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Muiderslot
was originally built about 1280 by Floris V, Count of
Holland and Zeeland from 1256 [at the age of 2!] to 1296. The castle was
built to control boat traffic and level
tolls at Ijsselmeer Harbor, at the convergence of the
Vecht and Ijssel Rivers, an area previously controlled by
the Bishops (also Princes) of Utrecht. His reign was highlighted by
attacks on the Frisians, who had killed his father and still had his
body, kindness to his peasants, and endless political shenanigans by his
nobles, King Edward I of England and others. When Edward I
switched his wool trade from Holland to Brabant, Floris switched sides
to France. In a plot by Edward I and Guy of Flanders, Floris was
captured while falconing by some of his own nobles in
1296, and taken to Muiderslot. A peasant mob came to rescue him,
but he died of knife wounds as the nobles fled to the protection of the Bishops five days
later. About 1300 the castle was razed by the same
Bishops.
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