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No infallible Dordt Church Order of 1619: George Frans Gezelle Meerburg and the church order struggle after the 1834 Secession This article tries to find an answer to the question why George F. Gezelle Meerburg (1806-1855) took an independent position in the church orderly developments of the Secession (Afscheiding) of 1834. He was pastor in the Province of Noord-Brabant and the Seceders in this province considered him as their religious and church orderly leader. A biography on Gezelle Meerburg is included to understand better his position in the church orderly developments of the Seceded Church. He was not a strong leader, a great organizer or an inspiring entrepreneur, like some of his colleagues. Still, being more a strong preacher with a not so strong physical condition, he was not shy about taking position. A proof of this is his Brabant Church Order of 1843. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Rejoice, Texandria, for Oda!" Thus begins the series of chants and readings commemorating the virgin St Oda, patron of the village that took her name—Sint-Oedenrode—in the late medieval liturgy of the town of 's-Hertogenbosch. Overt praise for the surrounding region, Texandria, extending across the northern limits of the duchy of Brabant and diocese of Liège, is a recurring theme in the liturgy inspired by the saint's legend. Yet how did Oda, of Scottish origin, become so closely associated with this remote region? And what was the significance of her liturgical veneration in 's-Hertogenbosch, to which Sint-Oedenrode was enfranchised? Exemplifying interactions between central and secondary places within a specific region, this study argues for the relevance of the historical approach to urban–rural dynamics in medieval hagiography and its related liturgy. Recognition that smaller towns and villages played important roles in regional networks prompts more focused attention to regional priorities in the legends and liturgies of local saints. That Oda's cult is attested by a diversity of extant documentary evidence—historical, hagiographic, and liturgical, including newly discovered liturgical readings—facilitates interpretation of her veneration in 's-Hertogenbosch and of the intertextual connections between her legend and those of other saints, notably Lambert, associated with the duchy and diocese. As suggested by this example, regionalism merits greater scrutiny as an integral component of civic religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jan van Boendale, the most important author writing on matters of lay morality and everyday ethics in Middle Dutch, lived in Antwerp from (before) 1312 until (maybe his death in) 1351. The article first concentrates on Boendale’s profession as a clerck, which, as it appears, has been a determining factor for his self-conception and identity together with the Latin artes dictaminis, from which he embraced the idea that the noble art of professional writing was also very usefull for the writer himself as it held promises of social promotion and prestige. To correlate this to the historical reality, we try to draw up an image of what it meant to be a clerk in the Low Countries by the end of the thirteenth century, the time of Boendale’s youth. We conclude that vernacular clerks not only were by then very numerous, but also had remarkably diversified functions and careers, reaching from the simple production of documents, to very influential positions as secretaries of cities, lords and noblemen. The requirements to access the profession were quite modest. Training in the writing of specific documents would generally have taken place on the spot, under the guidance of an experienced master in the trade. So, Boendale, not only by his writting on the subject, but also by his own properous career as a scrivener and as a literary authority on ‘how to behave’, illustrates the emancipation and self-confidence of the ‘new’ clerck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manuscript tradition of Jan van Boendale’s Brabantsche yeesten (‘Deeds of the Dukes of Brabant’) is notoriously complicated. Between 1316 and 1351 Boendale regularly updated his chronicle with descriptions of recent events. Later, these new sections were also copied to complement transcriptions of earlier versions of the chronicle. In 1444, Heinricus van den Damme completed a luxuriously decorated copy of Boendale’s Yeesten for the municipal administration of Brussels. In this manuscript, a rubric at the end of the table of contents preceding book five refers to a chapter about an unspecified ‘gathering (‘parlement’) in Mechelen’, but the text of this chapter does not appear in this copy, nor in any of the extant fifteenth-century witnesses of the Brabantsche yeesten. However, the Mechelen chapter is found in two texts that are closely connected to Brussels and Van den Damme’s manuscript: Jan van Edingen’s Livre des cronicques de Brabant (probably composed between circa 1460 and 1470) and an early modern copy of Boendale’s chronicle, made at the beginning of the seventeenth century for Gillis die Voecht, archivist of the abbey of Averbode. In this previously unknown text, an anonymous poet reports on the devastating f ire that ravaged Mechelen in 1342 and its political aftermath. This addition to the Brabantsche yeesten, which appears in none of the other known copies, demonstrates the value of (Early) Modern manuscript copies for our understanding of the transmission history of Boendale’s chronicle and medieval literature at large. It is edited as an annex to this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the observation of land property (le foncier) and, specifically, large landholdings, this research aims to take a fresh look at urbanization and urban planning in the Belgian Walloon Brabant Province. In contrast with most Belgian urban studies that tackle the issue of sprawling urbanization through small-scale parcels, fragmentation processes and individual initiatives, this investigation complements recent research on estate urbanization by examining large-scale properties and how they played a role in the city-territory’s urbanization during the second half of the 20th century. Large landholdings in Walloon Brabant are remnants of 18th century territorial dominions inherited from nobility and clergy, progressively dismantled, reorganized or maintained as result of the urbanization dynamics integral to the reproduction of modern and contemporary society. The village of Rixensart is the subject of a series of these transformations. By mapping the de Merode family’s large landholdings in the south of the commune and analyzing the allotments permit, we retrace urban transformations and the reordering of social and ecological relations through changing land structure. The palimpsest notion is used as a tool to unravel the set of actors involved in urbanization dynamics and to highlight the socio-spatial transformations and construction of recent urbanization. The profound transformations taking place in Walloon Brabant today present an opportunity to reflect on its future, and questions regarding landed estates suggest potential for tackling the city-territory’s greater systemic challenges.

In the late middle ages, the Brabantine city of Leuven was a regional production centre of sculpture that followed artistical trends being set in Brussels. The Leuven sculptors had a varied clientele and received commissions from far beyond the city walls. However, they were not organised in their own corporation and therefore did not apply a system of trademarks to allow quality control. The result was that in the archives many sculptors are known by name, but they can hardly ever be linked to a body of work. Conversely, many remaining sculptures cannot be attributed to a specific sculptor. This paper will discuss the case of two anonymous Leuven masters who were provisionally named in the 1970s and who have been assigned a body of works as their oeuvre: the Master of the Crucified Christ Figures and the Master of Christ on the Cold Stone. These notnames are filled with speculation, as the researchers that created these unknown masters made some methodological errors. Since the 1970s, research has barely progressed, and the notnames have often started to live a life of their own. This paper offers a different approach to analysing these sculptures and possibly re-grouping them, by showing that stylistic analysis and connoisseurship are only some of many tools and methodologies that can be used to research anonymous late gothic sculpture, such as technical research and cultural space contextualisation, the ultimate goal being to achieve a more nuanced and far richer image of the sculpture workshops active in Leuven around 1500, where the names or notnames of the sculptors are of lesser importance.

Most of the tales of the Burgundian Cent Nouvelles nouvelles have an identifiable origin in a European anecdote culture but have been repurposed with a Burgundian setting to fit the collection. Examining tales set in Holland and Brabant reveals that, while Holland is presented as 'other' from the male aristocratic society of the Burgundian ducal court, Brabant is treated as local, even where tales with similar themes are set in both regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's abilities to participate in capital markets are widely considered a crucial aspect of their economic opportunities. Yet female involvement in (private) capital markets has received scarce attention in studies of medieval finance. This article explores the position of women in late medieval capital markets through a study of the Low Countries. By comparing two cities with opposite economic trajectories during the fifteenth century (Antwerp and Leuven), it interrogates how different economic conditions affected gender inequality in capital markets, and how women's involvement was influenced by marital status. Quantitative analysis of the registers of aldermen – which contain economic contracts of all sorts – shows that, regardless of the city's economic conditions, women's share in the capital market was relatively modest and comparable to that in other European regions. However, the characteristics of women's participation in Antwerp's booming commercial economy differed from patterns that have been conventionally described by historiography. The article shows that as investors Antwerp women held a comparable position to men and highlights the importance of never-married women as creditors. It concludes that differing economic structures and conditions in adjacent cities affected women's position in capital markets, with important implications for interregional comparisons of women's economic opportunities across (medieval) Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study on the Brabantine uprising of 1420–1 reveals common ground between noble and urban political values, calling into question the dominant historiographical cleavage between noble and urban ideologies. In 1420, one of the most severe political conflicts in Brabantine history caused a coalition of members of the upper nobility and Leuven city councillors to remove Duke John IV from the throne and convict his councillors. Preceding these drastic events, both parties had written texts together to legitimise their political position and attract supporters. By analysing the writings of the insurgents, this article illustrates how these noblemen and urban councillors combined their political ideas in practice to create a coherent discourse that supported their claims to power. The analysis also emphasises the insurgents’ appropriation, interpretation and use of key notions, such as the ‘common good’, to criticise Duke John’s government and promote their cause. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses the issue of consent in abduction and elopement cases, aiming to contribute to a better understanding of marriage formation in the fifteenth-century duchy of Brabant. It challenges the division between abduction and elopement in current historiography. Whereas some historians believe in the high frequency of elopements as means for youngsters to freely choose their own spouse, I argue that socioeconomic interests motivated most abductions. Although some women certainly succeeded in influencing marital choices themselves, the abduction/elopement was not a frequently used method to oppose social norms and arranged marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 theammanie, 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Les terres rhénanes de la monarchie espagnole, depuis l’époque impériale, ont cette caractéristique d’avoir des frontières mouvantes, ce qui fut particulièrement le cas durant la longue Guerre de Quatre-Vingts Ans avec les Pays Bas et la Guerre de Trente Ans, bien que le chaos frontalier fût un héritage carolingien du IXe siècle. Dans cette zone, deux territoires se dégagent : Kerpen, à 20 km à l’ouest de la ville de Cologne ; Lommersum, un peu plus au sud est, dans le pays d’Outremeuse, à 20 km à l’ouest de Bonn. Kerpen, à une époque reculée, était la possession du duc de Brabant ; mais les deux villes devinrent, à la suite d’une série de vicissitudes, la propriété du duc de Bourgogne, en 1430, et par ce biais, celle de l’empereur Charles Quint. Kerpen était sur la voie reliant Bruxelles à Cologne ; Lommersum hébergeait, quant à elle, la Chambre féodale, une des sept cours féodales des terres impériales, ce qui lui conférait un poids politique et symbolique. Cet article brosse, au long des siècles, le cours historique de ces deux territoires particuliers d’Europe centrale, avec une attention particulière portée à l’époque des Habsbourg espagnols, afin de mettre en lumière le rôle politique et militaire joué en raison de leur localisation sur le Chemin de Brabançon et à proximité.

Copyright of Revue du Nord is the property of Revue du Nord and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue du Nord is the property of Revue du Nord and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the background and recruiting mechanisms of horsemen from the County of Loon who fought for the duke of Brabant at the battle of Baesweiler, 22 August 1371. It argues that socioeconomic incentives had a major role in fourteenth-century military recruitment and that the service of these men can be studied as a form of labor. The County of Loon became involved in the duke’s war effort through recruitment at different levels in which noblemen mobilized their relatives, friends and retainers. Mounted military service remained strongly associated with noble status, resulting in every man able to equip himself as a heavy cavalryman with two horses, a man-at-arms, being considered as noble to some degree. The article contextualizes the presence of these warriors within a larger spectrum of military service opportunities, and argues that chivalric ideals and military service as a form of labor are complementary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the subject of history and historiography in Hedda Gabler through a revision of the prevalent view that intended Tesman to be a caricature on the historical profession. Tesman’s research area is innovative; it foreshadows later developments in historical thinking and is therefore linked to Ibsen’s modernism.

Copyright of Revue du Nord is the property of Revue du Nord and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article investigates the subject of history and historiography in Hedda Gabler through a revision of the prevalent view that intended Tesman to be a caricature on the historical profession. Tesman's research area is innovative; it foreshadows later developments in historical thinking and is therefore linked to Ibsen's modernism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]