The territory that now forms the kingdom of the Netherlands was the last part of the continent of Europe to be occupied by human beings. For untold ages the Rhine, the Maas, and the Schelde had been carrying down earth and the ocean had been casting up sand, until at last a tract of swampy but habitable ground appeared where previously waves had rolled. That was not many centuries before the commencement of the Christian era, and so no traces of palæolithic man are found there such as are found in all other parts of Europe, and in great abundance in some parts of modern Belgium close by. The most ancient relics of man discovered in the northern Netherlands are comparatively recent flint implements, tumuli containing funeral urns, and the so-called hunebedden, sepulchres of men of note, roughly built of stone taken from boulders carried from the Scandinavian peninsula by ice in glacial times, and deposited on the banks not yet risen to the surface of the sea. These hunebedden are found chiefly in the present province of Drenthe, and may not date much further back than Roman times.
Historical Sketches.
The Batavi, a Nether Teuton tribe, driven westward by war, about a century before the birth of Christ found their way into the island enclosed by the North sea and the extreme forks of the Rhine, which was then a waste of morasses, lakelets, and forests. It had previously been occupied by a Celtic population, that had abandoned it not long before on account of disasters from floods. The position of the forks of the Rhine was probably different from what it is to-day, for the whole face of the country has undergone a great change since the Batavians first saw it. Large tracts of land have been reclaimed, and still larger tracts have been lost by the sea washing over them. Thus in the thirteenth century of our era the very heart of the country was torn out by the ocean, and villages and towns and wide pastures were buried for ever under the deep waters since termed the Zuider Zee. In 1277 the Dollart was formed between Groningen and Hanover, and in 1421 the Biesbosch between Brabant and Holland took the place of habitable land.
Different Races in the Netherlands.
Farther north than the Batavians, the Frisians, also a Nether Teuton people, occupied a great extent of country, but it is impossible to say when they first took possession of it. These Batavians and Frisians were the nearest blood relations of the Angles and Saxons who at a later date conquered England and part of Scotland, and their language was so nearly the same that our great Alfred could with little difficulty have understood it.
The southern part of what is now the kingdom of Belgium and the adjoining districts of France were inhabited at this time by a Celtic people, who had long before replaced the early palæolithic savages. Between them and the Batavians and Frisians was a broad tract occupied by Teutons and Celts mixed together, who do not appear, however, to have blended their blood to any great extent. This was the condition of the country at the beginning of the Christian era, and it was its condition more than fifteen centuries later, when Philippe II was king of Spain and Elizabeth Tudor was queen of England.
Cæsar conquered the Celts and compelled the Frisians to pay tribute, but he admitted the Batavians to an alliance, and thereafter for hundreds of years they voluntarily supplied the Roman army with its bravest soldiers. They gave their blood for Rome, and in return received civilisation. During this period they learned to construct dykes to prevent the ocean and the rivers from overflowing the land, to dig canals, to make highways, and to build bridges.
Historical Sketches.
Then came the outpouring of the northern nations upon the western empire, and when it ceased the power that had overshadowed the earth had gone. In its stead the Franks were masters of the Celtic portion of the Netherlands, where the Latin tongue was spoken, and tribes akin to the Frisian had mixed with the occupants of the north. The Batavians remained, but their distinctive name had disappeared, and so the racial division of the land was as it had been before.