East Souburg

As crazy as it sounds, Souburg actually owes its origins to a series of floods that plagued the estuary of the Scheldt from the year 300 for several centuries. The peat area that would later be known as Walcheren became completely depopulated due to the encroaching water, but that same water caused creeks to be scoured out in the peat, which gradually became filled with sand and clay. Between those ridges, the low-lying peat was covered with clay. In short: the conditions for successful habitation were created by nature itself.

Around the year 600, the creek ridges had been sufficiently raised to allow people to 'settle'. However, it wasn't until well into the tenth century that there were really concentrations at the village level. Vlissingen's municipal archivist Adri Meerman likes to consult Professor Dr. P.A. Henderikx, who resides in Veere and has reported quite a bit about the history of Walcheren in publications and lectures. 'After all, our own archive regarding Souburg doesn’t go back further than the seventeenth century.' The trading settlements along the coast must have been quite prosperous. How else can one explain the establishment of a burg, a fortified place, in Souburg? In a booklet published in 1860 by an 'angry Souburger' (more on that in a later article), it was still stated that the burg served to protect valuable products like wool, salt, and grain from thieving Flemings. 'But history is a living science,' emphasizes Adri Meerman. 'Because by now we know better. Perhaps the Flemings occasionally went on the prowl, but the burg primarily served to protect against the Normans, who plundered roughly between 830-990.'

Earlier?

Which village came first? East Souburg or West Souburg? ‘I think I might have to disappoint the East Souburgers,’ laughs the municipal archivist. ‘For while the burg built at the end of the ninth century, the 'Carolingian Fortress,' did have some habitation, it wasn't yet truly a village. The place Souburg, referred to in ancient times as Subburgh, is mentioned for the first time in a written source in 1162. Antipope Victor IV then confirms the abbey of Middelburg in its possessions, which also includes the church of West Souburg. And it wasn't until 1247 that East Souburg became an independent parish, as a daughter of West Souburg. The establishment of those parish churches indicated that the population gradually grew. In this context, I would like to mention Prof. Henderikx, who noted in a lecture for the Association of Friends of the City Museum and the Municipal Archive of Vlissingen: ‘Church foundations indicate an increase in the number of inhabitants, with the residents surely having had motives for all those church foundations. And there certainly were motives, both religious and secular. Regarding the religious drive, there would have been a significant impetus from the Gregorian reform movement, which advocated improvement of soul care and encouraged believers to attend church more often, preferably weekly. The secular drive was primarily related to the formation of trades, the precursors of our municipalities. In Zeeland, the founding of trades coincided precisely with the establishment of parishes until the fourteenth century. Whenever a new parish was established, a new trade was split off from a larger trade. The parish church also fulfilled a role in the legal system. Various announcements by the mayor and aldermen were made in the church, and accusations were submitted in the church.'

Castle

Adri Meerman: ‘Around the thirteenth century, there was, we assume in West Souburg, a castle that was inhabited among others by the Van Borssele family and by Anna of Burgundy. Charles the Bold, Charles the Fifth, and Maximilian of Austria resided there. Illustrious figures, indeed. Now, I will leap through history in great strides to land more quickly in the eighteenth century, the time when I can glean data from our own archive. The castle was set on fire in 1573. Five years later, Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint Aldegonde, purchased the lordship of West Souburg and the remnants of the castle. Philips had the fortress rebuilt and named it Aldegonde. It wasn't until 1783 that the fortress disappeared from the map: it was demolished.

Miraculous

East Souburg became especially known as a pilgrimage center around the year 1300. People traveled from far and wide to the parish church, dedicated to the holy virgin Mary, because a miraculous statue of Mary, Our Lady of the Tower, stood in a niche. During the iconoclasm in 1566, this statue was thrown down and shattered. The henchmen of the infamous Duke of Alva mercilessly took revenge for this - what they called - sacrilege. Abraham de Deckere, the mayor of East Souburg, and his wife Petronella Pieters Dochter were hanged for breaking, violating and profaning (desecrating) the East Souburg parish church.'

The first article in this series appeared in the Souburgsche Courant in May 2002.

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