anciently called Belgia, but since denominated Low Countries or Netherlands, from their low situation, are situated between 2° and 7° of east longitude, and between 50° and 53° 30' of north latitude: and are bounded by the German sea on the north, Germany on the east, by Lorrain and France on the south, and by another part of France and the British seas on the west; extending near 300 miles in length from north to south, and 200 miles in breadth from east to west. They consist of 17 provinces; 10 of which were called the Austrian and French Netherlands, and the other seven the United Provinces. The whole united were erected into a kingdom at the peace of Paris in 1814.

The greatest part of the Netherlands was conquered by the Romans; and that part which lies towards Nether-Gaul continued in their subjection till the decline of that empire; after which the Franks became masters of it; and under the French monarchy, it was part of the kingdom of Metz or Austrasia.

Towards the end of the 15th century Maximilian of Austria, son of the emperor Ferdinand III., acquired, by marrying the only daughter of the duke of Burgundy, the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, and Luxemburg; the counties of Flanders, Burgundy, Hainault, Holland, Zeeland, and Namur; and the lordship of Friesland. Philip of Austria, son to Maximilian and Mary, married Jane the daughter of Ferdinand king of Arragon and of Isabella queen of Castile; by which means their son Charles inherited not only almost all Spain and the great countries then lately discovered in America, but also those noble provinces of the Netherlands, and was chosen emperor under the name of Charles V.

Towards the latter end of the 1527, he added to his dominions the temporalities of the bishoprick of Utrecht on both sides of the Yssel; and Henry of Bavaria, being distressed through war with the duke of Guelderland, and tired with the continued rebellion of his own subjects, surrendered to the emperor the temporalities of his diocese, which was confirmed by the pope, and the states of the country. In 1536, Charles V. bought of Charles of Egmond the reversion of the duchy of Guelderland and of the county of Zutphen, in case that prince should die without issue. The same year the city of Groningen took the oath of allegiance, and submitted to Charles V. and in 1543 he put a garrison into the city of Cambrey, and built a citadel there. Having thus united the 17 provinces, as it were in one body, he ordered that they should continue for ever under the same prince, without being ever separated or dismembered; for which purpose he published in November 1549, with the consent and at the request of the states of all the provinces, a perpetual and irrevocable edict or law, by which it was enacted, that in order to keep all those provinces together under one and the same prince, the right of representation, with regard to the succession of a prince or princess, should take place for ever both in a direct and collateral line, notwithstanding the common laws of some provinces to the contrary. Charles had even a mind to incorporate these provinces with the Germanic body, and to make of them a circle of the empire, under the title of the circle of Burgundy, in order thereby to engage the princes of the empire to concern themselves for the preservation of those provinces. But the Netherlands, always jealous of their liberty, did not seem to like that incorporation; and when they were demanded to pay their share towards the expenses of the empire, they refused it: whereupon the princes of Germany refused, in their turn, to take any part in the wars in Flanders, and looked upon those provinces as by no means belonging to the Germanic body.

Philip of Austria and his son Charles, who were born in the Netherlands, had for these provinces that natural affection which men use to have for their native country; and, knowing how jealous the inhabitants were of their liberty, and of the privileges granted to them by their former princes, they took great care to preserve them and suffered willingly that the states, who were the guardians of the people's liberty and privileges, should should in a manner share the supreme authority with them. Philip II., son to the emperor Charles V., had not the same affection for the Netherlands, nor those generous sentiments which his father had endeavoured to inspire him with. Being born in Spain of a Portuguese woman, he had no regard but for his native country; and, when he removed out of the Netherlands, he left them to the weak government of a woman, to the proud and haughty spirit of Cardinal de Grenville, and to the wild ambition of some lords of these provinces, who availing themselves of the imprudent conduct and continual blunders of the council of Spain, found their private interest in the disturbances they could not fail to produce. Philip II., also, instead of the mild and moderate measures which his predecessors had successfully employed on many occasions, as best suiting the genius and temper of the people, had recourse to the most violent and cruel proceedings; which, far from curing the evil, served only to exasperate it the more and render it incurable. The Spaniards, whom he sent thither, being born and educated in an absolute monarchy, jealous of the liberties and envious of the riches of the people, broke through all their privileges, and used them almost after the same manner as they had done the inhabitants of their new and ill-gotten dominions in America. This treatment occasioned a general insurrection. The counts Hoorn, Egmont, and the prince of Orange, appeared at the head of it, and Luther's reformation gaining ground about the same time in the Netherlands, his disciples joined the malecontents: whereupon King Philip introduced a kind of inquisition in order to suppress them, and many thousands were put to death by that court, besides those that perished by the sword; for these persecutions and encroachments had occasioned a civil war, in which several battles were fought. The counts Hoorn and Egmont were taken and beheaded; but the prince of Orange, retiring into Holland, with the assistance of England and France, preserved Holland and some of the adjacent provinces, which entered into a treaty for their mutual defence at Utrecht in 1579, and they have ever since been styled the United Provinces; but the other provinces were reduced to the obedience of Spain by the duke of Alva and other Spanish generals. However, their ancient privileges were in a great measure restored; every province was allowed its great council or parliament, whose concurrence was required to the making of laws, and raising money for the government, though these assemblies were too often obliged to follow the dictates of the court.

The emperor Joseph II. endeavoured to deprive them even of the form of their free constitution; and he might very probably have succeeded, had he not attempted at the same time a reformation of the church. The Austrian Netherlands are wholly Catholic, and so bigotted to the Romish superstition, that though they had tamely submitted to many encroachments of the archducal house on their civil rights, no sooner did the monarch encroach upon the property of the holy mother church than they resisted his authority, and claimed all their ancient privileges political and religious.

The Spaniards continued possessed of almost eight of these provinces, until the duke of Marlborough, general of the allies, gained the memorable victory of Ramillies. After which Brussels the capital, and great part of these provinces, acknowledged Charles VI. (afterwards emperor) their sovereign; and his daughter, the late empress queen, remained possessed of them till the war that followed the death of her father, when the French made an entire conquest of them, except part of the province of Luxembourg; but they were restored by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, and the French retained only Artois, the Cambressis, part of Flanders, part of Hainault, and part of Luxembourg.

These provinces were overrun by the French in 1794, and formally ceded to them by the treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. They kept possession of them till 1814, when they were separated from France, and along with the seven Dutch provinces, formed into a kingdom under the prince of Orange, who assumed the title of king of the Netherlands. By the new constitution promulgated in 1815, the people of the two countries were to be represented in an assembly called the States-General, whose sittings were to be held alternately in a town in Holland and a town in Belgium. The States consist of two chambers; the deliberations of the lower are public, those of the upper private. The constitution guarantees the liberty of the press, the right of petitioning, and the independence of the judges.

The soil is generally fruitful, but differs in the several parts. The climate also differs in the several provinces; in those towards the south it does not differ much from that of England, though the seasons are more regular. In the northern provinces the winter is generally very sharp, and the summer sultry hot; but the extreme cold and excessive heat seldom continue above five or six weeks. The air is reckoned very wholesome, but is subject to thick fogs in winter, through the moistness of the country, which would be very noxious, were it not for the dry easterly winds, which, blowing off a long continent for two or three months in the year, clear the air, and occasion very sharp frosts in January and February; during which, the ports, rivers, and canals are commonly shut up. The face of the country is low and flat; for, except some small hills and a few rising grounds in Utrecht and Guelderland, and in the parts lying towards Germany, there is no hill to be seen in the whole 17 provinces. This is the reason why they have been called the Low Countries. French Flanders abounds in grain, vegetables, flax and cattle, but is in want of wood.

For the Dutch Netherlands, see United Provinces.