W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

384 The Coins of Europe
The General Introduction and Catalogues will have introduced
the ordinary reader to a knowledge of the sometimes
even perplexingly intricate monetary systems which
prevailed throughout the Low Countries during and after the
Middle Ages, and which in the southern provinces were yet
farther involved by the Spanish and Austrian occupiers,
whose coinages ran parallel with those of the Flemings and
Hollanders and even with each other. The practice of
instituting agreements for the employment of a common
coinage by the parties to them was, as we abundantly shew,
carried out from the thirteenth century on a small scale and
with indifferent success ;
and the currency formed a constant
and grave source of contention between bordering states
and between ruler and subject.
The Southern Netherlands in their full feudal development
embraced
1. The duchy of Brabant (including part of the duchy of Lower
Lorraine and the county of Louvain).
2. The county of Namur.
3.
The county of Loos.
4. The prince-bishopric of Liege.
5.
The duchy of Limburg.
6. The seigneury of Reckheim.
7. The duchy of Luxemburgh.
8. The county of Flanders.
Taking these sections categorically, Brabant was formed
out of the ancient county of Louvain, portions of the duchy
Dukedom
^ Lower Lorraine, and the duchy of Limburg,
of Brabant, between the opening years of the eleventh and
215-1404.
tke conc i udjng quarter of the thirteenth century.
Each of these constituent elements had at the outset
possessed its own princes and some of the money, bearing
;
the names of the contemporary rulers of Lower Lorraine
and Louvain, may indicate the existence of a monetary
concordat between Godefroi III. of Brabant-Limburg and
Lambert I. of Louvain a circumstance which is likely
enough, and offers an earlier example of the usage than is
commonly mentioned or known. The arrangement must
have been made between 1006 and 1015.