| Where We Come From... The Battle of the Golden Spurs, 1302 In the Battle of the Golden Spurs in July 1302 a militia of guild workers from the Flemish cities fighting on foot prevailed over an army of knights of the French king near the town of Kortrijk (Courtrai) in western Flanders. The spurs that were taken off the dead French cavaliers gave the battle its name. With this stunning victory the Flemish succeeded in repulsing the attempt of Philip the Fair to conquer Flanders; the king had been seeking to gain a direct influence on the country principally because of the economic strength of the Flemish towns. At the same time the Flemish guilds were able to bolster their political power at the cost of the patricians, who had fought on the side of the French. Soon after the Belgian state was founded (1830/31), a great interest in the Battle of the Spurs set in. It was now celebrated as the event in which the most outstanding characteristics of the Belgian national character first surfaced: patriotism and love of freedom. Many historians applied this Flemish episode to the whole of Belgium and found in it a model of the desire for freedom of the whole state (which did not yet exist in the 14th century). For their part, the members of the Flemish movement gave sole credit for the Kortrijk victory to their own people while at the same time insinuating that the Francophone Walloons were sympathetic to the cause of the French enemies. The monumental and extremely popular painting by the Antwerp artist Nicaise de Keyser treats the decisive moment of the battle when a lay brother from the Ter Doest abbey in western Flanders, Guillaume Vansaeftingen, slays the French commander, the Duc d’Artois.
Faith and War The Arrest and Execution of the Counts Egmont and Hoorne, 1567/68 Shortly after Emperor Charles V transferred the rule of the Netherlands to his son Philip II, an insurrection broke out there. The northern, Protestant provinces fought against Philip because they feared for their right to self-determination and freedom of belief. The southern, Catholic provinces, which were later to make up present-day Belgium, were embroiled in a conflict of interests. They, too, opposed rule by the Spanish crown prince, who governed from Spain and did not even speak their language, but on the other hand they valued him as the preserver of the true (Catholic) faith. The examples of the Counts Egmont and Hoorne clearly reflect this conflict. They had both attempted to mediate between the Spanish king and the Netherlands, but in 1568 they were sentenced to death under the trumped-up charge of »lese majesty«, although they had left no one in doubt of their loyalty toward Philip and their firm Catholic belief. Nineteenth century historians saw the Counts Egmont and Hoorne as victims of a reign of terror. Their fate served to illustrate the clash between despotism and freedom, between authoritarian determination by others and free self-determination. The topic also evoked important motivations for the insurrection of Belgian revolutionaries in 1830/31. In his painting »The Counts Egmont and Hoorne Are Paid the Last Honours«, Louis Gallait shows deeply moved members of the Brussels shooting guild before the bodies of the counts lying in state. The horror in the faces of the mourners can be generally interpreted as their strong aversion to foreign rule, from which Belgium liberated itself in 1830/31.
Freedom The Revolution of 1830/31 An extensive popular movement, triggered by the July Revolution of 1830, had gathered strength in the southern Netherlands with the aim of establishing an independent nation-state. No other topic in the national history of Belgium played such an important role in the 19th century as this revolution. It resulted in the separation of the southern, Catholic provinces from the kingdom of the United Netherlands and led to the foundation of the independent kingdom of Belgium.
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The memory of the revolution was kept alive above all in two pictures, by 
