History of Holland | Page 5

separately, and they jealously claimed their right to be thus
separately dealt with. In the case of the other provinces the
States-General, as has been already stated, could only grant the money
after obtaining from each province represented, severally, its assent;
and this was often not gained until after considerable delay and much
bargaining. Once granted, however, the assessment regulating the quota,
which the different provinces had to contribute, was determined on the
basis of the so-called quotisatie or settinge drawn up in 1462 on the
occasion of a tribute for 10 years, which Charles the Bold, as his
father's stadholder in the "pays de par deçà," then demanded. The
relative wealth of the provinces may be judged from the fact that at this
date Flanders and Brabant each paid a quarter of the whole levy,
Holland one sixth, Zeeland one quarter of Holland's share.
As regards the provincial government the Burgundian princes left
undisturbed the local and historical customs and usages, and each
province had its individual characteristics. At the head of each
provincial government (with the exception of Brabant, at whose capital,
Brussels, the sovereign himself or his regent resided) was placed a
governor, with the title of Stadholder, who was the representative of the
sovereign and had large patronage. It was his duty to enforce edicts,
preserve order, and keep a watchful eye over the administration of
justice. He nominated to many municipal offices, but had little or no
control over finance. The raising of troops and their command in the

field was entrusted to a captain-general, who might not be the same
person as the stadholder, though the offices were sometimes united. In
the northern Netherlands there was but one stadholder for the three
provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, and one (at a somewhat
later date) for Friesland, Groningen, Drente and Overyssel.
The desire of the Burgundian princes to consolidate their dominions
into a unified sovereignty found itself thwarted by many obstacles and
especially by the lack of any supreme tribunal of appeal. It was galling
to them that the Parlement of Paris should still exercise appellate
jurisdiction in Crown-Flanders and Artois, and the Imperial Diet in
some of the other provinces. Already in 1428 Philip had erected the
Court of Holland at the Hague to exercise large powers of jurisdiction
and financial control in the provinces of Holland and Zeeland; and in
1473 Charles the Bold set up at Mechlin the body known as the Great
Council, to act as a court of appeal from the provincial courts. It was to
be, in the Netherlands, what the Parlement of Paris was in France. The
Great Council, which had grown out of the Privy Council attached to
the person of the prince, and which under the direction of the
Chancellor of Burgundy administered the affairs of the government,
more particularly justice and finance, was in 1473, as stated above,
re-constituted as a Court of Appeal in legal matters, a new Chamber of
Accounts being at the same time created to deal with finance. These
efforts at centralisation of authority were undoubtedly for the good of
the country as a whole, but such was the intensity of provincial
jealousy and particularism that they were bitterly resented and opposed.
In order to strengthen the sovereign's influence in the towns, and to
lessen the power of the Gilds, Philip established in Holland, and so far
as he could elsewhere, what were called "vaste Colleges" or fixed
committees of notables, to which were entrusted the election of the
town officials and the municipal administration. These bodies were
composed of a number of the richest and most influential burghers,
who were styled the Twenty-four, the Forty, the Sixty or the Eighty,
according to the number fixed for any particular town. These men were
appointed for life and their successors were chosen by co-option, so
that the town corporations gradually became closed hereditary

aristocracies, and the mass of the citizens were deprived of all voice in
their own affairs. The Schout or chief judge was chosen directly by the
sovereign or his stadholder, who also nominated the Schepens or
sheriffs from a list containing a double number, which was submitted to
him.
The reign of Philip the Good was marked by a great advance in the
material prosperity of the land. Bruges, Ghent, Ypres and Antwerp
were among the most flourishing commercial and industrial cities in the
world, and when, through the silting up of the waterway, Bruges ceased
to be a seaport, Antwerp rapidly rose to pre-eminence in her place, so
that a few decades later her wharves were crowded with shipping, and
her warehouses with goods from every part of Europe. In fact during
the whole of the Burgundian period the southern Netherlands were the
richest domain in Christendom, and continued