Mario Damen

The town as a stage? Urban space and tournaments in late medieval Brussels

This article discusses the material and spatial features of the tournaments on the Grote Markt, the central market square in Brussels, in the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century. It investigates how the tournament acquired meaning in the urban space where it was organized, and how the chivalric event in its turn altered that urban space. These Brussels tournaments, for which both archival, iconographical and narrative sources are available, show us the dynamics of an inherently courtly festival within an urban setting. Recent historiography has stressed that these tournaments, just like other urban festivals, for example joyous entries, demonstrate the submission of the town to the ruler. Indeed, the prince and his household used the public space of the Grote Markt and the facilities of the town hall to organize tournaments and festivities. However, they could not do this on their own. They needed the town government for the organization and logistics of the tournament and for its hospitality. Moreover, the town managed to put its own stamp on the architecture, both permanent and ephemeral, emphasizing the responsibilities that the duke had towards his town, as well as the long tradition of subservience and loyalty of the town to the duke.

The knighthood in and around late medieval Brussels

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the social and political features of the knighthood in one of the most densely populated areas of the Low Countries, the administrative district of Brussels, known as the ammanie, in the fifteenth century. A systematic identification of all knights (rather than a selection) enables us to correct Huizinga’s picture and that of other, more recent, historians of the late medieval nobility as a social group in decay. Moreover, this case study contributes to ongoing debates on the position and status of late medieval knighthood. First, the data make it possible to assess the impact of Burgundian policies on the social, political and military relevance of the knighthood of Brabant. Second, special attention is given to their feudal possessions, in particular lordships and fortified residences, in order to establish stratification within the knighthood. Finally, the status and position of bannerets within the Brabantine knighthood is highlighted since they played a crucial role as intermediaries between the duke of Brabant and the urban elites of Brussels.

Patricians, knights or nobles? Historiography and social status in late medieval Antwerp

This article explores the significance of writing history for a late medieval Antwerp patrician family: Van Halmale. In recent historiography, families like the Van Halmales have not received the attention they deserve, in part because their social status is difficult to pin down. Although the Van Halmales had knightly titles and performed deeds of arms on the battlefield and during tournaments, their noble status was not undisputed. Both a chronicle and a tournament diary written by different members of the Van Halmale family reflect the aspirations of a dominant social category in the late medieval towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Holland. Their writings reflect how the Van Halmales perceived themselves and how they wanted their contemporaries and peers to perceive them. In that sense the writing of history was indeed a means for nobles (and would-be-nobles) to justify (or to claim) their privileged position. Their works helped them to express their identity as powerful aldermen, firmly rooted in an urban environment but with open minds for the world of princes and (inter)national politics.

[Review of: D. Stasavage (2011) States of credit: size, power, and the development of European polities]

from a single social class. This is interpreted as evidence that parties tend to move towards the ideological centre and abandon their core constituency. This conclusion apparently ignores a previous finding in the book, which is that voters (both independent and partisan) are on average more ideologically centrist than the party they vote for. More carefully developed theoretical models would make it easier to identify any contradictory findings such as this. In sum, the book is crammed full of interesting evidence relating to various aspects of party politics in modern Europe, including the policy differences between political parties, the coherence of party programmes, the social base of party support, the complexity of party organisations, and the ideological congruence between parties and voters. It will provide a valuable resource for anyone looking for evidence relating to these important issues. The explanations put forward for these empirical findings, while plausible, deserve further scrutiny.

Collective memory and personal memoria. The Carthusian monastery of Scheut as a crossroads of urban and princely patronage in fifteenth-century Brabant

This article analyses the use of memoria with respect to the Carthusian monastery of Scheut, a few miles to the west of Brussels. The construction of this monastery around 1455 was first intended to preserve the memory of the battle of Scheut of 1356 and of those who had died there, many of them citizens of Brussels. The establishment of the monastery as a monument to the battle is the central theme of the first part of this article, and the importance of chroniclers in the process of commemoration will receive a special focus. Moreover, we will disentangle the trilateral relationship between the town, the court and the monastery. This relationship is further explored in the second part. We explain how a second memorial layer was created by courtiers and patricians, who wished to be remembered by the local monks and devout visitors. Especially the officers of the Burgundian and (later Habsburg) state were eager to become associated with the monastery, through a personalised memorial. Some of these officers were instrumental in establishing links between the monastery and its high-ranking, noble patrons, most of whom had feudal possessions in the duchy of Brabant. They played a crucial role during the three periods in which stained glass windows needed to be financed for the decoration of the new buildings, for the chapel, cloister and the new church respectively.