THE GUINES-GHENT CONNECTION

International Review of Social History, 1998

This article investigates the relationship between social mobility and status in guilds and the political situation in sixteenth-century Ghent. First, it argues that Ghent guilds showed neither a static picture of upward mobility nor a rectilinear and one-way evolution. It demonstrates that the opportunities for social promotion within the guild system were, to a great extent, determined by the successive political regimes of the city. Second, the article proves that the guild boards in the sixteenth century had neither a typically oligarchic nor a typically democratic character. Third, the investigation of the houses in which master craftsmen lived shows that guild masters should not be depicted as a monolithic social bloc, but that significant differences in status and wealth existed. The article concludes that there was no linear positive connection between the duration of a master craftsman's career and his wealth and social position.

Journal of Medieval Latin, 2021

Bergendal 16 (saec. XI), fol. 84v. The codex contains Origen's Expositio super epistolam Pauli ad Romanos in the Latin translation of Rufinus of Aquileia. The zoomorphic gymnastic initial depicts three dragons forming the letter "S" at the beginning of Book 7.

Reconstruction of the life of Ogier the dene, a Fleming and Ardenner who later became known in the north through the stories of Charlemagne, whereby two different types of Ogier came to us. Translation and revision of a previously published article.

Mario Damen & Kim Overlaet (eds.), Constructing and representing territory in late medieval and early modern Europe, 2022

This chapter examines the construction of collective historical identities in late medieval Flemish towns in the early fifteenth century. The Burgundian dukes and the Flemish elites tried to shape and ‘control’ representations of their principality, but in literary, pictorial, and historiographical sources the focus on the Flemish count gradually gave way to a focus on the largest Flemish cities. Analysing the Imago Flandriae, a Latin prophecy on the Hundred Years’ War, and the Flandria Generosa C, a Latin chronicle of Flanders, I argue that these literary sources illustrate the new influence of major Flemish towns in new regional institutions, such as the Four Members of Flanders, and on regional politics under Burgundian rule.

Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory, 1997

Reviewed by Benna Teschke The significance of the year 1000 The general crisis of the year 1000 marked the end of the Carolingian Empire, paving the way for what Marc Bloch called the 'Second Feudal Age'. More recently, it has sparked off one of the most fascinating and controversial debates in medieval history. The timing, nature, causes and long-term consequences of the 'Feudal Revolution' around the Millennium have been disputed on both sides of the Channel, by Marxists and non-Marxists alike, in the pages of Past & Present and Annales E.S.C. What exactly is at stake and why should it matter for Marxists today? Arguably, some of the most important macro-historical developments in European and world history began here. Indeed, some would contend that an understanding of the specific resolution of the conflicts in the tenth century is indispensable for an explanation of the revival of towns and trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; European technological and mercantile superiority over and against Byzantium and Islam; the Age of Discoveries; and finally the regionally specific experiences of European state-formation and the origins of capitalism-in short, the whole theme of the 'rise of the West'. Small wonder then that this apparently remote period now stands at the forefront of historical research and theoretical debate. Guy Bois' study is set within this unfolding controversy. Informed by Marxist categories, it offers a new and bold re-interpretation of the great transformation. Bois masterfully relates his micro-historical findings, based on archival work on a tiny village (Lournand) in tenth century Burgundy, to the wider social, economic, political and ideological processes which led to the disintegration of the late Carolingian world. The two decades between 980 and 1000, he argues, marked the decisive break. What he calls with Moses Finley the 'ancient system' (p. 44), based on slavery and a free peasantry, gave way to the feudal system proper, based upon serfs as tenants. This rift is visible in all spheres of life. Politically, we witness the end of Carolingian public institutions and the origins of political fragmentation based upon banal lordship headed by local castellans. Economically, we see the onset of agrarian growth, 'the birth of the market' (p. 72) and a shift from tributary towns to commercial towns. Ideologically, we observe the rise of the monastic doctrine of the Three Orders-a tripartite functional division of society into those who pray (the clergy), those who fight (the knights) and those who labour (the dependent peasantry). Such a thesis has direct implications El

New expanded version with Epilogue

1998

L'apport de l'archéologie récente à la connaissance de l'habitat mérovingien en Gaule, qui préfigure largement l'habitat médiéval postérieur, contrairement à ce que beaucoup pensaient.

Journal of Medieval History, 1983