History of the Baarle Enclaves
History
The enclave-situation in our
village today dates back to the Middle Ages.
In the year 1198 the Duke of
Brabant (Hendrik I) and the Lord of Breda (Godfried I van
Schoten) made a deal concerning Breda. At that time Breda was
threatened by the Count of Holland (Dirk VII) and to defend
Breda, Godfried I van Schoten made a deal with the Duke of
Brabant concerning the rights of Breda. The Duke of Brabant
re-established his rights in Breda. After that, the Duke, as a
feudal tenant, granted Godfried I with the loan of Breda and
added a lot of territory to the seignory of Breda.
Doing so, the territory of
Baarle was added to Breda. But the Duke kept the cultivated area
himself, because of the taxes. From that moment Baarle was
divided in two different parts: Baarle of the Duke of Brabant (in
Dutch: Hertog van Brabant) and Baarle of Breda. The people
started talking about Baarle of the 'Hertog' and Baarle of
'Breda'. When Engelbrecht van Nassau became Lord of Breda in the
year 1404, one begins to speak of Baarle of the 'Hertog' and
Baarle of 'Nassau'. Later on the names were abbreviated to
Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau.
Map of the territory of Baarle and the situation of the enclaves
Map of enclaves in the center of Baarle
Throughout time this strange situation in Baarle stayed this way. Even the Westphalian Peace of 1648, Napoleon in 1795, the independence of Belgium in 1839 couldn't change the situation in Baarle. You will understand that we are most interested in the history of our village. We aren't the only ones that wrote about this strange 'enclaved' village. We compiled a bibliography on Baarle, which is however too large to publish here. But under Sources you'll find a selection.
