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Upper Guelders or Spanish Guelders was one of the four quarters in the Imperial Duchy of Guelders. In the Dutch Revolt, it was the only quarter that did not secede from the Habsburg monarchy to become part of the Seven United Netherlands, but remained under Spanish rule during the Eighty Years' War.
Within the Low Countries, the counts, later dukes at Geldern started from the 11th century onwards to collect several territories down the Meuse river, which were physically separated from the later acquired lands along the Lower Rhine. These original lands of Upper Guelders were separated by the Dukes of Cleves, a long-time foe of Guelders. The northern territories were administrated within three quarters:
These lower quarters today form the Dutch province of Gelderland.
The most important cities in Upper Guelders were Geldern, Venlo and Roermond. Together with the Duchy of Cleves, the region originally was part of the Kleverlandish language area, part of the Low Franconian dialect group.
In 1471 Duke Arnold of Guelders, stuck in the conflict with his only surviving son Adolf of Egmond, gained the support of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold, but in turn had to give his duchy in pawn. Charles seized Guelders upon Duke Arnold's death in 1473, and despite the protests raised by the ducal House of Egmond incorporated it into the Burgundian Netherlands, the later dowry of his daughter Mary the Rich to her husband Archduke Maximilian I of Austria from the House of Habsburg.
In 1492 Duke Arnold's grandson Charles of Egmond, backed by the local nobility as well as by King Charles VIII of France, managed to regain the rule over Guelders against the Habsburg claims. However, as he left no heirs, he bequested the duchy to Duke William of Cleves in 1538, who, despite his efforts to marry his sister Anne to King Henry VIII of England, could not prevail against the Habsburg Emperor Charles V. In 1543 William officially renounced Guelders in favour of Charles, who attached the duchy to the Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands. Upon Charles' abdication in 1556, he decreed, that these territories would be inherited by his son King Philip II of Spain.
After Philip's stern Catholic measures had sparked the Dutch Revolt, the three lower quarters of Guelders joined the Protestant states in the 1579 Union of Utrecht, while during most part of the Eighty Years' War, the capital Geldern with Upper Guelders remained in the hands of the Spanish. This was finally confirmed in the 1648 Peace of Münster. The upper territory was therefore also called "Spanish Guelders".
Following the War of the Spanish Succession, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Upper Guelders was further divided into:
According to the Final Act of the Vienna Congress in 1815, the western part of Prussian Upper Guelders and Austrian Upper Guelders also became part of the Dutch province of Limburg. The remaining territory was retained by Prussia: Geldern itself was incorporated into the Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, while Erkelenz fell to the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine. Both became part of the Prussian Rhine Province in 1822. Up to today, the demarcation line forms the Dutch-German border, though the Limburg territory east of the Meuse river, held by the King of the Netherlands, joined the German Confederation upon the 1839 Treaty of London.
Gelderland, also known as Guelders in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of 5,136 km2 (1,983 sq mi) of which 176 km2 (68 sq mi) is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by total area. Gelderland shares borders with six other provinces and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Duchy of Guelders is a historical duchy, previously county, of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the Low Countries.
The Seventeen Provinces were the Imperial states of the Habsburg Netherlands in the 16th century. They roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., what is now the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and most of the French departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais (Artois). Also within this area were semi-independent fiefdoms, mainly ecclesiastical ones, such as Liège, Cambrai and Stavelot-Malmedy.
The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain and later by the Austrian Habsburgs until occupied and annexed by Revolutionary France (1794–1815).
Meuse-Inférieure was a department of the French First Republic and French First Empire in present-day Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. It was named after the river Meuse. Its territory corresponded largely with the present-day provinces of Belgian and Dutch Limburg. It was created on 1 October 1795, when the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège were officially annexed by the French Republic. Before this annexation, its territory was part of the County of Loon, the Austrian Upper Guelders, the Staats-Oppergelre, the County of Horne, the Abbacy of Thorn, Maastricht and part of the Lands of Overmaas. The lands of the original medieval Duchy of Limburg were associated with the Overmaas lands, lying to their south. The two regions had long been governed together and referred to collectively with both names, but the original Duchy lands were not part of this new entity.
Spanish Netherlands was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries held in personal union by the Spanish Crown. This region comprised most of the modern states of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France, the southern Netherlands, and western Germany with the capital being Brussels. The Army of Flanders was given the task of defending the territory.
The Duchy of Jülich comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay west of the Rhine river and was bordered by the Electorate of Cologne to the east and the Duchy of Limburg to the west. It had territories on both sides of the river Rur, around its capital Jülich – the former Roman Iuliacum – in the lower Rhineland. The duchy amalgamated with the County of Berg beyond the Rhine in 1423, and from then on also became known as Jülich-Berg. Later it became part of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.
The Duchy of Cleves was a State of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval Hettergau. It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel, Kalkar, Xanten, Emmerich, Rees and Duisburg bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west. Its history is closely related to that of its southern neighbours: the Duchies of Jülich and Berg, as well as Guelders and the Westphalian county of Mark. The Duchy was archaically known as Cleveland in English.
Roer was a department of the French First Republic and later First French Empire in present-day Germany and the Netherlands. It was named after the river Roer (Rur), which flows through the department. It was formed in 1797, when the left bank of the Rhine was occupied by the French. The department was formed from the duchies of Jülich and Cleves, the part of the Archbishopric of Cologne left of the Rhine, the Free City of Aachen, the Prussian part of the duchy of Guelders and some smaller territories. In 1805 the city of Wesel was added to the department. The capital was Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen).
Erkelenz is a town in the Rhineland in western Germany that lies 15 kilometres southwest of Mönchengladbach on the northern edge of the Cologne Lowland, halfway between the Lower Rhine region and the Lower Meuse. It is a medium-sized town and the largest in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Burgundian Circle was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire created in 1512 and significantly enlarged in 1548. In addition to the Free County of Burgundy, the Burgundian Circle roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., the areas now known as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg and adjacent parts in the French administrative region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. For most of its history, its lands were coterminous with the holdings of the Spanish Habsburgs in the Empire.
Geldern is a city in the federal German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is part of the district of Kleve, which is part of the Düsseldorf administrative region. The nearby Dutch province of Gelderland is named after this city.
William of Jülich-Cleves-Berge was a Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1539–1592). William was born in and died in Düsseldorf. He was the only son of John III, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, and Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Berg. William took over rule of his father's estates upon his death in 1539. Despite his mother having lived until 1543, William also became the Duke of Berg and Jülich and the Count of Ravensberg.
Arnold of Egmond was Duke of Guelders, Count of Zutphen.
Straelen is a municipality in the district of Cleves, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located near the border with the Netherlands, approx. 10 km north-east of Venlo.
The United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire between 1521 and 1666, formed from the personal union of the duchies of Jülich, Cleves and Berg.
The Guelders Wars were a series of conflicts in the Low Countries between the Duke of Burgundy, who controlled Holland, Flanders, Brabant, and Hainaut on the one side, and Charles, Duke of Guelders, who controlled Guelders, Groningen, and Frisia on the other side.
The Treaty of Venlo of 7 September 1543 concluded the Guelders Wars (1502–1543), and the definitive acquisition of the Duchy of Guelders and the adjoining County of Zutphen by the House of Habsburg, adding them to the Habsburg Netherlands. William V, Duke of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg had to relinquish his claims to Guelders and Zutphen in favour of the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V of Habsburg.
Prussian Guelders or Prussian G(u)elderland was the part of the Duchy of Guelders ruled by the Kingdom of Prussia from 1713. Its capital was Geldern.
William was Duke of Guelders, as William I, from 1377 and Duke of Jülich, as William III, from 1393. William was known for his military activities, participating in the Prussian crusade five times and battling with neighbors in France and Brabant throughout his rule. His allies included Holy Roman Emperors, Charles IV and Wenceslaus, Richard II of England, and Conrad Zöllner von Rothenstein, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. During his reign the duchies of Guelders and Jülich were temporarily unified.