lands.

The environs of the city are exceedingly picturesque. The Rhine again
divides into two branches, the Oud Rijn continuing to the North Sea,
through Leyden, and the other branch, known thenceforth as the Vecht,
flowing into the Zuyder Zee.

Utrecht is one of the most ancient cities of the Netherlands, having
been founded under Nero by a Roman Senator named Antony, hence it is
frequently referred to by historians as Antonia Civitas.

Its name in time evolved itself into _Trajectum inferius_ or _vetus_,
and in the Latin nomenclature of the early middle ages, it became
_Ultrajectum_, or _Trajectum Ultricensium_. Under the Franks it was
called Wiltrecht, which was but a short step to the name it now bears.

King Dagobert here founded the first church in Friesland, with St.
Willibrod as bishop, and St. Boniface, before he was called to Rome,
here preached evangelization.

The city was ruined and devastated in the seventh century, but its
rebuilding was begun in 718 by Clothaire IV. Toward 934 it was
surrounded by protecting walls by Bishop Baldric of Cleves. Utrecht was
frequently made the residence of the emperors, and Charles V. there
built the chateau of Vreeburg, a species of fortress-chateau that was
demolished by the burghers of the city at the beginning of the war of
independence, 1577.

Adrien Florizoon, the preceptor of Charles V., who, at the death of Leo
X., occupied the pontifical throne in 1522-23 as Adrien VI., was born at
Utrecht. His house (Paushuizen) on the banks of the canal Nieuwe Gracht,
now a government building, contains many pictures relative to his life
and times.

For a long time the city was only a bishop's seat, but in 1559 it was
made an archbishopric.

When, in 630, Dagobert, King of Austrasia, founded a chapel here, the
religious foundation of the city began, and as early as in 696 it became
the seat of a bishop. In the ninth century the Normans sacked the town,
but thenceforth the bishops, who were then suffragans of Liege,
acquired a strength and power which assured the city freedom from
molestation for a long time.

In the sixteenth century political and religious dissension combined to
promote a state of unrest which was most acute. In 1577 the party which
had allied itself with the Prince of Orange introduced religious reform,
and in 1579 the seven provinces of Holland formed their compact of
federation, and the States General held their sittings here.

The _Domkerk_, or