BRIELLE (DEN BRIEL)

   Small town of about 16,000 on the River Meuse in Southern Holland. Founded during the Middle Ages, it flourished because of its commerce and fishery, but fell into decline after the river silted up. It owes its fame partly to its secretary Jan Matthijssen, who wrote its laws and statutes in his private codification or rechtsboek (around 1430), but mostly because of a heroic historic event: in 1572, near the beginning of the Revolt, the sea beggars seized the town from the Spaniards.