Brabant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

There is also Brabant, West Virginia, USA.

Historically, Brabant has been the name of several administrative entities in the Low Countries with quite different geographical extent:

• as Carolingian shire (pagus Bracbatensis), located between the rivers Scheldt and Dijle (between 9th-11th century);
• as landgraviat: the part of the shire between the rivers Dender and Dijle (from 1085/1086 up to 1183/1184);
• as duchy: territory covering approximately the present Dutch province North Brabant, the three Belgian provinces Antwerp, Walloon Brabant and Flemish Brabant, and the Brussels-Capital Region.
• as a province of Belgium.

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was formally erected in 1183/1184. The title "Duke of Brabant" was created by the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in favor of Henry I of Brabant, son of Godfrey III of Leuven, Duke of Lower Lotharingia. The Duchy of Brabant was a feudal elevation of the already existing title of Landgrave of Brabant. This imperial fief was assigned to Count Henry III of Leuven about 1085/1086, more exactly after the death of the preceding Count of Brabant, Count Palatine Herman II of Lotharingia (+ September 20, 1085). Although the corresponding county was quite small (limited to the territory between the rivers Dender en Zenne, situated to the west of Brussels) its name was applied to the entire country under control of the Dukes from the 13th century on. In 1190, after the death of Godfrey III, Henry I of Brabant also became Duke of Lower Lotharingia, a title practically without territorial authority. According to protocol, all his successors where therefore called Dukes of Brabant and Lower Lotharingia (or Lothier).

After the Battle of Worringen in 1288, the dukes of Brabant also acquired the Duchy of Limburg. In 1354 the Blijde Inkomst, or charter of liberty was granted to the citizens of Brabant by John III, Duke of Brabant. In 1430, the Duchies of Lotharingia, Brabant and Limburg were inherited by Philip the Good of Burgundy. In 1477 the titles fell to the Habsburgs by dowry of Mary of Burgundy. The subsequent history of Brabant is part of the history of the Low Countries (Seventeen Provinces).

The Eighty Years' War (1568 - 1648) brought independence from the Habsburgs for the northern provinces. After the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the United Provinces' de jure independence was confirmed and the northern part of Brabant, which was already under Dutch military control, was ceded to the United Provinces as Staats-Brabant, a federally governed territory (the present North Brabant). The southern part remained in Habsburg hands as a part of the Southern Netherlands. It was transferred to the Austrian family branch in 1714. During the French occupation of the Southern Netherlands in 1795 the duchy of Brabant was dissolved. The territory was reorganized in the départements of Deux-Nèthes (present province of Antwerp) and Dyle (the later province of Brabant).

Province of Brabant

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (consisting of modern day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) was created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The former département Dyle became the new province of Brabant. With the Belgian independence of 1830, Brabant became the central province of Belgium with capital town Brussels.

In 1989 Brussels-Capital Region was created, but the region was still part of the province of Brabant. In 1995 the province of Brabant was split into the Dutch speaking Flemish Brabant, the French speaking Walloon Brabant and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region.

Along the international border between the Netherlands and Belgium there are a few enclaves and exclaves, as relicts of the old duchy of Brabant: the municipalities Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) and Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands).

See also

• North Brabant, a province of the Netherlands.
• Flemish Brabant, a province of Belgium, Flemish Region.
• Walloon Brabant, a province of Belgium, Wallonia.
• Brabantic, a dialect of the Dutch language.
• Duke of Brabant