Qualla: Teylingen Castle

Teylingen Castle: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Johannes Petrus Albertus Antonietti, CC BY-SA 4.0. Jacqueline of Bavaria had been Countess of Holland, Zeeland, and Hainaut by inheritance, and Dauphine of France by her first marriage. She had fought a war against her own uncle for her birthright. She had married four times, the last in secret because her cousin Philip the Good of Burgundy had explicitly forbidden it. By 1433 she had lost almost everything. Philip took the counties she had been born to rule and gave her, in exchange, a small allowance and permission to keep living. She moved to a round stone water castle near Sassenheim that had once been a forester's lodge for her ancestors. She lived there with her fourth husband, Frank van Borssele, for three years. She died at Teylingen in 1436. She was thirty-five.

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Image: Johannes Petrus Albertus Antonietti | CC BY-SA 4.0

Teylingen Castle: The Stones That Made the Hold

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kramer, W. (Fotograaf), CC BY-SA 4.0. Teylingen began in the early 1200s as something military and severe - a round water castle, 37 meters across, with a single massive ring wall and nothing inside. The wall, called an enceinte, was reinforced with buttresses on its inner face supporting arched arcades that carried ...

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Image: Kramer, W. (Fotograaf) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Teylingen Castle: The Forester's Castle

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the early 14th century, the counts of Holland had taken Teylingen as a forester's castle - a residence and administrative hub for the men who managed the count's hunting forests. William IV, count of Holland in the 1330s, is the earliest known holder. The political importance ...

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Image: Unknown author | CC BY-SA 4.0

Teylingen Castle: Jacqueline's Last House

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerard Dukker, CC BY-SA 4.0. When Jacqueline of Bavaria came to Teylingen in the 1430s, she came as the loser of a long civil war. She had been born to inherit, but the men of her family - her uncle John of Bavaria, her cousin Philip the Good - had taken the inheritance away through a combination of force, l...

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Image: Gerard Dukker | CC BY-SA 4.0

Teylingen Castle: Fire, Decay, and Refusal

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0. The castle was heavily damaged during the Eighty Years' War, particularly between 1572 and 1574, partly restored, then partially burned in 1675 when the donjon caught fire. After that the building entered a slow disintegration. Other sections were demolished piece by piece, their...

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Image: Unknown author | CC BY-SA 4.0

Teylingen Castle: Volunteers and a Shield

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1889, Jhr. Mr. W. van Teylingen formally donated the ruins to the Dutch state, which still owns them. In the late 20th century, the Foundation Slot Teylingen bought back surrounding land - partly funded by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds - and donated it back, allowing the moa...

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Image: Unknown author | CC BY-SA 4.0