Court of Utrecht
The Court of Utrecht was the highest law court in the Lordship of Utrecht and the Province of Utrecht from 1530 until 1811. It had civil and criminal jurisdiction in the City of Utrecht and was an appellate court for the province.
Charles V, who had acquired lordship over Utrecht in 1528, established the court on 23 March 1530. Originally established in what had been an orphanage, in 1595 the court moved into the buildings of the former St. Paul's Abbey, Utrecht.
The court continued to function under the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, and for a year after the annexation of the province into the First French Empire. It was dissolved in 1811. Its records are held by the Utrecht Archives, which since 2008 have occupied the law court's former site.
