In the 15th century, it was customary to refer to the Low Countries where the Duke of Burgundy ruled and usually resided as les pays de par-deçà meaning "the lands over here" as opposed to Burgundy proper (in Central France) which was designated les pays de par-delà meaning "the lands over there" (see also Terminology of the Low Countries).
History
Territories of the house of Valois-Burgundy during the reign of Charles the Bold.
Around the 13th and early 14th century, various Dutch cities became so important that they started playing a major role in the political and economical affairs of their respective fiefs.[3] At the same time, the political system of relatively petty lords was ending, and stronger rulers (with actual power over larger territories) started to emerge. In the case of the Dutch, these two developments resulted in the political unification of all Dutch fiefs within a supra-regional state. This process started in the 14th century, with the Flemish cities gaining previously unseen powers over their county. When Count Louis II of Flanders died without a male heir, these cities (Bruges, Ypres, and Ghent) arranged a marriage between the count's daughter (future Countess Margaret III) and the duke of Burgundy (Philip the Bold). By doing this, they set in motion a chain of events eventually leading to the establishment and expansion of the Burgundian Low Countries.
A fair share (but not most) of these territories were inherited by the Burgundian dukes, a younger branch of the French royal House of Valois, upon the death of Count Louis II of Flanders in 1384. His heiress, Margaret III of Flanders in 1369 had married Philip the Bold, youngest son of King John II of France and the first of the Valois dukes of Burgundy at Dijon, who thus inherited the County of Flanders. The Flemish comital House of Dampierre had been French vassals, who held territory around the affluent cities of Bruges and Ghent, but also adjacent lands in former Lower Lorraine east of the Scheldt river ("Imperial Flanders") including the exclave of Mechelen, which were a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and furthermore the neighbouring French County of Artois. Together they initiated an era of Burgundian governance in the Low Countries.
The Valois era would last until 1477, when Duke Charles the Bold died at the Battle of Nancy leaving no male heir. The territorial Duchy of Burgundy reverted to the French crown according to Salic law, and King Louis XI of France also seized the French portion of the Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries. The Imperial fiefs passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg through Charles' daughter Mary of Burgundy and her husband Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, son of Emperor Frederick III. Maximilian, however, regarded the Burgundian Netherlands including Flanders and Artois as the undivided domains of his wife and himself and marched against the French. The conflict culminated at the Battle of Guinegate in 1479. Though Maximilian was victorious, he was only able to gain the County of Flanders according to the 1482 Treaty of Arras after his wife Mary had suddenly died, while France retained Artois.
In her testament, Mary of Burgundy had bequested the Burgundian heritage to her and Maximilian's son, Philip the Handsome. His father, dissatisfied with the terms of the Arras agreement, continued to contest the seized French territories. In 1493, King Charles VIII of France according to the Treaty of Senlis finally renounced Artois, which together with Flanders was incorporated into the Imperial Seventeen Provinces under the rule of Philip.
Demographics
The population of the main provinces of the Low Countries in 1477 (Prince-Bishoprics in italics).[4][5]
Philip the Handsome (1482–1506), Mary's son; Maximilian I, his father, as regent (1482–1493), Margaret of York, his step-grandmother, governess (1489–1493)
Charles the Bold died fighting an alliance led by the King of France. France annexed the Duchy of Burgundy, but the title Duke of Burgundy remained in titular use, as seen with his only child, his daughter Mary of Burgundy (Mary the Rich).
The sheer burden of variety of bishoprics and independent cities, the intensely local partisanship, the various taxation systems, weights and measures, internal customs barriers, fiercely defended local rights were all hindrances to a "good Valois". Attempts at enlarging personal control by the dukes resulted in revolts among the independent towns (sometimes supported by independent local nobles) and bloody military suppression in response. An increasingly modernized central government, with a bureaucracy of clerks, allowed the dukes to become celebrated art patrons and establish a glamorous court life that gave rise to conventions of behavior that lasted for centuries. Philip the Good (1419–1467) extended his personal control to the southeast; bringing Brussels, Namur and Liège under his control. He channeled the traditional independence of the cities through such mechanisms as the first Estates-General, and consolidating of the region's economy.
From 1441, Philip based his ducal court in Brussels, but Bruges was the world center of commerce, though by the 1480s the inevitable silting of its harbor was bringing its economic hegemony to a close. Philip was a great patron of illuminated manuscripts and court painting reached new highs: Robert Campin, the famous Van Eyck brothers, and Rogier van der Weyden.
Politically, the Burgundian and Habsburg periods were of tremendous importance to the Dutch, as the various Dutch fiefs were now united politically into one single entity.[7] The period ended in great turmoil, as the rise of Protestantism, the centralist policies of the Habsburg Empire, and other factors resulted in the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years' War.
Social and economic
In 1491 and 1492, the peasants revolted in some areas. They were suppressed by Maximilian's forces under the command of Duke Albert of Saxony at a battle at Heemskerk.[8]
↑ Latin: Burgundiae Belgicae, French: Pays-Bas bourguignons, Dutch: Bourgondische Nederlanden, Luxembourgish: Burgundesch Nidderlanden, Walloon: Bas Payis borguignons
↑ The city of Utrecht accounts for the disproportionate degree of urbanisation, as the Oversticht (which included most of the modern Overijssel and Drenthe) was very sparsely populated.
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