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THE

HISTORY

THE NETHERLANDS.-

THOMAS COLLEY GRATTAN

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHER

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CONTENTS.

CHAP. I B. C. 50.— A. D. 250.

FROM THE INVASION OF THE NETHERLANDS BY THE ROMANS TO THE INVASION BY THE SALIAN FRANKS.

Extent of the Kingdom.— Description of the People.— Ancient State of the Low Countries— Of the High Grounds— Contrasted with the pres- ent Aspect of the Country.— Expedition of Julius Ccesar.- The BelgiE. — The Menapians. — Batavians — Distinguished among the Auxiliaries of Rome.— Decrease of national Feeling in Part of the Country. — Steady Patriotism of the Prisons and Menapians.— Commencement of Civilization. — Early Formation of the Dikes. — Degeneracy of those who became united to the Romans. — Invasion of the Netherlands by the Salian Franks Page 15

CHAP. H

250—800.

FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS TO THE StJBJUGATION OF FRIESLAND BY THE FRENCH.

Character of the Franks.— The Saxon Tribes.— Destruction of the Sali- ans by a Saxon Tribe.— Julian the Apostate.— Victories of Clovis in Gaul.— Contrast between the Low Countries and the Provinces of France.— State of Friesland.— Charles Martel.— Friesland converted to Christianity— Finally subdued by France 22

CHAP. HI.

800—1000.

FROM THE CONQUEST OF FRIESLAND TO THE FORMATION OF HOLLAND.

Commencement of the Feudal System in the Highlands.— Flourishing State of the Low Countries. — Counts of the Empire. — Formation of the Gilden or Trades. — Establishment of popular Privileges in Fries- land.— In what they consisted. — Growth of Ecclesiastical Power. — Baldwin of Flanders — Created Count. — Appearance of the Normans. — They ravage the Netherlands — Their Destruction — And final Dis- appearance.— Division of the Empire into Higher and Lower Lor- raine.— Establishment of the Counts of Lorraine and Hainault. — In- creasing Power of the Bishops of Liege and Utrecht. — Their Jealousy of the Counts ; who resist their Encroachments 28

VI CONTENTS.

CHAP. IV.

1018—1384.

FROM THE FORMATION OF HOLLAND TO THE DEATH OF LOUIS DE MALE.

Origin of Holland. — Its first Count. — Aggranrlizement of Flanders. — Its growing Commerce — Fisheries — Manufactures. — Formation of the County of Guelders— And of Brabant.— State of Friesland.— State of the Provinces.— The Crusades.— Their good Effects on the State of the Netherlands.— Decline of the Feudal Power— And Growth of the Influence of the Towns.— Great Prosperity of the Country.— The Flemings take up Arms against the French — Drive them out of Bru- ges— And defeat them in the Battle of Courtrai. — Popular Success in Brabant. — Its Confederation with Flanders. — Rebellion of Bruges against the Count — And of Ghent under James d'Artaveldt. — His Al- liance with England. — His Power — And Death. — Independence of Flanders. — Battle of Roosbeke. — Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, obtains the Sovereignty of Flanders 36

CHAP. V.

1384—1506.

FROM THE SUCCESSION OF PHILIP THE BOLD TO THE CODNTY OF FLANDERS TO THE DEATH OF PHILIP THE FAIR.

"'hilip succeeds to the Inheritance of Brabant. — Makes War on England as a French Prince — Flanders remaining neuter. — Power of the Houses of Burgundy and Bavaria— And Decline of public Liberty. — Union of Holland, Hainault, and Brabant.— Jacqueline Countess of Holland and Hainault — Flies from the Tyranny of her Husband, John of Bra- bant, and takes Refuge in England.— Murder of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.— Accession of his Son, Philip the Good.— His Policy. — EspCf'ses the Cause of John of Brabant against Jacqueline. — Deprives her of Hainault, Holland, and Zealand. — Continues his Per- secution, and despoils her of her last Possession and Titles. — She marries a Gentleman of Zealand — And dies. — Peace of Arras. — Do- minions of the House of Burgundy equal to the present Extent of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. — Rebellion of Ghent. — Affairs of Hol- land and Zealand. — Charles the Rash. — His Conduct in Holland. — Succeeds his Father. — Effects of Philip's Reign on the Manners of the People. — Louis XI. — Death of Charles, and Succession of Mary. — Factions among her Subjects. — Marries Maximilian of Austria. — Battle of Guinegate. — Death of Mary. — Maximilian unpopular. — Im- prisoned by his Subjects. — Released. — Invades the Netherlands. — Suc- ceeds to the Imperial Throne by the Death of his Father.— Philip the Fair proclaimed Duke and Count. — His wise Administration. — Af- fairs of Friesland — Of Guelders.— Charles of Egmonc. — Death of Philip the Fair 49

CHAP. VI.

1506—1555.

FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF MARGARET OF AUSTRIA TO THS ABDICATION OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.

Margaret of Austria invested with the Sovereignty.— Her Character and Government.— Charles, Son of Philip the Fair, created Duke of Bra-

CONTENTS. Vll

bant and Count of Flanders and Holland.— The Reformation. -Mar- tin Luther.— Persecution of the Reformers.— Battle of Pavia.— Ces- sion of Utrecht to Charles V.— Peace of Cambray.— The Anabaptists' Sedition at Ghent.— Expedition against Tunis and Algiers.— Charles becomes possessed of Friesland and Guelders.— His increasing Sever- ity against the Protestants.— His Abdication and Death.— Review.— Progress of Civilization 67

CPAP. VII.

1555—1566.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF PHILIP II. OF SPAIN TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INQUISITION IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Accession of Philip II. — His Character and Government. — His Wars with France, and with the Pope.— Peace with the Pope.— Battle of St. Q.uentin.— Battle of Gravelines.— Peace of Cateau-Cambresis.— Death of Mary of England.— Philip's Despotism.— Establishes a Pro- visional Government. — Convenes the States-General at Ghent. — His Minister Granvelle.— Goes to Zealand.— Embarks for Spain.— Pros- perity revives. — Eflects of the Provisional Government. — Marguerite of Parma. — Character of Granvelle. — Viglius de Berlaimont. — De- parture of the Spanish Troops.— Clergy.— Bishops.— National Discon- tent.—Granvelle appointed Cardinal.— Edicts against Heresy.— Popu- lar Indignation.— Reformation.— State of Brabant.— Confederacy against Granvelle.— Prince of Orange.— Counts Egmont and Horn join the Prince against Granvelle.— Granvelle recalled.— Council of Trent.— Its Decrees received with Reprobation.— Decrees against Re- formers.—Philip's Bigotry.— Establishment of the Inquisition.— Popu- lar Resistance 77

CHAP VIII. 1566.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.

Commencement of the Revolution. — Defence of the Prince of Orange. — Confederacy of the Nobles. — Louis of Nassau. — De Brederode. — Philip de St. Aldegonde.— Assembly of the Council of State.— Con- federates enter Brussels — Take the Title of Oueux — Q.uit Brussels, and disperse in the Provinces. — Measures of Government. — Growing Power of the Confederates. — Progress of the Reformation. — Field- Preaching. — Herman Strieker. — Boldness of the Protestants. — Peter Dathen. — Ambrose Ville. — Situation of Antwerp. — The Prince re- pairs to it, and saves it. — Meeting of the Confederates at St. Trond. —The Prince of Orange and Count Egmont treat with them.— Ty- ranny of Philip and Moderation of the Spanish Council. — Image- Breakers.— Destruction of the Cathedral of Antwerp.— Terror of Government.— Firmness of Viglius.— Arbitration between the Court and the People.— Concessions made by Government.— Restoration of Tranquillity ^...^ -. . .

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAP. IX.

1566—1573.

TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF REQUESENS.

Philip's Vindictiveness and Hypocrisy.— Progress of Protestantism.— Gradual Dissolution of the Conspiracy.— Artifices of Philip and the Court to disunite the Protestants. — Firmness of the Prince of Orange.

Conference at Termonde. — Egmont abandons the Patriot Cause. —

Fatal Effects of his Conduct. — Commencement of Hostilities. — Siege of Valenciennes.— Protestant Synod at Antwerp.— Haughty Conduct of the Government.— Royalists repulsed at Bois-le-duc— Battle of Oster- weel, and Defeat of the Patriots.— Antwerp again saved by the Firm- ness and Prudence of the Prince of Orange.— Capitulation of Valen- ciennes.— Success of the Royalists. — Death of De Brederode. — New Oath of Allegiance— Refused by the Prince of Orange and others.— The Prince resolves on voluntary Banishment, and departs for Ger- many.— His Example is followed by the Lords. — Extensive Emigra- tion.— Arrival of the Duke of Orleans. — Egmont's Humiliation. — Alva's Powers. — Arrest of Egmont and others. — Alva's first Acts of Tyranny. — Council of Blood. — Recall of the Government. — Alva's Character. — He summons the Prince of Orange, who is tried by Con- tumacy.— Horrors comnfitted by Alva — Desolate State of the Country. — Trial and Execution of Egmont and Horn. — The Prince of Orange raises an Army in Germany, and opens his first Campaign in the Netherlands.— Battle of Heiligerlee.— Death of Adolphus of Nassau.— Battle of Jemminghem.— Success and skilful Conduct of Alva.— Dis- persion of the Prince of Orange's Army.— Growth of the naval Power of the Patriots.— Inundation in Holland and Friesland.— Alva re- proached by Philip.— Duke of Medina-Celi appointed Governor— Is attacked, and his Fleet destroyed by the Patriots— Demands his Re- call.—Policy ofl^uUG English Cleeen, Elizabeth.— The Dutch take Brille. —General Revolt in Holland and Zealand.— New Expedition of the Prince of Orange.— Siege of Mons.— Success of the Prince.— Siege of Haerlem— Of Alkmaer.— Removal of Alva.— Don Luis Zanega y Re- quesene appointed Governor-General 109

CHAP X.

1573—1576.

TO THE PACIFICATION OF GHENT.

Character of Requesens. — His conciliating Conduct. — Renews the War against the States. — Siege of Middleburg. — Generosity of the Prince of Orange.— Naval Victory.— State of Flanders.— Count Louis of Nas- sau.—Battle of Mookerheyde.— Counts Louis and Henry slain.— Mu- tinyof the Spanish Troops.— Siege of Leyden.— Negotiations for Peace at Breda.— The Spaniards take Zuriczee.— Requesens dies.— The Government devolves on the Council of State.— Miserable State of the Country, and Despair of the Patriots.— Spanish Mutineers.— The States-General are convoked, and the Council arrested by the Grand Bailiff of Brabant.— The Spanish Mutineers sack and capture Maes- stricht, and afterwards Antwerp.— The States-General assemble at Ghent and assume the Government.— The Pacification of Ghent 126

CONTENTS. IX

CHAP. XI.

1576—1580.

TO THE RENUNCIATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF SPAIN AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Don John of Austria, Governor-General, arrives in tlie Netherlands. — His Character and Conduct.— The States send an Envoy to Elizabeth of England. — She advances them a Loan of Money. — The Union of Brussels. — The Treaty of Marche-en-Famenne, called the Perpetual Edict.— The impetuous Conduct of Don John excites the public Suspi- cion.— He seizes on the Citadel of Namur. — The Prince of Orange is named Protector of Brabant. — The People destroy the Citadels of Ant- werp and other Towns. — The Duke of Arschot is named Governor of Flanders. — Heinvites the Archduke Mathias to accept the Government of the Netherlands.— Wise Conduct of the Prince of Orange.— Ryhove and Hembyse possess themselves of supreme Power at Ghent.— The Prince of Orange goes there and establishes Order.— The Archduke Mathias is installed.— The Prince of Parma arrives in the Netherlands, and gains the Battle of Gemblours.— Confusion of the States-general. — The Dukeof Alencon comesto their Assistance.— Dissensions among the Patriot Chiefs.— Death of Don John of Austria.— Suspicions of his having been poisoned by Order of Philip II.— The Prince of Parma is declared Governor-General.— The Cnion of Utrecht.— The Prince of Parma takes the Field.— The Congress of Cologne rendered fruitless by the Obstinacy of Philip.— The States-General assemble at Antwerp, and issue a Declaration of National Independence.— The Sovereignty of the Netherlands granted to the Duke of Alencon 134

CHAP. xn.

1580—1584.

TO THE MURDER OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.

Proscription of the Prince of Orange.— His celebrated Apology.— Philip proposes sending back the Duchess of Parma as Governant. — Her Son refuses to act jointly with her, and is left in the Exercise of his Power. — The Siege of Cambray undertaken by the Prince of Parma, and gal- lantly defended by the Princess of Epinoi. — The Duke of Alencon created Duke of Anjou. — Repairs to England, in hopes of marrying Queen Elizabeth. — He returns to the Netherlands unsuccessful, and is inaugurated at Antwerp.— The Prince of Orange desperately wounded by an Assassin. — Details on John Jaureguay and his Accomplices. — The People suspect the French of the Crime. — Rapid Recovery of the Prince, who soon resumes his accustomed Activity. — Violent Con- duct of the Duke of Anjou, who treacherously attempts to seize on Antwerp. — He is defeated by the Towns-people. — His Disgrace and Death. — Ungenerous Suspicions of the People against the Prince of Orange, who leaves Flanders in Disgust. — Treachery of the Prince of Chimay and others. — Treason of Hembyse. — He is executed at Ghent. — The States resolve to confer the Sovereignty on the Prince of Orange. —He is murdered at Delft.— Parallel between hiin and the Admiral Coligny. — Execution of Balthazar Gerard, his Assassin. — Complicity of the Prince of Parma 144

X CONTENTS.

CHAP. XIII.

1584—1592.

TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER PRINCE OF PARMA.

Effects of William's Death on the History of his Country.— Firm Conduct of the United Provinces.— They reject the Overtures of the Prince of Parma.— He reduces the whole of Flanders.— Deplorable Situation of the Country.— Vigorous Measures of the Northern States.— Antwerp besieged. — Operations of the Siege. — Immense E.xertions of the Be- siegers.— The Infernal Machine. — Battle on the Dike of Couvestien. — Surrender of Antwerp.— Extravagant Joy of Philip II.— The United Provinces solicit the Aid of France and England. — Elizabeth sends them a supply of Troops under the Earl of Liecester.— He returns to England.— Treachery of some English and Scottish Officers.— Prince Maurice commences his Career. — The Spanish Armada. — Justin of Nassau blocks up the Prince of Parma in the Flemish Ports. — Ruin of the Armada.— Philip's Mock Piety on hearing the News.— Leicester dies.— Exploits and Death of Martin Schenck.— Breda surprised.- The Duke of Parma leads his Army into France.— His famous Retreat.— His Death and Character 154

CHAP. XIV. 1592—1^99.

TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF BELGIUM AND THE DEATH OF PHILIP II.

Count Mansfield named Governor-General.— State of Flanders and Bra- bant.— The Archduke Ernest named Governor-General. — Attempts against the Life of Prince Maurice.— He takes Groningen.— Death of the Archduke Ernest.— Count Fuentes named Governor-General.— He takes Cambray and other Towns. — Is soon replaced by the Archduke Albert of Austria. — His high Reputation. — He opens his first Campaign in the Netherlands. — His Successes. — Prince Maurice gains the Battle of Turnhout. — Peace of Vervins. — Philip yields the Sovereignty of the Netherlands to Albert and Isabella. — A new Plot against the Life of Prince Maurice. — Albert sets out for Spain, and receives the News of Philip's Death.— Albert arrives in Spain, and solemnizes his Marriage with the Infanta Isabella.— Review of the State of the Netherlands. . ]68

CHAP. XV.

1599—1604.

TO THE CAMPAIGN OF PRINCE MAURICE AND SPINOLA.

Cardinal Andrew of Austria Governor. — Francisco Mendoza, Admiral of Aragon, invades the neutral States of Germany. — His atrocious Conduct.— Prince Maurice takes the Field.— His masterly Movements — Sybilla of Cleves raises an Army, which is quickly destroyed.— Great Exertions of the States-General. — Naval Expedition under Van der Goes.— Its complete Failure.— Critical Situation of the United Provinces. — Arrival of the Archduke in Brussels. — Success of Prince Maurice. — His Expedition into Flanders. — Energy of the Archduke. — Heroism of Isabella. — Pi ogress of Albert's Army. — Its first Success. —Firmness of ftlaurice.— The Battle of Nieuport.— Total Defeat of the Royalists. — Consequences of the Victory. — Prince Maurice returns to

CONTENTS. XI

Holland.— Negotiations for Peace.— Siege of Ostentl.— Death of Eliza- betii of England. — United Provinces send Ambassadors to James I. — Successful Negotiations of Barneveldt and the Duke of Sully in Lon- don.—Peace between England and Spain.— Brilliant Campaign be- tween Spinola and Prince Maurice.— Battle of Roeroord.— Naval Transactions.— Progress of Dutch Influence in India.— Establishment of the East India Company 177

CHAP. XVI.

1606—1619.

TO THE SYNOD OF DORT AND THE EXECUTION OF BARNEVELDT.

Spinola proposes to invade the United Provinces. — Successfully opposed by Prince Maurice.— The Dutch defeated at Sea.— Desperate Conduct of Admiral Klagoon.— Great naval Victory of the Dutch, and Death of their Admiral Heemskirk. — Overtures of the Archdukes for Peace. — How received in Holland. — Prudent Conduct of Barneveldt. — Nego- tiations opened at the Hague.— John de Neyen, Ambassador for the Archdukes.— Armistice for Eight Months.— Neyen attempts to bribe D'Aarsens, the Greffier of the States-General.— His Conduct disclaimed by Verreiken, Counsellor to the Archdukes. — Great Prejudices in Hol- land against King James I. and the English— And Partiality towards France. — Rupture of the Negotiations. — They are renewed. — Truce for Twelve Years signed at Antwerp. — Gives great Satisfaction in the Netherlands. — Important Attitude of the United Provinces. — Conduct of the Belgian Provinces. — Disputes relative to Cleves and Juliers. — Prince Maurice and Spinola remove their Armies into the contested States. — Intestine Troubles in the United Provinces. — Assassination of Henry IV. of France. — His Character.— Change in Prince Maurice's Character and Conduct. — He is strenuously opposed by Barneveldt. — Religious Disputes. — King James enters the Lists of Controversy.— Barneveldt and Maurice take opposite Sides.— The cautionary Towns released from the Possession of England. — Consequences of this Event. — Calumnies against Barneveldt. — Ambitious Designs of Prince Mau- rice.— He is baffled by Barneveldt. — The Republicassists its Allies with Money and Ships. — Its great naval Power. — Outrages of some Dutch Sailors in Ireland. — Unresented by King James. — His Anger at the manufacturing Prosperity of the United Provinces.— Excesses of the Gomarists.— The Magistrates call out the National Militia.— Violent Conduct of Prince Maurice. — Uncompromising Steadiness of Barne- veldt.—Calumnies against him.— Maurice succeeds to the Title of Prince of Orange — And Acts with increasing Violence. — Arrest of Barneveldt and his Friends. — Synod of Dort.— Its Consequences. — Trio.l, Condemnation, and Execution of Barneveldt. — Grotius and Hoogerbeets sentenced to perpetual Imprisonment. — Ledenburg com- mits Suicide 189

CHAP. xvn.

1619—1625.

TO THE DEATH OF PRINCE MAURICE.

The Parties of Arminianism quite subdued. — Emigrations. — Grotius resolves to attempt an Escape from Prison. — Succeeds in his Attempt.

Xll CONTENTS.

—He repairs to Paris— And piiblislies his " Ajjology."— Expiration of tlie Twelve Years' Truce.— Death of Philip III. and of the Archduke Albert. — War in Germany.— Campaign between Prince Maurice and Spinola. — Conspiracy against the Life of Prince Maurice.— Its Failure. — Fifteen of the Conspirators executed. — Great Unpopularity of Mau- rice— Death of Maurice 207

CHAP. XVIII. 1625—1648.

TO THE TREATY OF MUNSTER.

Frederick Henry succeeds his Brother.— Charles I. King of England. — War between France and England. — Victories of Admiral Hein. — Brilliant Success of Frederick Henry. — Fruitless Enterprise in Flan- ders.— Death of the Archduchess Isabella. — Confederacy in Brabant. — Its Failure, and Arrest of the Nobles. — Ferdinand Prince-Cardinal Governor-General. — Treaty betueen France and Holland. — Battle of Avein. — Naval Affairs. — Battle of the Downs. — Van Tromp. — Nego- tiations for the Marriage of Prince William with the Princess Mary of England. — Death of the Prince-Cardinal. — Don Francisco de MelJo Governor-General. — E-attle of Rocroy. — Gallantry of Prince William. — Death of Cardinal Richelieu and of Louis XIII. — English Politics. — Affairs of Germany. — Negotiations for Peace. — Financial Embarrass- ment of the Republic. — The Republic negotiates with Spain. — Last Exploits of Frederick Henry.— His Death— And Character.— William II. Stadtholder. — Peace of Munster. — Resentment of Louis XIII. — Peace of Westphalia. — Review of the Progress of Art, Science, and Manners.— Literature.— Painting.— Engraving.— Sculpture.— Archi- tecture.—Finance.— Population.— Commercial Companies.— Manners. 215

CHAP. XIX.

1648—1678.

FROM THE PEACE OF MUNSTER TO THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN.

State of the Republic after the Peace of Munster.— State of England. — William II. Stadtholder. — His ambitious Designs and Violent Conduct. — Attempts to seize on Amsterdam. — His Death. — Difierent Sensations caused by his Death. — The Prerogatives of the Stadtholder assumed by the People. — Naval W^ar with England. — English Act of Navigation. —Irish Hostilities.— Death of Tromp.— A Peace with England.— Dis turbed State of the Republic. — War with Denmark. — Peace concluded. — Charles II. restored to the English Throne. — Declares War against Holland. — Naval Actions. — Charles endeavors to excite all Europe against the Dutch. — His Failure. — Renewed Hostilities. — De Ruyter defeated. — Peace of Breda. — Invasion of Flanders by Louis XIV. — He overruns Brabant and Flanders. — Triple League, 1608. — Perfidious Conduct of Charles II. — He declares War against Holland, &c. as does Louis XIV. — Unprepared State of United Provinces. — William III. Prince of Orange. — Appointed Captain-General and High Admiral. — Battle of Solebay. — The French invade the Republic. — The States- General implore Peace.— Terms demanded by Louis XIV.— And by Charles II.— Desperation of the Dutch— The Prince of Orange pro-

CONTENTS. Xlll

clainieil StadtlioUier.— Massacre of the De Witts.— Fine Conduct of the Prince of Orange.— He takes the Field.— Is reinforced by Spain, the Emperor, and Brandenburg.— Louis XIV. forced to abandon hia Conquests.— Naval Actions with the English.— A Peace, 1G74.— Mili- tary Afl'airs.— Battle of Senef.— Death of De Ruyter.— Congress for Peace at Nimeguen.— Battle of Mont Cassel.— Marriage of the Prince of Orange.— Peace of Nimeguen 230

CHAP. XX.

1678—1713.

FROM THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN TO THE PEACE OF OTRECHT.

State of Europe subsequently to the Peace of Nimeguen.— Arrogant Conduct of Louis XIV.— Truce for Twenty Years.— Death of Charles II. of England.— League of Augsbourg.— The Conduct of William.— He invades England.— James II. deposed.— William III. proclaimed King of England.— King William puts himself at the Head of the Con- federacy against Louis XIV.— And enters on the War.— 3Iilitary Operations.— Peace of Ryswick.— Death of Charles II. of Spain.— War of Succession.— Death of William III.— His Character.— Duke of Marlborough.— Prince Eugene.— Successes of the Earl of Peterborough in Spain and Portugal.— Louis XIV. solicits Peace.— Conferences for Peace.— Peace of Utrecht.— Treaty of the Barrier 246

CHAP. XXI.

1713—1794.

FROM THE PEACE OP UTRECHT TO THE INCORPORATION OF BELGIUM WITH THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

duadruple Alliance.— General Peace of Europe.— Wise Conduct of the Republic— Great Danger from the bad State of the Dikes.— Death of the Emperor Charles VI. — Maria Theresa Empress. — Her heroic Con- duct.—Battle of Dettingen.— Louis XV. invades the Netherlands.— Conferences for Peace at Breda. — Battle of Fontenoy. — William IV. Stadtholder and Captain-General. — Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. — Death of the Stadtholder — Who is succeeded by his Son William V. — War of Seven Years.— State of the Republic— William V. Stadtholder.— Dis- memberment of Poland. — Joseph II. Emperor. — His attempted Reforms in Religion. — War with England. — Sea-Fight on the Doggerbank. — Peace with England, 1784.— Progress of public Opinion in Europe— In Belgium— And Holland.— Violent Opposition to the Stadtholder.— Arrest of the Princess of Orange. — Invasion of Holland by the Prus- sian Army. — Agitation in Belgium. — Vander Noot. — Prince Albert of Saxe Teschen and the Archduchess Maria Theresa joint Governors- General. — Succeeded by Count 3Iurray. — Riots. — Meetings of the Pro- visional States. — General Insurrection. — Vonckists. — Vander Mersch —Takes the Command of the Insurgents.— His Skilful Conduct.— He gains the Battle of Turnhout.— Takes Possession of Flanders.- Con- federation of the Belgian Provinces. — Death of Joseph II. — Leopold Emperor. — Arrest of Vander Mersch.— Arrogance of the States-Gene- ral of Belgium. — The Austrians over-run the Country. — Convention at the Hague.— Death of Leopold.— Battlf of Jennnap{)es,— General Du-

XIV CONTENTS.

mouriez.— Conquest of Belgium by the French.— Recovered by the Austrians.— The Archduke Charles Governor-General.— War in the Netherlands.— Duke of York.— The Emperor Francis.— The Battle of Fleurus.— Incorporation of Belgium with the French Republic- Peace of Leoben.— Treaty of Campo-Formio 257

CHAP XXII.

1794—1813.

FROM THE INVASION OF HOLLAND BY THE FRENCH TO THE RETURN OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.

Pichegru invades Holland. —Winter Campaign.— The Duke of York vainly resists the French Army.— Abdication of the Stadtholder.— Ba- tavian Republic. — War with England. — Unfortunate Situation of Holland.— Naval Fight.— English Expedition to the Helder.— Napoleon Bonaparte. — Louis Bonaparte named King of Holland. — His popular Conduct. — He abdicates the Throne. — Annexation of Holland to the French Empire — Ruinous to the Prosperity of- the Republic. — The People desire the Return of the Prince of Orange. — Confederacy to ef- fect this Purpose. — The Allied Armies advance towards Holland. — The Nation rises to throw off the Yoke of France. — Count Styrum and his Associates lead on that Movement — And proclaim the Prince of Orange— Who lands from England. — His first Proclamation. — His second Proclamation 269

CHAP. XXIII. 1813—1815.

PROM THE INSTALLATION OF WILLIAM I. AS PRINCE-SOVEREIGN OF THE NETHERLANDS TO THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

Rapid Organization of Holland.— The Constitution formed —Accepted by the People.— Objections made to it by some Individuals.— Inaugu- ration of the Prince-Sovereign.— Belgium is occupied by the Allies.— Treaty of Paris.— Treaty of London— Formation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. — Basis of the Government. — Relative Character and Situation of Holland and Belgium. — The Prince-Sovereign of Holland arrives in Belgium as Governor-General.— The fundamental Law. — Report of the Commissioners by whom it was framed.— Public Feeling in Holland — And in Belgium. — The Emperor Napoleon invades France — And Belgium. — The Prince of Orange takes the Field. — The Duke of Wellington. — Prince Blucher. — Battle of Ligny. — Battle of Q-uatre Bras. — Battle of Waterloo. — Anecdote of the Prince of Orange — Who is wou ided.- Inauguration of the King 288

HISTORY

OP

THE NETHERLANDS.

CHAP. I. B. c. 50— A. D. 250.

FROM THE INVASION OF THE NETHERLANDS BV THE ROxMANS TO THE INVASION BY THE SALIAN FRANKS. .

The Netherlands form a kingdom of moderate extent, situated on the borders of the ocean, opposite to the south- east coast of England, and stretching from the frontiers of France to those of Hanover. The country is principally- composed of low and humid grounds, presenting a vast plain, irrigated by the waters from all those neighboring states which are traversed by the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt. This plain, gradually rising towards its eastern and southern extremities, blends on the one hand with Prussia, and on the other with France. Havmg, therefore, no natural or strongly marked limits on those sides, the extent of the kingdom could only be determined by convention ; and it must be at all times subject to the arbitrary and varying influence of European policy. Its greatest length, from north to south, is about 220 English miles; and its breadth, from east to west, is nearly 140.

Two distinct kinds of men inhabit this kingdom ; the one occupying the valleys of the Meuse and the Scheldt, and the high grounds bordering on France, speak a dialect of the language of that country, and evidently belong to the Gallic race. They are called Walloons, and are distinguished from the others by many peculiar qualities. Their most promment characteristic is a propensity for war, and their principal source of subsistence the working of their mines. They form nearly one fourth of the population of the whole kingdom, or about 1,300,000 persons. All the rest of the nation speak Low German, m its modifications of Dutch and Flemish ; and they offer the distinctive characteristics of the Saxon race, — talents for agriculture, navigation, and commerce ; perseve- rance rather than vivacity ; and more courage tiian taste for the profession of arms They are subdivided into Flemings,

16 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS.

— those who were the last to submit to the house of Austria ; and Dutch, — those who formed the republic of the United Provinces. But there is no difference between these two .subdivisions, except such as has been produced by political and religious institutions. Tlie physical aspect of the people is the same ; and the soil, equally low and moist, is at once fertilized and menaced by the waters.

The history of this last-mentioned portion of the nation is completely Imked to that of the soil w^hich they occupy. In remote times, when the inhabitants of this plain were few and uncivilized, the country formed but one immense morass, of which the chief part was incessantly inundated and made sterile by the waters of the sea. Pliny the naturalist, wdio visited the northern coasts, has left us a picture of their state in his days. " There," says he, " the ocean pours in its flood twice every day, and produces a perpetual uncertamty whe- ther the country may be considered as a part of the continent or of the sea. The MTetched mhabitants take refuge on the sand-hills, or in httle huts, which they construct on the sum- mits of lofty stakes, w^hose elevation is conformable to that of the highest tides. When the sea rises, they appear like navigators ; when it retires, they seem as though they had been sliipwrecked. They subsist on the fish left by the refluent w^aters, and w^hich they catch in nets formed of rushes or sea-weed. Neither tree nor shrub is visible on these shores. The drink of the people is rain-water, which they preserve wath great care ; their fuel, a sort of turf, which they gather and form with the hand. And yet these unfortunate beings dare to complain against their fate, w^hen they fall under the power and are mcorporated with the empire of Rome !"*

The picture of poverty and suffering which this passage presents, is heightened when joined to a description of the country. The coasts consisted only of sand-banks or slime, alternately overflowed or left imperfectly dry. A little farther inland, trees were to be found, but on a soil so marshy that an inundation or a tempest threw down whole forests, such as are still at times discovered at either eight or ten feet depth below the surface. The sea had no limits ; the rivers no beds nor banks ; the earth no solidity — for, according to an author of the third century of our era, there was not, in the whole of the immense plain, a spot of groimd that did not yield under the footsteps of man.f

It was not the same in the southern parts, which form at

* Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xvi. t Eumenius, Paneg. Const, Caes.

EARLY STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 17

present the Walloon country. These high grounds suffered mucli less from the ravages of the waters. The ancient forest of the Ardennes, extending from the Rhine to the Scheldt, sheltered a numerous though savage population, which in all things resembled the Germans, from whom they derived their descent. The chase and the occupations of rude agriculture sufficed for the wants of a race less poor and less patient, but more unsteady and ambitious, than the fish- ermen of the low lands. Thus it is that history presents us with a tribe of warriors and conquerors on the southern fron- tier of the country ; while the scattered inhabitants of the remaining parts seemed to have fixed there without a con- test, and to have traced out for themselves, by necessity and habit, an existence which any other people must have con- sidered insupportable.

This difference in the nature of the soil and in the fate of the inhabitants appears more striking, when we consider the present situation of the country. The high grounds, formerly so preferable, are now the least valuable part of the kingdom, even as regards their agriculture ; while the ancient marshes have been changed by human industry into rich and fertile tracts, the best parts of which are precisely those conquered from the grasp of the ocean. In order to form an idea of the solitude and desolation which once reigned where we now see the most richly cultivated fields, the most thriving vil- lages, and the wealthiest towns of the continent, the imagina- tion must go back to times which have not left one monument of antiquity and scarcely a vestige of fact.

The history of the Netherlands is, then, essentially that of a patient and industrious population struggling against every obstacle which nature could opjxjse to its well-being ; and, in this contest, man triumphed most completely over the ele- ments in those places where they offered the greatest resist- ance. This extraordinary result was due to the hardy stamp of character imprinted by suffering and danger on those who had the ocean for their foe ; to the nature of their country, which presented no lure for conquest ; and, finally, to the tol- eration, the justice, and the liberty nourished among men left to themselves, and who found resources in their social state which rendered change neither an object of tlieir wants nor wishes.

About half a century before the Christian era, the obscurity which enveloped the north of Europe began to disperse ; and the expedition of Julius Caesar gave to the civilized world the first notions of the Netherlands, Germany, and England. Cassar, after having subjugated the chief part of Gaul, turned

18 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS.

his arms against the warlike tribes of the Ardennes, who re- fused to accept his alliance or implore his protection. They were called Belgge by the Romans ; and at once pronounced the least civilized and the bravest of the Gauls. Ccesar there found several ignorant and poor but intrepid clans of war- riors, who marched fiercely to encounter him ; and, notwith- standing their inferiority in numbers, in weapons, and in tactics, they nearly destroyed the disciplined armies of Rome. They were, however, defeated, and their country ravaged by the invaders, who found less success when they attacked the natives of the low grounds. The Menapians, a people who occupied the present provinces of Flanders and Antwerp, though less numerous than those whom the Romans had last vanquished, arrested their progress both by open fight and by that petty and harassing contest, — that warfare of the people rather than of the soldiery, — so well adapted to the nature of the country. The Roman legions retreated for the first time, and were contented to occupy the higher parts, which now form the Walloon provinces.*

But the policy of Caesar made greater progress than his arms. He had rather defeated than subdued those who had dared the contest. He consolidated his victories without new battles ; he offered peace to his enemies, in proposing to them alliance ; and he required their aid, as friends, to carry on new wars in other lands. He thus attracted towards him, and ranged under his banners, not only those people situated to the west of the Rhine and the Mouse, but several other nations more to the north, whose territory he had never seen ; and particularly the Batavians — a valiant tribe, stated by va- rious ancient authors, and particularly by Tacitus, as a frac- tion of the Catti, who occupied the space comprised between these rivers.f The young men of these warlike people, dazzled by the splendor of the Roman armies, felt proud and happy in being allowed to identify themselves with them. Caesar encouraged this disposition, and even went so far on some occasions as to deprive the Roman cavalry of their horses, on whicli he mounted those new allies, who managed them better than their Italian riders. He had no reason to repent these measures : almost all his subsequent victories, and particularly that of Pharsalia, being decided by the valor of the auxiliaries he obtained from the Low Countries.t

These auxiliaries were chiefly drawn from Hainault, Lux-

* Osar, Coinm. de Bell. Gall. Dio. Cass. lib. Iv. 1 Berlier, Free. Hist, de lAiicienne Gaule. t Des Roches. Hist, de la Beleique.

EFFECTS OF THE ROMAN ALLIANCE. 19

embourg-, and the country of the Batavians, and they formed the best cavalry of the Roman armies, as well as their choicest light infantry force. The Batavians also signalized themselves on many occasions, by the skill with which they swam across several great rivers without breaking their squadrons' ranks. They were amply rewarded for their military services and hazardous exploits, and were treated like staunch and valuable allies. But this unequal connexion of a mighty empire with a few petty states must have been fatal to the liberty of the weaker party. Its first effect was to destroy all feeling of nationality in a great portion of the population. The young adventurer of this part of the Low Countries, after twenty years of service under the imperial eagles, returned to his native wilds a Roman. The generals of the empire pierced the forests of the Ardennes with cause- ways, and founded towns in the heart of the country. The result of such innovations was a total amalgamation of the Romans and their new allies ; and little by little the national character of the latter became entirely obliterated. But to trace now the precise history of this gradual change would be as impossible as it will be one day to follow the progress of civilization in the woods of North America.

But it must be remarked, that this metamorphosis affected only the inhabitants of the high grounds, and the Batavians (who were in their origin Germans) properly so called. The scanty population of the rest of the country, endowed with that fidelity to their ancient customs which characterizes the Saxon race, showed no tendency to mix with foreigners, rarely figured in their ranks, and seemed to revolt from the southern refinement which was so little in harmony with their manners and ways of life. It is astonishing, at the first view, that those beings, whose whole existence was a contest against famine or the waves, should show less inclination than their happier neighbors to receive from Rome an abun- dant recompense for their services. But, the greater their difficulty to find subsistence in their native land, the strong-er seemed their attachment ; like that of the Switzer to his barren rocks, or of the mariner to the frail and hazardous home that bears him afloat on the ocean. This race of patriots was divided into two separate people. Those to the north of the Rhine were the Frisons ; those to the west of the Mouse the Menapians, already mentioned.

The Frisons differed little from those early inhabitants of the coast, who, perched on their high-built huts, fed on fish and drank the water of the clouds. Slow and successive im- provements taught them to cultivate the beans which grew

20 niSTORY OP TIIE NETHERLANDS.

wild among the marshes, and to tend and feed a small and dea^enerate breed of horned cattle. But if these first steps towards civilization were slow, they were also sure ; and they were made by a race of men who could never retrograde in a career once begun.

The Menapians, equally repugnant to foreign impressions, made, on their parts, a more rapid progress. They were already a maritime people, and carried on a considerable commerce with England. It appears that they exported thither salt, the art of manufacturing which was well known to them ; and they brought back in return marl, a most im- portant commodity for the improvement of their land. They also understood the preparation of salting meat, with a per- fection that made it in high repute even in Italy ; and, finally, we are told by Ptolemy that they had established a colony on the eastern coast of Ireland, not far from Dublin.*

The two classes of what forms at present the population of the Netherlands thus followed careers widely different, during the long period of the Roman power in these parts of Europe. While those of the high lands and the Batavians distinguished themselves by a long-continued course of military service or servitude, those of the plains improved by degrees their social condition, and fitted themselves for a place in civilized Europe. The former received from Rome great marks of favor in exchange for their freedom. The latter, rejecting the honors and distinctions lavished on their neighbors, secured their national independence, by trusting to their industry alone for all the advantages they gradually acquired.

Were the means of protecting themselves and their country from the inundations of the sea known and practised by these ancient inhabitants of the coast? or did they occupy only those elevated points of land which stood out like islands in the middle of the floods ] These questions are amongst the most important presented by their history ; since it was the victorious struggle of a man against the ocean that fixed the extent and form of the countr}^ It appears almost certain, that in the time of Ceesar they did not labor at the construc- tion of dikes, but that they began to be raised during the obscurity of the following century ; for the remains of ancient towns are even now discovered in places at present over- flowed by the sea. These ruins often bring to light traces of Roman construction, and Latin inscriptions in honor of the Menapian divinities.f It is, then, certain that they had learned to imitate those who ruled in the neighboring coun-

* Des Roches. t Memoires de 1' Academic de Middlcbourg.

EFFECTS OP THE ROMAN ALLIANCE. 21

tries: a result by no means surprising; for even Eng-land, the mart of their commerce, and the nation with which the;y had the most constant intercourse, was at that period occu pied by the Romans. But the nature of their country repulsed so effectually every attempt at foreign domination, that the conquerors of the world left them unmolested, and established arsenals and formed communications with Great Britain only at Boulogne and in the island of the Batavians near Leyden.

This isolation formed in itself a powerful and perfect bar- rier between the mhabitants of the plain and those of the high grounds. The first held firm to their primitive customs and their ancient language : the second finished by speaking Latin, and borrowing all the manners and usages of Italy. The moral effect of this contrast was, that the people, once so famous for their bravery, lost, with their liberty, their energy and their courage. One of the Batavian chieftains, named Civilis, formed an exception to this degeneracy, and, about the year 70 of our era, bravely took up arms for the expulsion of the Romans. He effected prodigies of valor and perseverance, and boldly met and defeated the enemy both by land and sea. Reverses followed his first success, and he finally concluded an honorable treaty, by which his countrymen once more became the allies of Rome. But after this expiring effort of valor, the Batavians, even though chosen from all nations for the body-guards of the Roman emperors, became rapidly degenerate ; and when Tacitus wrote, ninety years after Christ, they were already looked on as less brave than the Frisons and the other people beyond the Rhine.* A century and a half later saw them con- founded with the Gauls; and the barbarian conquerors said, that " they were not a nation, but merely a p7v?/."f

Reduced into a Roman province, the southern portion of the Netherlands was at this period called Belgic Gaul ; and the name of Belgium, preserved to our days, has until lately been applied to distinguish that part of the country situated to the south of tlie Rhine and the Mouse, or nearly that which formed the Austrian Netherlands.

Durmg the establishment of the Roman power in the north of Europe, observation was not much excited towards the rapid effects of this degeneracy, compared with the fast- growing vigor of the people of the low lands. The fact of the Frisons having, on one occasion, near the year 47 of our era, beaten a whole army of Romans, had confirmed their character for intrepidity. But the long stagnation produced

* Tacitus (le Mor, Gernu t Tacit, lib. iv.

22 HISTORY OP THE NETHERLANDS.

ill these remote countries by the colossal weiglit of the em- pire, was broken, about the year 250, by an irruption of Ger- mans or Salian Franks, who, passing the Rhine and the Meuse, established themselves in the vicinity of the Mena- pians, near Antwerp, Breda, and Bois-le-duc. All the nations that had been subjugated by the Roman power appear to have taken arms on this occasion and opposed the intruders. But the Menapians united themselves with these new-comers, and aided them to meet the shock of the imperial armies. Carausius, originally a Menapian pilot, but promoted to the command of a Roman fleet, made common cause with his fellow-citizens, and proclaimed himself emperor of Great Britam, where the naval superiority of the Menapians left him no fear of a competitor. In recompense of the assistance given him by the Franks, he crossed the sea again from his new empire, to aid them m their war with the Batavians, the allies of Rome ; and having seized on tlieir islands, and mas- sacred nearly the whole of its inhabitants, he there estab- lished his faithful friends the Salians. Constantius and his son Constantino the Great vainly strove, even after the death of the brave Carausius, to regain possession of the coimtry : but they were forced to leave the new inhabitants in quiet possession of their conquest.

CHAP. n. 250—800.

FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS TO THE SUBJUGATION OF FRIESLAND.

From this epoch we must trace the progress of a totally new and distinct population in the Netherlands. The Bata- vians being annihilated, almost without resistance, the low countries contained only the free people of the German race. But these people did not completely sympathize together so as to form one consolidated nation. The Salians, and the other petty tribes of Franlvs, their allies, were essentially warlike, and appeared precisely the same as the original inhabitants of the high grounds. The Menapians and the Frisons, on the contrary, lost nothing of their spirit of com- merce and industry. The result of this diversity was a separa-

CHARACTER OF THE FRANKS. 23

tion between the Franks and the Menapians. While the latter, under the name of Armoricaiis, joined themselves more closely with the people who bordered the Channel,* the Frisons associated themselves with the tribes settled on the limits of the German Ocean, and formed with them a connexion celebrated under the title of the Saxon League.-}- Thus was formed on all points a union between the maritime races ag-ainst the inland inhabitants ; and their mutual an- tipathy became more and more developed, as the decline of the Roman empire ended the former struggie between liberty and conquest.

The Netherlands now became the earliest theatre of an entirely new movement, the consequences of which were destined to affect the whole world. This country was occu- pied towards the sea by a people wholly maritime, excepting the narrow space between the Rhine and the Vahal, of which the Salian Franks had become possessed. The nature of this marshy soil, in comparison with the sands of Westphalia, Guelders, and North Brabant, was not more strikmgly con- trasted than was the character of their population. The Franks, who had been for awhile under the Roman sway, showed a compound of the violence of savage life and the cor- ruption of civilized society. They were covetous and treach- erous, but made excellent soldiers : and at this epoch, which intervened between the power of unperial Rome and that of Germany, the Frank might be morally considered as a bor- derer on the frontiers of the middle ages.| The Saxon (and this name comprehends all the tribes of tlie coast from the Rhine as far north as Denmark,) uniting in himself the dis- tinctive qualities of German and navigator, was moderate and sincere, but implacable in his rage. Neither of these two races of men were excelled in point of courage ; but the number of Franks who still entered into the service of the empire diminished the real force of this nation, and naturally tended to disunite it. Therefore, in tlie subsequent shock of people against people, the Saxons invariably gained the final advantage.

They had no doubt often measured their strength in the most remote times, since the Franks were but the descend- ants of the ancient tribes of Sicambers and others, against whom the Batavians had offered their assistance to Csesar. Under Augustus, the inhabitants of the coast had in tlie same way joined themselves with Drusus, to oppose these their old

* Procop. de Bell. Goth. f Van Loon, Alonde Hist.

J Scriptores Minoiura Caesarum, passim.

24 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 49U.

enemies. It was also after havin,^ been expelled by the Frisons from Gu elders, that the Salians had passed the Rhine and the Mouse ; but, in the fourth century, the two people recovering their strength, the struggle recommenced, never to terminate — at least between the direct descendants of each. It is believed that it was the Varni, a race of Saxons nearly connected with those of England, (and coming, like them, from the coast of Denmark,) who on this occasion struck the decisive blow on the side of the Saxons. Embarking on board a numerous fleet, they made a descent in the ancient isle of the Batavians, at that tune inhabited by the Salians, whom they completely destroyed.* Julian the Apostate, who was then with a numerous army pursuing his career of early glory in these countries, interfered for the purpose of pre- venting the expulsion, or at least the utter destruction, of the vanquished : but his efforts were unavailing. The Salians appear to have figured no more in this part of the Low Coun- tries.

The defeat of the Salians by a Saxon tribe is a fact on which no doubt rests. The name of the victors is, however, questionable,! The Vcn'iii having remained settled near the mouths of the Rhine till near the year 500, there is strong probability that they were the people alluded to. But names and histories, which may on this point appear of such little importance, acquire considerable interest when we reflect that these Salians, driven from their settlement, became the conquerors of France ; that those Saxons who forced them on their career of conquest were destined to become the masters of England ; and that these two petty tribes, who battled so long for a corner of marshy earth, carried with them their reciprocal antipathy while involuntarily deciding the destmy of Europe.

The defeat of the Franks was fatal to those people who had become incorporated with the Romans ; for it was from them that the exiled wanderers, still fierce in tiieir ruin, and with arms in their hands, demanded lands and herds ; all, in short, which they themselves had lost. From the middle of the fourth century to the end of the fifth, there was a succes- sion of invasions in this spirit, which always ended by the subjugation of a part of the country ; and which was com- pleted about the year 490, by Clovis making himself master of almost the whole of Gaul.| Under this new empire not a vestige of the ancient nations of the Ardennes was left. The

* Gibbon, ii. 370. -j- Zosiraus.

X Abr6g6 Chron. Hist, de Fiance.

700. PROGRESS OP THE FRENCH. 25

civilized population either perished or was reduced to slavery, and all the high grounds were added to the previous con- quests of the Salians.

But the maritime population, when once possessed of the whole coast, did not seek to make the slightest progress to- wards the Ulterior The element of their enterprise and the object of their ambition was the ocean ; and when this hardy and intrepid race became too numerous for their narrow lim- its, expeditions and colonies beyond the sea carried off their redundant population. The Saxon warriors established them- selves near the mouths of the Loire ; others, conducted by Hengist and Horsa, settled in Great Britain. It will always remain problematical from what point of the coast these ad- venturers departed ; but many circumstances tend to give weight to the opinion which pronounces those old Saxons to have started from the Netherlands.

V Paganism not being yet banished from these countries, the obscurity which would have enveloped them is in some de- gree dispelled by the recitals of the monks who went among them to preach Christianity. We see m those records, and by the text of some of their early laws, that this maritime people were more industrious, prosperous, and happy, than those of France.* The men were handsome and richly clothed; and the land well cultivated, and abounding in fruits, milk, and honey. The Saxon merchants carried their trade far into the southern countries. Li the mean time, the parts of the Netherlands which belonged to France resembled a desert. The monasteries which were there founded were established, according to the words of their charters, amidst immense solitudes; and the French nobles only came into , Brabant for the sport of bear-hunting in its interminable forests. Thus, while the inhabitants of the low lands, as far back as the light of history penetrates, appear in a continual state of improvement, those of the high grounds, after fre- quent vicissitudes, seem to sink into utter degeneracy and subjugation. The latter wished to denaturalize themselves, and become as though they were foreigners even on their native soil ; the former remained firm and faithful to their country and to each other.

But the growth of French power menaced utter ruin to this interesting race. Clovis had succeeded, about the year 485 of our era, in destroying the last remnants of Roman domination in Gaul. The successors of these conquerors soon extended their empire from the Pyrenees to the Rhme, They

* Acta Sanct. Belgii.

26 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLAINDS. 710.

had continual contests with the free population of the Low Countries and their nearest neig-hbors. In the commence- ment of the seventh century, the French king Clotaire II. exterminated the chief part of the Saxons of Hanover and Westphalia ; and the historians of those barbarous times unani- mously relate that he caused to be beheaded every inhabitant of the vanquished tribes who exceeded the height of his sword.* . The Saxon name was thus nearly extinguished in those countries ; and the remnant of these various people adopted that of Prisons (Friesen,) either because they became really incorporated with that nation, or merely that they recognized it for the most powerfiil of their tribes. Friesland, to speak in the language of that age, extended then from the Scheldt to the Weser, and formed a considerable state. But the as- cendency of France was every year becoming more marked ; and king Dagobert extended the limits of her power even as far as Utrecht. The descendants of the Menapians, known at that epoch by the different names of Menapians, Flemings, and Toxandrians, fell one after another directly or indirectly under the empire of the Merovingian princes ; and the noblest family which existed among the French, — that which subse- quently took the name of Carlovmgians, — comprised in its dominions nearly the whole of the southern and western parts of the Netherlands.

Between this family, whose chief was called duke of the Frontier Marshes, (Dux BrabanticE,) and the free tribes, united under the common name of Frison-s, the same struggle was maintained as that which formerly existed between the Salians and the Saxons. Towards the year 700, the French monarchy was torn by anarchy, and, under " the lazy kings," lost much of its concentrated power; but every dukedom formed an independent sovereignty, and of all those that of Brabant was the most redoubtable. Nevertheless the Fri- sons, under their king Radbod, assumed for a moment the su- periority ; and Utrecht, where the French had established Christianity, fell again into the power of the pagans. Charles Martel, at that time young, and but commencing his splendid career, was defeated by the hostile king in the forest of the Ardennes ; and though, in subsequent conquests, he took an ample revenge, Radbod still remained a powerful opponent. It is related of this fierce monarch, that he was converted by a Christian missionary ; but, at the moment in which he put his foot in the water for the ceremony of baptism, he suddenly asked the priest, where all his old Frison companions in arms

* Van Loon, Alonde Hist.

719. PINAL CONQUEST OF FRIESLAND. 27

had gone after their death 1 " To hell," replied the priest. " Well, then," said Radbod, drawing back his foot from the water, " I woidd rather go to hell with them, than to paradise wath you and your fellow foreigners ! " and he refused to re- ceives the rites of baptism, and remained a pagan.*

After the death of Radbod, in 719, Charles Martel, now become duke of the Franks, mayor of the palace, or by what- ever other of his several titles he maybe distinguished, finally triumphed over the long-resisting Frisons. He labored to establish Christianity among them ; but they did not under- stand the French language, and the lot of converting them was consequently reserved for the Eng'lish. St, Willebrod was the first missionary who met w^th any success, about the latter end of the seventh century ; but it was not till towards the year 750 that this great mission was finally accomplish- ed, by St. Boniface, archbishop of Mayence, and the apostle of Germany. Yet the progress of Christianity, and the estab- lishment of a foreign sway, still met the partial resistance which a conquered but not enervated people are always capa- ble of opposing to their masters. St. Boniface fell a victim to this stubborn spirit. He perished a martyr to his zeal, but perhaps a victim as well to the violent measures of his col- leagues, in Friesland, the very province w^hich to this day preserves the name.

The last avenger of Friesland liberty and of the national idols was the illustrious Witikind, to whom the chronicles of his country give the title of first azing, or judge. This in- trepid chieftain is considered as a compatriot, not only by the historians of Friesland, but by those of Saxony ; both, it would appear, having equal claims to the honor ; for the union be- tween the two people was constantly strengthened by inter- marriages between the noblest families of each. As long as Witikind remained a pagan and a freeman, some doubt ex- isted as to the final fate of Friesland ; but when by his con- version he became only a noble of the court of Charlemagne, the slavery of his country was consummated.

* Vita Sti. Bonifacii.

28 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 800

CHAP. III.

800—1000.

FROM THE CONQUEST OF FRIESLAND TO THE FORMATION OF HOLLAND.

Even at this advanced epoch of foreig-n domination, there remained as great a difference as ever between the people of the high grounds and the inhabitants of the plain. The lat- ter were, like the rest, incorporated with the great monarchy ; but they preserved the remembrance of former independence, and even retained their ancient names. In Flanders, Mena- pians and Flemings were still found, and in the country of Antwerp the Toxandrians were not extinct. All the rest of the coast was still called Friesland. But in the high grounds the names of the old inhabitants were lost. Nations were designated by the names of their rivers, forests, or towns. They were classified as accessories to inanimate things ; and having no monuments which reminded them of their origin, they became as it were without recollections or associations ; and degenerated, as may be almost said, into a people with- out ancestry.

The physical state of the country had greatly changed from the times of Caesar to those of Charlemagne. Many parts of the forest of the Ardennes had been cut down or cleared away. Civilization had only appeared for awhile among these woods, to perish like a delicate plant in an un- genial clhne ; but it seemed to have sucked the very sap from the soil, and to have left the people no remains of the vigor of man in his savage state, nor of the desperate courage of the warriors of Germany. A race of serfs now cultivated the domains of haughty lords and imperious priests. The clergy had immense possessions in this country ; an act of the fol- lowing century recognizes 14,000 families of vassals as be- longing to the single abbey of Nivelle. Tournay and Tongresu, both episcopal cities, were by that title somewhat less op- pressed than the other ancient towns founded by the Romans ; but they appear to have possessed only a poor and degraded population.

The low lands, on the other hand, announced a striking commencement of improvement and prosperity. The marshes and fens, which had arrested and repulsed the progress of imperial Rome, had disappeared in every part of the interior. The Meuse and the Scheldt no longer joined at their out- lets, to desolate the neighbouring lands ; whether this change

800. COUNTS OF THE EMPIRB. 29

was produced by the labors of man, or merely by the accu- mulation of sand deposited by either stream and formmg- bar- riers to both. The towns of Courtraig, Bruges, Ghent, Ant- werp, Berg-op-zoom, and Thiel, had already a flourisliing- trade. The last-mentioned town contained in the following- century fifty-five churches ; a fact from which, in the absence of other evidence, the extent of the population may be con jectured. The formation of dikes for the protection of lands formerly submerged was already well understood, and regu- lated by uniform custom. The plains thus reconquered from the waters were distributed in portions, according to their labor, by those who reclaimed them., except the parts re- served for the chieftain, the church, and the poor. This vital necessity for the construction of dikes had given to the Fri- son and Flemish population a particular liabit of union, good- will, and reciprocal justice, because it was necessary to make common cause in this great work for their mutual preserva- tion. In all other points, the detail of the laws and manners of this united people presents a picture similar to that of the Saxons of England, with the sole exception that the people of the Netherlands were milder than the Saxon race properly so called — their long habit of laborious industry exercising its happy influence on the martial spirit original to both. The manufacturing arts were also somewhat more advanced in this part of the continent than in Great Britain. The Fri- sons, for example, were the only people who could succeed in making the costly mantles in use among the wealthy Franks.

The government of Charlemagne admitted but one form, borrowed from that of the empire in the period of its decline — a mixture of the spiritual and temporal powers, exercised in the first place by the emperor, and at second-hand by the counts and bishops. The counts in those times were not the heads of noble families, as they afterwards became, but offi- cers of the government, removable at will, and possessing no hereditary rights. Their incomes did not arise from sala- ries paid in money, but consisted of lands, of which they had the revenues during the continuance of their authority. These lands being situated in the limits of their administra- tion, each regarded them as his property only for tlic time being, and considered himself as a tenant at will. How un favorable such a system was to culture and improvement may be well imagined. The force of possession was, however, frequently opposed to the seigniorial rights of the crown ; and thus, though all civil dignity and the revenues attached to it were but personal and reclaimable at will, still many dignita-

30 HISTOKY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 800.

ries, taking- advantage of the barbarous state of the country in which their isolated cantons were placed, sought by every possible means to render their power and prerogatives unali- enable and real. The force of the monarchical government, which consists mainly in its centralization, was necessarily weakened by the intervention of local obstacles, before it could pass from the heart of the empire to its limits. Thus it was only by perpetually interposing his personal efforts, and flying, as it were, from one end to the other of his do- minions, that Charlemagne succeeded in preserving his au- thority. As for the people, without any sort of guarantee against the despotism of the government, they were utterly at the mercy of the nobles or of the sovereign. But this state of servitude was quite incompatible with the union of social powers necessary to a population that had to struggle against the tyranny of the ocean. To repulse its attacks with suc- cessful vigor, a spirit of complete concert was absolutely re- quired ; and the nation being thus united, and consequently strong, the efforts of foreign tyrants were shattered by its resistance, as the waves of the sea that broke against the dikes by which it was defied.

From the time of Charlemagne, the people of the ancient Menapia, now become a prosperous commonwealth, formed political associations to raise a barrier against the despotic violence of the Franks. These associations were called Gil- den^ and in the Latin of the times Gildonia. They comprised, besides their covenants for mutual protection, an obligation which bound every member to give succor to any other, in cases of illness, conflagration, or shipwreck. But the grow- ing force of these social compacts alarmed the quick-sighted despotism of Charlemagne, and they were, consequently, prohibited both by him and his successors. To give a notion of the importance of this prohibition to the whole of Europe, it is only necessary to state that the most ancient corporations (all which had preceded and engendered the most valuable municipal rights) were nothing more than gilden. Thus, to draw an example from Great Britain, the corporative charter of Berwick still bears the title of Charta Gildonia:. But the ])an of the sovereigns was without efficacy, when opposed to the popular will. The gilden stood their ground ; and within a century after the death of Charlemagne, all Flanders was covered with corporate towns.

This popular opposition took, however, another form in the northern parts of the country, which still bore the common name of Friesland ; for there it was not merely local but national. The Frisons succeeded in obtaining the sanction

800. PRIVILEGES OF THE PRISONS. 31

of the monarch to consecrate, as it were, those rights which were established under the ancient forms of government. The fact is undoubted ; but the means which they employed are uncertain. It appears most probable that this great privi- lege was the price of their military services ; for they held a high place in the victorious armies of Charlemagne ; and Turpin, the old French romancer, alluding to the popular traditions of his time, represents the warriors of Friesland as endowed with the most heroic valor.*

These rights, which the Frisons secured, according to their own statements, from Charlemagne, but most undoubtedly from some one or other of the earliest emperors, consisted, first, in the freedom of every order of citizens; secondly, in the right of property, — a right which admitted no authority of the sovereign to violate by confiscation, except in cases of downright treason ; thirdly, in the privilege of trial by none but native judges, and according to their national usages ; fourthly, in a very narrow limitation of the military- services which they owed to the king ; fifthly, in the heredi- tary title to feudal property, in direct line, on payment of certam dues or rents. These five principal articles sufficed to render Friesland, in its political aspect, totally different from the other portions of the monarchy. Their privileges secured, their property inviolable, their duties limited, the Frisons were altogether free from the servitude which weighed down France. It will soon be seen that these spe- cial advantages prodviced a government nearly analogous to that which Magna Charta was the means of founding at a later period in England.

The successors of Charlemagne chiefly signalized their authority by lavishing donations of all kinds on the church. By such means the ecclesiastical power became greater and greater, and, in those countries under the sway of France, was quite as arbitrary and enormous as that of the nobility. The bishops of Utrecht, Liege, and Tournay, became, in the course of time, the chief personages on that line of the fron- tier. They had the great advajitage over the counts, of not being subjected to capricious or tyrannical removals. ' They therefore, even in civil affairs, played a more considerable part than the latter ; and be^an to render themselves more and more independent in their episcopal cities, which were soon to become so many principalities. The counts, on their parts, used their best exertions to wear out, if they had not the strength to break, the chains which bound them to the

* Oiido Vricschp Wetten, hook ii.

32 HISTORY OF THE np:therlands. 864

footstool of the monarch. They were not all now dependent on the same sovereig^n ; for the empire of Charlemagne was divided among his successors: France, properly so called, was bounded by the Scheldt ; the country to the eastward of that river, that is to say, nearly the whole of the Netherlands, belonged to Lorraine and Germany.

In this state of things, it happened that in the year 864, Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald king of France, having survived her husband Ethelwolf king of England, became attached to a powerful Flemish chieftain called Baldwin. It is not quite certain whether he was count, forester, marquis, or protector of the frontiers ; but he certainly enjoyed, no matter under what title, considerable authority in the coun- try ; since the pope on one occasion wrote to Charles the Bald to beware of offending him, lest he should join the Nor- mans, and open to them an entrance into France. He carried off Judith to his possessions in Flanders. The king her father, afler many ineffectual threats, was forced to consent to their union ; and confirmed to Baldwin, with the title of count, the hereditary government of all the country between the Scheldt and the Somme, a river of Picardy. This was the commencement of the celebrated county of Flanders ; and this Baldwin is designated in history by the surname of Bras-de-fer (iron-handed,) to which his courage had justly entitled him.

The Belgian historians are also desirous of placing about this epoch the first counts of Hainault, and even of Holland. But though it may be true that the chief families of each canton sought then, as at all times, to shake off the yoke, the epoch of their independence can only be fixed at the later period at which they obtained or enforced the privilege of not being deprived of their titles and their feudal estates. The counts of the high grounds, and those of Friesland, enjoyed at the utmost but a fortuitous privilege of continuance in their rank. Several foreigners had gained a footing and an authority in the country: among others Wickmand, from whom descended the chatelains of Ghent ; and the counts of Holland, and Heriold, a Norman prince who had been ban- ished from his own country. This name of Normans, hardly known before the time of Charlemagne, soon became too celebrated. It designated the pagan inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, who, driven by rapacity and want, in- fested the neighboring seas. The asylum allowed in the do- minions of the emperors to some of those exiled outlaws, and the imprudent provocations given by these latter to their adventurous countrvmen, attracted various bands of Norman

891. l]VVASIOrsS by the >OK3IAXri. 33

pirates to the shores of Guelders ; and from desultory descents upon the coast, they soon came to inundate the interior of the country. Flanders alone successfully resisted them during- the life of Baldwin Bras-de-fer ; but after the death of this brave cliieftain there was not a province of the whole country that was not ravag-ed by these invaders. Their multiplied expeditions threw back tlie Netherlands at least two centu- ries, if, indeed, any calculation of the kind may be fairly formed respecthig- the relative state of population and im- provement on the imperfect data that are left us. Several cantons became deserted. The chief cities were reduced to heaps of ruins. The German emperors vainly interposed for the relief of their unfortunate vassals. Finally, an agree- ment was entered into, in the year 882, with Godfrey the king or leader of the Normans, by which a peace was pur- chased on condition of paying- him a large subsidy, and ceding- to him the government of Friesland. But, in about two years from this period, the fierce barbarian began to complain that the country he had thus gained did not produce grapes, and the present inspiration of his rapacity seemed to be the blooming vineyards of France. The emperor Charles the Fat, anticipating the consequence of a rupture with Godfrey, enticed him to an interview, in wiiich he caused him to be assassinated. His followers, attacked on all points by the people of Friesland, perished almost to a man ; and their de- struction was completed, in 891, by Arnoul the Germanic. From that period, the scourge of Norman depredation became gradually less felt. They now made but short and desultory attempts on the coast ; and their last expedition appears to have taken place about the year 1000, when they threatened, but did not succeed in seizing on, the city of Utrecht.

It is remarkable that, although for the space of 150 years the Netherlands were continually the scene of invasion and devas- tation by these northern barbarians, the political state of the country underwent no important changes. The emperors of Germany were sovereigns of the whole country, with the exception of Flanders. These portions of the empire were still called Lorraine, as well as all which they possessed of what is now called France, and which was that part forming the appanage of Lothaire and of the Lotheringian kings. The great difficulty of maintaming subordination among the numerous chieftains of this country caused it, in 958, to be divided into two governments, which were called Higher and Lower Lorraine. TJie latter poition comprised nearly the whole of the Netherlands, which thus became governed by a lieutenant of the emperors. Godfrey count

34 HISTORY OF THE iVETHERLANDS. 990.

of Ardeniie was the first who filled this place ; and he soon felt all the perils of the situation. The other counts saw, with a jealous eye, their equal now promoted into a superior. Two of the most powerful, Lambert and Reg-inald, were brothers. They made common cause ag-ainst the new duke; and after a desperate strug-g-le, which did not cease till the year 985, they g-ained a species of imperfect independence, — Lambert becoming tl:e root from which sprang- the counts of Louvain, and Reginald that of the counts of Hainault.

The emperor Othon II. who upheld the authority of his lieutenant Godfrey, became convinced that the imperial power was too weak to resist singly the opposition of the nobles of the country. He had therefore transferred, about the year 980, the title of duke to a young prince of the royal house of France ; and we thus see the duchy of Lower Lor- raine governed, in the name of the emperor, by the last two shoots of the branch of Charlemagne, the dukes Charles and Othon of France, son and grandson of Louis d'Outremer. The first was a gallant prince : he may be looked on as the founder of the greatness of Brussels, where he fixed his resi- dence. After several years of tranquil government, the death of his brother called him to the throne of France; and from that time he bravely contended for the crown of his an- cestors, against the usurpation of Hugues Capet, whom he frequently defeated in battle : but he was at length treach- erously surprised and put to death, in 990. Othon, his son, did not signalize his name nor justify his descent by any memorable action ; and in him ingloriously perished the name of the Carlovingians.

The death of Othon set the emperor and the great vassals once more in opposition. The German monarch insisted on naming some creature of his own to the dignity of duke ; but Lambert II. count of Louvain, and Robert count of Namur, having married the sisters of Othon, respectively claimed the right of inheritance to his title. Baldwin of the comely beard, count of Flinders, joined himself to their league, hoping to extend his power to the eastward of the Scheldt. And, in fact, tlie emperor, as the only means of disuniting his two jjowerful vassals, felt himself obliged to cede Valenciennes and the islands of Zealand to Baldwin. The imperial power thus lost ground at every struggle.*

Amid the confusion of these events, a power well calcu- lated to rival or even supplant that of the fierce counts was growing up. Many circumstances were combined to ey-

'rit, Com, HoU. torn. i. p. 2,

1013. INFLUENCE OF THE BISHOPS. 35

tend and consolidate the episcopal sway. It is true that the bishops of Tournay had no temporal authority, since the pe- riod of their city being- ruined by the Normans. But those of Liege and Utrecht, and more particularly the latter, had accumulated immense possessions; and their power being- inalienable, they had nothing to fear from the caprices of sovereign favor, which so oft^ n ruined the families of the aristocracy. Those bishops, who were warriors and hunts- men rather than ecclesiastics, possessed, liowever, in addi- tion to the lance and the sword, the terrible artillery of ex- communication and anathema, which they thundered forth without mercy against every laical opponent : and when they had, by conquest or treachery, acquired new dominions and additional store of wealth, they could not portion it among their children, like the nobles, but it devolved to their successors, who thus became more and more powerful, and gained by degrees an authority almost royal, like that of the ecclesiastical elector of Germany.

Whenever the emperor warred against his lay vassals, he was sure of assistance from the bishops, because they were at all times jealous of the power of the counts, and had much less to gain from an alliance with them than with the impe- rial despots on whose donations they throve, and who repaid their efforts by new privileges and extended possessions. So that when the monarch, at length, lost the superiority in his contests with the counts, little was wanting to make his authority be merged altogether in the overgrown power of these churchmen. Nevertheless, a first effort of the bishop of Liege, to seize on the rights of the count of Louvain, in 1013, met with a signal defeat, in a battle which took place at the little village of Stongarde.* And five years later, the count of the Friesland marshes (comes Frisonum Morsatenorum) gave a still more severe lesson to the bishop of Utrecht. This last merits a more particular mention, from the nature of the quarrel and the importance of its results.

* Ann. Due. Brab. torn. i.

36 HISTORY OF THE NETHEKLAKDS. lOlH

CHAP. IV.

1018—1384.

FROM THK FORMATION OF HOLLAND TO THE DEATH OF LOUIS DE MALE

The district in which Dordrecht is situated, and the grounds in its environs which are at present submerged, formed in those times an island just raised above the waters, and which was called Holland or Holtland, (which means ivooded land, or, according- to some, hollow land.) The for- mation of this island, or rather its recovery from the waters, being only of recent date, the right to its possession was more disputable than that of long-established countries. All the bishops and abbots whose states bordered the Rhine and the Mouse had, being equally covetous and grasping, and mutually resolved to pounce on the proy, made it their com- mon property. A certain count Thierry, descended from the counts of Ghent, governed about this period the western ex- tremity of Friesland, — the country which now forms the prov- ince of Holland ; and with much difficulty maintained his power against the Frisons, by whom his right was not ac- knowledged. Beaten out of his own territories by these re- fractory insurgents, he sought refuge in the ecclesiastical island, where he intrenched himself, and founded a town which is believed to have been the origin of Dordrecht.

This count Thierry, like all the feudal lords, took advan- tage of his position to establish and levy certain duties on all the vessels which sailed past his territory, dispossessing in the mean time some vassals of the church, and beating, as we have stated, the bishop of Utrecht himself Complaints and appeals witliout number were laid at the foot of the imperial throne. Godfrey of Eenham, whom .'.le emperor had created duke of Lower Lorraine, was commanded to call the whole country to arms. The bishop of Liege, though actually dying, put himself at the head of the expedition, to revenge his bro- ther prelate, and punish the audacious spoiler of the church property. But Thierry and his fierce Frisons took Godfrey prisoner, and cut his army in pieces. The victor had the good sense and moderation to spare his prisoners, and set them free without ransom. He received in return an impe- rial amnesty ; and from that period the count of Holland and his posterity formed a barrier, against which the ecnlesispfi-

1066. COMMERCE OF FLANDERS. 37

cal power and tlie remains of the imperial supremacy con- tinually strug-g-led, to be only shattered in each new assault.*

As the partial independence of the great vassals became consolidated, the monarchs were proportionally anxious to prevent its perpetuation in the same families. In pursuance of this system, Godfrey of Eenham obtained the preference over the counts Lambert and Robert ; and Frederick of Lux- embourg was named duke of Lower Lorraine in 1046, in- stead of a second Godfrey who was nephew and expectant heir to the first. But this Godfrey, upheld by Baldwin of Flanders, forced the emperor to concede to him the inherit- ance of the dukedom. Baldwin secured for his share the country of Alost and Waas, and the citadel of Ghent ; and he also succeeded in obtainmg in marriage for his son the countess Richilde, heiress of Hainault and Namur. Thus was Flanders incessantly gaining new aggrandizement, while the duchy of Lorraine was crumbling away on every side.

In the year 1066 this state of Flanders, even then flourish- ing and powerful, furnished assistance both in men and ships to William the Bastard of Normandy, for the conquest of England. William was son-in-law to count Baldwin, and recompensed the assistance of his wife's father by an annual payment of three hundred silver marks. It was Mathilda, the Flemish princess and wife of the conqueror, who worked with her own hands the celebrated tapestry of Bayeux, on which is embroidered the whole history of the conquest, and which is the most curious monument of the state of the arts in that age.

Flanders acquired a positive and considerable superiority over all the other parts of the Netherlands, from the first es- tablishment of its counts or earls. The descendants of Bald- win Bras-de-fer, after having valiantly repulsed the Normans towards the end of the ninth century, showed themselves worthy of ruling over an industrious and energetic people. They had built towns, cut down and cleared away forests, and reclaimed inundated lands : above all things, they had understood and guarded against the danger of parcelling out their states at every succeeding generation ; and the county of Flanders passed entire into the hands of the first-born of the family. The stability produced by this state of things had allowed the people to prosper. The Normans now visit- ed the coasts, not as enemies but as merchants ; and Bruges became the mart of the booty acquired by these bold pirates

* John Ejjmont, an old chronicler, says, that the counts of Holland were ♦a PworJ ill the flanks of the bishops of Utrecht."

Jj8 IITSTOKY OF JIIE NETHEKLAJVDS. 1071.

in England and on the high seas. The fislicries had bci^un to acquire an importance sufficient to establish the herring as one of the chief aliments of the population. Maritime commerce had made sucli strides, that Spain and Portugal were well known to both sailors and traders, and the voyage from Flanders to Lisbon was estimated at fifteen days' sail. Woollen stufl's formed the principal wealth of the country ; but salt, corn, and jewellery, were also important branches of traffic ; while the youth of Flanders were so famous for their excellence in all martial pursuits, that foreign sovereigns were at all times desirous of obtaining bodies of troops from this nation.

The greatest part of Flanders was attached, as has been seen, to the kmg of France, and not to Lorraine ; but the de- pendence was little more than nominal. In 1071 the king of France attempted to exercise his authority over the coun- try, by naming to the government the same countess Richilde who had received Hainault and Namur for her dower, and who was left a widow, with sons still in their minority. The people assembled in the principal towns, and protested against this intervention of the French monarch. But we must re- mark, that it was only the population of the low lands (whose sturdy ancestors had ever resisted foreign domination) that now took part in this opposition.* The vassals which the counts of Flanders possessed in the Gallic provinces (the high grounds,) and in general all the nobility, pronounced strongly for submission to France ; for the principles of political free- dom had not yet been fixed in the minds of the inhabitants of those parts of the country. But the lowlanders joined to- gether under Robert, surnamed the Frison, brother of the deceased count ; and they so completely defeated the French, the nobles and their unworthy associates of the high ground, that they despoiled the usurping countess Richilde of even her hereditary possessions. In this v;ar perished the cele- brated Norman William Fitz-Osborn, who had flown to the succor of the defeated countess, of whom he was enamoured.

Robert the Frison, not satisfied with having beaten the king of France and the bishop of Liege, restored in 1076 the grandson of Thierry of Holland in the possessions which had been forced from him by the duke of Lower Lorraine, in the name of the emperor and the bishop of Utrecht : so that it was this valiant chieftain, who, above all others, is entitled to the praise of having successfully opposed the system of foreign domination on all the principal points of the country.

* Van Praet, Urigine des Communes de Flandres.

lOSO. STATE r,v Tin: FRIS0\S. Hi)

Four years later, Otlion of Nassau was the first to imite in one county the various cantons of Gueklers. Finally, in 1086, Henry of Louvain, the direct descendant of Lambert, joined to his title that of count of Brabant ; and from this pe- riod the country was partitioned pretty nearly as it was des- tined to remain for several centuries.

In the midst of this gradual org-anization of the various counties, history for some time loses sig-ht of those Frisons, the maritime people of the north, who ifook little part in the civil wars of two centuries. But still there was no portion of Europe which at that time offered a finer picture of social improvement than these damp and unhealthy coasts. The name of Frisons extended from the Weser to the westward of the Zuyder Zee, but not quite to the Rhine ; and it be- came usual to consider no lonn^er as Frisons the subjects of the counts of Holland, whom we may now begin to distinguish as Hollanders or Dutch. The Frison race alone refused to recognize the sovereign counts. They boasted of being self- governed ; owning no allegiance but to the emperor, and regarding the counts of his nomination as so many officers charged to require obedience to the laws of the country, but themselves obliged in all things to respect them. But the counts of Holland, the bishops of Utreclit, and several Ger- man lords, dignified from time to time with the title of counts of Friesland, insisted that it carried with it a personal au- thority superior to that of the sovereign they represented. The descendants of the count Thierry, a race of men remark- ably warlike, were the most violent in this assumption of power. Defeat after defeat, however, punished their obsti- nacy ; and numbers of those princes met death on the pikes of their Frison opponents. The latter had no regular lead- ers ; but at the approach '^f the enemy the inhabitants of each canton flew to arms, like Lhe members of a single family ; and all the feudal forces brought against them failed to sub- due this popular militia.

The frequent result of these collisions was the refusal of the Frisons to recognize any authority whatever but that of the national judges. Each canton was governed according to its own laws. If a difficulty arose, the deputies of the na- tion met together on the borders of the Ems, in a place called "the Trees of Upstal" {Vpstall-boomen,) where three old oaks stood in the middle of an immense plam. In this primi- tive council-place chieftains were chosen who, on swearing to maintain the laws and oppose the common enemy, were invested with a limited and temporary authority.

It does not appear tliat Friesland possessed any large

40 HISTORY or THE AETIfKHLAXDri. ] OSO.

towns, with the exception of Staveren. In this respect tiic Frisons resembled those ancient Germans who had a horror of shutting themselves up within walls.* They lived in a way completely patriarchal ; dwellinja: in isolated cabins, and with habits of the utmost frugality. We read in one of their old histories, that a whole convent of Benedictines was terri- fied at the voracity of a German sculptor who was repairing their chapel. They implored him to look elsewhere for his food ; for that he and his sons consumed enough to exliaust the whole stock of the monastery.f

In no part of Europe was the good sense of the people so effectively opposed to the unreasonable practices of Catholic- ism in those days. The Frisons successfully resisted the pay- ment of tithes ; and as a punishment (if the monks are to be believed) the sea inflicted upon them repeated inundations. They forced their priests to marry, saying that the man who had no wife necessarily sought for the wife of another. They acknowledged no ecclesiastical decree, if secular judges, dou- ble the number of the priests, did not bear a part in it.| Thus the spirit of liberty burst forth in all their proceedings, and they were justified in calling themselves Vri- Vricsen, Free- Frisons.

No nation is more interested than England in the exami- nation of all that concerns this remote corner of Europe, so resolute in its opposition to both civil and religious tyranny : for it was there that those Saxon institutions and principles were first developed without constraint, while the tune of their establishment in England was still distant. Restrained by our narrow limits, we can merely indicate this curious state of things ; nor may we enter on many mysteries of so- cial government which the most learned find a difficulty in solving. What were the rights of the nobles in their con- nexion with these freemen ] What ties of reciprocal inter- est bound the different cantons to each other ? What were the privileges of the towns 1 — These are the minute but im- portant points of detail which are overshadowed by the grand and imposing figure of the national independence. But in fact, the emperors themselves, in these distant times, had little knowledge of this province, and spoke of it vaguely, and as it were at random, in their diplomas, the chief monuments of the history of the middle ages. The counts of Holland and the apostolic nuncios addressed their acts and rescripts indis- criminately to the nobles, clergy, magistrates, judges, con-

* Gibbon, ii 360. \ Chron. Mencoiiis Abb. in Weium.

I Oude Vriesche Wetten, Decl. 1.

1080. Tni:iii J'olitioal ix.stitutioxs. 41

suls, or commons of Friesland. Sometimes appeared in those documents the vague and imposin^r title of " the great Pri- son," applied to some popular leader. All this confusion tends to prove, on the authority of the historians of the epoch, and the charters so carefully collected by the learned,* that this question, now so impossible to solve, was even then not right ly understood, — what were really those fierce and redoubtabl Frisons in their popular and political relations 1 The fact is, that liberty was a matter so difficult to be comprehended by the writers of those times, that Froissart gave as his opinion, about the year 1380, that the Frisons were a most unreason- able race, for not recognizing the authority and power of the great lords.

The eleventh century had been for the Netherlands (with the exception of Friesland and Flanders) an epoch of organi- zation ; and had nearly fixed the political existence of the provinces, which were so long confounded in the vast posses- sions of the empire. It is therefore important to ascertain under what influence and on what basis these provinces be- came consolidated at that period. Holland and Zealand, animated by the spirit which we may fairly distinguish under the mingled title of Saxon and maritime, countries scarcely accessible, and with a vigorous population, possessed, in the descendants of Thierry I., a race of national chieftains who did not attempt despotic rule over so unconquerable a peo- ple. In Brabant, the maritime towns of Berg-op-Zoom and Antwerp formed, in the Flemish style, so many republics, small but not insignificant ; while the southern parts of the province were under the sway of a nobility who crushed, trampled on, or sold their vassals at their pleasure or caprice. The bishopric of Liege offered also the same contrast ; the domains of the nobility being governed with the utmost harshness, while those prince-prelates lavished on their ple- beian vassals privileges which might have been supposed the fruits of generosity, were it not clear that the object was to create an opposition in the lower orders against the turbu- lent aristocracy, whom they found it impossible to manage single-handed. The wars of these bishops against the petty nobles, who made their castles so many receptacles of rob- bers and plunder, were thus the foundation of public liberty. And it appears tolerably certain that the Paladins of Ariosto v/ere in reality nothing more than those brigand chieftains of the Ardennes, whose ruined residences preserve to this day the names which the poet borrowed from the old romance

* F. Van Mieris, Qroot Chaiterbnek van HoII. Zeel. en Vripsland.

4si IIISTOKY OF THE NETIIKKLANDS. ] 200.

writers. But in all the rest of the Netherlands, excepting the provinces already mentioned, no form of government ex- isted, but that fierce feudality which reduced the people into serfs, and turned the social state of man into a cheerless waste of bondage.

It was then that the crusades, with wild and stirring fa- naticism, agitated, in the common impulse given to all Eu- rope, even those little states which seemed to slumber in their isolated independence. Nowhere did the voice of Peter the Hermit find a more sympathizing echo than in these lands, still desolated by so many intestine struggles. Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine, took the lead in this chivalric and religious frenzy. With him set out the counts of Hainault and Flanders; the latter of whom received from the English crusaders the honorable appellation of Fitz St. George. But although the valor of all these princes was conspicuous, from the foundation of the kingdom of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon in 1098, until that of the Latin em- pire of Constantinople by Baldwin of Flanders in 1203, still tlie simple gentlemen and peasants of Friesland did not less distinguish themselves. They were, on all occasions, the first to mount tlie breach or lead the charge ; and the pope's nuncio found himself forced to prohibit the very women of Friesland from embarking for the Holy Land — so anxious were they to share the perils and glory of their husbands and brothers in combating the Saracens.

The outlet g"iven by tlie crusaders to the over-boiling ardor of these warlike countries, was a source of infinite ad- vantage to their internal economy : under the rapid progress of civilization, the population increased and the fields were cultivated. The nobility, reduced to moderation by the en- feebling consequences of extensive foreign wars, became com- paratively impotent in their attempted efforts against domes- tic freedom. Those of Flanders and Brabant, also, were almost decimated m the terrible l)attle of Bouvines, fought between the emperor Otlion and Philip Augustus king of France. On no occasion, however, had this reduced but not degenerate nobility shown more heroic valor. The Flemish knights, disdaining to mount their horses or form their ranks for the repulse of the French cavalry, composed of common persons, contemptuously received their shock on foot and in the disorder of individual resistance. The brave Buridan of Ypres led his comrades to the fight, with the chivalric war-cry, " Let each now think of her he loves !" But the issue of this battle was ruinous to the Belgians, in consequence of the bad generalship of the emperor, who had

1200. PROGRESS OF FKEED03I. 43

divided his army into small portions, whicli were defeated in detail.

While the nobility thus declined, the towns began rapidly to develop the elements of popular force. In 1120, a Flem- ish knight who might descend so far as to marry a woman of the plebeian ranks incurred the penalty of degradation and servitude.* In 1220, scarcely a serf was to be found in all Flanders.f In 1300, the chiefs of the gilden, or trades, were more powerful than the nobles. These dates and these facts must suffice to mark the epoch at whicli the great mass of the nation arose from the wretchedness in which it was plunged by the Norman invasion, and acquired sufficient strength and freedom to form a real political force. But it is remarkable that tlie same results took place in all the coun- ties or dukedoms of the Lowlands precisely at the same pe- riod. In fact, if we start from the year 1200 on this inter- esting inquiry, we sliall see the commons attacking, in the first place the petty feudal lords, and next the counts and the dukes themselves, as often as justice was denied them. In 1257, the peasants of Holland and the burghers of Utrecht proclaimed freedom and equality, drove out the bishop and the nobles, and began a memorable struggle which lasted full two hundred years. In 1260, the towns-people of Flanders appealed to the king of France against the decrees of their count, who ended the quarrel by the loss of his county. In 1303, Mechlin and Louvain, the chief towns of Brabant, ex- pelled the patrician families. A coincidence like this cannot be attributed to trifling or partial causes, such as the miscon- duct of a single count, or other local evil ; but to a great general movement in the popular mind, the progress of agri- culture and industry in the whole country, superinducing an increase of wealth and intelligence, which, when unrestrain ed by the influence of a corrupt government, must naturallj lead to the liberty and the happiness of a people.

The weaving of woollen and linen cloths was one of the chief sources of this growing prosperity. A prodigious quan- tity of cloth and linen was manufactured in all parts of the Netherlands. The maritime prosperity acquired an equal increase by the carrying trade, both in imports and exports. Whole fleets of Dutch and Flemish merchant-ships repaired regularly to the coasts of Spain and Languedoc. Flanders was already become the great market for England and all

* Vita Caroli boni.

t The countess Jane had enfranchised all those belonging to her as early s U^.l.— Vrcdii SifT. Com. Fl.

44 lllS'J'OKV t»l TlIJi: AETIIERLANDS. 1200

the north of Europe. The great increase of population forced all parts of the country into cultivation ; so much so, that lands were in those times sold at a high price, which are to- day left waste from imputed sterility.

Legislation naturally followed the movements of those positive and material interests. The earliest of the towns, after the invasion of the Normans, were in some degree but places of refuge. It was soon, however, established that the regular inhabitants of these bulwarks of the country should not be subjected to any servitude beyond their care and de- fence ; but the citizen who might absent himself for a long-er period than forty days was considered a deserter and de- prived of his rights. It was about the year 1100 that the commons began to possess the privilege of regulating their internal affairs : they appointed their judges and magistrates, and attached to their authority the old custom of ordering all the citizens to assemble or march when the summons of the feudal lord sounded the signal for their assemblage or ser- vice. By this means each municipal magistracy had the disposal of a force far superior to those of the nobles, for the population of the towns exceeded both in number and disci- pline the vassals of the seigniorial lands. And these train- ed bands of the towns made war in a way very different from that hitherto practised ; for the chivalry of the country, making the trade of arms a profession for life, the feuds of the chieftains produced hereditary struggles, almost always slow, and mutually disastrous. But the townsmen, forced to tear themselves from every association of home and its manifold endearments, advanced boldly to the object of the contest ; never shrinking from the dangers of war, from fear of that still greater to be found in a prolonged struggle. It is thus that it may be remarked, during the memorable con- flicts of the thirteenth century, that when even the bravest of the knights advised their counts or dukes to grant or de- mand a truce, the citizen militia never knew but one crv — " To the charge !"*

Evidence was soon given of the importance of this new nation, when it became forced to take up arms against ene- mies still more redoubtable than the counts. In 1301, the Flemings, who had abandoned their own sovereign to attach themselves to Philip the Fair, king of France, began to re- pent of their newly-formed allegiance, and to be weary of the master they had chosen. Two citizens of Bruges, Peter de Koning, a draper, and John Breydel, a butcher, put them-

* Bulkens, Trophi^es de Brabant,

Vi2'6. REVOLT OP THE TOWNS. 45

selves at the head of their fellow-townsmen, and completely- dislodged the French troops who garrisoned it. The follow- ing year, the militia of Bruges and the immediate neighbor- hood sustained alone, at the battle of Courtrai, the shock of one of the finest armies that France ever sent into the field. Victory soon declared for the gallant men of Bruges ; up- wards of 3000 of the French chivalry, besides common sol- diers, were left dead on the field. In 1304, after a long con- tested battle, the Flemings forced the king of France to re- lease their count, whom he had held prisoner. " I believe it rains Flemings !" said Philip, astonished to see them crowd on him from all sides of the field. But this multitude of war- riors, always ready to meet the foe, were provided for the most part by the towns. In the seigniorial system a village hardly furnished more than four or five men, and these only on important occasions ; but in that of the towns, every citi- zen was enrolled a soldier to defend the country at all times. The same system established in Brabant forced the duke of that province to sanction and guaranty the popular privi- leges, and the superiority of the people over the nobility. Such was the result of the famous contract concluded in 1312 at Cortenbergh, by which the duke created a legisla- tive and judicial assembly to meet every twenty-one days for the provincial business ; and to consist of fourteen deputies, of whom only four were to be nobles, and ten were chosen from the people. The duke was bound by this act to hold himself in obedience to the legislative decisions of the coun- cil, and renounced all right of levying arbitrary taxes or duties on the state.* Thus were the local privileges of the people by degrees secured and ratified ; but the various towns, making common cause for general liberty, became strictly united together, and progressively extended their influence and power. The confederation between Flanders and Brabant was soon consolidated. The burghers of Bruges, who had taken the lead in the grand national union, and had been the foremost to expel the foreign force, took umbrage in 1323 at an arbitrary measure of their count, Louis (called of Cressy by posthumous nomination, from his having been killed at that celebrated fight), by which he ceded to the count of Namur, his great-uncle, the port of Ecluse, and authorized him to levy duties there in the style of the feudal lords of the high country. It was but the affair of a day to the intrepid citizens to attack the fortress of Ecluse, carry it ty assault, and take prisoner the old count of Namur. They

• Din terns, MSS. Bibl. Bruxeii,

46 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1340

destroyed in a short time almost all the strong- castles of the nobles throughout the province ; and having- been joined by- all the towns of western Flanders, they finally made prisoners count Louis himself, with almost the whole of the nobi-lity, who had taken refug-e with him in the town of Courtrai. But Ghent, actuated by the jealousy which at all times ex- isted between it and Bruges, stood aloof at this crisis. The latter town was obliged to come to a compromise with the count, who soon afterwards, on a new quarrel breaking out, and supported by the king of France, almost annihilated his sturdy opponents at the battle of Cassel, where the Flemish infantry, commanded by Nicholas Zannekin and others, were literally cut to pieces by the French knights and men-at- arms.

This check proved the absolute necessity of union among the rival cities. Ten years after the battle of Cassel, Ghent set the example of general opposition ; this example was promptly followed, and the chief towns flew to arms. The celebrated James d'Artaveldt, commonly called the brewer of Ghent, put himself at the head of this formidable insurrection. He was a man of a distinguished family, who had himself enrolled among the guild of brewers, to entitle him to occupy a place in the corporation of Ghent, which he soon succeeded in managing and leading at his pleasure. The tyranny of the count, and the French party which sup- ported him, became so intolerable to Artaveldt, that ho resolved to assail them at all hazards, unappalled by the fate of his father-in-law, Sohier de Courtrai, who lost his head for a similar attempt, and notwithstanding the hitherto devoted fidelity of his native city to the count. One only object seemed insurmountable. The Flemings had sworn allegiance to the crown of France ; and they revolted at the idea of per- jury, even from an extorted oath. But to overcome their scruples, Artaveldt proposed to acknowledge the claim of Edward III. of England to the French crown.* The Flemings readily acceded to this arrangement ; quickly overwhelmed count Louis of Cressy and his French partisans; and then joined, with an army of 60,000 men, the English monarch, who had landed at Antwerp. These numerous auxiliaries rendered Edward's army irresistible ; and soon afterwards the French and English fleets, both of formidable power, but the latter of inferior force, met near Sluys, and engaged in a battle meant to be decisive of the war : victory remained doubtful during an entire day of fighting, until a Flemish

1350.

squadron hastening to the aid of the English, fixed the fate of the combat by the utter defeat of the enemy.

A truce between the two kings did not deprive Artaveldt of his well-earned authority. He was invested with the title of ruward, or conservator of the peace, of Flanders, and governed the whole province with almost sovereign sway. It was said that king Edward used flmiiliarly to call him " his dear gossip ;" and it is certain that there was not a feudal lord of the time wiiose power was not eclipsed by this leader of the people. One of the principal motives which cemented the attachment of the Flemings to Artaveldt, was the advan- tage obtained through his influence w^ith Edward for facili- tating the trade with England, whence they procured the chief supply of wool for their manufactories. Edward prom- ised them 70,000 sacks as the reward of their alliance. But though greatly influenced by the stimulus of general interest, the Flemings loved their domestic liberty better than Eng- lish wool ; and when they found tliat their ruward degen- erated from a firm patriot into the partisan of a foreign prince, they became disgusted with him altogether ; and he perished in 1345, in a tumult raised against him by those by whom he had been so lately idolized. The Flemings held firm, nevertheless, in their alliance with England, only regulating the connexion by a steady principle°of national independence.*

Edward knew well how to conciliate and manage these faithful and important auxiliaries during all his continental wars. A Flemish army covered the siege of Calais in 1348; and, under the command of Giles de Rypergherste, a mere weaver of Ghent, they beat the dauphin of France in a pitched battle. But Calais once taken, and a truce concluded, the English king abandoned his allies. These, left wholly to their own resources, forced the French and the heir of their count, young Louis de Male, to recognize their right to self- government according to their ancient privileges, and of not being forced to give aid to France in any war against Eng- land. Flanders may therefore be pronounced as forming, at this epoch, both in right and fact, a truly independent prm- cipality.f

But such struggles as these left a deep and immovable sentiment of hatred in the minds of the vanquished. Louis de Male longed for the re-establishment and extension of his authority ; and had the art to gain over to his views not only all the nobles, but many of the most influential guilds or

* Meverua, Ann. FI. ! " ■cyciua.

48 HlSsTOKY OF THE MiTHERLAiSDS. Ii3a4.

trades. Ghent, which long resisted his attempts, was at length reduced by famine ; and the count projected the ruin, or at least the total subjection, of this turbulent town. A son of Artaveldt started forth at this juncture, when the popular cause seemed lost ; and joining with his fellow-citizens John Lyons and Peter du Bois, he led 7000 resolute burghers against 40,000 feudal vassals. He completely defeated the count, and took the town of Bruges, where Louis de Male only obtained safety by hiding himself under the bed of an old woman who gave him shelter.* Thus once more feudality was defeated in a fresh struggle with civic freedom.

The consequences of this event were immense. They reached to the very heart of France, where the people bore in great discontent the feudal yoke ; and Froissart declares, that the success of the people of Ghent had nearly over- thrown the superiority of the nobility over the people in France. But the king, Charles YL, excited by his uncle, Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, took arms in support of the defeated count, and marched with a powerful army agamst the rebellious burghers. Though defeated in four successive combats, in the latter of which, that of Roosbeke, Artaveldt was killed, the Flemings would not submit to their imperious count, who used every persuasion with Charles to continue his assistance for the punishment of these refractory subjects.! But the duke of Burgundy was aware that a too great perseverance would end, either in driving the people to despair and the possible defeat of the French, or the entire conquest of the country and its junction to the crown of France. He, being son-in-law to Louis de Male, and conse- quently aspiring to the inheritance of Flanders, saw with a keen glance the advantage of a present compromise. On the death of Louis, who is stated to have been murdered by Philip's brother, the duke of Berri, he concluded a peace with the rebel burghers, and entered at once upon the sovereignty of the country. |

* Oudegherst.Chron. van Vlaenderen.

t De Bararite, Hist, des Dues de Bourgogne.

I Meyer de Barante, &c. 1384.

1384. PHILIP THE BOLD. 49

CHAP. V. 1384—1506.

FROM THE SUCCESSION OF PHILIP THE BOLD TO THE COUNTY OF FLANDERS, TO THE DEATH OF PHILIP THE FAIR.

Thus the house of Burgundy, which soon after became so formidable and celebrated, obtained this vast accession to its power. The various changes which had taken place in the neighboring provinces during- the continuance of these civil wars had altered the state of Flanders altogether. John d'Avesnes count of Hainault having also succeeded in 1299 to the county of Holland, the two provinces, though separated by Flanders and Brabant, remained from that time under the government of the same chief, who soon became more power- ful than the bishops of Utrecht, or even than their formidable rivals the Frisons.

During the wars which desolated these opposing territories, in consequence of the perpetual conflicts for superiority, the power of the various towns insensibly became at least as great as that of the nobles to whom they were constantly opposed. The commercial interests of Holland, also, were considerably advanced by the influx of Flemish merchants forced to seek refuge there from the convulsions which agitated their province. Every day confirmed and increased the privileges of the people of Brabant ; while at Liege the inhabitants gradually began to gain the upper hand, and to shake ofl:" the former subjection to their sovereign bishops.

Although Philip of Burgundy became count of Flanders, by the death of his father-in-law, in the year 1384, it was not till the following year that he concluded a peace with the people of Ghent, and entered into quiet possession of the province. In the same year the duchess of Brabant, the last descendant of the duke of that province, died, leaving no nearer relative than the duchess of Burgundy ; so that Philip obtained in right of his wife this new and important accession to his dominions. But the consequent increase of the sove- reign's power was not, as is often the case, injurious to the liberties or happiness of the people. Philip continued to govern in the interest of the country, which he had the good sense to consider as identified with his own. He augmented the privileges of the towns, and negotiated for the return into Flnnders of those merchants who Iiad omiii'rated to Ger- 1

50 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. I'oSo,

many and Holland during the continuance of the civil wars.* He thus by degrees accustomed his new subjects, so proud of their riglits, to submit to his authority; and liis peaceable reign was only disturbed by the fatal issue of the expedition of his son, John the Fearless, count of Nevers, against the Turks. This young prince, filled with ambition and temerity, was offered the command of the force sent by Charles III. of France to the assistance of Sigismund of Hungary in his war against Bajazet. Followed by a numerous body of nobles, he entered on the contest, and was defeated and taken pris- oner by the Turks at the battle of Nicopolis. His army was totally destroyed, and himself only restored to liberty on the payment of an immense ransom. f

John the Fearless succeeded in 1404 to the inheritance of all his father's dommions, with tJie exception of Brabant, of which his younger brother, Anthony of Burgundy, became duke. John, Vv'hose ambitious and ferocious character became every day more strongly developed, now aspired to tlie govern- ment of France during the insanity of his cousin Charles VI. He occupied himself little with the affairs of the Nether- lands, from which lie only desired to draw supplies of men. But the Flemings, taking no interest m his personal views or private projects, and equally indifferent to the rivalry of Eng- land and France which now began so fearfully to afflict the latter kingdom, forced their ambitious count to declare their province a neutral country :| so that the English merchants were admitted as usual to trade in all the ports of Flanders, and the Flemings equally well received in England, while the duke made open war against Great Britain in his quality of a prince of France and sovereign of Burgundy. This is probably the earliest well-established instance of such a dis- tinction between the prince and the people.

Anthony duke of Brabant, tlie brother of Philip, M^as not so closely restricted in his authority and wishes. He led all the nobles of the province to take part in the quarrels of France ; and he suffered tlie penalty of his rashness, in meet- ing his death m the battle of Agincourt. But the duchy suffered nothing by this event, for the militia of the country had not followed their duke and his nobles to the war; and a national council was nov/ established, consisting of elevei persons, two of whom were ecclesiastics, three barons, tw knights, and four commoners. This council, fosmed on prin ciples so fairly popular, conducted the public affairs with great wisdom during the minority of the young duke. Each

* Ondesliert^t. Chrun. Vlaend. t De Barantc. f. ii. t Meyerii?.

1404. JOHN OF BAVARIA. 61

province seems thus to have governed itself upon principles of republican independence. The sovereigns could not at discretion, or by the want of it, play the bloody game of war for their mere amusement ; and the emperor putting in his claim at this epoch to his ancient rights of sovereignty over Brabant, as an imperial lief, the council and the people treated the demand with derision.

The spirit of constitutional liberty and legal equality which now animated the various provinces, is strongly marked in the history of the time by two striking and characteristic in- cidents. At the death of Philip the Bold, his widow deposited on his tomb her purse, and the keys which she carried at her girdle in token of marriage ; and by this humiliating cere- mony she renounced her rights to a succession overloaded with her liusband's debts. ^ In the same year (1404) the widow of Albert count of Holland and Hainault, finding her- self in similar circumstances, required of the bailiff of Hol- land and the judges of his court permission to make a like renunciation. The claim was granted ; and to fulfil the re- quisite ceremony., she walked at the head of the funeral pro- cession, carrying in lier hand a blade of straws which she placed on the colfin.f We thus find that in such cases the reigning families were held liable to follow the common usages of the country. From such instances there required but little progress in the principle of equality to reach the republican contempt for rank, which made the citizens of Bruges in the following century arrest their comit for his priva te debts.

The spirit of independence had reached the same point at Liege. The families of the counts of Holland and Hainault, which were at this time distinguished by the name of Ba- varia, because they were only descended from the ancient counts of Netherland extraction in the female line, had suffi- cient influence to obtain the nomination to the bishopric for a prince who was at the period in his infancy. John of Ba- varia,— for so he was called, and to his name was afterwards added the epithet of " the Pitiless," — on reaching his ma- jority, did not think it necessary to cause himself to be con- secrated a priest, but governed as a lay sovereign. The in- dignant citizens of Liege expelled him, and chose another bishop. But the houses of Burgundy and Bavaria, closely allied by intermarriages, made common cause in his quarrel ; and John duke of Burgundy, and William IV. count of Hol-

* Monstrelet. t. i. t Wagenaar, Hist. Van Vaderland.

52 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1416.

land and Hainault, brother of the bishop, replaced by force tljis cruel and unworthy prelate.

This union of the government over all tlie provinces in two families so closely connected, rendered the preponder- ance of the rulers too strong for that balance hitherto kept steady by the popular force. The former could on each new quarrel join tog-ether, and employ ag-ainst any particular town their whole united resources ; whereas the latter could only act by isolated efforts for the maintenance of their separate rights. Such was the cause of a considerable decline in public liberty during the fifteenth century. It is trufe that John the Fearless gave almost his whole attention to his French political intrigues, and to the fierce quarrels which he maintained with the house of Orleans. But his nephew, John duke of Brabant, having married, in 1416, his cousin Jacqueline, daughter and heiress of William IV. count of Holland and Hainault, this branch of the house of Burgundy seemed to get the start of the elder in its progressive influ- ence over the provinces of the Netherlands. The dukes of Guelders, who had changed their title of counts for one of superior rank, acquired no accession of power proportioned to their new dignity. Tlie bishops of Utrecht became by degrees weaker ; private dissensions enfeebled Friesland ; Luxembourg was a poor unimportant dukedom ; but Holland, Hainault, and Brabant, formed the very heart of the Nether- lands ; while the elder branch of the same family, under whom they were united, possessed Flanders, Artois, and the two Burgundys. To complete the prosperity and power of this latter branch, it was soon destined to inherit the entire dominions of the other.

A fact, the consequences of which were so important for the entire of Europe, merits considerable attention ; but it is most difficult to explain at once concisely and clearly the series of accidents, manceuvres, tricks, and crimes, by which it was accomplished. It must first be remarked, that this John of Brabant, become the husband of his cousin Jacqueline countess of Holland and Hainault, possessed neither the moral nor physical qualities suited to mate with the most love- ly, intrepid, and talented woman of her times ; nor the vigor and firmness required for the maintenance of an increased, and for those days a considerable, dominion. Jacqueline thoroughly despised her insignificant husband ; first in secret, and subsequently by those open avowals forced from her by his revolting combination of weakness, cowardice, and tyran- ny. He tamely allowed the province of Holland to be in- vaded by the same ungrateful bishop of Liege, Jolm the Piti-

IIMJ. I'M I L II' or JH'KGrXDY. "j.'i

less, whom his wife's father and liis own uncle had re-estab- lished in his justly forfeited autliority. But John of Brabant revenged himself fur his wife's contempt by a series of do- mestic persecutions so odious, tliat the states of Brabant in- terfered for her protection. Finding it, however, impossible to remain in a perpetual contest with a husband whom she hated and despised, she fled from Brussels, where he held his ducal court, and took refuge in England, under the protection of Henry V., at that time in the plenitude of liis fame and power.*

England at this epoch enjoyed the proudest station in Euro- pean affairs. John the Fearless, after having caused the murder of his rival the duke of Orleans, was himself assassi- nated on the bridge of Montereau, by the followers of the dauphin of France, and in his presence. Philip duke of Bur- gundy, the son and successor of John, had formed a close alli- ance with Henry V., to revenge his father's murder; and soon after the death of the king he married his sister, and thus united himself still more nearly to the celebrated John duke of Bedford, brother of Henry, and regent of France, in the name of his infant nephew, Henry VI. But besides the share on which he reckoned in the spoils of France, Philip also looked with a covetous eye on tlie inheritance of Jacque- line, his cousin. As soon as he had learned that this princess, so well received in England, was taking measures for having her marriage annulled, to enable her to espouse the duke of Gloucester, also the brother of Henry V., and subsequently known by the appellation of " the good duke Humphrey," he was tormented by a double anxiety. He, in the first place, dreaded that Jacqueline might have children by her projected marriage with Gloucester, (a circumstance neither likely, nor even possible, in the opinion of some historians, to result from her union with John of Brabant,f) and thus deprive him of his right of succession to her states ; and in the next, he was jealous of the possible domination of England in the Netherlands as well as in France. He therefore soon became self-absolved from all his vows of revenge in the cause of his murdered father, and labored solely for the object of his per- sonal aggrandizement. To break his connexion with Bed- ford ; to treat secretly with the dauphin, his father's assassin, or at least the witness and warrant for his assassination ; and to shuffle from party to party as occasion reiiuired ; were movements of no difficulty to Piiilip, surnamed " the Good." He openly espoused the cause of his infamous relative John

* Monstrelet. t Hume, vol. iii. p. 133.

51 HIssTOUY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1436

of Brabant ; sent a powerful army into Hainault, which Glou- cester vainly strove to defend in right of his affianced wife ; and next seized on Holland and Zealand, where he met with a long but ineffectual resistance on the part of the courageous woman he so mercilessly oppressed. Jacqueline, deprived of the assistance of her staunch but ruined friends,* and aban- doned by Gloucester, (who, on the refusal of pope Martin V. to sanction her divorce, had married another woman, and but feebly aided the efforts of the former to maintain her rights,) was now left a widow by the death of John of Brabant. But Philip, without a shadow of justice, pursued his designs against her dominions, and finally despoiled her of her last possessions, and even of the title of countess, v/hich she for- feited by her marriage with Vrank Van Borselen, a gentle- man of Zealand, contrary to a compact to which Philip's tyr- anny had forced her to consent. After a career the most chequered and romantic which is recorded in history, the beautiful and hitherto unfortunate Jacqueline found repose and happiness in the tranquillity of private life; and her death in 1436, at the age of thirty-six, removed all restraint from Philip's thirst for aggrandizement, in the indulgence of which he drowned his remorse. As if fortune had con- spired for the rapid consolidation of his greatness, the death of Philip count of St. Pol, who had succeeded his brother John in the dukedom of Brabant, gave him the sovereignty of that extensive province ; and his dominions soon extended to the very limits of Picardy, by the peace of Arras, con- cluded with the dauphin, now become Charles VII., and by his finally contracting a strict alliance with France.

Philip of Burgundy, thus become sovereign of dominions at once so extensive and compact, had the precaution and ad- dress to obtain from the emperor a formal renunciation of his existing, though almost nominal, rights as lord paramount. He next purchased the title of the duchess of Luxembourg to that duchy ; and thus the states of the house of Burgundy gained an extent about equal to that of the existing kingdom

* We must not omit to notice the existence of two factions, wliich, for near two centuries, divided and agitated the whole population of Flolland and Zealand.^ One bore the title" of //ocAs (fishing-hooks;) the other was called Kaubeljauws (cod-fish.) The origin of these burlesque denominations was a dispute between two parties at a feast, as to whether the cod-fish took the hook, or the hook the cod-fish ? This apparently frivolous dispute was made the pretext for a serious quarrel ; and the partisans of the nobles and those of the towns ranged themselves at either side, and assumed differ- ent badges of distinction. The Hoeks, partisans of the towns, wore red caps; the Kaabeljauws wore gray ones. In Jacqueline's quarrel with Philip of Burgundy, she was supported by the former; and it was not till the j'ear 14!i'2 that the extinction of that popular and turbulent faction struck a final blow to the dissensions of both.

1451). UKBELLIO]\ OF GHENT. 55

of the Netherlands. For althoug'h on the north and east they did not include Friesknd, the bishopric of Utrecht, Guelders, or the province of Licg-e, still on the south and west they comprised French Flanders, the Boulonnais, Artois, and a part of Picardy, besides Burofundy. But it has been already seen bow limited an authority was possessed by the rulers of the maritime provinces. Flanders in particular, the most populous and wealthy, strictly preserved its republican insti- tutions. Ghent and Bruges were the two great towns of the province, and eacli maintained its individual authority over its respective territory, with great indifference to the will or the wishes of the sovereign duke. Philip, ho\rever, had the policy to divide most effectually these rival towns. After having fallen into the hands of the people of Bruges, whom he made a vain attempt to surprise, and who massacred num- bers of his followers before his eyes, he forced them to sub- mission by the assistance of the citizens of GJient, who sanc- tioned the banishment of the chief men of the vanquished town.* But some years later Ghent was in its turn oppressed and punished for having resisted the payment of some new tax. It found no support from the rest of Flanders. Never- theless this powerful city singly maintained the war for the space of two years : but. the intrepid burghers finally yielded to the veterans of the duke, formed to victory in tlie French wars. The principal privileges of Ghent were on this occa- sion revoked and annulled. f

During these transactions the province of Holland, which enjoyed a degree of liberty almost equal to Flanders, had de- clared war against the Hanseatic towns on its own proper authority. Supported by Zealand, which formed a (distinct country, but was strictly united to it by a common interest, Holland equipped a fleet against the pirates M^hich infested their coasts and assailed their commerce, and soon forced them to submission. Philip in the mean time contrived to manage the conflicting elements of his power with great subtlety. Notvvithstanding his ambitious and despotic char- acter, he conducted himself so cautiously, that his people -by common consent confirmed his title of "the Good," which was somewhat inappropriately given to him at the very epoch when he appeared to deserve it least. Age and exhaustion may be adduced among the causes of the toleration which signalized his latter years ; and if he was the usurper of some parts of his dominions, he cannot be pronounced a tyrant over an}^

* Ouflp|rlieisr. t I>e Barante, t. vi.

d(i HISTORY OF THE NETliEKLAADsJ. 1407.

Philip had an only son, born and reared in the midst of tliat ostentatious g-reatness which he looked on as his own by- divine riiilit; whereas his father remembered that it had chiefly become his by fortuitous acquirement, and much of it by means not likely to look well in the sight of Heaven. This son was Charles count of Charolois, afterwards celebrated under the name of Charles the Rash. He gave, even in the lifetime of his father, a striking specimen of despotism tc the people of Holland. Appomted stadtholder of tliat province in 1457, he appropriated to himself several important suc- cessions ; forced the inhabitants to labor in the formation of dikes for the security of the property thus acquired ; and, in a word, conducted himself as an absolute master.* Soon after- wards he broke out mto open opposition to his father, who had complamed of this undutiful and impetuous son to the states of the provmces, venting his grief in lamentations in- stead of punishing his people's wrongs. But his private rage burst forth one day in a manner as furious as his public expressions were tame. He went so far as to draw his sword on Charles and pursue him through his palace rf and a disgusting yet instructive spectacle it was, to see this father and son in mutual and disgraceful discord, like two birds of prey quarrelling in the same eyrie ; the old count out- rageous to find he was no longer undisputed sovereign, and the young one in feeling that lie had not yet become so. But Philip was declining daily. Yet even when dying he pre- served his natural haughtiness and energy ; and being pro- voked by the insubordination of the people of Liege, he had himself carried to tiie scene of their punisluuent. The re- fractory town of Dinant, on the Meuse, was utterly destroyed by the two counts, and 600 of the citizens drowned in the river, and in cold blood. The following year Philip expired, leaving to Charles his long-wished-for inheritance.

The reign of Philip had produced a revolution in Belgian manners ; for his example and the great increase of wealth had introduced habits of luxury hitherto quite unkno^^^^. He had also brought into fashion romantic notions of military honor, love, and chivalry; which, while they certainly soft- ened the character of the nobility, contained nevertheless a certain mixture of frivolity and extravagance. The cele- brated order of the Golden Fleece, which was introduced by Philip, vras less an institution based on grounds of rational magnificence, than a puerile emblem of his passion for Isa- bella of Portugal, his third wife. The verses of a contempo-

* Preuves et Additions sur Comines, t. iv. j Chronique de HoUande.

1467. CHAKLES THK KAsiJl. 57

rary poet induced him to make a vow for the conquest of Constantinople from the Turks.* He certainly never at- tempted to execute this senseless crusade ; but he did not omit so fair an opportunity for levying new taxes on his people. And it is undoubted, that the splendor of his court and the immorality of his example were no slight sources of corruption to the countries which he governed.

In this respect, at least, a totally different kind of govern- ment was looked for on the part of his son and successor, who was by nature and habit a mere soldier. Charles began his career by seizing on all the money and jewels left by his father; he next dismissed the crowd of useless funcLionari"3 who bad fed upon, under the pretence of managing, the treasures of the state. But this salutary and sweeping re- form was only effected to enable the sovereign to pursue un- controlled the most fatal of all passions, that of war. Nothing can better paint the true character of this haughty and impetuous prince than his crest (a branch of holly,) and his motto, " Wlio touches it, pricks himself" Charles had con- ceived a furious and not ill-founded hatred for his base yet formidable neiglibor and rival, Louis XI. of France. The latter had succeeded in obtaining from Pliilip the restitution of some towns in Picardy ; cause sufficient to excite the resentment of Iiis inflammable successor, who, during his father's lifetime, took open i)art with some of the vassals of France in a temporary struggle against the throne. Louis, who had been worsted in a combat where both he and Charles bore a part, was not behindhand in his hatred. But inasmuch as one was haughty, audacious, and uitemperate, the other was cunning, cool, and treacherous. Charles was the proudest, most daring, and most unmanageable princer that ever made the sword the type and the guarantee of greatness ; Louis the most subtle, dissimulatmg, and treacher- ous king that ever wove in his closet a tissue of hollow diplomacy and bad faith in government. The struggle be- tween these sovereigns was unequal only in respect to this difference of character ; for France, subdivided as it still was, and exhausted by the wars with England, was not compara- ble, either as regarded men, money, or the other resources ot the state, to the compact and prosperous dominions of Bur- gundy.

Charles showed some symptoms of good sense and great- ness of mind, soon after his accession to power, that gave a false coloring to his disposition, and encouraged illusory

Mon«tiol(^t. Olivier dc la Mirche.

ij^ lil.-TORV OF TllK AET11EKLA.VJ)S. 14Gb

hopes as to his future career. Scarcely was he proclaimed count of Flanders at Ghent, when the populace, surrounding his hotel, absolutely insisted on and extorted his consent to the restitution of their ancient privileges.* Furious as Charles was at this bold proof of insubordination, he did not revenge it ; and he treated with equal indulgence the city of Mechlin, which had expelled its governor and rased the citadel. The people of Liege, having revolted against their bishop, Louis of Bourbon, who was closely connected with the liouse of Burgundy, were defeated by the duke in 1467, but he treated them with clemency ; and immediately after this event, in February 1468, he concluded with Edward IV. of England an alliance, offensive and defensive, against France.f

The real motive of this alliance was rivalry and hatred against Louis. The ostensible pretext was this monarch's having made war against the duke of Britany, Charles's old ally in the short contest in which he, while yet but count, had measured his strength with liis rival after he became king. The present union between England and Burgundy was too powerful not to alarm Louis ; he demanded an explanatory conference with Charles, and the town of Pe- ronne in Picardy was fixed on for their meetuig. Louis, willing to imitate the boldness of his rival, who had formerly come to meet him in the very midst of liis army, now came to the rendezvous almost alone. But he was severely mortified, and near paying a greater penalty than fright, for this hazardous conduct. The duke, having received intelligence of a new revolt at Liege excited by some of the agents of France, instantlv made ""Louis prisoner, in defiance of every law of honor or' fair dealmg. The excess of his rage and hatred might have carried him to a more disgraceful ex- tremity, had not Louis, by force of bribery, gamed over some of his most influential counsellors, who succeeded in appeas- ing his rage. He contented himself with humiliating, when he Avas disposed to punish. He forced his captive to accom- pany fiim to Liege, and witness the ruin of this unfortunate town, which he delivered over to plunder ; and ht.ving giv3n this lesson to Louis, he set him at liberty.

From this period there was a marked and material change in the conduct of Charles. He had been previously moved by sentiments of chivalry and notions of greatness. But sul lied by his act of public treachery and violence towards the monarch who had, at least in seeming, manifested unlimited confidence in his honor, a secret sense of shame embittered

* Philip de Comineu. T Rynier, vol. v. p. 11.

1172. t"irARL!;:s's I'LAXa' of aggmaxdizemext. 59

his feelint^s and soured his temper. He became so insup- portable to those around him, that he was abandoned by sev-> eral of his best officers, and even by his natural brother, Baldwin of Burgundy, who passed over to the side of Louis. Charles was at this time embarrassed by the expense of en- tertaining' and maintaining- Edward IV. and numerous Eng- lish exiles, who were forced to take refuge in the Netherlands by the successes of the earl of Warwick, who had replaced Henry VI. on the throne.* Charles at the same time held out to several princes m Europe hopes of bestowing on them in marriage his only daughter and heiress Mary, while he privately assured his friends, if his courtiers and ministers may be so called, " tliat he never meant to have a son-in-law until he was disposed to make himself a monk." In a word, lie was no longer guided by any principle but that of fierce and brutal selfishness.

In this mood he soon became tired of the service of his nobles and of the national militia, who only maintained to- wards him a forced and modified obedience founded on the usages and rights of their several provinces ; and he took into his pay all sorts of adventurers and vagabonds who were willing to submit to him as their absolute master. When the taxes necessary for the support and pay of these bands of mercenaries caused the people to murmur, Charles laughed at their complaints, and severely punished some of the most refractory. He then entered France at the head of his army, to assist the duke of Britany ; but at the moment when no- thing seemed to oppose the most extensive views of his am- bition, he lost by his hot-brained caprice every advantage within his easy reach : he c]iose to sit down before Beauvais ; and thus made of this town, which lay in his road, a complete stumbling-block on his path of conquest. Tlie time he lost before its walls caused the defeat and ruin of his unsupported, or as might be said his abandoned, ally, who made the best terms he could with Louis ; and thus Charles's presumption and obstinacy paralyzed all the efforts of his courage and power. But he soon afterwards acquired the duchy of Gueld- ers from tlie old duke Arnoul, who had been temporarily., despoiled of it by his son Adolphus. It was almost an heredi- tary consequence in this family that the children should revolt and rebel against their parents. Adolphus had the effrontery to found his justification on the argument, that his father having reigned forty-four years, he was fully entitled to his share — a fine practical authority for greedy and expect-

* Philip de Comines, 1. v.

60 HISTORY OF THE ^•ErHERLAXJ)S. JlT'^.

ant heirs. The old father replied to this reasoningf by ofter- inf? to meet his ^n in single combat * Charles cut short the afiair by making Adolphus prisoner and seizing on the dis- puted territory, for which he, however, paid Arnoul the sum of 220,000 florins.

After this acquisition Charles conceived and had much at heart the design of becoming king, the first time that the Netherlands were considered sufficiently important and con- solidated to entitle their possessor to that title. To lead to this object he offered to the emperor of Germany the hand of his daughter Mary for his son Maximilian. The emperor ac- ceded to this proposition, and repaired to the city of Treves to meet Charles and countenance his coronation. But the insolence and selfishness of the latter put an end to the pro- ject. He humiliated the emperor, who was of a niggardly and mean-spirited disposition, by appearing with a train so numerous and sumptuous as totally to eclipse the imperial retinue ; and deeply offended him by wishing to postpone the marriage, from his jealousy of creating for himself a rival in a son-in-law, who might embitter his old age as he had done that of his own father. The mortified emperor quitted the place in high dudgeon, and the projected kingdom was doomed to a delay of some centuries.

Charles, urged on by the double motive of thirst for ag- grandizement and vexation at his late failure, attempted, under pretext of some internal dissensions, to gain possession of Cologne and its territory, which belonged to the empire ; and at the same time planned the invasion of France, in con- cert with his brother-in-law Edward IV., who had recovered possession of England. But the town of Nuys, in the arch- bishopric of Cologne, occupied him a full year before its walls. The emperor, who came to its succor, actually besieged the besiegers in their camp, and the dispute was terminated by leaving it to the arbitration of the pope's legate, and placing the contested town in his keeping. This half triumph gained bv Charles saved Louis wholly from destruction. Edward, who had landed in France with a numerous force, seeing no appearance of his Burgundian allies, made peace with Louis ; and Charles, who arrived in all haste, but not till after the treaty was signed, upbraided and abused the English king, and turned a warm friend into an inveterate enemy.

Louis, whose crooked policy had so far succeeded on all occasions, now seemed to favor Charles's plans of aggran- dizement, and to recognize his pretended right to Lorraine,

♦ Comines, t. iv.

1473. CHARLES DEFEATED BY THE SWISS. 61

which legitimately helonged to the empire, and the invasion of which by Charles would bo sure to set hun at variance with the whole of Germany. The infatuated duke, blind tc the ruin to which he was thus hurrying-, abandoned to Louis, in return for this insidious support, the constable of St. Pol , a nobleman who had long maintained his independence in Picardy, where he had large possessions, and who was fitted to be a valuable friend or formidable enemy to either. Charles now marched against, and soon overcame, Lorraine. Thence he turned his army against the Swiss, who were allies to the conquered province, but who sent the most submissive dis- suasions to the invader. They begged for peace, assuring Charles that their romantic but sterile mountains were not altogether worth the bridles of his splendidly equipped caval- ry. But the more they humbled themselves, the higher was his haughtiness raised. It appeared that he had at this pe- riod conceived the project of uniting in one common conquest the ancient dominions of Lothaire I., who had possessed the whole of the countries traversed by the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Po; and he even spoke of passing the Alps, like Hannibal, for the invasion of Italy.

Switzerland was, by moral analogy as well as physical fact, the rock against w^hich these extravagant projects were shattered. The army of Charles, which engaged the hardy mountaineers in the gorges of the Alps near the town of Granson, were literally crushed to atoms by the stones and fragments of granite detached from the heights and hurled down upon their heads. Charles, after this defeat, returned to the charge six weeks later, having rallied his army and drawn reinforcements from Burgundy. But Louis had dis- patched a body of cavalry to the Swiss, — a force in which they were before deficient ; and thus augmented, their army amounted to 34,000 men. They took up a position, skilfully chosen, on the borders of the lake of Morat, where they were attacked by Charles at the head 60,000 soldiers of all ranks. The result was the total defeat of the latter, with the loss of 10,000 killed, whose bones, gathered into an immense heap, and bleaching in the winds, remained for above three centu- ries ;* a terrible monument of rashness and injustice on the one hand, and of patriotism and valor on the other.

Charles was now plunged into a state of profound melan- choly ; but he soon burst from this gloomy mood into one of renewed fierceness and fatal desperation. Nine months after the battle of Morat he re-entered Lorraine, at the head of an

♦ Gaiuliii. Abrogc de I'llist. tk la Snisco, p 63.

62 HISTORY OF TllJt: INETHEKLAIVDS. 1477.

army, not composed of his faithful militia of the Netherlands, but of those mercenaries in whom it was madness to place trust. The reinforcements meant to be dispatched to him by those provinces wer kept back by the artilices of the count of Campo Basso, an xtalian, who commanded his cavalry, and VI ho only gained his confidence basely to betray it. Rene duke of Lorrauie, at the head of the confederate forces, ffered battle to Charles under the walls of A^ancy ; and tlie night before the combat Campo Basso went over to the enemy with the troops under his command. Still Charles had the way open for retreat. Fresh troops from Burgundy and Flanders were on their march to join him ; but he would not be dissuaded from his resolution to fight, and he resolved to try his fortune once more with his dispirited and shattered army. On this occasion the fate of Charles was decided, and the fortune of Louis triumphant. The rash and ill-fated duke lost both the battle and his lite.f His body, mutilated with wounds, was found the next day, and buried with great pomp in the town of Nancy, by the orders of the generous victor, the duke of Lorraine.

Thus perished the last prince of the powerful house of Burgundy. Charles left to his only daughter, then eighteen years of age, the inheritance of his extensive dominions, and with them that of the hatred and jealousy which he had so largely excited. External spoliation immediately commenced, and internal disunion quickly followed. Louis XL seized on Burgundy and a part of Artois, as fiefs devolving to the crown in default of male issue. Several of the provinces refused to pay the new subsidies commanded in the name of Mary ; Flanders alone showing a disposition to uphold the rights of the young princess. The states were assembled at Ghent, and ambassadors sent to the king of France, in the hopes of obtaining peace on reasonable terms. Louis, true to his system of subtle perfidy, placed before one of those ambassadors, the burgomaster of Ghent, a letter from the in- experienced princess, which proved her mtention to govern by the counsel of her father's ancient ministers, rather than by that of the deputies of the nation. This was enough to decide the indignant Flemmgs to render themselves at once masters of the government, and get rid of the ministers whom they hated. Two Burgundian nobles, Hugonet and Imbercourt, were arrested, accused of treason, and beheaded ander the very eyes of their agonized and outraged mistress, who threw herself before the frenzied multitude, vainly im-

t Sth Jan. 14.7.

J 484. MAKY AND MAXK.11L1AN. 63

ploring mercy for these innocent men. The people having thus completely gained the upper hand over the Burgundian influence, Mary was sovereign of the Netherlands but in name.

It would have now been easy for Louis XI. to have obtained for the dauphin, his son, the hand of this hitherto unfortunate but interesting prmcess ; but he thought himself sufficiently strong and cunning to gain possession of her states witliout such an alliance. Mary, however, thus in some measure dis- dained, if not actually rejected, by Louis, soon after married her first-intended husband, Maximilian of Austria, son of tlie emperor Frederick III. ; a prince so absolutely destitute, in consequence of his fether's parsimony, that she was obliged to borrow money from the towns of Flanders to defray the expenses of his suite.* Nevertheless he seemed equally ac- ceptable to his bride and to his new subjects. They not only supplied all his wants, but enabled him to maintain the wai against Louis XL, whom they defeated at the battle of Guine- gate in Picardy, and forced to make peace on more favorable terms than they ha.d hoped for. But these wealthy provinces were not more zealous for the national defence, than bent on the maintenance of their local privileges, which Maximilian little understood, and sympathized with less. He was bred in the scliool of absolute despotism ; and his duchess having met with a too early death by a fall from her horse in the year 1484, he could not even succeed in obtaining the nomina- tion of guardian to his own children without passing through a year of civil war. His power being almost nominal in the northern provinces, he vainly attempted to suppress tlie violence of the factions of Hoeks and Kaabeljauws. In Flan- ders his authority was openly resisted. The turbulent towns of that country, and particularly Bruges, taking umbrage at a government half German half Burgundian, and altogether hateful to the people, rose up against Maximilian, seized on his person, imprisoned him in a house wliich still exists, and put to death his most faitliful followers. But the fury of Ghent and other places becoming still more outrageous, Maximilian asked as a favor from his rebel subjects of Bruges to be guarded while a prisoner by them alone.f He was then king of the Romans, and all Europe became interested in his fate. The pope addressed a brief to the town of Bruges, demanding his deliverance. But the burghers were as inflexi- ble as factious; and thev at length released him, but not until thev had concluded with him and the assembled states a

* ComiiK'P, t. vi. t Heuterus. 1. iii.

64 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1493.

treaty, which most amply secured the enjoyment of their privileges and the pardon of their rebellion.

But these kind of compacts were never observed by the princes of those days beyond the actual period of their capa- city to violate them. The emperor having entered the Netherlands at the head of 40,000 men, Maximilian, so sup- ported, soon showed his contempt for the obligations he had sworn to, and had recourse to force for the extension of his authority. The valor of the Flemings and the military talents of their leader, Philip of Cleves, thwarted all his projects, and a new compromise was entered into. Flanders paid a large subsidy, and held fast her rights. The German troops were sent into Holland, and employed for the extinction of the Hoeks ; who, as they formed by far the weaker faction, were now soon destroyed. That province, 'C^'hich had been so long distracted by its intestine feuds, and which had con- sequently played but an insignificant part in the transactions of the Netherlands, now resumed its place ; and acquired thenceforth new^ honor, till it at length came to figure in all the importance of historical disthiction.

The situation of the Netherlands was now^ extrem.ely pre- carious and difficult to manage, during the unstable sw^ay of a government so w^eak as Maximilian's. But he having suc- ceeded his father on the imperial throne in 1493, and his son Philip having been proclaimed the following year duke and count of the various provinces at the age of sixteen, a more pleasing prospect was oflTered to the people. Philip, young, handsome, and descended by his mother from the an- cientsovereigns of the country, was joyfully hailed by all the towms. He did not belie the hopes so enthusiastically ex- pressed. He had the good sense to renounce all pretensions to Friesland, the fertile source of many preceding quarrels and sacrifices. He re-established the ancient commercial relations with England, to which country Maximilian had given mortal ofl^ence by sustaining the imposture of Perkin Warbeck. Philip also consulted the states-general on his projects of a double alliance between himself and his sister with the son and daughter of Ferdinand king of Aragon and Isabella queen of Castile ; and from this wise precaution the project soon became one of national partiality instead of pri- vate or personal interest. In this manner complete harmony was established between the young prince and the inhabit- ants of the Netherlands. All the ills produced by civil war disappeared with immense rapidity in Flanders and Brabant, as soon as peace was thus consolidated. Even Holland, though il liad particularly felt the scourge of these dissensions, and

1493. rillLlP THE FAIR. 65

suffered severely from repeated inundations, begun to recover. Yet for all this, Philip can be scarcely called a good prince : his merits were negative rather than real. But that sufficed for the nation ; which found in the nullity of its sovereign no obstacle to the resumption of that prosperous career which had been checked by the despotism of the house of Bur- gundy, and the attempts of Maximilian to continue the same system.

The reign of Philip, unfortunately a short one, was ren- dered remarkable by two intestine quarrels ; one in Fries- land, the other in Guelders. The Frisons, who had been so isolated from the more important affairs of Europe that they were in a manner lost sight of by history for several centu- ries, had nevertheless their full share of domestic disputes; too long, too multifarious, and too minute, to allow us to give more than this brief notice of their existence. But finally, about the period of Piiilip's accession, eastern Friesland had chosen for its count a gentleman of the country surnamed Edzart, who fixed the head-quarters of his military govern- ment at Embden. The sight of such an elevation in an in- dividual whose pretensions he thought far inferior to his own, induced Albert of Saxony, who had well served Maximilian against the refractory Fleming-s, to demand as his reward the title of stadtholder or hereditary governor of Friesrand. But it was far easier for the emperor to accede to this request than for his favorite to put the grant into effect. The Fri- sons, true to their old character, held firm to their privileges, and fought for their maintenance with heroic courage. i\.l- bert, furious at this resistance, had the horrid barbarity to cause to be impaled the chief burghers of the town of Leu- waarden, which he had taken by assault.* But he himself died in the year 1500, without succeeding in his projects of an ambition unjust in its principle and atrocious in its prac- tice.

The war of Guelders was of a totally different nature. In this case it was not a question of popular resistance to a tyr- annical nomination, but of patriotic fidelity to the reigning family. Adolphus, the duke who had dethroned his father, had died in Flanders, leaving a son who had been brought up almost a captive as long as Maximilian governed the states of his inheritance. This young man, called Charles of Eg- mont, and who is honored in the history of his country under the title of the Achilles of Guelders, fell into the hands of the French during the combat in which he made his first

* Beninga, Hist. Van Oost Frise.

66 HISTORY OF THE NEniERLANDS. 1500.

essay in arms. The town of Guelders unanimously joined to pay his ransom ; and as soon as he was at liberty, tliey one and all proclaimed liim duke. The emperor Philip and the Germanic diet in vain protested against this measure, and declared Charles a usurper. The spirit of justice and of liberty spoke more loudly than the thunders of their ban ; and the people resolved to support to the last this scion of an an- cient race, glorious in much of its conduct, though often criminal in many of its members. Charles of Egmont fiiund faithful friends in his devoted subjects ; and he maintained his rights, sometimes with, sometimes without, the assistance of France,— making up for his want of numbers by energy and enterprise. We cannot follow this warlike prmce in the long series of adventures which consolidated his power ; nor stop to depict his daring adherents on land, vdio caused the whole of Holland to tremble at their deeds ; nor his pirates — the chief of whom, Long Peter, called himself king of the Zuyder Zee. But amidst all the consequent troubles of such a struggle, it is marvellous to find Charles of Egmont up- holding his country in a state of high prosperity, and leaving it at his death almost as rich as Holland itself f

The incapacity of Philip the Fair doubtless contributed to cause him the loss of this portion of his dominions. This prince, after his first acts of moderation and good sense, was remarkable only as being the father of Charles V. The re- mainder of his life was worn out in undignified pleasures; and he died almost suddenly, in the year 1506, at Burgos in Castile, whither he had repaired to pay a visit to his brother- in-law, the king of Spain.

f Van Meteren

1508. MARGARET OF AUSTRIA 67

CHAP. VI.

1506—1555.

FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF MARGARET OF AUSTRIA TO THE ABDl CATION OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.

Philip being dead, and his wife, Joanna of Spain, having become mad from grief at his loss, after nearly losing her senses from jealousy during his life, the regency of the Neth- erlands reverted to Maximilian, who immediately named his daughter Margaret governant of the country. This prmcess, scarcely twenty-seven years of age, had been, like the cele- brated Jacqueline of Bavaria, already three times married, and was now again a widow. Her first husband, Charles VIII. of France, had broken from his contract of marriao-e before its consummation ; her second, the Infant of Spain, died immediately after their union ; and her third, the duke of Savoy, left her again a widow after three years of wedded life. She was a woman of talent and courage ; both proved by the couplet she composed for her own epitaph, at the very moment of a dangerous accident which happened during her journey into Spain to join her second affianced spouse.* She was received with the greatest joy by the people of the Netherlands; and she governed them as peaceably as cir- cumstances allowed. Supported by England, she firmly maintained her authority against the threats of France ; and she carried on in person all the negotiations between Louis XII., Maximilian, the pope Jules 11., and Ferdinand of Ara- gon, for the famous league of Venice. These negotiations took place in 1508, at Cambray ; where Margaret, if we are to credit an expression to that effect in one of her letters,| was more than once on the point of havmg serious differ- ences with the cardinal of Amboise, minister of Louis XII. But, besides her attention to the interests of her father on tliis important occasion, she also succeeded in repressing the rising pretensions of Charles of Egmont ; and, assisted by the interference of the king of France, she obliged him to give up some places in Holland which he illegally held.

* Ci-i-'it MarfTot la gente demoiselle, (liii eut (I(iiix maris, ct si innunit pucelle. H.'re t'Pntle Margjot quiftly is laid, VVlia !iad two husbands, antl yet died a maid.

f LettiTS dn Louis XII. t. i. p. 122.

68 lIISTOIiy OF THE NETHEKLANDS. 1515.

From this period the alliance between England and Spain raised the commerce and manufactures of the southern prov- inces of the Netherlands to a hig-h degree of prosperity, while the northern parts of the country were still kept down by their various dissensions. Holland was at war with the Hanseatic towns. The Prisons continued to struggle for freedom against the heirs of Albert of Saxony. Utrecht was at variance with its bishop, and finally recognized Charles of Egmont as its protector. The consequence of all these causes was that the south took the start in a course of pros- perity, which was, however, soon to become common to the whole nation.

A new rupture with France, in 1513, united Maximilian, Margaret, and Henry VIII. of England, in one common cause. An English and Belgian army, in which ^Maximilian figured as a spectator (takuig care to be paid by England), marched for the destruction of Therouenne, and defeated and dispersed the French at the battle of Spurs. But Louis XII. soon per- suaded Henry to make a separate peace ; and the unconquer- able duke of Guelders made Margaret and the emperor pay the penalty of their success against France. He pursued his victories in Friesland, and forced the country to recognize him as stad th older of Groningen, its chief town; v.iiile the duke of Saxony at length renounced to another his unjust claim on a territory which ingulfed both his armies and his treasure.

About the same epoch (1515,) young Charles, son of Philip the Fair, having just attained his fifteenth year, was inaugu- rated duke of Brabant and count of Flanders and Holland, having purchased the presumed right of Saxony to the sove- reignty of Friesland. In the following year he was recog- nized as prince of Castile, in right of his mother, who asso- ciated him with herself in the royal power, — a step which soon left her merely the title of queen. Charles procured the nomination of bishop of Utrecht for Philip, bastard of Bur- gundy, which made that province completely dependent on him. ' But this event was also one of general and lasting im- portance on another account. This Philip of Burgundy was deeply affected by the doctrines of the Reformation, which had burst forth m Germany. He held in abhorrence the su- perstitious observances of the Romish church, and set his face against the celibacy of the clergy. His example soon influenced his whole diocese, and the new notions on points of religion became rapidly popular. It was chiefly, however, in Friesland that tlie people embraced the opinions of Luther, which were quite conformable to many of the local customs

1515. PROGRESS OP THE REFORMATION. 69

of wliicli we have already spoken. The celebrated Edzard count of eastern Friesland openly adopted the Rclbrmation. While Erasmus of Rotterdam, without actually pronouncing- himself a disciple of Lutheranism, effected more than all its advocates to throw the abuses of Catholicism into discredit.

We may here remark that, during the government of the house of Burgundy, the clergy of the Netherlands had fallen into considerable disrepute. Intrigue and court favor alone had the disposal of the benefices ; while the career of com- merce was open to the enterprise of every spirited and inde- pendent competitor. The Reformation, therefore, in the first instance found but a slight obstacle in the opposition of a sla- vish and ignorant clergy, and its progress was all at once pro- digious. The refusal of the dignity of emperor by Frederick " the wise," duke of Saxony, to wliom it was offered by the electors, was also an event highly favorable to the new opin- ions ; for Francis I. of France, and Charles, already king of Spain and sovereign of the Netherlands, both claiming the succession to the empire,* a sort of interregnum deprived the disputed dommions of a chief who might lay the heavy hand of power on the new-springing doctrines of Protestantism. At length the intrigues of Charles, and his pretensions as grandson of Maximilian, having caused him to be chosen em- peror, a desperate rivalry resulted between him and the French king, which for a while absorbed his whole attention and occupied all his power.

From the earliest appearance of tlie Reformation, the young- sovereign of so many states, having to establish his authority at the two extremities of Europe, could not efficiently occupy himself in resisting the doctrines which, despite their dis- honoring epithet of heresy, were doomed so soon to become orthodox for a great part of the Continent. While Charles vigorously put down the revolted Spaniards, Luther gained new proselytes in Germany ; so that the very greatness of the sovereignty was the cause of his impotency ; and while Charles's extent of dominion thus fostered the growing Re- formation, his sense of honor proved the safeguard of its apos- tle. The intrepid Luther, boldly venturing to appear and plead its cause before the representative power of Germany assembled at the diet of Worms, was protected by the guar- antee of the emperor ;t unlike the celebrated and unfortunate John Huss, who fell a victim to his own confidence and the bad faith of Sigismund, in the year 1415.

Charles was nevertheless a zealous and rigid Catholic;

* Robrrtson. t Idem.

70 HISTORY OP THE NETHERLANDS. 1525.

and in tlic Low Countries, where his authority was undis- puted, he proscribed the heretics, and even violated the privi- leges of the country by appointing' functionaries for the ex- press purpose of their pursuit and punishment.* This im- prudent stretch of power fostered a rising spirit of opposition ; for, though entertaining the best disposition to their young prince, the people deeply felt and loudly complained of the government; and thus the germs of a mighty revolution gradually began to be developed.

Charles V. and Francis I. had been rivals for dignity and power, and they now became implacable personal enemies. Young, ambitious, and sanguine, they could not, without re- ciprocal resentment, pursue in the same field objects essen- tial to both. Charles, by a short but timely visit to England in 1520, had the address to g'ain over to his cause and secure for his purpose the powerful interest of cardinal Wolsey, and to make a most favorable impression on Henry VIII. ;f and thus strengthened, he entered on the struggle against his less wily enemy with infinite advantage. War was declared on frivolous pretexts in 1521. The French sustained it for some time with great valor ; but Francis being obstinately bent on the conquest of the Milanais, his reverses secured the triumph of his rival, and he fell into the hands of the im- perial troops at the battle of Pavia in 1525. Charles's domi- nions in the Netherlands suffered severely from the naval operations during the war ; for the French cruisers having, on repeated occasions, taken, pillaged, and almost destroyed the principal resources of the herring fishery, Holland and Zealand felt considerable distress, which was still further augmented by the famine v/hich desolated these provinces in 1524.

While such calamities afflicted the northern portion of the Netherlands, Flanders and Brabant continued to flourish, in spite of temporary embarrassments. The bishop of Utrecht having died, his successor found himself engaged in a hope- less quarrel with his new diocese, already more than half converted to Protestantism ; and to gain a trimnph over these enemies, even by the sacrifice of his dignity, he ceded to the emperor in 1527 the whole of his temporal power. The duke of Guelders, who then occupied the city of Utrecht, redou- bled his hostility at this intelligence ; and after having rav- aged the neighboring country, he did not lay down his arms till the subsequent year, having first procured an honorable and advantageous peace. One year more saw the term of

* Meteren, 1. i. t Robertson.

1534. THE ANABAPIISTS. 71

this lonof-continued state of warfare by the peace of Cambray, between Charles and Francis, which was signed on the 5tii of August, 1529.*

This peace once concluded, the industry and perseverance of the inhabitants of the Netherlands repaired in a short time tlie evils caused by so many wars, excited by the ambition of princes, but in scarcely any instance for the interest of the country. Little, however, was wanting to endanger this tran(|uillity, and to excite the people against each other on the score of religious dissension. The sect of Anabaptists, whose wild opinions were subversive of all principles of social order and every sentiment of natural decency, had its birth in Germany, and found many proselytes in the Netherlands. John Bokelszoon, a tailor of Leyden, one of the number, caused himself to be proclaimed king of Jerusalem ; and making himself master of the town of JMunster, sent out his disciples to preach in the neighboring countries. Mary, sis- ter of Charles V., and queen-dowager of Hungary, the gov- ernant of the Netlierlands, proposed a crusade against this fanatic ; which was, however, totally discountenanced by the states. Encouraged by impunity, whole troops of these in- furiate sectarians, from the very extremities of Hainault, put themselves into motion for Munster; and notvv^ithstanding the colds of February, they marched along, quite naked, ac- cording to the system of their sect.f The frenzy of these fanat- ics being increased by persecution, they projected attempts against several towns, and particularly against Amsterdam. They were easily defeated, and massacred without mercy ; and it was only by multiplied and horrible executions that their numbers were at length diminished. John Bakelszoon held out at Munster, which was besieged by the bishop and the neighboring princes. This profligate fanatic, who had married no less than seventeen women, had gained consider- able influence over the insensate multitude ; but he was at length taken and imprisoned in an iron cage, — an event which mideceived the greatest number of those whom he had persuaded of his superhuman powers.}

The prosperity of the southern provinces proceeded rapidly and uninterruptedly, in consequence of the great and valua- ble traffic of the merchants of Flanders and Brabant, who exchanged their goods of native manufacture for the riches drawn from America and India by the Spaniards and Portu- guese. Antwerp had succeeded to Bruges as tlie general

* Robertson. t L. Hortens. de Anab

X Hist. Anabapt.

7'2 HisToKV oi" Till: ni;tiii:i{laxij.s. io'M.

mart of commorce, and was the most opulent town of tiie north of Europe. The expenses, estimated at 130,000 golden crowns,* which this city voluntarily incurred, to do honor to the visit of Philip, son of Charles V., are cited as a proof of its wealth. The value of the wool annually imported for manufacture into the Low Countries from England and Spain was calculated at 4,000,000 pieces of gold. Their herring fishery was unrivalled ; for even the Scotch, on whose coasts these fish were taken, did not attempt a competition with the Zealanders.f But the chief seat of prosperity was the south. Flanders alone was taxed for one-third of the general burdens of the state. Brabant paid only one-seventh less than Flanders. So that these two rich provinces contributed thirteen out of twenty-one parts of the general contribution ; and all the rest combined, but eight. A search for further or minuter proofs of the comparative state of the various di- visions of the country would be superfluous.

The perpetual quarrels of Charles V. with Francis I. and Charles of Guelders led, as may be supposed, to a repeated state of exhaustion, which forced the princes to pause, till the people recovered strength and resources for each fresh encounter. Charles rarely appeared in the Netherlands; fixing his residence chiefly in Spain, and leaving to his sister the regulation of those distant provinces. One of his occa- sional visits was for the purpose of inflicting a terrible exam- ple upon them. The people of Ghent, suspecting an un- proper or improvident application of the funds they had furnished for a new campaign, offered themselves to march against the French, instead of being forced to pay their quota of some further subsidy. The government having rejected this proposal, a sedition was the result, at the moment when Charles and Francis already negotiated one of their tempo- rary reconciliations. On this occasion, Charles formed the daring resolution of crossing the kingdom of France, to promptly take into his own hands the settlement of this af- fair— trusting to the generosity of his scarcely reconciled enemy not to abuse the confidence with which he risked himself in his power. Ghent, taken by surprise, did not dare to oppose the entrance of the emperor, when he appeared before the walls ; and the city was punished with extreme severity. Twenty-seven leaders of the sedition were be- headed ; the principal privileges of the city were withdrawn ; and a citadel built to hold it in check for the future. Charles met with neither opposition nor complaint. The province

Giiiccianlini, Descriiitin E-jlgii. j Vanriergoes, Rpjist. t. i.

lood. ABDICATION OF CHARLES. 73

]iad so prospered under his sway, and was so flattered by the greatness of the sovereign, who was born in the town he so severely punished, that his acts of despotic harshness were borne without a murmur. But in the north the people did not view his measures so complacently : and a wide separa- tion in interests and opinions became manifest in the different divisions of the nation.

Yet the Dutch and the Zealanders signalized themselves beyond all his other subjects on the occasion of two expedi- tions which Charles undertook against Tunis and Algiers. The two northern provinces furnished a greater number of ships than the united quotas of all the rest of his states.* But though Charles's gratitude did not lead him to do any thing in return as peculiarly favorable to these provinces, he ob- tained for them nevertheless a great advantage in making himself master of Friesland and Guelders on the death of Charles of Egmont. His acquisition of the latter, which took place in 1543, put an end to the domestic wars of the north- ern provinces. From that period they might fairly look for a futurity of union and peace ; and thus the latter years of Charles promised better for his country than his early ones, though he obtained less success in his new wars with France, which were not, however, signalized by any grand event on either side.

Towards the end of his career, Charles redoubled his se- verities against the Protestants, and even introduced a modi- fied species of inquisition into the Netherlands, but with little effect towards the suppression of the reformed doctrines. The misunderstandings between his only son Philip and Mary of England, whom he had induced him to marry, and the una- miable disposition of this young prince, tormented him al- most as much as he was humiliated by the victories of Henry n. of France, the successor of Francis I., and the successful dissimulation of Maurice elector of Saxony, by whom he u'as completely outwitted, deceived, and defeated. Impelled by these motives, and others, perhaps, which are and must ever remain unknown, Charles at length decided on abdicating the whole of his immense possessions. He chose the city of Brussels as the scene of the solemnity, and the day fixed for it was the 25th of October, 1555.t It took place accordingly, in the presence of the king of Bohemia, the duke of Savoy, the dowager queens of France and Hungary, the duchess of Lorraine, and an immense assemblage of nobility from vari- ous countries. Charles resigned the empire to his brother

* Chron. van Zeeland. t Vandervynct, t. i. p. 107.

74 IIISTOKY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1555

Ferdinand, already king- of the Romans ; and all the rest of liis dominions to his son. Soon after the ceremony, Charles embarked from Zealand on his voyag-e to Spain. He retired to the monastery of St. Justus, near the town of Placentia, in Estremadura. He entered this retreat in February, 1556, and died there on the 21st of September, 1558, in the 59th year of his age. The last six months of his existence, con- trasted with the daring- vig"or of his former life, formed a melancholy picture of timidity and superstition.*

The whole of the provinces of tlie Netherlands being- now for the first time united under one sovereign, such a junction marks the limits of a second epoch in their history. It would be a presumptuous and vain attempt to trace, in a compass so confined as ours, the various changes in manners and cus- toms which arose in these countries during a period of one thousand years. The extended and profound remarks of many celebrated writers on the state of Europe from the decline of the Roman power to the epoch at which we are now arrived must be referred to, to judge of the gradual progress of civili- zation through the gloom of the dark ages, till the dawn of enlightment which led to the grand system of European poli- tics commenced during the reign of Charles V.f The amaz- ing increase of commerce was, above all other considerations, the cause of the growth of liberty in tlie Netherlands. The Reformation opened the minds of men to that intellectual freedom, without which political enfranchisement is a worth- less privilege. The invention of printmg opened a thousand channels to the flow of erudition and talent, and sent them out from the reservoirs of individual possession to fertilize the whole domain of human nature. War, v.'hich seems to be an instinct of man, and which particular instances of heroism often raise to the dignity of a passion, was reduced to a sci- ence, and made subservient to those great principles of policy in which society began to perceive iCs only chance of durable good. Manufactures attained a state of high perfection, and went on progressively with the growth of wealth and luxury. The opulence of the towns of Brabant and Flanders was without any previous example in tlie state of Europe. A merchant of Bruges took upon himself alone the security for the ransona of John the Fearless, taken at the battle of Nico- polis, amounting to 200,000 ducats. A provost of Valencien- nes repaired to Paris at one of the great fairs periodically held there, and purchased on his own account every article that was for sale. At a repast given by one of the counts of

* Robertson. t See Gibbon, Robertson, &c.

1555. COMMERCIAL WEALTH. 75

Flanders to the Flemisli mag-istrates, the seats tliey occupied were unfurnished with cushions. Those proud burghers folded their sumptuous cloaks and sat on them. After the feast they were retiring without retaining' these important and costly articles of dress ; and on a courtier reminding them of their apparent neg'lect, the burgomaster of Bruges replied, "We Flemings are not in the habit of carrying away^tke cushions after dinner !"* The meetings of the different towns for the sports of archery were signalized by the most splen- did display of dress and decoration. The archers were habited in silk, damask, and the finest linen, and carried chains of gold of great weight and value. Luxury was at its height among women. The queen of Philip the Fair of France, on a visit to Bruges, exclaimed, with astonishment not unmixed with envy, " I thought myself the only queen here ; but I see six hundred others who appear more so than I."

The court of Philip the Good seemed to carry magnificence and splendor to their greatest possible height. The dresses of both men and women at this chivalric epoch were of al- most incredible expense. Velvet, satin, gold, and precious stones, seemed the ordinary materials for the dress of either sex ; while the very housings of the horses sparkled with brilliants and cost immense sums. This absurd extravagance was carried so far, that Charles V. found himself forced at length to proclaim sumptuary laws for its repression.

The style of the banquets given on grand occasions was regulated on a scale of almost puerile splendor. The banquet of vows given at Lille, in the year 1453, and so callru from the obligations entered into by some of the nobles to accom- pany Philip in a new crusade against the infidels, showed a succession of costly fooleries, most amusing in the detail given by an eye-witness, the minutest of the chroniclers, but un- luckily too long to find a place in our pages.f

Such excessive luxury natura-lly led to great corruption of manners and the commission of terrible crimes. During the reign of Philip de Male, there were committed in the city of Ghent and its outskirts, in less than a year, above 1400 mur- ders in gambling-houses and other resorts of debauchery.| As early as the tenth century, the petty sovereigns established on the ruins of the empire of Charlemagne began the inde- pendent coining of money ; and the various provinces were during the rest of this epoch inundated with a most embar- rassing variety of gold, silver, and copper. Even in ages of

* Cron. Van Vlaenderen. t See Oliver de la Marche, 1. i f. 29.

J O'ldegherst, t. ii.

76 HISTORY OF Tin: Netherlands. 1555.

com])arative darkness, literature made feeble efforts to burst through the entangled weeds of superstition, ignorance, and war. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, liistory was greatly cultivated ; and Froissart, Monstrelet, Oliver de la Slarche, and Philip de Comines, gave to their chronicles and memoirs a cliarm of style since their days almost unrivalled. Poetry began to be followed with success in the Netherlands, in the Dutch, Flemish, and French languages ; and even be- fore the institution of the Floral Games in France, Belgium possessed its chambers of rhetoric (rederykkamers,) which labored to keep alive the sacred flame of poetry w^ith more zeal than success. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, these societies were established in almost every burgh of Flanders and Brabant ; the principal towns possessing several at once.*

The arts in their several branches made considerable pro- gress in the Netherlands during this epoch. Architecture was greatly cultivated in the thirteenth and fourteenth centu- ries; most of the cathedrals and town houses being con- structed in that age. Their vastness, solidity, and beauty of design and execution, make them still speaking monuments of the stern magnificence and finished taste of the times. The patronage of Philip the Good, Charles the Rash, and Margaret of Austria, brought music into fashion, and led to its cultivation in a remarkable degree. The first musicians of France were drawn from Flanders ; and other professors from that country acquired great celebrity in Italy for their scien/'fic improvements in their delightful art.f

Painting, which had languished before the fifteenth centu- ry, sprung at once into a new existence from the invention of John Van Eyck, known better by the name of John of Bruges. His accidental discovery of the art of painting in oil quickly spread over Europe, and served to perpetuate to all time the records of the genius which has bequeathed its vivid impressions to the world. Painting on glass, polishing diamonds, the Carillon, lace, and tapestry, were among the inventions which owed their birth to the Netherlands in these ages, when the faculties of mankind sought so many new channels for mechanical development. The discovery of a new world by Columbus and other eminent navigators gave a fresh and powerful impulse to European talent, by afibrding an unmense reservoir for its reward. The town of Antwerp was, during the reign of Charles V., the outlet for the in- dustry of Europe, and the receptacle for the productions of

* De Smet. Hist, de la Beleique, t. i. p. 203. t Guicciardini.

1555. PHILIP II. 77

all the nations of the earth. Its port was so often crowded with vessels, that each successive fleet was obliged to wait long in the Scheldt before it could obtain admission for the discharge of its cargoes. The university of Louvain, that great nursery of science, was founded in 1425, and served greatly to the spread of knowledge, although it degenerated into the hot-bed of those fierce disputes which stamped on theology the degradation of bigotry, and drew down odium on a study that, if purely practised, ought only to inspire veneration.

Charles V. was the first to establish a solid plan of govern- ment, instead of the constant fluctuations in the management of justice, police, and finance. He caused the edicts of the various sovereigns, and the municipal usages, to be embodied into a system of laws ; and thus gave stability and method to the enjoyment of the prosperity in which he left his do- minions.

CHAP. VII. 1555—1566.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF PHILIP II. OF SPAIN TO THE ESTABLISH- MENT OF THE INQUISITION IN THE NETHERLANDS.

It has been shown that the Netherlands were never in a more flourishing state than at the accession of Philip II. The external relations of the country presented an aspect of pros- perity and peace. England was closely allied to it by queen Mary's marriage with Philip; France, fatigued with war, had just concluded with it a five years' truce ; Germany, paralyzed by religious dissensions, exliausted itself in do- mestic quarrels; the other states were too distant or too weak to inspire any uneasiness ; and nothing appeared want- hig for the public weal. Nevertheless there was something dangerous and alarming in the situation of the Low Coun- tries ; but the danger consisted wholly in the connexion be- tween the monarch and the people, and the alarm was not sounded till the mischief was beyond remedy.

From the time that Charles V. was called to reign over Spain, he may be said to have been virtually lost to the coun- try of his birth. He was no longer a mere duke of Brabant or Limberg, a count of Flanders or Holland ; he was also king of Castile, Aragon, Leon, and Navarre, of Naples, and

78 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1555.

of Sicily. These various kingdoms had interests evidently opposed to those of the Low Countries, and forms of govern- ment far difierent. It was scarcely to be doubted that the absolute monarch of so many people would look with a jeal- ous eye on the institutions of those provinces which placed limits to his power ; and the natural consequence was, that he who was a legitimate king in the south soon degenerated into a usurping master in the north.

But during the reign of Charles the danger was in some measure lessened, or at least concealed from public view, by the apparent facility with which he submitted to and observed the laws and customs of his native country. With Philip, the case v\'as far different, and the results too obvious. Unin- formed on the Belgian character, despising the state of man- ners, and ignorant of the language, no sympathy attached him to the people. He brought with him to the throne all the hostile prejudi-ces of a foreigner, without one of the kind- ly or considerate feelings of a compatriot.

Spain, where this young prince had hitherto passed his life, was in some degree excluded from European civilization. A contest of seven centuries between the Mahomedan tribes and the descendants of the Visigoths, cruel, like all civil wars, and, like all those of religion, not merely a contest of rulers, but essentially of the people, had given to the man- ners and feelings of this unhappy country a deep stamp of barbarity. The ferocity of military chieftains had become the basis of the government and laws. The Christian kings had adopted the perfidious and bloody system of the despotic sultans they replaced. JMagnificence and tyranny, power and cruelty, wisdom and dissimulation, respect and fear, were inseparably associated in the minds of a people so governed. They comprehended nothing in religion but a God armed with omnipotence and vengeance, or in politics but a king as terrible as the deity he represented.

Philip, bred in this school of slavish superstition, taught that he was the despot for whom it was formed, familiar with the degrading tactics of eastern tvranny, was at once the most contemptible and unfortunate of men. Isolated from his kind, and wishing to appear superior to those beyond whom his station had placed him, he was insensible to the affections which soften and ennoble human nature. He was perpetually filled with one idea — that of his greatness ; he had but one ambition — that of command ; but one enjoyment — that of exciting fear. Victim to this revolting selfishness, his heart was never free from care ; and the bitter melancholy of his character seemed to nourish a desire of evil-doing,

1555. HIS CHARACTER AND POLICY. 79

which irritated suffering- often produces in man. Deceit and blood were his greatest, if not his only, delights. The reli- gious zeal which he affected, or felt, showed itself but in acts of cruelty ; and the fanatic bigotry which inspired him form- ed the strongest contrast to the divine spirit of Christianity.

Nature had endowed this ferocious being with wonderful penetration and unusual self-command; the first revealing to him the views of others, and the latter giving him the surest means of counteracting them, by enabling him to con- trol himself Although ignorant, he had a prodigious instinct of cunning. He wanted courage, but its place was supplied by the harsh obstinacy of wounded pride. All the corrup- tions of intrigue were familiar to him ; yet he often failed in his most deep-laid designs, at the very moment of their apparent success, by the recoil of the bad faith and treachery w^ith which his plans were overcharged.

Such was the man who now began that terrible reign which menaced utter ruin to the national prosperity of the Netherlands. His father had already sapped its foundations, by encouraging foreign manners and ideas among the no- bility, and dazzling them with the hope of the honors and wealth w^hich he had at his disposal abroad. His severe edicts against heresy had also begun to accustom the nation to religious discords and hatred. Philip soon enlarged on what Charles had commenced, and he unmercifully sacrificed the well-being of a people to the worst objects of his selfish ambition,

Philip had only once visited the Netherlands before his accession to sovereign power. Being at that time twenty- two years of age, his opinions were formed and his prejudices deeply rooted. Every thing that he observed on this visit was calculated to revolt both. Tlie frank cordiality of the people appeared too familiar. Tlie expression of popular rights sounded like the voice of rebellion. Even the mag- nificence displayed in his honor offended his jealous vanity. From that moment he seems to have conceived an implaca ble aversion to the country, in which alone, of all his vast possessions, he could not display the power or inspire the ter- ror of despotism.

The sovereign's dislike was fully equalled by the disgust of his subjects. His haughty severity and vexatious etiquette revolted their pride as well as their plain dealing ; and the moral qualities of their new sovereign were considered with lothing. The commercial and political connexion between the Netherlands and ^pain had given the two people ample opportunities for mutual acquaintance. The dark, vindictive

80 UlSTORY OF THE KKTllEKLANDS. 1557.

dispositions of the latter inspired a deep antipathy in those whom civilization had softened and liberty rendered frank and generous ; and the new sovereign seemed to embody all that was repulsive and odious in the nation of which he was the type. Yet Philip did not at first act in a way to make himself more particularly hated. He rather, by an apparent consideration for a few points of political interest and indi- vidual privilege, and particularly by the revocation of some of the edicts against heretics, removed the suspicions his earlier conduct had excited ; and his intended victims did not perceive that the despot sought to lull them to sleep, in the hopes of making them an easier prey.

Philip knew well that force alone was insufficient to reduce such a people to slavery. He succeeded in persuading the states to grant him considerable subsidies, some of which were to be paid by instalments during a period of nine years. That was gaming a great step towards his designs, as it super- seded the necessity of a yearly application to the three orders, the guardians of the public liberty. At the same time he sent secret agents to Rome, to obtain the approbation of the pope to his insidious but most effective plan for placmg the whole of the clergy in dependence upon the crown. He also kept up the army of Spaniards and Germans which his father had formed on the frontiers of France ; and although he did not remove from their employments the functionaries already in place, he took care to make no new appointments to office among the natives of the Netherlands.

In the midst of these cunning preparations for tyranny, Philip was suddenly attacked in two quarters at once ; by Henry II. of France, and by pope Paul IV. A prince less obstinate than Pliilip would in such circumstances have re- nounced, or at least postponed, his designs against the liberties of so important a part of his dominions, as those to which he was obliged to have recourse for aid in support of this double war. But he seemed to make every foreign consideration subservient to the object of domestic aggression which he had so much at heart.

He, however, promptly met the threatened dangers from abroad. He turned his first attention towards his contest with the pope ; and he extricated himself from it with an adroitness that proved the whole force and cunning of his cliaracter. Having first publicly obtained the opinion of several doctors of theology, that he was justified in taking arms against the pontiff (a point on which there was really no doubt,) he ^^rosfcuttvl the war with the utmost vigor, by the means of the afterwards notorious duke of Alva, at that

1059. WARS WITH ^liA^cE aisd the vove. t'l

time viceroy of his Italian dominions. Paul soon yielded to superior skill and force, and demanded terms of peace, which were granted with a readiness and seeminj^ liberality that astonished no one more than the defeated pontiff. But Philip's moderation to his enemy was far outdone by his perfidy to his allies. He confirmed Alva's consent to the confiscation of the domains of the noble Romans who had espoused his cause ; and thus gained a staunch and pow'erful supporter to all his future projects in the religious authority of the suc- cessor of St. Peter.

His conduct in the conclusion of the war v/ith France was not less base. His army, under the command of Philibert Emmanuel, duke of Savoy, consisting of Belgians, Germans, and Spaniards, with a considerable body of English, sent by Mary to the assistance of her husband, penetrated into Pic- ardy, and gained a complete victory over the French forces. The honor of this brilliant afl^air, which took place near St. Quintin, w^as almost wholly due to the count d'Egmont, a Belgian noble, who commanded the light cavalry; but the king, unwilling to let any one man enjoy the glory of the day, piously pretended that he owed the entire obligation to St. Lawa-ence, on whose festival the battle w^as fought. His gratitude or hypocrisy found a fitting monument in the cele- brated convent and palace of the Escurial, which he absurdly caused to be built in the form of a gridiron, the instrument of the saint's martyrdom. When the news of the victory reached Charles V. in his retreat, the old warrior inquired if Philip was in Paris 1 but the cautious victor had no notion of such prompt manoeuvring ; nor would he risk against foreign enemies the exhaustion of forces destined for the enslave- ment of his people.

The French in some measure retrieved their late disgrace by the capture of Calais, the only town remaining to England of all its French conquests, and w^hich, consequently, had deeply interested the national glory of each people. In the early part of the year 1558, one of the generals of Henry 11. made an irruption into Western Flanders ; but the gallant count of Egmont once more proved his valor and skill, by attacking and totally defeating the invaders near the town of Gravelines.

A general peace was concluded in April, 1559, which bore the name of Cciteau-Cambresis, from that of the place where it w^as negotiated. Philip secured for himself various advan- tages in the treaty ; but he sacrificed the interests of England, by consenting to the retention of Calais by the French king,

-a ces^^ion deeply humiliating to the national pride of his R

82 HISTORY OF THE NETHEKLAKDS. 1559.

allies ; and, if general opinion be correct, a proximate cause of his consort's death. The alliance of France and the sup- port of Rome, the important results of the two wars now broug-ht to a close, were counterbalanced by the well-known hostility of Elizabeth, who had succeeded to the throne of England ; and this latter consideration was an additional mo- tive with Philip to push forward the design of consolidating his despotism in the Low Countries.

To lead his already deceived subjects the more surely into the snare, he announced his intended departure on a short visit to Spain ; and created for the period of his absence a provisional government, chiefly composed of the leading men among the Belgian nobility. He flattered himself that the states, dazzled by the illustrious illusion thus prepared, would cheerfully grant to this provisional government the right of levying taxes during the temporary absence of the sovereign. He also reckoned on the influence of the clergy in the na- tional assembly, to procure the revival of the edicts against heresy, which he had gained the merit of suspending. These, wath many minor details of profound duplicity, formed tlie principal features of a plan, which, if successful, would have reduced the Netherlands to the wretched state of colonial dependence by which Naples and Sicily were held in the tenure of Spain.

As soon as the states had consented to place the whole powers of government in the hands of the new administra- tion for the period of the king's absence, the royal hypocrite believed his scheme secure, and flattered himself he had es- tablished an instrument of durable despotism. The compo- sition of this new government was a masterpiece of political machinery. It consisted of several councils, in which the most distinguished citizens were entitled to a place, in suffi- cient numbers to deceive the people w4th a show of repre- sentation, but not enough to command a majority, which was sure on any important question to rest with the titled crea- tures of the court. The edicts against heresy, soon adopted, gave to the clergy an almost unlimited power over the lives and fortunes of the people. But almost all the dignitaries of the church being men of great respectability and moderation, chosen by the body of the inferior clergy, these extraordinary powers excited little alarm. Philip's project was suddenly to replace these virtuous ecclesiastics by others of his o^\Tl choice, as soon as the states broke up from their annual meet- ing ; and for this intention lie had procured the secret con- sent and authority of the court of Rome.

In support of these combinations, the Belgian troops were

1559. Philip's intr gues for despotic power. 83

completely broken up and scattered in small bodies over the country. The whole of this force, so redoubtable to the fears of despotism, consisted of only 3000 cavalry. It was now divided into fourteen companies (or squadrons in the modern phraseolog-y,) under the command of as many inde- pendent chiefs, so as to leave little chance of any principle of union reigninor among them. But the German and Span- ish troops in Philip's pay were cantoned on the frontiers, ready to stifle any incipient effort in opposition to his plans. In addition to these imposing" means for their execution, he had secured a still more secret and more powerful support; — a secret article in the treaty of Cfiteau-Cambresis obliged the king- of France to assist him with the whole armies of France against his Belgian subjects, should they prove re- fractory. Thus the late war, of which the Netherlands had borne all the weight, and earned all the glory, only brought about the junction of the defeated enemy with their own king for the extinction of their national independence.

To complete the execution of this system of perfidy, Philip convened an assembly of all the states at Ghent, in the month of July, 1559. This meeting of the representatives of the three orders of the state offered no apparent ob- stacle to Philip's views. The clergy, alarmed at the pro- gress of the new doctrines, gathered more closely round the government of which they required the support. The nobles had lost much of their ancient attachment to liberty; and had become, in various ways, dependent on the royal favor. Many of the first families were then represented by men possessed rather of courage and candor than of foresight and sagacity. That of Nassau, the most distinguished of all, seemed the least interested in the national cause. A great part of its possessions were in Germany and France, where it had recently acquired the sovereign principality of Orange. It was only from the third order — that of the commons — that Philip had to expect any opposition. Already, during the war, it had shown some discontent, and had insisted on the nomination of commissioners to control the accounts and the disbursements of the subsidies. But it seemed improbable, that among this class of men, any would be found capable of penetrating the manifold combinations of the king, and dis- concerting his designs.

Anthony Perrenotte de Granvelle, bishop of Arras, who was considered as Philip's favorite counsellor, but who was in reality no more than his docile agent, was commissioned to address the assembly in the name of his master, w^ho spoke only Spanish. His oration was one of cautious deception.

84 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 1559.

and contained the most flattering- assurances of Philip's at- tachment to the people of the Netherlands. It excused the kino- for not having' nominated his only son Don Carlos to reig-n over them in his name ; alleging-, as a proof of his royal affection, that he preferred giving- them as governant a Belgian princess, Madame Marguerite duchess of Parma, the natural daughter of Charles V. by a young lady a native of Audenarde. Fair promises and fine words were thus lav- ished in profusion to gain the confidence of the deputies.

But notwithstanding all the talent, the caution, and the mystery of Philip and his minister, there was among the no- bles one man who saw through all. This individual, endowed with many of the highest attributes of political genius, and pre-eminently with judgment, the most important of all, en- tered fearlessly uito the contest against tyranny — despising every personal sacrifice for the country's good. Without making himself suspiciously prominent, he privately warned some members of the states of the coming danger. Those in whom he confided did not betray the trust. They spread among the other deputies the alarm, and pointed out the danger to which they had been so judiciously awakened. The consequence was, a reply to Philip's demand, in vague and general terms, without binding the nation by any pledge ; and an unanimous entreaty that he would diminish the taxes, withdraw the foreign troops, and entrust no official employ- ments to any but natives of the country. The object of this last request was the removal of Granvelle, who was born in Franche-Comte.

Philip was utterly astounded at all this. In the first moment of his vexation he imprudently cried out, " Would ye, then, also bereave me of my place; L who am a Spaniard]" But he soon recovered his self-command, and resumed his usual mask ; expressed his regret at not having sooner learned the wishes of the state ; promised to remove the foreign troops within three months; and set off" for Zealand, with assumed composure, but filled with the fury of a discovered traitor and a humiliated despot.

A fleet under the command of count Horn, the admiral of the United Provinces, waited at Flessmgue to form his escort to Spain. At the very moment of his departure, William of Nassau, prince of Orange and governor of Zealand, waited on him to pay his official respects. The king, taking him apart from the other attendant nobles, recommended him to hasten the execution of several gentlemen and wealthy citi- zens attached to the newly introduced religious opinions. Then, quite suddenly, whether in the random impulse of

1559. INCREASE OF CO^IMERC'E. 85

suppressed rage, or that Lis piercing glance dii;covcncd AVil- liani's secret feelings in his countenance, he accused him with having been the means of tliwarting his designs. " Sire," replied Nassau, " it was the work of the national states," — " No !" cried Philip, grasping him furiously by the arm ; " it was not done by the states, but by you, and you alone !"*

This glorious accusation was not repelled. He who had saved his country in unmasking the designs of its tyrant, ad- mitted by his silence his title to the hatred of tlie one and the gratitude of the other. On the 20th of August, Philip em- barked and set sail ; turning his back for ever on the country vrhich offered the first check to his despotism ; and, after a perilous voyage, lie arrived in that which permitted a free indulgence to his ferocious and sanguinary career.

For some time after Philip's departure, the Netherlands continued to enjoy considerable prosperity. From the period of the peace of Cateau-Cambresis, commerce and na,vigation had acquired new and increasing activity. The fisheries, but particularly that of herrings, became daily more important ; that one alone occupying 2000 boats. While Holland, Zea- land, and Friesland made this progress in their peculiar branches of industry, the southern })rovinces were not less active or successful. Spain and the colonies offered such a mart for the objects of their manufacture, that in a single year they received from Flanders fifty large ships, filled with ar- ticles of household furniture and utensils. The exportation of woollen goods amounted to enormous sums. Bruges alone sold aimually to the amount of 4,000,000 florins of stufis of Spanish, and as much of English, wool; and the least value of the florin then was quadruple its present worth. The commerce witli England though less important tlian that with Spain, was calculated yearly at 24,000,000 florins, which was chiefly clear profit to the Netherlands, as their exportations consisted almost entirely of objects of their own manufacture. Their conmiercial relations with France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the Levant, were daily increasing, Antwerp was the centre of this prodigious trade. Several sovereigns, among others Elizabeth of England, had recognized agents in that city, equivalent to consuls of the present times ; and loans of immense amount were frequently negotiated by them with wealthy merchants, who furnished them, not in neo-otiable bills or for unredeemable debentures, but in solid gold, and on a simple acknowledgment,

* Schiller. The words of Philip wore: "JVo, vo hs estados; ma vos, vos, ros!" Vos thus usofl in Spanish is a icrja of contempt, equivalent to toi ia

80 HISTORY OF J'HPJ NETHERLANDS. 1560.

Flanders and Brabant were still the richest a^d most flour- ishmg portions of the state. Some municipal fetes given about this time afford a notion of their opulence. On one of these occasions the town of Mechlin sent a deputation to Antwerp, consisting of 326 horsemen dressed in velvet and satin with gold and silver ornaments ; while those of Brus- sels consisted of 340, as splendidly equipped, and accompanied by seven huge triumphal chariots and seventy-eight carriages of various constructions, — a prodigious number for those days.

But the splendor and prosperity which thus sprung out of the national industry and independence, and which a wise or a generous sovereign would have promoted, or at least have established on a permanent basis, was destined speedily to sink beneath the bigoted fury of Philip II. The new govern- ment which he had established was most ingeniously adapted to produce every imaginable evil to the state. The king, hundreds of leagues distant, could not himself issue an order but with a lapse of time ruinous to any object of pressing im- portance. The governant-general, who represented him, having but a nominal authority, was forced to follow her in- structions, and liable to have all her acts reversed ;* besides which, she had the king's orders to consult her private coun- cil on all affairs whatever, and the council of state on any matter of paramount importance. These two councils, how- ever, contained the elements of a serious opposition to the royal projects, in the persons of the patriot nobles sprinkled among Philip's devoted creatures. Thus the influence of the crown was often thwarted, if not actually balanced ; and the proposals which emanated from it frequently opposed by the governant herself She, although a woman of masculine appearance and habits,f was possessed of no strength of mind. Her prevailing sentiment seemed to be dread of the king; yet she was at times influenced by a sense of justice, and by the remonstrances of the well-judging members of her councils. But these were not all the difficulties that clogged the machinery of the state. After the king, the government, and the councils, liad deliberated on any measure, its execu- tion rested with the provincial governors or stadtholders, or the magistrates of the towns. Almost every one of these, being strongly attached to the laws and customs of the nation, hesitated, or refused to obey the orders conveyed to them, when those orders appeared illegal. Some, however, yielded to the authority of the government ; so it often happened that an edict, which in one district was carried into full effect,

* Vandervynct. t Strada.

1561. INEFFICIENCY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 87

was in others deferred, rejected, or violated, in a way pro- ductive of great confusion in the public affairs.

Philip was conscious that he had himself to blame for the consequent disorder. In nominating- tlie members of the two councils, he had overreached himself in his plan for silently- sapping the liberty that was so obnoxious to his designs. But to neutralize the influence of the restive members, he had left Granvelle the first place in the administration. This man, an immoral ecclesiastic, an eloquent orator, a supple courtier, and a profound politician, bloated with pride, envy, insolence, and vanity, was the real head of the government.* Next to him among the royalist party was Viglius, president of the privy-council, an erudite schoolman, attached less to the broad principles of justice than to the letter of the laws, and thus carrying pedantry into tlie very councils of the state. Next in order came the count de Berlaimont, head of the financial department, — a stern and intolerant satellite of the court, and a furious enemy to those national institutions which operated as checks upon fraud. These three individu- als formed the governant's privy-council. The remaining creatures of the king were mere subaltern agents.

A government so composed could scarcely fail to excite discontent, and create danger to the public weal. The first proof of incapacity was elicited by the measures required for the departure of the Spanish troops. The period fixed by the king had already expired, and these obnoxious foreigners were still in the country, living in part on pillage, and each day committing some new excess. Complaints were carried in successive gradation from the government to the council, and from the council to the king. The Spaniards were re- moved to Zealand ; but instead of being embarked at any of its ports, they were detained there on various pretexts. Money, ships, or, on necessity, a wind, was professed to be still wanting for their final removal, by those who found ex- cuses for delay in every element of nature or subterfuge of art. In the mean time those ferocious soldiers ravaged a part of the country. The simple natives at length declared they would open the sluices of their dikes ; preferring to be swallowed by the waters rather than remain exposed to the cruelty and rapacity of those Spaniards.! Still the embarka- tion was postponed ; until the king, requiring his troops in

* Strada, a royalist, a Jesuit, and therefore a fair witness on tliis point, uses the following words in portraying the character of this odious minis- ter. Jlnimum avidum invidtimque, ac simullates inter princiji em. etpopulos ocr.ulti foventum.

t Watson's Life of Philip II.

88 HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 15(51.

Spain lor some domestic project, they took their long-desired departure in the beginning of tlie year 1561.

The public discontent at this just cause was soon, how- ever, overwlielmed by one infinitely more important and lasting. TJie Belgian clergy had hitherto formed a free and powerful order in tlie state, governed and represented by four bisliops, chosen by the chapters of the towms, or elected by the monks of the principal abbeys. These bishops, pos- sessing an independent territorial revenue, and not directly subject to the influence of the crown, had interests and feel- ings in common with the nation. But Philip had prepared, and the pope had sanctioned, the new system of ecclesiastical organization before alluded to, and the provisional govern- ment now put it into execution.* Instead of four bishops, it was intended to appoint eighteen, tlieir nomination being vested in the king. By a wily system of trickery, the sub- serviency of the abbeys was also aimed at. The new pre- lates, on a pretended principle of economy, w^ere endowed with the title of abbots of the chief monasteries of their respective dioceses. Thus not only would they enjoy the immense wealth of these establishments, but the political rights of the abbots whom they were to succeed ; and the whole of the ecclesiastical order become gradually repre- sented (after the death of the then living abbots) by the creatures of the crown.

The consequences of this vital blow to the integrity of the national institutions were evident; and the indignation of both clergy and laity was universal. Every legal means of opposition were resorted to, but the people were without leaders ; the states were not in session. While the authority of the pope and the king combined, the reverence excited by the very name