Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Belgium I. THE NAPOLEONIC ERA The
victory of Fleurus, gained by the French army over the Austrian
forces, 26 June, 1794, gave to revolutionary France all the
territories which constitute Belgium of to-day: the Austrian
Netherlands, the ecclesiastical principality of Liège, the
little monastic principality of Stevelot-Malmedy, and the Duchy
of Bouillon. The French, who professed to have entered the
country to deliver the Belgians form the yoke of tyranny and to
liberate them, in reality gave themselves up to such pillaging
and extortion that, as a Brussels magistrate said, they left the
inhabitants nothing but their eyes to weep with. After this, in
alleged compliance with the express wish of the Belgians, who as
a matter of fact had not been consulted, a decree of the
Convention, dated 1 October, 1795, proclaimed the annexation of
the Belgian provinces to France. At the beginning of the French
rule, which was to last twenty years (1794-1814), religious
conditions were not identica