But the fury of Ghent and other places becoming still more outrageous, Maximilian asked as a favor from his rebel subjects of Bruges to be guarded while a prisoner by them alone.

He was then king of the Romans, and all Europe became interested in his fate.

The pope addressed a brief to the town of Bruges, demanding his deliverance.

But the burghers were as inflexible as factious; and they at length released him, but not until they had concluded with him and the assembled states a treaty which most amply secured the enjoyment of their privileges and the pardon of their rebellion.
But these kind of compacts were never observed by the princes of those days beyond the actual period of their capacity to violate them.

The emperor having entered the Netherlands at the head of forty thousand men, Maximilian, so supported, soon showed his contempt for the obligations he had sworn to, and had recourse to force for the extension of his authority.