Brabant

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

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 . It Limburg plains to the lower Scheldt is divided between the Kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. Total population . The he Belgian Brabant about 1,523,000 country is generally a plain, gently sloping to the N. W., and is mostly fertile the and well cultivated, agriculture and 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 independence, and, in 1648, it was incorporated with the United Provinces. South Brabant remained, however, in and at the possession of the Spaniards, and Peace of Utrecht, in 1714, passed again, of the along with the other S. provinces Netherlands, to the imperial House of Austria.