rly days, they had obtained
charters, as we have seen, which secured a certain degree of
constitutional freedom. The province of Brabant, above all, gloried in
its "_Joyeuse Entree_," which guarantied privileges and immunities of a
more liberal character than those possessed by the other states of the
Netherlands. When the provinces passed at length under the sceptre of a
single sovereign, he lived at a distance, and the government was
committed to a viceroy. Since their connection with Spain, the
administration had been for the most part in the hands of a woman; and
the delegated authority of a woman pressed but lightly on the
independent temper of the Flemings.

Yet Charles the Fifth, as we have seen, partial as he was to his
countrymen in the Netherlands, could ill brook their audacious spirit,
and made vigorous efforts to repress it. But his zeal for the spiritual
welfare of his people never led him to overlook their material
interests. He had no design by his punishments to cripple their
strength, much less to urge them to extremity. When the regent, Mary of
Hungary, his sister, warned him that his laws bore too heavily on the
people to be endured, he was careful to mitigate their severity. His
edicts in the name of religion were, indeed, written in blood. But the
frequency of their repetition shows, as already remarked, the imperfect
manner in which they were executed. This was still further proved by the
prosperous condition of the people, the flourishing aspect of the
various branches of industry, and the great enterprises to facilitate
commercial intercourse and foster the activity of the country. At the
close of Charles's reign, or rather at the commencement of his
successor's, in 1560, was completed the grand canal extending from
Antwerp to Brussels, the construction of which had consumed thirty
years, and one million eight hundred thousand florins.[492] Such a work,
at such a period,--the fruit, not of royal patronage, but of the public
spirit of the citizens,--is evidence both of large resources and of
wisdom in the direction of them. In this state of things, it is not
surprising that the Flemings, feeling their own strength, should have
assumed a free and independent tone little grateful to the ear of a
sovereign. So far had this spirit of liberty or licence, as it was
termed, increased, in the latter part of the emperor's reign, that the
Regent Mary, when her brother abdicated, chose also to resign,
decl