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HOLLAND. History. xxxi
VIII. History and Statistics.
The earliest inhabitants of the district at the embouchures of
the Rhine are said to have accompanied the Cimbri and Teutones
in their expedition against Italy. Several banished tribes of the
Catti, who settled in the deserted island of Betuwe (p. 357), were
conquered by the Romans, whose supremacy over this part of the
country continued from the failure of the great rebellion of Clau-
dius Civilis till the end of the 4th cent., when the Salic Franks,
the inhabitants of the banks of the Ysse on of the Be-
tuwe, and established themselves wee , and
Lower Rhine. The district to the N. E. of the Salic Franks was
occupied by the Frisians, to the E. of whom were the Saxons.
The supremacy of Charlemagne extended over the whole of
the Netherlands. Under his succe system of investing
rassal-princes with the land gradually developed itself. ‘The most
powerful of these were the Bishops of Utrecht, the Dukes of Guel-
ders, and the Counts of Holland. In 1274 Count William Il. of
Holland was elected German Emperor through the influence of
Pope Innocent IV. In 1512 the Dutch provinces were enrolled as
a part of the Burgundian section of the Germanic Empire.
Under the Emperor Charles V. the whole of the Netherlands were
united (4543), and they now enjoyed a golden era of prosperity, in
consequencs ‘of the powerful protection accorded by that monarch
to commerce and navigation. Under his bigoted son and successor
Philip Il. of Spain, r the Duke of Alva’s arrival at Brussels
(1568), began that memorable, and at first apparently-hopeless
struggle which lasted for 80 years, and terminated in the re-
cognition of the Northern Netherlands as an independent state
by the haughty Spaniards, and the establishment of the powerful
Dutch Republic.
The great founder of Dutch liberty was William of Nassau,
‘the Taciturn’, Prince of Orange, a German nobleman, who was born
at Dillenburg in the Duchy of Nassau in 1533. He was a great favour-
ite of the Emperor Charles V., who appointed him, when 22 years
of age only, ‘stadtholder’ or governor of the provinces of Holland,
Zealand, and Utrecht. The Low Countries having come into the
possession of the Duke of Alva, the Spanish Governor, William
retired to Dillenburg, but in 1572 was invited by Holland and Zea-
land to take the command of their troops against the Spaniards.
He shortly afterwards captured Middelburg, and succeeded in
g the siege of the distressed town of Leyden. On 29th Jan.,
79, was formed the famous defensive league of the N. Netherlands,
known as the Utrecht Union. William was shortly afterwards con-
demned to banishment by PhilipII., but the States General bravely
defied the king’s authority, and in 1584 formally threw off theiz
allegiance to the Spanish crown. On 10th July, 1584, William fell
by the hand of an assassin at Delft (p. 256), very shortly before
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