There were two powerful weapons whereby the bishop-prince might enforce his will in opposition to that of his subjects did the latter become too obstreperous.  He could suspend the court of the schepens, and he could pronounce an interdict of the Church which caused the cessation of all priestly functions.  When this interdict was in action, civil suits between burghers could be adjudged by the municipal magistrates, but no criminals could be arrested or tried.  The elementary principles of an organised society were thrown into confusion.  Still worse confusion resulted from the bishop’s last resort as prince of the Church.  An interdict caused the church bells to be silent, the church doors to be closed.  The celebration of the rites of baptism, of marriage, of burial ceased.[5] The fear of such cessation was potent in its restraint, unless the populace were too far enraged to be moved by any consideration.

While the Burgundian dukes extended their sway over one portion of Netherland territory after another, this little dominion maintained its complete independence of them.  The fact that its princes were elective protected it from lapsing through heritage to the duke who had been so neatly proven heir to his divers childless kinsfolk.  It was a rich little vineyard without his pale.

They were clever people those Liegeois.  Their Walloon language is a species of French with many peculiarities showing Frankish admixture.[6] The race was probably a mixed one too, but its acquired characteristics made a very different person from a Hollander, a Frisian, or a Fleming, though there was a certain resemblance to the latter.

In 1465, not yet exploited were the wonderful resources of coal and minerals which now glow above and below the furnace fires until, from a distance, Liege looks like a very Inferno.  But the people were industrious and energetic in their crafts.  It was a country of skilled workmen.  The city of Liege is accredited with one hundred thousand inhabitants at this epoch, and the numbers reported slain in the various battles in which the town was involved run into the thousands.[7]

In 1456, Philip of Burgundy, encouraged by his success in the diocese of Utrecht, obtained a certain ascendency over the affairs of Liege by interfering in the election of a bishop.  There was no natural vacancy at the moment.  John of Heinsberg was the incumbent, a very pleasant prelate with conciliatory ways.  He loved amusement and gay society, pleasures more easily obtainable in Philip’s court than in his own, and his agreeable host found means of persuading him to resign all the cares of his see.  Then the enterprising duke proceeded to place his own nephew, Louis of Bourbon, upon the vacant episcopal throne.

This nephew was an eighteen-year-old student at the University of Louvain, destitute of a single qualification for the office proposed.  Nevertheless, all difficulties, technical and general were ignored, and a papal dispensation enabled the candidate even to dispense with the formality of taking orders.  Attired in scarlet with a feathered Burgundian cap on his head, Louis made his entry into his future capital and was duly enthroned as bishop-prince in spite of his manifest unfitness for the place.