Van den Boetzelaer
The van (den) Boetzelaer family is an aristocratic family from the Lower Rhine with the parent company Burg Boetzelaer near Kleve , a tribe with the Counts of Galen .
In the middle of the 15th century, a branch inherited properties in the Dutch Duchy of Geldern . The Lower Rhine branch died out at the end of the 16th century, the Geldern branch is still flourishing in the Netherlands today .
history
The family's ancestral home was Boetzelaer Castle , where they had lived as noblemen since the Middle Ages . In 1256 a Wessel van den Boetzelaer and his sons were mentioned in a document. He and his descendants fought sometimes for the Archbishop of Cologne , sometimes for the Count of Kleve . So the family was able to expand their allodial property - the glory Boetzelaer. They were as Steward worked for the count and made a canon in Werden Abbey and Utrecht .
In 1359 Rutger van Boetzelaer handed over his property in Appeldorn to the Archbishop of Cologne, Wilhelm von Gennep , and received it back as a fiefdom . In 1361 he was knighted . At the same time he continued to work for the count and received the Krudenburg from him in 1363 . In the meantime, the archbishop had also appointed him bailiff of Aspel , an area controversial between Cologne and Kleve. In 1379 he should also get the rule of Boetzelaer from the Archbishop of Cologne as a fief. This ran counter to Klevi's claims to power. From 1379 Count Adolf III began. von der Mark -Kleve against the knights on the Rhine. In 1392 van Boetzelaer had to give up the Krudenburg again. In 1396 Boetzelaer Castle was besieged and taken.
In the 15th century , Rutger van den Boetzelaer (1404–1460) married Elburg van Langerak († 1489), the heiress of Langerak (in the municipality of Molenwaard ) and a half share in the barony of Asperen (municipality of Lingewaal ) in the Dutch duchy of Geldern . The other half of Asperen went to Arend Pieck van Beesd, whose descendant Willem van Buren shot Rutger in 1460, for which he was hung. After a lengthy legal dispute, the Beesd's half also fell to Rutger's son Wessel van den Boetzelaer (* 1431) in 1481. He married Josina de Mol van Leetbergen († 1505).
Kleve's line
Wessels and Josina's younger son Sweder (* 1432; † after 1504) inherited the possessions near Kleve. With that the lines parted. The Lower Rhine line died out in 1711 and Botzelaer Castle was inherited by women until it was sold at the beginning of the 19th century.
Dutch line
Wessels and Josina's older son Rutger van den Boetzelaer († 1545) inherited Langerak and Asperen, and in 1499 from his mother Deurne with the small castle , but sold it to Henrick Taye († 1508), his mother's second husband, whose line it continues inherited. A younger Wessel van den Boetzelaer was then an advocate of the Reformation and his son Rutger (1534-1604) supported William I of Orange and thus established the family's influence in the Netherlands . He received the Batinge estate (in Dwingeloo ) from the Orange, which had previously been owned by the expelled van den Clooster and Havixhorst family . A younger Rutger (1578–1668) from this line was Drost von Drenthe and in 1641 also acquired the neighboring Entinge estate; Both possessions went back from the family in the 17th century.
Philip Jacob van den Boetzelaer zu Asperen (1690–1773) was made count in 1733, but with the death of his son Philip Marie in 1795 the count's branch went out and Asperen passed into other hands (only the island remains of the castle today, on which it once stood). Philip Marie's brother had inherited Langerak from the local branch in 1763, which had split off in 1604, but also died without male descendants.
A younger branch of the Asperen line continued to this day. It descends from Coenraad Carel Vincent van Boetzelaer (1776–1845), the gentleman from Dubbeldam and Kijfhoek, who both came into the family through the marriage of Nicolaas van den Boetzelaer (1718–1796) to Elisabeth Dorothea de Raet. Coenraad Carel Vincent married Theodora Elsabé van Voorst from a Utrecht patrician family. They bought other estates for their numerous children: Eyckenstein (municipality of De Bilt ), Houdringe and Kolenberg. The Kijfhoek branch expired in 1926, Dubbeldam (with De Mijl, which was acquired in the 19th century) is still owned by the family today, as is Eyckenstein. In 1938 the family also bought back the Gutsland in Asperen.
literature
- Pieter Lodewijk Muller: van den Boetzelaer . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 36 f.