Zealand

Zealand (Nl) Provincie Zeeland
Details	Details
Location
Information
Country	Netherlands
Chief town	Middelburg
Area	2 933.89 km
Total population	380 984 inhab. ( 2009 )
Density	213.18 inhabitants / km
Religion	Protestant 30% Catholic 20% Muslim 1.5%
ISO 3166-2	NL-ZE
Official site	http://www.zeeland.nl
Country and Administration
Queen's Commissioner	Karla Peijs (CDA) Since 1March 2007
change

Zeeland literally is a coastal province in south-western Netherlands , bounded on the west by the North Sea and the southern border Belgian.

The islands and peninsulas that make up the Zealand are:

• Zuid-Beveland (peninsula)
• Walcheren (peninsula)
• North Beveland (island)
• Tholen (peninsula)
• Schouwen-Duiveland (island)
• Sint Philipsland (peninsula)

The remaining portion that is neither an island or a peninsula, and whose only land access to the rest of the Netherlands was done until 2003 via Belgium , called Flanders Zealand (Zeeuws Vlaanderen). Since that year, the Western Scheldt tunnel that leads from Terneuzen to Borsele , Zeeland Flanders directly connects with the rest of the country.

The chief town of the province is Middelburg (Middelburg). Flushing (Vlissingen) is a major seaport, as Terneuzen. Other major cities are Hulst , Goes and Zierikzee. The population is approximately 380,000.

In most of the province, the population speaks the dialect Zealand and Hulst speaking Flemish East. In large cities, the dialect is lost gradually but 60% of New Zealanders still use it daily.

Major diking of the Delta have linked the four main islands and peninsulas and to shelter land often located below sea level

Summary 1 History 1.1 Antiquity 1.2 Middle Ages 1.3 Period Contemporary 2 Towns in the province of Zeeland 3 Notes 4 See also 5 Bibliography

History

Antiquity

The earliest traces of occupation of Zealand date back to the Celtic and Roman. In 52 BC. BC, Julius Caesar was able to submit Menapii who then occupied that region. The Gallia Belgica , which was part of Zeeland, was located on the trade route that connected the Germania Inferior (particularly Cologne ) with the Britannia and had thus some interest.

Nehalennia goddess is a Celtic or pre-Germanic whose cult was protected by the Romans during the ^second century and ^third century on the territory of the People Frisiavons , currently the province of Zeeland.

During the ^fourth century, the Roman Empire declined. At the same time, it is assumed that New Zealand sank by more and more in the North Sea. This lasted until ^the sixth century and caused the exodus of the population. In the late sixth ^century, small colonies of merchants appeared again and it is assumed that this time the newcomers were Frisians.

Middle Ages

At the Treaty of Verdun ( 843 ), the islands of Zealand fell to Lothair ^I. . At the Treaty of Ribemont it passed the eastern kingdom.

In ^the tenth century , Thierry II of West Friesland possessed Zealand . Around 1018 , King Henry II took Walcheren to Thierry III and handed it to the Count of Flanders. This fee included five islands: Walcheren itself, Zuid-Beveland , Noord-Beveland , Borsele and Wolphaartsdijk . The possession of this part of Zeeland by the Counts of Flanders was confirmed in 1056 by Henri IV . It was therefore included in the imperial Flanders.

In 1076 , Robert the Frisian gave to his son- Thierry V of Holland 's southern islands of Zealand, which now formed for the counts of Holland, a fief of Flanders they reported . In return, the Earl recovered the country Waes .

Around 1157 , conflicts arose between Count Florent III of Holland and merchants Flemish. Florent had created on the Oosterschelde in Geervliet a tonlieu which would seriously strain the transportation. Philippe d'Alsace , which assured the government of Flanders while his father was at the crusade , led a naval expedition against the Count of Holland and returned victorious .

This war began a few years later. Florent, beaten and taken prisoner, was brought back to Bruges where he was detained for two years. The court of peers of Flanders pronounced the confiscation of fiefs he held from the count, that is to say Zealand islands .

In 1168 alone, through the mediation of the Earl of Cleves , the Count of Gelderland and the old Thierry himself, a treaty was reached between Philip and Florence. He devotes anew the rights of Flanders on the islands between the Scheldt and Hedenzee ( Oosterschelde current). Count of Holland stands for Zeeland, the vassal of the Count of Flanders . Count of Holland could not grant exemption Zealand delivery only with the consent of the Count of Flanders. The same competition was essential for donations. The vacant property confiscated or were to be shared between the two princes, as well as income of the five islands. However, the two princes had each of freeholds important in southern New Zealand .

The agreement was only passenger, and the counts of Holland did not cease to make efforts to shake off their subjection weighed. Thierry VII had managed to get Henry VI restored the right of the tonlieu Geervliet and to submit the Flemish merchants ( 1195 ), Baldwin IX should consider this as a breach of the peace of 1168 , and war broke out again, but the Count of Flanders was defeated ( 1197 ). However, Thierry recognized his suzerainty .

At his death in 1203 , Count Louis of Loon , who had married his daughter Ada and who was playing in Holland to William 's uncle, his wife, sought the support of Flanders, by a treaty dated 31 December 1204 and concluded with the regent Philippe de Namur , brother of Baldwin IX, it even extended to the northern islands of Zealand Flemish stronghold. It puts into effect the count Zealand land located between the Scheldt and the Meuse , the inhabitants will be required, as were those already Walcheren (that is to say the five southern islands) to get to Bruges the throws of the count. Louis Loon takes half of that territory as a fief of the latter .

If the Countess Ada, heiress of Holland, died without descendants, Walcheren returned to Flanders, which means that the nomination of Robert the Frisian dating would in this case, extinction wiped out by the fief .

In 1206 , Philip of Namur gave a choice between two suitors, Louis of Loon and William of Holland. He assigned the first Holland and four islands: Scherpenisse , Duiveland , Stavenisse , Dreischor , to William, the remainder of the land situated on the left bank of the Meuse, including the southern islands of Zealand .

Louis Loon failed, despite the support of Flanders, to uphold his rights and he had to abandon all countries to Dutch William ^I. He died in 1218 .

Florent IV , which in 1222 had succeeded William ^I, gave its own authority and without the consent of the Count of Flanders, charters to municipal Westkapelle and Domburg and he took improperly title Count of Zeeland. In 1226 , however, he had to conclude a treaty by which he declared all of the rights that the counts of Flanders had previously exercised in common with the Counts of Zeeland Zeeland .

William II , son of Florence during the minority which remained dormant hostilities, "continued the fight to 1246 , he gave himself to turn the title of Count of Zeeland and married his sister Alix Jean Avesnes. The two brothers-attacked Rupelmonde : it was reviving the pretensions of the House of Holland on the country Waes .

But when William was elected king of the Romans in opposition to Frederick II (October 1247 ), he would probably not over-complicate his task by drawing on the Dutch forces in Flanders, and he allowed his brother Florent, who administered to him the country to deal with Marguerite. Peace concluded on 7 July 1248 was confirmed by William II on August 3 and more especially in the course of September of that year. This act does not alter the situation that had existed for eighty years, he confined himself to make sure guarantees for the future .

A difficulty arose: William refused to take the oath of vassalage, which seemed inconsistent with its sovereign rights, he declared, however, explicitly, that such failure could not be any alteration to the suzerainty of Flanders ( 19 May 1250 ) .

Nevertheless, many challenges were on the interpretation of subjection Zealand, and Margaret thought it necessary to make clear the same day in Brussels , attended by the Bishop of Albano, legate of the Holy See , the bishops of Cambrai and Chalons and a court of lords. The decision explicitly prohibits the Count of Holland to create his chief of free towns in Zealand Flanders, any court is subject to contest the bailiff of the countess, the definition of revenue sharing between the two princes is significantly extended .

William, at that time did not protest against these requirements. But in Germany soon after the death of Frederick II, he thought himself strong enough to break a lance with Flanders, he changed his attitude. Margaret, that her refusal of homage had replied with a similar refusal to imperial fiefs , was declared by a sentence in the diet of Frankfurt on 11 July 1252 , forfeited the rights that Frederick II had accepted in July 1245 .

An open war then engages, Marguerite attack Zeeland, his son Guy and John, defeated at Westkapelle ( ¹ July 1253 ), remain prisoners (until 1256 ) .

The death of William II ( 28 January 1256 ) changed the situation. He left an infant son, Florent V , including his brother, also named Florence, had the guardianship .

Peace was negotiated in the same year Peronne by Louis IX between Marguerite one hand, Holland and Avesnes other. Said of Peronne ( 24 September 1256 ) was the basis of the treaties concluded on October 13 1256 in Brussels and 22 November 1257 .

Regarding Zealand, Margaret was making significant concessions, which it justified by common projects between the two families. Florent, guardian, was to marry one of the granddaughters of the Countess, if he died without an heir, his nephew, in turn, would receive a daughter of Gui de Dampierre, and even if the marriage would remain sterile, Matilda, daughter of William II, a husband for a son of Gui .

Marguerite invested Florent, the head of its supervisory and on behalf of his ward, all the land, between the Scheldt and Hedenzee ( Oosterschelde current), the counts of Holland, his predecessors, could claim as their own domain is to say, obviously the freeholds primitive on which they had to recognize the suzerainty Flemish again, she handed him personally in fee, as the dowry of his granddaughter, the field Zealand that the counts of Flanders had always possessed, leaving at the same time on the field the prerogatives and rights of every kind they had hitherto exercised directly .

Florent eldest died at the 24 March 1258 , before he married Princess Flemish who had been promised, and it was his nephew Florent V qu'chut Beatrix de Dampierre .

However, it had enacted a general charter applicable to the entire Zealand, that is to say both the northern islands to those of the Flemish movement. There is thus the agreement of 1256 had given the whole sea area a unit that had failed so far and he ended the direct intervention of the Count of Flanders in its administration .

Florent V , who was then married Beatrix, daughter of Gui de Dampierre , was not long before having to turn into conflict with his stepfather about New Zealand, and although he had contracted an alliance with Edward ^I of England , then he sought the support of Philip the Fair , but he was murdered in 1296 .

When his young son John ^I succeeded him, Gui was brought to secure the support of Holland, to renounce its rights on the islands of Zeeland. He did so by an agreement of 4 March 1299. However, the waiver was to take effect only if there existed direct heirs of the Count of Holland, and she was allowed to lapse if the estate was vested in a collateral line .

This is precisely what happened: this year, John ^I was carried away by the disease ( 10 November 1299 ) and its Member States passed the house Avesnes. Avesnes John II , Count of Hainault , was son of Alice of Holland, sister of William II .

Gui immediately claimed the suzerainty of the southern Zealand, but he soon had in 1296 sold his rights to his son Guyot , who took the title of Count of Zeeland. The campaign began this prince in 1303 was initially successful, and he even succeeded in capturing most of Holland, but he soon lost his advantage and fell into the hands of his opponents. Guyot is nevertheless gives the title of Count of Zealand until 1310 .

In that year, William III of Holland-Hainaut , who had succeeded his father John II Avesnes, appears to have recognized the subordination of ancient Zealand islands in Flanders. Already, 11 January 1309 , King Henry VII , confirming to Robert de Bethune possession of the Imperial Flanders , including the fief included Zealand .

This interminable quarrel was finally settled in 1323. Charles le Bel , who had managed to cling to both Louis de Nevers and William of Hainault, they imposed his arbitration. The treaty of March 6 1323 , which consecrated the abandonment of the house Avesnes all claims to Flanders imperial emancipation on the other hand definitely Zealand suzerainty of Flanders. Louis de Nevers renounced even freeholds Zealand on which the death of his cousin John ^I of Holland could have assured him of rights .

For his part, Jean de Namur declared in 1327 , he declined to accept any claim on the inheritance of his half-brother Guy of New Zealand .

Thus was solved the issue of five islands that Baldwin IV had received from Henry II , as Robert the Frisian, was subservient to his son- Thierry V , and had stopped throwing discord between Holland and Flanders .

Contemporary Period

With the development of railway network in the Netherlands, the islands of Zuid-Beveland and Walcheren were connected by dykes to the province of North Brabant in the nineteenth ^century. Since 1870 , Middelburg , Vlissingen and Goes are connected by rail to Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal.

During the night of Jan. 31 at ¹ February 1953 , Zealand was hit by a natural disaster : under the effect of high tides, coupled with low atmospheric pressure, a tidal wave broke the levees in several places, submerging islands. 1 865 people died and 500,000 were affected when the greatest catastrophe of the post-war Netherlands. To avoid recurrence of such disasters in future, the Delta Plan was adopted in 1958. This plan included the construction of four major dams and more dams secondary for close to estuaries. These dams were built from 1960 and they had the beneficial effect of significantly improving links with the rest of the province of the Netherlands , the dam also serves as a communication channel. On the other hand, all these dams reduced the coast 700 km, creating freshwater reservoirs, halting land salinity, forming lakes for boating and avoiding floods. In 1987 the project was ended with the completion of the dam Oosterscheldedam (or "barrier of the Oosterschelde ") that connects the islands of Schouwen-Duiveland and North Beveland. Equipped with a lock and valves, we can keep the salinity level necessary for biological balance in the estuary and the activity of the oyster. The economic and social structure of the islands of Zealand was heavily modified since with these new permanent access roads to the mainland. Indeed, the previously isolated areas are now easily accessible by car, which also enabled the rapid development of tourism.

Municipalities of the Province of Zeeland

1. Borsele 2. Goes 3. Hulst 4. Kapelle 5. Middelburg

6. Noord Beveland 7. Reimerswaal 8. Schouwen-Duiveland 9. Sluis 10. Terneuzen

11. Tholen 12. Veere 13. Flushing