The possessions of the three first of these splendid heiresses, descended to Margaret of Flanders. She married Phillip the Bold, who, as we have just mentioned, was the first of the modern Dukes of Burgundy. By this marriage, he acquired, in right of his wife, the provinces of Flanders, Artois, Mechlin, and Rhetel; and transmitted them and his own dukedom of Burgundy to his son Charles the Intrepid. From Charles, they descended to his son Philip the Good. He purchased Namur; and by a transaction with Jacqueline of Holland, acquired that province, Zealand, Hainault, and Friesland. By other means, he obtained Brabant, Antwerp, Luxemburgh, Limburgh, Gueldres, and Zutphen. On the failure of issue male of Philip the Good, all these fourteen provinces descended to Mary his only daughter. She married the Emperor Maximilian. He had two sons by her, the Emperor Charles V. and Ferdinand. The former acquired, by purchase or force, Utrecht, Overyssell and Gröningen. These territories formed what are generally called the SEVENTEEN PROVINCES OF THE NETHERLANDS. In the language of the middle ages, they consisted of the Dutchies of Brabant, Limburgh, Luxemburgh, and Gueldres; the Earldoms of Flanders, Artois, Hainault, Holland, Zealand, Namur, Zutphen, Antwerp, (sometimes called the Marquisate of the Holy Empire) and the Lordships of Friesland, Mechlin, Utrecht, Overyssell, and Gröningen. Cambrai, the Cambresis, and the County of Burgundy, though a separate territory, were considered to be appendages, but not part of them. V. 3. _Brief View of the History of the Netherlands, till the acknowledgement of the Independence of the Seven United Provinces by the Spanish Monarch._ The laws, the customs, and the government of all these provinces were nearly alike: each had its representative assembly of the three orders, of the clergy, nobility, and burghers: each had its courts of justice; and an appeal from the superior tribunal of each lay to the supreme court at Mechlin. Public and fiscal concerns of moment fell under the cognizance of the sovereign. The people enjoyed numerous and considerable privileges: the most important of them was the _Droit de Joyeuse entrée_, the right of not being taxed without the consent of the three estates. Commerce, agriculture, and the arts, particularly music and painting, flourished among them. The people were honest, frugal, regular and just in their general habits; more steady than active; not easily roused; but, when once roused, not easily appeased. [Sidenote: Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.] Charles V. made over his hereditary territories in Germany to his brother Ferdinand; but retained the Netherlands, and annexed them to the crown of Spain. With that crown, they descended to Philip the Second, the only son of Charles. Unwise and unjust measures of that monarch drove the inhabitants into rebellion.