Summary The main question in this thesis is why ‘s-Gravenzande, after a promise full start, was frustrated as an economic centre and didn’t succeed as a town although the town had formally citizens...Show moreSummary The main question in this thesis is why ‘s-Gravenzande, after a promise full start, was frustrated as an economic centre and didn’t succeed as a town although the town had formally citizens law. ‘s-Gravenzande is starting as an agrarian settlement at the end of the 12th century on a sandbank in the estuary of the Meuse. The formation of a sandy transverse coastal barrier and the blockade of the Hei caused already in the 13th century the silting up. Machteld of Brabant (1198-1267) had a house nearby the sea on the sandbank. The village got the name ‘s-Gravenzande (= Sand of the Count). During her life she founded several religious institutes. She also made her husband to give “stadsrechten” (citizens law) to the village of ‘s-Gravenzande in 1246. Investigations in 1999 and 2001 resulted specific in some carved stones and some glass as a heritage memory. Only the deepest tracks gave traces where the wall around the convict and beguinage, the gateway of the monastery and some foundations of houses of the monks were situated. The pottery dated from the 13th century onward. The slow development and final stagnation of ’s-Gravenzande in comparison with cities like Delft, Haarlem and Alkmaar, which were founded in the same period, could be explained by the silting up of the river Hei, the absence of an important regional function, the dead of Machteld of Brabant, the shift of the residence by the counts to ‘s-Gravenhage and finally the wars in the 15th and the 16th century, which caused much destruction in ‘s-Gravenzande.Show less
