Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T01:18:30.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

City, State, and Public Ritual in the Late-Medieval Burgundian Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2012

Peter Arnade
Peter Arnade
Affiliation:
California State University, San Marcos
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

At the end of a distinguished career as chronicler of the Burgundian court, Georges Chastellain (1404–75) penned a quick sketch of the outstanding accomplishments of his duke, Charles the Bold. Accustomed to expositions awash in chivalric pomp, Chastellain employed a different tack to commemorate this sovereign: He sketched eleven “magnificences” performed by the duke of Burgundy, all reconstructed images of this prince's engagement with ceremony. Foremost among this snapshot collection of state ritual was neither a tournament, nor a wedding ceremony, nor even a processional entry. What stood out, in Chastellain's estimation, as Charles' greatest deed was something more riveting and more powerful than any of these spectacles so beloved by the fifteenth-century Burgundian court:

The first [magnificence] was at Brussels, where, seated on his throne, his sword unsheathed and held by his Marshall, he gathered the men of Ghent arranged kneeling before him and at his pleasure and in their presence cut and tore up the political charters they bore. Done for permanent record, this action was without parallel.

For Chastellain, the supreme magnificence of Charles the Bold was a lesson in exemplary punishment, the public abasement of the aldermen and guild deans of the Flemish city of Ghent in January 1469, a year and a half after a city revolt of rank-and-file guildsmen had unsettled celebrations in honor of his accession to the countship of Flanders.

Type
Ritual Power
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 300 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Chastellain's eleven “magnificences” can be found in Georges Chastellain. Oeuvres, H. Kervyn de Lettenhove. ed. 8 vols. (Brussels. 1863–66). 5:505–6. The official chronicler of the Burgundian court under Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. Chastellain was a Gentenar by birth. See Small, Graeme and Lievois, Daniel. “Les origines gantoises du chroniqueur George Chastelain (ca. 1414–ca. 1441).” Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent, (n.r.), 48 (1994), 121–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 On this revolt, see Arnade, Peter, “Secular Charisma. Sacred Power: Rites of Rebellion in the Ghent Entry of 1467.” Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent (n.r.), 45 (1991), 69–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For the most important studies of the court of Burgundy, see Huizinga, Johan, The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study in the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the Dawn of the Renaissance (1919: reprint. New York, 1949)Google Scholar; Cartellieri, Otto, Am Hofe der Herzöge von Burgund (Basel, 1929)Google Scholar; and Calmette, J., The Golden Age of Burgundy (1943; reprint. New York, 1963)Google Scholar. For an important reconsideration of the Burgundian court with new prosopographical information, see Paravicini, Werner, “The Court of the Dukes of Burgundy: A Model for Europe?,” in Asch, R. G. and Birke, A. M., eds.. Princes. Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age c. 1450–1650 (New York, 1991), 69–102Google Scholar. Huizinga's neglect of important court traditions in the Dutch-speaking Low Countries has been corrected by Frits P. van Oostrom's fundamental. Het woord van eer: Literatuur cum het Hollandse hof omstreeks 1400 (Amsterdam, 1987), especially 22–23Google Scholar. on court life itself.

4 New considerations of royal ritual have centered upon understanding its power, through representation, to legitimate authority. See. in particular. Bak., Janos ed., Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual (Berkeley, 1990)Google Scholar and Cannadine, David and Price, Simon, eds.. Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies (Cambridge, 1987)Google Scholar. For a study sensitive both to the different media and strategies of representation, see Burke, Peter. The Fabrication of Louis XIV (New Haven, 1992)Google Scholar.

5 Blockmans, Wim P. and Prevenier, Walter, The Burgundian Netherlands (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar; Blockmans, Wim P.. “De Bourgondische Nederlanden: de Weg naar een moderne staatsvorm.” Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen, 77 (1973), 7–26Google Scholar.

6 The Dutch original, longer than its English translation that Huizinga supervised, was published as Herfsttj der middeleeuwen: studie over levens- en gedachtenvormen der veertiende en vijftiende eeuwen in Frankrijk en de Nederlanden (Haarlem, 1919)Google Scholar. For a new but problem-ridden translation of the Dutch original, see The Autumn of the Middle Ages, Payton, Rodney J. and Mammitzsch, Ulrich. trans. (Chicago, 1996)Google Scholar. Huizinga himself was motivated to undertake this study by art-historical considerations, driven by an interest in the van Eyck brothers. Of historical importance to the study of late medieval Netherlandish art is Erwin Panofsky's Early Netherlandish Painting (Cambridge, 1953)Google Scholar.

7 Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 2 vols. (1860: reprint. New York. 1958)Google Scholar.

8 Colie, Robert L.. “Johan Huizinga and the Task of Cultural History,” American Historical Review, 69:3 (1964). 607–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Bulholf, I. N.. “Johan Huizinga. Ethnographer of the Past.” Clio, 4 (1975). 201–24Google Scholar.

9 An evaluation of Huizinga's contribution to early twentieth-century social theory can be found in Clark, Steward. “French Historians and Early Modern Popular Culture,” Past and Present, 100 (1983), 62–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Hugenholz, F. N. W.. “The Fame of a Masterwork.” in Koops, W. R. H. et al. eds. Johan Huizinga: 1872–1972 ('s Gravenhage. 1973). 91–103Google Scholar and Weintraub, Karl, Visions of Culture: Guizot, Burckhardt, Lamprecht, Huizinga, Ortega y Gasset (Chicago, 1966), 208–46Google Scholar. Classic studies of European monarchical ritual were scarcely influenced by Huizinga's early work on the court of Burgundy. See Kantorowicz, Ernst. Laudes Regiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamations and Medieval Ruler Worship (Berkeley, 1946)Google Scholar. and The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton. 1957)Google Scholar: Schramm, Percy. Herr schaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik: Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte vom dritten zum sechszehnten Jahrhunderdt, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1954–1956)Google Scholar: Bloch., MarcLes Rois Thaumaturges: Etude sur le caractère surnaturel attribué à la puissance royale, particulièrement en France et en Angleterre (Strassbourg. 1924)Google Scholar.

10 Blockman and Prevenier, The Burgundian Netherlands, 223. For an urban rejoinder, see Nicholas, David. “In the Pit of the Burgundian Theater State: Urban Traditions and Princely Ambitions in Ghent, 1360–1420.” in Hanawalt, B. and Reyerson, K.. eds.. City and Spectacle in Medieval Europe (Minneapolis, 1994). 271–95Google Scholar. The term theater state is borrowed from Geertz, Clifford. Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali (Princeton. 1981)Google Scholar.

11 Strayer, Joseph. The Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton, 1970)Google Scholar; Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital and European States. AD 900–1992 (Cambridge. 1990)Google Scholar. especially 38–66. These weak features of the Burgundian state are laid out in Blockmans, Wim P. and Prevenier, Walter. In de ban van Bourgondië (Houten. 1988)Google Scholar and Vaughan, Richard. Valois Burgundy (London. 1975)Google Scholar.

12 Blockmans, and Prevenier, . The Burgundian Netherlands, and In de ban van Bourgondië (Houten. 1988)Google Scholar: see also Boone, Marc. “Gestion urbaine, gestion d'entreprises: l'élite urbaine entre pouvoir d'Etat. solidarité communale et intérêts privés dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux à l'époque bourguignonne (XIVe–XVe siècle).” L'impresa, Industria, commercio, banco, secc. XIII–XVIII (Istituto internazionale di storia economica. Prato, F. Datini.. serie II. Atti della 22a settimana di Studi 1990). (Florence. 1991). 839–62Google Scholar, and his Gent en de Bourgondische hertogen ca. 1384–ca. 1453: een sociaal-politieke studie van een staatsvormingsproces (VKAL). 52:133. (Brussels. 1990)Google Scholar: Howell, Martha, Women. Production and Patriarchy in Late Medieval Cities (Chicago. 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 R. van Uytven. “Scènes de la vie sociale dans les villes des Pays-Bas du XIVe au XVIe siècles.” Actes du colloque: la sociabilité urbaine en Europe du Nord-Ouest du XlVe au XVII siècle (Mémoires de la société d'agriculture, sciences et arts de Douai. série 5, t. 8) (1983). 11–32. For a case study, see Arnade, Peter, Realms of Ritual: Burgundian Ceremonx and Civic Life in Late Medieval Ghent (Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1996)Google Scholar.

14 Paravicini, Werner. “Die Residenzen der Herzöge von Burgund, 1316–1477.” in Paravicini, W. and Patze, H., eds., Fürstliche Residenzen im spätmittelalterlichen Europa, (Sigmaringen 1991), 207–63Google Scholar.

15 The figure of over 200 is derived from an update from Hurlbut, Jesse of his “Ceremonial Entries in Burgundy: Philip the Good and Charles the Bold (1419–77)” (Unpublished Ph.D. disser., Indiana University, 1990)Google Scholar. I would like to thank Dr. Hurlbut for this information. On Brabant, see Blockmans, Wim, “Alternatives to Monarchical Centralization: The Great Tradition of Revolt in Flanders and Brabant,” in Koenigsberger, H. G., ed., Republiken und Republikanismus im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit (Munich, 1988), 149–50Google Scholar.

16 For a cross-cultural reading of royal progresses, see Geertz, Clifford, “Centers, Kings, and Charisma: Reflections on the Symbolics of Power,” in Wilenz, S., ed.. Rites of Power: Symbolism, Ritual and Politics since the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1985), 13–38Google Scholar. For the itineraries of the two principal Burgundian dukes, see Linden, H. vander, Itinéraires de Charles, due de Bourgogne, Marguerite d'York et Marie de Bourgogne (1467–1477), Commission Royal d'Histoire (Brussels, 1936)Google Scholar, and his Itinéraires de Philippe le Bon, due de Bourgogne (1419–1467) et de Charles, comte de Charolais (1433–1467), Commission Royale d'Histoire (Brussels, 1940)Google Scholar.

17 On the issue of narrative and representation, see White, Hayden, The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation (Baltimore, 1987)Google Scholar. I have explored this issue more fully in my “Writing and Social Experience: Narratives of Urban Life in the Burgundian Netherlands.” in Kelders, Ludo Milis. A.. and Lamberts, V., eds. Verhalende bronnen: repertoriëring, editie en commercialisering (Ghent. 1996). 95–118Google Scholar.

18 For a summary of Burgundian festivals, see. most importantly. Cartellieri. Am Hofe der Herzöge von Burgund: on their chroniclers, see Quick, F.. Les chroniqueurs des fastes bourguignons (Brussels. 1943)Google Scholar.

19 de La Marche, Olivier. Mémoires, Beaune, Henri and d'Arbaumont, J., eds.. 4 vols. (Paris. 1883–1888). 2:87Google Scholar.

20 This feudal social model has been studied by Duby, Georges. Les trois ordres ou l'imaginaire du féodalisme (Paris. 1978)Google Scholar.

21 On the problem of language, see Armstrong, C. A. J.. “The Language Question in the Low Countries: The Use of French and Dutch by the Dukes of Burgundy and their Administration.” in his England. France and Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century (London. 1983). 189–212Google Scholar.

22 Huizinga. The Waning of the Middle Ages, 59–62; Chastellain. Oeuvres, 5:246. and in general. Declos, C.. La témoignage de Georges Chastellain (Geneva. 1980). 144–8Google Scholar.

23 Germain, J.. Liber de virtutibus Phillipi Burgundiae ducis in de Lettenhove, Kervyn. ed., Chroniques relatives à l'histoire de la Belgique, 3 vols. (Brussels. 1870). 2:100Google Scholar: Huizinga. The Waning of the Middle Ages, 101–2.

24 Champion, P., ed.. Le Cents Nouvelles Nouvelles (Paris. 1902)Google Scholar.

25 I take this quote from the so-called Kerelslied from Nicholas. Medieval Flanders. (New York. 1992). 253Google Scholar.

26 Kernolde, George, “Renaissance Artists in the Service of the People: Political Tableaux and Street Theaters in France. Flanders, and England.” Art Bulletin, 25 (1943). 49–65Google Scholar.

27 Stadsarchief te Gent, stadsrekeningen 400/17. fols. 250r–v.

28 See Hurlbut, “Ceremonial Entries in Burgundy,” 60–73. For a detailed survey of the typical format of both major and minor Burgundian entries in one territory, see L. Devillers, “Les séjours des dues de Bourgogne en Hainault: 1427–82.” Compte rendu des séances de la Commission Royale d'Histoire on recueil de ses bulletins (4th sen), no. 6 (1879), 323–468.

29 I am indebted to the assessment of ritual as strategies of action in Bell, Catherine, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York, 1992)Google Scholar. See also Kertzer, David, Ritual, Politics and Power (New Haven, 1988), especially 8–14Google Scholar. on definition of ritual. The model of ritual as enactments of collective solidarity was most powerfully articulated by Durkheim, Emile, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915; reprint, New York. 1965)Google Scholar; theories of social control, in which conflict is diffused through the ritual process, have, in different and sophisticated ways, been advanced by Gluckman, Max, Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa (Glencoe, 1963)Google Scholar, and Turner, Victor, particularly, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago. 1966)Google Scholar.

30 Blockmans, Wim P.. “Princes conquérants et bourgeois calculateurs: le poids des réseaux urbains dans la formation des Etats,” in Bulst, N. and Genet, J.-Ph., eds., La ville, la bourgeoisie et la genèse de l'Etat moderne (XIIe-XVIIIe siècle) (Paris: Actes du Colloque de Bielefeld, 1987). 167–81Google Scholar.

31 For a survey of events, see Vaughan, Richard, Philip the Good: the Apogee of Power (New York, 1970)Google Scholar and his Charles the Bold: The Last Duke of Burgundy (London. 1973)Google Scholar. and most recently. Nicholas. Medieval Flanders, 317–91, for the all-important county of Flanders.

32 Vaughan. Philip the Good, 86–92.

33 WBlockmans, im P.. De Volksvertegenwoordiging in Vlaanderen in de overgang van Middeleeuwen naar Nieuwe Tijden (1384–1506) 40:90 (Brussels. 1978). 346–53Google Scholar. See also van Houtte, J. A., De geschiedenis van Brugge (Thielt, 1982), 125–7Google Scholar.

34 The underlying issues were many and complex but focused principally upon the guilds men's legal and political resentment of Philip's representatives in Bruges; suspicion that the burgomaster, aldermen and other city officials were both corrupt and overly complicit with state power: and a general desire to assert hegemony over the castellany of the Franc of Bruges and the port city of Sluis, a move directly opposed by the prince himself. See Blockmans, De Volksvertegenwoordiging in Vlaanderen, 346–53. Two of the best summaries of the riot and its consequences are the anonymous fifteenth-century Flemish account included in the published edition of the Kronyk van Vlaenderen—see Blommaert, Ph. and Serrure, C. P.. eds.. Kronyk van Vlaenderen van 380 tot 1467, Maatschappij der Vlaamsche Bibliophilen (series 1). no. 3. 2 vols. (Ghent. 1939–1940). 2:36–111Google Scholar: and a latter elaboration on it included in Despars, Nicolaes. Cronijcke van den lande ende graefscepe van Vlaenderen, de Jonghe, J.. ed.. 4 vols. (Bruges, 1840). 3:350–445Google Scholar.

35 Blommaert, and Serrure, . eds.. Kronyk van Vlaenderen, 2:73–79Google Scholar.

36 Ibid.. 2:76.

37 Philip's account is found in Hanserecesse: Die Recesse und Akten der Hansetage. 25 vols. (1870–1970). 2:106–9Google Scholar.

38 For the 1438 settlement, see the full transcription in Gilliodts-Van Severen, L., Inventaire des archives de la ville de Bruges. Section Première: Inventaire des chartes, 6 vols. (Bruges, 1871–1876), 5:134–58Google Scholar. For a succinct summary of events, see Vaughan. Philip the Good, 86–92. On ritual submission in early medieval France, see Koziol, Geoffery. Begging Pardon and Favor: Ritual and Political Order in Early Medieval France (Ithaca. 1992)Google Scholar.

39 Blommaert, and Serrure, , Kronyk van Vlaenderen, 2:105–11Google Scholar: Despars, . Cronijcke van den lande and graefscepe van Vlaenderen, 3:429–45Google Scholar; see also Douët-d'Arcq, L.. La Chronique d'Enguerrand de Monstrelet, 6 vols. (1857–1862), 5:445–9Google Scholar.

40 For a general consideration of the urban networks in Flanders in particular, see Stabel, Peter, “The Urban Network in the County of Flanders during the later Middle Ages and the Sixteenth Century,” in Clark, P., ed., Towns and Networks in Early Modern Europe (Leicester. 1990). 8–29Google Scholar.

41 There is a summary consideration of the economic life of the Burgundian Netherlands in Blockmans and Prevenier, In de Ban van Bourgondië. On the monetary and economic changes, see also Munro, John, “Monetary Contraction and Industrial Change in the Late-Medieval Low Countries, 1335–1500.” in Mayhew, N. J., ed.. Coinage in the Low Countries (880–1500), (Oxford: BAR International Series. 54, 1979). 54–68Google Scholar.

42 There has been little attention to this distinct feature of Low Country ceremony, though, for religious matters, it is hinted at in J. Toussaert's now classic Le sentiment religieux en Flandre à la fin du Moyen Age (Paris, 1963)Google Scholar.

43 Fouret, Claude, “La violence en fete: la course de l'Epinette à Lille à la fin du Moyen Age,” Revue du Nord, 63 (1981), 377–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for Bruges, see the evidence amassed by Severen, Gilliodts-Van, ed., Inventaire des chartes, 4:471–82Google Scholar.

44 Ibid., 383–4.

45 For Bruges. Gilliodts-Van Severen, Inventaire des chartes, 4:477; for Lille, Fouret, “la violence en fête,” 385.

46 In large measure, these behaviors were part of the general practice of inversion so much a part of carnival. See Burke, Peter, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York. 1978), 178–204Google Scholar, who summarizes a large literature on the subject. See also Natalie Zemon Davis's pathbreaking “The Reasons for Misrule.” in her Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford, 1965), 97–123Google Scholar.

47 On the entries, see Fouret, “La violence en fête,” 384, and Severen, Gilliodts-Van, Inventaire des chartes, 4:476Google Scholar.

48 The notion of framing, both in public and private rituals, has been fruitfully employed by Trexler, Richard C., Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York, 1980)Google Scholar, especially 91–96.

49 Reintges, Theo, Ursprung und Wesen der spätmittelalterlichen Schützengilden (Bonn, 1963)Google Scholar; Delauny, L. A., Etude sur les anciennes compagnies d'archers, d'arbalétriers et d'arquebusiers (Paris, 1879)Google Scholar; van Wijck, A. M. C. van Asch, De schut of schultengilden in Nederlanden (Utrecht, 1849, 1851Google Scholar).

50 Dothee, C. and de Schrijver, M., Les concours de tir à l'arbaléte des glides médiévale (Antwerp, 1979)Google Scholar.

51 Jules de Saint-Genois, “Fêtes d'arbalétriers à Tournai,” Revue de Bruxelles (1839), 37–55. The specifics of the competition are detailed in Tournai's letter of invitation, printed in Gachard, Louis P., ed.. Collection de documents inédits concernant l'histoire de la Belgique, 3 vols. (Brussels. 1833–1835), 1:118–27Google Scholar.

52 The literature on the rhetorician confraternities is vast, with much of it focusing on individual confraternities. For good, overall introductions, see Mak, J. J., De rederijkers (Amsterdam. 1944)Google Scholar. and Liebrecht, Henri. Les chambres de rhetorique (Brussels, 1948)Google Scholar.

53 For Italian confraternities, see the synthesis by Black, Christopher F., Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1989)Google Scholar and. for the Low Countries, the in-depth case study by Trio, Paul. Volksreligie als spiegel van een stedelijke samenleving: de broederschappen te Gent in de late middeleeuwen, 12de-16de eeuw (Louvain, 1993)Google Scholar.

54 van der Meersch, P. J.. “Kronyk der Rederykkamers van Audenaerde.” Belgisch Museum 6 (1842), 380–83Google Scholar.

55 On the Saint George crossbowmen in Ghent, see Moulin-Coppens, Josée, De geschiedenis van het Oude Sint-Jorisgilde te Gent (vanaf de vroegste tijden tot 1887) (Ghent, 1982)Google Scholar and de Potter, Frans, Jaarboeken der Sint-Jorisgilde van Gent (Ghent, n.d.)Google Scholar. On the guild's governing structure, see Stadsarchief te Gent 300/27, fol. 82v. On the 1440 competition, see Universiteit bibliotheek Gent G. 6112, Dit es den bouc vander scutterie toebehoorende Pieter Polet ende zijnder hoerrie ende dot vanden voetboghe van mijnen heere den edelen rudder Sint Jorijs int gulden te Gent.

56 Bouc vander scutterie, fols. 8r–9r.

57 Moulin-Coppens, Geschiedenis, 34–39; de Potter, Jaarboeken, 24.

58 Bouc vander scutterie. fol. 5v.

59 Ibid., fol. 7v.

60 Agnew, Jean-Christophe, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American Thought, 1550–1750 (Cambridge, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially chapter one.

61 On the Feast of the Pheasant, see Lafortune-Martel, A., Fête noble en Bourgogne an XVe siècle: la banquet de Faisan (1454) (Montreal, 1984)Google Scholar.

62 Charles Tilly. Coercion, Capital, and European States, 41. The literature on Renaissance civic culture is vast, but for an important appraisal of the public world of its two largest city states, see Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence; Muir, Edward, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, 1981)Google Scholar; and Muir, Edward and Weissman, Ronald F. E.. “Social and Symbolic Places in Renaissance Florence and Venice,” in Andrew, J. and Duncan, James, eds.. The Power of Place: Bringing Together Geographical and Sociological Imaginations (Boston, 1989), 81–103Google Scholar.