During the 1998 municipal reorganisation in the province, Coevorden merged with Dalen, Sleen, Oosterhesselen and Zweeloo, retaining its name.

The city was captured from the Spanish in 1592 by a Dutch and English force under the command of Maurice, Prince of Orange.

Coevorden was then rebuilt in the early seventeenth century to an ideal city design, similar to Palmanova.

The streets were laid out in a radial pattern within polygonal fortifications and extensive outer earthworks.

The explorer's ancestors (and family name) originally came to England "from Coevorden" (van Coevern in Dutch Low Saxon).