under Robert, surnamed the Frison, brother of the deceased count;
and they so completely defeated the French, the nobles and their
unworthy associates of the high ground, that they despoiled the
usurping Countess Richilde of even her hereditary possessions.
In this war perished the celebrated Norman, William Fitz-Osborn,
who had flown to the succor of the defeated countess, of whom
he was enamored.

Robert the Frison, not satisfied with having beaten the king of
France and the bishop of Liege, reinstated in 1076 the grandson
of Thierry of Holland in the possessions which had been forced
from him by the duke of Lower Lorraine, in the name of the emperor
and the bishop of Utrecht; so that it was this valiant chieftain,
who, above all others, is entitled to the praise of having
successfully opposed the system of foreign domination on all
the principal points of the country. Four years later, Othon of
Nassau was the first to unite in one county the various cantons of
Guelders. Finally, in 1086, Henry of Louvain, the direct descendant
of Lambert, joined to his title that of count of Brabant; and
from this period the country was partitioned pretty nearly as
it was destined to remain for several centuries.

In the midst of this gradual organization of the various counties,
history for some time loses sight of those Frisons, the maritime
people of the north, who took little part in the civil wars of
two centuries. But still there was no portion of Europe which
at that time offered a finer picture of social improvement than
these damp and unhealthy coasts. The name of Frisons extended
from the Weser to the westward of the Zuyder Zee, but not quite
to the Rhine; and it became usual to consider no longer as Frisons