Page 607 - Het middeleeuwse kastelenlandschap van het Oversticht - Diana Spiekhout

In the fourteenth century, the weakening of the bishop’s rule had consequences for the areas of Salland and Twente too. More and more nobles there, mainly vassals of the bishop, chose to fortify their residences. In the early fourteenth century, they still involved the bishop in their plans. He would grant them fortification rights, conclude open house agreements with them and ask them to offer the castles in fealty to the church of Utrecht. This way, he hoped to retain control over the odd castles in the Oversticht. During the thirteenth century, however, more noble families began fortifying their homes without approval from the bishop. This can be explained by the weak financial position of the bishopric, in which the prince-bishop was obliged to pledge a number of castles, goods and even areas of land, causing him to lose control. Those without access to money were also unable to take action against illegal castle building.
The nobles in question sometimes commissioned fortified homes to be built on their own land, but sometimes also on a fiefdom. In the case of the old free nobility, who were also landowners, this involved allodial land. Castles of free nobles were constructed from the twelfth century onwards. They were built when the bishop did not yet have full secular control of the area in question or did not exercise any rights at all yet. This applies to the castles of Diepenheim, Bentheim and Buckhorst. Diepenheim-II is known to be a ringwork. In addition to the bishops, the free nobles of these castles used borgmannen for their defence. From the thirteenth century, and mainly from the fourteenth century, the ministeriales also built castles – not only on allodial land but also on fiefdoms. Both the free nobility and the ministeriales had their homes erected in low-lying lands or on the border of high and low lands. These homes were mainly located near traffic routes and on former agricultural land. When successive generations of noble families lived at these castles, the homes would begin to function as ancestral seats. The castles would then serve as symbols of the families’ legal positions. Over the years, noblemen would attempt to acquire goods and rights in the area surrounding their castles. If this worked, a landscape would arise that was partially dominated by the lord of the castle. Successful noble families, such as the Van Voorst family, preferred to attempt to obtain jurisdiction in the area surrounding their castle. Their castles tended to be heavily fortified with multiple ramparts and moats. For most noblemen, the lack of sufficient means meant that only attempts were made.
The construction of castle-like homes with a focus on representation by small, noble families, appears to have taken place in the Oversticht area mainly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The question is whether or not some of these fortified noble homes already existed during the second half of the thirteenth century, when the bishop had already lost considerable power. This appears likely, although sources for correctly dating the structures are lacking. No archaeological research has been done on many of the castles and few historical texts from that era on the topic of castles in the Oversticht area have remained.
Around the mid-fourteenth century, the castle landscape of Oversticht began to develop in
another direction. This was due to the fact that, with the exception of nobility, cities also began
to hold strong positions of power that they wished to not only retain, but to expand as well.
The four main cities of the Oversticht area were Groningen, Deventer, Zwolle and Kampen.
The cities in the Salland region worked closely together and decided from approximately
1350 onwards to offer support to the bishop, who until then was unable to stand up to autonomous vassals as a result of his aforementioned weak financial position. Zwolle, Deventer and Kampen had a great deal of trouble with the castle owners, who hindered S commercial traffic. The Salland cities therefore had a vested interest in subverting their power.
They did so by destroying or removing the castles with their own troops. Sometimes, a city would organize their own siege. The cities also occasionally worked together, in cooperation with the bishop. The latter mainly occurred during the episcopates of Jan van Arkel (1342- 1364), Floris van Wevelinkhoven (1379-1393) and Frederik van Blankenheim (1393-1423). The residents of Groningen were also averse to having any castles around their city. They arranged for the destruction or demolition of bothersome fortifications in the area without the bishop’s involvement.
Summary
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