ABSTRACT
SOME time after Europe had lost the noble unity and the majestic peace that were the gift of the Roman Empire, a population arose in the Low Countries which are now the kingdoms of Holland and of Belgium, industrious and hardy, most of whose feudal masters owed allegiance to the German emperor, and some to the king of France. People had no sense of nationality in those days, but their dream was ever of an escape from the narrow political units that encompassed their existence. They usually supported the masters who, by marriage, conquest, and fraud, enlarged the size of the petty principalities beyond which many adventurous men already carried their feverish activity. Before the end of the Middle Ages the Low Countries or Netherlands contained large duchies like those of Brabant and Gueldres, counties like Flanders, Holland and Zeeland, principalities and bishoprics, seventeen territories all told. Still the process of amalgamation continued.
