In the early 14th century, Geertruidenberg was a Holland town on the southern border of the Grote Waard.

[1] An obvious reason to build a strong castle at Geertruidenberg, was that the town was part of the County of Holland, but was very close to the Duchy of Brabant.

[4] In 1319 Count William III of Holland probably understood that he needed to increase the protection of his borders.

[5] In June 1323 Count William invested Willem van Duvenvoorde (1290–1353) as Schout of Geertruidenberg.

This office gave some income, but in return Van Duvenvoorde would have to build a castle at the place.

[10] By that time, the county paid 100 Holland pounds per year for maintenance of the castle.

The subsequent first Hook and Cod War would lead to a serious degradation of the importance of the town and castle.

[3] The Hook and Cod Wars came about after Count William IV of Holland died without a direct male heir in 1345.

Van Duvenvoorde handed the offices of Schout and castellan of Geertruidenberg to his nephew John II, Lord of Polanen as loans that could both also be inherited by females.

Here William renounced his pretensions as Count of Holland and asked the rebels to submit to his mother as rightful countess.

[17] From the subsequent events, we can assume that a blockade or siege of Geertruidenberg Castle started after 15 June 1351.

[19] When the Cod army got close in 1420, the town let the soldiers in, but the castle held firm to Jacqueline.

In 1489 Jan van Naaldwijk easily conquered Geertruidenberg for the Hook party without there being any mention of the castle.

In 1494 Philip I of Castile was acclaimed as lord in the inn 'De Wildeman' in Geertruidenberg and did not spend the night in the town.

In the subsequent years the city's accounts showed many transaction with regard to the demolition of the castle.

[21] On 13 December 2001 works on the sewage system at Wilhelminaplein, on the southern side of Geertruidenberg's center, hit the foundations of the castle.

[23] It led to an emergency excavation (investigation) in the following days, and to the discovery of an adjoining northeastern wall in April 2002.

Subsequent works on the southern side of Geertruidenberg in 1833-1837 and 1911 did their part to destroy traces of the castle.

However that may be, many supposed that the obscure scratches that Van Deventer placed in the knee of his 16th century map of the town represented the ruins of the castle.

[21] It's not immediately clear whether the manuscript map of about 1550 contains a reliable representation of Geertruidenberg Castle.

[21] Later drawings were made by Jacobus Stellingwerff (1667-1727), Gerrit Schoemaker (1692-1736), Abraham Rademaker (1677-1735), and Kornelis van Alkemade (1654-1737).

[29] What was excavated in 2001/2 were parts of the northern tower of the castle and a section of wall that stretched to the southeast.

Soundings showed that the height of the remaining piece foundation was at least 2.75 m. [30] On the courtyard side, the tower was covered with white stone.

[35] By April 2019 North Brabant province had agreed to furnish half of the project cost of 157,000 EUR and it seemed almost certain that the plan would succeed.

[37] However, in October 2020 the 85 year old Bas Zijlmans gave the official start sign for the reconstruction.