In about 1150, a group of women came together to live in a religious community, primarily to look after the sick. These were, in effect, these were the first 'Beguines' although the name was not yet used.

The women were not nuns and nor did they live in the seclusion of a convent. They had no founders nor did they make lifelong vows. They did have to be unmarried, to make a vow of chastity and to promise obedience to the parish priest, but since they were not expected to make a vow of poverty, they were free to dispose of their own possessions.

They could renounce their vows at any moment and leave the Beguinage, for instance, to get married.

We do not know exactly when the Beguinage was founded.

The first time the word 'beguines' was used was in an official document of 1307 found in the accounts of the Bailiff of Amstelland. Another document, dated 31 July 1346, speaks of the Beghijnhuis (house of the Beguines) ceded to them by one Cope van der Laene on St Peter's Eve. In 1393, on 7 August, Albrecht van Beieren (Albert of Bavaria) ratified the regulations of the Beguinage by letter, taking them under his protection and giving a number of rules for those in the Beguinage to observe.

He also stipulated that a woman could only be admitted as a Beguine after she had lived at the Beguinage for at least 18 months.