History of Holland | Page 8

of their really
statesmanlike efforts to create out of a number of semi-autonomous
provinces a unified State. Many of their acts and methods had been
harsh and autocratic, especially those of Charles the Bold, but who can
doubt that on the whole their policy was wise and salutary? In Holland
and Zeeland a Council was erected consisting of a Stadholder and eight
councillors (six Hollanders and two Zeelanders) of whom two were to
be nobles, the others jurists. Wolferd van Borselen, lord of Veere, was
appointed Stadholder.
The Great Privilege granted, the States willingly raised a force of
34,000 men to resist the French invasion, and adequate means for
carrying on the war. But the troubles of the youthful Mary were not yet
over. The hand of the heiress of so many rich domains was eagerly
sought for (1) by Louis of France for the dauphin, a youth of 17 years;
(2) by Maximilian of Austria to whom she had been promised in
marriage; (3) by Adolf, Duke of Gelderland, who was favoured by the
States-General. Adolf, however, was killed in battle. In Flanders there
was a party who favoured the French and actually engaged in intrigues
with Louis, but the mass of the people were intensely averse to French
domination. To such an extent was this the case that two influential
officials, the lords Hugonet and Humbercourt, on whom suspicion fell
of treacherous correspondence with the French king, were seized, tried

by a special tribunal, and, despite the tears and entreaties of the duchess,
were condemned and beheaded in the market-place of Ghent.
Maximilian became therefore the accepted suitor; and on August 19,
1477, his marriage with Mary took place at Bruges. This marriage was
to have momentous consequences, not only for the Netherlands, but for
Europe. The union was a happy one, but, unfortunately, of brief
duration. On March 29, 1482, Mary died from the effects of a fall from
her horse, leaving two children, Philip and Margaret.
* * * * *
CHAPTER II
HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS
Maximilian, on the death of Mary, found himself in a very difficult
position. The archduke was a man of high-soaring ideas, chivalrous,
brave even to the point of audacity, full of expedients and never
daunted by failure, but he was deficient in stability of character, and
always hampered throughout his life by lack of funds. He had in 1477
set himself to the task of defending Flanders and the southern provinces
of the Netherlands against French attack, and not without considerable
success. In 1482, as guardian of his four-year old son Philip, the heir to
the domains of the house of Burgundy, he became regent of the
Netherlands. His authority however was little recognised. Gelderland
and Utrecht fell away altogether. Liège acknowledged William de la
Marck as its ruler. Holland and Zeeland were torn by contending
factions. Flanders, the centre of the Burgundian power, was specially
hostile to its new governor. The burghers of Ghent refused to surrender
to him his children, Philip and Margaret, who were held as hostages to
secure themselves against any attempted infringement of their liberties.
The Flemings even entered into negotiations with Louis XI; and the
archduke found himself compelled to sign a treaty with France
(December 23, 1482), one of the conditions being the betrothal of his
infant daughter to the dauphin. Maximilian, however, found that for a
time he must leave Flanders to put down the rising of the Hook faction
in Holland, who, led by Frans van Brederode, and in alliance with the

anti-Burgundian party in Utrecht, had made themselves masters of
Leyden. Beaten in a bloody fight by the regent, Brederode nevertheless
managed to seize Sluis and Rotterdam; and from these ports he and his
daring companion-in-arms, Jan van Naaldwijk, carried on a guerrilla
warfare for some years. Brederode was killed in a fight at
Brouwershaven (1490), but Sluis still held out and was not taken till
two years later.
Meanwhile Maximilian had to undertake a campaign against the
Flemings, who were again in arms at the instigation of the turbulent
burghers of Ghent and Bruges. Entering the province at the head of a
large force he compelled the rebel towns to submit and obtained
possession of the person of his son Philip (July, 1485). Elected in the
following year King of the Romans, Maximilian left the Netherlands to
be crowned at Aachen (April, 1486). A war with France called him
back, in the course of which he suffered a severe defeat at Bethune. At
the beginning of 1488 Ghent and Bruges once more rebelled; and the
Roman king, enticed to enter Bruges, was there seized and compelled
to see his friends executed in the market-place beneath his prison
window. For seven months he was held a prisoner; nor was he