Some of the Frisians had been converted to Christianity by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and in A.D. 750 the whole of them, after a crushing defeat by Charles Martel, accepted that religion. In A.D. 785 their conquest was completed by Charlemagne, and the whole region then became a section of the dominions of that able and powerful ruler. The bishopric of Utrecht was founded at this time. Extensive domains were attached to the see, and the bishop, besides the ecclesiastical authority which he exercised over the whole of the Frisians, was temporal ruler of a territory constantly varying in size, sometimes covering several of the modern provinces.
Charlemagne left the local customs of the people of the Netherlands undisturbed, and sent officials to govern them according to their own laws, though in his name. Under his feeble successors the country was broken up into a number of practically petty sovereignties by the descendants of his officials, who now claimed hereditary authority and ruled as despots. They called themselves dukes, counts, marquises, or lords, and often quarrelled with each other. Most of them nominally admitted the precedence in rank of the head of the Holy Roman Empire, as the counts of Flanders and Artois did that of the kings of France, but this was the full extent of their submission.
The Scandinavian pirates sailed up the rivers and made frequent attacks upon the towns and villages on their banks, they plundered and murdered many of the people, but they did not form permanent settlements as they did in the more attractive lands of Normandy and Sicily.
Growth of the Towns.
The country not being capable of supporting its inhabitants by agriculture and cattle breeding alone, manufactures and commerce were necessary, and in addition the fisheries became a means of living for many. They traded with England, buying wool, with the coast of the Baltic, selling woollen and linen cloths, and with all north-western Europe, selling Indian products, of which Bruges was the emporium for the Italian merchants. So towns grew and prospered, and in course of time obtained municipal charters from their sovereigns. In A.D. 1217 the first of these in the present kingdom of the Netherlands was granted by Count William the First of Holland and Countess Joanna of Flanders to the town of Middelburg in Zeeland. It did not indeed confer great privileges, but it was the beginning of a system which had most important effects upon the country. The crusades tended to hasten this movement. The petty sovereigns who took part in them were very willing to sell privileges for ready money, which they needed for their equipment, and their subjects were quite as willing to buy.
So the towns grew in number and in size, and succeeded in obtaining, usually by purchase, a large amount of self-government and the right of sending deputies to the estates or parliaments, who sat with the nobles to confer upon general affairs. Just as the various kings of the Saxon states in England, the petty sovereigns were continually quarrelling with each other, and their number varied from time to time, as one or other got the mastery over his neighbours. Not the least prominent or quarrelsome among them was the bishop of Utrecht, whose dominions contracted or expanded with the fortunes of diplomacy or war. The estates of his province consisted of deputies from the towns, the nobles, and abbots, over whom he presided as a sovereign. In some of the little dominions the privileges of the towns were much greater than in others, in several indeed the cities were practically little short of being independent republics. Unfortunately they were so jealous of each other that they could not unite in carrying out any policy that would have benefited the whole province, and there was no tie whatever that bound the different provinces together. Each city with a little domain around it stood alone, and though it might enjoy self-government, its position was precarious, for it could not depend upon anything outside of itself to assist it if necessary to maintain its rights against an aggressor.
Historical Sketches.
This was the condition of affairs political when, owing partly to the extinction of some of the ruling families, partly to purchase, and partly to fraud and force, in 1437 a majority of the provinces—among them Holland and Zeeland—came under the dominion of Philippe, the powerful duke of Burgundy. They continued, however, to be independent of each other, and were governed by him as distinct states, of one of which he was termed duke, of another count, and so on, though he established a council at Mechlin, which acted as a court of appeal for them all. He was married to the youngest daughter of João I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, Isabella by name, whose nephew, Affonso V, in 1466 made her a present of the Azores or Western Islands. A considerable number of families from the Netherlands, whose descendants can still be distinguished there, then migrated to the Flemish islands, as they were long thereafter termed. These dependencies shared the fate of the other dominions of the house of Burgundy until 1640, when they reverted to Portugal.
Philippe suppressed much of the freedom that had been gained, but he encouraged and protected commerce and manufactures, and under his rule the provinces increased greatly in material wealth. He died in 1467, and was succeeded by his son Charles the Headstrong, a perfectly reckless and unprincipled ruler, who endeavoured to crush out all the acquired freedom of the people, and nearly succeeded in establishing himself as an absolute despot. His first wife was Catherine of Valois, by whom he had only one daughter. After her death he married, on the 3rd of July 1468, Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England, but had no children by her. Like his father, he governed the Netherlands by means of officials termed stadholders, who acted as his representatives and carried out his instructions. The first standing army in the country was stationed there by him. Charles was killed in battle with the Swiss in 1477, and as he left no son, his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, claimed the right of succeeding him as sovereign of all the provinces he had ruled over.
Privileges of the Towns.