Gijsbrecht van Amstel Lambertus Zijl Beurs van Berlage Damrak Amsterdam

Gijsbrecht IV of Amstel or Gijsbrecht IV van Amstel ( – ) was a powerful lord in the medieval

County of Holland The County of Holland was a State of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part ...

and a member of the

Van Aemstel family The van Amstel family ( nl, Heren van Amstel) was an influential dynasty in the medieval Netherlands from the twelfth until the fourteenth century. The family developed the Amstelland and held the stewardship in the ecclesiastical districts in t ...

. His territory was

Amstelland Amstelland is the area along the river Amstel in the Netherlands, beginning in South Holland and running north towards Amsterdam in southern North Holland. History Amstelland's history is inextricably linked with the Amstel river and the grow ...

, and his son was .

Life

His family probably originated from

Ouderkerk aan de Amstel Ouderkerk aan de Amstel () is a town in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is largely a part of the municipality of Ouder-Amstel; it lies about 9 km south of Amsterdam. A small part of the town lies in the municipality of Amstelvee ...

, now in the province of

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

, deriving their name from their castle on the

River Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the rive ...

, and tried to create an independent principality between

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...

. To this end Gijsbrecht IV—along with the other powerful lords Zweder of Abcoude, Arnoud of Amstel, and Herman VI of Woerden—instigated a revolt against

Floris V Floris V (24 June 1254 – 27 June 1296) reigned as Count of Holland and Zeeland from 1256 until 1296. His life was documented in detail in the Rijmkroniek by Melis Stoke, his chronicler. He is credited with a mostly peaceful reign, moder ...

, Count of Holland, and

John I, Bishop-Elect of Utrecht John of Nassau, german: Johann von Nassau, nl, Jan van Nassau (died Deventer, 13 July 1309)Cawley.Dek (1970). was a clergyman from the House of Nassau. From 1267 to 1290 he was Bishop-Elect of the Bishopric of Utrecht (german: Stift Utrecht, n ...

. They held lands on the border with the adjacent

Bishopric of Utrecht The Bishopric of Utrecht ( nl, Sticht 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 w ...

—the area of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Abcoude Abcoude () is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. Since 2011 it has been part of the municipality of De Ronde Venen. Population centres The former municipality of Abcoude consisted of the villages Abco ...

IJsselstein IJsselstein () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. IJsselstein received city rights in 1331. IJsselstein owes its name to the river Hollandse IJssel which flows through the city. It is a major commuting s ...

, and

Woerden Woerden () is a city and a municipality in central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, and the fact that it has rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commu ...

—at the expense of the bishop, and were backed by the craftsmen of

, the peasants of Kennemerland—

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...

and surroundings—Waterland, and Amstelland and the

West Frisians The West Frisians or, more precisely, the Westlauwers Frisians ( nl, Friezen or Westerlauwerse Friezen, fy, Friezen or Westerlauwerske Friezen), are those Frisian peoples in that part of Frisia administered by the Netherlands: the Province of ...

. However, when Floris made a treaty with the craftsmen and made concessions to the peasants (Kennemerland was a duneland, where the farmers had far fewer rights then the farmers in the

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

s), the revolt was brought to an abrupt halt. In 1278, Floris captured Gjisbrecht and exiled Herman. The bishop of Utrecht eventually (in 1279 or 1281) also added the lands of the rebellious lords to Floris's territory in retribution. Gijsbrecht changed sides when opportune, and some accounts allege him to have been involved in Floris's later capture and assassination. After his resulting exile, he established himself probably in

Oss OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...

in the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...

. He died in exile in Flanders, though Professor Pim de Boer at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

has found serious, though not entirely conclusive, indications that Gijsbrecht—after his exile, with a few followers—founded Pruissisch Holland, not far from Elbing.

Popular culture

He was the eponymous hero of a play by

Joost van den Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most ...

, '' Gijsbrecht van Aemstel''. This was set during the siege of 1304, and switched him with his son Jan. Through this mistaken-identity, Gijsbrecht has become a hero of Amsterdam, with a statue in the

Beurs van Berlage The Beurs van Berlage is a building on the Damrak, in the centre of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903. It influenced many modernist architects, in part ...

and a city park in southern Amsterdam named after him, the Gijsbrecht van Aemstelpark.

External link

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amstel, Gijsbrecht 04 13th-century criminals 13th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire 1230s births 1300s deaths Nobility of the County of Holland People from Ouder-Amstel