For the Common Good
State Power and Urban Revolts in the Reign of Mary of Burgundy, 1477-1482
By (author) Jelle Haemers
In 1477, the Low Countries were in chaos. On 5 January Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was killed in the battle of Nancy. His political adversaries used this fortuitous opportunity to reverse his much-hated policies. The late duke’s confidents were executed, as nobles fled from court.The French king declared war on Charles’ heir, Mary of Burgundy, and the cities rose in rebellion against the duchy. United in their opposition to the ducal court, the Estates-General instituted a new state structure which severely reduced the power of the central state. The duchess’ new husband, Maximilian of Austria, was never able to dictate war policy nor appease the discontent of the populace, because his first priority was to strengthen the power of the Habsburg dynasty. In 1482, when Mary of Burgundy died after a tragic fall from her horse, revolt again spread across the county of Flanders. In this dramatic crisis that would last for a decade, central authority was again challenged by a political alternative, the Flemish regency council. This book examines the people behind the revolt.From a murky background of conflicting loyalties, it identifies the principal allies of the Habsburg dynasty and key political adversaries of Maximilian in the Flemish cities. An in-depth analysis of their lives and their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds on the eve of the Flemish Revolt elucidates their reasons for rebelling or remaining loyal to court.By focusing on disloyal nobles at court and urban dissenters in the county of Flanders, this book goes beyond previous studies of the revolt and offers new insights into the social history of medieval politics. In the end, readers will discover whether the court, the nobility, and the urban rebels were really striving for the goal they claimed, the common good.
- By (author) Jelle Haemers
Other Titles in this Series
The Power of Space in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
The cities of Italy, Northern France and the Low Countries
Volume 30
Epitomes of Evil
Representations of Executioners in Northern France and the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages
Volume 8
Usuriers publics et banquiers du Prince
Le role economique des financiers piemontais dans les villes du duche de Brabant (XIIIe-XIVe siecle)
Volume 28
Sixteenth-century Antwerp and its Rural Surroundings
Social and Economic Changes in the Hinterland of a Commercial Metropolis (ca. 1450 - ca. 1570)
Volume 14
Subaltern City?
Alternative and Peripheral Urban Spaces in the Pre-modern Period (13th-18th Centuries)
Volume 46
Message in a Bottle
Merchants' letters, merchants' marks and conflict management in 1533-34. A source edition
Volume 57
La police de Bruxelles entre reformes et revolutions (1748-1814)
Police urbaine et modernite
Volume 29
Urban public debts, urban government and the market for annuities in Western Europe (14th-18th centuries)
Volume 3
Public Opinion and Political Contest in Late Medieval Paris
The Parisian Bourgeois and his Community, 1400-1450
Volume 60
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
Economies, Public Finances, and the Impact of Institutional Changes in Interregional Perspective
The Low Countries and Neighbouring German Territories (14th-17th centuries)
Volume 36
Les identites urbaines au Moyen Age. Regards sur les villes du Midi francais
Actes du colloque de Montpellier 8-9 decembre 2011
Volume 32
Governments of the Universitates
Urban Communities of Sicily in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Volume 21
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