SOUTH-EAST-FLANDERS ----- ZUID-OOST-VLAANDEREN
FLEMISH ARDENNES ----- VLAAMSE ARDENNEN
FLANDERS - BELGIUM ----- VLAANDEREN - BELGIE
Next Page Former Page Historical Overview Homepage Created 2001/03/17 |
1225 - 1625 The successive famines (the first one in 1315-17) and pestilences (the Black Death) made an abrupt end to the prosperous 13th century. Wars brought death and destruction. The start of the Hundred Years' War between England and France in 1337 meant a real set-back for the Flemish textile industry. As a result, the population decreased with one third. A stable internal and foreign policy supported the economic revival from the 15th century on, in spite of the smouldering famines and epidemics. This revival resulted in a doubling of the trade volume between 1400 and 1472. After the period of boom had reached its top level during the second quarter of the sixteenth century, the Low Countries were confronted with a religious war leading to the worst social crisis in its existence. During the Iconoclastic Outbreak in August 1566, Calvinists caused devastation in 150 towns and villages. After years of severe repression by the Spanish government, the Pacification of Gent in 1576 brought some new hope for peace, but finally, a civil war appeared to be unavoidable. The villages of South-East-Flanders suffered a hard time after being conquered by the Calvinistic Republic of Gent in 1578. Chronicler Bernardus De Jonghe found "that there was hardly one complete house left between Gent, Aalst, Geraardsbergen and Ninove, and that the peasants were afraid to spud out the weeds on their fields, fearing the soldiers of both sides" (dat 'er nouwelykx een geheel huys te vinden was tusschen Ghendt, Aelst, Geertsberge, en Ninove, en dat de Boeren uyt vreese van de wederzydsche Sodaten hunnen Vrugten ten Platte Lande, niet en dierven van het onkruydt zuyveren). After a siege of three months, the Spanish conquered the Oudenaarde and Pamele on July 5, 1582, and the City of Aalst at the end of 1583. By that time, the population of the Land van Aalst was decimated from about 95,000 to 32,500. Agricultural production and economic activity revived only slowly. In seven villages, Protestant communities remained, grouped under the name of the Vlaamse Olijfberg (Flemish Mount of Olives). Source: Koenraad DE WOLF, Architectuurgids Zuid-Oost-Vlaanderen. Gotische Bouwkunst (1225 - 1625), Zottegem, 1997, pp. 7-9. (English translation: Architectural Guide of South-East-Flanders. Gotic Architecture.) |
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