Alkmaar (Noord Holland, Netherlands) Alkmaar is a town in the
Dutch province of North Holland, with a population of 94,000 in
2005. Shortly after 1530 Alkmaar and the vicinity were already a
center of Anabaptist activity. In 1533 two women from here were
taken prisoner and put to death on 5 February 1534, in the
Hague. There must have been an active and a rather large circle
of Anabaptists, many of whom were put to death in the course of
time. Most of these victims were under Münsterite influence.
Slowly the congregation came to more peaceful principles.
Leenaert Bouwens baptized no less than 123 persons here between
1551 and 1578. It is not certain that Menno visited the Alkmaar
congregation. At the siege of Alkmaar by the Spaniards in 1573
the Mennonites aided the magistrates in defending the town, but
were exempt from bearing arms. At the end of the sixteenth
century there were three congregations, a Frisian, a Flemish and
a Waterlander. The last one was the largest. Their preacher was
the well-known Hans