the subjects of the counts of Holland, whom we may now begin
to distinguish as Hollanders or Dutch. The Frison race alone
refused to recognize the sovereign counts. They boasted of being
self-governed; owning no allegiance but to the emperor, and regarding
the counts of his nomination as so many officers charged to require
obedience to the laws of the country, but themselves obliged
in all things to respect them. But the counts of Holland, the
bishops of Utrecht, and several German lords, dignified from
time to time with the title of counts of Friesland, insisted
that it carried with it a personal authority superior to that
of the sovereign they represented. The descendants of the Count
Thierry, a race of men remarkably warlike, were the most violent
in this assumption of power. Defeat after defeat, however, punished
their obstinacy; and numbers of those princes met death on the
pikes of their Frison opponents. The latter had no regular leaders;
but at the approach of the enemy the inhabitants of each canton
flew to arms, like the members of a single family; and all the
feudal forces brought against them failed to subdue this popular
militia.

The frequent result of these collisions was the refusal of the
Frisons to recognize any authority whatever but that of the national
judges. Each canton was governed according to its own laws. If
a difficulty arose, the deputies of the nation met together on
the borders of the Ems, in a place called "the Trees of Upstal"
(_Upstall-boomen_), where three old oaks stood in the middle of
an immense plain. In this primitive council-place chieftains
were chosen, who, on swearing to maintain the laws and oppose
the common enemy, were invested with a limited and temporary
authority.