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Power in the metropolis: the impact of economic and demographic growth on the Antwerp City Council (1400–1550)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2019

Janna Everaert
Janna Everaert*
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Building C – Room 5.457, Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium/Universiteit Antwerpen, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, City Campus – Room S.SJ.216, Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13, BE-2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

Current historiography endorses a narrative that the political elite of pre-industrial gateway cities became more ‘open’ in the wake of efflorescence and that their city councils became populated with merchants. Yet, according to the existing literature, Antwerp challenges this narrative, as the influx of merchants was very limited during late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries when Antwerp transformed from a medium-sized Brabantine city into the leading economic centre in western Europe. Moreover, scholars disagree on whether the economic expansion had any impact at all on the composition and profile of Antwerp's political elite. By analysing the social composition of the city council and how this evolved from the beginning of Antwerp's commercial expansion around 1400 until its apogee around 1550, I revisit the question whether Antwerp constitutes an exception to the established pattern of elite formation in gateway cities and, if so, why.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 589 - 609
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

†

This article is based on a paper I presented at the European Social Science History Conference 2016 in Valencia. I want to thank Frederik Buylaert, Frederik Peeraer, the editorial board and the three anonymous referees for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

1 For more information on Antwerp's economic expansion, see Van der Wee, H., The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gelderblom, O., Cities of Commerce: The Institutional Foundations of International Trade in the Low Countries, 1250–1650 (Princeton, 2013), 27–32Google Scholar. For an overview of Antwerp's economic importance during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, see M. Limberger, ‘Regional and interregional trading networks and commercial practices at the port of Antwerp in the 14th and 15th centuries. The testimony of merchants and skippers in court records’, http://nuevomundo.revues.org/69938, Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos [En Ligne], (2016).

2 Soly, H., ‘De groei van een metropool’, in Antwerpen. Twaalf eeuwen geschiedenis en cultuur (Antwerp, 1986), 85Google Scholar.

3 For more information on the town hall, see Beyen, M. et al. , Het stadhuis van Antwerpen: 450 jaar geschiedenis (Antwerp, 2015)Google Scholar.

4 For more information on this trend toward oligarchy, see Friedrichs, C.R., Urban Politics in Early Modern Europe (London, 2000), 19Google Scholar; or see our joint publication in this special section F. Buylaert, J. Baguet and J. Everaert, ‘Returning urban political elites to the research agenda: the case of the Southern Low Countries (c. 1350 – c. 1550)’.

5 Gateway cities were the central nodes in Europe's burgeoning commercial networks, channelling imports and exports and serving as a distribution centre to the hinterland. Hohenberg, P.M. and Lees, L. Hollen, The Making of Urban Europe 1000–1950 (Cambridge, 1985), 54Google Scholar.

6 The dichotomy between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ elites was first described by Lawrence Stone and has dominated the debate on elite formation ever since. ‘Open’ elites allow new and talented candidates to join their ranks and this process of inclusion is shaped by external influences, while ‘closed’ elites are exclusive ‘cliques’ that maintain tight control over who enters their ranks. For more information, see Stone, L., The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558–1641 (Oxford, 1965)Google Scholar; Padgett, J., ‘Open elite? Mobility, marriage, and family in Florence, 1282–1494’, Renaissance Quarterly, 63 (2010), 357–411CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Blockmans, W.P., ‘Mobiliteit in stadsbesturen 1400–1550', in de Boer, D. and Marsilie, J.W. (eds.), De Nederlanden in de late middeleeuwen (Utrecht, 1987), 236–60Google Scholar.

7 Gascon, R., Grand commerce et vie urbaine au XVIe sciècle. Lyon et ses marchands (environs 1520 – environs 1580), vol. I (Parijs, 1971), 409–13Google Scholar; Pike, R., Aristocrats and Traders. Sevillian Society in the Sixteenth Century (Ithaca, 1972), 99, 213–214Google Scholar; Cowan, A., ‘Urban elites in early modern Europe: an endagered species?’, Historical Research, 64, 154 (1991), 127CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Dumolyn, J., De Brugse opstand van 1436–1438 (Heule, 1997), 111–15Google Scholar.

9 Elias, J.E., De vroedschappen van Amsterdam, 2 vols. (Haarlem, 1903–05)Google Scholar.

10 Wouters, K., ‘Een open oligarchie? De machtsstructuur in de Antwerpse magistraat tijdens de periode 1520–1555’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis, 82 (2004), 905–34Google Scholar; Wouters, K., ‘De invloed van verwantschap op de machtsstrijd binnen de Antwerpse politieke elite’, Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis, 28 (2002), 30–51Google Scholar; An M. Kint, ‘The community of commerce: social relations in sixteenth-century Antwerp’, Columbia University Ph.D. thesis, 1996, 292; Marnef, G., Antwerp in the Age of Reformation. Underground Protestantism in a Commercial Metropolis, 1550–1577 (Baltimore and London, 1996), 17Google Scholar.

11 In fact, before 1477 the number of aldermen being replaced fluctuated wildly. Database Janna Everaert, City Government Antwerp 1394–1560, retrieved 6 Feb. 2018.

12 The term poorterij has two meanings. In juridical terms, the poorterij means all men who have citizenship rights in Antwerp. More generally, the poorterij refers to the well-to-do inhabitants of the city apart from the craftsmen. In this article, the term has the latter meaning. The ward masters, however, represented all men who had obtained citizenship rights, including the craft guilds.

13 This change in the election process does not seem to have affected the composition of the city council. Boumans, R., Het Antwerps stadsbestuur voor en tijdens de Franse overheersing: bijdrage tot de ontwikkelingsgeschiedenis van de stedelijke bestuursinstellingen in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden (Bruges, 1965), 13Google Scholar.

14 Prak, M., ‘Corporate politics in the Low Countries: guilds as institutions, 14th to 18th centuries’, in Prak, M. et al. (eds.), Craft Guilds in the Early Modern Low Countries. Work, Power, and Representation (Aldershot, 2006), 74–106Google Scholar.

15 Instead, the craftsmen were assigned a role in two councils, the so-called Monday council – as of 1435 – and the broad council. However, the former only had an advisory function and the latter did not exert real power until the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Neither of these councils played a role in the election of the city council. For more information on these councils, see Boumans, Het Antwerps stadsbestuur, 21–43; for an English overview of the different political institutions in Antwerp, see Marnef, Antwerp in the Age, 14–22.

16 Only 3 of the 162 political families had a connection to craft guild circles: the families Hoon, Schoyte and Mannaert. However, the scions of these families do not seem to have been craftsmen themselves. Database Janna Everaert, City Government Antwerp 1394–1560, retrieved 6 Feb. 2018.

17 For two recent studies that provide an inroad to the vast historiography, see Gelderblom, Cities of Commerce; Puttevils, J., Merchants and Trading in the Sixteenth Century. The Golden Age of Antwerp (London, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 As an introduction to his study on Antwerp during the Reformation, Guido Marnef also discusses the composition of the Antwerp City Council between 1550 and 1560. Marnef, Antwerp in the Age, 14–17.

19 Kint, ‘The community of commerce’, 292.

20 Wouters, ‘De invloed’, 55–6; Wouters, ‘Een open oligarchie?’, 933–4.

21 Wouters makes some tentative comparisons with the pre-1477 period, but he does not mention which sources or literature he used for this comparison. He probably employed the lists of the members of the city council compiled and published by Floris Prims. Prims, F., Geschiedenis van Antwerpen – VII: Onder de eerste Habsburgers – 1: De politische orde (Antwerp, 1938)Google Scholar. Yet, Wouters himself declares that these lists are far from complete and far from flawless. Moreover, neither Kint nor Wouters made use of the unpublished master's thesis of Tahon on the fifteenth-century city council of Antwerp. G. Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen, einde 14de–15de eeuw: samenstelling, sociaal-economische status van de schepenen’, 2 vols., Ghent University MA thesis, 1984.

22 This study ends in 1550 for several reasons. First, the period 1550–66 has already been thoroughly described by Guido Marnef. Secondly, this period witnessed the first signs of economic decline. Finally, the 1550s and 1560s witnessed rising religious tensions, and untangling the influence of this variable would require additional research. Marnef, Antwerp in the Age, 14–17; Soly, H., ‘De schepenregisters als bron voor de conjunctuurgeschiedenis van Zuid- en Noordnederlandse steden in het Ancien Régime. Een concreet voorbeeld: de Antwerpse immobiliënmarkt in de 16de eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, 87 (1974), 521–44Google Scholar.

23 The city council was renewed annually on 30 November until 1538, after which the renewal took place at Easter. Stadsarchief Antwerpen (SAA), Schepenregisters (SR), nos. 1–272; the book of aldermen, which was drawn up in the sixteenth century, was used to fill the gap in the registers of aldermen between 1480 and 1489. SAA, Privilegiekamer (PK), no. 1341. Prims, F., ‘Onze Antwerpsche wethoudersboeken’, in Antwerpiensia 1932. Losse Bijdragen tot de Antwerpsche Geschiedenis (Antwerp, 1933), 252–60Google Scholar.

24 This list and additional information on family relations, university training, date of birth and death and economic status were gathered in one database. Database Janna Everaert, City Government Antwerp 1394–1560, retrieved 6 Feb. 2018 (referred to as CGA in the tables and figures).

25 The main sources on the political elite as a social body were SAA, PK, nos. 3254–67, 3272 (L. Bisschops, ‘Genealogische Nota's’); Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen’; K. Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen. De politieke elite in Antwerpen (1520–1555). Een elite onderzoek door middel van de prosopografische methode', Vrije Universiteit Brussel MA thesis, 2001; P. De Win, ‘De adel in het hertogdom Brabant in de vijftiende eeuw (ingezonderd de periode 1430–1482)’, Ghent University MA thesis, 1979; Ridder-Symoens, H. De, ‘De universitaire vorming van de Brabantse stadsmagistraat en stadsfuctionarissen: Leuven en Antwerpen, 1430–1580’, Varia Historica Brabantica, 6–7 (1978), 26–32Google Scholar.

26 The genealogical notes on these families by L. Bisschops were very valuable in determining which individuals belonged to the same family and which did not. Thanks to this source, I was able to refine my analysis and resolve the problem of homonyms. SAA, PK, nos. 3254–67, 3272.

27 K. Overlaet, ‘Familiaal kapitaal. De familiale netwerken van testateurs in het zestiende-eeuwse Mechelen’, Antwerp University Ph.D. thesis, 2015, 227–32; Blondé, B., Buylaert, F., Dumolyn, J., Hanus, J. and Stabel, P., ‘Samenleven in de stad: sociale relaties tussen ideaal en realiteit’, in Van Bruaene, A.L., Blondé, B. and Boone, M. (eds.), Gouden Eeuwen. Stad en samenleving in de Lage Landen, ca. 1100–1600 (Ghent, 2016), 77–120Google Scholar.

28 De Win, ‘De adel’, 388.

29 All the politically active families were divided into five 30-year cohorts, depending on the first time this family was mentioned in the lists of office-holders between 1400 and 1550.

30 Nassiet, M., ‘Parenté et successions dynastiques aux 14e et 15e siècles’, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 3 (1995), 621CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Wouters, ‘De invloed’, 43; database Janna Everaert, City Government Antwerp 1394–1560, retrieved 6 Feb. 2018.

32 Wouters, ‘De invloed’, 44.

33 See Frederik Buylaert's contribution to this special section.

34 These offices yielded a very low income, which could not sustain the elite lifestyle associated with office-holders. For more information on their wages, see Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen’, vol. I, 111.

35 Ibid., 66.

36 These 26 families were new to the city council with the exception of the Schoyte family, as craftsman-alderman Aert Schoyte senior was the cousin of Jan Schoyte, who had entered the city council in 1449 as a poorter. After 1485, three sons of craftsmen-aldermen succeeded in entering the political elite as representatives of the poorterij: Aert Schoyte junior, Joos Mannaert and Joos Hoon. Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen’, vol. I, 73, vol. II, 83.

37 Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen’, vol. I, 66, vol. II, 79.

38 Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’, 177.

39 Wouters, ‘De invloed’, 50.

40 I treat a family as an established political family if at least one member of the previous generation was a member of the city council.

41 Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen’, vol. I, 70.

42 Ibid., vol. II, 82.

43 Unfortunately, there are no surviving lists of the merchant population active or living in Antwerp during the fifteenth century.

44 I especially want to thank Jeroen Puttevils for sharing his database on the 1 per cent tax. J. Puttevils, Antwerp export 154445 100 Penny third parties, unpublished database; L. Bril, ‘De handel tussen de Nederlanden en het Iberisch Schiereiland (midden XVIe eeuw). Een kwantitatieve peiling’, Ghent University MA thesis, 1962; Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’; Puttevils, Merchants and Trading.

45 Marnef, Antwerp in the Age, 17.

46 Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’, 188.

47 Ibid., 202.

48 Database Janna Everaert, City Government Antwerp 1394–1560, retrieved 6 Feb. 2018.

49 Bril, ‘De handel’, 93.

50 See n. 35.

51 Puttevils, Merchants and Trading, 138; this idea had also been suggested by Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’, 151.

52 Gelderblom, Cities of Commerce.

53 Kint, ‘The community of commerce’, 340–2.

54 In my Ph.D. dissertation, I will explore this by investigating the social topography of the political elite, the role and profile of the ward masters who could influence the election of the city council from 1477 onwards, etc.

55 In criminal and civil cases, they were assisted by a ducal official who acted as a kind of prosecutor. For more information, see Meewis, W., De vierschaar. De criminele rechtspraak in het oude Antwerpen (Kapellen, 1992)Google Scholar.

56 Jones, P., The Italian City-State: From Commune to Signoria (Oxford, 1997), 495Google Scholar.

57 D. De Ruysscher, ‘Handel en recht in de Antwerpse rechtbank (1585–1713)’, KU Leuven Ph.D. thesis, 2009; Van Steensel, A., ‘Het personeel van de laatmiddeleeuwse steden Haarlem en Leiden, 1428–1572’, Jaarboek voor Middeleeuwse geschiedenis, 9 (2006), 191–252Google Scholar.

58 The title meester could also refer to a master craftsman, but since there were no craftsmen in the Antwerp City Council except for the period 1477–85 – when they were never referred to as meester in the registers of aldermen – it is very likely that these meesters who held office had enjoyed academic training. The discussion on the relationship and overlap between the political elite of Antwerp and the nobility go beyond the scope of this article, but is covered in my Ph.D. dissertation.

59 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘De universitaire vorming’, 26–7.

60 SAA, SR, no. 49, fol. 1r; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘De universitaire vorming’, 70.

61 He probably studied medicine. SAA, SR, no. 21, fol. 456v; Tahon, ‘De schepenbank van Antwerpen’, vol. I, 97.

62 The craftsmen-aldermen of Antwerp did not show any great interest in academic training. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘De universitaire vorming’, 111. Four of the university-trained aldermen were merchants.

63 De Ridder-Symoens, H., ‘Milieu social, études universitaires et carrière des conseillers au Conseil de Brabant (1430–1600)’, in Asaert, G. (ed.), Recht en Instellingen in de Oude Nederlanden tijdens de Middeleeuwen en de Nieuwe Tijd. Liber Amicorum Jan Buntinx (Leuven, 1981), 257–88Google Scholar.

64 Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’, 176; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘De universitaire vorming’, 73; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Milieu social’, 264–7.

65 Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’, 191.

66 Heirbaut, D., ‘Who were the makers of customary law in medieval Europe?’, Tijdschrift Voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 75 (2007), 257–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 Brand, H., Over Macht En Overwicht. Stedelijke Elites in Leiden (1420–1510) (Leuven and Apeldoorn, 1996), 267–71Google Scholar; Blockmans, W.P., ‘Het wisselingsproces van de Gentse schepenen tijdens de 15de eeuw’, Handelingen van de maatschappij voor geschiedenis en oudheidkunde, 41 (1987), 94–5Google Scholar.

68 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘De universitaire vorming’.

69 Kint, ‘The community of commerce’, 101–2; Wouters, ‘Tussen verwantschap en vermogen’, 100–10. For the published lists, see Papebrochius, D., Annales Antverpienses Ab Urbe Condita Ad Annum M.DCC Collecti Ex Ipsius Civitatis Monumentis, ed. Mertens, F.H., vol. II (Antwerp, 1846), 384–94Google Scholar; Van den Branden, F.J., ‘De Spaansche Muiterij ten jare 1574’, Antwerpsch Archievenblad, 22 (1885), 217–88Google Scholar.