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Against Burgundy. the Appeal of Germany in the Duchy of Guelders

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Against Burgundy. the Appeal of Germany in the Duchy of Guelders CHAPTER FIVE AGAINST BURGUNDY. THE APPEAL OF GERMANY IN THE DUCHY OF GUELDERS Aart Noordzij Between Germany, France and Burgundy In his study entitled In the shadow of Burgundy. Th e court of Guelders in the late Middle Ages, the historian Gerard Nijsten explores the dis- tinctive character of the court-culture in the duchy of Guelders, in the Lower Rhine area between Holland, Utrecht, Brabant and Cologne. Nijsten writes that the main characteristic of Guelders’ court-culture was its bridging function. It brought together the cultural areas of France and Burgundy on the one hand and of Germany on the other.1 Split by the Rhine, the duchy of Guelders was oriented towards the west, as well as towards the east.2 Indeed, the infl uence of France and Burgundy on Guelders is undeniable. Duke Adolph (1465–1471), for instance, was married to Catherine of Bourbon, he was a member of the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece, and in 1477 he died while fi ghting in the service of Mary of Burgundy.3 Th e aversion of his son, Charles of Guelders, to Habsburg was so intense, that he became a true Francophile, presenting 1 Gerard Nijsten, In the shadow of Burgundy. Th e court of Guelders in the late Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2004), 399. See also: Nijsten, ‘Hof en cultuur. Karakteristiek van een middelgroot hof aan de Nederrijn’, in Gelre, Geldern, Gelderland. Geschiedenis en cul- tuur van het hertogdom Gelre, ed. Johannes Stinner and Karl-Heinz Tekath (Geldern, 2001), 373–382. 2 In this respect, Guelders is comparable with other territories in the Lower Rhine area, especially with Cleves. For example: Gregor Hövelmann, ‘Die Anfänge der Beziehungen zwischen Kleve und den Herzögen von Burgund’, Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein 161 (1959), 232–243; Henny Grüneisen, ‘Die westlichen Reichsstände in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen dem Reich, Burgund und Frankreich bis 1473’, Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 26 (1961), 22–77; Hans Peter Hilger, ‘Kleve und Burgund’, in Land im Mittelpunkt der Mächte. Die Herzogtümer Jülich, Kleve, Berg (Cleves, 1984), 209–233; Petra Ehm, Burgund und das Reich. Spätmittelalterliche Aussenpolitik am Beispiel der Regierung Karls des Kühnen (1465–1477) (Munich, 2002), 27–97; Richard Vaughan, Philip the Good. Th e apogee of Burgundy (London 1970), 289–293. 3 Ehm, Burgund und das Reich, 35–36; Richard Vaughan, Charles the Bold. Th e last Valois duke of Burgundy (London 1973), 112–115. 112 aart noordzij himself as a proud descendant of Charlemagne and the French royal dynasty.4 At the end of his life he even tried to make the king of France, duke of Guelders.5 Nevertheless, in this paper I shall argue that the infl uence of France and Burgundy was only superfi cial. Th e cities and knights of Guelders, and most of the dukes, were strongly oriented towards the east: towards the Empire, towards Germany.6 Th is orienta- tion involved a fundamental mistrust of Burgundy. ‘Th e Empire’ and ‘Germany’ stood for liberty, freedom and self-determination, while ‘Burgundy’ and ‘France’ were associated with oppression and servi- tude. I shall argue that, to some extent, these ideas can explain the stubborn resistance of Guelders, from the end of the fi ft eenth century onwards, against integration into the Burgundian Netherlands. In the fi rst half of this paper, I shall investigate the pejorative mean- ings of the word ‘Burgundy’ in Guelders during the fi ft eenth and sixteenth centuries, and the resistance against integration into the Burgundian Netherlands. In the second half, I shall examine the iden- tifi cation with the Empire and Germany during this period. Th e focus will be mainly on two sources: fi rst, a chronicle of the duchy written by Willem van Berchen in the second half of the fi ft eenth century;7 and secondly, a history of Guelders written by Henricus Aquilius about 1560.8 Both authors, each in a completely diff erent way, connected the history of their own town or duchy with the Empire and Germany. 4 Genealogies linking Charles of Guelders with the French dynasty: Gelders Archief (GA), Hertogelijk Archief (HA), nr. 121, 122, 142; GA, HA, Aanwinsten 1948, nr. A.III.5. 5 On the relations between Charles of Egmond and France: G. Kalsbeek, De betrek- kingen tusschen Frankrijk en Gelre tijdens Karel van Egmond (Wageningen, 1932). 6 In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s several historians have argued that Guelders, and the eastern regions of the Netherlands, Belgium and France in general, used to be ‘German’, despite their political fate. Th ese historians were inspired by the so-called Westforschung (e.g. Franz Petri) or, just by a rejection of a supposedly ‘Hollando- centric’ Dutch historiographical tradition (e.g. W. Jappe Alberts). Th is paper how- ever deals not with the question of whether Guelders was, is or should be German, Dutch, Burgundian, or whatever. Th is paper deals with the appeal of the concepts of the Empire and Germany on Guelders’ political elites in the fi ft eenth and sixteenth centuries. Cf. Ad Knotter, ‘Na de Kulturraumforschung. Oude en nieuwe concepten in de grensoverschrijdende regionale geschiedenis’, Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis 118 (2005), 227–246. 7 Willem van Berchen, De nobili principatu Gelrie et eius origine, ed. L.A.J.W. Sloet van de Beele (Th e Hague, 1870); Willem van Berchen, De Gelderse kroniek van Willem van Berchen, ed. A.J. de Mooij (Arnhem, 1950). 8 Henricus Aquilius, Compendium chronici Geldrici, ed. J.M. van Winter and W. Jappe Alberts (Groningen, 1955)..
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