Brabant Through Time: From Caesar's Belgae to Five Provinces in Two Countries (57 BC – 2026)

Three Brabants Under One Name

Brabant has been three different things under one name. First it was a Frankish pagus, a district between the Scheldt and the Dijle. Then it was a duchy (1183–1795) that reached from Nivelles in the south to 's-Hertogenbosch in the north. Since 1815 it has been a set of provinces in two countries: Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands, and Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and the Brussels region in Belgium.

This map follows the pieces of Brabant, its districts and quarters and later its arrondissements, through 54 keyframes from Caesar's campaign against the Belgae to the present day. Each piece changes colour as its ruler changes, so you can watch Brabant pass from the counts of Leuven to Burgundy, the Habsburgs, Spain, the Dutch Republic, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Tribes, Romans and Franks

In 57 BC Julius Caesar met the Belgic tribes of the region: the Nervii, the Eburones, the Aduatuci and the Menapii. The Nervii nearly overran his legions at the river Sabis before being destroyed. Under Roman rule the land was organised into civitates, with Atuatuca Tungrorum (Tongeren) as a regional capital. In 358 the future emperor Julian allowed Salian Franks to settle in Toxandria, the sandy country north of the Demer.

The name Brabant first appears in the Treaty of Meerssen in 870, when Charles the Bald and Louis the German divided Lotharingia; the list of counties includes four in Bracbanto. Around 1003 Lambert I became the first count of Leuven, and in 1085/86 a landgraviate of Brabant appears between the Dender and the Zenne.

The Duchy of Brabant

On 13 May 1106 Emperor Henry V made Godfrey I of Leuven duke of Lower Lorraine and gave him the mark of Antwerp. In 1183 Henry I took the title duke of Brabant, and around 1196 he founded 's-Hertogenbosch, "the duke's forest", as the duchy pushed north into the old Toxandria. In 1244 Dalhem became the first Brabant land beyond the Meuse, and on 5 June 1288 John I won the Battle of Woeringen and with it the duchy of Limburg.

The towns won rights of their own: the Charter of Kortenberg in 1312 and the Joyous Entry of 1356, sworn by Duchess Joanna and her husband Wenceslas. That same year Louis of Male of Flanders defeated the Brabanters at Scheut and occupied Brussels, and by the Peace of Ath in 1357 he took Antwerp and Mechelen. Antwerp returned in 1406, when Joanna died and Antoine of Burgundy became duke.

Burgundy, Habsburg and the Split of 1648

In 1430 Philip the Good inherited Brabant, joining it to the Burgundian Netherlands, and from 1482 it was Habsburg. In 1555 Charles V abdicated in the Coudenberg palace in Brussels and handed the Netherlands to his son Philip II. During the Dutch Revolt Brabant joined the rebellion with the Pacification of Ghent in 1576, but the royal reconquest began after Gembloux in 1578 and culminated in the fall of Antwerp on 17 August 1585.

The north of the duchy became a war zone. Breda changed hands repeatedly, from the Peat Boat surprise of 1590 to its final capture by the States in 1637. Frederick Henry took 's-Hertogenbosch on 14 September 1629 and Maastricht on 22 August 1632. The Peace of Münster in 1648 split Brabant in two: the north became States Brabant, one of the Generality Lands of the Dutch Republic, while the south stayed Spanish. The Baarle parishes were left as a patchwork of enclaves that still exists, and the Lands of Overmaas were partitioned village by village in 1661.

Austrians, Revolutions and the French

The south passed to Austria in 1714. French armies occupied it in the 1740s and again in the 1790s; the map shows the Brabant Revolution and the short-lived United Belgian States of 1790, the Austrian return that December, and the French victories that ended Austrian rule after Fleurus in 1794. On 1 October 1795 France annexed the Southern Netherlands, turning southern Brabant into the departments of the Dyle and Deux-Nèthes. The north became Batavian Brabant in 1796 and was annexed to France as part of the Bouches-du-Rhin department in 1810.

Provinces in Two Countries

After the fall of Napoleon, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands created the provinces of Noord-Brabant, Antwerp and South Brabant in 1815. The Belgian Revolution of 1830 made South Brabant the Belgian province of Brabant, and the Treaty of London in 1839 fixed the Dutch-Belgian border. In 1963 the language border cut Belgian Brabant along the language line, creating Dutch-speaking Halle-Vilvoorde. The Brussels-Capital Region followed in 1989, and on 1 January 1995 the province of Brabant was split into Flemish Brabant (capital Leuven), Walloon Brabant (capital Wavre) and the Brussels region. The final keyframes show Zwijndrecht leaving Antwerp province in 2025.

How to Read the Map

Colours show who ruled each piece of Brabant: brick red for the dukes of Brabant, purple for Burgundy, gold for the Habsburgs and Austria, green for Spain, orange for the Dutch States and the Netherlands, blue for France, and crimson for the United Belgian States and Belgium. Neighbouring territories are pale. Markers show battles, treaties and sieges, as well as people and places tied to Brabant, from Jheronimus Bosch and Rubens to Vincent van Gogh.

Borders before about 1100 are indicative reconstructions based on dioceses and rivers. Small or short-lived changes are simplified.

How the Map Was Made

The borders from 1183 to 1795 are built from the parishes of the Historical Atlas of the Low Countries (situation 1500) by R. Stapel (IISG, CC BY-SA 4.0), which records for each parish its principality, district and quarter. Later borders follow Belgian NIS municipality codes and Dutch municipalities. Other sources are the Duchy of Brabant GIS collection, hertogdombrabant.nl (Damen et al., 2021), Dutch, French and English Wikipedia articles on the pagus, the landgraviate, the duchy, the Generality Lands, the Lands of Overmaas, the départements and the provinces, gemeentegeschiedenis.nl, Statbel and Natural Earth.

Chronological Timeline

• 57 BC — Caesar meets the Belgae; battle of the Sabis against the Nervii
• 358 — Salian Franks settle in Toxandria
• 870 — Treaty of Meerssen: first mention of Brabant
• 1003 — Lambert I, first count of Leuven
• 1106 — Godfrey I of Leuven becomes duke of Lower Lorraine and gains Antwerp
• 1183 — Henry I takes the title duke of Brabant
• c. 1196 — 's-Hertogenbosch founded; Brabant expands north
• 1288 — Battle of Woeringen wins Limburg
• 1356 — Joyous Entry charter; Battle of Scheut
• 1357 — Peace of Ath: Antwerp and Mechelen to Flanders
• 1406 — Antoine of Burgundy becomes duke; Antwerp returns
• 1430 — Philip the Good inherits Brabant
• 1482 — Brabant becomes Habsburg
• 1555 — Charles V abdicates in Brussels; Philip II
• 1576 — Pacification of Ghent
• 1585 — Fall of Antwerp
• 1609 — Twelve Years' Truce signed in Antwerp
• 1629 — Frederick Henry takes 's-Hertogenbosch
• 1632 — Maastricht falls to the States
• 1648 — Peace of Münster splits Brabant
• 1661 — Lands of Overmaas partitioned
• 1714 — Southern Brabant becomes Austrian
• 1790 — United Belgian States
• 1795 — France annexes the south: departments of the Dyle and Deux-Nèthes
• 1810 — Northern Brabant annexed to France (Bouches-du-Rhin)
• 1815 — Provinces of Noord-Brabant, Antwerp and South Brabant
• 1830 — Belgian Revolution
• 1839 — Treaty of London fixes the border
• 1963 — Language border; Halle-Vilvoorde created
• 1989 — Brussels-Capital Region
• 1995 — Brabant split into Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Brussels
• 2025 — Zwijndrecht leaves Antwerp province