Editing 's-Hertogenbosch (section)

== History ==
{{For timeline}}

The city's official name is a contraction of the (archaic) [[Dutch language|Dutch]] {{lang|nl|des Hertogen bosch}}&nbsp;— {{gloss|the forest of the duke}}. The duke in question was [[Henry&nbsp;I, Duke of Brabant]], whose family had owned a large estate at nearby Orthen for at least four centuries. He founded a new town located on some forested dunes in the middle of a marsh. At age 26, he granted 's-Hertogenbosch [[City rights in the Netherlands|city rights]] and the corresponding trade privileges in 1185. This is the traditional date given by later chroniclers; the first mention in contemporaneous sources is 1196. The original [[charter]] has been lost. His reason for founding the city was to protect his own interests against encroachment from [[Gelre]] and [[Holland]]; from its first days, he conceived of the city as a fortress. It was destroyed in 1203 in a joint expedition of Gelre and Holland, but was soon rebuilt. Some remnants of the original city walls remain.

[[File:Braun s-Hertogenbosch UBHD.jpg|thumb|left|300px|'s-Hertogenbosch in the 16th century]]
In the late 14th century, a much larger wall was erected to protect the greatly expanded settled area. Artificial waterways were dug to serve as a city moat, through which the rivers [[Dommel]] and [[Aa River (Meuse)|Aa]] were diverted. 's-Hertogenbosch became the birthplace and home of [[northern Renaissance]] painter [[Hieronymus Bosch]].

Until 1520, the city flourished, becoming the second largest population centre in the territory of the present Netherlands, after [[Utrecht]]. The city was also a center of music, and composers, such as [[Jheronimus Clibano]], received their training at its churches. Others held positions there: [[Matthaeus Pipelare]] was musical director at the Confraternity of Our Lady; and renowned Habsburg copyist and composer [[Pierre Alamire]] did much of his work at 's-Hertogenbosch.

=== Eighty Years' War ===
The wars of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] changed the course of the city's history. It became an independent [[bishopric]]. During the [[Eighty Years' War]], the city took the side of the [[Habsburg]] ([[Catholic Church|Catholic]]) authorities and thwarted a [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] coup. It was besieged several times by Prince [[Maurice of Nassau|Maurice]] of [[Principality of Orange|Orange]], [[stadtholder]] of most of the [[Dutch Republic]], who wanted to bring 's-Hertogenbosch under the rule of the rebel United Provinces. The city was successfully defended against Prince Maurice in [[Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch (1601)|1601]] and again in 1603,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Coetzee |first1=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DW2jAQAAQBAJ |title=Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers |last2=Eysturlid |first2=Lee W. |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-313-07033-4 |pages=118 |language=en}}</ref> but it eventually fell in the [[Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch|1629 siege]] led by his brother [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange|Frederick Henry]].<ref name="Knight">Knight, Charles Raleigh: ''Historical records of The Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot) formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment''. Vol I. London, Gale & Polden, 1905, [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6338310M pp. 69-70]</ref>

=== Thirty Years' War ===

{{Historical populations
|title       = Historical population
|align       = left
|cols        = 
|pop_name    = 
|percentages = pagr
|footnote    = 
|source      = {{Harvnb|Lourens|Lucassen|1997|pp=45–46}}
|1374|14526
|1438|12973
|1464|10507
|1473|10579
|1480|13185
|1496|15552
|1526|18571
|1560|17500
|1600|18000
|1665|9000
|1747|12574
|1795|12841
}}

In the [[Twelve Years' Truce|years of Truce]], before the renewed fighting after 1618, the fortifications were greatly expanded. The surrounding marshes made a siege of the conventional type impossible, and the fortress, deemed impregnable, was nicknamed ''moerasdraak'', or the Swamp Dragon.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Siege of the Swamp Dragon |url=https://www.bada.org/object/siege-swamp-dragon |access-date=25 April 2023 |website=bada.org |publisher=[[British Antique Dealers' Association]]}}</ref> The town was nevertheless finally conquered by [[Frederik Hendrik of Orange]] in 1629 in a typically Dutch stratagem: he diverted the rivers Dommel and Aa, created a [[polder]] by constructing a forty-kilometre (25 mile) [[dike (construction)|dyke]] and then pumped out the water by mills. After a siege of three months, the city had to surrender—an enormous blow to Habsburg geo-political strategy during the [[Thirty Years' War]]. This surrender cut the town off from the rest of the duchy and the area was treated by the Republic as an [[occupation zone]] without political liberties (see also [[Generality Lands]]).

=== Louis XIV to Bonaparte ===
After the [[Peace of Westphalia]], the fortifications were again expanded. In 1672, the Dutch ''[[rampjaar]]'', the city held against the army of [[Louis XIV]] of France. In 1794 French revolutionary troops under the command of [[Charles Pichegru]] attacked the city. It was only weakly defended, and fell after a short siege. Pichegru then crossed the rivers and put an end to the Dutch Republic.

Under the new [[Batavian Republic]], established in 1795, both Catholics and ''Brabanders'' at last gained equal rights. From 1806, the city became part of the [[Kingdom of Holland]] and from 1810, it was incorporated into the [[First French Empire]]. It was captured by the [[Prussia]]ns in 1814.

=== Kingdom of the Netherlands ===
The next year, 1815, when the [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands]] was established, it became the capital of [[North Brabant]]. Many newer and more modern fortresses were created in the vicinity of the city. A new canal was built, the 'Zuid-Willemsvaart', which gave the city an economic impulse. Trade, manufacturing and industry grew. Until 1878, it was forbidden to build outside the ramparts. That led to overcrowding and the highest [[infant mortality]] in the kingdom.

At the end of the 19th century, the very conservative city government prevented industrial investment to avoid an increase in the number of workers and the establishment of educational institutions: students were regarded as disorderly. As a result, the relative importance of the city diminished.

===World War II and after===
[[File:Voorgevel - 's-Hertogenbosch - 20110416 - RCE.jpg|thumb|upright|{{Interlanguage link|De Moriaan|nl}}]]
One of the few official [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[concentration camp]] complexes in [[Western Europe]] outside Germany and [[Austria]] was named after 's-Hertogenbosch. It operated from January 1943, to September 1944 and was known to the Germans as [[Herzogenbusch]] (see List of subcamps of Herzogenbusch). About 30,000 inmates were interned in the complex during this time, of whom about 12,000&nbsp;were [[Jew]]s. In the Netherlands, this camp is known as 'Kamp [[Vught]]', because the concentration camp was actually located at a heath near Vught, a village a few kilometres south of 's-Hertogenbosch.

The city was occupied by German forces during [[World War II]] from 1940 to 1944. The railway station was bombed by planes of the [[Royal Air Force]] on 16 September 1944. The city was liberated between 24 and 27&nbsp;October 1944&nbsp;during [[Operation Pheasant]] by [[British Army|British soldiers]] of [[major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] [[Robert Knox Ross (British Army officer)|Robert Knox Ross]]'s [[53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division]] following the victory of the 1st Battalion, [[East Lancashire Regiment]], of [[158th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|158th Infantry Brigade]] over the enemy on 23–24 October.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rory Bremner salutes his East Lancashire war hero dad |url=http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/leisure/tv/4725324.Rory_Bremner_salutes_his_East_Lancashire_war_hero_dad/ |website=Lancashire Telegraph |date=6 November 2009 |access-date=2015-04-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404172449/http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/leisure/tv/4725324.Rory_Bremner_salutes_his_East_Lancashire_war_hero_dad/ |archive-date=2015-04-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After the war, 's-Hertogenbosch was modernized, like many other cities in the Netherlands. It was possible that it was only the geography that shielded the old town from rigorous reconstruction in those early years. Just in time, the pendulum swung back to protecting the history of the city. In 1956, the council wanted to demolish the Moriaan, the oldest brick building in the Netherlands, to give traffic better access to the market square. The permit was refused by the government and instead the building was restored, starting in 1963. Later, city councils became much more aware of the value of historic buildings and from about the turn of the millennium, the historic fortifications are also given much attention by the authorities.