Historical notes on the “Balen” family name

BRABANT

The Balen surname, which is nowadays widespread especially throughout Europe and the western world, has very likely originated in Belgium.
In actual fact, Balen is the name of a small town in the Belgian province of Brabant, not very far from  the larger centres of Mol and Geel, situated near the border with Holland.
During the late Middle Ages and the begininng of the Modern Era, the whole region of the Low Countries, which grossly includes Flanders and Brabant, the Netherlands and Low-Lorraine, was an area strategically important for all Europe, being located among the Roman-German Empire, the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of England, at a short distance from Aquisgrana (Aachen), the historic capital of the Holy Roman Empire at the times of Charlemagne, Cologne, the main city of Rhineland, and the present-day major EU political centres of Brussels and Maastricht.
The region of Brabant, once great producer of raw wool and woollen materials, is and was centred on its capital Antwerp, a major port and market place, point of arrival and departure of  international trade and commercial routes and of merchants travelling throughout the world.

VENICE AND THE EAST

Along the famous Venetian shipping route called after the “Muda di Fiandra” (the “muda” was a naval convoy), which was particularly trafficked between the 14th and the 16th centuries, a lot of imposing galleys  used to sail with their precious cargoes linking the flourishing city of Venice to the harbour of Antwerpen.
A large net of main commercial ways stretched also through the continent connecting the provinces of Brabant and the Flanders to Venice through France and Germany. The main roads that reached the Venetian lagoon passing through the German countries were the ancient Roman road Claudia Augusta Altinate, the “Caminum Basilee“, or Bavarian Way, and the “Caminum Usporgi“, or the Way of Augsburg (the ancient Augusta). From Venice, it was then not so difficult to reach the Dalmatian coast, the lands of the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Land and the East.
During the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, these ways saw an intense and continuous flow of a large number of merchants, pilgrims and crusaders directed to the territories of Byzantium and the Holy Land. As a matter of fact, in medieval times man used to travel much more than we can imagine.

FROM BRABANT TO THE EAST THROUGH VENICE

As merchants, seafarers, pilgrims, crusaders and mercenary soldiers, Brabant people quite often set to travel about the world. It is therefore easy to imagine that they could reach Venice through sea or land; then either for economic or military reasons, some of them may have left from there to colonize some Byzantine towns or the Holy Land. This may have happened especially in the period following the Fourth Crusade that resulted in the creation of the Latin Empire; supported by the Venetians, the Imperium Romaniae lasted from 1204 to 1261; its crown was first worn by Baldwin IX, count of Flanders, who then became emperor Baldwin I.
It appears as likely that people from Brabant frequented the many emporia spread out throughout the territories of the Venetian Republic stretching from Istria and Dalmatia to Cattaro, Alessio and Durazzo.