Introduction: territorial divisions, population size and density

Historically, the terms the Low Countries and the Netherlands used to refer to both the country that today is called Belgium and the country that is still called the Netherlands, and some adjacent areas. The Black Death invaded Belgium from France and in a couple of cases also evidently from England, while it is generally assumed that the Netherlands was invaded from Germany. However, as will be seen, the Netherlands was invaded also from the north and east with an even more complicated pattern of invasion and spread, and with a significant delay in time. The Black Death’s conquests of these two countries reflected different phases in the history of the Black Death and the progression of different plague fronts. For this reason, the presentation of the history of the Black Death in these two countries has been divided: its Belgian history is presented here in what is the continuation of the chapter on its French history, while its ‘Netherlandish’ history is presented in Chapter 25.

At the time of the Black Death, the territory of Belgium was divided into a number of principalities held by fealty (homage) to foreign monarchs according to feudal principles and law: the countship of Flanders was held by fealty to the French king, while the countships of Hainaut and Limbourg, the duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg, and the diocese of Liège were held by fealty to the German emperor. One should note that the present-day territory of Belgium is not conterminous or identical with these principalities at the time of the Black Death, and that this makes for some artificiality in the handling of geographical and political concepts. For instance, in the south, Flanders comprised also Artois in present-day France and, in the north, some areas that today belong to the Netherlands on the southern shores of the R. Western Scheldt’s long estuary. Hainaut stretched further southwards. The Duchy of Brabant is today divided between Belgium and the Netherlands so that Northern Brabant is a Dutch province, while the Belgian part is divided into the provinces of Antwerp and Brabant, and so on.

Belgium’s present-day territory comprises about 29,500 km2.