duchy · France and the Low Countries
Duchy of Guelders
Origins
Around 1096 Gerard of Wassenberg was first styled count of Guelders, after a castle near Geldern. His family added Zutphen through marriage around 1138 and moved their centre north to the Rhine and Veluwe. Nijmegen, Roermond, Arnhem and Zutphen became the four quarters of the territory.
Rule and society
The counts expanded steadily, though Reinald I lost the battle of Worringen in 1288. Emperor Louis IV made Reinald II a duke in 1339. Guelders was a land of river tolls, farming and Hanseatic towns. After the house of Egmond took power, Charles the Bold bought the duchy in 1473, but Charles of Egmond won it back and fought the Habsburgs for decades.
Decline and legacy
Duke William of Cleves lost the duchy to Charles V and ceded it by the Treaty of Venlo in 1543, joining it to the Habsburg Netherlands. In the Dutch Revolt it split: the northern quarters joined the Dutch Republic, while Upper Guelders around Roermond stayed Spanish.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Duchy of Guelders was part of Holy Roman Empire1096 CE – 1543 CE
- Duchy of Guelders was conquered by Burgundian State1473 CE – 1477 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Duchy of Guelders. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-guelders
- MLA
- “Duchy of Guelders.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-guelders. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Duchy of Guelders.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-guelders.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Duchy of Guelders’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-guelders (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻