Een nieuw lid van België

When at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century the national history of Belgium was being written, the place of Liège proved problematic. The prince-bishopric had not been part of the (Burgundian, Spanish and Austrian) Netherlands until the end of the Ancien Regime. Therefore, unlike Flanders and Brabant, it could not play a central role in the national narrative with which the young Belgian state legitimized its existence historically. Yet Liège, precisely because of its sustained independence, had an interesting and grand history which, according to the national historians, contributed to the glory of the nation to which Liège now belonged. Moreover, the main characteristic attributed to the inhabitants of Liège and their history was also a central characteristic of the (romantic) national narrative of the Belgian nation : a longing for freedom. This allowed Liège’s historians to stay true to their belief in the specificity of its history and, at the same time, represent the inhabitants of Liège as “the real founders of present-day Belgium”

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