Philip IV

Philip IV

Philip IV was the king of France from 1268 until 1314 and ruled for 46 years. He had some epithets, like the Right, the Charming One or the Iron King. He married Joanne of Navarre and as a result of this, Philip became  the King of Navarre from 1284 until 1305. He also ruled over the region of Champagne, but later the region fell under German rule.

When he became king, Philip changed a lot of his father's reforms. He saw that France was a monarchy in chaos, partitioned between different lords. After several years, Philip made a plan to reach internal and external peace. Philip started invading feudal territories and putting them under the administration of his loyal friends. The territory of Poitou and Brittany were captured quickly. Later on Philip occupied some parts of the English territories, Toulouse and Bourbon. This way, Philip united France under a centralized country.

Philip IV was very ambitious. His sole plan was to rule Europe, but he knew he didn't have a strong military to occupy by force. Philip IV came with another plan, though. He insisted to marry his cousins with foreign princesses. Soon, his cousins were kings of Naples, Sicily and Hungary, so Philip IV had widened his sphere of influence. From this, he became a powerful king and had a key role in European politics.

From his ambitions, Philip started some unfair wars, which soon brought his doom. He attacked Flanders, and experienced a crushing defeat. After that, he destroyed the Knights Templar, with the excuse that they were planning a revolution to overthrow him, but Philip just needed gold for his campaigns, which the Knight Templar had lots of. Then, after the Pope interfered in the Knights Templar case, Philip threatened him. Immediately, the HRE (Holy Roman Empire) began planning his assassination. In 1314, when Philip IV was leaving his royal palace, he was shot with 24 arrows. After his death, his son occupied Champagne and created the unified France we know today.

Flanders and Walloon

Belgium may seem like a strong and unified state, but from within Belgium is very divided between three regions: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. But what is this disruption and when did it actually start?

 Well, this disruption begins in Roman times, where in the regions of Belgium there was a fierce struggle between the Franks (today Germans) and the Roman Gauls (today French). In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. the war continued between the two sides.

 Only one forest shared these hostile tribes. Even today, this forest is the borderline between Flemish (German/Dutch section) and Wallonia (French section). When finally the Franks took the territory they sought, they enforced there their language, while the Gaulish was preserved in the south, which later turned into French.

 This situation continued until 1830, when the Belgium province of the Netherlands started massive riots, especially in the north. Soon, the south joined in, and even thought the king of Netherlands, William I, tried to stop them, Belgium was proclaimed independent.

 This small country was surrounded by the French and German Empire, and Flanders quickly understood  that Wallonia wanted to become the leading province and not let Flanders have any representation in the new parliament. After this, Flanders began reforming to proclaim independence, but French nobles in the south wanted to stop this reform.

 Very soon the French stopped the reform and declared that the headship of the state belonged to them. Even the Belgian constitution, in 1830, cited that "the French are the majority of the population and they must be in charge. Another article cited that " The Dutch population will be acknowledged by the government, but as a minority, they have no rights to ask for state leadership rights. " This was one of the biggest contradictory declarations in history, because the Dutch were 61% of the population, and the French only 39%.

 In 1896, Flanders started riots to declare Dutch as an official language. One big step was the recognition of them as the majority of Belgium by Germany and the Netherlands. After two years, in 1898, the Dutch was declared an official language, but by 1962 it was not used in any formal letter of the government.

 In 1963, Flanders officially requested that the constitution should be translated to Dutch, so that the majority of the population could understand it. This request was accepted in 1967, and until then the relations between the two provinces were not stable.

 Belgium then took a series of reforms to establish a stable republic and to finally bring peace. In 1970, the first reform created cultural communities, which was the first territorial division between the two provinces. Then, in 1980, the cultural communities were replaced with regions, and each region had communities in it. After the two main regions (Flanders and Wallonia), the third and fourth regions were created; respectively Brussels and the East Cantons, which were the German part of the population.

 In the end, there were four regions: Flanders (Dutch); Walloon (French); Brussels (bilingual French-Dutch) and East Cantons (German) and twelve communities, or provinces today.

 Unity today is better in the sense of politics than the 1960s, but still not amazing. During the political elections, the two main regions have many debates, as residents are in equal numbers, and in each region their parties win. For example, in the 2010 elections, pro-Flanders parties took all the seats of the Flemish Regional Parliament, while the pro-Walloon parties took all the seats in Wallonia. It took 541 days for the conflict to be resolved.

 Stronger separation effects are felt close to that separating forest, and especially in Linkebeek and Voeren, where French tables are covered with graffiti. Even on the other side of that forest, in Bawette and Waterloo, the tables are covered with graffiti, but only the Dutch tables. Even in Brussels, in the bilingual city, there is some tension.

 So, even though with different stories, Flanders and Wallonia try to coexist until a major conflict brings the independence of these countries.