Politics, social memory and historiography in sixteenth-century Flanders: towards a research agenda
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of this contribution is to refl ect on recent research on historiographical culture within the county of Flanders before the Dutch Revolt.It is a Que sais-je about a fi eld of scholarship, whose scope and interpretative framework is now being reconsidered in light of the booming fi eld of 'memory studies' and the recent advancements in the study of both the theory and practice of late medieval politics 2 .In consequence, specifi c forms of pre-modern historiography are now increasingly understood as a part of a broader set of practices that allowed specifi c groups to construct and to propagate a particular social and political interpretation of the past and the present vis-à-vis the political community as a whole.Recent scholarship is increasingly focused on the intricate connections between late medieval chronicles and the memorial practices of specifi c individuals and social networks.The starting point of this line of enquiry was the age-old observation that pre-modern chronicles were usually quite ambitious in their scope.They also intended to fi xate the remembering and understanding of specifi c events for many generations to come.A clear-cut example of how chronicles could be used to infl uence the perception of both the contemporaries and future generations is provided by Der Weisskunig and Theuerdank, both commissioned by Maximilian of Austria, who ruled the Low Countries from 1482 to 1493 as regent for his ---1 The authors would like to thank Jean-Marie Cauchies, Pit Péporté, Jan Dumolyn, Robert Stein, Laura Crombie and Eric Devos. 2 For two assessments of recent scholarship in those fi elds, see G. CUBITT, History and memory, Manchester, 2007; J. WATTS, The making of polities: Europe 1300-1500, Cambridge, 2009.---7 T. REUTER, The medieval German Sonderweg?The Empire and its rulers in the High Middle Ages, in Kings and kingship in medieval Europe, ed. A. J. DUGGAN, London, 1993, p. 210.8 Henri Pirenne's changing point of view on German history, for instance, is revealing.After his imprisonment in Germany during World War I, the leading Belgian historian wrote in pejorative terms on German princes, while in the preceding years, he had lauded them.See W. PREVENIER, "Ceci n'est pas un historien."Construction and deconstruction of Henri Pirenne, in Revue belge d'Histoire Contemporaine, vol.41, 2011, pp.553-573.son and heir of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian 9 .The historiographical genre of the so-called 'books of memory' (memorieboeken) was specifi c to Flemish cities and provided them with a history.This genre had humble beginnings: it originated from the lists of aldermen, in which brief references to important events were included.In time, those lists had evolved into extensive chronicles that described the history of the urban community through the lens of the political community 10 .The recent discovery of a partially preserved chronicle in the Austrian State Archives in Vienna shows that the 'books of memory' were not only written and read in the exclusive network of families that dominated the bench of aldermen, but also among the urban middle groups.A small booklet written by one Jan de Rouck is of particular interest.De Rouck belonged to the milieu of the Ghent craft guilds and who participated in a short-lived revolt against Emperor Charles V in 1539, the successor to Burgundian rule in the Low Countries.In this booklet, he copied fragments from a chronicle left to him by his father, also named Jan, in 1477 11 .Jan the Elder had written a chronicle in the format of the 'books of memory' in which he provided -amongst other things -a report of his participation in the Ghent uprising of 1477 against the Burgundian dynasty, which had led to the restoration of the suppressed corporative privileges.The demands of the craft guilds, the subsequent revolt and its outcome were described from a markedly urban perspective, which was followed by a detailed list of newly appointed aldermen.This narrative of the 1477 revolt was particularly interesting to Jan de Rouck the Younger when the old antagonism between the Ghent craft guilds and princely government resurfaced again in 1539.While the booklet of the De Rouck family is a uniquely informative document, it clearly indicates that the conscious purpose of the 'memory books' was to endow the following generations with a 'social memory', in the sense of a specifi c interpretation of the past by a particular social group.Both the uprisings of 1477 and 1539 were part of an Flemish urban 'tradition of revolt' that stretched back to the late thirteenth century.In that sociopolitical setting, a set of cultural practices seems to have bloomed in the Flemish cities, practices that actively propagated the ideological programme of the craft guilds.A wide range of stories, songs and texts commemorated the victories and defeats of the urban craft guilds in their struggle for autonomy against the princely government.This tradition provided the urban middle groups with a way to set contemporary politics into a long context, as well as with the scripts to organise a ---9 J.-M.CAUCHIES, Philippe le Beau.Le dernier duc de Bourgogne, Turnhout, 2003; J. HAEMERS, For the Common Good.State power and urban revolts in the reign of Mary of Burgundy, Turnhout, 2009.10 See in particular A.-L. VAN BRUAENE, De Gentse memorieboeken als spiegel van stedelijk historisch bewustzijn (14 de tot 16 de eeuw), Ghent, 1998.11 The text of Jan De Rouck has been edited by J. HAEMERS, Geletterd verzet.Diplomatiek, politiek en herinneringscultuur van opstandelingen in de laatmiddeleeuwse en vroegmoderne stad (casus: Brugge en Gent), in Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, vol.176, 2010, pp.5-54.---36 A.-L. VAN BRUAENE, De Gentse memorieboeken op.cit.
Institutions: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ghent University, KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W45599665