orn in Ghent, reared in the Netherlands, and
speaking only the French of the Walloons, Charles was always regarded by
his subjects as one of themselves. He almost completed the unification
of the Burgundian state by the conquest of Tournay from France (1521),
and the annexation of the independent provinces of Friesland (1523),
Overyssel and Utrecht (1528), Groningen (1536) and Guelders (1543).
Liege still remained a separate entity under its prince-bishops. But
even under Charles, notwithstanding a general feeling of loyalty to the
house of Hapsburg, each province was more conscious of its own
individuality than were the people as a whole of common patriotism. Some
of the provinces lay within the Empire, others were vassals of France, a
few were independent. Dutch was regarded as a dialect of German. The
most illustrious Netherlander of the time, Erasmus, in discussing his
race, does not even contemplate the possibility of there being a nation
composed of Dutch and Flemish men. The only alternative that presents
itself to him is whether he is French or German and, having been born at
Rotterdam, he decides in favor of the latter.

{236}

[Sidenote: Classes]

The Burgundian princes found their chief support in the nobility, in a
numerous class of officials, and in the municipal aristocracies. The
nobles, transformed from a feudal caste to a court clique, even though
they retained, as satellites of the monarch, much wealth and power, had
relatively lost ground to the rising pretensions of the cities and of the
commercial class. The clergy, too, were losing their old independence in
subservience to a government which regulated their tithes and forbade
their indulgence-trade. In 1515 Charles secured from Leo X and again in
1530 from Clement VII the right of nomination to vacant benefices. He
was able to make of the bishops his tools and to curtail the freedom,
jurisdiction, and financial privileges of the clergy considerably because
the spiritual estate had lost favor with the people and received no
support from them.

As the two privileged classes surrendered their powers to the monarch,
the third estate was coming into its own. Not until the war of
independence, however, was it able to withstand the combination of
bureaucracy and plutocracy that made common cause with the central
government against the local rights of the cities and the customary
privileges of the gilds. Almost everywhere the prince was abl