36 - The Great Privilege

History of the Netherlands

Charles the Bold’s death at the beginning of 1477 set off a political tsunami which crashed over the Low Countries, like a rising tide from the North Sea, sweeping away the old structures and drowning those too slow to react. Unlike today, where information is transmitted around the world at nearly the speed of light, in 1477 it took awhile for the news to break and for the reality of the situation to be revealed to all parties. For those in the Low Countries, they were like the people you see in a grainy holiday film, standing on a tropical beach, looking out at the horizon as the water recedes far beyond where it normally goes, looking at the fishing boats beached on the sand, scratching their heads thinking, “this is weird, what’s happening?”, all-the-while being completely unaware of the devastating wave that was barrelling towards them, already too late to escape from the destruction it would bring. That devastation would include imminent attack by France, popular revolts in numerous cities, the forced acceptance of a whole new constitution for the Burgundian state and the beheadings of two of the most powerful people in the Burgundian governing apparatus.

With thanks to David Kingman, Jason Scott, Jan-Jelle Witte and Ryan de Boer for their Patreon support.

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