From 1301, the upper Meuse roughly marked the western border of theHoly Roman Empire with theKingdom of France, after CountHenry III of Bar had to receive the western part of theCounty of Bar (Barrois mouvant) as a French fief from the hands of KingPhilip IV. In 1408, a Burgundian army led byJohn the Fearless went to the aid ofJohn III against the citizens of Liège, who were in open revolt. After thebattle, which saw the men from Liège defeated, John ordered the drowning in the Meuse of burghers and noblemen in Liège whose loyalties he suspected.[6]
The border remained relatively stable until the annexation of theThree Bishoprics Metz, Toul and Verdun by KingHenry II in 1552 and the occupation of theDuchy of Lorraine by the forces of KingLouis XIII in 1633. Its lower Belgian (Walloon) portion, part of thesillon industriel, was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe.[7]
TheAfgedamde Maas was created in the late Middle Ages, when a major flood made a connection between the Maas and theMerwede at the town ofWoudrichem. From that moment on, the current Afgedamde Maas was the main branch of the lower Meuse. The former main branch eventually silted up and is today called theOude Maasje. In the late 19th century and early 20th century the connection between the Maas and Rhine was closed off and the Maas was given a new, artificial mouth – theBergse Maas. The resulting separation of the rivers Rhine and Maas reduced the risk of flooding and was considered to be the greatest achievement in Dutch hydraulic engineering before the completion of theZuiderzee Works andDelta Works.[8][9] The former main branch was, after the dam at its southern inlet was completed in 1904, renamedAfgedamde Maas and no longer receives water from the Maas.
The nameMeuse is derived from the French name of the river, derived from its Latin name,Mosa, which ultimately derives from theCeltic orProto-Celtic name *Mosā. This probably derives from the same root as English "maze", referring to the river's twists and turns.[12]
The Dutch nameMaas descends fromMiddle DutchMase, which comes from the presumed but unattestedOld Dutch form *Masa, fromProto-Germanic *Masō. ModernDutch andGermanMaas andLimburgishMaos preserve this Germanic form. Despite the similarity, the Germanic name is not derived from the Celtic name, judging from the change from earliero intoa, which is characteristic of the Germanic languages.[clarification needed]
AtNamur it is joined by theSambre. Beyond Namur the Meuse winds eastwards and passesLiège before turning north. The river then forms part of the Belgian-Dutch border, except that atMaastricht the border lies further to the west. In the Netherlands it continues northwards throughVenlo closely along the border to Germany, then turns towards the west, where it runs parallel to theWaal and forms part of the extensiveRhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, together with theScheldt to its south and theRhine to the north. The river has been divided nearHeusden into theAfgedamde Maas on the right and theBergse Maas on the left. The Bergse Maas continues under the name ofAmer, which is part ofDe Biesbosch. The Afgedamde Maas joins the Waal, the main stem of the Rhine atWoudrichem, and then flows under the name ofBoven Merwede toHardinxveld-Giessendam, where it splits intoNieuwe Merwede andBeneden Merwede. NearLage Zwaluwe, the Nieuwe Merwede joins the Amer, forming theHollands Diep, which splits intoGrevelingen andHaringvliet, before finally flowing into the North Sea.
The Meuse is crossed by railway bridges between the following stations (on the left and right banks respectively):
There are also numerous road bridges and around 32 ferry crossings.
The Meuse is navigable over a substantial part of its total length: In the Netherlands and Belgium, the river is part of the major inland navigation infrastructure, connecting the Rotterdam-Amsterdam-Antwerp port areas to the industrial areas upstream: 's-Hertogenbosch, Venlo, Maastricht, Liège, Namur. Between Maastricht andMaasbracht, an unnavigable section of the Meuse is bypassed by the 36 km (22.4 mi)Juliana Canal. South of Namur, further upstream, the river can only carry more modest vessels, although a barge as long as 100 m (328 ft). can still reach the French border town of Givet.
From Givet, the river is canalized over a distance of 272 kilometres (169 mi). The canalized Meuse used to be called the "Canal de l'Est — Branche Nord" but was recently rebaptized into "Canal de la Meuse". The waterway can be used by the smallest barges that are still in use commercially almost 40 m (131 ft) long and just over 5 metres (16 ft) wide. Just upstream of the town of Commercy, the Canal de la Meuse connects with theMarne–Rhine Canal by means of a short diversion canal.[14]
The Cretaceous sea reptileMosasaur is named after the river Meuse. The first fossils of it were discovered outside Maastricht in 1780.
A view of the Meuse in the French Ardennes atLaifour
The Meuse and theRochers de Freÿr, in front of theCastle of Freÿr south of DinantThe Meuse atNamur, capital of Belgium'sWalloniaThe Meuse atLiège, thirdriver port of EuropeThe Meuse (Maas) at MaastrichtMeuse nearGennepMeuse nearGraveMeuse nearAppeltern
An international agreement was signed in 2002 inGhent, Belgium, about the management of the river amongst France, Germany,Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Also participating in the agreement were the Belgian regional governments ofFlanders,Wallonia, andBrussels (which is not in the basin of the Meuse but pumps running water into the Meuse).
Most of the basin area (approximately 36,000 km2) is in Wallonia (12,000 km2), followed by France (9,000 km2), the Netherlands (8,000 km2), Germany (2,000 km2), Flanders (2,000 km2) and Luxembourg (a few km2).
An International Commission on the Meuse has the responsibility of the implementation of the treaty.
The costs of this Commission are met by all these countries, in proportion of their own territory in the basin of the Meuse: Netherlands 30%, Wallonia 30%, France 15%, Germany 14.5%, Flanders 5%, Brussels 4.5%, Kingdom of Belgium 0.5%, and Luxembourg 0.5%.
The map of the basin area of Meuse was joined to the text of the treaty.[15]
As for culture, as a major communication route the River Meuse is the origin ofMosan art, principally (Wallonia and France).
The first landscape painted in the Renaissance was the landscape of Meuse byJoachim Patinir.[16] He was likely the uncle ofHenri Blès, who is sometimes defined as a Mosan landscape painter active during the second third of the 16th century (i.e. second generation of landscape painters).[17]
The mean annual discharge rate of the Meuse has been relatively stable over the last few thousand years. One recent study estimates that average flow has increased by about 10% since 2000 BC.[18] The hydrological distribution of the Meuse changed during the later Middle Ages, when a major flood forced it to shift its main course northwards towards the riverMerwede. From then on several stretches of the original Merwede were renamed "Maas" (i.e. Meuse) and served as the primary outflow of that river. Those branches are currently known as the Nieuwe Maas and Oude Maas.
However during another series of severe floods the Meuse found an additional path towards the sea, resulting in the creation of theBiesbosch wetlands andHollands Diep estuaries. Thereafter the Meuse split nearHeusden into two main distributaries, one flowing north to join the Merwede and one flowing direct to the sea. The branch of the Meuse leading direct to the sea eventually silted up (and now forms theOude Maasje stream), but in 1904 the canalisedBergse Maas was dug to take over the functions of the silted-up branch. At the same time the branch leading to the Merwede was dammed at Heusden (and has since been known as theAfgedamde Maas) so that little water from the Meuse entered the old Maas courses or the Rhine distributaries. The resulting separation of the rivers Rhine and Meuse is considered to be the greatest achievement in Dutch hydraulic engineering before the completion of theZuiderzee Works andDelta Works.[8][19] In 1970 theHaringvlietdam has been finished. Since then the reunited Rhine and Meuse waters have reached the North Sea either at this site or, during times of lower discharges of the Rhine, atHook of Holland.[20]
A 2008 study[21] notes that the difference between summer and winter flow volumes has increased significantly in the last 100–200 years. It points out that the frequency of serious floods (i.e. flows > 1000% of normal) has increased markedly. They predict that winter flooding of the Meuse may become a recurring problem in the coming decades.
The Meuse (Maas) is mentioned in the first stanza of Germany's old national anthem, theDeutschlandlied. However, since itsre-adoption as national anthem in 1952, only the third stanza of theDeutschlandlied has been sung as the German national anthem, the first and second stanzas being omitted. This was confirmed after German reunification in 1991 when only the third stanza was defined as the official anthem. The lyrics written in 1841 describe a then–disunited Germany with the river as its western boundary, where KingWilliam I of the Netherlands had joined theGerman Confederation with hisDuchy of Limburg in 1839. Though the duchy's territory officially became an integral part of the Netherlands by the 1867Treaty of London, the text passage remained unchanged when theDeutschlandlied was declared the national anthem of theWeimar Republic in 1922.
The name of the rivers also forms part of the title of "Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse", written after the French defeat in theFranco-Prussian War of 1870, and a popular patriotic song for the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th.
^Marcel de Wit, Robert Leander, Adri Buishand:Extreme discharges in the Meuse basinArchived 2014-01-06 at theWayback Machine, p. 2 (The frequently mentioned figure of 250 m3/s refers to theBorgharen gauge near the frontier between Belgium and the Netherlands representing two thirds of the basin.)
^French:Les rochers par lesquels l'art gothique suggère conventionnellement un site sauvage et désertique, sont présents. Comme d'aucuns l'ont remarqué, ces pics rocheux qui vont devenir chez Patinier, indissociables de l'évocation d'un paysage ressemblent à ceux qu'il a pu voir dans la régiondinantaise (...) Mais il va de soi que les paysages représentés ne sont jamais dans leur ensemble la transposition de sites existants. L'espace tel que le conçoit Patinier est d'un autre ordre que celui qui s'offre au spectateur dans la réalité. in 'L'essor du paysage' in Jacques Stiennon, Jean-Patrick Duchesne, Yves Randaxhe,Cinq siècles de peinture en Wallonie, Les éditeurs d'art associés, Bruxelles, 1988, p. 67-72. The landscape of the Mosan valley is the inspiration of Patinier but the result of this inspiration was not a painting of this landscape.
^Ward PJ, H Renssen, JCJH Aerts, RT van Balen & J Vandenberghe (2008), "Strong increases in flood frequency and discharge of the River Meuse over the Late Holocene: impacts of long-term anthropogenic land use change and climate variability".Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 12: 159-175.http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/159/2008/hess-12-159-2008.pdfArchived 2020-02-17 at theWayback Machine [Wardet al., 2008]
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