Schutterij
historic militia in the Low Countries
Schutterij (pl. schutterijen; Dutch pronunciation: [sxʏtəˈrɛi] ) refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces within the city, near the city walls, but, when the weather did not allow, inside a church. They are mostly grouped according to their district and to the weapon that they used: bow, crossbow or gun. Together, the members of a schutterij are called a schuttersgilde, which could be roughly translated as a "shooter's guild". It is now a title applied to ceremonial shooting clubs and to the country's Olympic rifle team.
Function
The schutterij, civic guard, or town watch, was a defensive military support system for the city authorities. Its officers were wealthy citizens of the town or city concerned, appointed by the city magistrates. In the Northern Netherlands, after the change to Protestantism that followed the Beeldenstorm and, depending on the town, took place sometime between 1566 and 1580, the officers had to be a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. The captain was usually a wealthy local resident, and the group's ensign was a wealthy young bachelor (often recognisable in group portraits of schutterijen by his particularly fine clothes and the flag he is carrying).
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This entry incorporates text from “Schutterij” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.