Dutch term – Oorkonde

An oorkonde is a charter; a record with seals hanging from the bottom. In the Middle Ages, most transactions went unrecorded, but the ones that were, were recorded in charters.

Oorkondes are usually written on vellum or parchment, made from animal skin. With the invention of paper made from rags, charters went out of style although they continued to be used for special occasions, like nobility titles are records of abdication.

Agreement regarding the murder of Floris V, count of Holland, 1299.¹

You can find medieval charters in the archives of old towns and convents. Many of the early ones are in Latin. The oldest charter in the Netherlands dates to 950 and is kept at the Regionaal Historisch Centrum Limburg.

Charters available online

Several provinces have created oorkondenboeken (charter books), where the oldest charters of the province have been transcribed or abstracted and translated to Dutch. Most of these were originally published as a book, but are now available online. All of these websites are in Dutch.

• Oorkondenboek Holland en Zeeland (Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland)
• Oorkondenboek Sticht Utrecht(Utrecht)
• Oorkondenboek Gelre en Zutphen (Gelderland)
• Digitaal Oorkondenboek Noord-Brabant (Noord-Brabant)
• Cartago (Groningen, Drenthe)
• Charterbank Regionaal Archief Tilburg (Tilburg and surrounding municipalities in Noord-Brabant)