As universal education developed in Belgium, the French language was initially the sole medium of instruction,[3] alienating the northern half of the country. There was a similar sense of alienation in other areas such as justice, as the trial and conviction of two Flemish labourers, Jan Coucke and Pieter Goethals, in 1860 demonstrated. The pair were sentenced to death for the murder of a widow without having understood one single word of their trial,[4] and were then found to be innocent after they were executed.