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From the Margins to the Mainstream

impose tolls – that was the prerogative of the emperor – and skip-
pers from Tiel and other inland ports complained at his interven-
tion. Led by the count of Lower Lorraine and supported by the
bishop of Utrecht, an imperial army in 1018 advanced on Dirck
with the intention of reducing his power. That army suffered an
ignominious defeat at the hands of the count and his Frisian allies,
and Dirck triumphantly continued to exact tolls on the ships pass-
ing through his territory, gaining grudging recognition from his
erstwhile enemies.
These counts continued to expand their territories in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, funded in no small part by the
shipping tolls they exacted. By around 1100 – roughly the time
that Leiden had fallen to them – their lands were referred to as
“Holland,” derived from “Holtland” or “Woodland,” for reasons
unclear today. Holland now became a distinguishing marker of
identity, both in contrast to the Frisian lands to the east and north,
and as a mark of autonomy over and against imperial and episco-
pal authority.
The fortunes of Utrecht and Holland may have been rising from
the tenth century, but in importance they were both dwarfed by
another regional power: Flanders. The greatest regional winners
of the political shake-up of the ninth century were not the West
Frisian counts but the margraves and their successors, the counts
of Flanders. Central authority in France, to whom Flemish counts
formally owed their allegiance, was for a time even weaker than in
Germany. The early count of Flanders, Baldwin II, exploited this
weakness in the years around 900, and ultimately the county of
Flanders would take Artois and penetrate deep into French terri-
tory. Later on, in the eleventh century, his successors Baldwin IV
and V would again make Flanders a contending power and sub-
stantially increase its size and influence. Militarily Flanders came
to overshadow its rivals; in 1100, the count could rely on 1,000
mounted knights in his service, whereas the French king  – his
nominal lord – had only half this number at his own disposal. The

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