Holland - Thomas Colley Grattan
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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 imperial 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.
CHAPTER IV
FROM THE FORMATION OF HOLLAND TO THE DEATH OF LOUIS DE MALE
A.D. 1018--1384
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 _wooded_ land, or, according to
some, _hollow_ land). The formation 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 Meuse had, being equally covetous and grasping,
and mutually resolved to pounce on the prey, made it their common
property. A certain Count Thierry, descended from the counts
of Ghent, governed about this period the western extremity of
Friesland--the country which now forms the province of Holland;
and with much difficulty maintained his power against the Frisons,
by whom his right was not acknowledged. Beaten out of his own
territories by these refractory 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 advantage
of his position to establish and levy certain duties on all the
vessels which sailed past his territory, dispossessing in the
meantime some vassals of the church, and beating, as we have
stated, the bishop of Utrecht himself. Complaints and appeals
without number were laid at the foot of the imperial throne.
Godfrey of Eenham, whom the 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 brother 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 imperial amnesty; and from that period the count
of Holland and his posterity formed a barrier against which the
ecclesiastical power and the remains of the imperial supremacy
continually struggled, to be only shattered in each new assault.
John Egmont, an old chronicler, says that the counts of Holland
were "a sword in the flanks of the bishops of Utrecht."
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 Luxemburg was named duke of Lower Lorraine in 1046,
instead 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 inheritance of the dukedom.
Baldwin secured for his share the country of Alost and Waas, and the
citadel of Ghent; and he also succeeded in obtaining 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 flourishing
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 establishment
of its counts or earls. The descendants of Baldwin Bras-de-fer,
after having valiantly repulsed the Normans toward 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
visited the coasts, not as enemies, but as merchants; and Bruges
became the mart of the booty acquired by these bold pirates in
England and on the high seas. The fisheries had begun to acquire
an importance sufficient to establish the herring as one of the
chief aliments of the population. Maritime commerce had made such
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 stuffs formed the principal wealth
of the country; but salt, corn, and jewelry 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 king of France, and not to Lorraine; but the dependence was
little more than nominal. In 1071 the king of France attempted
to exercise his authority over the country, 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 remark 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
freedom had not yet been fixed in the minds of the inhabitants of
those parts of the country. But the lowlanders joined together
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 war perished the celebrated Norman, William Fitz-Osborn,
who had flown to the succor of the defeated countess, of whom
he was enamored.
Robert the Frison, not satisfied with having beaten the king of
France and the bishop of Liege, reinstated 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. Four years later, Othon of
Nassau was the first to unite in one county the various cantons of
Guelders. Finally, in 1086, Henry of Louvain, the direct descendant
of Lambert, joined to his title that of count of Brabant; and
from this period the country was partitioned pretty nearly as
it was destined to remain for several centuries.
In the midst of this gradual organization of the various counties,
history for some time loses sight of those Frisons, the maritime
people of the north, who took 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 became usual to consider no longer 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 Utrecht, and several German lords, dignified from
time to time with the title of counts of Friesland, insisted
that it carried with it a personal authority superior to that
of the sovereign they represented. The descendants of the Count
Thierry, a race of men remarkably warlike, were the most violent
in this assumption of power. Defeat after defeat, however, punished
their obstinacy; and numbers of those princes met death on the
pikes of their Frison opponents. The latter had no regular leaders;
but at the approach of the enemy the inhabitants of each canton
flew to arms, like the members of a single family; and all the
feudal forces brought against them failed to subdue 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 nation met together on
the borders of the Ems, in a place called "the Trees of Upstal"
(_Upstall-boomen_), where three old oaks stood in the middle of
an immense plain. In this primitive 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 that Friesland possessed any large towns, with
the exception of Staveren. In this respect the Frisons resembled
those ancient Germans who had a horror of shutting themselves up
within walls. They lived in a way completely patriarchal; dwelling
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 terrified 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 exhaust
the whole stock of the monastery.
In no part of Europe was the good sense of the people so effectively
opposed to the unreasonable practices of Catholicism in those days.
The Frisons successfully resisted the payment 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, double 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-Vriesen_, Free-Frisons.
No nation is more interested than England in the examination 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 time 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 social government which the most
learned find a difficulty in solving. What were the rights of
the nobles in their connection with these freemen? What ties of
reciprocal interest bound the different cantons to each other?
What were the privileges of the towns?--These are the minute
but important 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 indiscriminately to
the nobles, clergy, magistrates, judges, consuls, or commons of
Friesland. Sometimes appeared in those documents the vague and
imposing title of "the great Frison," 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 rightly understood--what were really those
fierce and redoubtable Frisons in their popular and political
relations? 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 unreasonable 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 organization; and had nearly
fixed the political existence of the provinces, which were so long
confounded in the vast possessions of the empire. It is therefore
important to ascertain under what influence and on what basis
these provinces became 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 people. 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 plebeian 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 turbulent
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 robbers and plunder, were thus the
foundation of public liberty. And it appears tolerably certain
that the Paladins of Ariosto were 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 writers. But in all the rest of the Netherlands,
excepting the provinces already mentioned, no form of government
existed, 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 fanaticism,
agitated, in the common impulse given to all Europe, 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 empire of
Constantinople by Baldwin of Flanders in 1203, still the simple
gentlemen and peasants of Friesland did not less distinguish
themselves. They were, on all occasions, the first to mount the
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 given by the crusaders to the overboiling ardor of
these warlike countries was a source of infinite advantage 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 enfeebling consequences
of extensive foreign wars, became comparatively impotent in their
attempted efforts against domestic freedom. Those of Flanders and
Brabant, also, were almost decimated in the terrible battle of
Bouvines, fought between the Emperor Othon 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 divided his army into small portions,
which were defeated in detail.
While the nobility thus declined, the towns began rapidly to
develop the elements of popular force. In 1120, a Flemish 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. The Countess Jane
had enfranchised all those belonging to her as early as 1222.
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 which 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 the same results took place in
all the counties or dukedoms of the Lowlands precisely at the
same period. In fact, if we start from the year 1200 on this
interesting inquiry, we shall see the commons attacking, in the
first place, the petty feudal lords, and next the counts and the
dukes themselves, 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 townspeople 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, expelled the patrician families. A coincidence
like this cannot be attributed to trifling or partial causes,
such as the misconduct of a single count, or other local evil;
but to a great general movement in the popular mind, the progress
of agriculture and industry in the whole country, superinducing
an increase of wealth and intelligence, which, when unrestrained
by the influence of a corrupt government, must naturally 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 quantity 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 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 defence; but the citizen who
might absent himself for a longer period than forty days was
considered a deserter and deprived 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
service. 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 discipline the vassals of
the seigniorial lands. And these trained bands of the towns made
war in a way very different from that hitherto practiced; 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 this
that it may be remarked, during the memorable conflicts of the
thirteenth century, that when even the bravest of the knights
advised their counts or dukes to grant or demand a truce, the
citizen militia never knew but one cry--"To the charge!"
Evidence was soon given of the importance of this new nation,
when it became forced to take up arms against enemies 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 repent 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 themselves at the head of their fellow-townsmen, and completely
dislodged the French troops who garrisoned it. The following year
the militia of Bruges and the immediate neighborhood 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; upward of three thousand of the
French chivalry, besides common soldiers, were left dead on the
field. In 1304, after a long contested battle, the Flemings forced
the king of France to release 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 warriors, 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 citizen was
enrolled as a soldier to defend the country at all times.
The same system established in Brabant forced the duke of that
province to sanction and guarantee the popular privileges, 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 legislative 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 council, 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 by assault, and take prisoner the old count of Namur.
They 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
of Count Louis himself, with almost the whole of the nobility,
who had taken refuge with him in the town of Courtrai. But Ghent,
actuated by the jealousy which at all times existed between it and
Bruges, stood aloof at this crisis. The latter town was obliged
to come to a compromise with the count, who soon afterward, 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.