Flanders at a glance

When you say: Flanders, you may actually be referring to a number of quite distinct geographical areas. Of this, even some of our Flemish people are not fully conscious. Originally Flanders was a County, a principality, extending from a part of Northern France we still refer to as : French Flanders, and situated, more or less on the left bank of the River Scheldt ("Schelde" in Dutch), from its estuary to its source, sometimes even further Southward. In the 9th century this river formed the boundary between West-Francia (=France) and East-Francia (=Germany). They became autonomous when the Empire of Charles V was eventually split up. Flanders was part of the Kingdom of France where it was situated on the left bank of the Scheldt. Yet a smaller part of it, Imperial Flanders, was situated on the right bank of the Scheldt. It was therefore part of the German empire and the count of Flanders was subject to the King of the Holy Roman Empire who, most of the time held the title of Emperor and to whom we usually refer to as Emperor of Germany. This explains why the old name Flanders can refer to geographically distinct areas: Flanders proper, French Flanders and Imperial Flanders.

Today, the original County of Flanders is reduced to more or less two of the Belgian provinces called East and West Flanders. It was systematically eaten into from the South side, mainly in the 17th century. King Louis XIV, the "Sun-King" annexed not only Francophone Flanders, Lille, Douai and other places where French had always been the currently spoken language, but also a considerable part of the Flemish speaking areas (Duinkerke, Hondschoote, Kassel, St. Winoksbergen). In the latter areas, even though nearly everything is now French, we still find genuinely Flemish people and the place names unmistakable remind us of their Flemish past.

But the tragedy does not end here. For centuries, the mighty County of Flanders had successfully opposed the ambitions of France, sometimes even victoriously. But in the first half of the same 17th century and this time from the Northern border, the United Provinces, better known to us as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, ate their way into the Flemish territory, until finally, with the annexation of Hulst, Axel, Terneuzen, etc., they gained control over the estuary of the River Scheldt and consequently over the access to the port of Antwerp for all seafaring vessels. This move enabled them to confirm their recently acquired autonomy against the King of Spain who still ruled over the southern provinces of the Netherlands, - i.e. what is now the Kingdom of Belgium, - and had reconquered Antwerp in 1585. Thus as yet another part of Flanders got then a new name, it was called State Flanders because it was being ruled over by the State Authorities of the United Provinces; it is now called Zeeuws Flanders, because it is part of the province of Zeeland in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Thus the old County of Flanders got split up into three sections, one Belgian, one French and one Dutch. From historical point of view it was Flanders' loss.

However, Flanders today is geographically much larger than the old County. It is the territory in the northern part of the Kingdom of Belgium where Dutch is the common language. Following the political reforms that are still in progress inside Belgium, this territory has now already a parliament of its own and a governing body of ministers. It enjoys a substantial degree of autonomy to guide and control its own interests.

Main Menu Index Back