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of  tiie  ci-


iii  the  character  of  a  more  purely  German  state.  Both
the  counts  and  the  free  Frisians  had  also  dangerous
neighbours  in  the  Bishops  of  Utrecht,  the  great  ecclesias-
tical ])rinces  of  this  region,  wiio  held  a  large  temporal
sovereignty  lying  apart  from  their  city  on  the  eastern
side  of  the  gulf.  These  disputes  went  on,  as  also
disputes  with  the  Dukes  of  Geldern,  without  any  final
settlement,  almost  to  the  time  when  all  these  lands
began  to  be  united  under  the  Burgundian  power.  But
before  this  time,  the  Counts  of  Holland  liad  become,
closely  connected  with  lands  mucli  further  to  the  south.
Among  a  number  of  states  in  tliis  region,  the  most
powerful  was  the  Duchy  o?  Brabant,  \Yh\ch.  represented
the  Duchy  of  the  Lower  Lotharingia,  and  whose  princes
held  the  mark  of  Antwerp  and  the  cities  of  Brussels,
Lowen  or  Louvain,  and  Mechlin.  To  the  South  of  them
lay  the  county  of  Ilennegau  or  Hainault.  At  the  end
of  the  thirteenth  century,  this  county  was  joined  by
marriage  with  that  of  Holland.  Holland  and  Hainault
were  thus  detached  possessions  of  a  common  prince,  with
Brabant  lying  between  them.  South  of  Brabant  lay
the  small  mark  or  county  of  Namur,  wdiich,  without
being  united  to  Flanders,  was  held  by  a  branch  of  the
princes  of  that  house.
