Wielding immense wealth--during the middle decades of the sixteenth century Antwerp was both the first port and the first money-market of Europe--and cherishing the sentiment that Charles was a native of their land, they for some time sweetly flattered themselves that their interests were the center around which gravitated the desires and needs of the Empire and of Spain.
Indeed, the balance of these two great states, and the regency of Margaret of Austria, [Sidenote: Margaret of Austria, Regent, 1522-31] a Hapsburg determined to give the Netherlands their due, for a time allowed them at least the semblance of getting their wishes.

But when Charles's sister, Mary of Hungary, succeeded Margaret as regent, she was too entirely {238} dependent on her brother, and he too determined to consult larger than Burgundian interests, to allow the Netherlands more than the smallest weight in larger plans.

The most that she could do was to unify, centralize and add to the provinces, and to get what commercial advantages treaties could secure.

Thus, she redeemed Luxemburg from the Margrave of Baden to whom Maximilian had pawned it.

Thus, also, she negotiated fresh commercial treaties with England and unified the coinage.