22 August 2024: Due to technical disruption, we are experiencing some delays to publication. We are working to restore services and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/about-us/news-and-blogs/cambridge-university-press-publishing-update-following-technical-disruption
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 August 2019
The composition of the political elites in sixteenth-century Ghent, one of the political and economic centres of the county of Flanders, changed from a relatively open elite group that included representatives from the craft guilds into a compact, aristocratic class. This article analyses the reasons for this transformation. First, the number of office-holders in the city council declined and power was increasingly concentrated in the hands of a smaller political elite because of interventions in the urban political framework by the Habsburg authorities in the wake of a fiscal rebellion (1537–40) and a Calvinist takeover of power (1578–84). Secondly, the once dominant position of the craft guilds on Ghent's two benches of aldermen was weakened by institutional reforms, a Catholic backlash against Calvinism and an economic recession. Thirdly, the growing wealth gap between rulers and the ruled, coupled with an influx of noblemen into Ghent City Council, gave urban politics a more aristocratic character. Consequently, a series of interconnected changes gave rise to a trend towards oligarchy and aristocracy on the city's benches of aldermen.
1 Cowan, A., ‘Urban elites in early modern Europe: an endangered species?’, Historical Research, 64 (1991), 121CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Carocci, S., ‘Social mobility and the Middle Ages’, Continuity and Change, 26 (2011), 368CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Ibid.
4 The Utrecht guilds and their influence on politics are discussed in Smithuis, J., ‘Gildevertegenwoordiging of oligarchie? De samenstelling van het Utrechtse stadsbestuur in de late middeleeuwen (1304 – ca. 1450)’, Jaarboek Oud-Utrecht (Utrecht, 2014), 209–36Google Scholar. For Augsburg, see Isenmann, E., Die deutsche Stadt im Mittelalter 1150–1550: Stadtgestalt, Recht, Verfassung, Stadtregiment, Kirche, Gesellschaft, Wirschaft (Cologne, 2012), 417, 829–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the role of the guilds in the urban politics of German-speaking lands, see Soly, H., ‘The political economy of European craft guilds: power relations and economic strategies of merchants and master artisans in the medieval and early modern textile industries’, International Review of Social History, 53:S16 (2008), 57–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Sacks, D., The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450–1700 (Berkeley, 1991), 118–19, 125–7, 344–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This book is based on his earlier research: Sacks, D., Trade, Society and Politics in Bristol 1500–1640 (New York, 1985), 692–711, 713–21Google Scholar.
6 Tittler, R., The Reformation and the Towns in England: Politics and Political Culture, c. 1540–1640 (Oxford, 1998), 57–136CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Several examples are discussed in Friedrichs, C., The Early Modern City 1450–1750 (London and New York, 1995), 191–2Google Scholar.
8 ‘er bestond in Gent een mate van politieke participatie van de bevolking, die voor de invoering van het algemeen meervoudig stemrecht in 1893 niet meer zou worden geëvenaard’. See Decavele, J. (ed.), Keizer tussen stropdragers: Karel V 1500–1558 (Leuven, 1990), 145Google Scholar.
9 Blockmans, W., ‘Het wisselingsproces van de Gentse schepenen in de vijftiende eeuw’, Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent, 41 (1987), 78Google Scholar.
10 See Table 6.
11 V. Verbrugge, ‘De politieke elite van Gent (1675–1700)’, Ghent University MA thesis, 2004, 27–54.
12 Martène, E. and Durand, U., Voyage litteraire pour la découverte du tour du monde, vol. I (Amsterdam, 1727), 192Google Scholar.
13 For this quote, see Liddy, C., War, Politics and Finance in Late Medieval English Towns: Bristol, York, and the Crown, 1350–1400 (Woodbridge and Rochester, 2005), 17–18 and 144–55Google Scholar, which discusses the integration of the urban elites into the English framework.
14 Chevalier, B., Les bonnes villes de France du XIVe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1982), 104, 204CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 See Stein, R., Magnanimous Dukes and Rising States: The Unification of the Burgundian Netherlands, 1380–1480 (Oxford, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the argument that the unification had a positive effect on urban economies. The urban rebellions in the county of Flanders are discussed in Dumolyn, J. and Haemers, J., ‘Patterns of urban rebellion in medieval Flanders’, Journal of Medieval History, 31 (2005), 369–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 Dumolyn, J., ‘The legal repression of revolts in late medieval Flanders’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 68 (2000), 499CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
17 The poorterij should not be confused with the poorters, the latter referring to the male citizens (also ‘burghers’) of a town.
18 Numerous authors have devoted their attention to the Three Members System. The seminal study remains Boone, M., Gent en de Bourgondische hertogen ca. 1384 – ca. 1453: Een sociaal-politieke studie van een staatsvormingsproces (Brussels, 1990)Google Scholar.
19 Original quote: ‘alliantie tussen corporatisme, particularisme en protestantisme’: see Dambruyne, J., Corporatieve middengroepen: Aspiraties, relaties en transformaties in de 16de-eeuwse Gentse ambachtswereld (Ghent, 2002), 644Google Scholar.
20 For further reading on the Calvinist Republic, see Despretz, A., De instauratie der Gentse Calvinistische Republiek: 1577–1579 (Ghent, 1963)Google Scholar; Van Bruaene, A.-L., ‘Culture politique et capital social pendant la République calviniste à Gand’, in Weiss, M. (ed.), Des villes en révolte: Les ‘Républiques urbaines’ aux Pays-Bas et en France pendant la deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle (Turnhout, 2010), 35–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Van Bruaene, A.-L., ‘The Adieu and Willecomme for Jan van Hembyze, or the battle between script and print in Calvinist Ghent’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte – Archive for Reformation History, 105 (2014), 206–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 The names of these aldermen were listed in the nineteenth-century edition of Ghent's Memorieboek, compiled by Vander Meersch, which provides an overview, per year, of the aldermen who held office: Meersch, P.C. Vander, Memorieboek der stad Ghent: van ’t jaar 1301 tot 1793, 4 vols. (Ghent, 1852–61)Google Scholar. For critical reflections on the compilation of Vander Meersch, see Blockmans, ‘Het wisselingsproces’, 75. By comparing the names listed in this compilation with the original sixteenth-century sources, I increased the accuracy of my data. The following sources were used: Ghent City Archives (GCA), Series 101, no. 4/III; GCA, Series 101, no. 5; GCA, Series 101, no. 7.
22 Note that the city council was renewed twice in 1579, in July and in August.
23 Boone, Gent en de Bourgondische hertogen, 122–3.
24 Dambruyne, Corporatieve middengroepen, 625.
25 Janssen, G., The Dutch Revolt and Catholic Exile in Reformation Europe (Cambridge, 2014), 140–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
26 This expression was used recurrently by the Habsburg administration when selecting aldermen after 1584. See for instance State Archives Brussels, Audiëntie (Inv. 245), no. 809/9.
27 Potter, F. De, Gent, van den oudsten tijd tot heden: Geschiedkundige beschrijving der stad (Ghent, 1834–1904), vol. I, 394Google Scholar.
28 Dambruyne, Corporatieve middengroepen, 396.
29 See for instance Cowan, ‘Urban elites’, 129.
30 Burke, P., Venice and Amsterdam: A Study of Seventeenth-Century Elites (London, 1974), 102, 111Google Scholar, shows that the Amsterdam elite developed into an oligarchy during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was the time when the Dutch economy was declining.
31 J. Dambruyne applied this methodology to reconstruct the changes in Ghent's urban economy: Dambruyne, J., Mensen en centen: Het 16de-eeuwse Gent in demografisch en economisch perspectief (Ghent, 2001), 125–9Google Scholar. This reasoning was also applied in earlier research: Boone, M., Dumon, M. and Reusens, B., Immobiliënmarkt, fiscaliteit en sociale ongelijkheid te Gent, 1483–1503 (Heule, 1981), 73–9Google Scholar.
32 Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 86–9.
33 For an in-depth discussion, see Dambruyne, Mensen en centen, 181–344.
34 Ghent's economic developments after 1590 are discussed in Dambruyne, J., ‘De Gentse immobiliënmarkt en de economische trend, 1590–1640’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden – The Low Countries Historical Review, 104 (1989), 157–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
35 The system of forced loans originated in Italy, from where they spread to north-western Europe: Pezzolo, L., ‘The Venetian government debt 1350–1650’, in Boone, M., Davids, K. and Janssens, P. (eds.), Urban Public Debts: Urban Government and the Market for Annuities in Western Europe (14th–18th Centuries) (Turnhout, 2003), 64–7Google Scholar; Pezzolo, L., ‘Government debts and credit markets in Renaissance Italy’, in Caselli, F. (ed.), Government Debts and Financial Markets in Europe (London, 2008), 17–32Google Scholar.
36 These four ‘forced loans’ are extensively discussed in Dambruyne, Corporatieve middengroepen, 457–67. For a critical discussion of the forced loan of 1492, see Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 105–16.
37 GCA, Series FM79, no. 322.
38 Dambruyne, Corporatieve middengroepen, 422–3.
39 For the forced loan of 1540, see GCA, Series 400, no. 48, fols. 98r–138v. Reasons as to why he did not provide cash remain open to speculation, though the explanation may lie in his loyalty to the Habsburg administration.
40 For rising grain prices, see Dambruyne, Mensen en centen, 57. For wage rigidity, see Ryckbosch, W., ‘Economic inequality and growth before the industrial revolution: the case of the Low Countries (fourteenth to nineteenth centuries)’, European Review of Economic History, 20 (2016), 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the increased fiscal pressure is discussed in P. Decelle, ‘“Datmen dinghesetenen danof zoude deportere”: beschouwing over het fiscale en financiële beleid van de Gentse schepenen in de woelige zestiende eeuw’, Ghent University MA thesis, 2010, 55–92.
41 I develop this point in my Ph.D. dissertation: J. Baguet, ‘De heren van Gent: Politieke elites en sociale verandering in de zestiende eeuw’, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Ph.D. thesis, 2018, 90–2. My claims are based on an analysis of the probate inventories (staten van goed) of the aldermen from the poorterij and the craft guilds.
42 Soly, H., Urbanisme en kapitalisme te Antwerpen in de 16de eeuw: De stedebouwkundige en industriële ondernemingen van Gilbert van Schoonbeke (Brussels, 1977), 67–8Google Scholar.
43 For instance, Charles Everwijn contributed 1,920 Flemish groats to the first forced loan of 1578 and 6,000 Flemish groats to the second. Omaar Everwijn contributed respectively 8,640 and 24,000 Flemish groats to the forced loans of 1578. See GCA, Series 532, no. 33 (Z), 28r, and GCA, Series 93/24 (Z), 292r.
44 This ‘imitation’ is analysed in De Clercq, W., Dumolyn, J. and Haemers, J., ‘“Vivre noblement”: material culture and elite identity in late medieval Flanders’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 38 (2007), 1–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45 Quote from Cowan, ‘Urban elites’, 136. Many studies have discussed the (increasing) presence of the nobility in the cities of the Low Countries. Recent contributions include Buylaert, F., ‘Lordship, urbanization and social change in late medieval Flanders’, Past and Present, 227 (2015), 31–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Damen, M., ‘The knighthood in and around late medieval Brussels’, Journal of Medieval History, 43 (2017), 255–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; van Steensel, A., ‘Noblemen in an urbanised society: Zeeland and its nobility in the late Middle Ages’, Journal of Medieval History, 38 (2012), 76–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
46 Buylaert, F. and Ramandt, A., ‘The transformation of rural elites in late medieval Flanders: oligarchy, state formation and social change in the Liberty of Bruges (c. 1350–c. 1525)’, Continuity and Change, 30 (2015), 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
47 The De Baenst family is discussed in Buylaert, F., ‘Sociale mobiliteit bij stedelijke elites in laatmiddeleeuws Vlaanderen: een gevalstudie over de Vlaamse familie De Baenst’, Jaarboek voor Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis, 8 (2005), 201–51Google Scholar. The noblemen in the city of Bruges are discussed in Buylaert, F., ‘Edelen in de Vlaamse stedelijke samenleving: een kwantitatieve benadering van de elite van het laatmiddeleeuwse en vroegmoderne Brugge’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis, 4 (2007), 29–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
48 See Frederik Buylaert's contribution to this special section.
49 Buyaert, F. and Dumolyn, J., ‘Nobility and prosopography: in search of a quantitative approach for the study of nobles in late medieval Flanders’, Medieval Prosopography, 28 (2013), 148Google Scholar; and Buylaert, F., Repertorium van de Vlaamse adel (ca. 1350–ca. 1500) (Ghent, 2011), 14Google Scholar.
50 Blockmans, ‘Het wisselingsproces’, 77.
51 De Clercq, Dumolyn and Haemers, ‘“Vivre noblement”’.
52 Claire's brother, Frans de Brune, was lieutenant-civil in the city: GCA, Series 332, no. 4/1.
53 Vander Meersch, Memorieboek, vol. III, 124. Other corporate families did not embellish their names with these titles.
54 V. Despodt, ‘“Dat du best was ic ende wat ic bem, dat sal tu werden…” Gentse grafmonumenten en grafschriften tot het einde van de Gentse Calvinistische Republiek (1584)’, Ghent University MA thesis, 2001, no. 1.3./150: ‘edele ende werde Antheunis van Wyckhuys, heere van Wyckhuys ende van Waelbrouck’.
55 https://id.erfgoed.net/erfgoedobjecten/74422, accessed 13 Jun. 2018.
56 Vander Meersch, Memorieboek, vol. III, 129.
57 ‘een radicale breuk met het verleden’: Boone, Gent en de Bourgondische hertogen, 76.
