Charter of Kortenberg

Creation of the document is of historical and political importance because it retains agreements between inhabitants of a territory with a ruler who had absolute power.

From this charter originated an early kind of parliament, the "Council of Kortenberg" an assembly of lords.

Reinforcing this view, the composition of the Council of Kortenberg marks a clear difference with the more 'elitist' Magna Carta.

A historical line of continuity can be drawn from the Charter of Kortenberg via the Joyous Entries of new Dukes into Flemish and Brabantian towns, the migration of educated citizens in the 16th & 17th century from these towns to the Seven United Provinces as a result of the Eighty Years' War and the stay of some of the Mayflower Pilgrim Fathers in those Provinces, who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.

One group moved to the city of Leiden and was living there for two decades, prior to their departure for America.