THE BURGUNDIAN DOMINION Consolidation of Power.—It was at this time that Flan ders, and gradually the other feudal States of the Netherlands, by marriage, purchase, treachery or force, fell under the dominion of the house of Burgundy. The foundation of the Burgundian rule in the Netherlands was laid by the succession of Philip the Bold to the counties of Flanders and Artois in 1384 in right of his wife, Margaret de Male. In 5404 Antony, Philip's second son (killed at Agincourt, 1415), became duke of Brabant by bequest of his great-aunt Joan. The consolidation of the Burgundian power was effected by Philip the Good, grandson of Philip the Bold, in his long and successful reign of 48 years, 1419-67. He inherited Flanders and Artois, purchased the county of Namur (1427) and compelled his cousin Jacqueline, the heiress of Holland, Zeeland, Hainault and Friesland, to surrender her possessions to him in 1428. On the death, in 143o, of his cousin Philip, duke of Bra bant, he took possession of Brabant and Limburg; the duchy of Luxembourg he acquired by purchase, 1443. He made his bastard son David bishop of Utrecht, and from 1456 onwards that see continued under Burgundian influence.
This extension of the Burgundian dominion implied the estab lishment of a strong monarchical authority. The dukes had united under their sway a number of provinces with different histories, institutions and languages, and their aim was to centralize their government. The nobility and clergy were on the side of the ducal authority ; its opponents were the municipalities, especially those of Flanders. Their strength had been seriously weakened by the overthrow of Roosebeke, but Philip on his accession found them once more advancing rapidly in power and prosperity. He was quite aware that the industrial wealth of the great Flemish com munes was financially the mainstay of his power, but their very prosperity made them the chief obstacle of his schemes of unifying into a solid dominion the loose aggregate of States over which he was the ruler. On this matter Philip would brook no opposition. Bruges was forced after strenuous resistance to submit to the loss of its most cherished privileges in 1438, and the revolt of Ghent was quenched in the "red sea" of Gavre in 1453. The splendour and luxury of the court of Philip surpassed that of any contemporary sovereign. A permanent memorial of it remains in the famous Order of the Golden Fleece, which was instituted by the duke at Bruges in 143o on the occasion of his marriage with Isabel of Portugal, a descendant of John of Gaunt.
Before the accession of Charles, the only son of Philip, two im portant steps had been taken towards unification. The first was the appointment of a grand council with supreme judicial and financial functions, whose seat was finally fixed at Malines in 1473 ; the other the summoning of deputies of all the provincial "States" of the Netherlands to a States-general at Brussels in 1465. But Charles did not possess the qualities of a builder of States. At first all went well with him. By his ruthless suppres sion of revolts at Dinant and Liege he made his authority undis puted throughout the Netherlands. His campaigns against the French king were conducted with success. His creation of a for midable standing army, the first of its kind in that age of transi tion from feudal conditions, gave to the Burgundian power all the outward semblance of stability and permanence. But Charles,
though a brave soldier and good military organizer, was neither a capable statesman nor a skilful general. At the very height of his power all his schemes of aggrandisement came to sudden ruin through a succession of disastrous defeats at the hands of the Swiss. At Nancy, Jan. 5, Charles was himself among the slain, leaving his only daughter, Mary of Burgundy, then in her loth year, sole heiress to his possessions.
The catastrophe of Nancy threatened the loosely knit Burgundian dominion with dissolution. Louis XI. claimed the reversion of the French fiefs, and seized Burgundy, Franche Comte and Artois. But the Netherland provinces, though not loving the Burgundian dynasty, had no desire to have a French master. Deputies repre senting Flanders, Brabant, Hainault and Holland met at Ghent, where Mary was detained almost as a prisoner, and compelled her (Feb. 1o, 1477) to sign the "Great Privilege." This charter pro vided that no war could be declared nor marriage concluded by the sovereign, nor taxes raised without the assent of the States, that natives were alone eligible for high office and that the na tional language should be used in public documents. The central court of justice at Malines was abolished, but the Grand Council was reorganized and made thoroughly representative. The Great Privilege was supplemented by provincial charters, the Flemish Privilege (Feb. 1o), the Great Privilege of Holland and Zee land (Feb. 17), the Great Privilege of Namur and the Joyeuse Entrée of Brabant, both in May, thus curtailing the sovereign's power of interference with local liberties. On these conditions Mary obtained the hearty support of the States against France. Her marriage four months later to Maximilian of Austria was the beginning of the long domination of the house of Habsburg. The next 15 years were for Maximilian a stormy and difficult period. The duchess Mary died from the effects of a fall from her horse (March 1482), and Maximilian became regent (mambourg) for his son. The peace of Arras with France (March 1483) freed him to deal with the discords in the Netherland provinces, and more especially with the turbulent opposition in the Flemish cities. With the submission of Ghent (June 1485) the contest was decided in favour of the archduke, who in 1494, on his election as emperor, was able to hand over the country to his son Philip in a comparatively tranquil and secure state. Philip was 15 years of age, and his accession was welcomed by the Netherlanders with whom Maximilian had never been popular. Gelderland, however, which had revolted after Nancy, had Charles of Egmont for its duke, and the two bishoprics of Liege and Utrecht were no longer subject to Burgundian authority. In 1496 Philip married Joanna of Aragon, who in 150o became heiress apparent to Castile and Aragon, and she gave birth at Ghent to a son, afterwards the Emperor Charles V. On the death of Queen Isabel, Philip and Joanna succeeded to the crown of Castile and took up their resi dence in their new kingdom (Jan. 1506). A few months later Philip unexpectedly died at Burgos (Sept. 25). His Burgundian lands passed without opposition to his son Charles, then six years of age.