divided it into two duchies: Upper and 

 Lower Lorraine. In the frequent struggles 

 which took place during the Eleventh Century, 

 Luxemburg, Namur, Hainaut, and Lie"ge usu- 

 ally sided with Franco, while Brabant, Holland, 

 and Flanders commonly took the side of Ger- 

 many. The contest between the civic and in- 

 dustfial organizations and feudalism, which 

 went on through the Twelfth and Thirteenth 

 Centuries, and in which Flanders bore a leading 

 part, was temporarily closed by the defeat of 

 the Ghentese under Van Artevelde in 1382. 

 In 1384. I landers and Artois fell to the House 

 of Burgundy, which, in less than a century, 

 acquired the whole of the Netherlands. The 

 death of Charles the Bold at Nancy, in his 

 attempt to raise the duchy into a kingdom 



M77 waa followed by the succession and mar- 

 riage of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, by 

 which the Netherlands became an Austrian pos- 

 session. With the accession, however, of the 

 Austrian House of Habsburg to the Spanish 

 throne, the Netherlands, after a brief period of 

 prosperity, attended by the spread of the re- 

 formed religion, became the scene of increas- 

 ingly severe persecution under Charles V. and 

 Philip II. of Spain. Driven to rebellion, the 

 seven northern states under \Villiam of Orange, 

 the Silent, succeeded in establishing their inde- 

 pendence, but the southern portion, or Belgium, 

 continued under the Spanish yoke. 



From 1598 to 1621, the Spanish Netherlands 

 were transferred as an independent kingdom to 

 the Austrian branch of the family by the mar- 

 riage of Isabella, daughter of Philip II., with the 

 Archduke Albert of Austria. He died childless, 

 however, and they reverted to Spain. After 

 being twice conquered by Louis XIV., con- 



rsred again by Marlborough, coveted by all 

 powers, deprived of territory on the one 

 -ide 1>\ Holland and on the other by France, 

 the Southern Netherlands were at length in 

 1711. by the peace of Utrecht, again placed 

 under the dominion of Austria, with the name 

 of the Austrian Netherlands. During the Aus- 

 trian war of -uccession the French, under Saxe, 

 conquered nearly the whole country, but re- 

 stored it in 1748 by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

 .r ( 17. ">()-<;:{; diii not affect 



Belgium, and in that period, and during the 

 peace which followed, she regained much of her 



prosperity under Maria Theresa and Charles of 

 Lorraine. On the succession of Joseph II., the 

 "philosophic emperor," a serious insurrection 

 occurred, the Austrian army being defeated at 

 Turnhout, and the provinces forming them- 

 selves into an independent state as United Bel- 

 gium (1790). They had scarcely been subdued 

 again by Austria before they were conquered 

 by the revolutionary armies of France, and the 

 country divided into French departments, the 

 Austrian rule being practically closed by the 

 battle of Fleurus (1794), and the French posses- 

 sion confirmed by the treaties of Campo Formic 

 (1797) and Lun6ville (1801). 



In 1815, Belgium was united by the Congress 

 of Vienna to Holland, both countries together 



; now forming one state, the Kingdom of the 

 Netherlands. This union lasted till 1830, when 

 a revolt broke out among the Belgians, and soon 

 attained such dimensions that the Dutch troops 



j were unable to repress it. A convention of the 

 great powers assembled in London, favored the 



' separation of the two countries, and drew up a 

 treaty to regulate it; the National Congress of 

 Belgium offering the crown, on the recommenda- 

 tion of England, to Leopold, Prince of Saxe- 

 Coburg, who acceded to it under the title of 

 Leopold I., on July 21, 1831. In November of 

 the same year, the five powers guaranteed the 

 crown to him by the treaty of London, and the 

 remaining difficulties with Holland were settled 

 in 1839, when the Dutch claims to territory in 

 Limburg and Luxemburg were withdrawn. The 

 reign of Leopold was for Belgium a prosperous 

 period of thirty-four years. Leopold II. suc- 

 ceeded his father in 1865. In recent years the 

 chief feature of Belgian politics has been a keen 

 struggle between the clerical and the liberal 

 party. Till 1878 the clerical party maintained 

 the upper hand, but to a large extent by corrup- 

 tion at the elections. In 1877, a bill was passed 

 to put down corruption, and to increase the 

 number of town deputies to the Chamber of 

 Representatives; and at the next election*, in 

 June, 1878, the Liberals gained a majority, 

 which they lost in 1884. In 1885, on the c..n- 



. stitution by the Congress of Berlin of the Congo 

 Free State, in which Leopold II. had shown an 

 active interest, he wa invited to become its 

 sovereign, and has since held that title. I'm ice 

 Albert, the king's nephew, born 1875, is his heir 

 presumptive. 



The Congo Free State passed under the 

 Mi/erainty of Belgium in 185)0. and was subject 

 to a species of absolutism down to 1908. 



BISHOPS AND POPES OF ROME 



I'ON 10 t 



PONTIFICATE 





T 



. . . 



Cletus or Anacletua. 



"t Century 

 A. D. A. D. 

 41 67 



67 79 



Irr I.. 

 I-. - 



01-100 

 Stcond Century 



100-109 

 about 109-119 



!!'. Us 



