Ghedacht den gheboorte ons Heeren, so moet ons herte verbliden; God gheve u vrede op aerden, nu ende in alle tijden.

#OTD in 1425, Pope Martin V issued the papal bull "Sapientiae immarcescibilis", formally establishing the Studium Generale in Leuven. With that decision, one of Europe’s oldest and most influential universities was born. Facsimile made in 1909. The original perished in in the library fire of 1914.

Admiral Lord Howe (Battle of the Glorious First of June, 1794) wrote in his battle order:”Humanity requires that every exertion be made to save the vanquished from the waves.” This was a widely quoted guiding principle for the Royal Navy.

During the naval battle at Lepanto, Don Juan of Austria gave explicit orders: “Save all Christian lives; let no man be abandoned on the sea.” This included Christian slaves rowing aboard Turkish galleys. Ottoman Turks were taken as POW, but those that resisted were killed on deck

“Non nobis solum nati sumus.” (Cicero, De Officiis) “We are not just born for ourselves”. Image: The Young Cicero Reading by Vincenzo Foppa (fresco, 1464), now at the Wallace Collection. He was murdered #OTD in 43 BC (aged 63).

Al vanaf de 13e eeuw viert men in de Lage Landen het Sinterklaasfeest. In eerste instantie gebeurde dit in de kerk, maar vanaf de 15e eeuw begon men het feest in huiselijke sfeer te vieren. Sinterklaas is dus een oude traditie. Het Sint Nicolaasfeest (1665) van Jan Steen. 16de eeuws icoon.

The stork has long been a symbolic animal in the region of Mechelen, Belgium. Historically, storks nested there in large numbers and became part of local identity. Here depicted by Albrecht Duerer (1515) and by Conrad Gessner (1555).

In Spanje is een verloren gewaand manuscript uit de 16e eeuw gevonden van Gerardus Mercator, de Vlaamse cartograaf en humanist die de moderne wereldkaartprojectie ontwierp. vrtnws.be/p.mRayweMO7

#OTD 1605 The Gunpowder Plot failed. Guy Fawkes, once a soldier for Catholic Spain in Flanders, is caught guarding explosives beneath Parliament. His Flemish years trained him for rebellion - but instead of a catholic victory, England got an occasion to celebrate. #GuyFawkesDay

In 1562, amid Protestant iconoclasm, Mathilde’s tomb was desecrated - her coffin opened, bones scattered, and epitaph damaged. Later, under the restored peace, her remains were reburied (1616) with a new, more classical monument.

Mathilde of Flanders, passed away #OTD in 1083. She was governess of Normandy during William’s absence and became England’s first Queen. She was burried in the choir of the Abbaye-aux-Dames, in Caen. Her daughter Cécile, became abbess in 1113.

Born #OTD 1507 – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba. An experienced and successful commander, whom King Philip II sent to the Low Countries to restore order after the 1566 Iconoclastic Fury. In reality, he provoked a full-scale revolt. A. Mor hispanicsociety.emuseum.com/objects/2631...

Can you guess where I took these pictures and their link to Erasmus?

#OTD 1466 Erasmus was born near Rotterdam. He spent considerable time of his life in the Southern Low Countries, where he had many intellectual, political and business connections. His time there influenced his writings, blending local religious thought with call for tolerance.

Eyewitnesses described the actual abdication as much more intimate and emotional: Charles V was ill and leaning on William of Orange and wept openly while asking forgiveness from his subjects. The hall was Gothic, not classical.

The tapestry in the collection of the Museum of the City of Brussels, is generally attributed to the late 17th or early 18th century, and was probably woven in a Brussels workshop. It is romanticized to glorify Habsburg dynastic power.

#OTD 1555: Charles V Announces his Abdication before the Notables of the Low Countries in Coudenbergh Palace, Brussels. The English version (original was in French) of his speech (excerpt) can be found via the link below. Image Museum the City of Brussels germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/Doc....

#OTD 1503, we celebrate the birth of Isabella of Portugal. Queen consort of Spain and Germany, Archduchess of Austria, Lady of the Netherlands (from 1526), Holy Roman Empress (from 1530). She acted as regent of Spain during the long absences of her husband Charles V. 📷 Yuste.

At that time the ancient texts of Aristotle and Galen were still judged authoritative in the medical schools. By performing his own dissections, Vesalius discovered errors and his publication drew attention to these flaws. It won him a post as court physician to Charles V.

OTD in 1564, Andreas Vesalius (Andries van Wesel) passed away. The Brussels-born physician broke a major dogma by dissecting human bodies himself and publishing De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), the masterpiece that reshaped our understanding of the human form www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#OTD the Battle of Lepanto (1571) took place, one of the most decisive and symbolic naval battles in European history. It was fought between the Holy League (a coalition of Christian states) and the Ottoman Empire, and it involved an extraordinary cast of historical figures.

4/10/1568, de Prins van Oranje steekt de Maas over: “…soo nam het volck van den prinsche van Oraengien… Herckenteel in, gelegen over Mase by… Luyck, ende Ducdalbe hadde geern de in stat van Luyck synen wille gehadt om uyt en in te loopen over Mase, maer Luyck wilde geen crychsvolck passagie geven…”

After the capture of Den Briel by the rebels in April 1572, the revolt spread. On 2 October, Mechelen surrendered without a fight — yet Alva let his troops plunder it for three days. A grim message: even submission offered no safety. Terror as a warning to other cities.

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.