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 whereupon the dynasty of Bavaria ruled in the land. Jacqueline, or Jakoba, of this line, transferred her rights to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. The Burgundians ruled for fifty years, when the inheritance went to Austria.

For close on a century was the Austrian House supreme over the Netherlands; its most noted members being Charles V. and Philip II. of Spain, whose memory is cursed by the Dutch to the present day. Philip II. was a cruel bigot, under whose reign began the savage persecution of the Dutch nation. His right hand was the Duke of Alva, who arrived at Brussels in 1568, when he at once engaged in a war which constituted a series of bloody massacres. The struggle lasted for eighty years, at the end of which Spain was compelled to recognize the independence of the Northern Netherlands. At this parlous