The St. Elizabeth's flood of 1421 was a
flooding of the
Grote Hollandse Waard, an area in what is now the
Netherlands. It takes its name from the
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
of Saint
Elisabeth of Hungary which was formerly 19 November.
It ranks 20th on the list of
worst floods in history.
During the night of 18/19 November 1421 a heavy storm near the
North Sea coast caused the
dikes to break in a number of places and the lower-lying
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 ...
land was flooded. A number of villages were swallowed by the flood and were lost, causing between 2,000 and 10,000 casualties. The dike breaks and floods caused widespread devastation in
Zeeland and
Holland.
The outcome
This flood separated the cities of
Geertruidenberg and
Dordrecht which had previously fought against each other during the
Hook and Cod (civil) wars.
Most of the land remains flooded even since that day.
Reclaimed parts
Most of the area remained flooded for several decades. Reclaimed parts are the island of
Dordrecht, the
Hoeksche Waard island, and north-western
North Brabant (around
Geertruidenberg). Most of the
Biesbosch (a big area of nature in the Netherlands) area has been flooded since.
Cause of the flood
The cause of the flood was a powerful
extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of ...
. Water from the storm in the North Sea surged up the rivers causing the dikes to overflow and break through. The flood reached a large sea arm between south Holland and Zeeland (or Zealand), destroying the
Grote Hollandse Waard. At the lower point where the flood water reached the city of
Dordrecht is the point where flood water still remains today.
See also
*
St. Elizabeth's flood (1404)
*
Hook and Cod wars – dispute between Geertruidenberg and Dordrecht
*
List of floods in the Netherlands
*
Kinderdijk
*
Lists of disasters
References
External links
Deltawerken.com recountingRijksmuseum brief description
indyposted.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Elizabeths flood (1421)
Floods in the Netherlands
15th-century floods
15th century in the Netherlands
15th-century meteorology
European windstorms
Storm tides of the North Sea
1421 in Europe
Holland
History of North Brabant
History of South Holland
History of Zeeland
History of Dordrecht
Medieval weather events