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127-487: Nijmegen became a free imperial city in 1230 and in 1402 a Hanseatic city. Since 1923 it has been a university city with the opening of a Catholic institution now known as the Radboud University Nijmegen . The city is well known for the annual International Four Days Marches Nijmegen event. Its population as of 2024 was 187,011. The municipality is formed by the city of Nijmegen, incorporating

254-501: A regional body . Since 2021 this has been the Arnhem-Nijmegen Green Metropolitan Region ( Dutch : Groene Metropoolregio Arnhem-Nijmegen ), which aids co-operation in planning and development in the region's eighteen municipalities. Nijmegen is twinned with: Nijmegen has hosted since 1925 the annual Four Days Marches (Vierdaagse), as a means of promoting sport and exercise. Beginning on

381-612: A Wendish offensive, towns from Prussia and the Netherlands, and eventually joined by Wendish towns, allied in the Confederation of Cologne in 1368, sacked Copenhagen and Helsingborg , and forced Valdemar IV, King of Denmark , and his son-in-law Haakon VI, King of Norway , to grant tax exemptions and influence over Øresund fortresses for 15 years in the peace treaty of Stralsund in 1370. It extended privileges in Scania to

508-502: A considerable time, even though no formal right to independence existed. These cities were typically located in small territories where the ruler was weak. They were the exception among the multitude of territorial towns and cities. Cities of both latter categories normally had representation in territorial diets , but not in the Imperial Diet. Free imperial cities were not officially admitted as individual Imperial Estates to

635-593: A consortium of 7 Hanseatic cities, and enjoyed full Hanseatic trading privileges. It went to Margaret in 1398. The Victual Brothers controlled Gotland in 1398. It was conquered by the Teutonic Order with support from the Prussian towns and its privileges were restored. The grandmaster of the Teutonic Order was often seen as the head of the Hanse ( caput Hansae ), both abroad and by some League members. Over

762-573: A council of 39 councillors, elected every four years. After the 2022 municipal elections, the three largest parties, GroenLinks (9 seats), Stadspartij Nijmegen (7 seats) and the D66 (6 seats) formed a coalition. Since 2012 the mayor has been Hubert Bruls of the Christian Democratic Appeal party (CDA), the city council approving a third six-year term from 2024. In addition to the city council, since 1988 Nijmegen has been part of

889-454: A date of foundation. Historians traditionally traced its origins to the rebuilding of the north German town of Lübeck in 1159 by the powerful Henry the Lion , Duke of Saxony and Bavaria , after he had captured the area from Adolf II , Count of Schauenburg and Holstein . More recent scholarship has deemphasized Lübeck, viewing it as one of several regional trading centers, and presenting

1016-399: A helicopter, 1,200 policemen, and 750 members of the armed forces, they evicted the squatters and demolished the block, while clouding the entire area in teargas and CS gas . This received enormous backlash in local politics. While the city government wanted the squatters out to build a parking garage, most of the population wanted affordable housing to be built in the area. The city council

1143-475: A hundred fans and Mayor Hubert Bruls after winning Division B of the 2018 Bandy World Championship . The city is also home to one of the country's oldest cricket clubs, Quick 1888 , a current member of the KNCB . Formed in 1888, it is the largest cricket club in the east of the country and was formed 13 years after the first club, Utile Dulci from Deventer . The cricket club has two men's teams. The city also has

1270-558: A military camp on the place where Nijmegen was to appear; the location had great strategic value because of the surrounding hills, which give a good view over the river Waal and Rhine valley. By 69, when the Batavi , the original inhabitants of the Rhine and Meuse ( Maas ) delta, revolted , a village called Oppidum Batavorum had formed near the Roman camp. This village was destroyed in

1397-688: A prince-bishop and, likewise, progressively gained independence from that lord. In a few cases, such as in Cologne, the former ecclesiastical lord continued to claim the right to exercise some residual feudal privileges over the Free City, a claim that gave rise to constant litigation almost until the end of the Empire. Over time, the difference between Imperial Cities and Free Cities became increasingly blurred, so that they became collectively known as "Free Imperial Cities", or "Free and Imperial Cities", and by

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1524-455: A representative merchant and warehouse. Often they were not permanently manned. In Scania , Denmark, around 30 Hanseatic seasonal factories produced salted herring, these were called vitten and were granted legal autonomy to the extent that Burkhardt argues that they resembled a fifth kontor and would be seen as such if not for their early decline. In England, factories in Boston (the outpost

1651-425: A say in the government of the city, were the citizens or burghers, the smaller, privileged section of the city's permanent population whose number varied according to the rule of citizenship of each city. There were exceptions, such as Nuremberg , where the patriciate ruled alone. To the common town dweller – whether he lived in a prestigious Free Imperial City like Frankfurt, Augsburg or Nuremberg, or in

1778-534: A second road bridge ( Dutch : De Oversteek ), 2 km downstream, was opened to ease congestion. In 1940, the Netherlands was invaded by Germany, with Nijmegen being the first Dutch city to fall into German hands. On 22 February 1944, Nijmegen was heavily bombed by American planes, causing great damage to the city centre. It was subsequently claimed by the Allies that the American pilots thought they were bombing

1905-484: A secular prince ( duke ( Herzog ), margrave , count ( Graf ), etc.). The evolution of some German cities into self-ruling constitutional entities of the Empire was slower than that of the secular and ecclesiastical princes. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities were promoted by the emperor to the status of Imperial Cities ( Reichsstädte ; Urbes imperiales ), essentially for fiscal reasons. Those cities, which had been founded by

2032-438: A small market town such as there were hundreds throughout Germany – attaining burgher status ( Bürgerrecht ) could be his greatest aim in life. The burgher status was usually an inherited privilege renewed pro-forma in each generation of the family concerned but it could also be purchased. At times, the sale of burgher status could be a significant item of town income as fiscal records show. The Bürgerrecht

2159-606: A state after the war due to its special position in divided post-war Germany. Regensburg was, apart from hosting the Imperial Diet , a most peculiar city: an officially Lutheran city that was the seat of the Catholic prince-bishopric of Regensburg, its prince-bishop and cathedral chapter. The Imperial City also housed three Imperial abbeys: St. Emmeram , Niedermünster and Obermünster . They were five immediate entities fully independent of each other existing in

2286-415: A suburban village south-east of Nijmegen. During the 2006 European heat wave , closest official weather station Volkel reached a high of 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) on 19 July. The heat wave coincided with that year's Four Day Marches, which were cancelled after the first day, when two people died of hyperthermia -related causes. Temperatures on that day, 18 July, reached around 36 °C (96.8 °F) in

2413-615: A treaty with the Visby Hansa, northern German merchants made regular stops at Gotland. In the first half of the 13th century, they established their own trading station or Kontor in Novgorod, known as the Peterhof , up the river Volkhov . Lübeck soon became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward; for them, because of its shorter and easier access route and better legal protections, it

2540-533: A variety of vessel types for shipping across the seas and navigating rivers. The most emblematic type was the cog . Expressing diversity in construction, it was depicted on Hanseatic seals and coats of arms. By the end of the Middle Ages, the cog was replaced by types like the hulk , which later gave way to larger carvel ships. Hanse is the Old High German word for a band or troop. This word

2667-427: Is now Switzerland with cities like Bern, Zürich and Luzern, but also cities like Ulm, Nuremberg and Hamburg in what is now Germany possessed substantial hinterlands or fiefs that comprised dozens of villages and thousands of subject peasants who did not enjoy the same rights as the urban population. At the opposite end, the authority of Cologne, Aachen, Worms, Goslar, Wetzlar, Augsburg and Regensburg barely extended beyond

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2794-495: Is one of the warmest cities of the Netherlands, especially during summer, when the highest temperatures in the country are usually measured in the triangle Roermond–Nijmegen–Eindhoven. The lack of north–south oriented mountain ranges in Europe make this area prone to sudden shifts in weather, giving the region a semi-continental climate. Some of the northernmost wineries in the world are found just outside Nijmegen, around Groesbeek ,

2921-680: The Tabula Peutingeriana . In the 8th century Emperor Charlemagne maintained his palatium in Nijmegen in 777, and possibly on at least three more occasions. During his brief deposition of 830, the emperor Louis the Pious was sent to Nijmegen by his son, Lothair I . Thanks to the Waal , trade flourished. Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor , was born at Nijmegen in 1165. In 1230 his son Frederick II granted Nijmegen city rights . In 1247,

3048-575: The Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The three other Free Cities became constituent states of the new German Empire in 1871 and consequently were no longer fully sovereign as they lost control over defence, foreign affairs and a few other fields. They retained that status in the Weimar Republic and into Nazi Germany , although under Hitler it became purely notional. Due to Hitler's distaste for Lübeck and its liberal tradition,

3175-642: The Burgundian State . The city of Lübeck faced financial troubles in 1403, leading dissenting craftsmen to establish a supervising committee in 1405. This triggered a governmental crisis in 1408 when the committee rebelled and established a new town council. Similar revolts broke out in Wismar and Rostock, with new town councils established in 1410. The crisis was ended in 1418 by a compromise. Eric of Pomerania succeeded Margaret in 1412 and sought to expand into Schleswig and Holstein levying tolls at

3302-605: The Griffin dukes of Pomerania were in constant conflict over control of the Pomeranian Hanseatic towns. While not successful at first, Bogislav X eventually subjugated Stettin and Köslin , curtailing the region's economy and independence. A major Hansa economic advantage was its control of the shipbuilding market, mainly in Lübeck and Danzig. The League sold ships throughout Europe. The economic crises of

3429-574: The Imperial Diet until 1489, and even then their votes were usually considered only advisory ( votum consultativum ) compared to the benches of the electors and princes. The cities divided themselves into two groups, or benches, in the Imperial Diet, the Rhenish and the Swabian benches. These same cities were among the 85 free imperial cities listed on the Reichsmatrikel of 1521,

3556-880: The Kingdom of Poland , (from 1466 to 1569 referred to as Royal Prussia , region of Poland) by the Second Peace of Thorn . Poland in turn was heavily supported by the Holy Roman Empire through family connections and by military assistance under the Habsburgs . Kraków , then the Polish capital, had a loose association with the Hansa. The lack of customs borders on the River Vistula after 1466 helped to gradually increase Polish grain exports, transported down

3683-513: The Kontor of Bruges , became significant enclaves . The London Kontor , the Steelyard , stood west of London Bridge near Upper Thames Street , on the site later occupied by Cannon Street station . It grew into a walled community with its warehouses, weigh house , church, offices, and homes. In addition to the major Kontors , individual ports with Hanseatic trading outposts or factories had

3810-659: The Nijmegen Devils , an Ice hockey club. Nijmegen also plays host to the annual Zevenheuvelenloop ( Seven Hills Run ), an annual 15 km (9 mi) run recognised by the IAAF as a Bronze Label race. The three main employers in Nijmegen are: 1. Radboud University ; 2. The three hospitals in the city: Radboud University Medical Center , Sint Maartenskliniek , and Canisius-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis (CWZ); 3. The semiconductor industry. Nexperia and Ampleon (both spun off from NXP Semiconductors ) are headquartered in

3937-680: The Perpetual Imperial Diet was located, were represented by various Regensburg lawyers and officials who often represented several cities simultaneously. Instead, many cities found it more profitable to maintain agents at the Aulic Council in Vienna, where the risk of an adverse judgment posed a greater risk to city treasuries and independence. The territory of most Free Imperial Cities was generally quite small but there were exceptions. The largest territories formed in what

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4064-521: The Peterhof from 1443 to 1448. After extended conflicts with the League from the 1370s, English traders gained trade privileges in the Prussian region via the treaties of Marienburg (the first in 1388, the last in 1409). Their influence increased, while the importance of Hanseatic trade in England decreased over the 15th century. Over the 15th century, tensions between the Prussian region and

4191-774: The Scania Market ; Cologne joined them in the Diet of 1260. The towns raised their armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities aided one another, and commercial ships often served to carry soldiers and their arms. The network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities. In the West, cities of the Rhineland such as Cologne enjoyed trading privileges in Flanders and England. In 1266, King Henry III of England granted

4318-457: The Vistula , from 10,000 short tons (9,100 t) per year, in the late 15th century, to over 200,000 short tons (180,000 t) in the 17th century. The Hansa-dominated maritime grain trade made Poland one of the main areas of its activity, helping Danzig to become the Hansa's largest city. Polish kings soon began to reduce the towns' political freedoms. Beginning in the mid-15th century,

4445-837: The Yorkist side during the Wars of the Roses of 1455–1487. Tsar Ivan III of Russia closed the Hanseatic Kontor at Novgorod in 1494 and deported its merchants to Moscow, in an attempt to reduce Hanseatic influence on Russian trade. At the time, only 49 traders were at the Peterhof. The fur trade was redirected to Leipzig, taking out the Hansards; while the Hanseatic trade with Russia moved to Riga, Reval, and Pleskau. When

4572-664: The "Wendish" cities (Lübeck and its eastern neighbours) increased. Lübeck was dependent on its role as center of the Hansa; Prussia's main interest, on the other hand, was the export of bulk products such as grain and timber to England, the Low Countries and later on Spain and Italy. Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg , tried to assert authority over the Hanseatic towns Berlin and Cölln in 1442 and blocked all Brandenburg towns from participating in Hanseatic diets. For some Brandenburg towns, this ended their Hanseatic involvement. In 1488, John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg did

4699-553: The 1380s, the League regained its trade privileges in 1392, agreeing to Russian trade privileges for Livonia and Gotland. In 1424, all German traders of the Petershof kontor in Novgorod were imprisoned and 36 of them died. Although rare, arrests and seizures in Novgorod were particularly violent. In response, and due to the ongoing war between Novgorod and the Livonian Order , the League blockaded Novgorod and abandoned

4826-519: The 15th century, the League became further institutionalized. This was in part a response to challenges in governance and competition with rivals, but also reflected changes in trade. A slow shift occurred from loose participation to formal recognition/revocation. Another general trend was Hanseatic cities' increased legislation of their kontors abroad. Only the Bergen kontor grew more independent in this period. In Novgorod, after extended conflict since

4953-408: The 1950s, 60s and 70s who finished the demolition. There are still a few noteworthy sights, however. Valkhof hill downtown features a Carolingian chapel (eighth, ninth century AD) and a small remainder of an imperial castle that was demolished in 1798. The 750-year old Stevenskerk had to be reconstructed after WWII. As of 2023, Nijmegen has a total population of about 182,465. The city is governed by

5080-508: The 50 free imperial cities that took part in the Imperial Diet of 1792. They are listed according to their voting order on the Rhenish and Swabian benches. By the time of the Peace of Westphalia, the cities constituted a formal third "college" and their full vote ( votum decisivum ) was confirmed, although they failed to secure parity of representation with the two other colleges. To avoid

5207-651: The Baltic. Although the blockade of the grain trade hurt Holland and Zeeland more than Hanseatic cities, it was against Prussian interest to maintain it. In 1454, the year of the marriage of Elisabeth of Austria to King-Grand Duke Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland-Lithuania , the towns of the Prussian Confederation rose up against the dominance of the Teutonic Order and asked Casimir IV for help. Gdańsk (Danzig), Thorn and Elbing became part of

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5334-713: The Carpathians were another important source of copper and iron, often sold in Thorn . Lubeck had a vital role in the salt trade; salt was acquired in Lüneburg or shipped from France and Portugal and sold on Central European markets, taken to Scania to salt herring, or exported to Russia. Stockfish was traded from Bergen in exchange for grain; Hanseatic grain inflows allowed more permanent settlements further north in Norway. The league also traded beer, with beer from Hanseatic towns

5461-507: The Danish dominion, as had Hamburg in 1189. Also in this period Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Danzig received city charters. Hansa societies worked to remove trade restrictions for their members. The earliest documentary mention (although without a name) of a specific German commercial federation dates between 1173 and 1175 (commonly misdated to 1157) in London. That year, the merchants of

5588-597: The Diet could vote a second and a third simplum , in which case each member's contribution was doubled or tripled. At the time, the free imperial cities were considered wealthy and the monetary contribution of Nuremberg, Ulm and Cologne for instance were as high as that of the Electors ( Mainz , Trier , Cologne , Palatinate , Saxony , Brandenburg ) and the Dukes of Württemberg and of Lorraine . The following list contains

5715-611: The German and Scandinavian coasts, making it the best-lighted coast in the world, largely thanks to the Hansa. The weakening of imperial power and imperial protection under the late Hohenstaufen dynasty forced the League to institutionalize a cooperating network of cities with a fluid structure, called the Städtehanse , but it never became a formal organization and the Kaufmannshanse continued to exist. This development

5842-629: The German city of Kleve , while the Germans alleged that it was a planned operation authorised by the Dutch government in exile. The Dutch organization for investigating wartime atrocities, the NIOD , announced in January 2005 that its study of the incident confirmed that it was an accident caused by poor communications and chaos in the airspace. Over 750 people died in the bombardment. During September 1944,

5969-594: The German kings and emperors in the 10th through 13th centuries and had initially been administered by royal/imperial stewards ( Vögte ), gradually gained independence as their city magistrates assumed the duties of administration and justice; some prominent examples are Colmar , Haguenau , and Mulhouse in Alsace or Memmingen and Ravensburg in upper Swabia . The Free Cities ( Freie Städte ; Urbes liberae ) were those, such as Basel , Augsburg , Cologne or Strasbourg , that were initially subjected to

6096-512: The Hansa in Cologne convinced King Henry II of England to exempt them from all tolls in London and to grant protection to merchants and goods throughout England. German colonists in the 12th and 13th centuries settled in numerous cities on and near the east Baltic coast, such as Elbing ( Elbląg ), Thorn ( Toruń ), Reval ( Tallinn ), Riga , and Dorpat ( Tartu ), all of which joined the League, and some of which retain Hansa buildings and bear

6223-520: The Hanseatic League remained a loosely aligned confederation of city-states . It lacked a permanent administrative body, a treasury, and a standing military force. In the 14th century, the Hanseatic League instated an irregular negotiating diet that operated based on deliberation and consensus . By the mid-16th century, these weak connections left the Hanseatic League vulnerable, and it gradually unraveled as members merged into other realms or departed, ultimately disintegrating in 1669. The League used

6350-603: The Hanseatic network of merchant guilds. The dominant language of trade was Middle Low German , which had a significant impact on the languages spoken in the area, particularly the larger Scandinavian languages , Estonian , and Latvian . Visby , on the island of Gotland, functioned as the leading center in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called Gutagard (also known as Gotenhof ) in 1080. In 1120, Gotland gained autonomy from Sweden and admitted traders from its southern and western regions. Thereafter, under

6477-474: The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806. By 1811, all of the Imperial Cities had lost their independence – Augsburg and Nuremberg had been annexed by Bavaria , Frankfurt had become the center of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt , a Napoleonic puppet state , and the three Hanseatic cities had been directly annexed by France as part of its effort to enforce the Continental Blockade against Britain. Hamburg and Lübeck with surrounding territories formed

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6604-413: The League as the combination of a north German trading system oriented on the Baltic and a Rhinelandic trading system targeting England and Flanders. German cities speedily dominated trade in the Baltic during the 13th century, and Lübeck became a central node in the seaborne trade that linked the areas around the North and Baltic seas . Lübeck hegemony peaked during the 15th century. Well before

6731-592: The League's power and tried to diminish it. For example, in London, local merchants exerted continuing pressure for the revocation of privileges. Most foreign cities confined Hanseatic traders to specific trading areas and their trading posts. The refusal of the Hansa to offer reciprocal arrangements to their counterparts exacerbated the tension. League merchants used their economic power to pressure cities and rulers. They called embargoes, redirected trade away from towns, and boycotted entire countries. Blockades were erected against Novgorod in 1268 and 1277/1278. Bruges

6858-451: The League, including Holland and Zeeland. The treaty marked the height of Hanseatic influence; for this period the League was called a "Northern European great power ". The Confederation lasted until 1385, while the Øresund fortresses were returned to Denmark that year. After Valdemar's heir Olav died, a succession dispute erupted over Denmark and Norway between Albert of Mecklenburg, King of Sweden and Margaret I, Queen of Denmark . This

6985-514: The League. Over the 13th century, older and wealthier long-distance traders increasingly chose to settle in their hometowns as trade leaders, transitioning from their previous roles as landowners. The growing number of settled merchants afforded long-distance traders greater influence over town policies. Coupled with an increased presence in the ministerial class , this elevated the status of merchants and enabled them to expand to and assert dominance over more cities. This decentralized arrangement

7112-542: The Lübeck and Hamburg Hansa a charter for operations in England , initially causing competition with the Westphalians. But the Cologne Hansa and the Wendish Hansa joined in 1282 to form the Hanseatic colony in London, although they didn't completely merge until the 15th century. Novgorod was blockaded in 1268 and 1277/1278. Nonetheless, Westphalian traders continued to dominate trade in London and also Ipswich and Colchester , while Baltic and Wendish traders concentrated between King's Lynn and Newcastle upon Tyne . Much of

7239-462: The Reformation, and of the sixty Free Imperial Cities that remained at the Peace of Westphalia , all but the ten Alsatian cities which were annexed by France during the late 17th century continued to exist until the mediatization of 1803. The Empire had approximately 4000 towns and cities, although fewer than 400 of these had more than a thousand inhabitants around the year 1600. During the Late Middle Ages, fewer than 200 of these places ever enjoyed

7366-435: The Waalsprong area, ruins from before the Roman times were found which were identified in 2022 as those of a sauna. This 3,600 year-old sauna is the first of its kind in mainland Europe. Not many very old buildings are left in town: first the Americans bombed it in February 1944, later the Germans shelled it for about five months after the liberation in September 1944, and finally there were a number of vigorous city planners in

7493-528: The areas west of the Rhine were annexed to France by the revolutionary armies, suppressing the independence of Imperial Cities as diverse as Cologne, Aachen, Speyer and Worms. Then, the Napoleonic Wars led to the reorganization of the Empire in 1803 (see German Mediatisation ), where all of the free cities but six – Hamburg , Bremen , Lübeck , Frankfurt, Augsburg , and Nuremberg  – lost their independence and were absorbed into neighboring territories. Under pressure from Napoleon,

7620-423: The bridge were positioned in a bombed-out house slightly upstream of the bridge. During the shelling, the house was hit, killing six soldiers and wounding one. Nijmegen was liberated from German occupation by the British Grenadier Guards of the Guards Armoured Division , as well as elements of the American 82nd Airborne Division in September 1944. The city was later used as a springboard for Operation Veritable ,

7747-420: The case of Hamburg in 1708, the situation was considered sufficiently serious to warrant the dispatch of an Imperial commissioner with troops to restore order and negotiate a compromise and a new city constitution between the warring parties. The number of Imperial Cities shrank over time until the Peace of Westphalia. There were more in areas that were very fragmented politically, such as Swabia and Franconia in

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7874-494: The city became a major problem. There were too many inhabitants inside the walls, but the fortifications could not be demolished because Nijmegen was deemed as being of vital importance to the defence of the Netherlands. When events in the Franco-Prussian war proved that old-fashioned fortifications were no longer of use, this policy was changed and the fortifications were dismantled in 1874. The old castle had already been demolished in 1797, so that its bricks could be sold. Through

8001-452: The city of Maastricht . In November 2005, the city centre of Nijmegen was the site of the assassination of political activist Louis Sévèke by a former activist, Marcel Teunissen, who was arrested in 2007 in Spain and extradited to the Netherlands. Teunissen has also been accused of bank robbery. He committed his acts out of revenge for a forcible eviction from the squatter scene by Louis Sévèke. Nijmegen has an oceanic climate ( Cfb ). It

8128-514: The city saw heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden . The objective of the Battle of Nijmegen was mainly to prevent the Germans from destroying the bridges. Capturing the road bridge allowed the British Army XXX Corps to attempt to reach the 1st British Airborne Division in Arnhem . The bridge was heavily defended by over 300 German troops on both the north and south sides with close to 20 anti-tank guns and two anti-aircraft guns , supported with artillery. The Germans' late attempt to blow

8255-442: The city walls. The constitution of Free and Imperial Cities was republican in form, but in all but the smallest cities, the city government was oligarchic in nature with a governing town council composed of an elite, hereditary patrician class, the so-called town council families ( Ratsverwandte ). They were the most economically significant burgher families who had asserted themselves politically over time. Below them, with

8382-430: The city was ceded to the count of Guelders as collateral for a loan. The loan was never repaid, and Nijmegen has been a part of Gelderland ever since. This did not hamper trade; Nijmegen even became part of the Hanseatic League in 1364. The arts also flourished in this period. Famous medieval painters like the Limbourg brothers were born and educated in Nijmegen. Some of Hieronymus Bosch 's ancestors also came from

8509-441: The city was temporary, such as wintering noblemen, foreign merchants, princely officials, and so on. Urban conflicts in Free Imperial Cities, which sometimes amounted to class warfare, were not uncommon in the Early Modern Age, particularly in the 17th century (Lübeck, 1598–1669; Schwäbisch Hall, 1601–1604; Frankfurt, 1612–1614; Wezlar, 1612–1615; Erfurt, 1648–1664; Cologne, 1680–1685; Hamburg 1678–1693, 1702–1708). Sometimes, as in

8636-422: The city. During the Dutch Revolt , trade came to a halt and even though Nijmegen became a part of the Republic of United Provinces after its capture from the Spanish in 1591 , it remained a border town and had to endure multiple sieges. In 1678 Nijmegen was host to the negotiations between the European powers that aimed to put an end to the constant warfare that had ravaged the continent for years. The result

8763-455: The city. Few Roman remains are visible today; a fragment of the old city wall can be seen near the casino and the foundations of the amphitheatre are traced in the paving of the present-day Rembrandtstraat. The Valkhof Museum , on the Valkhof, has a permanent display of the history of Nijmegen, including artifacts from the Roman era. Additionally, they usually have temporary exhibitions of more and less famous artists. During building works in

8890-439: The city. Multinational companies such as Qualcomm , Photronics Inc , and Applied Materials also have facilities in Nijmegen. Other notable companies headquartered in Nijmegen include Synthon , a Dutch multinational pharmaceutical company and Vaxxinova , an EW group subsidiary which produces animal vaccines. To prevent flooding in the near future, the Dutch government is changing the course of more than 30 rivers throughout

9017-465: The cottage industry occurred in other fields, e.g. etching, wood carving, armor production, engraving of metals, and wood-turning . The league primarily traded beeswax, furs, timber, resin (or tar), flax, honey, wheat, and rye from the east to Flanders and England with cloth, in particular broadcloth , (and, increasingly, manufactured goods ) going in the other direction. Metal ore (principally copper and iron) and herring came south from Sweden, while

9144-555: The country. These measures, taken along the rivers IJssel, Lek, Maas and Waal, are known as ‘Room for the River’. Room for the river Waal as it passes Nijmegen is one of these measures. As part of this, the artificial island Veur-Lent was created in 2015. Free imperial city In the Holy Roman Empire , the collective term free and imperial cities (German: Freie und Reichsstädte ), briefly worded free imperial city ( Freie Reichsstadt , Latin : urbs imperialis libera ),

9271-444: The course of the Middle Ages, cities gained, and sometimes – if rarely – lost, their freedom through the vicissitudes of power politics. Some favored cities gained charters by gift. Others purchased one from a prince in need of funds. Some won it by force of arms during the troubled 13th and 14th centuries and others lost their privileges during the same period by the same way. Some cities became free through

9398-453: The credibility of the church". The signatories, a group of predominantly German-speaking theologians asserted that "the freedom of theologians, and theology in the service of the church, regained by Vatican II , must not be jeopardised again." The signatories pledged their loyalty to the Pope, but argued that the teaching office of pope and bishops "cannot and must not supersede, hamper and impede

9525-513: The diminutive Free Imperial City of Isny was the equal of the Margraviate of Brandenburg . Having probably learned from experience that there was not much to gain from active, and costly, participation in the Imperial Diet's proceedings due to the lack of empathy of the princes, the cities made little use of their representation in that body. By about 1700, almost all the cities with the exception of Nuremberg, Ulm and Regensburg, where by then

9652-452: The discovery of an intact 2,000-year-old blue glass bowl with a vertical stripe pattern in Nijmegen. Researchers assume that this well-preserved bowl was made in a glass workshop. According to van de Geer, this type of bowl was made by allowing molten glass to cool and harden over a mold. Beginning in the latter half of the 4th century, Roman power decreased and Noviomagus eventually became part of Francia . It also appeared around this time on

9779-421: The drive for cooperation came from the fragmented nature of existing territorial governments, which did not provide security for trade. Over the next 50 years, the merchant Hansa solidified with formal agreements for co-operation covering the west and east trade routes . Cities from the east modern-day Low Countries, but also Utrecht, Holland, Zealand, Brabant, Namur, and modern Limburg joined in participation over

9906-591: The département of Bouches-de-l'Elbe , and Bremen the Bouches-du-Weser . When the German Confederation was established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, and Frankfurt were once again made Free Cities, this time enjoying total sovereignty as all the members of the loose Confederation. Frankfurt was annexed by Prussia in consequence of the part it took in

10033-508: The economy of the village around the camp, losing around 5000 inhabitants. In 104 Emperor Trajan renamed the town, which became known as Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum , Noviomagus for short, the ultimate origin of the current name. A collection of artifacts from Roman antiquity were compiled by Johannes Smetius in the 17th century, called the Smetius Collection . In January 2022, archeologists led by Pepijn van de Geer announced

10160-491: The former villages of Hatert , Hees and Neerbosch, as well as the urban expansion projects in Veur-Lent , Nijmegen-Oosterhout and Nijmegen–Ressen , all situated north of the river Waal . The city lies a few kilometers from the border with Germany, and to some extent the westernmost villages in the municipality of Kranenburg , Germany, function as dormitories for people who work in the Dutch city of Nijmegen in part due to

10287-574: The immigration of Dutch people from the region who were attracted by the lower house pricing just across the border. The German city of Duisburg (in the Ruhr region) is about 78 km (48.5 mi) away, while the German town of Kleve (in the Lower Rhine region ) is about 20 km (12.4 mi) away. The first mention of Nijmegen in history is in the first century BCE, when the Romans built

10414-511: The imperial civil and military tax-schedule used for more than a century to assess the contributions of all the Imperial Estates in case of a war formally declared by the Imperial Diet. The military and monetary contribution of each city is indicated in parentheses. For instance Cologne (30-322-600) means that Cologne had to provide 30 horsemen, 322 footsoldiers and 600 gulden. These numbers are equivalent to one simplum . If need be,

10541-636: The invasion across the Rhine River by Allied Troops. From 1946 to 1948 Mariënbosch concentration camp , near Nijmegen, was used to house German nationals who were to be deported from the Netherlands. On 23 February 1981, the Nijmegen police department and the Dutch Army stormed the Piersonstraat and Zeigelhof, a squatted housing block in the city centre of Nijmegen. Using 200 riot vans, three Leopard 1s , three armoured personnel carriers ,

10668-474: The late 15th century did not spare the Hansa. Nevertheless, its eventual rivals emerged in the form of territorial states . New vehicles of credit were imported from Italy. When Flanders and Holland became part of the Duchy of Burgundy , Burgund Dutch and Prussian cities increasingly excluded Lübeck from their grain trade in the 15th and 16th century. Burgund Dutch demand for Prussian and Livonian grain grew in

10795-677: The late 15th century onwards. Nuremberg in Franconia developed an overland route to sell formerly Hansa-monopolised products from Frankfurt via Nuremberg and Leipzig to Poland and Russia, trading Flemish cloth and French wine in exchange for grain and furs from the east. The Hansa profited from the Nuremberg trade by allowing Nurembergers to settle in Hanseatic towns, which the Franconians exploited by taking over trade with Sweden as well. The Nuremberger merchant Albrecht Moldenhauer

10922-568: The late 15th century, many cities included both "Free" and "Imperial" in their name. Like the other Imperial Estates, they could wage war, make peace, and control their own trade, and they permitted little interference from outside. In the later Middle Ages, a number of Free Cities formed City Leagues ( Städtebünde ), such as the Hanseatic League or the Alsatian Décapole , to promote and defend their interests. In

11049-417: The late 15th century. These trade interests differed from Wendish interests, threatening political unity, but also showed a trade where the Hanseatic system was impractical. Hollandish freight costs were much lower than the Hansa's, and the Hansa were excluded as middlemen. After naval wars between Burgundy and the Hanseatic fleets, Amsterdam gained the position of leading port for Polish and Baltic grain from

11176-630: The most valued, and Wendish cities like Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar, and Rostock developed export breweries for hopped beer. The Hanseatic League, at first the merchant hansas and eventually its cities, relied on power to secure protection and gain and preserve privileges. Bandits and pirates were persistent problems; during wars, these could be joined by privateers . Traders could be arrested abroad and their goods could be confiscated. The league sought to codify protection; internal treaties established mutual defense and external treaties codified privileges. Many locals, merchant and noble alike, envied

11303-547: The need was devised to compensate Prussia for territorial losses under the Greater Hamburg Act , and Lübeck was annexed to Prussia in 1937. In the Federal Republic of Germany which was established after the war, Bremen and Hamburg, but not Lübeck, became constituent states , a status which they retain to the present day. Berlin , which had never been a Free City in its history, received the status of

11430-634: The north and east, to the Netherlands in the west, and extended inland as far as Cologne , the Prussian regions and Kraków , Poland . The League began as a collection of loosely associated groups of German traders and towns aiming to expand their commercial interests, including protection against robbery. Over time, these arrangements evolved into the League, offering traders toll privileges and protection on affiliated territory and trade routes. Economic interdependence and familial connections among merchant families led to deeper political integration and

11557-565: The possibility that they would have the casting vote in case of a tie between the Electors and the Princes, it was decided that these should decide first and consult the cities afterward. Despite this somewhat unequal status of the cities in the functioning of the Imperial Diet, their full admittance to that federal institution was crucial in clarifying their hitherto uncertain status and in legitimizing their permanent existence as full-fledged Imperial Estates. Constitutionally, if in no other way,

11684-494: The recesses; representatives would sometimes leave the Diet prematurely to give their towns an excuse not to ratify decisions. Only a few Hanseatic cities were free imperial cities or enjoyed comparable autonomy and liberties, but many temporarily escaped domination by local nobility. Between 1361 and 1370, League members fought against Denmark in the Danish-Hanseatic War . Though initially unsuccessful with

11811-1007: The reduction of trade barriers. This gradual process involved standardizing trade regulations among Hanseatic Cities. During its time, the Hanseatic League dominated maritime trade in the North and Baltic Seas . It established a network of trading posts in numerous towns and cities, notably the Kontors in London (known as the Steelyard ), Bruges , Bergen , and Novgorod , which became extraterritorial entities that enjoyed considerable legal autonomy. Hanseatic merchants, commonly referred to as Hansards, operated private companies and were known for their access to commodities, and enjoyed privileges and protections abroad. The League's economic power enabled it to impose blockades and even wage war against kingdoms and principalities. Even at its peak,

11938-566: The revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp where the Legio X Gemina was stationed. Soon after, another village formed around this camp. In 98, Nijmegen was the first of two settlements in what is now the Kingdom of the Netherlands to receive Roman city rights . In 103, the X Gemina was restationed in Vindobona , now Vienna , which may have been a major blow to

12065-419: The road bridge was possibly foiled by a local Dutch resistance hero, Jan van Hoof , who is said to have cut the wires to the bridge. The Germans made repeated attacks on the bridge using bombs attached to driftwood, midget submarines and later resorted to shelling the bridge with 88mm barrages. Troops were positioned on the bridge giving an excellent arc of fire in case of attack. Troops that could not fit onto

12192-488: The same small city. Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 12th century, the League expanded between the 13th and 15th centuries and ultimately encompassed nearly 200 settlements across eight modern-day countries, ranging from Estonia in

12319-491: The same to Stendal and Salzwedel in the Altmark . Until 1394, Holland and Zeeland actively participated in the Hansa, but in 1395, their feudal obligations to Albert I, Duke of Bavaria prevented further cooperation. Consequently, their Hanseatic ties weakened, and their economic focus shifted. Between 1417 and 1432, this economic reorientation became even more pronounced as Holland and Zeeland gradually became part of

12446-457: The sea and many were linked to partners by river trade or even land trade. These formed an integrated network, while many smaller Hanseatic towns had their main trading activity in subregional trade. Internal Hanseatic trade was the Hanse's quantitatively largest and most important business. Trade over rivers and land was not tied to specific Hanseatic privileges, but seaports such as Bremen , Hamburg and Riga dominated trade on their rivers. This

12573-399: The second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Nijmegen grew steadily. In 1923 the current Radboud University Nijmegen was founded and in 1927 a channel was dug between the Waal and Meuse ( Maas ) rivers. The Waal was bridged in 1878 by a rail bridge and in 1936 by a road bridge , which was claimed to be Europe's biggest bridge at the time. In November 2013

12700-786: The southwest, than in the North and the East where the larger and more powerful territories, such as Brandenburg and Saxony, were located, which were more prone to absorb smaller, weaker states. In the 16th and 17th century, a number of Imperial Cities were separated from the Empire due to external territorial change. Henry II of France seized the Imperial Cities connected to the Three Bishoprics of Metz , Verdun and Toul . Louis XIV seized many cities based on claims produced by his Chambers of Reunion . That way, Strasbourg and

12827-703: The status of Free Imperial Cities, and some of those did so only for a few decades. The Imperial military tax register ( Reichsmatrikel ) of 1521 listed eighty-five such cities, and this figure had fallen to 65 by the time of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. From the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 to 1803, their number oscillated at around 50. Unlike the Free Imperial Cities, the second category of towns and cities, now called "territorial cities", were subject to an ecclesiastical or lay lord, and while many of them enjoyed self-government to varying degrees, this

12954-515: The style of their Hanseatic days. Most adopted Lübeck law , after the league's most prominent town. The law provided that they appeal in all legal matters to Lübeck's city council. Others, like Danzig from 1295 onwards, had Magdeburg law or its derivative, Culm law . Later, the Livonian Confederation of 1435 to c.  1582 incorporated modern-day Estonia and parts of Latvia ; all of its major towns were members of

13081-483: The teaching task of theologians as scholars." Sport in the city is principally focused on its football club NEC Nijmegen or just NEC, short for Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie, which plays at the 12,500-seat Stadion de Goffert . The club plays in the Eredivisie . Another football club is Jonker Boys . Bandy Vereniging Nijmegen is the biggest bandy club in the country. The national team got celebrated by over

13208-561: The ten cities of the Décapole were annexed. When the Old Swiss Confederacy gained its formal independence from the Empire in 1648, it had been de facto independent since 1499, the independence of the Imperial Cities of Basel , Bern , Lucerne , St. Gallen , Schaffhausen , Solothurn , and Zürich was formally recognized. With the rise of Revolutionary France in Europe, this trend accelerated enormously. After 1795,

13335-548: The term Hanse appeared in a document in 1267, in different cities began to form guilds , or hansas , with the intention of trading with overseas towns, especially in the economically less-developed eastern Baltic. This area could supply timber, wax , amber , resins , and furs, along with rye and wheat brought on barges from the hinterland to port markets. Merchant guilds formed in hometowns and destination ports as medieval corporations ( universitates mercatorum ), and despite competition increasingly cooperated to coalesce into

13462-792: The third Tuesday of each July, over 40,000 participants from about 70 countries undertake four days of walking with distances ranging from 30 to 50 km (19 to 31 mi) a day. The marches are supplemented with festivities such as the Vierdaagse Festival . In 1968, theologians in the Catholic Church issued what is now known as the Nijmegen Statement , demanding sweeping reforms in the Vatican's Holy Office, previously known as The Inquisition, and calling for greater scope for theological inquiry. Among its signatories

13589-527: The thirteenth century. This network of Hanseatic trading guilds became called the Kaufmannshanse in historiography. The League succeeded in establishing additional Kontors in Bruges ( Flanders ), Bryggen in Bergen (Norway), and London (England) beside the Peterhof in Novgorod. These trading posts were institutionalised by the first half of the 14th century (for Bergen and Bruges) and, except for

13716-524: The traders' hometowns. Outposts in Lisbon , Bordeaux , Bourgneuf , La Rochelle and Nantes offered the cheaper Bay salt. Ships that plied this trade sailed in the salt fleet . Trading posts operated in Flanders, Denmark-Norway, the Baltic interior, Upper Germany, Iceland, and Venice. Hanseatic trade was not exclusively maritime, or even over water. Most Hanseatic towns did not have immediate access to

13843-649: The void created by the extinction of dominant families, like the Swabian Hohenstaufen . Some voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of a territorial ruler and therefore lost their independence. A few, like Protestant Donauwörth , which in 1607 was annexed to the Catholic Duchy of Bavaria , were stripped by the Emperor of their status as a Free City – for genuine or trumped-up reasons. This rarely happened after

13970-619: The Øresund toll, which caused tensions with Holland and Zeeland . The Sound tolls, and a later attempt of Lübeck to exclude the English and Dutch merchants from Scania harmed the Scanian herring trade when the excluded regions began to develop their own herring industries. In the Dutch–Hanseatic War (1438–1441), a privateer war mostly waged by Wendish towns, the merchants of Amsterdam sought and eventually won free access to

14097-548: The Øresund. Hanseatic cities were divided initially; Lübeck tried to appease Eric while Hamburg supported the Schauenburg counts against him. This led to the Danish-Hanseatic War (1426-1435) and the Bombardment of Copenhagen (1428). The Treaty of Vordingborg renewed the League's commercial privileges in 1435, but the Øresund tolls continued. Eric of Pomerania was subsequently deposed and in 1438 Lübeck took control of

14224-482: Was a major Rus trade centre . Scandinavians led the Baltic trade before the League, establishing major trading hubs at Birka , Haithabu , and Schleswig by the 9th century CE. The later Hanseatic ports between Mecklenburg and Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad ) originally formed part of the Scandinavian-led Baltic trade system. The Hanseatic League was never formally founded, so it lacks

14351-519: Was a precarious privilege which might be curtailed or abolished according to the will of the lord. Reflecting the complex constitutional set-up of the Holy Roman Empire, a third category, composed of semi-autonomous cities that belonged to neither of those two types, is distinguished by some historians. These were cities whose size and economic strength was sufficient to sustain a substantial independence from surrounding territorial lords for

14478-522: Was also called Stalhof), Bristol , Bishop's Lynn (later King's Lynn , which featured the sole remaining Hanseatic warehouse in England), Hull , Ipswich , Newcastle upon Tyne , Norwich , Scarborough , Yarmouth (now Great Yarmouth ), and York , many of which were important for the Baltic trade and became centers of the textile industry in the late 14th century. Hansards and textile manufacturers coordinated to make fabrics meet local demand and fashion in

14605-528: Was applied to bands of merchants traveling between the Hanseatic cities. Hanse in Middle Low German came to mean a society of merchants or a trader guild. Claims that it originally meant An-See , or "on the sea", are incorrect. Exploratory trading ventures, raids, and piracy occurred throughout the Baltic Sea. The sailors of Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as Novgorod , which

14732-492: Was delayed by the conquest of Wendish cities by the Danish king Eric VI Menved or by their feudal overlords between 1306 and 1319 and the restriction of their autonomy. Assemblies of the Hanse towns met irregularly in Lübeck for a Hansetag  [ de ] (Hanseatic Diet) – starting either around 1300, or possibly 1356. Many towns chose not to attend nor to send representatives, and decisions were not binding on individual cities if their delegates were not included in

14859-468: Was fostered by slow travel speeds: moving from Reval to Lübeck took between 4 weeks and, in winter, 4 months. In 1241, Lübeck, which had access to the Baltic and North seas' fishing grounds, formed an alliance—a precursor to the League—with the trade city of Hamburg, which controlled access to the salt-trade routes from Lüneburg . These cities gained control over most of the salt-fish trade, especially

14986-399: Was further complicated when Swedish nobles rebelled against Albert and invited Margaret. Albert was taken prisoner in 1389, but hired privateers in 1392, the socalled Victual Brothers , who took Bornholm and Visby in his name. They and their descendants threatened maritime trade between 1392 and the 1430s. Under the 1395 release agreement for Albert, Stockholm was ruled from 1395 to 1398 by

15113-457: Was influential in developing the trade with Sweden and Norway, and his sons Wolf and Burghard Moldenhauer established themselves in Bergen and Stockholm, becoming leaders of the local Hanseatic activities. King Edward IV of England reconfirmed the league's privileges in the Treaty of Utrecht despite the latent hostility, in part thanks to the significant financial contribution the League made to

15240-561: Was largely dominated by left-wing and progressive parties such as the Green Party , Democrats 66 , Socialist Party , and Labour . At times Nijmegen has been the only major city in the Netherlands with a solely left-wing government, and received the nickname ' Havana on the Waal'. Nijmegen celebrated its 2000th year of existence in 2005. It is considered the oldest city in the Netherlands. In gaining this qualification, it has competed with

15367-429: Was local and not transferable to another city. The burghers were usually the lowest social group to have political power and privilege within the Holy Roman Empire. Below them was the disenfranchised urban population, maybe half of the total in many cities, the so-called "residents" ( Beisassen ) or "guests": smaller artisans, craftsmen, street venders, day laborers, servants and the poor, and those whose residence in

15494-600: Was more attractive than Schleswig . It became a transshipment port for trade between the North Sea and the Baltics. Lübeck also granted extensive trade privileges to Russian and Scandinavian traders. It was the main supply port for the Northern Crusades , improving its standing with various Popes. Lübeck gained imperial privileges to become a free imperial city in 1226, under Valdemar II of Denmark during

15621-541: Was not possible for the Rhine where trade retained an open character. Digging canals for trade was uncommon, although the Stecknitz Canal was built between Lübeck and Lauenburg from 1391 to 1398. Starting with trade in coarse woolen fabrics, the Hanseatic League increased both commerce and industry in northern Germany. As trade increased, finer woolen and linen fabrics, and even silks, were manufactured in northern Germany. The same refinement of products out of

15748-903: Was pressured by temporarily moving the Hanseatic emporium to Aardenburg from 1280 to 1282, from 1307 or 1308 to 1310 and in 1350, to Dordt in 1358 and 1388, and to Antwerp in 1436. Boycotts against Norway in 1284 and Flanders in 1358 nearly caused famines. They sometimes resorted to military action. Several Hanseatic cities maintained their warships and in times of need, repurposed merchant ships. Military action against political powers often involved an ad hoc coalition of stakeholders, called an alliance ( tohopesate ). As an essential part of protecting their investments, League members trained pilots and erected lighthouses, including Kõpu Lighthouse . Lübeck erected in 1202 what may be northern Europe's first proper lighthouse in Falsterbo . By 1600 at least 15 lighthouses had been erected along

15875-691: Was the Treaty of Nijmegen that failed to provide for a lasting peace. In 1702, at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession , the French nearly took Nijmegen by surprise. Only because of the intervention of an Anglo-Dutch army under the Earl of Athlone and the bravery of the citizens of Nijmegen was the Assault on Nijmegen repulsed. In the second half of the 19th century, the fortifications around

16002-689: Was theologian Fr. Joseph Ratzinger , then a member of the faculty at the University of Tübingen , but later the head of the successor to the Holy Office , the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , and later still Pope Benedict XVI . The Nijmegen Statement said: "Any form of Inquisition however subtle, not only harms the development of sound theology, it also causes irreparable damage to

16129-520: Was used from the 15th century to denote a self-ruling city that had a certain amount of autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet . An imperial city held the status of imperial immediacy , and was subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor , as opposed to a territorial city or town ( Landstadt ), which was subordinate to a territorial prince  – be it an ecclesiastical lord ( prince-bishop , prince-abbot ), or

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