Grass grew in the fair and pleasant streets of Bruges, and sea-weed clustered about the marble halls of Venice.

At this epoch, however, both were in a state of rapid and insolent prosperity.
The cities, thus advancing in wealth and importance, were no longer satisfied with being governed according to law, and began to participate, not only in their own, but in the general government.

Under Guy of Flanders, the towns appeared regularly, as well as the nobles, in the assembly of the provincial estates.

(1386-1389, A.D.) In the course of the following century, the six chief cities, or capitals, of Holland (Dort, Harlem, Delft, Leyden, Goads, and Amsterdam) acquired the right of sending their deputies regularly to the estates of the provinces.

These towns, therefore, with the nobles, constituted the parliamentary power of the nation.