To give a notion of the importance of this prohibition to the whole of Europe, it is only necessary to state that the most ancient corporations (all which had preceded and engendered the most valuable municipal rights) were nothing more than gilden.

Thus, to draw an example from Great Britain, the corporative charter of Berwick still bears the title of Charta Gildoniae.

But the ban of the sovereigns was without efficacy, when opposed to the popular will.

The gilden stood their ground, and within a century after the death of Charlemagne, all Flanders was covered with corporate towns.
This popular opposition took, however, another form in the northern parts of the country, which still bore the common name of Friesland; for there it was not merely local but national.

The Frisons succeeded in obtaining the sanction of the monarch to consecrate, as it were, those rights which were established under the ancient forms of government.