The court, however, still held its sessions in the country; and the sacred privilege--de non evocando--the right of every Hollander to be tried in his own land, was, at least, retained.

Charles threw off the mask; he proclaimed that this council--composed of his creatures, holding office at his pleasure--should have supreme jurisdiction over all the charters of the provinces; that it was to follow his person, and derive all authority from his will.

The usual seat of the court he transferred to Mechlin.

It will be seen, in the sequel, that the attempt, under Philip the Second, to enforce its supreme authority was a collateral cause of the great revolution of the Netherlands.
Charles, like his father, administered the country by stadholders.

From the condition of flourishing self-ruled little republics, which they had, for a moment, almost attained, they became departments of an ill-assorted, ill-conditioned, ill-governed realm, which was neither commonwealth nor empire, neither kingdom nor duchy; and which had no homogeneousness of population, no affection between ruler and people, small sympathies of lineage or of language.
His triumphs were but few, his fall ignominious.