Dutch van Westervelt Family Coat of Arms c 1600 Tile

Dutch van Westervelt Family Coat of Arms c 1600 ... The historical family that ruled the Dutch fishing and university town of Harderwijk, Gelderland Province (Duchy of Gelre / Geldriae / Guelder / Guelders / Gelderland), Netherlands in the early 1600s ... as hereditary mayors called burgomasters. They inherited the position from their earlier ancestors who ruled Harderwijk in the 1400s and 1500s: families van Hueckelom, van Spulde, van Wijnbergen, van Haersolte en Westervelt. This family coat of arms is found on a family tomb on the floor of the nave of the Old Church of Harderwijk. The key feature of the ancestral arms is the group of three gold fleu de lis upon the emerald green shield above which a knight's arms hold another larger gold fleur de lis through a ducal royal coronet crown. The burgomasters of Harderwijk were painted in portraits wearing the gold signet ring having the three gold fleur de lis. Recently a pair of such oil on panel portraits of a couple who were thus identified by the man's signet ring were sold as circa 1500s Dutch style Van Westervelt burgomasters of Harderwijk and sold for GBP 181,250 which at today's conversion rate equals nearly a quarter million dollars US ...They had marks of Princely House of Liechtenstein. The Femish Southern portion of Netherlands later was taken over by the dukes of Burgundy who were a branch of the French royalty ... But, Harderwijk was always considered a part of the land of Gelre or Gelderland and was given city rights by the count of Gelre Otto II in 1231. Old maps show Gelderland as DVC GELDRIAE even in the 1600s ... DVC is an abreviation for duchy ... the V being a u. It spells the first three letters duc ... Duchy Gelre. It became a duchy by order of the Holy Roman Emperor because a count married a princess of England and thus was raised up to duke. One of the dukes of Gelre became captured by the French Burgundy sold Gelre to Burgundy ... so for a time the Duchy of Burgundy claimed lordship over Gelre ... but this was later released, During the Burgundy claim a duke of Burgundy died with no male heir but his daughter Mary of Burgundy married Maximilian Arch Duke of Austria ... After Mary died her iniheritance passed to her son Philip the Good but by this time Gelre revolted and ransomed freedom for their rightful duke of Gelre ... So, it is more likely, I think, that the Westervelt ducal crown is related to the dukes of Gelre since van Westervelts maintained rule in Gelderland .. but there is possibility it has to do with the French duchy of Burgundy that briefly claimed Gelre. I need to do a lot more reading. But, generally the fleur de lis is associated with Salian Frank Merovingian king Clovis I c 496 ... whose ancestors anciently lived along River Ijssel beween Gelre and Westervelt / Westerveldt / Westerveld by Zwolle, Over-ijssel c 100 BC until AD 297 when the Salian Franks were attacked by the Saxons so moved a bit SW into Batavia on the Rhine then in 358 moved further South into what later became Flanders / Burgundy / Belgium .