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Tables of contents from the last five years

2018 (184), 406 p.

Claude Bruneel, Thérèse de Hemptinne & Guy Vanthemsche (eds.),

Fragments de guerre – Oorlogsfragmenten 1914-1918. Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire, 184, 2018, 406 p.

• Sophie De Schaepdrijver, Neuf sources, trois visages de la Belgique pendant la Grande Guerre, p. 17-26.
  
  
• Pierre Lierneux & Jean-Louis Van Belle, Le journal de Maurice Dartevelle, sous-lieutenant au Fort d’Andoy près de Namur (8 juillet-26 août 1914), p. 27-54.
  
  Abstract. – The study concerns the publication of a war diary (1914-1918) by Maurice Dartevelle (1890-1974). As a young artillery second lieutenant he was billeted at Fort Andoy on May 30, 1914. The fort was supposed to defend the Namur stronghold. He describes his life and the atmosphere reigning between August 4 and 24, 1914, the day on which the fort had to surrender after fierce shelling and he was made prisoner. The text is preceded by an introduction summarising the author’s life and career.
  
  Pierre Lierneux (1965), PhD in History of Catholic University of Louvain, specializing in military history at the Royal Military Academy, curator of the Royal Military and of the Armed Forces Museum, now head of the scientific institute’s museum-exhibitions department. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Archeology of Belgium
  
  Jean-Louis Van Belle (1942) has a PhD in history ; he was particularly interested in the stone industry under the Old Regime. In this context, he founded in 1974 the International Glyptographic Research Center (CIRG) devoted to the study of lapidary signs. Since 1979 he has organized twenty international symposiums across Europe, devoted to the contribution of these signs to the study of the archeology of buildings. He is also the author of numerous publications on these subjects.
  
  
• Pierre-Alain Tallier, Des premiers jours de guerre dans la région de Verviers (3-8 août 1914) relatés par le soldat Gabriel Vercken… au Service de correspondance et de documentation de Joseph de Dorlodot (1915-1919). Histoire(s) et destins croisés, p. 55-101.
  
  Abstract. – In the autumn of 1916 the Belgian soldier Gabriel Vercken makes contact with Joseph de Dorlodot, head of the “Service of correspondence and documentation” based in Folkestone. A native of Verviers, he relates of having closely witnessed the events that took place in his hometown and its region during the first days of the war and proposes to establish an account. The publication of this unpublished manuscript addresses three principal concerns. Firstly, Gabriel Vercken’s text, while unfinished, provides very accurate indications with regard to the events that he came to report during the first days of the war and makes an a posteriori, but undeniable contribution to testimonies that have already been published. It not only confirms a number of elements known among specialists, but also contains new information on the psychosis of the “free shooters” and the wrongdoings committed by the 14^th German infantry brigade in the region of Verviers (Verviers, Battice, Fécher, Herve, Micheroux, Soiron et Soumagne). Secondly, it is important to point out that the archives of the “Service of correspondence and documentation” contain a huge number of other manuscripts on the events that occurred in Belgian municipalities during the first days of the war, whose volume and importance compare to Gabriel Vercken’s text. Finally, one should highlight the precise nature and the extreme diversity of activities deployed by Joseph de Dorlodot’s “Service of correspondence and documentation”, the various ramifications of which have not yet been covered at present.
  
  Pierre-Alain Tallier is acting head of the “Brussels” Department and head of the section “Contemporary Archives” at the State Archives. He is doctor in History at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and author of several publications on the history of the First World War and the archives related to this subject. He has, amongst others, led science policy’s research project dedicated to the Source Guide on the history of the First World War in Belgium: Hans Vanden Bosch, Michaël Amara & Vanessa D’Hooghe, sous la direction de / onder leiding van Pierre-Alain Tallier, Guide des sources de la Première Guerre mondiale en Belgique – Archievenoverzicht betreffende de Eerste Wereldoorlog in België, Bruxelles – Brussels, AGR, 2010, 1057 p.
  
  
• Sarah Keymeulen, De eerste oorlogsweken van een jonge vrijwilliger : het dagboek van Pierre Pirenne, 4 augustus - 18 september 1914, p. 103-132.
  
  Abstract. – Pierre Pirenne (1895-1914) was one of the four sons of historian Henri Pirenne and his wife Jenny Vanderhaeghen. He volunteered for military service at the age of nineteen and was killed after only a few months. Although (the preserved part of) his war diary covers only the first few weeks of war, it still paints a haunting picture of a young man determined to go to battle – not only against the German enemy, but also against his reputation as a fils à papa.
  
  Sarah Keymeulen completed her PhD in History at Ghent University in 2017 with a study on Henri Pirenne: The Pirenne phenomenon. The history of a reputation. Before that, she published, with Jo Tollebeek, a synthesis on the life and work of the famous historian: Henri Pirenne, Historian: A Life in Pictures (Leuven, 2011).
  
  
• Michaël Amara & Arnaud Charon, « Non, je ne suis pas fier d’être le Premier magistrat de la “Justice Militaire” » – Le Journal de guerre de Jules Wellens (1914-1918), p. 133-197.
  
  Abstract. – Jules Wellens (1853-1932) was appointed to the presidency of the Military Court – the highest court of the Belgian military justice – in 1913. One year later, the outbreak of the First World War radically changed his destiny. From the first days of the war, as he began to follow the retreat of the army, the magistrate began writing a diary, a copy of which is kept in the National Archives of Belgium. For more than three years, he described his daily life marked by the suffering of a man separated from his loved ones and his fight to improve the functioning of the military justice. In permanent struggle with the Auditor General and some of the army commanders, Wellens managed, however, to profoundly change the way Belgian military Justice worked. This makes the excerpts of this rare testimony all the more interesting, since this exceptional source highlights the unfairly forgotten fight of a courageous magistrate.
  
  Michaël Amara holds a PhD in contemporary history (Université libre de Bruxelles). Specialist in the history of the First World War, he is currently head of the “Contemporary Archives” Service at the National Archives of Belgium (State Archives).
  
  Arnaud Charon is a PhD student in contemporary History at the Belgian State Archives (National Archives of Belgium) and Université libre de Bruxelles. He specializes in the history of the deportation of the Belgian population during the First World War.
  
  
• Birger Stichelbaut & Jean Bourgeois, Historische luchtfoto’s genomen tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog : bronnen en toepassingen, p. 199-221.
  
  Jean Bourgeois (°1955, master History and Archaeology in 1978, PhD History and Archaeology in 1985, with a thesis on a diachronological study of the Comines-Warneton area in Belgium). After his PhD, he focused his research on the Metal Ages in Western Europe. Together with prof. Jacques Nenquin and pilot Jacques Semey, he launched the aerial prospection project in Flanders (Centre for Historical and Archaeological Aerial Photography, CHAL). A more recent part of this research focuses now on historical aerial photographs, especially dating from the World War I period. In 1991 he became associate professor and is now senior full professor at the Department of Archaeology (Ghent University). He is Korrespondierende Mitglied of the Deutsche Archäologische Institut (1996), Francqui Research professor (2010-2013), Member of the Academia Europaea (2011) and Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (2011).
  
  Birger Stichelbaut (°1982) has general research interests in archaeological prospection, aerial photography for archaeology, conflict archaeology and the application of geographical information systems. In 2009 he obtained his PhD in Archaeology with the dissertation ‘World War One Aerial photographs: an Archaeological Perspective’, research funded by FWO scholarship (2005-2009). He currently works as a postdoctoral researcher and coordinator at the Centre for Historical and Archaeological Aerial Photography (Department of Archaeology) carrying out a large-scale landscape analysis of World War I sites in Belgium using historical aerial photographs (1915-1918). This is a collaboration between the In Flanders Fields Museum, the Province of West-Flanders and the University of Ghent Department of Archaeology.
  
  
• Vincent Genin, Déconstruire l’image de la Belgique « germanophile » à l’Étranger (1915-1916) – Propagande et relations internationales – Quatorze lettres et notes inédites d’Eugène Beyens, Paul Hymans et Georges Lorand, p. 223-268.
  
  Abstract. – The publication of this correspondence yields a better understanding of the propaganda produced by Belgium during the First World War, in order to restore its image of a country with pro-German sensibilities before 1914. This set of fourteen letters written in 1915 and 1916 and a retrospective memorandum of 1919 shed new light on the strategies developed by official Belgium in exile (Paul Hymans, Eugène Beyens and Georges Lorand) in order to restore its international image.
  
  Vincent Genin (° 1989) has a PhD in History and is assistant at the University of Liège. He is the author of several works on the history of international relations and defended his doctoral thesis in January 2017 entitled : Un « Laboratoire belge » du droit international ? Réseaux internationaux, expériences et mémoires de guerres des juristes belges (1869-1940) (2 vol., 748 p.). Contact : V.Genin@ulg.ac.be
  
  
• Emmanuel Debruyne, Mesures de lutte contre les maladies vénériennes – Les actes du colloque tenu à Bruxelles le 8 octobre 1915 à l’invitation du Gouvernement-général allemand en Belgique, p. 269-303.
  
  Abstract. – On 8 October 1915 a conference took place in Brussels, organised by the German occupation authorities, over the fight against venereal diseases in the occupied country. This was the result of concerns dating back to 19th century, but which were exacerbated by the mass mobilisation in a long-term war. The topic of the conference affected both the occupiers and the occupied people, and women as well as men, but the organisation and participation were nevertheless monopolized by occupying and masculine power. The presentation of the measures taken and their results was inspired by a resolutely neo-regulationist view, but left room for a real debate around issues such as the disclosure requirement, the contamination offence or the use of occupied countries as a laboratory for experimentation then exportable to Germany.
  
  Emmanuel Debruyne (°1975) is professor at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) where he teaches modern and contemporary history since 2007. His research, which benefited in 2014-2015 from a fellowship at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, focuses on military occupations during the two world wars. Researcher at CEGESOMA from 1999 to 2007, he contributed to the research mission on the attitudes of the Belgian authorities regarding the persecution of the Jews. Consequently, he is one of the authors of La Belgique docile (Luc Pire, 2007). His doctoral dissertation on the Belgian intelligence networks during World War II, defended in 2006, was published under the title La guerre secrète des espions belges (Racine, 2008). Several of his publications also focus on the military occupation of World War I, whether in terms of memory, intimate relationships between occupiers and occupied women, resistance or repression, such as in Je serai fusillé demain (Racine, 2011), written with Laurence van Ypersele. His latest book, “Femmes à Boches”. Occupation du corps féminin dans la France et la Belgique de la Grande Guerre (Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2018), examines the question of sexual relations between occupying forces and occupied population during the First World War. More recently, his research led him to question the issue of bankruptcy and its impact on the individual during the 19^th century.
  
  
• Jean Houssiau & Christian Vreugde, L’instruction publique sous l’occupation durant la Première Guerre mondiale – Les procès-verbaux des conférences mensuelles de l’École no 10 à Bruxelles (1914-1917), p. 305-337.
  
  Abstract. – Minutes of the monthly conferences held in primary school nr. 10 in Brussels, kept for the period of the First World War, under German occupation, testify to the commitment of the Director Nicolas Smelten and his fellow teachers to maintain, despite the circumstances, a high quality teaching. Pedagogical issues are regularly raised, as well as those pertaining to discipline. Special attention is given to the well-being, health and leisure of the children, as the war continues and brings more and more deprivation.
  
  Jean Houssiau formerly was an archivist at the Belgian State Archives and the Brussels City Archives. He is currrently entrusted with the conception and realisation of transversal history projects of the Public education department of the City of Brussels. He mainly published on urban history in general, and on the history of urban public teaching in particular.
  
  Christian Vreugde serves as an archivist at the Brussels City Archives. He has inventoried most of the archival records of the Public teaching department and public schools of the City of Brussels. He has published on the history of teaching, among other subjects.
  
  
• Catherine Thomas, Poursuivre l’activité industrielle en zones de guerre ? – La politique du « moindre mal » adoptée par la Société anonyme des Verreries de Jumet (1915-1918), p. 339-404.
  
  Abstract. – This contribution publishes the minutes of the board of directors of the company “Verreries de Jumet” (Jumet’s Glassworks) from May 15th 1915 to October 26th 1918. It documents the economical and industrial history in Belgium during the First World War and shows that, in spite of the cliché of the demise the Belgian industry, many industrials pursued a policy “of lesser evil”. 
  
  Catherine Thomas is PhD in History, Art history and Archaeology of the Université catholique de Louvain. Her thesis focused on the top civil servants of the central governement of the Southern Netherlands during the Spanish regime (1598-1700). At present, she is curator of the Musée du Verre of Charleroi and studies the Art nouveau et Art déco stained-glass windows in the public space, and the attitude of the glass industry during the First World War.
  
  

2016 (182), 419 p.

• Mario Damen, Prelaten, edelen en steden. De samenstelling van de Staten van Brabant in de vijftiende eeuw, p. 5-274.

  
  Summary - Who were the members of the Estates of Brabant and could receive a summons letter for an assembly in the fifteenth century ? In this study, I give an overview and an analysis of the composition of this representative institution on the basis of four undated summons lists. Given the importance of these lists for the political- institutional and social history of the Duchy of Brabant, a complete critical edition of the lists is the backbone of this study. Moreover, all listed persons are identified in brief biographical notes. New lists were composed by the ducal chancery on the occasion of major political events when the presence and participation of the (most powerful) representatives of the citizens was required. A closer examination showed that these summons lists were compiled on the occasion of the inauguration of Duke Anthony of Burgundy in 1406, the inauguration of Duke John IV in 1415 and to celebrate the peace concluded between Archduke Maximilian and the rebellious cities of Brabant in August 1489. These lists, together with the Brabantine part of the convocation list for the Estates General of 1464, offer an overview of the persons who were considered by their contemporaries as the political representatives of the three Estates: the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate. This overview is then compared with the attendance at several important meetings of the Estates in the first quarter of the fifteenth century. To make the process of convocation yet more transparent, the lists are followed by a critical edition of some summons letters for the abbot of Park, Engelbert I of Nassau, lord of Breda, and the city of Antwerp.

  Mario Damen is assistant professor of medieval history at the University of Amsterdam. He is especially interested in the social, political and cultural history of the late medieval Low Countries and publishes on the nobility, tournaments, political representation, stained-glass windows and the Burgundian- Habsburg princes. Furthermore, since 2016 he directs a research programme subsidized by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) entitled Imagining a territory. Constructions and representations of late medieval Brabant.

• Sara Moens, Guibert de Gembloux's « De destructione monasterii Gemblacensis ». Literary Legacy and Issues of Authorship Against the Backdrop of the Decline of Traditional Monasticism, p. 275-301.

  
  Summary - The Benedictine Guibert of Gembloux is mostly known as the last secretary of the renowned Renish visionary Hildegard of Bingen. However, he also left behind a rich literary legacy that sheds light on the world of a traditional monk during the central Middle Ages. One of his works is De destructione monasterii Gemblacensis, preserved in MS 5535-37 of the Manuscripts Department at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. The text sheds light on Guibert’s concept of authorship, in particular of a collection of fourteen letter treatises that follow De destructione in the manuscript. By employing topoi and biblical exempla, Guibert justified his literary ambitions, placing himself within the traditional learnt discourse on authorship. In addition, De destructione offers insight into the debate on the state of traditional coenobitism during a period in which it was encountering increasing competition from other monastic groups. Guibert employed the discourse of decline of traditional monasticism partly as a literary strategy in order to justify his actions.

  Sara Moens (Ghent University) defended her Ph.D. “De horizonten van Guibertus van Gembloers (ca. 1124-1214). De wereld van een benedictijns briefschrijver in tijden van een verschuivend religieus landschap” [“The horizons of Guibert of Gembloux (c 1124-1214). The world of a Benedictine letter- writer from the decades after the ‘crisis’ of traditional coenobitism”] (supervisor J. Deploige) in April 2014. Since October 2014 she has been employed as a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders on her new research project on Cistercian nuns and the cura monialium in the southern Low Countries, 1150-1275.
  

2015 (181), 327 p.

• Jean-Louis Kupper, La notice d’inféodation du comté de Hainaut à l’Église de Liège (1071) (p. 5-31)

  The enfeoffment of the county of Hainaut to the Church of Liege (1071) is known through a number of documents, among which a notitia, the interest and the potential of which do not seem to have been fully appreciated yet. The present study aims at rehabilitating this notitia while offering a new critical edition of it.

  Jean-Louis Kupper – Corresponding member of the Institut de France. Member of the Académie royale de Belgique. Emeritus professor of the Université de Liège. Deputy secretary-treasurer of the Commission royale d’Histoire.

• Annelies Somers, De statuten van het Gentse Sint-Veerlekapittel (1225-1788) (p. 33-148)

  This contribution aims to shed light on the statutes of the chapter of Saint Pharahild in Ghent, from the Middle Ages to the end of the Ancien Régime. Notwithstanding the minor importance of this religious institution on the Flemish canonical scene, an interesting set of documents was preserved. Five subsequent versions of the internal regulations, dating from 1225 to 1788 offer a unique picture of the organization and functioning of the institution. As a whole, they reflect the evolutions and adaptations to which the chapter was submitted, in an attempt to adjust to ever changing circumstances and to overcome periods of crisis. Furthermore, in each version of the statutes, the Institutio canonicorum, the Aachen rule dating from the ninth century, is strongly embedded. This rule not only established the principles of canonical life; it shaped its features for centuries. The statutes of the chapter of Saint Pharahild thus show a great concern for the protection of tradition and the image of the chapter, as well as actual interference – often compelled by events or circumstances – to serve this purpose.

  Annelies Somers (Bruges, 1984) obtained a Master’s degree in history at Ghent University in 2006. She completed the Advanced Master in Archival Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2008. She finished a PhD on the secular clergy, funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office in collaboration with Ghent University and the Ghent State Archives. More particularly, her research concerned the church of Saint Nicolas and the chapter of Saint Pharahild in Ghent (1384-1614).

• Antoine Bonnivert, L’attitude ambivalente des évêques de Liège à l’égard des prêteurs lombards aux XIII^e et XIV^e siècles : autour d’un acte notarié de 1303 (p. 149-208)

  Over the last thirty years, a growing number of scholars have been studying the settlement and activities of Lombard traders north of the Alps. Yet, no systematic study of the relations between these moneylenders and the bishopric of Liège has been undertaken to this day. In this very wealthy and prestigious bishopric, the prince-bishops nevertheless maintained frequent and intense contacts with those financiers, whether these contacts were profitable or not. In this context, we will examine the attitude of the successive bishops towards the practice of usury. We will focus on Adolphe de Waldeck, who expelled the Lombards in 1302, and on the motives behind this significant gesture. Our starting point is an act dating from November 7, 1303. Hereby, two brothers of the Abellonei family, coming from Asti and settled in Liège, authorized their brothers who had remained in Italy to perform a whole series of financial transactions. By studying this act, we want to explore the status of the Lombard moneylenders in Liège at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries.

  Antoine Bonnivert is a Junior researcher (aspirant FRS-FNRS) at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He started his PhD research in medieval history in 2014 under the supervision of Professor Alexis Wilkin. His thesis is entitled “Crosier, Sword and Bread: Bishops and Access to Food in the Rheno-Mosan Area (13th-15th Centuries)”. It aims to study the measures undertaken by successive bishops of Liège, Utrecht, and Cologne in order to regulate the access to food of their bishopric’s population.

• Valerie Vrancken, Opstand en dialoog in laatmiddeleeuws Brabant. Vier documenten uit de Brusselse opstand tegen Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk (1488-1489) (p. 209-266)

  This contribution aims to shed new light on the Brabantine revolt of 1488-1489 against Maximilian of Austria, regent of the Burgundian Netherlands. Whereas former studies have primarily focused on the war-efforts and the military course of the conflict, this article addresses the dialogue that was ensued between the involved parties in these turbulent years. The four edited documents in attachment illustrate how Maximilian, his entourage, the deputies of the Estates General and the insurgents diverted, influenced and sometimes intentionally suppressed deliberations to increase their impact on the conflict. A thorough analysis of these texts offers explanations for the failure of the peace negotiations with the insurgents and makes it possible to study the mediating role of the deputies of the Estates General during the conflict. In addition, the article discusses the arguments that were employed to influence the acts of other parties, next to illustrating that both Maximilian’s entourage and the insurgents sometimes avoided and restrained dialogue in order to secure their own policy.

  Valerie Vrancken works as a researcher at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). Within the framework of the IAP-project “City and Society in the Low Countries” (P7/26), she is currently preparing a doctoral dissertation on political culture in late medieval Brabant and the Inauguration Charters of the Brabantine dukes in particular. She obtained a Master’s degree in history at the KU Leuven in 2012 with a dissertation on the Brussels revolt against Maximilian of Austria (1488-1489).

2014 (180), 425 p.

• Nicolas Schroeder & Alexis Wilkin, Documents de gestion inédits provenant de l’abbaye de Stavelot-Malmedy et concernant les domaines de Lantremange, Jenneret et Louveigné (x^e-xii^e siècle) (p. 5-48)

  Four estate records from the abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy and concerning the estates of Lantremange, Jenneret and Louveigné (Belgium, Province de Liège) are introduced and edited. The introduction gives information about the textual transmission of the documents. Although dating remains uncertain, a relative chronology is given, which suggests that the documents were written at different moments between the 10^th and the end of the 12^th century. The historiographic and thematic framing of the edited evidence contributes to develop a new understanding of monastic estates and economy in Lotharingia, from the Carolingian period to the high Middle Ages. The organisation of Stavelot-Malmedy’s estates, the importance of writing in their management and the role of manorial officers are also considered.

• Jean-Marie Yante, Authentification des écritures et contrôle comptable. Les clercs-jurés dans le Luxembourg aux xv^e et xvi^e siècles

  
  The office of clerc-juré (sworn clerk) first appeared in the Duchy of Luxembourg either at the end of the 14^th century or the start of the 15^th. Its role in the 16^th century, can be understood thanks to the 1529 instructions issued by the Chambre des Comptes de Bruxelles (Brussels Finance Court) to the holder of the post in the capital, to various provisions of the Arlon practice of 1532 and to the account of the mission in the Duchy led by two officers of the Finance Court in 1546. The latter raises various issues relating to the way the documents were kept as well as instances of allegiance to collectors or provost marshals. This same situation significantly damaged the credibility of the certifications put in place for the Principality’s or Offices of Justice’s receipts and expenses. The role of the clercs-jurés (sworn clerks) in the authentication of the documents, or even in the translation of the same, is also significant. In the absence of a prosopographic study of this material, we do nevertheless have access to information concerning some individuals that shows that many agents belonged to professional dynasties.

• Raymond Fagel, Het Bourgondische hof van Karel V als koning van Spanje. De hofstaat van 21 juni 1517 (p. 69-137)

  
  The court ordinance of June 21, 1517 was drafted when the court of Charles V was preparing itself for the journey to Spain. Compared with the previous ordinance of October 25, 1515 (valid as from January 1, 1516), this new document marks a significant change in de organization of the Burgundian court. The service in terms, seen by Werner Paravicini as one of the most distinguishing features of the Burgundian court, was abolished. The number of courtiers present at any given time grew considerably, while the total number of people that could call itself a member of the court - at least during a few months of the year - strongly diminished. This document, often neglected, shows how the court in Brussels was trying to adapt itself to the Spanish inheritance. It proves that a real shift took place within the character and the structure of the court, a clear break that is easily disregarded because all departments and functions retained their former designations. The new ordinance made it much more difficult for the new Burgundian court of Charles V to reflect all territories under his sovereignty. This may explain the strained relationship of the court with the Spanish aristocracy in the near future. The court ordinance of 1517 is a bureaucratic working document, written in several hands, with erasions and additions. The names of some of the functionaries are still left open, to be added later. In this first complete edition of the court ordinance of 1517, efforts have been made to identify as many names as possible of the functionaries who are mentioned in the document.

• Francis Brumont & Jean-Philippe Priotti, Identités marchandes. Merciers et hommes d’affaires dans le commerce entre les Pays-Bas et l’Espagne (1533-1556) (p. 139-360)

  
  Besides the publication of a new correspondence between Navarrian mercers frequenting the fairs of Castile and big international merchants living in the Netherlands, the authors study in the introduction to these letters many aspects of the personal and commercial links between this province and the kingdom of Castile. First, they are interested in the merchants established in Antwerp (emigrated from Bearn, Castile and the Basque country), in their interrelations, in their links with their homeland of origin as well as in their strategy of upward social mobility in their new country. The small mercers, without comparable size, turn to their protection, to their financing and to their mediation to amplify their field activity, and imbricate by this way big trade with retail trade, what entails disappointments and conflicts. The economic aspects of these exchanges are also approached: goods, routes, fairs system, credit and foreign exchange. Moreover, published letters allow a fine analysis of circumstances and of the impact of political decisions on the commercial and private life of the actors, as well as on their mental universe, and give a very alive picture of all of these elements.

2017 - © Royal historical Commission