Edelen in Zeeland : macht, rijkdom en status in een laatmiddeleeuwse samenleving

Abstract

It has long been assumed that the position of nobility in the Low Countries weakened in the later Middle Ages. Though the narrative of a crisis of the late medieval nobility is no longer taken for granted, it still exerts influence on historiography. This book sketches the contours of the noble population in the county of Zeeland between 1400 and 1550, thereby answering the central question of how the political and socio-economic position of the noblemen in society actually evolved in a period characterised by the processes of state formation, urbanisation and commercialisation. The question is approached from two perspectives: that of the nobility as a group and that of the individual nobleman and his family. On the one hand, it is traced how changes in the political and socio-economic circumstances affected the power, wealth and status of the nobility. On the other, the strategies of the nobles to consolidate their estate by adapting to the changing political and economic field are analysed. The specific political history and social institutions of Zeeland were of great influence on the structure of the noble population, the social reproduction strategies of the nobles, and the appreciation of nobility. The late medieval nobility in Zeeland should not be understood as a strong co-operative group, but rather as a group of individuals with the same legal status but different political and socio-economic profiles. They belonged to several overlapping social networks. As such the nobility retained its stability and continuity, although the identity and lifestyle that nobles shared became less connected to chivalry and more related to loyal state service in the sixteenth century.

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