About the book: 2001 / The book by the famous Belgian historian Henri Pirenne (1868–1947) is dedicated to the history of medieval Belgium in the V–XIV centuries. The author vividly and imaginatively explores the most diverse aspects of the life of this country in the Middle Ages: the appearance of the Franks, Viking raids are replaced by the struggle between ecclesiastical and secular principalities and the triumph of cities that, unexpectedly for the entire Christian world, won a victory over the feudal lords. Pirenne pays special attention to the cities of Belgium in the 11th–14th centuries. reaching unprecedented economic prosperity and bloody feuds for power between the townspeople. The economic and social development of Belgium, which managed, in the midst of the storms that shook medieval society, to preserve the originality of its culture and independence, does not stand aside.