E-text prepared by Brownfox, Hélène de Mink, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 27442-h.htm or 27442-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/4/4/27442/27442-h/27442-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/4/4/27442/27442-h.zip) Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Text that was printed in bold is enclosed by equal signs (=like this=). The page advertising other books in the series has been removed to the end of this e-book. The Latin number [i] in the text refers to a transcriber's note at the end of this e-book. BELGIUM FROM THE ROMAN INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY Illustration: ALBERT I. Frontispiece. _Photo Langfier._ BELGIUM From the Roman Invasion to the Present Day by EMILE CAMMAERTS With 36 Illustrations and 9 Maps T. Fisher Unwin Ltd London: Adelphi Terrace Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1921 (for Great Britain) Copyright by G.P. Putnam's Sons (for the United States of America), 1921 First published 1921 Second Impression 1922 (All rights reserved) PREFACE We possess happily, nowadays, a few standard books, of great insight and impartiality, which allow us to form a general idea of the development of the Belgian nation without breaking fresh ground. The four volumes of Henri Pirenne's _Histoire de Belgique_ carry us as far as the Peace of Muenster, and, among others, such works as Vanderlinen's _Belgium_, issued recently by the Oxford University Press, and a treatise on Belgian history by F. Van Kalken (1920) supply a great deal of information on the modern period. To these works the author has been chiefly indebted in writing the present volume. He felt the need for placing the conclusions of modern Belgian historians within reach of British readers, and believed that, though he might not claim any very special qualifications to deal with Belgian history, his knowledge of England would allow him to present his material in the way most interesting to the English-speaking public. _Belgium_ is neither a series of essays nor a systematic text-book. Chronological sequence is preserved, and practically all important events are recorded in their appointed time, but special stress has been laid on some characteristic features of Belgian civilization and national development which are of general interest and bear on the history of Europe as a whole.