In 1795, the old rule of the House of Orange over the Lordship of Bredevoort came to an end. That did not mean that every old administrative structure disappeared at once. In the years that followed, several attempts were made to find a new administrative arrangement for Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk. Only under French rule did the District of Bredevoort finally give way to separate municipalities.
1795: the old authority disappears
The Batavian Revolution of 1795 brought the old political position of Stadtholder William V to an end. The possessions of the House of Orange-Nassau were confiscated, and Bredevoort too came under civil administration. The prince thereby lost his position as lord of Bredevoort.
For the inhabitants, this did not mean that the entire administration was rebuilt from one day to the next. Many existing offices, archives and practical forms of government remained necessary for the time being. What did change was the basis on which authority was exercised.
Four municipalities
In 1795, separate municipal administrations were established for Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk. Each of the four places thus temporarily received its own civil government. At first, therefore, the old administrative unity of the lordship actually became looser.
1798: the lordship formally becomes a thing of the past
The Constitution of 1798 abolished the old seigneurial rights of government. That same year, the municipal administrations of Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk were brought together again in the District of Bredevoort. The name Bredevoort therefore continued as an administrative designation, but this was no longer the old lordship governed by a lord or pledge-holder.
Lichtenvoorde was also added to the District of Bredevoort in 1798. That arrangement lasted only a few years: in 1802, Lichtenvoorde was separated again. It illustrates how unsettled administrative arrangements were during this period.
What happened to the old administration?
The political upheaval also affected the archives. The records of the old District and Lordship had been kept in the Ambthuis in Bredevoort. In 1795, they were seized and inventoried by order of the Provisional Government. Part of the administration subsequently came under the care of the secretary of the Municipality of Aalten.
In the years that followed, records concerning the various places became dispersed. This helps explain why documents relating to the former District of Bredevoort are no longer found today in a single archival collection.
From district to mairie
Under French rule, another reorganisation followed. From 1811 onwards, the District of Bredevoort was divided into separate mairies for Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk. The administrative winding-up continued into 1812. A mairie was the French form of local government from which the Dutch municipalities developed after the French period.
This brought the joint administration of the territory that had for centuries been organised around Bredevoort to an end. The historical links did not, of course, disappear. Courts, farms, family ties, church property and old administrative records continued to connect the places for a long time afterwards.
No break on a single day
The end of the Lordship of Bredevoort therefore cannot be fully described by a single year. 1795 marked the end of rule by the House of Orange, 1798 the formal abolition of the old seigneurial rights of government, and from 1811 the District itself disappeared as a joint administrative unit.
This transitional period shows particularly clearly how a centuries-old system of government gave way to a new form of public administration. The names of offices and institutions changed, but for inhabitants the practical question remained the same: who governed the place, where did people have to go for official matters, and which authority made the rules?