Roermond

Roermond stands where the Roer approaches the Meuse, a commercial town of Guelders with rights recorded in the thirteenth century. Around 1350 it became the principal town of Upper Guelders, and in 1441 it joined the Hanseatic League. Monastic foundations included the Charterhouse, founded in 1376, while the Minster and Saint Christopher's Church marked its religious life. In 1559 Roermond became the seat of a bishopric.

The revolt against Spain brought fighting and religious violence. William of Orange occupied Roermond in 1572, when thirteen Catholic clerics were killed; Spanish forces subsequently retook it. In 1613 a witch trial ended with the burning of sixty-four people. Frederick Henry's campaign along the Meuse brought the town under Dutch rule in 1632, but Spain recovered it in 1637. Roermond again passed to the Dutch in 1702 and to the Austrian Netherlands in 1716, remaining under Austrian rule until the French conquest in 1794.