Helmond

Helmond grew among the streams of eastern Brabant under the protection of a castle. Duke Henry I founded the town in 1225 and granted its privileges in 1232. A later stone castle and ramparts marked the town's medieval defenses. Market rights granted in 1376 helped its textile trade develop, and seven guilds were authorized in 1389. Helmond merchants sold wool and cloth across Brabant, though the town remained small.

War disrupted this prosperity. Maarten van Rossum's army besieged and sacked Helmond in 1543, and during the Eighty Years' War Dutch forces captured the town twice while the castle held out. War and a plague outbreak in 1636 damaged the textile industry, sending weavers to Haarlem. After peace in 1648, connections with Haarlem merchants helped the trade recover. French occupation at the end of the eighteenth century brought further political changes, including renewed Catholic participation in town government.