Pre-romanesque period

After the Roman Empire collapsed (5th century), Germanic tribes invaded the Roman province of "Gallia". One of these peoples, the Franks, finally installed a new kingdom under the rulers of the Merovingian Dynasty. Clovis I was the most famous of these kings. He converted to Christianity and ruled from northern France, but his empire included today's Belgium. Christian scholars, mostly Irish monks, preached Christianity and started conversion work under the pagan invaders (Saint Servatius, Saint Remacle, Saint Hadelin).

The Merovingians were rather short-lived, as the Carolingian Dynasty soon took over. After Charles Martel countered the Moorish invasion from Spain (732 - Poitiers), the famous king Charlemagne (born close to Liege in Herstal or Jupille) brought a huge part of Europe under his rule and was crowned as the "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" by the pope (800) in Aachen.

The Vikings were defeated in 891 by Arnulf of Carinthia near Leuven. The Frankish lands were divided and reunified several times under the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, but eventually were firmly divided into France and the Holy Roman Empire. The County of Flanders became part of France during the Middle Ages, but the remainder of the Low Countries were part of the Holy Roman Empire. Through the early Middle Ages, the northern part of present-day Belgium (now commonly referred to as Flanders) had become an overwhelmingly Germanized and Germanic language-speaking area, whereas in the southern part people had continued to be Roman and spoke derivatives of Vulgar Latin.

Romanesque period

As the Holy Roman Emperors lost effective control of their domains in the 11th and 12th centuries, the territory more or less corresponding to the present Belgium was divided into mostly independent feudal states:

    * county of Flanders
    * Marquis of Namur
    * Duchy of Brabant
    * County of Hainaut
    * Duchy of Limburg
    * Luxemburg
    * Bishopric of Liege.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, the Rheno-Mosan or Mosan art florished in the region going from Cologne and Trier to Liege, Maastricht and Aachen. Some masterpieces of this romanesque art are the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral, the baptistry of Renier de Huy in Liege, the shrine of Saint Remacle in Stavelot, the shrine of Saint Servatius in Maastricht or, Notger's gospel in Liege.

Gothic period

13th and 14th centuries

    * Many cities gained their independence from their heirs.
    * Huge trade within the Hanseatic Leage.
    * Building of huge gothic cathedrals and city halls.