IMC 2017: Sessions
Session 1336: Urban and Rural Elites: From Separate to Closely Entangled Worlds - The Cases of Late Medieval Flanders and Brabant
Wednesday 5 July 2017, 16.30-18.00
| Organiser: | Janna Everaert, Historisch Onderzoek naar Stedelijke Transformatieprocessen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Centrum voor Stadsgeschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Mario Damen, Capaciteitsgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit van Amsterdam |
| Paper 1336-a | Blurring Boundaries: Urban Politicians, Noblemen, and Town-Countryside Relations in Ghent at the End of the 15th and 16th Centuries (Language: English) Index terms: Genealogy and Prosopography, Social History |
| Paper 1336-b | Urban and Rural Elites and the Problem of Rural Violence in 15th-Century Upper Germany (Language: English) Index terms: Economics - Trade, Social History |
| Paper 1336-c | The Ennobled Urbanites and the Urban Nobility: Fading Social Boundaries in Late Medieval Antwerp (Language: English) Index terms: Genealogy and Prosopography, Social History |
| Abstract | Traditionally, scholars have analysed rural and urban elites as if it concerned two different worlds. Yet, recent scholarship has highlighted that the demarcation lines between the rural-oriented noblemen on the one hand and the urbanites on the other became increasingly blurred. For Flanders and Brabant, scholarly consensus holds that the urban elites were eager to obtain real estate in the countryside and some members even pursued a noble lifestyle, e.g. by obtaining seigniorial lordships. Inversely, the rural elites became increasingly involved in urban politics and depended on the urban consumption centres to display their elite status. In this session, this evolution is analysed in more detail by focussing on the encounters between urbanites and noblemen in the County of Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant as well as by comparing the Flemish and Brabantine experience with Upper Germany and other European regions (e.g. France, Holland, Italy…). |