Chapter 1: the Development of European Democracy Chapter 2
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Notes Chapter 1: The Development of European Democracy 1. Robert A. Dahl, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), p.316. 2. Ibid., pp.2, 18-20,317-18. 3. See, for example, David Held, Models ofDemocracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989), pp.254-64. 4. See Laski's letter of 2 November 1919 to Russell, in Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914-1944 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968), p.Il3. 5. Dahl, Democracy, pp.2, 318-20. 6. David Held, Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), pp.32, 73, 143,227. Chapter 2: Mediaeval Flanders and the Seeds of Modern Democracy 1. There are two modem editions of Galbert's Latin narrative: H. Pirenne (ed.), Histoire du meurtre de Charles Ie BOil, comte de Flandre (1127-1128) par Galbert de Bruges (Paris: Picard, 189 I) and J. Rider, Galbertus Notarius Brugensis. De multro, traditiolle, et occisione gloriosi Karoli comitis Flandriarum (Turnhout: Brepols, 1994, Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio MediaeuaIis, LXXXI). Dutch, English and French translations also exist (with extensive introductions): Galbert of Bruges, the Murder of Charles the Good, trans. 1.B. Ross (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1984, Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching); R.c. Van Caenegem (ed.), Galbert van Brugge, grafelijk secretaris: De moord op Karel de Goede: Dagboek vall de gebeurtenissen ill dejarenlI27-1128, trans. A. Demyttenaere (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1978), and R.C. Van Caenegem (ed.), Galbertde Bruges, secrtftai're comtal: Le meurtre de Charles Ie Bon, trans. J. Gengoux (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1978). 2. See C.H. Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927) and C.N.L. Brooke, The Twelfth Century Renaissance (London/New York: Thames and Hudson, 1969). 3. See R.c. Van Caenegem, 'Galbert of Bruges on Serfdom, Prosecution of Crime and Constitutionalism', in B.S. Bachrach and D. Nicholas (eds), Law, Custom, and the Social Fabric in Medieval Europe: Essays ill HOllor of Bryce Lyoll (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University Press, 1990), pp.89-112. 4. Forthe Flemish keuren in general, see F.L. Ganshof, 'La Flandre', in F. Lot and R. Fawtier (eds), Histoire des institutionsfrall('aises au moyen age. 1: Institutions seigneuriales (Paris: PUF, 1957), pp.343-426. For the oldest extensive Flemish borough charter, see R.C. Van Caenegem, 'The Borough Charter of Saint-Omer of 1127, Granted by William Clito, Count of Flanders', in R.C. Van Caenegem, Legal History: A European Perspective (London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 1991), pp.61-70. 128 Notes 129 5. R.C. Van Caenegem, Geschiedenis van het strafrecht in Vlaanderen van de Xle tot de XIVe eeuw (Brussels: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, 1954, Verhandlingen Kon. Acad. Wetensch., Klasse der Letteren, no. 19), pp.I4-17. 6. R.c. Van Caenegem, An Historicallntroductioll to Westem Constitutional Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.15-21. 7. Pirenne, Histoire du meurtre de Charles Ie Bon, pp.138-41. See the comments by Van Caenegem in Galbert of Bruges, pp.102-7 and R.c. Van Caenegem, 'The Ghent Revolt of February 1128', in L. Milis et al. (eds), R.C. Van Caenegem, Law, History, the Low Countries and Europe (London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 1994), pp.107-12. 8. Pirenne, Histoire du meurtre de Charles Ie Bon, cc.93, 94 and 95, pp.137-41. 9. V. Fris, Histoire de Gand depuis les originesjusqu 'en 1913 (Ghent: Tavernier, 1930), pp.126-7. 10. For recent surv,eys, see D. Waley, The Italian City-Republics (London: Longman, 1978), and 1.H. Mundy, 'In Praise of Italy: the Italian Republics', Speculum 64, 1989, pp.815-34. II. P. Carson, James Van Artevelde: The Man from Ghent (Ghent: Story-Scientia, 1980). 12. See 1. Decavele (ed.), Ghent: In Defence of a Rebellious City: History, Art, Culture (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1989). For the position of Ghent in the earlier phase of the Burgundian state, see M. Boone, Gent en de Bourgondische hertogen ca. 13S4-ca. 1453: een sociaal-politieke studie van een staatsvorm ingsproces (Brussels: Paleis van der Academien, 1990, Verhand. Kon. Acad. Wetensch., Kl. Lett., Jg. 52, no. 133). 13. The most recent discussion of the republican strain, which started in the mediaeval cities of Flanders and culminated in the independent Dutch Republic, can be found in W. Blockmans, 'De tweekoppige draak. Het Gentse stadsbestuur tussen vorst en onderdanen, 14e-16e eeuw', in 1. de Zutter, L. Charles and A. Capiteyn (eds), Qui valet ingenio: Liber Amicorum J. Decavele (Ghent: Stichting Mens en Kultur, 1996), pp.27-37. The author stresses the leading role of Ghent and analyses several plans of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres for the division of the county of Flanders into three city-states, with a common monarch who would, however, depend on the recognition of his subjects and only wield limited power. The author underlines the fact that, two years before the Act of Abjuration, the city of Ghent had, on 6 August 1579, already renounced Philip II as legitimate ruler: the king was said to have rejected reasonable proposals of peace so that his sovereignty had passed to the urban magistrate. 14. B1ockmans, 'De tweekoppige draak', p.34. The author (p.32) shows the pre ponderance of Flanders and Brabant by referring to the contribution of those two principalities in the total tax yield of the Netherlands. Indeed, the distribution of the taxation, established by the Estates General at the time of Emperor Charles V, was as follows: Flanders paid 34 per cent, Brabant 29 per cent, Holland and Zeeland together between 15 and 17 per cent, Guelderland 12 per cent, and the other regions much less. IS. See J. Gilissen, Le regime representat!! avant 1790 en Belgique (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1952), and C. Van De Kieft, 'De Staten-Generaal in het Bourgondisch-Oostenrijkse Tijdvak (1464-1555)" in S.J. Fockema Andreae 130 Foundations of Democracy in the European Union (ed.), 500 Jaren Staten-Generaal in de Nederlandell (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1964), pp.I-26. 16. I am thinking of W. Prevenier, A. Zoete and W.P. Blockmans, editors of the Handelingen vall de Leden en Staten van Vlaanderen for the Belgian Royal Commission for History since 1959. 17. It is of some importance to realise how the members of the Third Estate - that is, the burgesses (comparable to some extent to the English House of Commons) - were appointed, both in the earlier stage of the' aldermen of Flanders' (scabini Flandriae) and later. Generally speaking, the aldermen of the Flemish boroughs were, in the twelfth century, appointed by the count and, in the thirteenth, coopted by the sitting aldermen; whereas the fourteenth century witnessed a democratisation by which the common people, organised in guilds, crafts and corporations, played a dominant role in the selection of the town authorities and their spokesmen who sat in the urban 'general assemblies'. Nowhere in mediaeval Europe do we find the modem-type democracy with general franchise and secret ballot. Nevertheless, the numerous assemblies and estates of the later Middle Ages show that they could, in the course of time, develop into repre sentative bodies as we know them in the modern democracies. 18. Everything was ready. in 1473, for Charles the Bold to be made king of Lotharingia (a name going back to Carolingian times) by Emperor Frederick III who, however, withdrew at the last moment. So the Burgundian Netherlands remained what they had been before: that is, a union of principalities held together by a common ruler (who was count of Flanders, Hainaut, Holland and Namur, Duke of Brabant, etc.) and by ever-expanding common institutions. The title of king, which eluded the Burgundian dukes, would have been a consummation of what was in fact their status as princes with most of the attributes of kings. 19. See the recent survey by W. Prevenier and W. Blockmans, De BOllrgondische Nederlanden (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1983). 20. Ibid., p.198. 21. Ibid. 22. R.C. Van Caenegem, 'Methods of Proof in Western Medieval Law', in Van Caenegem, Legal History, pp. 71-113; R. Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986); R.C. Van Caenegem, 'Reflexions on rational and irrational modes of proof in medieval Europe', The Legal History Review 58, 1990, pp.263-79. 23. Van Caenegem, Geschiedenis, pp.280-307. 24. Pirenne, Histoire du meurtre de Charles Ie BOil, c.55, p.87. See the comments in R.C. Van Caenegem, 'Considerations on the customary law of twelfth-century Flanders', in Van Caenegem, Law, History, the Low Countries and Europe, pp.97-106. In the following centuries the towns produced a considerable body of legislation. For some recent surveys, see J.-M. Cauchies, 'Services publics et legislation dans les villes des anciens Pays-Bas: Questions d'heuristique et de methode', in L 'initiative publique des communes en Belgique: Fondemellts historiques. Actes du lie Coli. internat. Credit communal de Belgique (1-4 September 1982) (Brussels, 1984), pp.639-88; P.Godding, 'Les ordonnances des autorites urbaines au moyen age: Leur apport a la technique It~gislative', in J.-M. Duvosquel and E. Thoen (eds), Peasants and townsmen in medieval Notes 131 Europe: Studia in honorem A. Verhulst (Ghent: Snoek Ducaju, 1995), pp.185-20 1. 25. F. Vercauteren (ed.), Actes des Comtes de Flandre, 1071-1128 (Brussels: Palais des Academies, 1938, Commission Royale d'Histoire), 79, p.178. 26. Pirenne, Histoire du meurtre de Charles Ie BOil, cc.105, 108, pp.150, 154--5. 27. R.C. Van Caenegem and L. Milis, 'Kritische uitgave van de "Grote Keure" van Filips van de Elzas, graaf van Vlaanderen, voor Gent en Brugge (1165-1177)', Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis 143, 1977, pp.207-57.