History of Holland | Page 2

closing decades of the sixteenth century, enabled her
people to offer such obstinate and successful resistance to the mighty
power of Philip II.
The earliest dynasty of the Counts of Holland--Dirks, Floris, and
Williams--was a very remarkable one. Not only did it rule for an
unusually long period, 922 to 1299, but in this long period without
exception all the Counts of Holland were strong and capable rulers. The
fiefs of the first two Dirks lay in what is now known as North Holland,
in the district called Kennemerland. It was Dirk III who seized from the
bishops of Utrecht some swampy land amidst the channels forming the
mouth of the Meuse, which, from the bush which covered it, was
named Holt-land (Holland or Wood-land). Here he erected, in 1015, a
stronghold to collect tolls from passing ships. This stronghold was the
beginning of the town of Dordrecht, and from here a little later the
name Holland was gradually applied to the whole county. Of his
successors the most illustrious was William II (1234 to 1256) who was
crowned King of the Romans at Aachen, and would have received from
Pope Innocent IV the imperial crown at Rome, had he not been
unfortunately drowned while attempting to cross on horseback an
ice-bound marsh.
In 1299 the male line of this dynasty became extinct; and John of

Avennes, Count of Hainault, nephew of William II, succeeded. His son,
William III, after a long struggle with the Counts of Flanders,
conquered Zeeland and became Count henceforth of Holland, Zeeland
and Hainault. His son, William IV, died childless; and the succession
then passed to his sister Margaret, the wife of the Emperor Lewis of
Bavaria. It was contested by her second son William, who, after a long
drawn-out strife with his mother, became, in 1354, Count of Holland
and Zeeland with the title William V, Margaret retaining the county of
Hainault. Becoming insane, his brother Albert in 1358 took over the
reins of government. In his time the two factions, known by the
nicknames of "the Hooks" and "the Cods," kept the land in a continual
state of disorder and practically of civil war. They had already been
active for many years. The Hooks were supported by the nobles, by the
peasantry and by that large part of the poorer townsfolk that was
excluded from all share in the municipal government. The Cods
represented the interests of the powerful burgher corporations. In later
times these same principles and interests divided the Orangist and the
States parties, and were inherited from the Hooks and Cods of
mediaeval Holland. The marriages of Albert's son, William, with
Margaret the sister of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and of
John the Fearless with Albert's daughter, Margaret, were to have
momentous consequences. Albert died in 1404 and was succeeded by
William VI, who before his death in 1417 caused the nobles and towns
to take the oath of allegiance to his daughter and only child, Jacoba or
Jacqueline.[2]
Jacoba, brave, beautiful and gifted, for eleven years maintained her
rights against many adversaries, chief among them her powerful and
ambitious cousin, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Her courage and
many adventures transformed her into a veritable heroine of romance.
By her three marriages with John, Duke of Brabant, with Humphry,
Duke of Gloucester, and, finally, with Frans van Borselen, she had no
children. Her hopeless fight with Philip of Burgundy's superior
resources ended at last in the so-called "Reconciliation of Delft" in
1428, by which, while retaining the title of countess, she handed over
the government to Philip and acknowledged his right of succession to
the Countship upon her death, which took place in 1436.

G.E.
November, 1921

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
GENERAL PREFACE v
PROLOGUE vii-ix
CHAP.
I. The Burgundian Netherlands 1-11
II. Habsburg Rule in the Netherlands 12-26
III. The Prelude to the Revolt 27-46
IV. The Revolt of the Netherlands 47-68
V. William the Silent 69-81
VI. The Beginnings of the Dutch Republic 82-109
VII. The System of Government 110-118
VIII. The Twelve Years' Truce 119-126
IX. Maurice and Oldenbarneveldt 127-138
X. From the end of the Twelve Years' Truce to the Peace of Munster,
1621-1648. The Stadholderate of Frederick Henry of Orange 139-158
XI. The East and West India Companies. Commercial and Economic
Expansion 159-185

XII. Letters, Science and Art 186-201
XIII. The Stadholderate of William II. The Great Assembly 202-211
XIV. Rise of John de Witt. The First English War 212-224
XV. The Administration of John de Witt, 1654-1665, from the Peace of
Westminster to the Out-break of the Second English War 225-235
XVI. The last years of De Witt's Administration, 1665-1672. The
Second English War. The Triple Alliance. The French Invasion
236-250
XVII. War with France and England. William III, Stadholder. Murder
of