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‘How one shall govern a city’: the polyphony of urban political thought in the fourteenth-century duchy of Brabant
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2019
Abstract:
This article examines late medieval urban political thought. By means of an intertextual methodology that combines the efforts of continental scholars and English literary historians, it provides new insights into the political ideas that circulated within the towns of the fourteenth-century duchy of Brabant. A qualitative analysis between different source types, that originated amongst socially diverse groups, will indicate that political ideas had a polyphonic character. Indeed, ideas were constantly reconstructed and reshaped by the social groups that used them and the context in which they were uttered. During the fourteenth century, the Brabantine citizenry was involved in an ideological battle that was fought with similar, but adaptable, weapons.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019
Footnotes
*
I would like to express my gratitude to Jelle Haemers, Valerie Vrancken, Mireille Pardon, the anonymous reviewers and the editorial board of Urban History for their indispensable advice and detailed critique. Thanks are also due to Geert Claassens for his help during the English translation of ‘How one shall govern a city’. This research was financed by the OT-project: Women and peaceful subversion in late medieval Brabant.
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