only grant the money after obtaining from each province represented, severally, its assent; and this was often not gained until after considerable delay and much bargaining.  Once granted, however, the assessment regulating the quota, which the different provinces had to contribute, was determined on the basis of the so-called quotisatie or settinge drawn up in 1462 on the occasion of a tribute for 10 years, which Charles the Bold, as his father’s stadholder in the “pays de par deca,” then demanded.  The relative wealth of the provinces may be judged from the fact that at this date Flanders and Brabant each paid a quarter of the whole levy, Holland one sixth, Zeeland one quarter of Holland’s share.

As regards the provincial government the Burgundian princes left undisturbed the local and historical customs and usages, and each province had its individual characteristics.  At the head of each provincial government (with the exception of Brabant, at whose capital, Brussels, the sovereign himself or his regent resided) was placed a governor, with the title of Stadholder, who was the representative of the sovereign and had large patronage.  It was his duty to enforce edicts, preserve order, and keep a watchful eye over the administration of justice.  He nominated to many municipal offices, but had little or no control over finance.  The raising of troops and their command in the field was entrusted to a captain-general, who might not be the same person as the stadholder, though the offices were sometimes united.  In the northern Netherlands there was but one stadholder for the three provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, and one (at a somewhat later date) for Friesland, Groningen, Drente and Overyssel.

The desire of the Burgundian princes to consolidate their dominions into a unified sovereignty found itself thwarted by many obstacles and especially by the lack of any supreme tribunal of appeal.  It was galling to them that the Parlement of Paris should still exercise appellate jurisdiction in Crown-Flanders and Artois, and the Imperial Diet in some of the other provinces.  Already in 1428 Philip had erected the Court of Holland at the Hague to exercise large powers of jurisdiction and financial control in the provinces of Holland and Zeeland; and in 1473 Charles the Bold set up at Mechlin the body known as the Great Council, to act as a court of appeal from the provincial courts.  It was to be, in the Netherlands, what the Parlement of Paris was in France.  The Great Council, which had grown out of the Privy Council attached to the person of the prince, and which under the direction of the Chancellor of Burgundy administered the affairs of the government, more particularly justice and finance, was in 1473, as stated above, re-constituted as a Court of Appeal in legal matters, a new Chamber of Accounts being at the same time created to deal with finance.  These efforts at centralisation of authority were undoubtedly for the good of the country as a whole, but such was the intensity of provincial jealousy and particularism that they were bitterly resented and opposed.