GUELDERLAND, Gelderland, or Guelders (in Dutch Cerderla n d or Celre, in German Geldern, and in Latin Celdria) i formerly a duchy of the empire, bounded by Friesland, Westphalia, Brabant, Holland, and the Zuydersee. At the beginning of the Christian era the land was held by Batavians and Chama vians, and a few centuries later both Saxons and Franks were added to its population. The Carolingian kings ruled over it by means of a number of counts, among whom those of Hameland, Teisterbant (Testrebante), and Nimeguen were the most prominent; but hitherto it has not been discovered how these counts are connected with the later dynasty of the counts of Guelderland and Zutphen, which makes its appearance in the 11th century. There is documentary proof at Braunweiler of the existence of a Count Otto at the end of the 10th century, and a charter of 1096 is sealed by Gerhard of Gelder. Count Gerhard II. of Gelder married Ermgardof Zutphen, and their son Henry succeeded to the double inheritance. Both Henry (1131-1182) and his son and successor Otto I. (1182-1207) considerably extended their dopιains, and Otto deserves to be remembered for the civic rights which by a happy innovation he bestowed on the town of Zutphen in 1190. Gerhard III. (1207-1229) obtained from the emperor Frederick II. the right of removing the toll of Arnheim to Lobith, where it long proved the principal source of income to the countship. Otto II., son of Gerhard III., greatly augmented his power and territory, and secured the internal stability of his government by erecting numerous free communes, such as Harderwijk, Arnheim, Emmerich, Lochern, &c. Reinald I. (1271-1326) had the chagrin of seeing the dukedom of Limberg, which fell to him by the death of his father-in-law, seized by John I. of Brabant in ...1288; but from the emperor Henry VII. he received, in 1310, the right of bestowing full municipal privileges on any free communities he might establish, and in 1317 he was raised to the rank of prince of the empire by Frederick of Austria, which implied possession of legislative authority and liberty to coin his own money. A steady increase of power rewarded the exertions of Reinald II. (1326- 1339), and shortly before his death (March 19, 1339) he received the hereditary title of duke of Guelderland from the emperor Louis of Bavaria. The new duchy, however, had an ill beginning of its history. Reinaid III., the natural successor, found a bitter rival in his brother Edward, and in 1361, after a contest of eleven years, he was completely defeated in the battle of Tiel; and though ten years later, on Edward’s death, he recovered his rightful position, he survived his restoration only three months. A protracted contest between the hostile factions was at length decided in favour of William a nephew of the last duke, and son of William of Juliers, who succeeded in 1378, but did not receive imperial recognition till 1383. Between 1384 and 1386 he assisted the Teutonic knights against the Prussians; and in 1393 he became duke of Juliers by the death of his father. He died 16th February 1402, and was followed by his brother Reinaid IV., whose reign of three and twenty years was mainly noticeable for several contests with Holland, the surrender of Emmerich and other portions of territory, and the gradual consolidation of the Guelderland states. Reinald IV. dying childless in 1423, the coronet passed to his grand-nephew Arnold, the son of John of Egmond. Arnold of Egmond was at first recognized by the emperor Sigismund in 1424, but in 1425 the emperor revoked his sanction, and gave his support to Adolphus of Cleves. In the war that followed the people of Guelderland stood true to Arnold, but his extravagance and carelessness brought the financial affairs of his duchy into confusion; and at length, in 1444, after the defeat of his forces by Adolphus at Linnich, he was constrained to pawn part of his territory to Cleves. The states had complained of the maladministration in a diet of 1436, and the malcontents ultimately, in 1456, found a leader in the duke’s own son Adolphus, who, after an apparent reconciliation with his father made the old man a prisoner in January 1465, and confined him in the castle of Büren. A civil war now broke out, and Charles the Bold of Burgundy seized the opportunity for his own advantage; in 1471 Adolphus was forced to set his father at liberty; and Arnold, in return for the service done him, made over his duchy to the Burgundian duke for 20,000 gulden, only reserving the usufruct till the close of his own life. On 23d February 1473 Arnold died, and Charles was duke of Guelderland. The town of Nimeguen made an heroic effort to oppose the Burgundian accession, but it fell after a lengthened siege. On Charles’s death at the battle of Nancy in 1477, a party in the powerful city of Ghent became anxious to marry Charles of Egmont to their princess, Mary of Burgundy. Before the year was out, however (29th June 1477), the young man had perished before the walls of Tournay, against which he had led an army of Burgundians and Flemings to recover it from the French. By his marriage with the Princess Mary, Maximilian of Austria considered himself the rightful possessor of Guelderland, and he succeeded by 1482 in quelling all opposition. But ten years later young Charles of Egmond, the son of Adolphus, set foot once more in his native country; the people soon flocked to his standard; and victorious campaigns proved the capacity of the leader and the enthusiasm of the soldiers. The fierce contest continued for years, and Charles carried the war into the enemy’s territories. In 1507 he pushed into Holland and Brabant, in 1512 appeared before Amsterdam, andin 1514 made capture of Groningen. It was not till 1528 that Charles V. granted him the lifelong occupation of Guelderland, Zutρhen, Groningen, Coevorden, and Drenthe. In return he agreed that if he died childless his possessions should revert to the emperor; but such was his hatred of the house of Austria that towards the close of his life he planned to make France his heir. This, however, was prevented by the states of Guelderland insisting on his appointing as his successor William, the youthful son of the duke of Cleves and Juliers. Charles died 30th June 1538, and William assumed the title of duke. But Charles V. was not disposed to give up the rights secured by the treaty of Gorinchem, and after a contest in which much damage was done to various parts of the Low Countries, William was obliged to surrender his claims on 7th /September 1543. On the rise of the Dutch republics most of Guelderland threw off the Spanish yoke. One “quarter” only, that of Roermonde, continued subject, and it received the name of Spanish Gelderland; the other three “quarters,” Nimeguen, Zutphen, and Arnheim, became Dutch Guelderland, and had their provincial diets twice a year. By the peace of Utrecht Spanish Guelderland or the Upper Quarter (Overkwartier) passed to Prussia, including the town of Guelder.s, but excluding Venloo, which went to the Netherlands, and Roermonde, which went to Austria. By the peace of Paris (1814) the temporary divisions of the French revolutionary period were abolished, and all Guelderland was incorporated with Holland except the portion which still forms the Prussian circle of Düsseldorf.
Guelderland, the modern province of the Netherlands, has an area of 1932 square miles, and its population in 1821, 1835, 1840, 1860, and 1873 was respectively 269,926, 323,167, 345,762, 401,864, and 437,778. The largest towns are Nimeguen (23,509 in 1876), Arnheim (38,017), Zutphen (14,513), Apeldoorn (13,851), Ede (10,982), and Rheden (10,536); and there are at least eighteen other communes with more than 5000 inhabitants.
See Pontanns, Historiae Geldrica ’ . (Harderwijek, 1639); Van Spaen, Historie van Gelderland (Utrecht, 1814); Nijhoff, Gedankwaardig-hedenuit de Geschiedenis van Gelderland (Amheim, 1830, &c.,6 vols.); Nijhoff, Het vomaemste uit de geschiedenis von Gelderland (Arnheim, 1869); J. C. Kremer, De Graven van Hamcland, en de Oorsprong der Grawn van Nassau, Gelre, Cleve, en Zutphen (Arnheim, 1873); Baron Sloot, Oorkondenboek der Graafschappen Gelre en Zutfen∙, P. H. Witkamp, Aardrijksku·ndig Woordenboek van Nederland, 1877.
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