The Eight Beatitudes Tree tells ….
I am the Eight Beatitudes Tree. This cycle route used to be named after me. But who can still name the 8 beatitudes? Anyway, blessed are the poor in spirit.
I have been standing here for a while. I used to look much better: I am sick and amputated, but I am tough. I have seen many people die standing in my neighbourhood … I was a bone of contention between the Lille districts, but always a beacon in the landscape.
On moonlit nights I have heard lovers make great promises under my branches; I have seen dark figures shifting around nervously. In 1625 I witnessed a cowardly robbery, I am still not well from it.
One day in 1625 a nobleman appeared in Wechelderzande with four mercenaries from Croatia, who were stationed in Rijkevorsel, to come and collect requisitioned straw. The lord rode in a beautiful carriage covered in gold. He and his men wore beautiful clothes. We had never seen anything like it here. Since they did not know the way, the secretary of Wechelderzande and Lille sent a guide along who led the company over the ancient Breda-Hoogstraten-Aarschot-Leuven highway to Lille. When they arrived at the Herregracht, - near the place where "Den Heksenboom" stands, - six Lille farmers, a gang led by Peeter Sas, came to meet the Jonkheer and his five companions and unsuspectingly led the latter to a side path in the Zegge, here behind me, at that time a vast, muddy swamp, where they murdered the two drivers, the two soldiers and the Jonkheer. A terrible spectacle. With fist blows and stabs they were murdered and smothered in the stinking swamp water. I will never forget their death cries and the spurting blood.
I saw that the Wechel guide was allowed to stay alive on condition that he would join the Lil gang. In the evening the Wechel man was released, but only after his shirt and shoes had been taken from him.
I then heard the guide telling everyone that the Croatian group had been captured and taken away by an enemy gang and that he had been able to escape after they had stolen his shirt and shoes.
The six Lille residents were supposed to sell the carriage and six horses on the market in Geel, I later heard whispered through the forest… The case did indeed come to light: the Lille residents were tracked down and captured but… acquitted of the robbery. It was supposed to be a case of legitimate self-defense…
Partly because the Croatian mercenaries were synonymous with “rascal” or “bandit” for the people of that time, the Lille residents were soon given this nickname. That is how the people of Lille got the nickname “Krawaten”.