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 par ...

and a member of the Van Aemstel family. 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 growth ...

, 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 Amstelve ...

, now in the province of North Holland, deriving their name from their castle on the River Amstel, and tried to create an independent principality between

Utrecht 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 Net ...

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, 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 area of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, Abcoude,

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 ...

, 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 and surroundings—Waterland, and Amstelland and the West Frisians. 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 polders), 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 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 research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

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 mos ...

, '' 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 par ...

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