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Kobus (or Jacobus) van der Schlossen (died 1695) was a late-seventeenth century
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
thief who features prominently in folktales from the
North Brabant
North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the w ...
region. After serving as a soldier in the many wars which left the Netherlands in turmoil, he joined a gang of ex-soldiers called 'de zwartmakers'. With his robber band 'De Zwarte Bende' he made his home in the vast and impenetrable Slabroek forests near Uden. Eventually he was captured in Uden and imprisoned in
Ravenstein Castle Ravenstein may refer to:
Places
*Ravenstein, Germany in the district Neckar-Odenwald, Baden-Württemberg
*Ravenstein, Netherlands in Oss, North Brabant
*Ravenstein railway station
Films
Ravenstein a 2020 British Horror film
People with the su ...
(since demolished). He was hanged in 1695 at the gallows of the Lordship of Ravenstein in Velp. Allegedly, 20,000 spectators came to witness the execution.
Stories were told about his miraculous escapes from the forces of law. De Brobbelbies, an area of Slabroek which still exists, received its name from one of these stories. One day, so the story goes, Kobus accidentally ran into some law-officers in the woods. When he found he couldn't outrun them he jumped into a pond and hid by morphing into a
bulrush
Bulrush is a vernacular name for several large wetland grass-like plants
*Sedge family (Cyperaceae):
**''Cyperus''
**'' Scirpus''
**''Blysmus''
**''Bolboschoenus''
**'' Scirpoides''
**'' Isolepis''
**'' Schoenoplectus''
**'' Trichophorum''
* T ...
(called 'Bies' in Dutch). Because of the magical transformation the water started bubbling ('brobbelen'; hence 'Brobbelbies').
Sources
*Reggie Naus, ''Zwartmakerij in het land van Ravenstein: de Geschiedenis van Jacobus van der Schlossen'', 2006.
Dutch folklore