But when Charles's
sister, Mary of Hungary, succeeded Margaret as regent, she was too
entirely {238} dependent on her brother, and he too determined to consult
larger than Burgundian interests, to allow the Netherlands more than the
smallest weight in larger plans. The most that she could do was to
unify, centralize and add to the provinces, and to get what commercial
advantages treaties could secure. Thus, she redeemed Luxemburg from the
Margrave of Baden to whom Maximilian had pawned it. Thus, also, she
negotiated fresh commercial treaties with England and unified the
coinage. But with all these achievements, distinctly advantageous to the
people she governed, her efforts to increase the power of the crown and
the necessity she was under of subordinating her policy to that of
Germany and Spain, made her extremely unpopular.

The relationship of the Netherlands to the Empire was a delicate and
important question. Though the Empire was the feudal suzerain of most of
the Burgundian provinces, Charles felt far more keenly for his rights as
an hereditary, local prince than for the aggrandizement of his Empire,
and therefore tried, especially after he had left Austria to his brother
Ferdinand, [Sidenote: September 7, 1522] to loosen rather than to
strengthen the bond. Even as early as 1512, when the Imperial Diet
demanded that the "common penny" be levied in the Netherlands, Charles's
council aided and abetted his Burgundian subjects in refusing to pay it.
In 1530 the Netherlands, in spite of urgent complaints from the Diet,
completely freed itself from imperial jurisdiction in the administration
of justice. Matters became still more complicated when Utrecht,
Friesland, Groningen and Guelders, formerly belonging to the Westphalian
district of the Empire, were annexed by Charles as Burgundian prince.
Probably he would not have been able to vindicate these acts of power,
had not his victory at Muehlberg [Sidenote: 1547] freed him from the {239}
restraints of the imperial constitution. A convention was made at the
next Diet of Augsburg, [Sidenote: Convention of June 26, 1548] providing
that henceforth the Netherlands should form a separate district, the
"Burgundian circle," of the Empire, and that their prince, as such,
should be represented in the Diet and in the Imperial Supreme Court.
Taxes were so apportioned that in time of peace the Netherlands should
contribute to the imperial treasury as much as did two electo