Music:

Member Since: 1/20/2008
Band Website: www.flandria-nostra.nl
Band Members:

Sigfried - Guitar, Vocals
Tijl - Bass, Vocals
Diederik - Drums
Nele - synth

The Frankish and Saxon tribes settled in the combined delta of the rivers Rhine and Schelde (Scheldt).

The name "Flanders" appeared for the first time in the 7th century. Medieval Flanders was situated on the east bank of the river Schelde (Scheldt) and included what is now the Département du Nord in France, with the cities of Dunkirk (Duinkerke) and Calais (Kales). The 843 Treaty of Verdun divided the territory currently known as Flanders into French and German parts, with the Scheldt as its border. The provinces of Brabant and Limburg are now part of Flanders, but in the Middle Ages they belonged to the German Holy Roman Empire.

Important cities developed in medieval Flanders: Gent (Ghent), Brugge (Bruges) and Ieper (Ypres). By the 11th century Flanders was the richest part of Europe. Many Flemish knights participated in the Crusades and in the 13th century the Count of Flanders was even crowned Emperor of Constantinople. Other Flemings colonized part of eastern Europe. The name of the German region Fläming is a reminder of this settlement.

Around 1300 the king of France tried to annex Flanders. On 11 July 1302, Flemish town militias defeated a French army near Kortrijk. This battle is called the "Battle of the Golden Spurs", after the spurs that were captured from the slain French knights. The 11th of July is still Flanders' National Holiday. In 1385, the County of Flanders was unified with the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Holland and the County of Henegouwen (Hainaut) under Burgundian leadership. During the Burgundian period the Counties and Duchies of the Low Countries (Netherlands) gravitated towards greater unity.

Let's make a huge jump towards 1795 when the southern Netherlands were annexed by France. During the French period the bourgeoisie in the Dutch-speaking areas of the South became French-speaking. After the defeat of Napoleon (1815) the Netherlands were reunified as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. This was the beginning of a period of great economic growth. In the Dutch-speaking areas of the southern Netherlands King William I made Dutch the official language instead of French. Now Francophone and oriented generally towards France, a large part of the Catholic middle class of the industrialized south was very much against Protestant "Holland." Moreover both France and England wished that the relatively powerful United Kingdom of the Netherlands did not exist. After a rebellion by the middle classes, partly organized by the French and supported by French military intervention, the southern Netherlands became independent in 1830 under the name Belgium.

Despite the fact that the majority of the population of Belgium at the time of its creation were Dutch-speaking, the new authorities proceeded to turn Belgium into a Francophone state. Governed by French-speakers, Belgium became a French vassal state. Charles Rogier, the first head of the Belgian government, was a Frenchman. The First King, Leopold I von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, a German prince related to the British Royal Family, married the daughter of the French king. French was the only official language in government, law, education, and the army. Dutch, the language of the disenfranchised majority, was completely disregarded and marginalised.

Flanders had painters as Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weiden, Hans Memling, Pieter Brueghel, Pieter Paul Rubens and many many more. It had Belforts, Printers as Plantin and Moretus, scientists as there were Andreas Vesalius, map drawers as Mercator. Long before indeed Flanders and the Low Lands (Netherlands) were a pearl in the crown of Ancient Europe!