From the Margins to the Mainstream: Dutch History to 1384 - Fourteenth-Century Crisis - Declining Economic Fortunes and Political Tensions

3 important questions on From the Margins to the Mainstream: Dutch History to 1384 - Fourteenth-Century Crisis - Declining Economic Fortunes and Political Tensions

Indeed, from the 1370s Holland would lose considerable amounts of land during half a century of wet weather.
Moreover, the cultivation of less productive land to feed more mouths brought diminishing returns and lower average yields. All this happened as the population continued to grow, resulting in rising food prices and, as an additional result, rising hunger.
Added to this were the growing political instability and its consequences for trade. Chronic war in the Mediterranean Sea disrupted trade for several decades.

In 1304 the guilds of Utrecht, supported by a Flemish army moving against the bishop tied to their rivals in Hainaut, forced the patricians and the bishop to accept a new charter that squarely placed the guilds at the center of power.
For the next two centuries they would lead a city government that carefully regulated the interests of some forty different guilds.

In Liege and in Brabant the ruling prince was forced to grant charters that formally gave cities a say in the administration.
The Charter of Kortenberg (1312) made provision for a permanent council of nobility and cities to assist the duke in running Brabant, including control over its finances - an effort that anticipated the provincial "States" that would be later organized.

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