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The Lands of Overmaas (Dutch: Landen van Overmaas; French: Pays d'Outre-Meuse) were a collection of lordships near Limburg in the Low Countries which were attached to the Duchy of Brabant and existed from the 13th to 18th centuries.

Etymology

The territories' rulers, the Dukes of Brabant, called their possessions in the area Landen van Overmaas, meaning the "countries on the other side of the Meuse". This was because, from their perspective from their residence in Brussels, the area was on the "other side" (that is, the right bank) of the river Meuse.

History

The Lands of Overmaas were a collection of small medieval lordships in the vicinity of Limburg, and located between the cities of Liège, Maastricht and Aachen. They comprised the separate Lands of Valkenburg, 's-Hertogenrade and Dalhem and included the towns of Gangelt and Waldfeucht.

Prior to the end of the 13th century, the lordships were attached to the Duchy of Limburg. In 1283, the last independent ruler of Limburg, Duchess Ermingarde, died, provoking the War of the Limburg Succession. The conflict was concluded with the victory of John I, Duke of Brabant at the Battle of Worringen in 1288. The Duchy of Limburg and its dependent territories then became possessions of the Duchy of Brabant. It is at the time of the acquisition by Brabant that the area became known as the "Lands of Overmaas".

Although the Lands of Overmaas remained in personal union with the Dukes of Brabant (as was the Duchy of Limburg), they were rarely under their control as they were frequently offered as security to the duke's creditors. At the end of the 14th century, the duke pledged the Lands to John of Gronsfeld and Rainald of Schoonvorst as security for large debts. In 1388 and 1389, Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy bought out the debts and acquired the Lands. This opened the way for the Valois dukes of Burgundy to acquire Brabant and expand the Burgundian Netherlands. The Lands remained part of the Burgundian territories during the 15th century.

After the Reformation, the area remained Catholic and never underwent a major influx of Calvinists in the way that nearby Maastrict did. In 1648, the Lands were partitioned between the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic in such a way as to create what Benjamin J. Kaplan called a "complex patchwork...with some districts forming isolated islands". As a result, the area became subject to jurisdictional disputes and competing territorial claims. Settlement of a small Calvinist minority did take place in areas controlled by the Dutch Republic. The privileged position of the settlers attracted resentment from the Catholic majority. Unlike anywhere else in the Republic, simultaneum, that is the sharing of churches by Calvinists and Catholics, was mandated.

In 1795, Revolutionary France annexed the southern Low Countries, and feudal land rights were abolished. The Lands of Overmaas were, therefore, integrated into the new département system, and split between the departments of Ourthe and Meuse-Inférieure (Neder-Maas). After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the area was then partitioned between the new Kingdom of the Netherlands and Rhenish Prussia.

References

1. ^ Hof 2019, p. 14.
2. ^ Stein 2017, p. 27.
3. Willemyns 2013, p. 21.
4. Kaplan 2019, p. 273.
5. Stein 2017, pp. 29–32.
6. Kaplan 2011, p. 121.
7. Kaplan 2019, pp. 273–274.
8. Price 2014, p. 126.
9. Kaplan 2011, pp. 121–122.
10. Waelkens 2015, p. 298.
11. Cortjaens, De Maeyer & Verschaffel 2008, pp. 12–13.

Bibliography

• Cortjaens, Wolfgang; De Maeyer, Jan; Verschaffel, Tom (2008). "An Upside down World: Regional identity as catalyst for the development of the modern nation states. An introduction.". In Cortjaens, W.; De Maeyer, J.; Verschaffel, T. (eds.). Historism and Cultural Identity in the Rhine-Meuse Region: Tensions Between Nationalism and Regionalism in the Nineteenth Century. Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-90-5867-666-5.
• Hof, Flory-Jan (2019). La Belgique et ses identités régionales: Pays d'Outre-Meuse et Pays d'Arlon. L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-343-17105-0.
• Kaplan, Benjamin J. (2011). "Biconfessionalism in the Netherlands". In Safley, T.M. (ed.). A Companion to Multiconfessionalism in the Early Modern World. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-20697-7.
• Kaplan, Benjamin J. (2019). Reformation and the Practice of Toleration: Dutch Religious History in the Early Modern Era. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-35395-4.
• Price, John L. (2014). Dutch Society: 1588-1713. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-88985-4.
• Stein, Robert (2017). Magnanimous Dukes and Rising States: The Unification of the Burgundian Netherlands, 1380-1480. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-875710-8.
• Waelkens, L. (2015). Amne adverso: Roman Legal Heritage in European Culture. Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-94-6270-054-3.
• Willemyns, Roland (2013). Dutch: Biography of a Language. OUP USA. ISBN 978-0-19-985871-2.

• Limburg (Netherlands)
• Duchy of Brabant