Coevorden is a city and municipality in the south-southeast of the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. The municipality has 35,303 inhabitants (1 August 2020, source: CBS) and has an area of 300 km² (of which 2.81 km² is water). The city itself had 15,565 inhabitants on January 1, 2020.
On November 26, 944, Emperor Otto I the
Great donated "the right of forest" (the right to hunt) in the Pagus
Thriente to Bishop Balderik of Utrecht. This brought the region
under the rule of the Utrecht diocese.
The first mention of
the place name is found in 1036, in the name of Fredericus van
Coevorden. The first written mention (on a charter) of Coevoorde
dates from 1148. The name indicates (like for example Oxford and
Ochsenfurt) a place where farmers let their cows pass through a
river via a ford (cow ford). The name Bosporus means the same but
has a mythological origin.
In 1141
Bishop Hartbert van Bierum, his brother Ludolf van Bierum, invested
with the hereditary dignity of viscount van Coevorden. This gives
Hartbert a loyal vassal, perhaps even a stooge who runs the area.
After Hartbert died in 1150, the bond between the diocese of Utrecht
and the Stadt and Heerlickheyt Coevorden quickly weakened.
Ludolf was succeeded by his sons Volker van Coevorden and Rudolf I
van Coevorden. They behaved like independent gentlemen. In 1182 this
led to a siege of the motte by Bishop Baudouin of Holland, in which
the city was largely destroyed. As the new lord of the castle, Count
Otto van Bentheim was appointed by the bishop. The Lords of
Coevorden and Count Otto would dispute each other for many years to
come. War was waged again between 1186 and 1192, during which Rudolf
I van Coevorden was taken hostage. Volker meanwhile managed to
conquer the castle containing Otto's family. With that, the lords
were strong enough to claim power. Rudolf I van Coevorden was
recognized as viscount of Coevorden. Volker settled in Ansen and was
the father of Rudolf II van Coevorden, who would become viscount of
Coevorden.
Coevorden was strategically on
the route from Groningen to Münster, making the city a prosperous
fortified city. The bishop of Utrecht, Otto van Lippe, consecrated
in 1215, decided to strengthen the diocese's claims to the area, not
least to secure or increase its income from the area. Otto, however,
met great opposition, because the farmers supported their lord
Rudolf II van Coevorden. This resulted in the battle of Ane, in
which Otto lost his life and the Drenthe farmers under the command
of Rudolf II van Coevorden achieved a resounding victory.
After the death of Otto van Lippe, Wilbrand van Oldenburg was
consecrated bishop, and Wilbrand also went to war against the
rebellious Drents, enlisting the help of the Frisians. But this
battle, the Frisian-Drenthe war, was also won by the Drents. In a
later battle, at Peize, the Drenten were eventually defeated, and
Viscount Rudolf II van Coevorden was lured to Hardenberg Castle
under false pretenses. He was captured, tortured, and murdered on
July 25, 1230.
It was seldom a piece of cake between the
bishops and the innkeepers, and the question is whether this had
anything to do with the relocation in 1258 of the Sancta Maria de
Campe or Mariënklooster of Coevorden to a sand ridge in a place
where the center of Assen lies.
In 1288 a
grandson of Rudolf came back to power, and the castleship of the van
Coevordens was restored. Reinoud van Coevorden was the son of
Eufemia, the daughter of Rudolf II, and of Hendrik van Borculo.
Reinoud became the ancestor of a series of strong lords of
Coevorden, a dynasty that would last until 1402. The area of power
extended to Borculo, Diepenheim, Lage (Germany) and Selwerd. They
acquired currency rights and controlled the judiciary in Drenthe.
It was not until the end of the 14th century that bishop
Frederik of Utrecht put an end to the struggles by abolishing the
heredity of the castleship of Coevorden. Frederik made good use of
the unrest among the inhabitants of the area, Reinoud did not make
himself popular with illegal taxes and other crimes. In 1395
Frederik went to war against the lord of Drenthe, but unlike the
battle of Ane, Reinoud could not count on the support of the
farmers. Frederik was recognized by the notables of Coevorden as
lord, and so Reinoud was left alone in the battle. On April 4, 1402,
he relinquished all his rights, and the Van Coevordens withdrew to
their possessions in Twente and the Achterhoek. Coevorden received
city rights on December 31, 1407.
At the beginning of the 16th century, both the Chapel of
Hulsvoort and the Nieuwe Kerk in Coevorden were destroyed. The city
fell into the hands of Rudolf van Munster in 1518, but in 1522 the
city was recaptured by the Geldersen, under the command of Johan van
Selbach. Selbach then controlled all eastern areas, including
Overijssel and Drenthe up to the Groningen seacoast. Until 1536 (the
end of Karel van Gelre's reign) he would remain castor of Coevorden
and drost of Drenthe.
Selbach was responsible for
strengthening the fortifications, but also for sufficient tax
collection for Gelres duke. The latter was not easy for him, not
only because Drenthe was not a rich province, but also because the
Drenten did not like to conform to Gelderland's authority. In a
letter from 1536 Selbach therefore invokes force majeure, because of
the poverty of "your royal grace under the land of Drente".
In the same year 1536 Selbach was forced to hand over the castle and
fortress to Georg Schenck van Tautenburgh, army commander in the
region of Emperor Charles V.
Coevorden was besieged by the Spaniards in the period
from 1581 to 1592. This period began with the Eleven Day Siege in
September 1581 led by George of Lalaing, the Count of Rennenberg.
Coevorden was one of the few fortified cities in the northern
provinces that had not participated in the betrayal of Rennenberg.
When Maurice of Orange managed to expel the Spaniards in 1592, the
city was largely burned down by the Spaniards. Under the leadership
of Francisco Verdugo, the last Spanish governor of the northern
provinces, the Spaniards tried to recapture the city in 1594, but
Prince Maurice's army prevented that.
Coevorden had to be
completely rebuilt. The historical buildings and fortifications that
still exist, the street structure and the star-shaped city moat
therefore largely date from the end of the 16th and the beginning of
the 17th century. The fortifications were designed by Menno van
Coehoorn.
On June 30, 1672 Coevorden was captured by Bernard van Galen, the bishop of Münster. On December 30, 1672, the fortified town was relieved within an hour by Carl von Rabenhaupt, with the help of a map made by the fleeing local schoolmaster Mijndert van der Thijnen, and a rush bridge construction over the frozen water of the city moat. However, the bishop did not give up, and under the leadership of Bommen Berend, Coevorden was again besieged in 1673. At the beginning of October 1673 the bishop tried to dam the Vecht near Gramsbergen and to flood Coevorden. Due to a violent storm and a breakthrough in the dam, 1,400 Munster soldiers drowned. The Coevorden people were rescued just in time.
Population growth came to
a halt in the 18th century. In that period Coevorden was a transit
point for peat skippers, who transported their cargo from the German
and East Drenthe areas to the west of the Netherlands. This function
of the inner harbor of Coevorden ceased to exist when the peat was
excavated. As a relatively large city, Coevorden still had an
important regional function, which, however, was gradually taken
over by Emmen.
Historical facts of this period are the iron
cake riot and the foundation of the Jewish Community in Coevorden.
In 1795 Coevorden was taken by the French, a
period that would last until 1814. The French army was received as a
liberation army, the patriots had built up sufficient support and
the loyalty to Orange was not too great. The Coevorder magistrate
had appointed patriot Berend Slingenberg as secretary, but this did
not prevent the magistrate from being deposed. Slingenberg became
secretary of the Révolutionaire Committee, and was appointed Maire
(mayor) in 1811.
After Napoleon's abdication, the French left
the city in a desolate state on May 3, 1814. 43 houses, 20 barns and
2 mills were destroyed in a fire, with a total damage of 76,000
guilders.
Even after the war, Emmen continued to grow into the most important city in the region, and various companies and institutions moved from Coevorden to Emmen. It was not until the 1980s and 1990s that Coevorden regained its position on the map, with the arrival of the animal feed company IAMS and the construction of a NATO depot. That depot is now in use by the Dutch army.
With the Europark, construction of which started in the mid-1990s
and which is partly being built on German territory, Coevorden wants
to give a new impulse to industry and business in the region. With
this park the aim is to become an important link in the transport of
goods between the western Netherlands and the east and north of
Europe.
In 1998, as part of the municipal reorganization in
Drenthe, the territory of the municipality was expanded with the
former municipalities of Dalen, Oosterhesselen, Sleen and Zweeloo.