Benevolent Fathers and Virile Brothers: Metaphors of Kinship and the Construction of Masculinity and Age in the Nineteenth-Century Belgian Army

This article traces the evolution of different discourses of masculinity in the nineteenth century Belgian army. It highlights specifically the way in which officers and men used concepts such as fatherliness, brotherhood, youthfulness, filial duty and other kinship metaphors to express their gendered identities and their mutual relationships within an all-male community. Despite their continued reliance on these metaphors, the ways in which the language of age and kinship was deployed in the army changed throughout the century, and most notably around 1880. As the army became ‘modern’, its soldiers became brothers-in-arms rather than obedient sons and its officers became virile family men rather than wise paternal greybeards. Approaching the twentieth century, when comradeship between young men would play a key-role in the self-representation of the army, youth gained importance in military structures and the muscular and sexual vigour of the young male body became central to definitions of masculinity.


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stressed the masculine character of soldierly life -as the quote above shows.
Moreover Conscience's insistence on the paternal provenance of these words shows that if the army was an isolated 'school' of masculinity, it remained strongly linked to the expectations and values of the family home. 3 Finally, Conscience's (or his father's) definition of masculinity as the absence of childish dreams, points to the intersections between constructions of gender and age at the time of writing. Being, or becoming, a man was not merely a question of renouncing feminine or effeminate behaviour, but also a departure from childhood. For the young Conscience, as his older self claimed, the military course of transformation was a success. One brutal captain in particular 'cured' his 'childish stupidity and abruptly made [him] a man '. 4 In this article, I want to trace the evolution of metaphors of kinship, masculinity and age, such as the ones quoted above, through the nineteenth century. I will argue that although all three remained connected, the ways in which masculinity was expressed through metaphors of kinship and age changed substantially around 1880. Conscience's narrative, with its obvious stress on paternal authority, filial duty and reliance on the hierarchic structure of the army as a mould for masculinity, can be seen as an exemplary usage of a repertory of masculinity-related vocabulary that from the 1880's onward would make way for a different set of metaphors. Rather than relying on the language of paternity and childishness to discipline troops, the 'modern' army would base its cohesion on images of brotherhood among its soldiers. As the twentieth century approached, when comradeship between young men would play a key-role in the self-representation of the army, youth gained importance in military structures and the muscular and sexual vigour of the young male body became central to definitions of masculinity. 5

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As I will attempt to show in the following sections, this move from an authority-based paternal image of masculinity to a corporeal, fraternal vocabulary to describe men was not limited to the military context, but rather the result of a continuous interplay between the barracks and 'home'. Charting these changes therefore, will not only throw light upon evolutions within the army -documenting shifts in practices of discipline, in conceptions of hierarchy and in the basic categories defining military homo-sociabilitybut also contribute to the history of masculinity, and more specifically to an understanding of the multiple ways in which gender and age have been codependent in the construction of 'men' throughout the nineteenth century. 6 Most notably the evolution of paternal and fraternal metaphors in the army provides a wider framework in which to understand similar metaphors in the world of European politics. 7 The frequent appeals to 'family fathers' in the parliamentary circle, the recurring referrals to 'forefathers' as creators and protectors of the nation and the designation of members of the government and royal family as 'fathers of the fatherland', all make more sense when understood in the context of changing meanings of gender and age expressed through the vocabulary of kinship rather than against just the background of changing family relations.
The metaphorical 'fathers' of the first half of the nineteenth century (politicians or army commanders) represented a mainly class-based ruling elite, mirrored by the equally metaphorical sons who constituted the homosocial collective of common soldiers or 'the people', drawn from the lower classes. As Ute Frevert has shown, the political world of the early nineteenth century was defined by some intellectuals as a 'Hausväter Gesellschaft', a 6 Although in the last two decades the field of men's studies has seen a rise of sub-fields in which age-defined groups of men are studied (in the form of boyhood studies, for example, or research on fatherhood), age only recently started to become a category of analysis. Psychological and sociological studies on masculinity and age abound (mainly focussing on adolescence and old age), the geography of masculinity and old age is, according to Anna Tarrant, coming of age, but the history of masculinity and age is very much in its infancy. Anthony Ellis' work on the comic figure of the old man on stage is one of the few monographs dealing explicitly with masculinity and age; although a number of community of family fathers. 8 By the end of the nineteenth century however, the paternal metaphor lost its sway and both in the military and in politics, men would be defined through their capacity for actual fatherhood. The possession of a body that biologists would call male made them all 'brothers' (the new dominant metaphor). By the beginning of the twentieth century, universal military service would re-define the military's claim for homogeneity and base it on age rather than class -thus including 'all men' in the long run.
Dovetailing (albeit not completely in synchronisation) with this evolution, suffrage was also extended to the whole male population of the nation. The changing democratic practices of exclusion thus paralleled those of the army.
The following sections present a chronological overview of these broad changes in the metaphors of kinship employed in the Belgian army of the nineteenth century. After a short sketch of the characteristics and context of this army and the sources that have been used to unearth its gendered language, I will first analyse the paternal role attributed to the army command up to the 1880's and soldiers' filial counterpart to this image. Secondly, I will focus on the increasing attention given to soldiers' bodies and the rising importance of muscularity and heterosexuality in the definition of (military) masculinity. Finally, I will underline the ongoing reciprocity between home and barracks through the use of metaphors of fraternity after 1880, pointing to strands of continuity in the discourse of kinship.

Sons of a beloved mother
The paternity metaphor was present on the Belgian political stage from the early revolutionary days, as is exemplified in a song describing the revolution as 'patricide', while songs published in the same period claimed Belgians' identity as sons of the same 'fatherland' and that of 'French liberty', as the country's mother. 9 The somewhat disturbing image of sons of Belgium who were both France's maternal grandchildren and patricides not only points out the complexity of these kinship metaphors, but also calls the national context of these discourses to our attention. Although the language of gender and age and its distillation into metaphors of kinship was a widespread practice, most likely common in all of Western Europe, the specific national context of this case is important.

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Both the Belgian nation and the Belgian army were young and very much under construction throughout the nineteenth century. During and directly after the 1830 revolution, former 'oppressor' Holland was represented as an enemy (hence the gruesome patricide). Later discourses of animosity, however, were directed against France. 10 These shifts in the nation's position within European international politics influenced the organisation of the army. In the first years after independence the new army was modelled mainly on the French example, and to a large extent led by French officers, some of whom had been part of the revolutionary forces. 11 Recruitment, through conscription, was organised locally, by means of a lottery (loting). Although this principle was introduced as a way to distribute the ordeal of military service (which could last up to eight years) fairly among the population, the possibility to buy off one's military service through a practice called remplacement resulted in an infantry that, much like the French troops, consisted mainly of poor soldiers with a rural background. 12 Moreover, as the practice of remplacement became institutionalised throughout the first half of the century, with government offices organising the trade, the share of lower-class soldiers could not but grow. After carrying out their own service, poor soldiers did not need much incentive to stay in the army and replace a middle-class draftee for a small fee. Their years in the barracks would have estranged them from their rural background, or removed the possibility of a farming career. By the end of the century this system came under attack: the barter in military service (referred to as 'blood tax') was increasingly interpreted as a form of social injustice and politicians as well as the army command were acutely aware of the unsavoury reputation of the army. From the 1860's onward a number of military reforms were executed, generally attempting to increase hygiene and health in the barracks (with limited success) and shortening military service. 13 It was only in the twentieth century however, in 1909 that universal military service was instituted. 14 In military circles France was soon replaced by Prussia as an example to follow -its grandiose victory in 1870 only added to its appeal. Its organisation for service; in 1913 universal service was applied to all men of the age cohort concerned (at the age of 18). benevolent fathers and virile brothers hoegaerts of grandes manoeuvres as a means of training was praised and emulated and military commanders jealously remarked upon the military character of Prussia as a nation. The gradual move toward a re-interpretation of the role of the army within the nation (from a necessary and relatively small group of defenders of the borders toward a general experience in the 'school of nation') was exemplified in the changing identity of the national military training camp of Beverloo. Located on the northern border, the camp was built as a buffer between the Dutch enemy and the new nation. According to the Journal de l'Armee Belge, in 1836, 'the camp (was) located in a strategic position '. 15 Throughout the century however, military publications changed the tone of their narratives about the camp and stressed its role as a national melting pota place where young men from all parts of the country came together and were taught to represent the nation. In 1888 an author in Belgique  but because of their hands-on and repetitive nature, they are more indicative of soldiers' possible interactions with the army's disciplinary (and often educational) discourse. Moreover, especially in the case of the songs, these sources can account for the earlier years of nation in which the national army was still in its infancy but discourses of masculinity were as ubiquitous as before. 17

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One of the first conclusions one can draw from this material is that, despite the continuous contact between the barracks and their surroundings (if only because soldiers brought ideas of home with them upon enrolling or after a period of leave), this bond between military and civilian life could only be imagined as being in one direction. The barracks, according to the army command, could prepare young men for their life outside the army, but civilians could never be sufficiently knowledgeable about the army. The military journal Belgique Militaire, for example, stated in 1875 that a civilian publication concerning military matters was 'like a blind man expatiating upon colours or a deaf man upon the harmony of sounds'. 18 The Belgian army, at least in its self-representation in an article tellingly entitled 'Education militaire et nationale', was a world of its own, a 'grande famille '. 19 The inclusion of soldiers in a homo-social collective as a way of moulding their identity was an important part of military practice. Especially in the first half of the century, the main goal of this homo-socialisation was the creation of a strong, uniform collective. 20 Strict discipline in marching speed, shooting exercises and blind obedience to officers' commands were heralded as ways to form a strong, machine-like army. For example, soldiers were instructed minutely on the collective rhythm of their feet: from 85 steps per minute for the 'instructive pace' up to 130 steps per minute to execute charges. 21 When soldiers were described or addressed in speeches or publications by the army command, they were rarely addressed as individuals.
Even though the individuality of the soldier became an important theme in officers' training (as will be shown later), army narratives usually rested on the anonymous and faceless soldierly hero, or on the troop or regiment as a whole.
When a collective of soldiers made an appearance, it was often referred to as a child. Especially the infantry, gathering the poorest among military men and lacking the kind of pride that could emerge from specific demands and rulings as was the case for the other types of regiment, could be identified as a young genderless child in need of guidance and discipline, or even as a girl. An article reporting on the 1881 grandes manoeuvres described the infantry as 'a good

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child. She only asks to cement the tender affection with which she is flooded by her good sisters, the other types of regiment '. 22 The use of feminisation of soldiers and parts of the army has been commented upon in other nationals contexts: in some languages, 'army' is a word of the feminine gender (l'armée, die Truppe), and the designation of soldiers as, for example, 'demoiselles de pensionnat' (as happened in Belgique Militaire in 1900) was a common way to deride young men's lack of competence or endurance. 23 Representations of the troops as a whole as a child, however, seem to have had another meaning. Rather than ridiculing the infantry by designating it as 'good child', the author seems to have implied that the collective of poor, young, often underfed and therefore weak foot-soldiers deserved protection from the other types of regiment and from the army command.
Unlike feminisation, the collective infantilisation of soldiers was not necessarily meant pejoratively. The immaturity implied in the designation of the troops as a child was counterbalanced by a particular form of obedience expressed through yet another kinship-metaphor -that of filial love. The image of the loving son was particularly popular in a context of patriotism.
Nationalist and revolutionary songs spoke of Belgian men as the sons of a number of 'forefathers' drawn from local historical heroes (from Antiquity on, claiming descent from the Gauls). According to a song by François Van Campenhout, the composer of the Brabançonne, the revolutionaries' 'fathers' had even vanquished the army of Caesar. 24 On a more abstract level, patriots also defined their identity in terms of their filial relationship with the nation itself: Belgium was not only the land of the forefathers but also a mother in her  benevolent fathers and virile brothers hoegaerts own right, to which all (male) inhabitants were to devote their bodies, minds and hearts. The 'Cry of the Belgians', a song of the revolution, called directly upon the 'children of the nation' and claimed that 'Belgium cried to them 'stand up, it is time'. 25 In the French version of the national hymn, patriots addressed their country as 'O dear Belgium, fatherland, dear mother, offering her their hearts, arms and blood'. 26

Paternal benevolence
Next to these allegorical or metaphorical parents, soldiers also expressed filial devotion to -if not real, than at least tangible, embodied -fathers. As has been shown most notably by German scholars, soldiers and other patriots often looked at the King as a paternal figure. 27 Unlike the Netherlands, where King Willem I was designated as 'Vader des Vaderlands', the Belgian royal family was rarely referred to in literal terms of paternity. Antoine Clesse claimed that Leopold had 'governed the Belgians like a father' in a song celebrating the 25th anniversary of independence, but did not represent him as a metaphorical father of the nation or its people. 28 However there was the notion that in times of need the King could count on the sons of the fatherland. Another patriotic text by Antoine Clesse, set to music by a military musician, made this difference between loyalty to the King and that to the nation explicit: When the King, dear Belgium Calls upon all your children; Honour goes to those who cry: Like a son I love the fatherland 83 But heroes of different disciplines were represented as fathers in a national context: composer Peter Benoit was regarded as the father of national music, Hendrik Conscience who 'taught his country how to read' could act as the father of national literature. On a smaller scale, different figures of authority assumed a paternal identity in order to be trusted and enforce discipline.
Teachers almost invariably appealed to their pupils' filial reflex to gain their respect -and, conversely, aspired to paternal affection and care as a practice of good teaching. 30 Within the army, officers and all higher ranks assumed paternal roles.
Especially generals, typically men of advanced age, were often described as paternal in their demeanour. General Thiebauld, for example, the head of the Beverloo camp in 1872, was credited with 'paternal benevolence' for the troops and 'combined' this with 'intelligent firmness'. 31 The description of the lieutenant general presiding over the 1873 manoeuvres showed remarkable resemblance to that of a contented family father, gathering his offspring for a family dinner. 'Enchanted when there are a lot of people', this general could be seen 'going from group to group, talking animatedly and smiling upon the military family surrounding him'. 32 Likewise, General Goethals was widely known and appreciated for his fatherliness. Soldiers looked forward longingly to his arrival in the camp, and reports of his interaction with his men stated that he knew how to give 'meetings a familial character'. 33 The connection between 'firmness' and 'benevolence' seems to have been crucial in the construction of a paternal military identity. A longer description of Goethals' behaviour shows how the ideal general was defined: This general is remarkably calm, cool-headed and tactful. I have already discussed his proverbial friendliness, which could be studied with great profit by those commanders who take arrogance to be dignity, and confound swearing with firmness.

benevolent fathers and virile brothers hoegaerts
Although the referrals to affection and to the warm atmosphere of the family were obviously part of the definition of fatherhood used in the army, the authoritarian nature of the family father's role echoed in generals' assumption of military fatherhood as well. 35 In 1879 the 'chefs de manoeuvres' were praised for their absolute authority -and the troops for their lack of criticism.
As was customary 'Each manoeuvre was immediately evaluated', and 'the respect for the commanders' military authority is such, that these evaluations are never the object of any controversy '. 36 It seems that in the years after independence and up to the 1880s, authority and age were connected and that the metaphor of fatherhood expressed and cemented that connection. In a context in which discipline and obedience played an important role, and against the background of the need for an identity for the patriot that had to be created in the new nation, the ambiguity of the fatherly general -at once 'firm' and 'benevolent' -might well have been the missing link between young recruits' civilian background and aspirations on the one hand, and their role as soldiers on the other hand.

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a productive unit, changed and slowly turned into an authority based on children's respect and love, generals' relations with their soldiers changed as well -or at least a simplified image of the arrogant and tyrannical general was denounced as old-fashioned. 39 Rather than a ruthless and unquestionable authoritarian, the ideal general of the late nineteenth century showed similarities with the 'new' affective father: he knew his men and even cared about them. Most importantly, the modern general respected the soldiers' individuality -for example by addressing them by their names, as Belgique Militaire in pedagogic fashion explained to its readers in 1891. 40 Instead of treating the whole regiment as a child who should blindly follow his orders, he was convinced of soldiers' (albeit limited) autonomy, and addressed them as rational beings whose discipline was based on choice, a reasonable trade for their leader's competence and affection rather than unconditional filial love. In an article on discipline, one author likened this move toward a modernised and more affective enforcement of discipline to its secularisation.
One should not confound discipline, the beautiful military virtue, with mute resignation. Resignation might be a good Christian virtue, but it will never be the 'Il convient, en effet de ne pas confondre la discipline, cette brillante vertu militaire, avec la résignation muette. Si la résignation est une admirable vertu chrétienne, elle ne sera jamais la qualité dominante de l'homme d'action'.

benevolent fathers and virile brothers hoegaerts
Apart from granting obedient soldiers a voice, this author also underlined their access to a masculine, rather than a childish, identity.
As the content of fatherhood and military leadership changed, the ways in which paternity was mobilised in a military context changed as well. By the end of the century, publications to encourage parents to allow their children's military training not only referred to the jovial, affective way in which generals would treat their recruits, but started to refer to generals' identity as actual family fathers as well. A man who could show concern and affection in the domestic realm, it was claimed, would also do so in the barracks. 'Why would you think', one author asked, 'that this captain, major or colonel, who has a family, who is good and paternal toward his own, promptly becomes bad and brutal once he crosses the threshold of the barracks?' 42 Throughout most of the nineteenth century, generals' 'paternal' character had been seen as a metaphorical way to describe their relations with their subordinates: they were 'like fathers' to their soldiers. In the 1880s, the discourse of paternity changed: generals were no longer fathers to their soldiers, but resembled their soldiers' fathers because, as men of their age, they were likely to have adolescent Rest assured, dear parents, your children will only benefit and in their vacations will return with round, rosy cheeks, an indication of good health. Their breast will have expanded, their shoulders broadened and their whole constitution will speak of force, vigour and health. 43

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Including descriptions of Beverloo's rural idyll, descriptions of the barracks framed the camp as a place that showed some resemblance to home. Despite the repeated stress on the need for homo-sociality for the creation of soldiers, texts directed at civilians often also contained descriptions of mothers visiting the camp, the quality of the food and the salubriousness of the buildings.
As commanders' identity as family fathers was paralleled by their affective authoritarian function within the army, subordinate military men's place in the family (as sons) was associated with their role in the army as well.
When in 1894, for example, Prince Albert led his 'peloton de grenadiers' during the manoeuvres, he was described as 'the joyful and gay comrade of the regiment's young officers'. 44 The real son of the symbolic father of the troops, and explicitly visible as a young man, he appeared as his fellow-soldiers' brother and thereby strengthened the bonds between the army and the nation. 45 In the same way the suggested affinities between generals and family fathers increased the bond between military and civilian lives. Even though the barracks remained a micro-cosmos, a separate society within the nation, the army increasingly called attention to the role of soldiers as future citizens and their officers as (father-like) guides toward responsible citizenship. 46 In a sense, this was a reference to soldiers' own potential for fatherhood. At the end of the nineteenth century, soldiers' education in the barracks was one not only guiding them toward respect and discipline, but also, as the director of the 1895 manoeuvres stated, one in which the army acted as a 'school of moralisation'. 47 It prepared young men for their future responsibilities in the domestic as well as the political sphere. Although the actual coincidence of universal draft and universal suffrage only occurred in the twentieth century, the references to responsible citizenship as a goal for military training surfaced at least two decades earlier. Rather than a direct link between military duty and political rights, these texts seem to appeal to a more corporeal understanding of men's role in the nation. Much like women, they For politicians, a similar evolution can be traced. By the end of the nineteenth century, they were no longer supposed to exert paternal governance. Rather, following the logic of liberal democracy, they were seen as representatives of the country's family fathers and their potential for being that was grounded in their own actual fatherhood. More and more, corporeal characteristics signalling a male identity, i.e. the potential for reproduction and fatherhood, came to determine the basis for different positions of authority within the nation. The form of that authority and its execution changed. In political circles as well, the tyrannical father was deemed to be 'retrograde and outdated', while parliamentarians were expected to act with 'virility'. 49 Nevertheless, the link between masculinity and authority remained intact and even gained strength as the connection came to rely more on gender rather than on gender and age in equal measure: as sex was increasingly thought of as biological and impervious to change, the interpretation of authority as inherently 'male' became more plausible. 50 The increasing attention paid to the male body as a prerequisite for participation in politics also changed current ideas on autonomy and independence. Before, terms like 'virility' or the concept of men's strength had been measured in terms of maturity. 51 In the family, on the battle-field, in a duel, the mature man had been considered to be favoured. 52 By the end of the nineteenth century, however, as gender became tied to biological characteristics, muscles took over from maturity, and the male body replaced

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the masculine mind as the seat of autonomy. 53 Obviously, family fathers remained responsible for their families and retained governance over them, but a man's independence was increasingly defined as a form of individual, corporeal autonomy. And since the male body was shared by all men, control over one's own body became part of the very definition of masculinity -and a prerequisite for citizenship. 54

The heterosexual soldier
As this corporeal, individualistic definition of autonomy spread, corporal punishment gradually disappeared from the army. Rather than signalling an increased disembodiment of masculinity and soldierly identity, as one would perhaps expect from a society that made men's bodies largely invisible, the disappearance of lashings and beatings from ordinary military practice went hand in hand with a renewed respect for the soldier's body. 55 Increasingly, his individual muscular strength became a concern for the army command.
Authors at the end of the nineteenth century not only vociferously supported gymnastics, physical education and regular health check-ups, they also lamented the state of the foot-soldier's body: young, underfed and poor recruits were often too small, too weak or not 'virile' enough to be soldiers, according to authors who referred to them as 'our little infantrymen'. 56 The military discourse, in that respect, only reflected a more general concern about male bodies. As different historians of masculinity have shown, the turn of the twentieth century was characterised by an almost obsessive fear of feminisation and degeneration among men -and especially among white-53 In an opposite movement, the meaning of childhood changed as well: throughout most of the nineteenth century 'childhood is better understood as a status or idea associated with innocence and dependency than as a specific developmental or biological period' (Sanchez-Eppler, Dependent States, xxi). Much in the same way independence became a result of being a man, rather than the other way around, at the end of the nineteenth century children only became to be seen as dependent because they were young. However, unlike the 'daughter of the regiment' whose visibility as part of the army caused no problem in 1840 and only turned into a sexually attractive woman in the eyes of an outsider (Toni), the imaginary women praised in song later on in the century were the object of soldiers' heterosexual admiration. The fact that the army command sanctioned and spread these songs gives us further clues to the soldierly identity they were trying to create.
The ideal soldier, so it seems, was not only a future father and citizen, but also an affective husband-to-be. 63 A particularly sugary song, entitled 'à la Belgique', addressed the nation in different feminine roles, including a verse that suggested that the fatherland was a secretly attractive young woman underneath her veil of virginity.
Then, softly, like a mother, domestic, woman-governed, environments were deemed crucial for them as well. Considerable rhetorical work went into the image of soldiers as ardent (but chaste) lovers of women, but also conversely as the objects of women's heterosexual desire.
Though less present in the civilian world, the image of the strapping young officer was widely spread within the army. As the army command claimed to transform young adolescents into healthy, muscular men, the appeal to female desire might have been an additional way to motivate recruits. Reporters on the grandes manoeuvres often described marching or parading soldiers as good-looking or vigorous, as they wrote admiringly of 'the virile aspect of the troops' or of 'their martial looks [...] and their bronzed faces'. 65 Even more convincing of soldiers' attractiveness must have been descriptions of women observing the manoeuvres. Descriptions of civilian audiences of these exercises tended to contain a number of clichés -the robust country woman, the distant bourgeois, enthusiastic boys and a swooning young maiden. When Princess Marie-Henriette attended the grandes manoeuvres with her husband (who would later become Leopold II) and her brother, she convincingly presented herself as a girlish admirer and something of a connoisseur of military masculinity. In a letter to the minister of war, she subtly bemoaned her husband's preference for the tenue de route, which in her opinion is not quite as 'handsome' (jolie) as parade uniforms, but gave the soldiers 'a more martial air '. 66 In this new, corporeal and heterosexuality-centred army the soldiers' age acquired a different meaning. As shown before, up to the 1880s, age intersected with authority and thus with rank and class. Maturity and masculinity had been, if not synonymous, at least mutually constructive. In the last decades of the nineteenth century however, young men became the image of masculinity. 67 Their active, muscular and reproductive bodies made the performance of a new body-based masculinity possible. Although the low countries histories of masculinity authority that came with maturity was not simply dismissed, the gap between the individual mature officer and a childish collective of soldiers diminished as soldiers gained a masculine identity of their own. 68 By the end of the nineteenth century, brotherhood and comradeship had replaced fatherliness as the army's main kinship metaphor. 69 As soldiers were less often referred to as children or sons, their relation to the nation acquired different expressions as well. In the first place, the physicality of one's love for the fatherland was stressed. Men's, and specifically military men's, patriotism had always been measured by their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country, but by the end of the nineteenth century the defiance of death was gradually replaced by a readiness to risk one's (individual and autonomous) body. The result remained the same of course, but the representation of the self-sacrificial soldier did change. Instead of praising soldiers' courage, their lack of fear and their unconditional devotion to a mère chérie, late nineteenth-century poets and composers hailed (especially dying or wounded) soldiers for their strength, calling attention to their broad shoulders or the patriotic heart beating in their chest, creating 'chests that pulse beneath the uniform'. 70 Closeness of the soldiers' heart to the nation was made even more tangible by vivid descriptions of heroes shedding their blood for the nation.
Connecting men in a literally physical way to the nation's soil, the image of the patriot bleeding into the earth of the nation made the relation between them almost erotic. 71 Rather than a venerated mother, Belgium became a young woman to be desired, protected and physically held close to the heart. In a collection of patriotic songs published and widely distributed in 1905, an old combatant of 1830 was quoted describing the fatherland as a benevolent fathers and virile brothers hoegaerts virgin, and as 'the country's virginal image' appeared before them, the 'dear youth' of the nation was called upon to love that country 'like we [the former revolutionaries] have loved it '. 72 In another introduction to the collection, children were admonished to 'love the fatherland like [they] love their mother'.
Rather than seeing the fatherland as a mother as such, they were to reproduce a specific emotion for the fatherland. Furthermore, should the country be threatened, the young readers were to 'go to the borders to cover the Belgian soil, the ground of [their] forefathers, with the bulwark of [their] breasts'. 73 The protection of the nation therefore, was increasingly each man's personal responsibility. Moreover, as (potential) family fathers they had to care not only for 'la Belgique' as it was, but also for the future generation. With the new-found autonomy, formerly fatherly authoritarians' disappearance and an increasingly close bond between soldierhood and responsible civilian patriotism, the individual soldiers' body became the ultimate representation of the patriot -and of man. 74

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The rural dweller, who is the most common in the army, is moved by the memory of his village, by the landscape that reminds him of his native fields, and by the forests that takes his mind back to those where, as a child, he liked to let his careless turbulence run its course. 79 After some time in local garrisons, usually located in notoriously insalubrious buildings in the city, the young soldier would see the camp as a representation of the life he had been forced to leave. Additionally, the camp served as a place where recruits 'burst into the admirable morale, and turned into touching and chivalrous brothers in arms'. 80 The trip to the national training camp might have removed the soldiers further from home physically, but its resemblance to surroundings most recruits would recognise as domestic also allowed for an easier recourse to the metaphor of fraternity. If the barracks were not necessarily like a home, they could feel 'like home'.
The fiction of the age-based homogeneity of the barracks was further supported by frequent referrals to the soldiers as young men and sometimes even as adolescents. The need for their removal from the home was one that was tied to recruits' age especially: these 'young people' were chosen as a healthy and robust youth and were said to be no more 'immoral' than 'others of their age'. 81 The narrative of the barracks as a space of encounter for young men was usually part of an appealing discourse, mainly in an attempt to encourage well-off parents to forego remplacement and send their children to the barracks. 82 The metaphor of brotherhood was thus used not only vis à vis the young soldiers to frame their social relations in a strange non-domestic environment, but also as a way to represent barrack life to outsiders. If the metaphor of the army as a family hid family matters from the public eye, claiming a private sphere of its own, it also established a discursive bridge between soldiers and civilians, as all were engaged in similar social interactions. after they had welcomed their 'big brothers' to the camp. 84 The soldiers greeted were indeed older men, but what was more important was that they were older as 'brothers', i.e. as soldiers: they had spent more time in a military environment and were therefore more 'at home' in the barracks.

Conclusion
A study of the military micro-cosmos shows that fatherhood, even in this non-domestic setting, was one of the most influential codes of masculinity in the nineteenth century. Throughout the period studied, depictions of fatherhood, metaphors of paternity and associations of paternity with a number of politically and socially relevant characteristics, surface continually.
In other homo-social contexts, such as the school and parliament, the code of fatherhood carried a similar importance: nowhere, and at no time in the nineteenth century does fatherhood disappear completely from the (public) discourse on social interaction, authority or masculinity. The meaning of the code used did shift slightly, however. It is hard to pinpoint an exact timeframe or a clear-cut change, but around 1880 the first signs of a more corporeal, reproduction-aimed understanding of fatherhood can be traced. Rather than a consciously social (and constructed) role, fatherhood became a biologically anchored identity that, as a practice accessible to all men, served to promote the new dominant metaphor of brotherhood. Rather than the symbolically fatherly authority, generals came to be represented as father-like and as actual fathers.
The change in the ways in which generals and officers could exert authority over their subordinates gives us an illuminating insight in the work that was done by masculinity, and in the way in which changing conceptions of low countries histories of masculinity 99 masculinity could have a real impact on military discourse and practice as well as influence the governance of violence in the heart of the nation. Throughout the nineteenth century the construction of masculinity was essential for military men's identity and for commanders' access to authority. Whereas the twosome of masculinity and authority was consciously social and performedgenerals' paternal behaviour signalling and enabling their authority -the latenineteenth-century military hierarchy depended on characteristics that were ascribed to male bodies. The rhetorical work of creating symbolical fatherhood for commanders was replaced with performative work done by the muscular and reproductive male body. Men's shared 'real' fatherhood created a collective of brothers who, assuming their paternal rather than filial responsibilities, chose to be disciplined and actively obedient.
Around 1880 then, brotherhood replaced fatherhood as the most important kinship-metaphor for the expression of the political and social weight of masculinity. Parallel to this linguistic change, the character of the spaces occupied by men changed as well. Homo-social spaces such as the barracks and schools became more defined by their inhabitants' gender rather than other identity-markers such as age or class. Obviously, the age-cohort remained an important factor in organising men and class-distinctions did not become invisible, but the exclusion of women from homo-social spaces occupied a more preponderant place in discourses on the army (as well as the school). The growing attention granted to soldiers' heterosexuality was probably linked to this practice of exclusion. As women and men were increasingly regarded as essentially different and as their social roles were bound up with seemingly eternal, biologically defined bodies and behaviours, both their separation in the political sphere and their connection in the domestic one seemed unmistakably necessary.
The shifting meaning of masculinity and its metaphors of kinship ran parallel to a number of broader evolutions. The augmenting 'naturalisation' of gender is the most obvious one, but the move from fatherhood to brotherhood also signals an evolution in political thought and the concept of nation. By anchoring citizenship in a number of characteristics that were ascribed to men, the naturalisation at once made citizenship more democratic (making it available to all men, regardless of their class) and more perpetually exclusive (necessarily unavailable to women). Although fatherhood lost much of its symbolic meaning for the nation and its political practices, paternity as a sign of masculinity remained at the heart of the very definition of nation. Active participation in that nation became obligatory for all aspiring to masculinity, and became impossible for women and children. q benevolent fathers and virile brothers hoegaerts