Leiden (in English also – though now rarely – Leyden) is a city and municipality in South Holland, The Netherlands. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities of The Hague and Haarlem. The country between the Hague and Leyden is all one verdant plain, dotted by the vivid red of the roofs and streaked by the blue of the canals; with here and there groups of trees, windmills, and scattered herds of cattle. Leyden, the antique Athens of the north, the Saragossa of the Low Countries, the oldest and most illustrious of the daughters of Holland, is one of those cities which make you thoughtful upon first entering them, and are remembered for a long time afterwards with a certain impression of sadness. The old Rhine, which crosses Leyden, dividing it into many islets joined together by one hundred and fifty stone bridges, forms wide canals and basins which contain no ship or boat, and the city seems rather invaded by the waters than merely crossed by them. The principal streets are very broad and flanked by rows of old blockhouses with the usual pointed gables, and the few people seen in the streets and squares are like the survivors of a city depopulated by the plague. From bridge to bridge, from canal to canal, from island to island, you wander for hours seeking for the life and movement of the ancient Leyden. There was a settlement here in ancient times, known to the Romans as Lugdunum Batavorum. In the 11th century the Counts of Holland built a castle (De Burcht) on a mound at the confluence of the Old and the New Rhine, with a church inside the castle precincts. The only relic of this early period is the Gravensteen, a 13th century stronghold which for many years was a state prison. Thereafter, however, the production of cloth declined sharply as a result of frequent floods and epidemics. In the 16th century Leiden became known for the successful defense of the town against a Spanish besieging force (1573-74), when William the Silent ordered the dikes of southern Holland to be breached. Tradition has it that the citizens of Leiden, offered the choice between four years' exemption from taxation or the foundation of a university as a reward for their sturdy defense of the town, chose the university.
Breede Straat, the broadest and longest of the Leyden streets, which crosses the city from one end to the other in the form of an S, and arrived in front of the City Hall, which is one of the most curious buildings of the sixteenth century. At first sight it has a theatrical appearance and contrasts unpleasantly with the grave aspect of the city. It is a long, low building, of an ash color, with a bare façade, along the top of which runs a stone balustrade, ornamented with obelisks, pyramids, and aerial frontispieces set off with grotesque statues, the whole forming a sort of fantastic embroidery around the steep roof. Opposite to the principal entrance rises a bell-tower composed of several stories, one within the other, giving it the aspect of a very tall kiosk, with an enormous iron crown upon the top in form of a reversed balloon, surmounted by a flagstaff. Above the door, which is approached by two flights of steps, there is an inscription in Dutch, commemorating the famine of 1574, composed in one hundred and thirty-one letters, corresponding to the number of days of the duration of the siege of Leyden.
The most ancient part of Leyden, between two principal branches of the Rhine called by Hollanders the "Burg," is no other than a great round tower, quite empty, built, according to some authorities, by the Romans; according to others by one Hengist, Duke of the Anglo-Saxons; and recently restored and crowned with battlements. The hill is covered by tall oak trees, which hide the tower and prevent the enjoyment of the surrounding view; only here and there, looking through the branches, can glimpses be caught of the red roofs of Leyden, tine plain streaked with canals, the downs, and the bell-towers of the distant city. The medieval settlement of Leythen was granted a municipal charter in 1266 and developed during the 14th and 15th centuries into the principal center of the Dutch weaving industry. Leiden's medieval name was Leithon, and it was governed until 1420 by burgraves, the representatives of the courts of Holland. It received city rights in 1266.
In 1573 the Spaniards, led by Valdez, laid siege to Leyden, In the city there were only some volunteer soldiers. The military command was given to Van der Voes, a valiant man, and a Latin poet of some renôwn.Van der Well was burgomaster. In brief time the besiegers had constructed—more than sixty forts in all the places where it was possible to penetrate into the city by sea or land, and Leyden was completely isolated. But the people of Leyden did not lose heart. William of Orange had sent them word to hold out for three months, within which time he would succour them, for on the fate of Leyden depended that of Holland; and the men of Leyden had promised to resist to the last extremity. Valdez sent to offer them pardon in the name of the King of Spain, if they would open their gates. William of Orange, who occupied the fortress of Polderwaert, between Delft and Rotterdam, seeing no other way to succour the city, conceived the design of raising the siege of Leyden by breaking the dykes of the Issel and the Meuse, and driving out the Spaniards by water, since it could not be done by arms. This desperate design was forthwith put in action. The dykes being broken in sixty places, the sluice-gates of Rotterdam and Gonda were opened, the sea began to invade the land, and two hundred barges were in readiness at Rotterdam, at Deftshaven, and other points, to carry provisions into the city as soon as the great rise of the waters should take place which comes with the autumnal equinox.
The festival of the inauguration of the university was celebrated on the 5th of February 1575 with a solemn procession. First came a company of the burgher militia, and five companies of infantry from the garrison of Ley-den, behind whom came a car drawn by four horses, in which was a woman dressed in white, who represented the Gospel, and around the car the four Evangelists. The actual university is in an ancient convent to the States of Holland invited to Leyden through the intervention of Henry IV.; the two famous men, Gomarius and Arminius, who provoked the great definite religious struggle of the synod of Dordrecht. From the yeare 839, in which a furious tempest had accumulated mountains of sand at its mouth., until the beginning of the present century, the Old Rhine lost itself in the sand before reaching the sea, and covered a vast tract of country with pools and marshes. The stronghold of Leiden was created in the 9th century, when the vikings were ruling in Utrecht. It was sacked in 1047 by emperor Henry III. The stronghold of Leiden was located in the county of Holland. This county got its name in 1101 from a domain near the stronghold: Holtland or Holland. Ada, Countess of Holland took refuge here when she was fighting in a civil war against her brother, William I, Count of Holland. He besieged the stronghold and captured Ada. Under the reign of Louis Buonaparte the waters were collected into a large canal protected by three enormous sluice-gates, and from that time the Rhine flows directly to the sea.
Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and king of Spain, the region was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some land of France and Germany. 1568 saw the start of the Eighty Years' War between the provinces and Spain. In 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces declared itself independent from Spain, and they formed the Union of Utrecht, which is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. Philip II, the son of Charles V, was not prepared to let them go that easily and war continued until 1648 when Spain finally recognised Dutch independence. The Netherlands is often referred to by the name Holland. The provinces of North and South Holland in the western Netherlands are only two of the country's twelve provinces. After gaining formal independence from the Spanish Empire under King Philip IV, the Dutch grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during the period of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. In the era, referred to as the Dutch Golden Age, colonies and trading posts were established all over the globe. After briefly being incorporated in the First French Empire under Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815, consisting of the present day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The province South Holland was formed in 1840, when the province Holland was split into a northern (North Holland) and southern part. Since then, South Holland has ceded three municipalities to the province of Utrecht: Oudewater in 1970, Woerden in 1989, and Vianen in 2002.