FROM THE FORMATION OF HOLLAND TO THE DEATH OF LOUIS DE MALE

A.D. 1018—­1384

The district in which Dordrecht is situated, and the grounds in its environs which are at present submerged, formed in those times an island just raised above the waters, and which was called Holland or Holtland (which means wooded land, or, according to some, hollow land).  The formation of this island, or rather its recovery from the waters, being only of recent date, the right to its possession was more disputable than that of long-established countries.  All the bishops and abbots whose states bordered the Rhine and the Meuse had, being equally covetous and grasping, and mutually resolved to pounce on the prey, made it their common property.  A certain Count Thierry, descended from the counts of Ghent, governed about this period the western extremity of Friesland—­the country which now forms the province of Holland; and with much difficulty maintained his power against the Frisons, by whom his right was not acknowledged.  Beaten out of his own territories by these refractory insurgents, he sought refuge in the ecclesiastical island, where he intrenched himself, and founded a town which is believed to have been the origin of Dordrecht.

This Count Thierry, like all the feudal lords, took advantage of his position to establish and levy certain duties on all the vessels which sailed past his territory, dispossessing in the meantime some vassals of the church, and beating, as we have stated, the bishop of Utrecht himself.  Complaints and appeals without number were laid at the foot of the imperial throne.  Godfrey of Eenham, whom the emperor had created duke of Lower Lorraine, was commanded to call the whole country to arms.  The bishop of Liege, though actually dying, put himself at the head of the expedition, to revenge his brother prelate, and punish the audacious spoiler of the church property.  But Thierry and his fierce Frisons took Godfrey prisoner, and cut his army in pieces.  The victor had the good sense and moderation to spare his prisoners, and set them free without ransom.  He received in return an imperial amnesty; and from that period the count of Holland and his posterity formed a barrier against which the ecclesiastical power and the remains of the imperial supremacy continually struggled, to be only shattered in each new assault.  John Egmont, an old chronicler, says that the counts of Holland were “a sword in the flanks of the bishops of Utrecht.”

As the partial independence of the great vassals became consolidated, the monarchs were proportionally anxious to prevent its perpetuation in the same families.  In pursuance of this system, Godfrey of Eenham obtained the preference over the Counts Lambert and Robert; and Frederick of Luxemburg was named duke of Lower Lorraine in 1046, instead of a second Godfrey, who was nephew and expectant heir to the first.  But