Flourishing communities were likewise to be found in Hainault, Namur, Cambrai and the other southern districts of the Netherlands, but nowhere else the vigorous independence of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres, nor the splendour of their civic life.
He inherited Flanders and Artois, purchased the county of Namur (1427) and compelled his cousin Jacqueline, the heiress of Holland, Zeeland, Hainault and Friesland, to surrender her possessions to him, 1428.
The primatial see was placed at Malines (Mechlin), having under it Antwerp, Hertogenbosch, Roermond, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres constituting the Flemish province; the second archbishopric was at Cambray, with Tournay, Arras, St Omer, and Namur, - the Walloon province; the third at Utrecht, with Haarlem, Middleburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen and Deventer, - the northern (Dutch) province.
Irritated and alarmed, the governor suddenly left Brussels in the month of July with some Walloon troops and went to Namur.
Strengthened by this powerful reinforcement, Don John fell upon the patriot army at Gemblours near Namur on the 31st of January 1578, and with scarcely any loss completely routed the Netherlanders.
