d by the prehistoric sepulchral
mounds, the _Hunebedden_ already mentioned. In the 5th and 6th centuries
the country was overrun by Saxon tribes, and later on was governed by
counts under the Frankish and German kings. Of these only three are
recorded, Eberhard (943-944), Balderic (1006) and Temmo (1025). In 1046
the emperor Henry III. gave the countship to the bishop and chapter of
Utrecht, who governed it through the burgrave, or chatelain, of
Koevorden, a dignity which became hereditary after 1143 in the family of
Ludolf or Roelof, brother of Heribert of Bierum, bishop of Utrecht
(1138-1150). This family became extinct in the male line about 1232, and
was succeeded by Henry I. of Borculo (1232-1261), who had married the
heiress of Roelof III. of Koevorden. In 1395 Reinald IV. (d. 1410) of
Borculo-Koevorden was deposed by Bishop Frederick of Utrecht, and the
country was henceforth administered by an episcopal official
(_amptman_), who was, however, generally a native. With its popularly
elected assembly of twenty-four Etten (_jurati_) Drente remained
practically independent. This state of things continued till 1522, when
it was conquered by Duke Charles of Gelderland, from whom it was taken
by the emperor Charles V. in 1536, and became part of the Habsburg
dominions.

Drente took part in the revolt of the Netherlands, and being a district
covered by waste heath and moor was, on account of its poverty and
sparse population, not admitted into the union as a separate province,
and it had no voice in the assembly of the states-general. It was
subdued by the Spaniards in 1580, but reconquered by Maurice of Nassau
in 1594. During the years that followed, Drente, though unrepresented in
the states-general, retained its local independence and had its own
stadtholder. William Louis of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1620) held that office,
and it was held later by Maurice, Frederick Henry, William II. and
William III., princes of Orange. At the general assembly of 1651 Drente
put forward its claim to admission as a province, but was not admitted.
After the deaths of William II. (1650) and of William III. (1702) Drente
remained for a term of years without a stadtholder, but in 1722 William
Charles Henry of the house of Nassau-Siegen, who, through the extinction
of the elder line, had become prince of Orange, was elected stadtholder.
His descendants held that office, which was declared hereditary, until
the French conquest in 1795. In the fol