Holland by Night

When the Count of Holland was in Haarlem, he did not come alone. He brought a large number of knights. It were these knights that fought the Frisians from the Drecht (a small river) in 1155 and saved the town. The knights used the Grote Markt, then called 't Sant (the sand) as a jousting-ground. They wanted to live close to it, on the land of the Count, so they've built their small castles, called stinzen, along the square. Under their influence the land rose in value, and after they had left, it could only be afforded by the rich and famous. By now there's nothing left of these small house-castles, but the northern side of the Grote Markt still has the highest land value in Haarlem.
Haarlem nobility counts names like Van Zanen, Bake, Crayenhorst and Van Haarlem. t'Sant was like a battleground for them. They fought their petty vendetta's from their small battle-towers. Examples of Stinzes along the Grote Markt were the Radenborch and the stins of the Bake family. Excavations under an old film-theater revealed the heavy foundations of one of these stinzes. 
The riot about Simon van Zanen between 1365-1416 proves that it was necessary to have a stins. Simon was the leader of one of the cabals of nobles in Haarlem. He was the town's bailiff around 1365, and became a very rich and influential man. In 1365 however, he comitted a breach of the peace in killing three opponents with the help of his friends. The case was taken seriously, but even the mediation of duke Albrecht of Bavaria could not mend it. The family of the victims avenged itself in 1377. An attempt to break into the stins of the Van Zanen's failed however, because Simon closed the portcullis when there were only a few of the attackers inside his castle. There were twenty dead and 7 wounded. 
Again Albrecht came to Haarlem to arrange matters peacefully. After three years of tiring negotiations his attempt seemed to succeed. Not only had the atonement had to be paid (in gold, as was custom), but there also were masses for the wellfare of the souls of the victims to be paid for. Van Zanen went down on his knees. It must have been very humiliating for him. The story was not over, however. In 1404 there was a riot. About fifty men went into a fight, seven died, amongst whom was Simon van Zanen (probably an old man by now). For the third time Albrecht was called for, and this time he was not alone. With his counsel he investigated the case thoroughly, but they failed to achieve peace. To make matters worse: Van Zanen's opponents forced their way into the Gravenzaal and took the banner of the city, the symbol of the sovereignty of the city. Only the successor of Albrecht, William IV pacified the town. He punnished the guilty ones in 1406 with heavy fines, that were not paid off until 1416.