Deliberation in 15Th- to 16Th-Century Hainaut a Fool’S Game?

Chapter 11 Rituals of Unanimity and Balance: Deliberation in 15th- to 16th-century Hainaut A Fool’s Game?

Marie Van Eeckenrode

Social struggle is inherent to the history of politics. Nevertheless, the political dialogue in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Hainaut often appears to be extremely peaceful. When we read medieval documents on political matters, it seems at first sight as though potential problems were solved peacefully, in an atmosphere of mutual respect, while decisions at a central level were taken for the common good, for the benefit of every inhabitant of the county.1 Within the Estates of Hainaut—the political arena that will be at the centre of our at- tention here—not a single revolt took place, and nobody brutally challenged the prince’s policies. Furthermore, the registers of deliberations2 that report on the work of the assembly evoke only harmony and consensus. This situation is obviously too good to be true and seems bound to kindle a historian’s interest, but in fact until now these particular registers have been ignored by historians. Indeed, the impression of peace is due not so much to the loss of most of the assembly’s archives in 1940, or to a limited written culture that does not allow us to understand how the Estates worked; rather it results from deputies’ dis- cursive practices and their will to show an ideal picture of themselves and of their pays, surely because the purpose of the meetings was to propose a collec- tive answer to princely requests.3

* I would particularly like to thank the editors of this volume, as well as Jean-Marie Cauchies, Wim Blockmans and Nicolas Simon, for their valuable advice and support. 1 For a definition of the common good, see further in this article and also two recent collections of essays: Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin and Anne-Laure Van Bruaene, eds., De Bono Communi. The Discourse and Practice of the Common Good in the European City (c. 13th–16th), Studies in European Urban History 1100–1800 22 (Turnhout, 2010). Revue française d’histoire des idées politiques 32 Pouvoir d’un seul et bien commun (VIe–XVIe siècles) (2010). 2 On this recording practice, see Graeme Small, “Municipal Registers of Deliberations in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Cross-Channel Observations”, in Les idées passent-elles la Manche? Savoirs, représentations, pratiques (France-Angleterre, Xe–XXe siècles), ed. Jean- Philippe Genet and François-Joseph Ruggiu (Paris, 2007), pp. 37–66. 3 This situation was already highlighted by Bernard Guenée, L’Occident aux XIVe et XVe siècles. Les États (Paris, 1971), pp. 257–58. Michel Hébert, Parlementer. Assemblées représentatives

226 Van Eeckenrode

The county of Hainaut was a modest, rural principality that entered the fold of the dukes of Burgundy in 1427–37, when Philip the Good gradually seized power from his cousin Jacqueline of Bavaria, countess of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland.4 The county was located at the southern borders of the Low Coun- tries, where it was particularly vulnerable to attack by the king of France. Its representative assembly emerged in the first half of the fourteenth century and seems to have been an enlarged form of the count’s council.5 The Estates of Hainaut were composed of representatives of the nobility, the clergy and about two dozen cities; these emerged as three distinct political bodies in the eleventh to twelfth centuries, the twelfth century, and twelfth to thirteenth centuries, respectively.6 In short, compared to other regions in Europe, the county of Hainaut had quite stereotypical institutions of political representa- tion. What was less stereotypical, however, was that there is no evidence at all that political struggles took place between the Estates and the prince. Hainaut seems to have been a very peaceful region. In the following sections, I will investigate to what extent this was true, and why the “ideology of unanimity” was so dominant in this county.

1 Smoothing Out Political Discourse

The registres aux délibérations of the Estates of Hainaut,7 kept by their clerk from 1527, record the activity of the Estates and give us insight into several stra- ta of negotiations within the county assembly. The same applies to the registres aux résolutions of the City Council of Mons,8 in which the decisions of this

et échanges politiques en Europe occidentale à la fin du Moyen Âge, Romanité et modernité du droit (Paris, 2014), pp. 421–23. 4 See Jean-Marie Cauchies, La législation princière pour le comté de Hainaut. Ducs de Bourgogne et premiers Habsbourg (1427–1506) (Bruxelles, 1982), pp. lxxv–lxxviii. 5 Jean-Marie Cauchies, “Justice bicéphale et recours au prince en Hainaut à la fin du Moyen Âge”, Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis 54 (1986), pp. 113–26, at p. 115. Colette Bocage, “Les États de Hainaut (Des origines à la maison de Bourgogne)”, Standen en Landen 2 (1951), pp. 67–77. Léopold Devillers, Inventaire des archives des États de Hainaut, 3 vols. (Mons, 1882– 96), vol. 1: xvii–xxii. 6 Very few studies have been dedicated to this assembly (see above, n. 5). The only one for the Burgundian period is my PhD dissertation: Marie Van Eeckenrode, “Les États de Hainaut: ser- vir le prince, représenter le pays. Une assemblée dans les allées du pouvoir (ca. 1400–1550)” (UCLouvain, 2015, to be published by the Académie royale de Belgique). 7 Archives de l’État à Mons, Archives locales P411–P412 (only two registers preserved for 1527–70). 8 These registers were kept by the city clerk from the end of the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century. See here aém, Ville de Mons 1295–1302 (for the years 1409–1575).