lease-right, doubtless accounts for the extended ownership of the land. By this law a tenant-farmer is able to bequeath his farm, that is to say, he holds his lease in perpetuity.
The chief agricultural products are barley, oats, wheat, and in the north-east flax is also grown, and exported to South Holland and Belgium. On the higher clay grounds cattle-rearing and horse-breeding are also practised, together with butter and cheese making. The cultivation of potatoes on the sandgrounds in the south and the fen colonies along the Stads-Canal invite general comparison with the industries of Drente (q.v.). Hoogezand and Sappemeer, Veendam and Wildervank, New and Old Pekela, New and Old Stads-Canal are instances of villages which have extended until they overlap one another and are similar in this respect to the industrial villages of the Zaan Streek in North Holland. The coast fisheries are considerable. Groningen (q.v.) is the chief and only large town of the province. Delfzyl, which was formerly an important fortress for the protection of the ancient sluices on the little river Delf (hence its name), has greatly benefited by the construction of the Ems (Eems) ship-canal connecting it with Groningen, and has a good harbour with a considerable import trade in wood. Appingedam and Winschoten are very old towns, having important cattle and horse markets. The pretty wood at Winschoten was laid out by the Society for Public Welfare (Tot Nut van het Algemeen) in 1826.
GRONINGEN, a town of Holland, capital of the province of
the same name, at the confluence of the two canalized rivers
the Drentsche Aa and the Hunse (which are continued to the
Lauwers Zee as the Reit Diep), 16 m. N. of Assen and 33 m. E.
of Leeuwarden by rail. Pop. (1900) 67,563. Groningen is the
centre from which several important canals radiate. Besides
the Reit Diep, there are the Ems Canal and the Damster Diep,
connecting it with Delfzyl and the Dollart, the Kolonel’s Diep
with Leeuwarden, the Nord Willem’s Canal with Assen and the
south and the Stads-Canal south-east with the Ems. Hence
steamers ply in all directions, and there is a regular service to
Emden and the island of Borkum via Delfzyl, and via the
Lauwers Zee to the island of Schiermonnikoog. Groningen is
the most important town in the north of Holland, with its fine
shops and houses and wide clean streets, while brick houses of
the 16th and 17th centuries help it to retain a certain old-world
air. The ancient part of the town is still surrounded by the
former moat, and in the centre lies a group of open places, of
which the Groote Markt is one of the largest market-squares
in Holland. Pleasant gardens and promenades extend on the
north side of the town, together with a botanical garden. The
chief church is the Martini-kerk, with a high tower (432 ft.)
dating from 1477, and an organ constructed by the famous
scholar and musician Rudolph Agricolo, who was born near
Groningen in 1443. The Aa church dates from 1465, but was
founded in 1253. The Roman Catholic Broederkerk (rebuilt
at the end of the 19th century) contains some remarkable
pictures of the Passion by L. Hendricx (1865). There is also a
Jewish synagogue. The large town hall (in classical style),
one of the finest public buildings, was built at the beginning of the
19th century and enlarged in 1873. The provincial government
offices also occupy a fine building which received a splendid
front in 1871. Other noteworthy buildings are the provincial
museum of antiquities, containing interesting Germanic antiquities,
as well as medieval and modern collections of porcelain,
pictures, &c.; the courts of justice (transformed in the middle
of the 18th century); the old Ommelanderhuis, formerly devoted
to the administration of the surrounding district, built in 1509
and restored in 1899; the weigh-house (1874); the civil and
military prison; the arsenal; the military hospital; and the
concert hall.
The university of Groningen, founded in 1614, received its present fine buildings in classical style in 1850. Among its auxiliary establishments are a good natural history museum, an observatory, a laboratory, and a library which contains a copy of Erasmus’ New Testament with marginal annotations by Luther. Other educational institutions are the deaf and dumb institution founded by Henri Daniel Guyot (d. 1828) in 1790, a gymnasium, and schools of navigation, art and music. There are learned societies for the study of law (1761) and natural science (1830); an academy of fine arts (1830); an archaeological society; and a central bureau for collecting information concerning the province.
As capital of the province, and on account of the advantages of its natural position, Groningen maintains a very considerable trade, chiefly in oil-seed, grain, wood, turf and cattle, with Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia and Russia. The chief industries are flax-spinning, rope-making, sugar refining, book printing, wool combing and dyeing, and it also manufactures beer, tobacco and cigars, cotton and woollen stuffs, furniture, organs and pianos; besides which there are saw, oil and grain mills, machine works, and numerous goldsmiths and silversmiths.
History.—The town of Groningen belonged originally to the pagus, or gouw, of Triantha (Drente), the countship of which was bestowed by the emperor Henry II. on the bishop and chapter of Utrecht in 1024. In 1040 Henry III. gave the church of Utrecht the royal domain of Groningen, and in the deed of gift the “villa Cruoninga” is mentioned. Upon this charter the bishops of Utrecht based their claim to the overlordship of the town, a claim which the citizens hotly disputed. At the time of the donation, indeed, the town can hardly be said to have existed, but the royal “villa” rapidly developed into a community which strove to assert the rights of a free imperial city. At first the bishops were too strong for the townsmen; the defences built in 1110 were pulled down by the bishop’s order two years later; and during the 12th and 13th centuries the see of Utrecht, in spite of frequent revolts, succeeded in maintaining its authority. Down to the 15th century an episcopal prefect, or burgrave, had his seat in the city, his authority extending over the neighbouring districts known as the Gorecht. In 1143 Heribert of Bierum, bishop of Utrecht, converted the office into an hereditary fief in favour of his brother Liffert, on the extinction of whose male line it was partitioned between the families of Koevorden (or Coevorden) and van den Hove. Gradually, however, the burghers, aided by the neighbouring Frisians, succeeded in freeing themselves from the episcopal yoke. The city was again walled in 1255; before 1284 it had become a member of the Hanseatic league; and by the end of the 14th century it was practically a powerful independent republic, which exercised an effective control over the Frisian Ommelande between the Ems and the Lauwers Zee. At the close of the 14th century the heirs of the Koevorden and van den Hove families sold their rights, first to the town, and then to the bishop. A struggle followed, in which the city was temporarily worsted; but in 1440 Bishop Dirk II. finally sold to the city the rights of the see of Utrecht over the Gorecht.
The medieval constitution of Groningen, unlike that of Utrecht, was aristocratic. Merchant gild there was none; and the craft gilds were without direct influence on the city government, which held them in subjection. Membership of the governing council, which selected from its own body the four rationales or burgomasters, was confined to men of approved “wisdom,” and wisdom was measured in terms of money. This Raad of wealthy burghers gradually monopolized all power. The bishop’s bailiff (schout), with his nominated assessors (scabini), continued to exercise jurisdiction, but members of the Raad sat on the bench with him, and an appeal lay from his court to the Raad itself. The council was, in fact, supreme in the city, and not in the city only. In 1439 it decreed that no one might trade in all the district between the Ems and the Lauwers Zee except burghers, and those who had purchased the burwal (right of residence in the city) and the freedom of the gilds. Maximilian I. assigned Groningen to Albert of Saxony, hereditary podestat of Friesland, but the citizens preferred to accept the protection of the bishop of Utrecht; and when Albert’s son George attempted in 1505 to seize the town, they recognized the lordship of Edzart of East Frisia. On George’s renewal of hostilities they transferred their allegiance to Duke Charles of Gelderland, in 1515. In 1536 the city passed into the
