[The tomb monuments of the Dukes of Brabant (12th-14th century)].

Godfrey with the Beard, Count of Louvain, acquired in 1106 the title of "Duke of Lower-Lorraine", together with the possession of the large margraviate of Antwerp. Ever since 1188, the title: "Duke of Brabant" became usual and the name "Brabant" stood for the whole of the Duke's territories. Duke John I completed the expansion-policy of his predecessors by annexing the Duchy of Limburg after the battle of Woeringen (1288). In 1430, Brabant was merged into the large Burgundian Duchy of Philip the Good. The tombs of the Dukes of Brabant were not concentrated in one dynastic necropolis, but located as well in abbeys (Affligem and Villers-la-Ville) as in churches belonging to cloisters or chapters, in Louvain and Brussels, the two towns successively used as the ducal residence. The Dukes were always buried in the most privileged part of the church, namely, the choir. Their remembrance was perpetuated by the building of a mausoleum on which the lying image of the decreased ("le gisant") was chiselled. Most mausolea did not escape damaging or even complete destruction. The following mausolea are reviewed: The tomb of Henry I (1235) in the St.-Peter's church at Louvain; it is erected in dark blue limestone from Tournai and was at first decorated with gilt. The tomb of Mathilde of Boulogne and Mary of Brabant (ca. 1260) in the St.-Peter's church at Louvain, also in dark blue limestone from Tournai, and at first, polychrome. The tomb of Henry II (1248) in the abbeychurch of Villers-la-Ville, nowadays disappeared. The tomb of Godfrey I (1139), in the abbeychurch of Affligem, probably built at the end of the 13th century and nowadays disappeared. Recently the "Service des Fouilles" of the Brussels University has been excavating on the site of the former Franciscan church in Brussels and discovered the foundations of the burial vault of John I.