Lisa Demets

Royal bastards. The birth of illegitimacy 800-1230

her final years’ (247). While Heywood does not suggest that they made anything up, she refers pertinently to their recording ‘the various contradictory elements that Njinga had creatively combined to guarantee her political, cultural, spiritual and physical survival’ (247). The issue that looms over the story more than any other, however, is that of slavery. When the Portuguese arrived, slaves were an integral part of Ndongo society and their ‘trade was highly regulated’ (13). With the start of Portugal’s conquest in 1575, however, the slave trade changed irrevocably both in scale and character. Keeping open the slave markets became a constant preoccupation of the colonists, and this was exploited by Njinga and her leading subjects for both strategic and economic advantage. In 1645, for instance, ‘the regular slave trade... carried on with the Dutch guaranteed [Njinga] supplies of ammunition to sustain her eighty-thousand-man army, while damaging Portuguese trade and power’ (143). Slaves were also given as gifts and used to oil the wheels of diplomacy. In 1627, in an attempt to re-open negotiations with the Portuguese, Njinga sent the governor six slaves, along with ‘400 slaves and 150 head of cattle as tribute to the Portuguese king’ (94). Most of the millions of enslaved people shipped from Ndongo, Matamba and Kongo over three centuries were sent to Brazil. It is therefore surely ironic that, notwithstanding the positive African legacy on Brazilian culture, Njinga has now become a hero to their descendants. A ‘complex’ person she certainly was, who has a ‘rightful place in world history’, but I find it difficult to go along with Heywood’s assessment of Njinga as ‘a powerful woman ...who did what was necessary to maintain the independence of her lands’ (255–7).

Toujours loyal : a middle Dutch chronicle of Flanders by Jan van Dixmude in sixteenth-century Ghent

The political and social milieus in which manuscripts circulated offer new insights into the writing aims of the material author(s) or scribe(s) and the interpretation strategies of subsequent owners. In this light, this contribution reconsiders the writing context of the so-called Chronicle of pseudo-Jan van Dixmude. By confronting the material and textual information provided by the original manuscript (Ghent, University Library, G. 6181), the manuscript can be related to a politically ambitious family in sixteenth-century Ghent. The writing of medieval Flemish historiography in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Flanders seems to be closely related to the practice of politics, more particularly in moments of crisis such as revolts. Jan van Dixmude’s manuscript version of the Middle Dutch Chronicle of Flanders or Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen provides new insights into the social and political identities of late medieval patricians aspiring noble ambitions.

Urban chronicle writing in late medieval Flanders: the case of Bruges during the Flemish Revolt of 1482–1490 – CORRIGENDUM

The authors regret that the following acknowledgment was omitted from the first footnote: This article was written in the context of the project ‘El poder de la comunidad? Lenguaje y practicas politicas populares a fines de la Edad Media’ (HAR 2011–30035), funded by the Spanish Government, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

Urban chronicle writing in late medieval Flanders: the case of Bruges during the Flemish Revolt of 1482–1490

The absence of a ‘real’ urban chronicle tradition in fifteenth-century Flanders similar to the Italian or German models has raised questions among scholars. However, there is also no satisfactory consensus on the exact meaning or contents of medieval ‘urban historiography’. Some were ‘official’ city chronicles, while others lauded patrician lineages or took the viewpoint of specific social groups or corporate organizations and reinforced construction of the groups’ collective memories. Some seem to express the literary aspirations of individual city officials or clerics with strong connections to their towns. We propose an analytical framework to identify and measure the ‘urbanity’ of late medieval chronicles, taking into account the authorship and thematic emphasis of historiographical texts, but focusing on the social environment of their circulation and the ideological strategies at work.

The Late Medieval Manuscript Transmission of the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen in Urban Flanders

The Middle Dutch ‘Chronicle of Flanders’ is a complex chronicle group consisting of various distinct manuscript versions. This chronicle group is generally divided into three separate ‘traditions’: the Chronicle of Jan van Dixmude, the Kronijk van Vlaenderen, and the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen. The most important question dealt with in this contribution is whether this subdivision still makes sense today. Research strategies on medieval chronicles shifted from a focus on the authority of a chronicle’s ‘author’ towards an increasing attention to its readers and audience. Searching for this (intended) audience makes it possible to underline the connections among various manuscripts. However, lately, a countermovement has renewed the interest in chronicles’ (scribal) authorship; it focuses on the self-fashioning aspect in historiographical works. This article argues that these methodologies are not so conflicting as has been thought previously. The manuscripts of the Middle Dutch ‘Chronicle of Flander...