Upper Guelders
Encyclopedia
Guelders
Guelders or Gueldres is the name of a historical county, later duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the Low Countries.-Geography:...
. In the Dutch Revolt
Dutch Revolt
The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...
, it was the only quarter that did not secede from the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
to become part of the Seven United Netherlands
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
, but remained under Spanish
Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...
rule during the Eighty Years' War.
Geography
Within the Low CountriesLow Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
, the counts, later dukes at Geldern
Geldern
Geldern ) is a city in the northwest of the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the district of Cleves, which is part of the Düsseldorfadministrative region.-Location:...
had collected several territories down the Meuse river, which were physically separated from their original territory by those lands along the Lower Rhine
Lower Rhine
The Lower Rhine flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hoek van Holland, Netherlands.Almost immediately after entering the Netherlands, the Rhine splits into many branches. The main branch is called the Waal which flows from Nijmegen to meet the river Meuse; after which it is called Merwede...
which were held by the Dukes of Cleves
Duchy of Cleves
The Duchy of Cleves was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the town of Wesel, bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west...
. The northern territories were administrated within three quarters:
- Zutphen CountyZutphen CountyZutphen county, in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, was formed in the eleventh century as a fief of the Bishop of Utrecht. It has been in personal union with Guelders since the 1130s. Later, it became one of the 4 quarters of Guelders...
, - the VeluweVeluweThe Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts....
region, - the quarter of Nijmegen with the Land of Meuse and Waal and the BetuweBetuweThe Betuwe is an area in the Netherlands in the province of Gelderland...
.
These lower quarters today form the Dutch province of Gelderland
Gelderland
Gelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...
.
The most important cities in Upper Guelders were Geldern
Geldern
Geldern ) is a city in the northwest of the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the district of Cleves, which is part of the Düsseldorfadministrative region.-Location:...
, Venlo
Venlo
Venlo is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands, next to the German border. It is situated in the province of Limburg.In 2001, the municipalities of Belfeld and Tegelen were merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tegelen was originally part of the Duchy of Jülich centuries ago,...
and Roermond
Roermond
Roermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...
. Together with the Duchy of Cleves, the region originally was part of the South Guelderish
South Guelderish
South Guelderish refers to a group of dialects of the Dutch language which are spoken along the Nederrijn in the Netherlands and around the city of Cleves in Germany...
language area, part of the Low Franconian
Low Franconian languages
Low Franconian, Low Frankish, or Istvaeonic, is a group of several West Germanic languages spoken in the Netherlands, northern Belgium , in the northern department of France, in western Germany , as well as in Suriname, South Africa and Namibia that originally descended from Old Frankish.- The...
dialect group
History
In 1471 Duke Arnold of GueldersArnold, Duke of Guelders
Arnold of Egmond was Duke of Guelders, Count of Zutphen. He was son of John II of Egmond and Maria van Arkel....
, stuck in the conflict with his only surviving son Adolf of Egmond
Adolf, Duke of Guelders
Adolf of Egmond was a Duke of Guelders, Count of Zutphen from 1465–1471 and in 1477.He was the son of Arnold, Duke of Guelders and Catherine of Cleves....
, gained the support of the Burgundian
House of Valois-Burgundy
The term "Valois Dukes of Burgundy" is employed to refer to the dynasty which began after John II of France granted the Duchy of Burgundy to his youngest son, Philip the Bold...
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
Burgundian Netherlands
In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands refers to a number of Imperial and French fiefs ruled in personal union by the House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs in the period from 1384 to 1482...
, the later dowry of his daughter Mary the Rich
Mary of Burgundy
Mary of Burgundy ruled the Burgundian territories in Low Countries and was suo jure Duchess of Burgundy from 1477 until her death...
to her husband Archduke Maximilian I of Austria
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
from the House of Habsburg.
In 1492 Duke Arnold's grandson Charles of Egmond
Charles, Duke of Guelders
Charles of Egmond was Duke of Guelders, Count of Zutphen between 1492 and his death. He was the son of Adolf of Egmond and Catharine of Bourbon...
, backed by the local nobility as well as by King Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
, 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
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
to King Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, could not prevail against the Habsburg Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
. In 1543 William officially renounced Guelders in favour of Charles, who attached the duchy to the Seventeen Provinces
Seventeen Provinces
The Seventeen Provinces were a personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 15th century and 16th century, roughly covering the current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North of France , and a small part of Western Germany.The Seventeen Provinces were originally held by...
of the Habsburg Netherlands
Habsburg Netherlands
The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1556/1581 and solely the Southern Netherlands from 1581 to 1794...
. Upon Charles' abdication in 1556, he decreed, that these territories would be inherited by his son King Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
.
After Philip's stern Catholic measures had sparked the Dutch Revolt, the three lower quarters of Guelders joined the Protestant
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
states in the 1579 Union of Utrecht
Union of Utrecht
The Union of Utrecht was a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain....
, 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
Peace of Münster
The Peace of Münster was a treaty between the Dutch Republic and Spain signed in 1648. It was a landmark treaty for the Dutch republic and one of the key events in Dutch history; with it, the United Netherlands finally became independent from the Spanish Crown...
. The upper territory was therefore also called "Spanish Guelders".
Following the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
, by the Treaty of Utrecht
Treaty of Utrecht
The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...
in 1713, Upper Guelders was further divided into:
- Prussian Upper GueldersPrussian GueldersPrussian Guelders or Prussian Gelderland was the part of the Duchy of Guelders ruled by the Kingdom of Prussia from 1713. Its capital was Geldern....
: most part, including the capital Geldern, held by the Kingdom of PrussiaKingdom of PrussiaThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
. The Electors of BrandenburgMargraviate of BrandenburgThe Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806. Also known as the March of Brandenburg , it played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe....
(from 1618: Brandenburg-PrussiaBrandenburg-PrussiaBrandenburg-Prussia is the historiographic denomination for the Early Modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenzollern intermarried with the branch ruling the Duchy of Prussia, and secured succession...
) had already acquired the neighbouring Duchy of Cleves by the 1614 Treaty of XantenTreaty of XantenThe Treaty of Xanten was signed in the Lower Rhine town of Xanten on November 12, 1614 between Wolfgang William, Duke of Palatinate-Neuburg and John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, with representatives from England and France serving as mediators....
ending the War of the Jülich SuccessionWar of the Jülich SuccessionThe War of the Jülich Succession was a conflict that began in 1609 and ended in 1614 with the signing of the Treaty of Xanten.-Background:...
. - States Upper Guelders: Venlo and surroundings became part of the Dutch Republic.
- Jülich Upper Guelders: The town of ErkelenzErkelenz- Geology :The Erkelenz Börde is the northernmost extent of the Jülich Börde and is formed from a loess plateau that has an average thickness of over eleven metres in this area. Beneath it are the gravels and sands of the main ice age terrace, laid down by the Rhine and the Meuse...
passed to the Duchy of JülichDuchy of JülichThe Duchy of Jülich comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay left of the Rhine river between the Electorate of Cologne in the east and the Duchy of Limburg in the west. It had territories on both sides of the river Rur, around its capital...
, held by the Elector Palatines from the House of Wittelsbach. - Austrian Upper Guelders: The land around RoermondRoermondRoermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...
and some adjacent villages remained under Habsburg rule, then the remaining Austrian branch, the later House of LorraineHouse of LorraineThe House of Lorraine, the main and now only remaining line known as Habsburg-Lorraine, is one of the most important and was one of the longest-reigning royal houses in the history of Europe...
. It joined the United States of BelgiumUnited States of BelgiumThe United States of Belgium, part of Brabant.In October, he invaded Brabant and captured Turnhout, defeating the Austrians in the Battle of Turnhout on October 27. Ghent was taken on November 13, and on November 17 the imperial regents Albert of Saxony and Archduchess Maria Christina fled Brussels...
in 1790.
According to the Final Act of the Vienna Congress
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
in 1815, the western part of Prussian Upper Guelders and Austrian Upper Guelders also became part of the Dutch province of Limburg
Limburg (Netherlands)
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...
. The remaining territory was retained by Prussia: Geldern itself was incorporated into the Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg
The Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1815–22. The province was largely made up of the land held by the former United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
, while Erkelenz fell to the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine
Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine
The Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine , or simply known as the Lower Rhine Province was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and existed from 1815 to 1822....
. Both became part of the Prussian Rhine Province
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
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
Monarchy of the Netherlands
The Netherlands has been an independent monarchy since 16 March 1815, and has been governed by members of the House of Orange-Nassau since.-Constitutional role and position of the monarch:...
, joined the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
upon the 1839 Treaty of London.