Flanders

views updated May 09 2018

Flanders a region in the south-western part of the Low Countries, now divided between Belgium (where it forms the provinces of East and West Flanders), France, and the Netherlands. It was a powerful medieval principality and the scene of prolonged fighting during the First World War, when Allied troops held the sector of the Western Front round the town of Ypres.
Flanders Mare a nickname of Anne of Cleves (1515–57), fourth wife of Henry VIII, whom the king divorced; according to Smollett's A Complete History of England (3rd ed., 1759), ‘The King found her so different from her picture…that…he swore they had brought him a Flanders mare.’
Flanders poppy a red poppy, used as an emblem of the Allied soldiers who fell in the First World War.

Flanders

views updated Jun 27 2018

Flanders Historic region now divided between Belgium and France. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, Flanders prospered on trade, and the old nobility lost authority to the towns. By 1400, it was part of Burgundy, passing to the Habsburgs in 1482, before becoming part of the Spanish Netherlands. It was frequently fought over by France, Spain and later Austria. It was the scene of devastating trench warfare in World War I.

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Flanders

views updated Jun 27 2018

Flanders ★ 2006

Dumont's work (with nonprofessionals) is an acquired, frequently polarizing taste, and in this case, numbingly boring. Andre (Boidin) is a brute of a farmer who boffs local trollop Barbe (Leroux). He gets drafted and goes off to fight some nameless war in the desert. One of his fellow soldiers is Blondel (Cretel), who also knew Barbe in the biblical sense. She's back home having an abortion and going temporarily nuts while the soldiers pay the price for brutal acts against the local militia. French with subtitles. 91m/C DVD . FR Samuel Boidin, Adelaide Leroux, Henri Cretel; D: Bruno Dumont; W: Bruno Dumont; C: Yves Cape.