The Belgian municipality that wants to be Spanish
Daniel Steuckers, mayor and director of the small History Museum of the Belgian town of Osterloo , in the province of Flemish Brabant , discovered last summer a document in the archives of the Town Hall that has revolutionized the life of this town of two thousand five hundred inhabitants dedicated to cattle farming and cheese making. The sheet in question is titled Den Schat der Priuilegen vande Stadt Oosterloo opgedraghen aen den Koningh ( Treasury of the Privileges of the town of Osterloo dedicated to the King) and was printed in in neighboring Mechelen by the widow and children of Herman van Borculo. According to this text, in , Philip II , at the request of the governor of the Netherlands, Alexander Farnese , Duke of Parma, of the chancellery of Brabant and the Great Council of Mechelen, exempted the town in perpetuity from paying taxes. for the loyalty and services of its inhabitants in the fight against the Dutch rebels.
So much so that Steuckers has submitted a petition to the Spanish embassy in Belgium, after holding a referendum on October that has confirmed his intentions, to request the reinstatement of Osterloo to the Spanish Crown – a request that has not yet been met. received response. Market scene in a Flemish town (ca. ), oil on canvas by Sebastian Vrancx (-), Ommen Town Hall. This painting was B2B Email List commissioned by the Osterloo municipal council, but as it could not be paid to its author, he sold it to the Ommen Town Council, where it is currently located. A local historian, Philip Hoogmartens, maintains that this is not the first time that the document has come to light: “In the municipality presented it to John Henry, Count of Frankenberg and Cardinal Archbishop of Mechelen, to exempt the town from taxes, but without success.” This historian focuses on the probable recurring use of the document from an early date until the German invasion of , during which a platoon of drunken Bavarian soldiers set fire to the municipal archive and most of the town hall minutes were lost.
http://www.wsdata.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/kghnjiy.png
A brilliant history of services to Spain Steuckers, who has also conducted research, cites a long list of services that Osterloo rendered to the Hispanic Monarchy to justify the town's request to be part of the Kingdom of Spain: in the inhabitants took two mutinous soldiers prisoner in neighboring Weert and they cut off their ears, which they promptly sent to the interim governor of the Netherlands, Count Peter Ernest of Mansfeld; In , a local craftsman, Mechtild Stouten, made thirty-two pewter spoons for the Army of Flanders. The services go beyond the War of the Spanish Succession , as it is known that, in April , a resident of Osterloo, Pieter Nuyts, was imprisoned in Ostend for a brawl when he was preparing to embark for Spain to enlist in the Walloon Guard. . Although Nuyts never came aboard, local court records mention his constant allusions to the honor of the king of Spain.
頁:
[1]