The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 02: Introduction II

Five centuries of feudalism imposed a martial hierarchy of lords, vassals, and fortified domains upheld by the fiction of divine sanction. Clerical authority developed simultaneously, sometimes preserving learning and charity and at other times wielding coercive priestcraft to maintain social order. Commerce and the expansion of towns gradually shifted power as merchant wealth and intercity networks transformed local communities into influential urban classes. Burghers secured charters and practical privileges by bargains, money, and force, creating corporate municipalities that exercised many sovereign functions without claiming universal democratic rights. Only after prolonged social and political struggle did an organized republican polity emerge in the sixteenth century from these interacting forces.