Dussen Castle

Dussen Castle is a water castle that got its peculiar form after being destroyed by the St. Elizabeth's flood of 1421.

The Lords of Dussen were first mentioned in 1156. The lordship heerlijkheid Dussen was first mentioned in 1200. In 1288 a Jan van Dussen fought on the Brabant side in the Battle of Worringen. He broke his leg, as told by Jan van Heelu:

It is possible that these Lords already had a kind of castle, but no remains of such supposed castles have been found.

The first version of Dussen Castle had a lone square tower built in or before 1330. It probably had auxiliary buildings on a bailey but no remains of these have been found.

In a 1387 Dussen Castle's owner Arent van der Dussen was authorized by his liege lord Albert I, Duke of Bavaria (1336-1404) to: 'make and build our house on our manor at Dussen as big and strong as he likes.' This makes it most likely that the castle gained the current floor plan in the six years following 1387.

The Land van Altena and Dussen had become a Brabant loan in 1200. That is, for the part held in loan by the Counts of Holland. In 1213 Holland gained Geertruidenberg. In 1230 the count of Holland strengthened his position when Dirk II van Altena paid homage for his lands in Giessendam and Dordrecht, and for Altena Castle near Almkerk. In 1356 Arent II van Dussen got the Heerlijkheid Hagoort on loan from Joanna, Duchess of Brabant. In 1357 the whole conflict about lands of Heusden and Altena was ended when Heusden was allotted to Holland.

In 1371 Arent II van Dussen joined William I van Brederode and other knights to support Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg as Duke of Brabant against William II, Duke of Jülich. This led to the lost August 1371 Battle of Baesweiler, where he was taken prisoner. His ransom was actually higher than that for Willem van Brederode.

In 1381 Arent II van Dussen got some goods on loan from his nephew Jan van Polanen, amongst them a farm hoeve lands in Muikerk. In 1387, 1392, and 1408 Arent II was mentioned as Bailiff of the southern part of the County of Holland.

During the Hook and Cod wars Arent initially sided with the Lord of Altena, Willem VI of Horne, who lost the Land van Altena. In 1396 Arent II took part in the War for East Friesland. A war that was probably waged to mark the new unity of Holland. He served Duke Albert of Bavaria with 10 men for his own account.

Text adapted from “Dussen Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Dussen Castle ranks #6,655 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #114 of the 201 mapped in Netherlands. Founded 1156, it is older than 81% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 564 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. 14 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Breda, 21 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗