Belgium the Land of Art Author:William Elliot Griffis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE COMING OF THE FRANKS Our national colors — the red, white, and blue, united in one standard as the flag of freedom — had their origin in th... more »e German forests. When the Franks, who were not a tribe, but a federation, made their first appearance in history, they raised the tricolor and drove out the' Roman legions. The Romans disappeared from Belgic land, and the figure of Clovis (a.d. 465-511) emerged as that of a historical character and founder of the Frankish Empire. The Prankish or French emblem of nationality is the fleur-de-lys, or lily flower, which some say is named from the Flemish river Lys, that joins the Scheldt at Ghent and was crossed by Clovis and his host. Whether it be lance-head, or lily, or bee with outspread wings, this was the emblem of the Bourbons until Napoleon, seeking a symbol of power older even than the traditional fleur-de-lys, set swarms of Frankish bees in gold upon his imperial robe. Clovis fixed his seat at Paris A.d. 507. Then he overcame the Burgundians, who gave their name to the Burgundy with which the fortunes of the Belgians were later associated, in both splendor and humiliation. Clovis married a Christian princess, Clotilda, and thus the way was opened from barbarism to Christianity. We may not here tell in detail of the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings, which belongs properly to the story of France. History followed much the same lines as in Japan and China, for human nature in Orient and Occident is the same. After the reaction from forest life with its hardships, and the novel enjoyment of the luxury of cities, many of the kings became and were called " do-nothings." The first officer of the royal household took the title of the Mayor of the Palace. He gradually became the real power- holder, even as in J...« less