Van Wassenaer

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Coat of arms of the noble family Wassenaer

Van Wassenaer is the name of an ancient noble family from the county of Holland , which still exists today.

history

Seal of Dirk I from 1226

The first mention of the van Wassenaers , who perhaps came from the noble van Raephorst, dates back to November 3, 1200 with the knight Philippus de Wasnare , a follower of Wilhelm I of Holland (mentioned several times between 1200 and 1223). It is possible that he participated with this in the Third Crusade under Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa or in the Crusade of Damiette . The family name and also the family coat of arms with three lying, growing crescents , reminds of an Arab war banner that a Wassenaer (perhaps the knight Philip) is said to have captured on one of the crusades . A seal with a coat of arms has only come down to us from his son Dirk I, four crossbars with a St. Andrew's cross on top; however, the crescents could already have served as a helmet ornament .

The family seat was in the village of Wassenaar in South Holland (which only became a town in the 16th century, when wealthy The Hague people built summer residences there by the sea). The family provided the castle masters . The lines van Wassenaer , van Cranenburch and van Groenevelt descend from Dirk I. , while his brother Filips received the Kasteel Duivenvoorde in 1226 and founded the line van Duvenvoirde , from which Johan van Duvenvoirde († 1645) again the name van Wassenaer-Duivenvoorde assumed.

In 1340 the older branch of the family was enfeoffed by the Counts of Holland with the office of Burgrave of Leiden ; in the hook-and-cod war they sided with other local noble families . The branch died out in 1544.

  • Castle in Leiden

  • Kasteel Duivenvoorde (owned by the family from 1226 to 1771)

  • Castle in Breda

Kasteel Duivenvoorde passed through the heiress Jacoba Maria van Wassenaar (1709–1771) to the barons Torck and from these in turn to the noble families Steengracht and Schimmelpenninck in a female line . Today it belongs to a family foundation, can be visited as a museum and is inhabited by Emilie van Haersma Buma-Schimmelpenninck van der Oye and her husband.

Philips III. van Duivenvoorde (approx. 1248 - after 1301) was enfeoffed with the Polanen rule at Monster in 1295 ; his son Jan I. van Polanen (approx. 1285 - 1342) founded the family branch of the same name, which had a silver coat of arms with three black crescent moons. 1339 he and his son Jan II were by Johann III. enfeoffed by Brabant with Breda , where Jan II had a moated castle built in 1335 (the predecessor of today's fort). Willem van Duvenvoorde (1290–1353) bought the glory of Oosterhout and large estates around Breda and Bergen op Zoom in 1324 . Through the marriage of Johanna von Polanen, granddaughter of Jans II., (1392–1445) with Count Engelbert I from the Nassau-Dillenburg house, numerous goods, especially Breda, de Lek , Oosterhout and Niervaart , came to the house of Nassau and this made it one of the great landowners in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 15th century (and later as the House of Orange to the ruling dynasty).

Twickel Castle near Delden (owned by the family from 1714 to 1953)

In 1711 the branch was van Wassenaer Opdam in the imperial counts charged. Through the marriage of Jacobs II. Van Wassenaer Obdam (1645–1714) to Adriana Sophia von Raesfeld in 1676, Twickel Castle near Delden came into the family. In 1850 the Wassenaer Opdam branch died out. Through the marriage of Marie Cornélie van Wassenaer Obdam (1799-1850) Twickel came to the van Heeckeren van Kell family, who took the name van Heeckeren van Wassenaer. Baroness Marie Amélie van Heeckeren van Wassenaer, b. Countess van Aldenburg Bentinck (1879–1975), brought the castle and estate into a foundation in 1953, which is administered by her great-nephew Christian Graf zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (1952–2010) and now by his heirs.

Through the marriage of Jacob van Wassenaer, Lord zu Voorschoten, Duivenvoorde and Veur (1649–1707) with Jacoba van Lyere, mistress of the two Katwijks ( Katwijk aan Zee and Katwijk aan den Rijn ) and von 't Zandt (1652–1693), the branch van Wassenaer tot Catwijck , which is still in bloom today, was born . The Hoekelum and Nederhemert castles were also owned by family branches until the 20th century.

At the beginning of the 19th century, all family members were given the title of baron .

family members

Half Wassenaer family

Besides the Van Wassenaers, there was another unrelated family with a similar name. The family later called Half Wassenaer worked as farmers and had lived in Haag-Ambacht (near the municipality of Monster ) since the 16th century . The family name comes from their place of residence Wassenaar. When the family gained a certain reputation in the course of the 18th century, they wrongly traced their descent to an illegitimate son of Jan II van Wassenaer, the last burgrave of Leiden. Nevertheless, the Half Wassenaer family was introduced to the North Brabant knighthood in 1814 . The family died out in 1892.

Web links

Coat of arms of the municipality of Wassenaar
Commons : Haus van Wassenaer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • JC Kort and RC Hol-Wassenaer, de oudste ': Het archief van de familie Van Wassenaer van Duvenvoorde in Hollands archiefperspectief. Inventory of the archief van de familie Van Wassenaer van Duvenvoorde, 1266–1996, 2002.
  • Pieter Lodewijk Muller :  Wassenaer, Philipp von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 232 f. (Family item)