1515 - Holland in the Germanic empire
In 1515 Charles was declared of age, and received the homage of Holland and Zealand, Brabant and Flanders, as Count Charles II. In consequence of his friendly relations with Francis I of France, Henry of Nassau, his comrade and trusted follower, was wedded to Claude, sister of Philibert, prince of Orange, and from this union sprang the great house of Orange-Nassau.
On his accession to the Spanish and imperial thrones successively, Charles continued his aunt Margaret of Savoy as governor of the Netherlands, with a privy council to assist her. He brought all the provinces under one hand, having, in 1524 become lord of Friesland by purchase, and in 1528 acquired the temporalities of Utrecht. He now ruled over seventeen provinces : that is, over four duchies Brabant, Guelderland, Limburg, and Luxembourg; seven counties Flanders, Artois, Hainault, Holland, Zealand, Namur, and Zutphen; the margraviate of Antwerp; and five lordships Friesland, Mechlin, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen, with the Ommeland.
After the death in 1530 of Margaret, who had continued to act for him with her accustomed wisdom and prudence, Charles V at first treated the provinces with studied moderation: he redressed some of their griefs, reformed the administration and the coinage, issued sumptuary edicts, regulated their commerce, while he also re-enacted the severe laws against heresy, and gave full powers to the supreme court of Holland a body completely under his control.
He then appointed his sister Mary, queen of Hungary, regent of the Netherlands. She had at first no easy task; for the provinces had on hand a war with Denmark, and Anabaptist troubles at home; before long also she had to ask for increased supplies; and while the Hollanders granted a large annual subsidy, they refused her a hearth-tax which she demanded.
Similar monetary questions in 1539 produced that famous struggle between the court and Ghent which was only ended by the personal intervention of the emperor; after punishing severely the rebellious burghers, he passed on into Holland, and in 1540, in defiance of the acknowledged rights of the provinces, established a foreigner, Ren้ of Chalons, prince of Orange, as stadtholder of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht.
He thus forced on them that great family which had both shed luster on the history of Holland, and defended there and elsewhere the liberties of Europe. Rene himself ruled but a short time; he perished in France in 1544, leaving his territories to a little cousin, William of Nassau.
In 1545-46 the estates gave the emperor men and money for his war against the Protestant princes of Germany; after Muhlberg, the Netherlanders hoped that they might now be freed from the foreign troops Charles had quartered among them. Charles, however, had other plans on hand, and determined to place permanently in the provinces some 4,000 horse, entirely at his own orders; he also laid before the estates in 1548 a scheme of incorporation, which aimed at making the Netherlands an integral portion of the empire, under the name of the circle of Burgundy, and which he abandoned only after the refusal of the seven electors to make Philip king of the Romans.
In 1549 Charles revisited the provinces and called Philip thither also, that they might see their future master; the young prince swore to maintain their rights and customs; and so began between the Netherlands and him the formal relation which became so real on October 25, 1555.
