Beyond the Crisis of the Nobility. Recent Historiography on the

History Compass 12/3 (2014): 273–286, 10.1111/hic3.12136
Beyond the Crisis of the Nobility. Recent Historiography on
the Nobility in the Medieval Low Countries II
Arie van Steensel*
Utrecht University
Abstract
The medieval Low Countries are not usually associated with nobility and knighthood, but historical
research in the past decades has proven that they should be. This series of essays gives a historiographical
overview of the recent literature on the nobility in the medieval Low Countries and links it with major
international debates on the subject. The second of the three sections into which this survey is organised
concerns the history of the nobility in the later Middle Ages, a period characterised by commercialisation,
urbanisation and state formation. The intensity of these processes varied across the different principalities,
but recent research suggests that, overall, the nobility showed great resilience to political and economic
challenges and maintained its dominant position in late-medieval society.
Introduction
The nobilities in the various principalities of the Low Countries had formed relatively closed
social groups by the second half of the 13th century. Their internal hierarchy was most
clearly expressed in the attribution of lordly, knightly and courtly titles, the right they
exercised to maintain specific political and honorific privileges, and the practice of endogamous marriage. The restructuring of the noble elites, however, was a continuous process,
accelerated in the later Middle Ages by two external factors: the socio-demographic crisis
of the 14th century and the emergence of the central state. The consequences of these
processes for the nobility in the Low Countries are comparatively well known thanks to a
renewed interest in state formation and power elites in the past two decades, as well as to
the availability of in-depth studies (drawing on richer source material) of the nobility in a
number of the coastal principalities. Although it is tricky to extrapolate general developments
on the basis of regional case studies, the new insights prove earlier assumptions about a
late-medieval crisis of the nobility to be untenable.
Most historians now favour the idea of a late-medieval restructuring of the nobility, which
manifested itself in a process of increasing social differentiation.1 This is reminiscent of the
social transformation of the nobility in the central Middle Ages. Morsel, for example, has
indeed argued that a ‘sociogenesis’ of the nobility occurred in the 15th-century German
region of Franconia. Here, the ‘social and discursive invention of the nobility’ was the result
of princely and urban pressure on the noble families, which became more organised and clearly
demarcated as a distinct social group in society. In other words, nobility became a category of
perception and action.2 Thus, notwithstanding the general agreement that the late-medieval
political and economic conditions did not plunge the nobility into a general crisis, the debate
continues on how noble families adapted themselves to a continually changing landscape and
how these strategies altered the political, economic and social characteristics of the nobility.
This article surveys the recent historiography on the nobility in the late-medieval Low
Countries relating to the question to what extent the processes of commercialisation, state
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formation and urbanisation affected the social composition of the nobility and its role in
society. These three themes are addressed separately, without aiming to offer an exhaustive
bibliographical review or a synthesis of the available studies, which is well beyond the scope
of this contribution. Nevertheless, by outlining recent empirical findings on the economic
and political history of the nobility in the Low Countries and new methodological approaches
to the subject, this historiographical overview is intended to encourage historians of different
backgrounds to engage themselves with the question of how the nobility sought to maintain
their economic, political and social dominance during the later medieval period.
The Economic Resources of the Nobility
From a European point of view, the late-medieval Low Countries can be considered exceptional in-so-far as the depiction of them as societies in crisis is unjustified, even though the
various regions sometimes experienced very different political and economic fortunes to
one another.3 The consequences of economic developments for the economic evolution
of the nobility are rarely directly addressed in the recent literature. However, the impact
of the 14th-century demographic and economic developments on the nobility does play a
role in the debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The most common view,
in brief, is that the position of nobles as seigneurial lords and other landowners with extensive
holdings weakened in the later Middle Ages, as their incomes declined steadily and their
expenditures on (luxury) consumption goods increased. Brenner, for example, uses the idea
of social-property systems to explain how the distribution of property (land) and the (feudal)
means of surplus extraction of the lords determined the outcome of regional economic
developments. These systems, he maintains, imposed specific reproductive strategies on the
(noble) landowners and peasants, who all sought to maintain their established socio-economic
positions.4 In addition, Bois argues, on the basis of his study of late-medieval Normandy, that
the authority and seigneurial rights of the lords were undermined by princes and towns, making
it impossible for them to increase their income through non-economic obligations.5
To what extent did the noble lords in the Low Countries experience a crisis of seigneurial
revenues? The answer to this question can be derived from three extensively researched case
studies. The first, by Thoen, on the rural economy and society in Flemish castellanies of
Oudenaarde and Aalst, confirms that there was a structural fall in the real incomes of the
noble lords in the 14th century and perhaps even earlier. Revenues could not be increased
by adjusting the feudal rents or lease prices, because of inflation and decreasing productivity.
Moreover, the count and towns progressively encroached on the jurisdiction of the lords.6
Hoppenbrouwers, on the other hand, sketches a rather different picture in the case of
Heusden in Holland. Although recognising the importance of the short-term lease of land
as a source of income for the lords, he argues that the level of these leases were the result
of supply and demand. Furthermore, he questions the simple distinction between lords and
peasants, as surplus-extraction relations were complex and shaped by regional conditions.7
This view, finally, is corroborated by Van Bavel’s case-study on the Guelders River area.
He also demonstrates, in great detail, how regional specificities in the early occupation and
reclamation history had a bearing on late-medieval property relations and the exploitation
of landownership.8
Three observations can be made about these case studies. First, the outcomes of the socioeconomic and demographic developments in the later Middle Ages were partly determined
by the property structures and social relations that were already in place. Manorialism had
almost completely disappeared from the Low Countries by the early 14th century, but its
earlier intensity had been to a large extent decisive for the share of noble landownership
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and the nature of seigneurial rights in the late Middle Ages. In Guelders, for example, more than
half of the land was in the hands of large (noble) landowners, whereas the noble lords in
relatively late reclaimed Holland owned not more than ten per cent of the land.9 Second,
landownership was not the most important condition for noble dominance everywhere. The
noble lords in Zeeland, for instance, were not major landholders, but enjoyed seigneurial rights
of key political and economic significance.10 Finally, the social distribution of landownership
remained relatively stable in the late-medieval period. In general, the investments of townsmen
in landed property in the Low Countries did not result in important shifts in rural property
relations before the early 16th century. The number of non-noble lords – generally, towns
and religious institutions, as well as townsmen and state officials aspiring to nobility – grew even
more slowly and posed no threat to the nobles’ strong grip on local lordships.11
Many questions remain about the development of the real income of the noble lords during
the 14th and 15th centuries, but historians have concluded that the crisis of the 14th century had
no strong impact on the size and structure of the nobilities in the Low Countries.12 In latemedieval Flanders, for example, the nobility showed continuity and resilience to the challenges
that came with commercialisation, entailing that the economic profile of the nobility coevolved with its social composition.13 Economic change led to a growing social differentiation
within the nobility in other regions, but ultimately, social mobility was not determined by
economic factors alone. Furthermore, the different responses of noble families to economic circumstances show that reproduction strategies varied and changed over time. Noble landholders
in some regions recognised the opportunities derived from short-term leasehold, while others
invested in land reclamation or sought to diversify their income by stimulating and facilitating
rural and urban industrial activities.14 Of course, the competition between noble families
resulted in some winning and others losing, but the empirical observations refute the idea of
a general crisis of the nobility. They also give a more detailed account of the economic aspects
of the history of the nobility; still, the exploitation of land and rights by noble families and their
economic strategies set against the backdrop of broader socio-economic developments are
aspects of a field that certainly deserves more attention.
Noble Power and the State
A second strand of research relevant to the study of the late-medieval nobility concerns the
process of state formation, a topic on which a vast body of literature has emerged in the past
two decades. In the well-studied case of the Burgundian-Habsburg state, which eventually
united all the Netherlandish principalities, historians have looked beyond the state elite
proper and reassessed the (often uneasy) relationship between the state and noble and urban
elites.15 The nobility in the Low Countries played a significant role in the process of territorial expansion and administrative centralisation; but at the same time, the prince and his
expanding bureaucratic apparatus infringed upon the traditional position and privileges of
noble lords. The nobility’s political-administrative role has, predominantly, been approached
from an institutional perspective. In addition to the noble presence at the princely court, the
appointment of noblemen as state office-holders and their participation in representative
institutions, attention has been drawn to the patronage networks formed around the new
state institutions.16 Nevertheless, these studies often overlook the fact that only a minority,
albeit a significant one, of the late-medieval nobility in the Low Countries fulfilled any
formal administrative office during their lifetime.
It was both a right and a duty of noblemen to assist their lords as councillors. However,
from the outset, the dukes, counts and bishops also required the professional services of
clerks, jurists and financial experts at their courts and in their chanceries.17 Access to the
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Beyond the Crisis of the Nobility
princely court was essential for nobles if they were to exert political influence, while the
prince, in turn, was dependent on the political, financial and military support of his noble
subjects. However, personal contact between the prince and his noblemen became less
frequent over the course of the 15th century with the expansion of the Burgundian personal
union.18 The opportunities for noblemen in the Burgundian lands to become ducal councillors also became increasingly scarce. Duke Philip the Fair only appointed non-noble jurists to
the Great Council in 1504, while the Privy Council lost its last noble members in 1531.
However, 12 high noblemen were nominated for the Council of State, which was set up
by Emperor Charles V in 1531 as one of the three central administrative bodies.19 In
addition, noblemen were appointed councillors to regional courts, which had separated
themselves from the princely courts and developed into regional administrative institutions
headed by a governor or stadtholder, and assumed a more judicial character in the 16th
century. 20 It was exactly the limited group of high-ranking noble state officers who wielded
great influence at the princely court that could also act as mighty power-brokers and intermediaries
between the central and regional state institutions.
The nobility in the Low Countries, furthermore, fulfilled administrative, legal and fiscal
responsibilities as regional and local office-holders. Noblemen sought these princely offices
to strengthen their power base, but the number of noble appointees varied in time and place.
With the exception of the office of landdrost (the duke’s steward), for instance, few noblemen
in Guelders fulfilled ducal offices. The ministerial families, in contrast, were better represented among these officials in the later Middle Ages.21 In the county of Hainaut, about
80 per cent of the bailiffs, castellans and provosts were of noble birth in the 15th century.22
In general, the nobility in the Low Countries held on to their strong position as princely
officials, but since the number of offices was limited, only a small minority succeeded in
obtaining an appointment. In the Burgundian-Habsburg lands, the practice of leasing out
offices led to increased mobility among office-holders from the last quarter of the 15th century,
and apart from the competition of well-trained commoners, the need for active lobbying of
state officials to secure appointments became an impediment for noblemen who lacked access
to the right political networks in the central state institutions.23
Historians differ in opinion about the impact of state formation on the social composition of
the nobilities in the Low Countries. They agree, however, that no opposition between an old
noblesse d’épee and a new noblesse de robe existed in the Burgundian-Habsburg state institutions.
Loyal service to the prince became an important stepping stone for upward social mobility,
but the number of state officials who were ennobled by letter or by conferment of knighthood
remained fairly limited during the Burgundian-Habsburg period.24 Moreover, the ennobled
officials generally already had strong ties with established noble families; the process of
ennobling was gradual in nature. In some particular cases, the ennoblement of state officials
met with resistance against the backdrop of larger political conflicts. The Flemish Pieter
Lanchals, to give an exceptional example, who made an impressive career in state service, was
killed by the Bruges rebels in 1488 for his loyal support for Archduke Maximilian of Austria.25
There is no doubt that the integration of the Low Countries into the Burgundian-Habsburg
personal union spurred the formation of supra-regional noble networks, in particular, of families
belonging to the upper nobility. To interpret this process solely as a result of princely policy
underestimates the weight of noble family strategies. Cross-border ties between noble families
were neither new in the 15th century nor typical for the Burgundian Netherlands.26 The
opportunities for the lesser nobilities to expand their economic bases and social networks across
borders were fewer, but the continuous expansion of the personal unions also made such
endeavours worthwhile from a political perspective. It was also easier to obtain feudal properties
in different principalities belonging to the same feudal lord.27
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Regional socio-political networks of noblemen, state officials and members of the urban
ruling elites emerged in the Burgundian Netherlands over the course of the 15th century.
These networks were rarely reinforced by marriages between socially higher and lower noble
families. Intermarriage between families of noblemen of lesser standing and families of nonnoble state officials or urban elites that strengthened political-administrative networks were
not uncommon. So, social-political networks were shaped by vertical ties of patronage
between mighty lords and their clients at the regional or local level, rather than by horizontal
ties of kinship. Still, it is important to realise that not all noble families were part of these
networks. Notwithstanding the shared political and economic interests within networks,
social boundaries were not easily crossed. Labelling the political networks in the Burgundian
Netherlands, which could have a markedly noble persuasion, as forms of ‘state nobility’
overlooks their lack of social homogeneity.28 The formation of trans-regional noble
networks and the geographical mobility of nobles are themes that need closer examination,
in particular, for the eastern and southern regions of the Low Countries.29
Until the first half of the 16th century, many noblemen actively participated in the
regional Estates. These representative bodies had partly developed out of the princely courts
from the late-14th century onwards (and partly out of consultations between towns) but
achieved a more than merely consultative role as their political independence grew. Initially,
noblemen were personally summoned to deliberate with the prince and town representatives
about political matters of importance, but by the last quarter of the 15th century, the second
Estate – the nobility of knighthood (ridderschap) – was represented by a small but significant
number of leading noblemen and noble state officials. In some cases, noble magistrates were
also present at the meetings as town representatives. The political influence of the nobility in
the Estates varied from region to region, according to their own interests in the deliberations
and the relative power of the towns. In Flanders and Holland, the Estates were dominated by
the cities and towns, while the nobility had the upper hand in Zeeland and the eastern
regions.30 In all cases, being summoned to the Estates as a nobleman or member of the
ridderschap was a political privilege, which worked as a social criterion too. In the 15th and
early 16th centuries, membership of the ridderschap became restricted to noble families who
exhibited a knightly lifestyle.31
One of the principal duties of noblemen was to perform military service for their lords.
Until the late-15the century, the princes in the Low Countries relied heavily on the nobility
for the defence of their territories. Noble warriors rode to the battlefield to fight in person
and were indispensable in mobilising and financing troops.32 The battlefield was the arena
par excellence where a nobleman could show off his prowess and courage. Brave service
and valour were rewarded with knightly honour or, in exceptional cases, with promotion
to the status of banneret (baanderheer), who could carry his own square banner.33 In order to
prove their chivalric qualities, noblemen from the Low Countries also engaged in deeds of
arms far outside the borders of the land, taking part, for instance, in crusading journeys into
Livonia and elsewhere.34 However, due to changes in military practices and techniques, and
to personal preferences, the participation of the nobility in military expeditions gradually
decreased from the late-15th century onwards. Nevertheless, the high noble lords in the
Low Countries remained essential to the Habsburg prince as military commanders, as well
as for recruiting and financing mercenaries.35
The princes struggled to impose their monopoly of power on their (noble) subjects, and
feuding and private warfare remained common phenomena in the Low Countries until
the early 16th century.36 In some cases, the princes themselves were drawn into conflicts
between noble families, which would result in periods of party strife. In times of dynastic
crisis, noble networks could link up with local (urban) factions to form complex regional
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parties that strove for power. In Holland, for instance, the strife between the Hoeken
(Hooks) and Kabeljauwen (Cods) flared up regularly in 14th and 15th centuries, as they
supported rival pretenders to the comital title. Since the princely and noble families in
the Low Countries were closely related, party strife sometimes developed into supra-regional
conflicts.37 The accumulation of resources in the hands of the state may also have spurred on
the competition among noblemen in the Low Countries, as was the case in the late-medieval
German lands.38 For example, during the reign of Duchess Mary of Burgundy (1477–1482),
different competing noble cliques struggled for power at the princely court, and many of the
nobility in the southern borderlands defected to the French King Louis XI, who invaded
Burgundy, Picardy and Artois after the death of Charles the Bold in order to fortify his
claims to some of the Burgundian principalities. After Mary’s death in 1482, a number of
mighty noblemen who lost out at the princely court then sided with the Flemish cities
and towns in their revolt against her authoritarian widower Maximilian of Austria, who
claimed regency and guardianship for his infant son Philip the Fair.39 The various forms
of noble involvement in feuding and political conflicts are well known, but a comparative
synthesis of these studies is desirable.
Noblemen in an Urbanised Society
The third factor that changed the political and socio-economic landscape of the Low Countries
in the later Middle Ages was the growing importance of cities and towns. Historians have now
abandoned the idea of clear-cut distinctions between town and countryside, burghers and
noblemen, in favour of focusing on the dynamic interplay between them.40 The noble presence
in the towns of the Low Countries dates back to the 12th century, when noblemen and
ministeriales belonging to the familia of bishops who settled in Liège and Utrecht.41 From the
late-13th century, noblemen of lesser standing also moved into towns, attracted by the new
opportunities offered by urban power and trade. At least in the northern Low Countries, these
families swiftly made their way into urban ruling elites.42 In the later medieval period,
numerous noblemen alternated their rural life with stays in towns, either because they held
an urban office or because they wished to have access to urban markets and services. Some
wealthy noblemen would possess town houses in different places. The political and economic
potential of towns was also recognised by noblemen, in particular, by those who themselves
were lords of towns.
The ties between noblemen and towns were diverse in the highly urbanised coastal Low
Countries. The question, however, remains whether the interaction between noblemen and
the urban elites actually resulted in social integration. Recent studies on noble and urban
social networks suggest that social dividing lines were not easily erased; witness, for example,
the low occurrence of intermarriage. Furthermore, the number of noble and ennobled
townsmen remained limited, with the exception of the large Flemish and Brabantine cities.
In Ghent and Bruges, noblemen of different backgrounds were increasingly involved in urban
social networks, and more than half of the ennobled families in the late-medieval county of
Flanders had urban backgrounds. The composition of these noble groups were, however, too
diverse to regard them as a proper urban nobility.43 These major cities offered exceptional
chances for upward social mobility and also, paradoxically, for those who desired noble status.
The regular socio-cultural interaction between noblemen and townsmen did not result in
erosion of social boundaries, which consequently allowed each social group to maintain a
recognised place within the urban community. The princely court, in conjunction with
the urban elites, organised tournaments, while noblemen participated in urban shooting
festivities and acted as members of chambers of rhetoric.44 Thus, relations between the
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nobility and towns in the Low Countries were far from antagonistic, unlike the typical situation
in German lands, where the knighthood often defined itself in opposition to urban society.45 As
a consequence, the rise of cities and towns cannot be interpreted as a threat to the position of the
nobility in the Low Countries. Although the towns changed the political landscape and were
able to accumulate much more capital, urban interests were not necessarily opposed to those
of the nobility. Besides, the most successful townsmen, often surpassing the majority of the
nobility in wealth, still aspired to the ideal of nobility. It should nevertheless be emphasised that
further research is necessary to determine the factors that shaped the relationship between
nobles and the town, thereby taking into account the regional differences in the size of towns
and rate of urbanisation. Finally, an important aspect that deserves to be explored further is to
what extent urban culture and identity in the Low Countries was indeed defined in opposition
to noble culture, as is sometimes suggested.46
Conclusions: Towards a New Synthesis?
The picture of the nobility in the late-medieval Low Countries is richer than that of earlier
periods. This is mainly due to the availability of a number of recent regional studies, which
have the advantage of providing empirically well-supported accounts of and explanations for
the evolution of the nobility, its heterogeneous structure and the role of nobles in society.
Up until now, this research has focused on the core-regions of the Burgundian-Habsburg
Low Countries (Brabant, Flanders, Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland), while the politically less
integrated and less urbanised principalities have been somewhat overlooked. Hence, the
predominant regional approach has also led to a fragmented picture of the nobility, in which
regional particularities sometimes tend to be overvalued. It is, therefore, desirable that the
regional approach be complemented with studies providing a systematic comparison between
the evolution of the nobility in the various principalities and an analysis of trans-regional interactions between noble families.
A synthesis of the nobility in the late-medieval Low Countries requires the development of
novel methodological approaches. The research-intensive prosopograhical approach adopted in
the regional studies, for instance, is unfit for comparative research, which also has to deal with
the various working definitions of nobility derived from local noble privileges or from sources
peculiar to certain regions, entailing that comparisons between different regions are hampered
by conceptual incongruence.47 There are different ways of viewing what nobles had in
common – for example, as a kind of family resemblance – rather than assuming that they shared
an essential quality. The nobility may have not existed in the medieval Low Countries, but the
idea of nobility brought together a very diverse group of individuals under a single header. How
exactly the processes of state formation, commercialisation and urbanisation patterned the social
composition and economic profile of this privileged group remains subject to debate, but
exploring this question will certainly reveal much about late-medieval society at large.
Short Biography
Arie van Steensel is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University, specialising in the
medieval and early modern history of western Europe. He is particularly interested in the
history of the nobility in the Low Countries and the urban history of England, Italy and
the Low Countries.
Notes
*Correspondence: Utrecht University, Drift 6, 3512 BS Utrecht, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected].
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Janssens, De evolutie van de Belgische adel, 106; Zmora, ‘Princely State-Making’, 53.
Morsel, ‘Die Erfindung des Adels’, 312–375; see for an abbreviated English version: ‘Inventing a Social Category’.
Despite the rather essentialist and theoretically problematic idea of a ‘birth’ or ‘invention’ of a ‘true’ nobility, he offers
a strong criticism of the long-presumed idea of a crisis of the nobility; Morsel, ‘Crise? Quelle crise?’, 17–42.
3
Blockmans, ‘Die Niederlande vor und nach 1400’, 117–132; and see, for a general synthesis: Van Bavel, Manors and
Markets, chapters 7 and 8. Many regions of the Low Countries escaped the worst effects of the mid-14th century plague;
Blockmans, ‘The Social and Economic Effects of Plague’, 833–863.
4
Brenner, ‘Agrarian Class Structure’, 10–63; Idem, ‘The Agrarian Roots’, 213–327. See, for important contributions
on the Low Countries: Hoppenbrouwers and Van Zanden (eds.), Peasants into Farmers.
5
Bois, Crise du féodalisme, translated as Idem, The Crisis of Feudalism.
6
Thoen, Landbouwekonomie, vol. 1, 410–417, 500–503, 605–606.
7
Hoppenbrouwers, Een middeleeuwse samenleving, vol. 1, 652–660.
8
Van Bavel, Transitie en continuïteit, 648–666, 673–680.
9
Van Bavel, ‘Rural Development and Landownership’, 173–177; Idem, Manors and Markets, 86–93, 242–243; Sivéry,
Structures agraires, vol. 1, 218–229, vol. 2, 605–607.
10
Dekker, ‘The Representation of Freeholders’, 1–30.
11
Boone, ‘La terre, les hommes et les villes’, 153–173.
12
Janse, Ridderschap in Holland, 129–158; Buylaert, Eeuwen van ambitie, 36–38; Van Steensel, Edelen in Zeeland, 145–158.
13
Buylaert, ‘The Late Medieval “Crisis of the Nobility”’, 1–18. This in contrast to older views, which held that the
late-medieval Flemish nobility was driven into a crisis affecting their very existence, with only a small number of families
surviving and strengthening their position through state service; Dumolyn, ‘Nobles, Patricians and Officers’, 432–452.
14
Van Steensel, ‘Noblemen in an Urbanised Society’, 89; Kruse, ‘Philipp der Gute’, 149–164.
15
De Schepper, ‘The Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands’, 506–511. See, in general, on state formation the series
edited by W. P. Blockmans and J. P. Genet, The Origins of the Modern State in Europe, 13th to 18th Centuries, 7 vols. (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1995–1999).
16
Blockmans, ‘Patronage, Brokerage and Corruption’, 117–126; Brand, ‘Appointment Strategies’, 85–100;
Marchandisse and Kupper (eds.), A l’ombre du pouvoir.
17
Burgers, ‘De grafelijke Raad in Holland en Zeeland’, 114–145; De Hemptinne and Duvosquel (eds.), Chancelleries
princières.
18
The study of the relationship between the Burgundian dukes and the various regional nobilities is facilitated by the
database Prosopographia Burgundica (prosopographia-burgundica.org) developed under direction of Professor Werner
Paravcini. For the supra-regional nobility, see: Cools, Mannen met macht, passim.
19
Van Rompaey, De Grote Raad, 155, 162–168; Kerckhoffs-De Heij, De Grote Raad, vol. 1, 8, 23–25, 33–39, 76–79.
Also, see the comprehensive bibliographical introductions by M. Vale, G. Small and W. Paravicini to the revised editions
of Vaughan, Philip the Bold; Idem, Philip the Good; Idem, Charles the Bold.
20
Damen, De staat van dienst; Idem, ‘Linking Court und Counties’, 256–268; Ter Braake, Met recht en rekenschap;
Dumolyn, Staatsvorming en vorstelijke ambtenaren; Idem, ‘Les conseillers Flamands’, 67–85.
21
Kuys, Drostambt en schoutambt, 133–134.
22
These calculations are made by Véronique Flammang. Also see: Cullus, ‘Les officiers de justice’, 75–89; Desmaele,
Cauchies and Mariage (eds.), Les institutions publiques.
23
Janse, Ridderschap in Holland, 384–395; Van Steensel, Edelen in Zeeland, 199–201; Buylaert, Eeuwen van ambitie, 245–248.
24
In theory, the Burgundian dukes were not entitled to create nobility by letter, and they usurped the rights of the
French kings and the German emperors when they started to do this in the mid-15th century; Paravicini, ‘Soziale
Schichtung, 127–182; Schnerb, ‘Noblesse et pouvoir princier’, 11–28; Janssens, ‘De la noblesse médiévale’, 15–35; Janse,
‘Ridderslag en ridderlijkheid’, 317–335; Plomp, ‘Adelsgunsten van de Rooms-koning’, 235–250.
25
Boone, ‘La Hollande, source de capital social’, 197–223.
26
Armstrong, ‘Had the Burgundian Government a Policy’, 213–236; Paravicini, ‘Expansion et intégration’, 298–314;
Blockmans and Prevenier, The Promised Lands, 231–232; Cools, Mannen met macht, 143–147; Buylaert, ‘La noblesse et
l’unification des Pays-Bas’, 3–25.
27
Restrictions remained in some regions. For instance, in Hainaut, where foreigners had to deal with the droit d’aubaine;
Paravicini, ‘La cour, une patrie?’, 247–294.
28
Dumolyn, ‘Nobles, Patricians and Officers’, 431–452; cf. Buylaert ‘La “noblesse urbaine”’, 247–275; Van Steensel,
‘Noblemen in an Urbanised Society’, 92–94.
29
On the notion of ‘border nobility’, see: Cools, ‘Noblemen on the Borderline’, 371–382; Scheler, ‘Die Stützen der
Herrschaft’, 40–46; Soen, ‘Between Dissent and Peacemaking’, 735–758.
30
Koenigsberger, Monarchies, States Generals and Parliaments, 16–26; Blockmans, ‘La représentation de la noblesse’, 91–09;
Janse, ‘De Tweede Stand in laatmiddeleeuws Holland’, 159–176; Van Eeckenrode, Les Etats de Hainaut, 114–127; Van
Steensel, ‘Edelen, belastingheffing en politieke verhoudingen’, 163–179; Noordzij, Gelre, 200–207; Noordzij, ‘De late
middeleeuwen’, 29–52.
1
2
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Beyond the Crisis of the Nobility
281
Alma, ‘De Ommelander ridderschap’, 36–38, 57; Mooijweer, ‘“In Overissell hatt die ritterschaft grosse prominenz”’,
11–23; Van Nierop, The Nobility of Holland, 166–176.
32
Hoppenbrouwers, ‘Ridders en hun ruiters’, 327–349; Boffa, Warfare in Medieval Brabant; De Graaf, Oorlog om Holland;
Waale, De Arkelse oorlog; Vale, War and Chivalry.
33
A study of the knightly titles in the Low Countries and their regional meanings has yet to be written. For the military
role of the pairs and bannerets, see: Genicot, L’économie rurale namuroise, vol. 2, 152–159; Warlop, The Flemish Nobility, vol.
1, 156–178; Dereck, ‘La noblesse’, 596; Van Winter, Ministerialiteit en ridderschap, vol. 1, 92–93, 107; Arnould, ‘Pairs et
bannerets’, vol. 5, 21–33; Janse, Ridderschap in Holland, 83–87; Lecuppre-Desjardins, ‘La noblesse’, 151–155; Damen,
‘Heren met banieren’, 139–158. In the 15th and 16th centuries, lordly and knightly titles once again became important
means by which the prince could establish a hierarchy among the upper nobility; Cools, ‘Het markizaat Veere’, 11–26.
34
Paravicini, Die Preussenreisen; Mol, ‘Frisian Fighters and the Crusade’, 89–110; Paviot, Les ducs de Bourgogne; Caron
and Clauzel (eds.), Le banquet de faisan.
35
Gunn, Cools and Grummitt, War, State, and Society; Paviot, La politique navale; Sicking, Neptune and the Netherlands;
Willems, ‘Militaire organisatie en staatsvorming’, 261–286; Buylaert, Van Camp and Verwerft, ‘Urban Militias, Nobles
and Mercenaries’, 146–166.
36
Glaudemans, Om die wrake wille; Vrolijk, Recht door gratie.
37
Janse, ‘Hoe de eerste partijen’, 93–106; Brokken, Het ontstaan van de Hoekse en Kabeljauwse twisten; Flammang, ‘Partis
en Hainaut?’, 541–463; Alma, ‘Hekerens en Bronkhorsten in Groningen’, 18–30; Xhayet, Réseaux de pouvoir et solidarités
de parti, 217–240; Noomen, ‘De Friese vetemaatschappij’, 43–64; and the theme issue ‘Het recht in eigen hand,
bloedwraak, vete en partijstrijd in de late middeleeuwen’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 123/2 (2010).
38
Zmora, ‘Feuds For and Against Princes’, 121–141.
39
Haemers, ‘Philippe de Clèves et la Flandre’, 21–99; Haemers, For the Common Good, 103–136. See, for an earlier
noble rebellion in the duchy of Luxembourg; Wymans, ‘La rébellion des nobles’, 7–34.
40
Zotz, ‘Adel in der Stadt’, 22–50; Dutour (eds.), Les nobles et la ville, passim; Gamberini, Oltre la città, passim. A
comparative European study on this topic is much desired.
41
Marchandisse, ‘La noblesse en milieu urbain’, 60–63; Buitelaar, De Stichtse ministerialiteit, 317–325; Charruadas, ‘La
genèse de l’aristocratie urbaine’, 49–68.
42
Verkerk, Coulissen van de macht, 275; Van Kan, Sleutels tot de macht, 39–41, 51–52; Brand, Over macht en overwicht, 248–258;
Nicholas, Town and Countryside, 350–351.
43
Van Steensel, ‘Noblemen in an Urbanised Society’, 76–99; Buylaert, Eeuwen van ambitie, 276–277; Buylaert, ‘La
“noblesse urbaine”’, 268–273; Wouters, ‘De invloed van verwantschap’, 29–56.
44
Van den Neste, Tournois, joutes, pas d’armes; Damen, ‘The Town, the Duke’; Brown, ‘Urban Jousts’, 315–330; Van
Dixhoorn, ‘New Institutions and the Dynamics of Civic Culture’, 135–179; Brown, Civic Ceremony and Religion, 142–145,
150; Brown and Small, Court and Civic Society; De Roos, ‘Battles and Bottles’, 167–179. See, for the origins of the tournament in the borderlands of the Low Countries and France: Crouch, Tournament, 5–8.
45
Zotz, ‘Adel, Bürgertum und Turnier’, 484, 499; Morsel, ‘Die Erfindung des Adels’, 353–358.
46
Pleij, ‘The Function of Literature’, 3–22; Boone, ‘Élites urbaines, noblesse d’État’, vol. 3, 61–85; Stein, ‘The Urban
Network in the Low Countries’, 67.
47
Janse and Damen, ‘Adel in meervoud’, 517–540.
31
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