Haarlem schutterij

The Haarlem schutterij refers to a collective name for the voluntary civic guard of Haarlem, from medieval times up to the Batavian Revolution in 1794, when the guilds of Haarlem were disbanded.

During the Hook and Cod wars in 1402, Haarlem formed a hand bow schutterij under the patronage of St. George of 120 citizen volunteers to support the local court of Justice. The guild-like group had its own altar in the St. Bavochurch and they even had processions through town on the name day of their saint. The town suffered from uprisings in 1417 and 1422. After another uprising in 1425, a "New" schutterij was formed to educate young men in the use of the crossbow and they defended the city in 1426 against Jacoba of Beieren. The "New" crossbow schutterij had a new meeting hall built for them near the Spaarne river, and in 1468 a separate schutterij was formed under the patronage of St. Sebastian for hand bowmen. Around 1500 Haarlem had three schutterij groups, two (old and new) under the patronage of St. George (St. Joris), and one under the patronage of St. Sebastian, all with their own altars in church.

In 1520 the Haarlem schutterij was reorganized; the two groups under St. Joris were merged into one group for crossbowmen and a new group was formed under the patron saint St. Hadrian (St. Adrian), called Cloveniers. Though the St. Sebastian group was also still active, by 1560 all were using muskets, and the town even owned some cannons, for which special "kannoniers" were trained. They still kept up their social activities in church, though the Protestant reformation began to cause various problems with their political support for the court of Justice.

The most heroic deeds of the Haarlem schutterij occurred during the Spanish siege of Haarlem, which ended in victory for the Spanish. After the changeover to the Dutch Republic in 1581, the Haarlem schutters, or shooters, were reorganized into two groups, one keeping the name St. Joris and also called the "Oude schuts", and the other keeping the name Cloveniers, and receiving a new building in their old location in the Gasthuisstraat in 1612, leading them to earn the nickname "Nieuwe schuts". The activities of both groups around their church altars, including the yearly processions, were discontinued. Today many of the shooters have been immortalized in the group portraits by Frans Hals and other portrait painters on show at the Frans Hals museum.

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Wikipedia