Low Countries Archive
-
Female brewers in Holland and England
Posted on May 7, 2013 | No CommentsI also want to know why women worked in those professions, what the background of these women was and if changes occurred over time. -
The Hidden Masters of the Middle Ages: the Limbourg Brothers
Posted on March 13, 2013 | No CommentsTheir best known work is the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which is called the 'most valuable book in the world.' -
Urban Space and Political Conflict in Late Medieval Flanders
Posted on March 10, 2013 | No CommentsThis essay investigates political claims over space in Ghent, urban Flanders’ largest city during the late Middle Ages. -
The Assassination of Godfrey the Hunchback
Posted on January 27, 2013 | No CommentsOne of the earliest reports comes from Lambert of Hersfeld. Around 1078, he wrote a rather extensive account of the assassination, with several details: the assault took place in the city of Antwerp, in the night, when the duke had retired 'because of a natural need'. -
Handspinners of the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance
Posted on January 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe Handspinners of Paris, France: In 1270, a royal judge, Etienne Boileau, compiled “Le Livre de Metiers” (The Book of Trades) which contained the ordinances of 100 Parisian craft guilds. By consulting the surviving tax rolls of 1292, 1300, and 1313, it is possible to determine the extent to which these crafts were practiced. -
Tournament Culture in the Low Countries and England
Posted on January 6, 2013 | No CommentsIn England and the Low Countries towards the end of the thirteenth century, a common chivalric culture had emerged which permitted exchanges and mutual participation in tournaments on both sides of the Channel. -
Tolling the Rhine in 1254: Complementary Monopoly Revisited
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsGiven a demand for Rhine travel, an Emperor faced a classic complementary monopoly problem: how many toll stations to have, where to site them, and what toll to charge at each. -
Flemings in the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381
Posted on November 14, 2012 | No CommentsWhile the Peasants’ Revolt has been studied in depth by generations of medieval historians, the same cannot be said of England’s foreign-born inhabitants, and the largest group among these, the so-called Flemings (a term which was also applied to those from other principalities in the Low Countries besides Flanders). -
Shifting Experiences: The Changing Roles of Women in the Italian, Lowland, and German Regions of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
Posted on November 12, 2012 | No CommentsSpecifically, the thesis compares and analyzes the changing roles that women could employ economically, politically, socially, and religiously. -
One World under the Sun: Cosmography and Cartography in the Liber Floridus
Posted on September 2, 2012 | No CommentsTo a modern cartographer a map should represent geographic reality by means of coordinates such as latitude and longitude. Not one of the cartographic images in the Liber Floridus corresponds to this definition, yet not a single work on historical cartography omits the early-twelfth-century encyclopaedia -
Guinea Pigs were popular pets during the Renaissance, study finds
Posted on August 14, 2012 | No CommentsThe guinea pig was introduced to Europe during the 16th century by Spanish conquistadors. A Belgian archaeozoologist has found new evidence which suggests that the guinea pig was kept as pets by the wealthier middle class. -
The Legal Framework of Divorce ‘a mensa et thoro’ and the Administration of Justice within the Low Countries
Posted on August 10, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper discussed the divorce procedures in the Low Countries during the late middle ages and early modern period. -
Non-noble deeds of arms in the Late Middle Ages
Posted on June 22, 2012 | No CommentsI want to put forward the idea that a great many non-nobles fully accepted the wellestablished equivalence between being brave, well-trained and well-armed and being a legitimate member of the ruling class. -
The Elusive Netherlands. The question of national identity in the Early Modern Low Countries on the Eve of the Revolt
Posted on June 13, 2012 | No CommentsThe identity of the Low Countries was also muddied by contemporary debates about the correspondence between ‘Gallia’ and France and between ‘Germania’ and ‘Deutschland’. -
Looking a medieval gift horse in the mouth. The role of the giving of gift objects in the definition and maintenance of the power networks of Philip the Bold
Posted on June 13, 2012 | No CommentsGuenée dubbed the late fourteenth century le temps des alliances', pointing to the effect on politics and administration in France of visible, recognised networks. These might be based on kinship, marriage and godparenting, where the obligations were well understood, but not necessarily written down -
For a Long Century of Burgundy. The Court, Female Power and Ideology
Posted on June 12, 2012 | No CommentsThe field of Burgundian studies has witnessed a shift in emphasis over the past generation from overviews which were biographical and dynastic in emphasis, such as Richard Vaughan’s volumes on the four Valois dukes, to studies of the Burgundian ‘state’ and the regions it ruled over, exemplified in the work of Walter Prevenier, Wim Blockmans and, more recently, Bertrand Schnerb.1 -
The Medieval Origins of Capitalism in the Netherlands
Posted on June 12, 2012 | No CommentsOne of the fiercest and most productive historical debates – and one of the most ideology-laden – has been that on the transition from feudalism to capitalism.1 Although interest in this specific debate and its ideological implications seems to be waning now, the importance of reconstructing and explaining long-term changes in economy and society is still clear. -
Diplomatic aspects of Charles the Bold’s relations with the Holy See
Posted on June 12, 2012 | No CommentsBoth Paul II and Sixtus IV, the two popes whose pontificates spanned the reign of Charles the Bold, made great efforts to bring about peace among the rulers of Christendom. -
Modernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland
Posted on June 12, 2012 | No CommentsAs I have shown elsewhere, the county of Holland underwent a structural change in the second half of the fourteenth century, when economically the emphasis shifted from agriculture to trade and industry and demographically from the country to the towns. The institutions however did not change. -
John Crabbe: Flemish Pirate, Merchant, and Adventurer
Posted on June 5, 2012 | No CommentsThe decades before the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War were notoriously fruitful in commercial violence. -
Shaping Medieval Markets: The Organisation of Commodity Markets in Holland, c. 1200 – c. 1450
Posted on May 24, 2012 | No CommentsThe late Middle Ages witnessed the transformation of the county of Holland from a peripheral agrarian region to a highly commercialised and urbanised one. This book examines how the organisation of commodity markets contributed to this remarkable development -
Guilds in late medieval Flanders: myths and realities of guild life in an export-oriented environment
Posted on March 11, 2012 | No CommentsThe opinion of historians on the social and economic role played by guilds in late medieval and early modern cities has changed considerably throughout the last century. -
‘…Men famous in combat and battle…’: Common soldiers and the siege of Bruges, 1127
Posted on March 1, 2012 | No CommentsThe conflict at Bruges illustrates the role of common soldiers and non-combatants in warfare - that they participated in large numbers, and were essential to the conduct of siege operations. -
The Ghent Altarpiece in 100 Billion Pixels
Posted on February 27, 2012 | No CommentsIt is now possible to zoom into the intricate, breathtaking details of one of the most important works of art from the medieval world, thanks to a newly completed website focused on the Ghent Altarpiece. -
“The World on the End of a Reed”: Marguerite Porete and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations – a reassessment
Posted on February 20, 2012 | No CommentsCentral to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete „fit‟ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not „fit‟ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period.
