Founded in 1834 on the principle of "free inquiry" (French: libre examen), its founders envisaged the institution as a freethinker reaction to the traditional dominance of Catholicism in the country's education system.

The "Linguistic Wars" affected the Free University, which split along language lines in 1969 in the aftermath of student unrest at Leuven the previous year.

News of the imminent creation of the Catholic University of Mechelen revived the initiative among those with anti-clerical ideas, especially freemasons, liberals, and other freethinkers.

[2] The motivating principle behind the new institution was "free inquiry" (French: libre examen) which denoted freethinking ideas inherited from the European Enlightenment.

[3] After its establishment, the Free University faced difficult times, since it received no subsidies or grants from the government; yearly fundraising events and tuition fees provided the only financial means.

Verhaegen, who became a professor and later head of the new university, gave it a mission statement which he summarised in a speech to King Leopold I: "the principle of free inquiry and academic freedom uninfluenced by any political or religious authority.

In 1911, the university obtained its legal personality under the name Université libre de Bruxelles - Vrije Hogeschool te Brussel.

After Belgian independence, French was widely accepted as the language of the bourgeoisie and upper classes and was the only medium in law and academia.

[10] Tensions between French- and Dutch-speaking students in the country came to a head in 1968 when the Catholic University of Leuven split along linguistic lines, becoming the first of several national institutions to do so.