History
In 1528, the Holy Roman Empire annexed the Bishopric of Utrecht, and Emperor Charles V immediately ordered the construction of a castle in Utrecht, not only to protect the domain from invasion by the duke of Guelders, but also to retain control over the city's unruly population. Construction began in 1529 and was completed in 1532.
On 8 November 1576, the States General of the Seventeen Provinces ratified an agreement, known as the Pacification of Ghent, to remove Spanish occupying soldiers. In response the castle's Spanish garrison prepared to be besieged by the Dutch rebels, turning the castle's cannons towards the city itself.
By December, the siege was underway and fighting broke out between the Spanish and Dutch. However, the garrison abandoned the castle on 11 February 1577, following negotiations between garrison commander Francesco Fernando d'Avila and Maximilien de Hénin-Liétard, the count of Bossu, who served as temporary Dutch stadholder. The abandonment was part of a general withdrawal agreed upon by the new Governor-General Don Juan one day later, on 12 February.
The citizens of Utrecht demanded that the castle be demolished to prevent the Spanish or other foreign powers from dominating the city again in future. However, the city government opposed demolition, so as not to offend the emperor. On 2 May, the population took the matter into their own hands. According to legend, a group of local women led by Trijn van Leemput stormed the castle and Trijn gave the signal for the castle to be destroyed by removing the first bricks from the castle walls. Despite doubts about the historical accuracy of this tale, a statue of Trijn van Leemput was erected on the Zandbrug bridge [ nl ] in Utrecht in 1955.
The demolition of the castle lasted until 1581. The two western towers remained standing, as they were part of the outer city walls. However, they were also demolished piece by piece in the following centuries; by 1919 they had completely disappeared. The foundations of Vredenburg castle were uncovered during archaeological excavations in 1976 and 1978.
Utrecht is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Netherlands. It has a population of 361,699 as of December 2021.
Haarlem is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe; it is also part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Haarlem had a population of 162,543 in 2021.
The Bishopric of Utrecht was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, in the present-day Netherlands. From 1024 to 1528, as one of the prince-bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire, it was ruled by the bishops of Utrecht. The Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht must not be confused with the Diocese of Utrecht, which extended beyond the Prince-Bishopric and over which the bishop exercised spiritual authority.
The siege of Haarlem was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. From 11 December 1572 to 13 July 1573 an army of Philip II of Spain laid bloody siege to the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, whose loyalties had begun wavering during the previous summer. After the naval battle of Haarlemmermeer and the defeat of a land relief force, the starving city surrendered and the garrison was massacred. The resistance nonetheless was taken as an heroic example by the Orangists at the sieges of Alkmaar and Leiden.
Trijn van Leemput was a Dutch heroine of the Eighty Years' War against Spain. According to local legend in Utrecht, she led a large group of women on May 2, 1577, to the castle of Vredenburg and gave the signal to begin demolishing the castle.
Frederik Schenck van Toutenburg was the first Archbishop of Utrecht (1559–1580). Prior to Schenck's ministry as archbishop, Utrecht was a bishopric with a succession of sixty bishops. The last bishop of Utrecht, prior to Schenck was George van Egmond. After Schenck's death in 1580, the see would remain vacant until Sasbold Vosmeer assumed the archbishopric in 1602.
Maximilien de Hénin-Liétard, Count of Boussu was a soldier and statesman from the Habsburg Netherlands. During the Eighty Years' War he was the royalist stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht from 1567 until he was made a prisoner of war during the Battle on the Zuiderzee in 1573. After being freed under the terms of the Pacification of Ghent he changed sides and became commander in chief of the forces of the States-General of the Netherlands.
Castle Duurstede is a medieval castle in Wijk bij Duurstede in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Egmond Castle, also called the Ruins of Egmond, is a ruined medieval castle in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is located in Egmond aan den Hoef in the municipality of Bergen and lies about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of Alkmaar. The castle dates from the 11th century and is the ancestral seat of the Egmond family, whose members became sovereign Dukes of Guelders, Counts of Egmond and Princes of Gavere, Counts of Buren and Leerdam. It is a national monument of the Netherlands.
The Jacobikerk is a landmark Protestant church in Utrecht, Netherlands. The building is located on the St Jacobsstraat, named for its patron saint St. James the Greater. The church is one of the medieval parish churches of Utrecht, along with the Buurkerk, the Nicolaïkerk and the Geertekerk. Today it is known as the starting place for Dutch pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostella along the Way of St. James. The Dutch Confraternity of St. James is located around the corner on the St. Jacobskerkhof.
The Citadel of Liège was the central fortification of the strategic Belgian city of Liège, Wallonia until the end of the 19th century. It is located in the Sainte-Walburge neighborhood, 111 metres (364 ft) above the Meuse valley. The first citadel was built on the heights overlooking the city in 1255. It was rebuilt in a pentagonal shape by Prince-Bishop Maximilian Henry of Bavaria in 1650. This fortress was destroyed by France shortly afterwards, then rebuilt in 1684. During the Napoleonic Wars, it was given five bastions in the style of Vauban. By the late 19th century the citadel had become obsolete as a fort, replaced by the twelve forts of the Fortified Position of Liège, though it continued in use as a barracks and as a command post for the Fortified Position, contributing to the country's National Redoubt. In the 1970s the citadel was largely destroyed by the construction of a hospital on the site. The southern walls remain. An area on the north side is a memorial to Belgians executed in the citadel by German occupiers in World Wars I and II, while 20th-century bunkers remain on the south side.
The Lines of Contravallation of Gibraltar, known in English as the "Spanish Lines", were a set of fortifications built by the Spanish across the northern part of the isthmus linking Spain with Gibraltar. They later gave their name to the Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción. The Lines were constructed after 1730 to establish a defensive barrier across the peninsula, with the aim of preventing any British incursions, and to serve as a base for fresh Spanish attempts to retake Gibraltar. They played an important role in the Great Siege of Gibraltar between 1779 and 1783 when they supported the unsuccessful French and Spanish assault on the British-held fortress. The siege was ended after the lines of contravallation were attacked by British and Dutch forces under the command of the Governor of Gibraltar, General Augustus Eliot. The attack caused the Spanish forces to retreat and abandon the fortifications and the combined British led forces virtually destroyed all the Spanish gun batteries and the enemy cannon and munitions either captured or destroyed. This attack is still commemorated to this day and is known as 'Sortie Day'.
The Buurkerk is a former church building in Utrecht (city), Netherlands on the Buurkerkhof. The building is the location of the Museum Speelklok, and the entrance is on the Steenweg. It is one of the medieval parish churches of Utrecht, along with the Jacobikerk, the Nicolaïkerk and the Geertekerk.
St. Mary's Church, also called Mariakerk or Maria Maior, was one of five collegiate churches in the Dutch city of Utrecht, the others being St. Martin's Cathedral, St. Salvator's Church, the Pieterskerk, and the Janskerk. It dated from the eleventh century and was considered one of the finest buildings in Romanesque style in the Netherlands.
The Battle of Borgerhout was a battle during the Eighty Years' War, of the Spanish Army of Flanders led by Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, upon a fortified camp at the village of Borgerhout, near Antwerp, where several thousand French, English, Scottish, and Walloon soldiers in service of the recently created Union of Utrecht were stationed. It took place during the reconquest by the armies of Philip II of Spain of the Burgundian Netherlands, whose different provinces had united in 1576 under the Pacification of Ghent to drive out the foreign troops and to grant religious liberty to Protestants.
The following is a timeline of the history of the municipality of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Binckhorst Castle is a 16th and 17th century manor built on top of a demolished medieval castle.
Zandenburg was a famous castle just south of Veere. Nothing remains of it, except some foundations below ground level.
Hellenburg is a ruined castle near Baarland, in Zeeland, Netherlands.
The period between the Pacification of Ghent, and the Unions of Arras and Utrecht constituted a crucial phase of the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish Empire and the rebelling United Provinces, which would become the independent Dutch Republic. Sometimes known as the "general revolt", the period marked the only time of the war where the States–General of all Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands, except Luxemburg, were in joint active political and military rebellion against the Spanish Imperial government through the Pacification of Ghent. The Pacification formulated several agreements amongst the rebellious provinces themselves, and laid down their demands – including the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from the Netherlands, restitution of old rights and privileges, and self-rule – to king Philip II of Spain.
