Haarlemmermeer

The Haarlemmermeer was a lake between Haarlem, Amsterdam and Leiden, its waters spreading as floods joined it to neighbouring lakes. Villages, including Vennep, disappeared beneath the growing expanse. In 1573 Spanish ships fought the Dutch Sea Beggars here as the latter attempted to relieve Haarlem. Storms made the lake dangerous, and its appetite for surrounding land earned it the name of the water wolf. By 1647 the joined lake covered some 150 square kilometres. Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater proposed enclosing and draining it in 1643, and others later advanced similar schemes. Storms in 1836 drove its waters towards Amsterdam and Leiden; in 1837 King William I appointed a commission to investigate draining it.