Editing History of Belgium (section)

== Late Middle Ages and Renaissance ==
[[File:Battle of Courtrai2.jpg|thumb|right|14th-century illustration of the [[Battle of the Golden Spurs]] in 1302 where forces from the [[County of Flanders]] defeated their nominal overlords of the [[Kingdom of France]].]]
In this period, many cities, including [[Ypres]], [[Bruges]] and [[Ghent]], obtained their [[City rights in the Low Countries|city charter]]. The [[Hanseatic League]] stimulated trade in the region, and the period saw the erection of many [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] cathedrals and city halls.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howe |first=Jeffrey |date=1997 |title=Architecture in Belgium: Antwerp |url=http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/antwerp_arch.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023071448/http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/antwerp_arch.html |archive-date=23 October 2017 |website=www.bc.edu |publisher=Boston College}}</ref> With the decline of the Holy Roman emperors' power starting in the 13th century, the Low Countries were largely left to their own devices. The lack of imperial protection also meant that the French and English began vying for influence.

In 1214, King [[Philip II of France]] defeated the Count of Flanders in the [[Battle of Bouvines]] and forced his submission to the French crown. Through the remainder of the 13th century, French control over Flanders steadily increased until 1302 when an attempt at total annexation by Philip IV met a stunning defeat when Count Guy humiliated the French knights at the [[Battle of the Golden Spurs]]. Philip launched a new campaign that ended with the inconclusive [[Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle]] in 1304. The king imposed harsh peace terms on Flanders, which included ceding the important textile-making centers of [[Lille]] and [[Douai]].

Thereafter, Flanders remained a French tributary until the start of the [[Hundred Years' War]] in 1337. Paris's influence in the Low Countries was counterbalanced by England, which maintained important ties to the coastal ports and came to dominate the wool-shipping business. Flemish cloth remained a highly valued product, highly dependent on English wool. Any interruption in the supply of that invariably resulted in riots and violence from the weavers' guilds. Flanders received imports from other areas of Europe, but itself purchased little abroad except wine from Spain and France. [[Bruges]] became a great commercial center after the Hanseatic League set up business there. From early on, the Low Countries began to develop as a commercial and manufacturing center. Merchants became the dominant class in the towns, with the nobility largely limited to countryside estates.

{{History of the Low Countries}}

By 1433 most of the Belgian and [[Luxembourg]]ish territory became part of [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundy]] under [[Philip the Good]]. When [[Mary of Burgundy]], granddaughter of Philip the Good married [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]], the Low Countries became [[Habsburg]] territory. The Holy Roman Empire was unified with [[Spain]] under the Habsburg Dynasty after [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] inherited several domains.

Especially during the Burgundy period (the 15th and 16th centuries), [[Tournai]], [[Bruges]], [[Ypres]], [[Ghent]], [[Brussels]], and [[Antwerp]] took turns at being major European centers for commerce, industry (especially textiles) and art. Bruges had a strategic location at the crossroads of the northern [[Hanseatic League]] trade and the southern trade routes. Bruges was already included in the circuit of the Flemish and French cloth fairs at the beginning of the 13th century, but when the old system of fairs broke down the entrepreneurs of Bruges innovated. They developed, or borrowed from Italy, new forms of merchant capitalism. They employed new forms of economic exchange, including bills of exchange (i.e. promissory notes) and letters of credit.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ott |first=Mack |title=The Political Economy of Nation Building: The World's Unfinished Business |date=2012 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-4742-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YJyRLypfagYC&pg=PA92 92]}}</ref> Antwerp eagerly welcomed foreign traders, most notably the Portuguese pepper and spice traders.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van der Wee |first=Herman |author-link=Herman Van der Wee |title=The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy: Interpretation |date=1963 |publisher=Nijhoff |page=127 |ol=10679393W}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tracy |first=James Donald |title=The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750 |date=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5214-5735-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=heEdZziizrUC&pg=PA263 263] |ol=2206050M}}</ref>

In art the [[Early Renaissance painting|Renaissance was represented]] by the [[Flemish Primitives]], a group of painters active primarily in the Southern Netherlands in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and the [[Franco-Flemish school|Franco-Flemish composers]]. Flemish tapestries and, in the 16th and 17th centuries, [[Brussels tapestry]] hung on the walls of castles throughout Europe. The Burgundian princes enhanced their political prestige with economic growth and artistic splendour. These "Great Dukes of the West" were effectively sovereigns, with domains extending from the Zuiderzee to the Somme. The urban and other textile industries, which had developed in the Belgian territories since the 12th century, became the economic center of northwestern Europe.

[[File:Map Burgundian Netherlands 1477-en.png|thumb|upright|The Seventeen Provinces, and the [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]] in green]]

The [[Pragmatic Sanction of 1549]], issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, established the so-called [[Seventeen Provinces]], as an entity on its own, apart from the Empire and from France. This comprised all of Belgium, present-day northeastern France, present-day Luxembourg, and present-day Netherlands, except for the lands of the [[Prince-Bishop of Liège]]. In Brussels on 25 October 1555, Charles V abdicated Belgica Regia to his son, who in January 1556 assumed the throne of Spain as Philip II.