rince, and thus his interests might easily be at disaccord with those
of the Empire. Consequently, just as he had shaken off French suzerainty
from Flanders and Artois, so he loosened the tie of the other provinces
to Germany. In 1548 they were declared free and sovereign principalities
not subject to imperial laws, and all the territories were incorporated
in the Burgundian circle. It was, indeed, agreed that they should
contribute to imperial taxation, and in return receive imperial
protection. But this soon became a dead letter, and the Netherlands were
really severed from the Empire, save for the nominal feudal tie in the
case of some provinces. Thus some writers have dated their independence
from Charles's convention of 1548 rather than from the peace of
Westphalia, a century later. Having converted his heterogeneous
territories into a self-sufficient state, Charles often contemplated the
formation of a middle kingdom between France and Germany. At the last
moment he spoiled his own work by granting the Netherlands to Philip. It
was indeed hard to set aside the order of inheritance, and the
commercial interests of the provinces were closely bound with Spain, and
with England, whose queen Philip had married. Under any other ruler than
Philip the breach might not have come so early. Yet it must be regretted
that Charles had not the courage of his convictions, and that he lost
the opportunity of completing the new nation which he had faithfully
laboured to create.

Charles V. is in the eyes of many the very picture of a Catholic zealot.
Popular opinion is probably mainly based upon the letters written from
Yuste in 1558, when two hot-beds of heresy had been discovered in Spain
herself, and on the contemporary codicil to his will. These were,
perhaps, really in part responsible for the later persecution. Yet the
circumstances were far from being typical of the emperor's career. Death
was very near him; devotional exercises were his main occupation. The
letters, moreover, were cries of warning, and not edicts. Charles was
not then the responsible authority. There is a long step between a
violent letter and a violent act. Few men would care to have their lives
judged by letters written in the last extremities of gout. Less
pardonable was the earlier persecution of the Valencian Moriscoes in
1525-1526. They had fought for their landlords in the cause of order,
had been forcibly converted by the revolutionaries, and on the