Louis XI of France, however, on the ground that the Salic law was applicable in this case, took possession of Burgundy, and cast longing eyes on the Netherlands as well. In this hour of danger, the estates of all the provinces came together at Ghent, when the lady Mary voluntarily restored all the privileges and rights that her father and grandfather had annulled. She even went further, and granted the “Groot Privilegie,” which conferred such extensive authority upon the estates that under its clauses despotism or even misgovernment would be impossible, for no taxes could be imposed and no war undertaken without their consent, and edicts of the sovereign were to be invalid if they conflicted with the privileges of the towns. Only natives of the particular province could be appointed to offices in any of them, thus a native of Brabant or Namur could not fill an office in Flanders or Holland. Persons charged with crime were to be brought to trial speedily, and no citizen could be arbitrarily imprisoned by the ruler. A more liberal constitution could hardly have been imagined at that time nor indeed even at present.
The estates were then ready to support the lady Mary, they acknowledged her as their sovereign, and with their approval she married Maximilian of Hapsburg, son of the German emperor. Five years later she was killed by a fall from her horse, leaving a son, Philippe by name, then four years of age, as heir to her sovereignty of the Netherlands. Maximilian claimed to act as regent and guardian of his son, and was accepted as such by all of the provinces subject to Burgundy except Flanders, which he got possession of by force. He disowned the “Great Privilege,” as did his son Philippe, when in 1494 at seventeen years of age he assumed the government.
Historical Sketches.
In 1496 Philippe married Joanna, eldest daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Her sister Catherine was destined at a later date to play an important part in English history as the spouse of King Henry the Eighth. From the union of Philippe and Joanna was born in the year 1500 a son, who as the emperor Charles V was the most powerful monarch in Europe. From his mother he inherited the sovereignty of Spain, of portions of Italy, and of the greater part of the New World, with the title of king, from his father he inherited the sovereignty of all the Netherlands except Gelderland, Utrecht, the Frisian provinces, and Liege, with the titles of count and duke, and by election of the German princes he became the head of the Holy Roman Empire, with the title of emperor. His father Philippe died in 1506, and the Netherlands became the first portion of his vast inheritance that fell to him. To those provinces that had been dependencies of Burgundy, he was able to add Friesland in 1524, Utrecht and Overyssel in 1528, and Groningen and Drenthe in 1536, all obtained by cession after long civil war, when the bishop of Utrecht, who was unable to protect himself from the duke of Gelderland, resigned his temporal authority. In 1543 he conquered Gelderland, and in the following year he compelled the king of France, to whom his father Philippe had done homage for Flanders and Artois, to renounce the suzerainty of those provinces, so that the entire country, Liege only excepted, came under his undisputed sovereignty. In this manner the provinces became united with Spain under one ruler, though their governments remained distinct.
Rule of Charles V.
Under Charles just as much or as little freedom as he pleased was left to the people of the Netherlands, for he regarded his edicts as superior in authority to all charters or customs, and he inflicted terrible vengeance upon the city of Ghent, his own birthplace, for daring to resist the payment of an amount of money that he arbitrarily demanded. He professed to regard the provinces with favour, but he drew largely upon their resources to enable him to carry on wars in which they had no interest whatever.
And now another factor came into play, which tended very greatly to increase the bitterness of the people at the diminution of freedom. The reformation had commenced, and its principles were spreading in the Netherlands. Charles, who regarded schism as even more criminal than rebellion, attempted to stamp out the new teaching, and for this purpose introduced the inquisition. His sister Mary, dowager queen of Hungary, acted as regent of the country for twenty-five years, and carried out his instructions in letter and in spirit. Many thousands of people perished by various forms of death, but wretched as the condition of the unhappy Netherlanders was, a still darker day was about to dawn upon them.
It is generally affirmed that there were seventeen distinct provinces at this time, but in fact the number seventeen was derived from the titles of the sovereign and the accidental circumstance that there were seventeen separate estates present at the abdication of Charles V,[17] though these did not correspond exactly with the titles. For instance, one of the titles was count of Zutphen, but Zutphen had for centuries been part of Gelderland; another of the titles was marquis of Anvers or Antwerp, but Antwerp was a city of Brabant. On the other hand Lille with Douai and Orchies, though cities of Flanders, had separate estates, but did not furnish a title, the same was the case with Valenciennes, a city of Hainaut, while Mechlin, in the very heart of Brabant, had separate estates and furnished the title lord of Malines or Mechlin.
Historical Sketches.
What would be termed provinces to-day were the duchies of Gelderland, Brabant, Limburg, and Luxemburg, the counties of Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, Namur or Namen, Hainaut or Henegouwen, and Artois, and the lordships of Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen with Drenthe, Overyssel, and Mechlin or Malines.[18] To make seventeen, the county of Zutphen and the marquisate of Antwerp must be added if titles alone are considered, or if states present at the abdication of Charles V be taken as a guide, Lille with Douai and Orchies and Tournai with the Tournaisis[19] must be included. Only five of these—Holland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, and Overyssel—remain on the map to-day as they were in the middle of the sixteenth century. Of them all, Brabant was the most important at that time, Flanders came next, and Holland, soon to take the leading place, was regarded as only the third.[20]