$Godfrey I.$ (Longbeard), Count of Louvain from 1095, Duke of Brabant from May 13, 1106, _d._ Jan. 15, 1140 | | $Godfrey II.$, _d._ 1142 | | $Godfrey III.$, _d._ Aug. 10, 1190 | | $Henry I.$ (The Warrior), _d._ Sept. 5, 1235 | | $Henry II.$, _d._ Feb. 1, 1248 | | $Henry III.$, = Adelaide _d._ Feb. 6, 1260| of Burgundy | +------------------+---------+ | | Henry, $John I.$ retired into a (The Victorious), monastery, 1267, _d._ May 3, 1294 renouncing his right | to the duchy to | his younger brother $John II.$, = Marguerite, John _d._ Oct. 17, | daughter of 1312 | Edward I. of | England. | $John III.$ CHAPTER IX _Peter Coutherele_ Amongst the tangle of intricate causes which at last brought about, not, indeed, the complete discomfiture of the patricians, for to the end they were able to share in the duties and spoils of municipal government, but the shrinkage of their prestige and the loss of much of their power, three stand out pre-eminent:--the gradual diminution of their wealth after 1350, outcome of English competition in the cloth trade; the conduct of their chief officer of police, who presently, for his own ends, made it his business to foment rebellion; and the growing conviction in their own ranks that, after all, the stately edifice which they had reared was not founded on justice. At a very early date there was a popular party among the patricians of Brussels, which little by little seems to have gained sufficient influence to modify the policy of the municipal government, for in 1306 we find Duke John II. giving discretionary powers to the College of Aldermen to admit craftsmen to the freedom of the city, and though no doubt the primary object of this grant was to enable the ruling class to purchase the goodwill of leading plebeians, the patricians would hardly have requested the right to confer such a boon, even by way of corruption, if they had been seriously opposed to the admission of commoners to the franchise.