Great Privilege

Under this agreement, the provinces and towns of Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, and Holland recovered all the local and communal rights which had been abolished by the decrees of the preceding dukes of Burgundy Charles the Bold and Philip the Good in their efforts to create a centralised state on the French model out of their separate holdings in the Low Countries.

At the time, her marriage to Maximilian I had not yet been solemnized, so she stood alone for the heavy task of defending the succession states against the various rulers of neighbouring countries.

Louis XI of France had taken Burgundy and Franche Comté and had also invaded Artois and Picardy following the death of Mary's father Charles the Bold.

It appeared that the States were prepared to recognise and support Mary of Burgundy as their sovereign with financial resources, but only with the granting of various concessions.

After the death of Mary in 1482, her husband Maximilian I, acting as guardian of her son Philip the Handsome, abolished the treaty.

Mary granting the Great Privilege in a 19th-century painting by Charles Rochussen .
First page of the Great Privilege.