Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-09-16
HISTORY OF nEGE

Bloody Scenes That Have Taken Place in
This Ancient Belgian City.
Liege, though now not altogether
beautiful, even with the hills about it
and the boulevard with its new houses
along the Meuse, has its history and its
romance 1t had its importance when
fepln the Short loved to visit it, and
when afterward Charlemagne. whose
capital was at Aix-la- Chapelle, held his
assemblies in it. Not long afterward
its Bishops, favored by Germany and
France, became veritable sovereigns.
and one of them-Notger by nameSnot
liking the Independent manners of the
burghers, surrounded house where 24O
of them were assembled. killed some of
them on the spot and hanged the rest.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centu-
ries the city and region about it were
torn asunder by the quarrels of the
clergy; the nobility, the burghers and
the common people, sometimes allied,
sometimes lighting separately. In 1915
the people, being conquerors. burned
alive 800 of the nobility who had taken
refuge in a church. According to the
historian Michelet, the fierce movement
OF this stormy city was the result of the
too rapid transformation of the peasant
into the city resident, of the work
man into the burgher and the
Durgher into the nobleman, for
at this period the people were,
on account of their rapidly developing
manufactures. the richest in Europe.
The people. n; turally offended by hay
ing John of Bavaria made their Prince
Blshop at the age of seventeen, expelled
INN; This brought against them John
the Fearless with an army of $4,000
Burgundlans. The citizens went out to
meet him, and in the battle that ensued
left 800 of their number dead of the
field. Louis of Bourbon, nephew of the
Duke of Burgundy, was in 1856 made
Bishop of Liege at the mature age of
nineteen.
He was greatly given to reveling. and
the horde OF followers that he brought
with him were so rapacious that new
revolts arose, causing his expulsion.
He appealed to his uncle, Charles the
Rash, and. as it was just when the quar-
rel of Charles with Louis NJ. was the
bitterest, the latter encouraged the citi-
zens of Liege with the promise of as
sistance. 1t is this episode of history
which Scott portrays and amplifies in
the most inaccurate and at the same
time one of the most fascinating of his
novels. Of the burnings, the drown
ings, the beheadings, the deaths from
colds in the mountains during the sue
ceeding winter it makes one shudder to
read even after the lapse of four hun
dred years. The city was RACED to the
ground, and from the haste of its build
ing some years later has come the
1rregularity of certain quar-
tiers. The troubles with the
Prince-Bishops continued till the
French revolution. The burghers of
Liege no longer fight for their freedom.
They have enough of it. The fighting
spirit seems to be softened and refined
out of them. Some of the bloody en-
counters which animated the common
people in their battles with the Bishops
and the Dukes of Burgundy still re-
mains in the coal-miners. a miserable
class in all countries, who are fighting
for slight raise on the forty cents il
day which they now receive, and they
are not very choice regarding the
means. They are wonderfully quiet
now. They seemed to be ali under
ground when l made my visit to the
region few days ago. / saw the black
pH-OpenlnSS on the smooth nlliSlueS,
but not a man on the trans. in station
houses, Or in the streets of Liegc,
Famur or Vervier who could, on ac-
count of black face or coal-stained
garments be remarked as a miner, or
by reason of his disconnected and des-
perate mien be set down as a striker
Business was proceeding quietly in all
the cites, towns and villages along the
railroads, while the manufactures
seemed all at work in the midst of the
most pastoral of landscapes. 1 did not
pass by Charleroi, but if / had should
have found everybody at work and the
aspect of the country as tranquil
Cor .Snss Francisco Chronicle.