Brabant
the central district of the lowlands of Holland and Belgium, extending from the Waal to the sources of the Dyle, and from the Meuse and Limburg plains to the lower Scheldt . It is divided between the Kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. Total population Belgian Brabant about 1,523,000 . The country is generally a plain, gently sloping to the N. W., and is mostly fertile and well cultivated, agriculture and the rearing of cattle being the principal employment of the inhabitants. In the N. the inhabitants are Dutch; in the middle district, Flemings; in the S., Walloons. Southward of Brussels the language is French; northward, Dutch and Flemish. In the 5th century Brabant came into possession of the Franks, and, after being alternately included in and separated from Lorraine it emerged at length in 1190 as a duchy under a Duke of Brabant. It eventually came by marriage into possession of the Dukes of Burgundy, and passed with the last representative of that line, Mary of Burgundy, to the House of Austria, and finally to Philip II. of Spain. In the famous revolt of the Netherlands, caused by the cruelties of King Philip and his agent, the Duke of Alva, North Brabant succeeded in asserting its in- BRACHIOPODA dependence, and, in 1648, it was incorporated with the United Provinces. South Brabant remained, however, in and at the possession of the Spaniards, and at the Peace of Utrecht, in 1714, passed again, along with the other S. provinces of the Netherlands, to the imperial House of Austria. an