The current province Limburg of the Netherlands only came into existence in 1839, after the finalization of the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands which had begun in 1830. The two Limburgs had been brought together under French revolutionary administration some decades earlier, but they and the surrounding region shared much of their history. For long periods of history however, the region was not united under the same rule. For centuries, the strategic location of the current province, stretching along the Maas river route, made it a much-coveted region among Europe's major powers.
Romans,
Carolingians,
Habsburg Spaniards,
Prussians,
Habsburg Austrians and
France have all ruled parts of Limburg. The first inhabitants of whom traces have been found were
Neanderthals who camped in South Limburg. In
Neolithic times,
flint was mined in underground mines.
Roman era Julius Caesar conquered the area in 53 BC, and wrote that he had extinguished the name of the
Eburones, the inhabitants of most of the area of current Limburg, as a punishment for their revolt under
Ambiorix. The north–south route along the Maas was crossed by the
Via Belgica, a road crossing South Limburg and connecting the two local capitals of
Tongeren and
Cologne.
Mosa Trajectum (Maastricht) and
Coriovallum (Heerlen) were founded by the Romans upon this route. The area became strongly Romanized. Bishop
Servatius introduced Christianity in Roman Maastricht, where he died in 384. Maastricht appears to have taken over from
Tongeren for some time as regional capital for the Romanized and Christian population, before the bishopric was re-established in
Liège, south of Maastricht.
Medieval era . (The dark lines are the modern borders). As Roman authority in the area weakened,
Franks took over from the Romans, but the area came to flourish under their rule, with Cologne continuing to be the most important local capital. The Maas valley, especially the middle and southern part of the current province, formed an important part of the heartland of
Merovingian Austrasia. With the rise of the Carolingian dynasty, who were themselves from this region, the Maas valley became more culturally and politically one of the most important regions in Europe. In 714
Susteren Abbey was founded, as far as is known the first
proprietary abbey in the current Netherlands. The main benefactor was
Plectrude, the consort of
Pepin of Herstal.
Charles Martel was born in nearby
Herstal.
Charlemagne made
Aachen, today a German city which has suburban sprawl stretching into South Limburg, the capital of the
Frankish empire. After the death of Charlemagne, the Frankish dominions were again split between kings. While the Austrasian lands remained a separate "Middle Kingdom", sometimes now referred to as
Lotharingia, in the treaties of
Verdun (843), and
Prüm (855), in the 870
Treaty of Meerssen, signed in South Limburg itself, Lotharingia was divided. The river
Meuse became the border between the
Western- and
Eastern Frankish kingdoms, placing most of the current Dutch province of Limburg on the western boundary of the Eastern Frankish kingdom, with Belgian Limburg in the Western Kingdom. In the
Treaty of Ribemont of 888, the Eastern Kingdom was granted control of the whole of Lotharingia, including all of the modern Netherlands and Luxembourg, and most of modern Belgium. The region of
Thorn, Netherlands was drained and about 975 a swamp nearby the
Roman road between
Maastricht and
Nijmegen.
Bishop Ansfried of Utrecht founded a Benedictine nunnery. This developed from the 12th century into a secular or
convent. The principal of the was the
abbess. She was assisted by a chapter of at most twenty ladies of the highest
nobility. During the period of West Frankish control under the Treaty of Meerssen, effective Frankish power in the area of the current Netherlands more or less collapsed. For two or more years a large
Viking army, operating from a place on or near the Meuse called Ascloa (or Hasloa or Haslon), wrought havoc in the neighbourhood. The damage was such that the emperor,
Charles the Fat was forced to assemble a large multinational army, that in 882 unsuccessfully
besieged this island. In the 10th century, the Eastern kingdom consolidated its control of Lotharingia and became the
Holy Roman Empire. In the first decades of this empire the founding imperial family had close ties to areas in what is today northern Limburg. The emperor
Otto III for instance was born in 980 in
Kessel, practically on the current border between Limburg and
North Rhine-Westphalia, just east from
Gennep. In 1080 in , just north of Gennep,
Norbert of Gennep was born as a son of the count of Gennep. He was the founder of the order of the
Premonstratensians. South Limburg in the early Middle Ages was mainly made up of the lordships of ,
Dalhem, and
Herzogenrath. All of these lands were, however, united with the Duchy of Limburg, under the rule of the
Duchy of Brabant, when they were known collectively as the
Lands of Overmaas. The Duchy of Limburg and its dependencies first came under Brabantian control in 1288, as a result of the
Battle of Worringen, then in the 15th century under the
Duchy of Burgundy. By 1473, the Lands of Overmaas and the Duchy of Limburg formed one unified delegation to the States General of the
Burgundian Netherlands. Both the terms Overmaas and Limburg came to be used loosely to refer to this sparsely populated province of the so-called
Seventeen Provinces. Maastricht was never part of this polity: as a
condominium, sovereignty over this city was held jointly by the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the
Duchy of Brabant. Also, the central and northern part of present-day Limburg belonged to different political entities, notably the
Duchy of Jülich and the
Duchy of Guelders. By the late Middle Ages most of the present day territory of Limburg had been partitioned to the Duchy of Brabant, the Duchy of Gelderland, the Duchy of Jülich, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the
Electorate of Cologne. These dukes,
prince-bishops and
prince-electors were nominal subordinates of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but in practice acted as independent sovereigns who were often at war with each other. These conflicts were often fought in and over Limburg, contributing to its fragmentation and a loss of economic importance. Limburg was the scene of many bloody battles during the
Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), in which the
Dutch Republic threw off
Habsburg Spanish rule. At the
Battle of Mookerheyde (14 April 1574), two brothers of
Prince William of Orange-Nassau and thousands of "
Dutch" mercenaries died. Most Limburgians fought on the Spanish side, being
Catholics and being opposed to the
Calvinist Hollanders.
Early modern era In the early modern era, Limburg was largely divided between the
Spanish Netherlands (the
Austrian Netherlands after 1714),
Prussia, the
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and many small independent
fiefs. In 1673, King
Louis XIV personally commanded the siege of
Maastricht by
French troops. During the siege, one of his brigadiers,
Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan, perished.
19th century The modern boundaries of Dutch Limburg, along with its neighbour, Belgian Limburg, were basically set during the period after the
French Revolution, which erased much of the "" of Europe, with all its old boundaries and titles. These two provinces were part of a new French , named (like many ) after the river running through it, "", meaning simply "lower Maas". Following the
Napoleonic Era, the great powers (the
United Kingdom,
Prussia, the
Austrian Empire, the
Russian Empire and
France) left the region to the new
United Kingdom of the Netherlands in the
Congress of Vienna in 1815. A new province was formed which was to receive the name "Maastricht" after its capital. The first king,
William I, who did not want the medieval name to be lost, insisted that it be changed to "
Province of Limburg". As such, the name of the new province was derived from the old Duchy of Limburg that had existed until 1795 on the east bank of the Meuse river. When the
Catholic and
French-speaking Belgians split away from the mainly
Calvinist northern Netherlands in the
Belgian Revolution of 1830, the Province of Limburg was at first almost entirely under Belgian rule. However, by the
1839 Treaty of London, the province was divided in two, with the eastern part going to the Netherlands and the western part to Belgium, a division that remains today. With the Treaty of London, what is now the Belgian
Province of Luxembourg was handed over to Belgium and removed from the
German Confederation. To appease Prussia, which had also lost
access to the Meuse after the Congress of Vienna, the Dutch province of Limburg (excluding the cities of
Maastricht and
Venlo because without them Limburg's population equalled that of the Province of Luxembourg, 150,000), was joined to the German Confederation between 5 September 1839 and 23 August 1866 as the
Duchy of Limburg. On 11 May 1867, the Duchy, which from 1839 on had been
de jure a separate polity in personal union with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was reincorporated into the latter with the
1867 Treaty of London, though the term "Duchy of Limburg" remained in some official use until February 1907. Another idiosyncrasy survives today: the head of the province, referred to as the "King's Commissioner" in other provinces, is addressed as "Governor" in Limburg.
20th century The
Second World War cost the lives of many civilians in Limburg, and a large number of towns and villages were destroyed by bombings and artillery battles. Various cemeteries, too, bear witness to this dark chapter in Limburg's history. Almost 8,500
American soldiers, who perished during the liberation of the Netherlands, lie buried at the
Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in
Margraten. Other big war cemeteries are to be found at
Overloon (
British soldiers) and the
Ysselsteyn German war cemetery was constructed in the Municipality of
Venray for the 31,000
German soldiers who died. According to the research of Herman van Rens, the residents of Limburg were especially active in hiding local and refugee Jews during the
Holocaust, to the extent that the Jewish population even increased during the war. Jews in hiding were three times as likely to survive in Limburg as in Amsterdam. In December 1991, the
European Community (now
European Union) held a summit in Maastricht. At that summit, the "Treaty on European Union" or so-called
Maastricht Treaty was signed by the European Community member states. With that treaty, the European Union came into existence.
Anthem Limburg mijn Vaderland (Limburg my Fatherland) is the official
anthem of both Belgian and Dutch Limburg. ==Language==