Lands of Overmaas
The Lands of Overmaas (Dutch: Landen van Overmaas) were a collection of lordships near Limburg in the Low Countries which were attached to the Duchy of Brabant and existed from the 13th to 18th centuries.
History
[edit]The Lands of Overmaas comprised the separate Lands of Valkenburg, 's-Hertogenrade and Dalhem[1] and included the towns of Gangelt and Waldfeucht.[2] Located between the cities of Liège, Maastricht and Aachen[3] they were a collection of lordships in the vicinity of Limburg.[2] In the 13th century, they were acquired by the Duke of Brabant[4] at the same time as the Duke acquired the adjacent Duchy of Limburg.[2] Although they remained, along with the Duchy of Limburg, in personal union with the Dukes of Brabant, they were rarely under their control as they were frequently offered as security to the duke's creditors.[2]
At the end of the 14th century, the duke had pledged the Lands entirely to John of Gronsfeld and Rainald of Schoonvorst as security for large debts. In 1388 and 1389, Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy bought out the debts and acquired the Lands. This opened the way for the Valois dukes of Burgundy to acquire Brabant and expand the Burgundian Netherlands.[5]
After the Reformation, the area remained Catholic and never underwent a major influx of Calvinists in the way that nearby Maastrict did.[6] In 1648, the Lands were partitioned between the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic in such a way as to create what Benjamin J. Kaplan called a "complex patchwork...with some districts forming isolated islands".[7] As a result, the area became subject to jurisdictional disputes and competing territorial claims.[8] Settlement of a small Calvinist minority did take place in areas controlled by the Dutch Republic. The privileged position of the settlers attracted resentment from the Catholic majority. Unlike anywhere else in the Republic, simultaneum, that is the sharing of churches by Calvinists and Catholics, was mandated.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ Kaplan 2019, p. 273.
- ^ a b c d Stein 2017, p. 27.
- ^ Willemyns 2013, p. 21.
- ^ Willemyns 2013, p. 12.
- ^ Stein 2017, pp. 29–32.
- ^ Kaplan 2011, p. 121.
- ^ Kaplan 2019, pp. 273–274.
- ^ Price 2014, p. 126.
- ^ Kaplan 2011, pp. 121–122.
Bibliography
[edit]- Kaplan, Benjamin J. (2011). "Biconfessionalism in the Netherlands". In Safley, T.M. (ed.). A Companion to Multiconfessionalism in the Early Modern World. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-20697-7.
- Kaplan, Benjamin J. (2019). Reformation and the Practice of Toleration: Dutch Religious History in the Early Modern Era. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-35395-4.
- Price, John L. (2014). Dutch Society: 1588-1713. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-88985-4.
- Stein, Robert (2017). Magnanimous Dukes and Rising States: The Unification of the Burgundian Netherlands, 1380-1480. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-875710-8.
- Willemyns, Roland (2013). Dutch: Biography of a Language. OUP USA. ISBN 978-0-19-985871-2.