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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TUM-VAN |
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UTRECHT , a city of Holland, capital of the province of Utrecht, on the Crooked Rhine, which here divides into the1 Bishop Mathew (b. 1855) about the year 1892 claimed and for a while assumed the title of earl of Llandaff (sic), as grandson of Arnold Nesbit Mathew (d. 182o), who was said to have been the eldest son of the first earl of Llandaff, though neither he nor his eldest son ever claimed the title (see G. E. C(okayne)), Complete Peerage; corrigenda to vol. v. in vol. viii. p. 450). Old Rhine and the Vecht. Pop. (1go5) 114,321. It is an important junction station 22 m. by rail S.S.E. of Amsterdam. Tramways connect it with Vreeswyk on the Lek (where are the large locks of the Merwede canal), Amsterdam, and by way of De Bilt with Zeist, and thence with Arnhem. It is a picturesque and interesting old town with more regular streets and shady squares and fewer canals than most Dutch towns. It is an important fortress, forming the principal point d'appui of the line of defensive inundations called the " New Holland Water Line," in addition to its "position as a railway centre. The defences consist of an inner line of works which preserve the place against surprise, and of an outlying chain of detached forts of fairly modern construction, forming roughly two-thirds of a circle of three miles radius. Of these the works facing the east would in war time cover the assembly of troops destined to operate outside the Water Line, while those of the north and south fronts would be surrounded by inundations and serve chiefly to control the sluices. The line of the ancient ramparts, demolished in 183o, is now only marked by the Singel, or outer canal, which surrounds the oldest part of the city, with pleasant gardens and promenades laid out on the inside. Two canals, the Oude and the Nieuwe Gracht, intersect the town from end to end. On the Oude Gracht the roadway and quay are on different levels, the roadway lying over vaults, which open on the quay wall
worship , so that the effect of its slender columns is spoilt. It contains the monuments of Admiral van Gent (d. 1672) and of Bishops Guy of Hainaut (d. 1317) and George of Egmont (d. 1559), while in the crypt are preserved the hearts of the German emperors Conrad IT. (1039) and Henry V. (1125). The Roman Catholic cathedral of St Catherine dates from 1524 and has been restored in modern times. Other Churches of very early foundation in Utrecht are the Pieterskerk and the Janskerk. Attached to the Domkerk by fine old Gothic cloisters is the university, which was founded in 1634 and enlarged in 1894. The students number some 750, and there are five faculties of theology, law, medicine, mathematics and science, and letters. The aula (restored in 1879) was originally the chapter-house' of the cathedral. Connected with the university are a valuable ibrary, occupying the palace built for Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, in 1807 and containing upwards of 200,000 volumes and MSS.; a museum of natural history; an ophthalmic institute; physical and chemical laboratories; a veterinary school; a botanic garden; and an observatory. The archiepiscopal museum (1872) contains examples of all branches of sacred art in the Netherlands. In the Museum Kunstliefde is a small picture-gallery, chiefly remarkable for some pictures by Jan Scorel (1495-1562); the museum of antiquities contains a miscellaneous collection. Other buildings of interest
Hall
hall
The country round about Utrecht is pretty and plentifully studded with country houses, especially on the road to Arnhem. Close by, on the north-east, is the village of De Bilt, the seat of the Dutch Meteorological Institute. In this parish was formerly situated the famous Benedictine
Utrecht (i.e. Oude Trecht or Old Ford, rendered-in Latin documents Vetus Trajectum) is a city of great antiquity and much historic interest
The earliest authentic record of the town is that of the building of a chapelafterwards destroyed by the heathen Frisiansby Dagobert I., king of the Franks, in 636; but the importance of the place began when St Willibrord (q.v.), the apostle of the Frisians, established his see there. This fact determined the development of the city. The bishop's seat had to be fortified against the incursions of the heathen Frisians and Northmen, and the security thus afforded attracted population till, after the destruction of its rival Dorestad by the Normans in the 9th century, Utrecht became the chief commercial centre of the northern Netherlands. Bishop Balderic (A.D. 918976) was the real founder of the prosperity of the town. On his accession to the see Utrecht had just been sacked by the Northmen. He succeeded in driving the raiders away, rebuilt the walls, and during the fifty-eight years of his episcopate the town grew and prospered. Its gradual acquisition of civic rights followed the same line of development as in the German episcopal cities. At first the bishop, holding immediately of the Empire, was supreme. In feudal subordination to him a royal count, who was also Vogt (advocatus) of the cathedral church of St Martin, had his seat at Utrecht as the chief town of the Gouw (Gau, pagus) of Ifterlake. In the 11th century a burgrave (chatelain, castellanus), who was an episcopal officer, is found exercising jurisdiction in the city as well as the Vogt. Bishop Godebald (11221127) granted to the inhabitants of Utrecht and of Muiden, the neighbouring port on the Zuider Zee, their first privileges, which were confirmed on the nand of June 1122 by the emperor Henry V., who died at Utrecht in 1125. The extant imperial charter does not specify what were the municipal rights that were conceded, but it is certain that at this time they were very limited. The magistrates, the Schout or high bailiff and his assessors, the Schepenen (scabini, echevins), were nominated by the burgrave from the order of knights. In 1196 we read for the first time of councillors (consules, consiliarii, adjurati) as assessors of the magistrates, but these, who a little later were known as the Raad or council, were also nominated. The position was simplified when, in 1220, Albert van Cuyck, the last of the hereditary burgraves, sold his rights to the bishop. These ecclesiastical princes were churchmen in little but name, and their desire to be absolute rulers found itself confronted by the determination of the burghers to secure greater independence. As the 13th century advanced, the council, representing the wealthy and powerful gild of merchants, began to take a larger share in the government, and to restrict more and more the direct exercise of the episcopal authority. Of the rise of the craft gilds in Utrecht there is no record. They appear suddenly as fully developed organized corporations, able to impose their will upon bishop and aristocracy. All through the 13th century a continual struggle went on, but at last the gilds were victorious and were able to secure in the Gildebrief of 1304, confirmed by the bishop in 1305, a new constitution for the city. According to this, as emended by a later Gildebrief of 1347, the existing board of seven Schepenen were to retain office for life, but the new ones, elected yearly, were in future to be chosen by the Raad either in or outside the gilds. The Raad itself was to be chosen by the aldermen of the gilds. Two aldermen, later styled burgomasters, were to preside, the one over the Schepenen, the other over the Raad, sharing this presidency with two episcopal officials. The Schout was still to be nominated by the bishop from among the knights, but his powers were now comparatively insignificant. The two chief aldermen of the gilds, with the two episcopal official presidents above mentioned, together were to form the supreme government of the city. The victory of the democratic principle was entirely new in the Netherlands, though it had been anticipated in Florence, and was perhaps inspired by Italian example. In all other cities of the Netherlands the craft gilds remained in humble subjection to a council co-opted from a limited number of wealthy patrician families. In Utrecht, however, power was henceforth concentrated in the gilds, which became not only trade but political associations, which together constituted the sovereign community. In this government, though the Schepenen retained a dignified precedence, all power was practically concentrated in the popularly elected Raad, even the estates of the see (Sticht) had nothing to say in the city." The new liberties, as might be expected, did not tend to improve the relations between the town of Utrecht and its ecclesiastical sovereign; and the feud
movement
Au'rH0RlrIEs.Pieter Bondam, Charterboek der Hertogen van Gelderland, &c., orig. documents with notes (1783); Codex diplomaticus Neerlandicus, tome i. (Utrecht, 1848)the documents of the first part concern the trade of Utrecht; De Geer van Oudegain, Het oude Trecht (1875) ; W. Junghans, " Utrecht im Mittelalter (in Forschungen zur deutsch. Desch. ix. 513-52D); Laurent P. C. van Bergh, Handboek der Middel Nederlandsche Geographie (Leiden, 1852) ; Karl Hegel, Stadee der Germanischen Volker im Mittelalter ( Leipzig
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