A Brill Calendar: July 24

Few retaliations lasted longer than the blockade of Antwerp harbour by a Dutch fleet.

The siege began after its Burgomaster, Marnix of St. Aldegonde (a close friend of the recently assassinated William of Orange) surrendered the wealthiest metropolis in Northern Europe to Habsburg Spain on August 17 1585. The river Scheldt would only be open again for all traffic on July 24 1794.

But it didn’t take two centuries to dethrone Antwerp from its economic throne. Within four years of the commencement, its populace was almost halved: mainly by migration to nearby cities. The exodus was not propelled by state-endorsed terror, hunger and unemployment. Antwerp citizens fleeing to mercantile cities elsewhere didn’t only carry with them their moveable possessions and money, but also business acumen, technical ‘savoir-faire’ and – in many cases – their Calvinism, a young religion in its first vigour, hardly known in more northern parts. It is seldom taken into account that the drama of 1585 also caused the return of prestigious citizens to Antwerp; such as the arch-typographer Christoffel Plantijn, nearing the end of his long life.

In this brain drain, Amsterdam and Leyden benefited, as well as Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt and London. Like 16th century Antwerp replaced 15th century Bruges as Europe’s main hub, the ‘Sinjorenstad’ (from Spanish ‘señores’, gentlemen) – until the French Revolution entrenched in the Austrian-Habsburg world - lost its dominance as an international venue and staple to Holland. An important key to the understanding of this rapid migration of people and property, concepts and ideas, traditions and innovations is to be found in the geographical characteristics of this European arena.

Between Bruges and Antwerp there are some fifty miles; and from Antwerp it is less than twenty miles to the Dutch border. An exercise in ‘proxemics’, defined as ‘study of the cultural use of physical space’.