Chapter 06 - The Story of Liege

CHAPTER VI

THE STORY OF LIEGE

AT many periods, notably during the troubles of the sixteenth century, Liege lay outside the general stream of Belgian life, and enjoyed an independent existence. The separate story of the Liege principality is certainly the least-known part of Belgian history, and no doubt this is to be attributed to the fact that in the Middle Ages events in Flanders and Brabant had rarely any influence on the future of Liege. It was the one division of Belgium not included in the Burgundian Union. The single incident of the capture of the city by Charles the Bold, told by Scott in "Quentin Durward" with magnificently audacious plagiarism from the pages of Commines, probably exhausts the ordinary reader's knowledge of a State which existed for the better part of a thousand years.

In the tenth century a great prelate, equally energetic as social reformer and as curber of the feudal barons for the exaltation of the Church, founded the clerical State which existed more or less separately from its neighbors down to the French Revolution. It was long a saying among its people: "Liege owes Notger to Christ, and everything else to Notger." But three centuries before Notger, Liege was the capital of the Dukes of Austria, and Charlemagne was the first to transfer it to Aix-la-Chapelle.

Once established in the seat of authority, the bishops showed their capacity for administration. Animated by a single purpose, free of the petty rivalries which were the bane of the feudal system, they carried on a deliberate and continuous policy. What one bishop left half done his successor completed, and the Bishopric of Liege, which had been regarded as a place of retreat for penitent or invalid Austrian dukes, soon became a power in the land. Indeed, at the dawn of the twelfth century it looked quite possible that the whole of Belgium might fall into its sphere.

The Crusades gave the bishops a favorable chance of aggrandizement, and they availed themselves of it. For that remote expedition money was necessary, and as the laws forbade the ordinary citizen from dealing in money which was restricted to Lombards and Jews, there was none available among the classes from which the expeditions were drawn. But the Church was independent of the law - or rather its law was supreme - and in its hands the gifts of many generations of pious donors had accumulated. It had become the great if not the only capitalist.

The sinews of war for the first and second Crusades were provided then by the Church, and by no branch of that great organization more largely than by the Bishopric of Liege. But it has never been the practice of men, whether marked by a tonsure or not, to give without receiving an equivalent. The bishops helped Godfrey of Bouillon to equip his forces, but they took from him his castle and the feudal rights he enjoyed as Marquis of Antwerp and Lord of Malines. They also helped the Count of Hainaut, but it was at the price of his placing his county under the suzerainty of Liege. But powerful as was the Bishop of Liege, he was not powerful enough to stand alone. He had to lean on somebody, and Notger's successor at the dawn of the eleventh century had been proclaimed Prince of the Empire on recognizing the temporal sovereignty of the Emperor of Germany. The aggrandizement, therefore, of the bishopric entailed an extension of German influence, but ultimately Liege became the least German and most intensely French of all the divisions of Belgium. This characteristic was never more noticeable than it is today.

The triumph of the bishops over the nobles has been noted ; there remains now to summarize the long struggle for power between the bishops and the people. It must, however, be recorded that the first popular rights and privileges at Liege were conferred by the Bishop on the people. These were embodied in the famous "tribunal of peace" which formed the charter of the citizens of Liege for over four centuries. This Court sat in the Cathedral, the burgesses beside the Bishop, and dispensed summary justice on all alike - only priests and princes being exempted from its jurisdiction.

As a court of law the Peace tribunal answered its purpose very well, but the growth of civic liberty and rights could not be restrained. The guilds and corporations took on themselves more and more the functions of political power, and the clerical position was sometimes weakened by the tyranny of a bad bishop like Henry of Gueldres.

The citizens aimed chiefly, however, at the overthrow, not of the Bishop, but of the aristocratic families who had seized all the civic posts and made them hereditary, and in the struggle the Bishop often sided with the people. It reached a crisis in the year 1312 when, on the death of the Bishop, the nobles chose one regent and the citizens another. Five hundred armed nobles entered the city hoping to carry all before them. Instead they were vanquished by the superior numbers of the citizens, driven into the ancient church of St. Martin, and destroyed with the sacred edifice by fire. A new law was made to the effect that all city officers were to be chosen by the people from the people.

The peace of Fexhe (1315) embodied this and much more in its articles. It prescribed an appeal to the people in the event of any serious difference or doubt, and was long known as the great charter of Liege. Speaking of this period, M. de Villenfagne, the historian of Walloon Belgium, has written: "The principality of Liege, comprising Condroz, Hesbaye the countdom of Looz, the marquisate of Franchimont, the lordship of Bouillon, and of the territory between the Sambre and Meuse, formed at this time (1390) a sort of Federal Republic. The ruling power having belonged first to the aristocracy and then to the Bishop, passed into the hands of the people as represented by the three Estates of the country."

Having gained all the privileges of a free city, the people of Liege became arrogant, and thought they could defy the House of Burgundy which had just welded the whole of Belgium, with the exception of the part subject to Liege itself, into a united State, including Holland and a large part of northern and eastern France as well. The power of the Government as represented by the Duke had never been so preponderant, and Liege should have taken warning from the recent fate of Ghent at the battle of Gavre. Unfortunately for them the citizens were rather carried away by the belief that French aid would be forthcoming, and, therefore, their replies to Philip the Good and his son Charles the Bold were couched in haughty and defiant language. Even a minor defeat at Mortenaeken in 1465 did not bring them to their senses, and when the real struggle began in the following year, the citizens were still sanguine of success. The first incident of this was the siege and capture of Dinant, where a population numbering 60,000 was wiped out.

In the following year Liege, after one defeat in the field, signed an ignominious treaty recognizing the supremacy of the Duke by allowing his representative to reside in the city. But this humility was assumed, for in 1468 they again defied him and imprisoned his representative. The incident occurred, as described in "Quentin Durward," while Louis XI was the guest of Charles the Bold at Peronne. Louis, to save his life, agreed to accompany Charles on his expedition of punishment, and was present at the capture and sack of Liege when 40,000 of the citizens are said to have been slaughtered, many of the women being thrown into the Meuse from the Bridge of Arches. It is declared that every building was demolished with the exception of the churches and convents. Finally the city made "renunciation for all its liberties" by a humble delegation of its chief citizens to Brussels. Thus was an end put to the rule of the citizens of Liege, which a little earlier had been called a "Federal Republic."

Soon after these events evil days fell on Burgundy. Granson, Morat, and Nancy followed in quick succession, and the dream of founding a third kingdom in northwest Europe that should be the equal of France crumbled in the dust. The power of the Bishop of Liege revived. Louis of Bourbon, supported by the Pope, succeeded in restoring some order to the city's affairs, and might have done better if he had not been assassinated by William de la Marck, 'the wild boar of the Ardennes." During the reign of Charles V Liege did not assert itself, but prosperity was gradually returning, and the city succeeded in keeping the combattants during the religious wars outside its boundaries. When Alva and William the Silent were coming to close quarters in the Meuse Valley, Bishop Groesbeck maintained his neutrality by warning off the belligerents.

As time went on Groesbeck's successors, who were chiefly Bavarian princes, experienced increasing difficulty with the citizens who, having secured the nominal revival of the old charters, sought to give them their full ancient significance. More especially did they claim that all the city affairs should be controlled by the council of "thirty-two," to which the the burgesses elected twenty-six and the Bishop only six members. One of the striking episodes of this struggle was the assassination of La Ruelle, the burgomaster and a friend of the French connection. He was betrayed by a fellow-plotter, the Count de Warfusee, who did not benefit by his treachery, for he was torn in pieces by the people of Liege as soon as they discovered his crime. The Bishop then invoked the Emperor's aid and a large German force captured the city. The burgomasters and many of their colleagues were executed in front of the Hotel de Ville. It was then that the Bishop caused the Citadel to be built on the summit of St. Walburga's Mountain.

From time to time the citizens had expressed sympathy with France. This was much diminished by the exactions of the French army, which occupied Liege from 1670 to 1676. On leaving, they destroyed the citadel, and the citizens believing that with it had also disappeared the Bishop's power, resumed their rights. This step proved more than ever disastrous. The Emperor lent the Bishop an army to recover his position. Such resistance as the citizens attempted was easily overcome, and their leaders were executed on the public place. The old charters were cancelled, all political power was revoked from the guilds, which became simply artistic or industrial associations. To further consolidate the Bishop's power, the Citadel was to be rebuilt, and a new fort constructed half way across the Bridge of Arches. It was not many years after this event that an English army under Marlborough attacked and captured the citadel, but the English troops did not occupy the city.

At the end of another century Liege witnessed a fresh attempt by the people to recover their rights, and it had rather a curious origin. A dispute as to the distribution of the profits of the Spa gambling tables ended in the citizens naming two of their order as Chief Magistrates, and in the flight of Bishop Hoensbroeck to Treves. The citizens claimed a free national assembly, but the German Court of Wetzlar ordered them to return to their obedience, and sent a German army to enforce it. On this occasion the triumph of the Bishop by the aid of German arms was not longlived. But a few months later the French overrun and conquered Belgium. For over twenty years Liege formed part of France; indeed the connection only terminated with the arrival of a Prussian force in January, 1814. After Napoleon's escape from Elba, Blucher made his headquarters at Liege during the spring of 1815, and it was there that he narrowly escaped being shot at the hands of some mutinous Saxon soldiers, by jumping out of the window of his hotel. Whatever else it had failed to do, the French Revolution certainly killed the Prince Bishopric of Liege. It had found it a sort of Power in Europe, it left it without any prospect of revival. Europe then placed Liege in the hands of the King of the Netherlands with the rest of Belgium.

The people of Liege contributed to the success of the Belgian revolution of 1830 more than any other city excepting Brussels. They had fought for centuries for civic rights, they now had the chance of fighting for national independence, and they took it. Without any outside assistance they captured from the Dutch garrisons the Citadel and the Chartreuse fort. They sent to Brussels the Volunteer Battalion which distinguished itself in the four days' fighting with the Dutch army in the Park. Finally, they furnished three of the heroes of the whole movement, Charles Rogier, Joseph Lebeau, and "the woodenlegged gunner," Charlier.

There is one little matter affecting the name of the place that may be dealt with here in a few lines. The accenting of the "e" in the name has given rise to a considerable diversity of practice, and whether because it is easier to be wrong than to be right, the erroneous practice has prevailed. It has been the universal practice in England to mark the "e" with the accent "grave," thus, Liege. In former days many French writers did so, and some Belgians. It is just to Bouillet, Littre, and other sound etymologists to say that they did not fall into the error. They give it correctly with the accent aigu as Liege. Now what is the significance of the difference for the ordinary reader ? It is simply that the correct pronunciation is as two clearly distinct syllables - "Lee-aje." This approximates most nearly to the Walloon (the local dialect) name, which is "Le-ege."

Source: Boulger, Demetrius C. Belgium. Detroit: Published for the Bay View Reading Club, 1913. Print.

• Prev
• Next