Deventer

Deventer stands on the east bank of the IJssel, where a harbour deep enough for big ships made it one of the oldest towns in the Netherlands, mentioned in the ninth century and, in 952, as a town in a gift of King Otto I. In 1123 Emperor Henry V gave its inhabitants the town lands, which historians treat as the moment it won its rights. Between 1000 and 1500 it grew into a trading city of the Hanseatic League, and the dried cod and haddock it imported from Norway gave its people the nickname Deventer Stokvis.

Deventer's cultural weight in the late Middle Ages came from the Devotio Moderna. Geert Groote, born in the town in 1340, founded the Brethren of the Common Life here, and Thomas à Kempis and Erasmus were shaped by their teaching. A Latin School, active from around 1300, grew internationally famous, and Erasmus attended it from 1475 to 1484. Deventer and Haarlem were also among the first Dutch towns to have printing presses, in 1477. In the fifteenth century the city shared a mint with Zwolle and Kampen, its partner IJssel towns.

The IJssel carried less water between 1500 and 1800, which weakened the harbour, and competition from Holland and the religious wars of 1568 to 1648 brought decline to the city. An iron industry arrived in the eighteenth century, based on bog ore found east of town since the Middle Ages. Deventer saw few military engagements through its long history, and became a garrison town for the Dutch cavalry.