THE MEDLEVAL NETHERLANDS               n
barons did each what was right in its own eyes, and warfare between such small combatants was perpetual. But in the fourteenth century, along with a marked advance toward order and quiet, we find monarchy waxing so strong Feudal as to begin to suppress the feudal system. During Jg^Jj those four centuries little states grew up in the Countries Low Countries, which as fiefs of Germany were in a measure protected from the aggressions of French royalty, while on the other hand the absorption of German energy in the great struggle between Pope and Emperor was so complete that they were left pretty much to themselves. Thus out of lower Lorraine grew up the Duchy of Brabant; thus the Earls or Counts of Flanders acquired autonomy; thus came into existence the semi-independent Duchy of Luxemburg, the countships of Limburg, Hainault, and Namur, — names heavily fraught with historic associations; thus waxed in importance the bishoprics of Liege and Utrecht, while in the Frisian territory grew up such communities as Zeeland and Overyssel, and in the tenth century a certain Frisian lord, named Diedrich or Dirk, emerged into fame as Count of Holland.
Now in France the growth of such small feudal countships and duchies was overshadowed by the simultaneous growth of the royal power. Either the small communities or a great fief full of them would be added to the royal domain, or where they continued to be governed by their local lords the king's law and the king's officers were always present. The power that could be called forth for the suppression of local liberty was overwhelming. It was far from being so in the eleventh century, but it came Favourable to be more and more so. But in the Low Coun- ^rc^a. tries, on the other hand, the political and social dd- stances velopment of Holland under its count, or Brabant under its duke, went on without any curbing or cramping at the hands of an all-devouring royal power. The force that could be called forth for the suppression of local liberty was itself in the main local and such as could be resisted.    Zeeland and