Philip the Handsome died #OTD 1506. He was Duke of Burgundy, consort of Castile through his marriage to Juana of Castile, and father of the future Charles V. Traditionally portrayed as Juana la loca, but modern scholarship stresses that this reputation was politically motivated.

We waren niet blij met die promotie tot kathedraal. Maar het Concilie van Trente (1545–1563) had hervormingen opgelegd: beter toezicht op priesters, oprichting van seminaries, versterking van bisschoppelijke macht. En al zeker in dat vrijdenkende Antwerpen… www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...

Today marks the death of Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517–1586) — chief minister in the Southern Low Countries under Philip II. A powerful statesman, he was also a great patron of Renaissance art, collecting Titian, Mor & Leoni, and shaping Brussels’ first Renaissance palace.

Charles V, aged 58, died on 21 September 1558 in Yuste. According to chroniclers, he passed away after a period of fever and pain, likely caused by gout and malaria, having received the last sacraments. His body was first buried in Yuste, as he intended, …

Emperor Maximilian, Prince Charles, and Governor Margaret visit Antwerp. September 18, 1508, Maximilian grants 8-year old Charles the margraviate of Antwerp to Charles in the Grote Markt.

Emperor Charles V wished to be buried humbly at the monastery of Yuste, beside his beloved wife Isabella of Portugal, who had died decades earlier. Yet his remains were later moved by Philip II to El Escorial’s royal crypt.

On 13 Sept 1598, King Philip II of Spain died at El Escorial. Like his father, Emperor Charles V, he was buried in the monastery’s crypt — the Panteón de Reyes — resting place of nearly all Spanish monarchs since. Pictures @wiki

#1569, Pieter Bruegel the Elder died at around the age of 40, at the height of his career. A year earlier, Jan Vleminck, a Neo-Latin poet and financier, had passed away at the same age. He held Bruegel’s The Months as collateral. But The Census at Bethlehem was commissioned.

#OTD 1549: Soon, Emperor Charles and his son, Prince Philip, will arrive in Antwerp. Festivities are planned by the city secretary, Cornelis Grapheus; Pieter Coecke from Aalst was in charge of the decorations. The preparations are almost complete, as the big day is tomorrow…

#OTD 1567, the Duke of Alba, under the pretence of consultation, invited the Counts of Egmont and Horne to the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels, where he had them arrested. Hardly a chivalrous move, but a preemptive strike against two of the Low Countries’ most capable commanders.

Regardless, Pope Leo IX, condemned the marriage as incestuous in 1049. Yet, the wedding took place before the end of 1053. In 1059 William was reconciled to the papacy, and as penance he and Matilda built the two monasteries.

William and Matilda were related — but not very closely by the standards of medieval European nobility. William and Matilda were cousins once or twice removed, both descended from Rollo and also connected through the French royal family.

William the Conqueror died on 9 September 1087 at Rouen, after suffering an injury when his horse stumbled during the burning of Mantes. He was buried at the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen. His spouse, Mathilda of Flanders, England’s first queen, was buried in the Abbaye aux Dames.

#OTD 1585 Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, rides into Antwerp through St. George's Gate. A girl, dressed as the Virgin of Antwerp, presents him with the key to the city. The people welcome the general with joy. First, Farnese visits the cathedral for the Te Deum.

Between 22 and 30 August 1549, Mary of Hungary, regent of the Low Countries, staged the “Triumph of Binche”: a dazzling week of feasts, jousts, masked balls and allegorical spectacles to honour her brother Charles V and her nephew Philip II.

Night of 23–24 August 1572 (St. Bartholomew’s Day) – After a first unsuccesful attempt, the wounded Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspard Coligny was murdered in his bed. This killing triggered a mass slaughter of Huguenots in Paris, carried out by Catholic nobles, militia, & citizens.

In Mechelen sloegen Calvinisten omstreeks 23 augustus 1566 27 kerken kort en klein. Een ooggetuige schreef: “’t Was vreempt wat Eenooghe sprack: Il faut qu’il soit ainsy… Roert u nyet, borghers, oftse aen kercken breecken!” (Verroer u niet, zolang ze niet aan uw huizen komen).

The Duke of Alba (Fernando Álvarez de Toledo) arrived in Brussels on #OTD in 1567. He had been sent by Philip II to restore order in the Habsburg Netherlands. He arrived with approximately 10,000 troops, considerably fewer than the 25,000 originally planned. Print Frans Hogenberg, 1567-1570

On August 21, 1566, a group of iconoclasts marched on the Cistercian Abbey of "Sint Bernardus" in Hemiksem. The monks were driven out, altars and statues destroyed. The Cistercians reclaimed marshes and lands along the Scheldt River for the monks and the abbey owned large estates

Mary made it explicit in her correspondance that she wished to stay in the Low Countries after her retirement; Most likely in her renaissance palace in Binche. But I guess she would have liked Mechelen as well, where her aunt Margaret of Austria had lived her retirement. But she moved to Spain.

Today this portrait of the young Mary of Hungary (1505–1558), the later governor of the Netherlands, arrived back in Mechelen where she grew up together with Charles V and other siblings. It was painted by Jan Gossaert, also known as Mabuse (ca. 1478–1532).

#OTD 1566: The Iconoclastic Fury begins in Antwerp. The sheriff tries in vain to evict 200 men from the Church of Our Lady. “Doctor Hermanus”, Herman Modet, delivers a sermon against "idolatry" and gives the go-ahead. Twenty to thirty men begin vandalizing and looting that afternoon and evening…

#OTD 1585, Signing of a peace treaty of 28 articles. Antwerp submits to Philip II. Non-Catholics are allowed to remain in the city for another four years. Farnese will station 2,000 infantry and two companies of cavalry in the city. The city promises Farnese 400,000 guilders for costs of the siege.

Mechelen draws a line… In the 1930s, Mechelen was a stage for Catholic reflection on peace and reconciliation in Europe. After the war the city embraced remembrance and the moral responsibility of “never again,” culminating in the creation of the Kazerne Dossin memorial.

The annals of these days note: sanCta tUa conCULCata sUnt et ContaMInata. (I Maccabees 3:51) - Your holy things have been trampled and defiled. De GeUsen hebben Den DUeveL In - The Geus (rebels) are possessed by the devil.

This has been happening since at least 1398. In 1399 the Margrave of Antwerp issued an order requiring Antwerp's crafts, guilds, etc., to attend the procession "in corpore" and "take turns carrying the venerable Statue." At that time, this was still the Sunday after Assumption.

On Aug 14, eve of the Assumption, a procession with the statue of Our Lady of Antwerp took place - a tradition of at least 500 years. Patron saint of the city, she was honoured and carried around the streets, before the Bishop presided over the Eucharistic celebration.

The rear facade of the Egmont Palace on the Petit Sablon. Despite later transformations (closing the round-arched arcades, adding a balustrade and attic), it is a unique example of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture in Brussels.

#OTD in 1502 Pieter Coecke van Aelst was a Flemish painter, sculptor, architect, designer of tapestries and woodcuts (and father-in-law of Pieter Bruegel the Elder) was born in Aalst, then part of the Habsburg Netherlands.

#OTD 1521: After a months-long siege of Tenochtitlán, a city of 250,000, the Aztec leader Cuauhtémoc surrendered. Hernan Cortés and his 600 conquistadores (along with 16 horses, small cannons, and a few dozen muskets) were supported by tens of thousands of indigenous allies.

On this day in 1566, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia was born at the royal hunting lodge at Valsain. A favourite of her father, Philip II, she spent much of her youth in these austere yet majestic rooms at the El Escorial. She often worked alongside Philip II in his private study.

On 10 August 1557, the Habsburg coalition led by Philip II won a decisive victory against the French at Saint-Quentin. The Duke of Alba commanded the infantry, including the famous tercios, but it was the decisive charge by the cavalry under Lamoral, Count of Egmont, that secured the day.

Casa de Cervantes, Valladolid.

“…de lo que se me ha mandado por parte de Vuestra Alteza en lo que toca a los negocios de Flandes…” / ”…over hetgeen mij is opgedragen door Uwe Hoogheid met betrekking tot de zaken van de Lage Landen…” #ElEscorial

Kitāb al-Ḥayawān (Boek der Dieren) #ElEscorial

“In het begin was er…” #ElEscorial

El Escorial…

Men verklaart zich onafhankelijk vd Koning van Spanje, maar men voorziet nog geen alternatief: Er wordt letterlijk verklaard dat de Koning van Spanje vervallen is van het gezag en heerschappij over de genoemde Nederlanden, en er wordt verboden om zijn naam & zegel er nog langer te gebruiken.

Vandaag in de geschiedenis: De Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (26 juli 1581) – de ‘onafhankelijkheidsverklaring’ van een groot deel van de Lage landen. Een 🧵👇

Master of the Berry-Apocalyps, Caesar battling the Brabantian and the Flemish (it seems that we are beating him here - Fortissimi sunt Burgundiones coniuncti ;) miniature cut from a "Manuel d'Histoire" of Philip VI of Valois, c.1416.

In 1550 was de Vlaamse Leeuw geen nationaal symbool zoals vandaag. Hij functioneerde als wapenschild van het graafschap Vlaanderen, een politieke entiteit binnen de Habsburgse Nederlanden. Antwerpen behoorde tot het hertogdom Brabant en de Vlaamse Leeuw was dus niet “van ons”.

#OTD 1536 Erasmus of Roterdam quietly passed away in Basel, Switzerland. His last words were “Lieve God” (Dear Lord). He had not requested for a priest. Erasmus tombstone in the Münster of Basel.

#OTD in 1479 Vasco Da Gama set sail from Lisbon and ultimately opened a sea route from western Europe to Asia by way of the Cape of Good Hope, bypassing trade routes dominated by Italian city-states and the Ottoman Empire. This shifted the axis of trade toward the Atlantic.

On July 6 1535 humanist and statesman Thomas More, who stood by his conscience at the cost of everything, was beheaded. In Antwerp, a commemorative stone at Handschoenmarkt marks the site where he met a traveler and dreamed up ‘Utopia’ in 1515. #ThomasMore #Antwerp

Seven hundred years, and still not a single interesting conversation. 😉

From his memorandum to 20 year old Charles V: “Non siamo venuti a regnare sopra un’Italia o sopra una Spagna, ma sopra tutto il mondo, perché la giustizia e la pietà abbiano dominio.”

Volgens de Brugse rederijker Anthonis de Roovere (ca. 1480) is de Heilige Geest zelf de grondlegger van de dichtkunst door het Pinksterwonder: “in vieren / Heeftse den heylighen Gheest ghesticht » (m.a.w. in vurige tongen heeft de Heilige Geest de Rhetorica gevestigd).

Choirstall woodcarving of the Pentecost, with tongues of fire descending upon the apostles, detail, Cathedral of Amiens, 1508-1519.

The Pantheon was consecrated as the church Santa Maria ad Martyres around 607–608 by Pope Boniface I. From nearly the beginning, on Pentecost the faithful celebrated with roses falling from the dome, symbolising the tongues of fire of the Holy Spirit.

The last tertio? Josef Menšík, born in 1870, was the last owner of Dobrš Castle in Strakonicko. He fancied himself a modern-day knight and lived accordingly. When the Munich Agreement was signed, he donned his armor, mounted his horse, and rode toward the border to stop a convoy of German tanks.