Mechelen and the English Exiles

Mechelen, as this city is called in Flemish, and Malines for the Walloons, is a gorgeous place in Flanders, whose beautiful architecture echoes its distinguished past as one of the thriving centres of art and scholarship in the period of the Renaissance.

Back in those days, it was the city where Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, held court, and Anne Boleyn, the future second wife of Henry VIII, received part of her education, serving also as a maid of honour to the regent Margaret of Austria. 

Mechelen was twice sacked in the 15th cent. in the Spanish Fury and then the English Fury, the latter assault  carried out under the aegis Sir John Norris, a lifelong friend of Queen Elizabeth. 

Above the town buildings towers the imposing edifice of St. Rumbold's Cathedral, which the renowned French architect Vauban called the world's eighth wonder. It is a resting place for many illustrious individuals. 

Among them the Englishman John Clement. 

Clement was a reader of Rhetoric and Professor of Greek at the Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and following his study of medicine, became a doctor, and later president of the Royal College of Physicians in England.

He was also a tutor to Saint Thomas More's children, including Margaret Giggs, adopted by More, whom Clement would marry.

Margaret Clement, née Giggs, More's adoptive daughter - first on the far left. The man holding the scroll is sometimes identified as John Clement. Hans Holbein the Younger, Study for the Family Portrait of Sir Thomas More, c. 1527. Source.

In 1549, when Edward VI's Protestant rule became entrenched, Clement, who "always adhered scrupulously both to the doctrine and authority of the see of Rome,"  and his wife fled England for the security of the Spanish Netherlands. They went initially to Louvain, where there was already an English community, including some of More's children. 

Clement returned to England during the reign of Queen Mary, inter alia to regain his property, including - unsuccessfully - his library of 180 books. He supported himself as doctor.

However, when Queen Elizabeth I became the Sovereign of England, in 1558, Clement left his homeland for good. He settled in Mechelen, practising medicine until his death 14 years later. 

Clement was buried near the tabernacle in St. Rumbold's, a spot reserved for important folks, close to the grave of his beloved wife. Margaret, an accomplished scholar in her own right, who helped her husband in translations from Greek, predeceased him two years earlier.

Today's Belgium - it must be remembered - was a place of exile for many English Catholics.

I shall return to this topic, which is of interest to me (and I hope to the reader of this post) later on.

The miraculous spring at Laeken

In Brussels' Royal Laeken Park, not far from the residence of the King of Belgium, at the busy intersection of Avenue des Trembles Abelen, Avenue des Robiniers and Drève Sainte-Anne, sit a small, nearly dried-up fountain and a little chapel.

You may be forgiven for missing these structures while driving along. 

Yet, that would be a pity.

The fountain is known as Saint Anne Fountain, or otherwise the fountain of ‘five wounds’ (of Christ), and a chapel is also named after the mother of the Virgin Mary. 

There is a compelling history related to their foundation. 

The de facto ruler of the Spanish (Habsburg) Netherlands, as Belgium in the 16th century was known, Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, on advice of her Recollect Franciscan confessor and spiritual counsellor Fr. Andrés de Soto, had this fountain built in 1625 at a source of water, which sprang from the ground at the foot of an oak tree bearing an image of the Virgin Mary. 

The water was famed for its miraculous properties. And, most crucially, it had cured the Infanta from fever. 

The design of the fountain was rife with symbolism. Five water jets gush out of a rose window, decorated with acanthus and laurels, symbolizing the five wounds of Christ. Hence, the other name of the fountain. 

The co-sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands had an artery laid out to connect the fountain with the church of Norte-Dame de Laeken (seen in this 18^th cent. painting by Andréas Martin), such was the importance she attached to the miraculous spring. This artery, no surprise, is called Drève Sainte-Anne.

La drève Sainte-Anne à Laeken, Andréas Martin.

Near the fountain, the Archduchess also built a chapel, dedicated to St. Anne, in place of a 14^th century building that had long drawn pilgrims. 

These efforts spoke to the zeal of the Spanish Catholic monarchs, with which they engaged in the Counter-Reformation. Today's Belgium was the battleground against Protestantism. So these projects projected a clear message that transcended a purely spiritual meaning.

While the fountain withstood the test of time, the adjacent chapel fell victim to vandalism in the twentieth century. Thankfully, it was given a new lease of life after being handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church. It is now well looked-after.

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Across the street, housed in the former military quarters sits the European School,
 

The European School, Laeken campus, opposite the fountain

 
cars whizz by, people walk through this grassy knoll, yet the history of this little hallowed ground, is all but forgotten.

I doubt many people stop to read a Latin inscription on an old marble plaque adorning the fountain.

Yet, there is a story to tell, and I'd be glad if the reader of my blog found it interesting.

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THE FOUNTAIN IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC (LIMITED OPENING TIMES OF THE CHAPEL)