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Updated: June 16, 2025
Its merchants traded with all parts of the world, and brought back their ships laden with rich cargoes, and the city became ever more prosperous. The majority of the people of Stavoren were well-to-do, and as their wealth increased they became luxurious and dissipated, each striving to outdo the others in the magnificence of their homes and the extravagance of their hospitality.
If the people of Friesland have great individuality, so have their meers. There was a canal through which we had to pass after Stavoren, like a long, green-walled corridor leading into a huge room. The green wall was made of tall reeds, and we had glimpses of level golden spaces, and sails which seemed to be skimming through meadows.
Having reached this conclusion, the commander of Richbertas fleet set sail for a Baltic port, where he took on board a cargo of corn, and returned immediately to Stavoren. Richberta was astonished and delighted to see that he had achieved his purpose so soon, and bade him tell her of what the treasure consisted which he had brought with him.
"I have seen," said he, bowing low to the lovely hostess, "many countries and many a princely court, but I confess that Stavoren surpasses them all in splendour." Highly flattered the proud lady bade him welcome to her table. According to the customs of the Orient whence he came, he begged for some bread and salt.
Many of their houses, we are told, were like the palaces of princes, built of white marble, furnished with the greatest sumptuousness, and decorated with the costliest hangings and the rarest statuary. But, says the legend, of all the Stavoren folk there was none wealthier than young Richberta.
At that moment, some hungry beggars standing on the wharf, heard the lady's loud voice, and falling on their knees cried to her: "Please, madame, give us some of this wheat; we are starving." "Yes, lady, and there are many poor in Stavoren, in spite of all its gold," said the captain. "Why not divide this wheat among the needy, if you are greatly disappointed? You will win praise for yourself.
The Zuyder Zee rolls, ten fathoms deep, over the ruins of drowned Stavoren. So we will not enter minutely into the details of poor Cecil's demoralization gradual, but fearfully rapid.
Jonkheer Brederode had planned to go northward, skirting the coast to see two more Dead Cities of the Zuider Zee, Hoorn and Enkhuisen, and cut across the sea to Stavoren on the other side, to enter the Frisian Meers. But now he refused to take us that way.
No longer were the merchant-vessels able to enter the harbour, for it was blocked by the impassable bank. Nay, instead of finding refuge there, many a ship was dashed to pieces by the fury of the breakers, and Stavoren became a place of ill-fame to the mariner. All the wealth and commerce of this proud city were at an end.
After the new religion came into the land, wealth increased, because the ships traded with the warm lands in the south. A great city sprang up, to which the counts of Holland granted a charter, with privileges second to none. Then there came an age of gold in Stavoren. People were so rich, that the bolts and hinges and the keys and locks of their doors were made of this precious yellow metal.
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