Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first documented use of the Flemish lion appeared on the seal of Philip d'Alsace, count of Flanders, on the 11th of June 1162. This black lion with red claws and tongue became the enduring heart of Flemish identity and remains the central figure of the official flag adopted by the Flemish Community on the 2nd of March 1991.
The year 1830 marked a seismic shift in the consciousness of the Flemish people, transforming a geographical term into a distinct ethnic and political identity. This change occurred after the Belgian Revolution when the term Flemish began to refer to a specific group rather than all inhabitants of the medieval County of Flanders.
During the 14th century, skilled cloth weavers from Flanders settled in the growing Lancashire and Yorkshire textile towns of Manchester, Bolton, Blackburn, and Halifax. Another wave of migration in the 15th and 16th centuries focused on towns close to the coastline of East Anglia and South East England, including Colchester, Sandwich, and Braintree.
By 1490, there were 2,000 Flemish people living in the Azores, making these volcanic islands known as the Flemish Islands. Willem van der Haegen was the original sea captain who brought settlers from Flanders to the Azores, and the city of Horta derives its name from Flemish explorer Josse van Huerter.
Approximately 75% of the Flemish people are by baptism assumed Roman Catholic, yet a still-diminishing minority of less than 8% attends Mass on a regular basis. A 2006 inquiry in Flanders showed 55% chose to call themselves religious and 36% believe that God created the universe.
Flemish architects Anthonis van Obbergen and Willem van den Blocke designed mannerist structures in Poland, including the Highland Gate in Gdańsk, built in the 1580s by Willem van den Blocke. The Flemming noble family of Flemish origin first settled in Pomerania and modern Poland in the 13th century with the village of Buk becoming the first estate of the family in the region.