The development of Bredevoort is closely connected with its medieval castle. From the later Middle Ages onwards, the sources clearly show the presence of borgmannen: men who were obliged to assist the lord in the defence of castle and town and who enjoyed rights and property in return. They help explain how Bredevoort developed as a town of castle retainers, although not every stage of that urban growth can be dated precisely.
A settlement beside the castle
The history of Bredevoort is closely linked with Bredevoort Castle. The castle is first reliably mentioned in written sources in 1188. Around such a fortified place, people were needed to assist the lord, guard the castle and fight in times of danger.
The sources show that borgmannen were attached to Bredevoort. They generally came from noble or knightly families. Their connection with Bredevoort was not only military: they received property and rights that enabled them to maintain their position. Where their earliest houses stood and exactly how the settlement developed around the castle step by step is more difficult to reconstruct.
What was a borgman?
A borgman was literally a man attached to a castle. In return for rights, income or property, he was obliged to assist his lord in its defence. This meant that he had to be available in or near Bredevoort when the castle and settlement were threatened.
The estates associated with such a role are known as borglenen, or castle fiefs. They did not necessarily lie next to the castle itself. Income from these estates helped the borgman meet his military and administrative obligations.
From castle settlement to town
It is impossible to establish from one surviving town charter exactly when Bredevoort came to be regarded as a town. What is clear is that by the fourteenth century the settlement was already more than a castle with a few houses around it.
In the deed by which William of Jülich, Duke of Guelders, pledged Bredevoort to Henry III of Gemen on 14 November 1388, the wording “borch, huys ende stat tot Brederuoert” — castle, house and town of Bredevoort — is used. Two days later, castle, house, town and district are mentioned again. Bredevoort was therefore already described as a town in official documents at that time.
No separate charter granting general town rights to Bredevoort is known. It is therefore better not to single out one exact year as the moment when Bredevoort “became a town”. It developed gradually from a castle settlement into a small fortified town with its own rights and a distinctive position within the lordship.
More borgmannen
The sources show how the group of borgmannen grew. In 1376, three are mentioned. In 1402 and 1403, there were six. At the end of the fifteenth century, several borgmannen were still attached to Bredevoort.
This says something about Bredevoort’s importance. The castle guarded a strategic position in the border region between Guelders and Münster. A lord who controlled Bredevoort therefore had good reason to bind a sufficient number of reliable men to him who could defend the place.
Privileges in 1503
On 25 May 1503, pledge-holder Everwijn of Bentheim-Steinfurt confirmed the privileges of the Bredevoort borgmannen. According to the deed, they received rights comparable with rights enjoyed by citizens of Zutphen. The provisions concerned, among other things, the use of pasture and firewood, limited jurisdiction over their own servants and dependants, water management and toll rights.
This deed is sometimes presented as the moment at which Bredevoort received town rights. That goes further than the source allows. The document confirms privileges of the borgmannen; it is not a surviving general grant of town rights to all inhabitants. Bredevoort had moreover already been described as a town in 1388.
More than soldiers
The borgmannen were not merely military defenders. As Bredevoort developed, they also became involved in government and local justice. They therefore belonged to the small group of people who held administrative positions in the medieval and early modern town.
Their role should not, however, be confused with the later system of government by the bailiff, judge, district secretary and other officials. During the sixteenth century, the military organisation changed. The defence of Bredevoort increasingly passed to a paid garrison, and the original military role of the borgmannen receded into the background.
The town changes
Bredevoort also changed physically. The former borgman plots were gradually subdivided and built upon. An area once occupied mainly by people directly connected with castle and defence developed into an urban environment inhabited by officials, craftsmen, soldiers and others.
Jacob van Deventer’s sixteenth-century map shows this development clearly: castle and town lie beside one another, each with its own defensive structure. Bredevoort therefore remained a striking combination of castle settlement, fortress and administrative centre.
Traces of the borgmannen
Little of the medieval borgman plots can now be identified above ground with certainty. The architectural literature describes the deep house on the Markt, with a rear façade dating from 1613, as probably the only surviving example of a borgman‘s house. On Old Aalten, this historic building is now covered under Bakkerij Swijtink.
Caution is needed here too. A seventeenth-century house is not an unchanged dwelling of a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century borgman. The building mainly shows that the older layout of the borgman plots could continue to influence the built environment of Bredevoort for a long time.
A distinctive origin
The borgmannen help explain why Bredevoort developed differently from many surrounding villages. The settlement grew directly within the sphere of influence of a castle and its lord. Defence, government and habitation were closely intertwined from the outset.
In this way, the borgmannen form a link between two phases of Bredevoort’s history: the medieval castle and the later town that became the administrative centre of a territory that also included Aalten, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk.