vivre noblement

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Interdisciplinary History

"Vivre Noblement": Material Culture and Elite Identity in Late Medieval FlandersAuthor(s): Wim De Clercq, Jan Dumolyn and Jelle HaemersSource: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Summer, 2007), pp. 1-31Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139668 .

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Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xxxvIII:I (Summer, 2007), 1-3 I.

Wim De Clercq, Jan Dumolyn, and Jelle Haemers

"Vivre Noblement": Material Culture and Elite Identity in Late Medieval Flanders Material goods me- diate relationships; such is their social utility. People show and advance their status through material display and conspicuous consumption. As Grassby says, material culture sheds light on how people understood themselves. Material culture and the re- organization of cultural space become delicate tools that individuals deliberately and interactively use to develop their cultural identity and social standing. Since material culture is not an independent, stable referent for evaluating cultural history, both material culture and cultural space have to be studied as a multifaceted creation that perpetually communicates with the social environment. The social nature of material culture is evident at both the discursive and material levels. By re-defining or creating space in a dominant manner, individuals encroach on existing physical and social frameworks of culture, replacing them with new cultural categories to focus their identities.'

WimI De Clercq is an academic staff member of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient

History of Europe, University of Ghent. He is the author of "L'habitat gallo-romain en Flandre-Orientale (Belgique): Essai de caracterisation apres to

annees de fouilles dans la civitas

Menapiorum et Nerviorum (1990-2001)," Revue du Nord-Archdologie de la Picardie et du Nord de la France, 353 (2003), 161-179; co-editor, with Ingrid In't Ven, of Een lijn door het landschap: Archeologie en het vTn project 1997-1998 (Brussels, 2005).

Jan Dumolyn is a postdoctoral research fellow of the FWO-Vlaanderen (Foundation for Scientific Research of Flanders), at the Department of Medieval History, University of Ghent. He is the author of Staatsvorming en vorstelijke ambtenaren in het graafschap Vlaanderen (1419-1477) (Antwerpen, 2003); De Brugse opstand van 1436-1438 (Kortrijk, 1997).

Jelle Haemers is an academic staff member of the Department of Medieval History, University of Ghent-Federal Science Policy of Belgium (IAP VI, 32). He is the author of De Gentse opstand: De strijd tussen rivaliserende netwerken om het stedelijke kapitaal (Kortrijk, 2004); co-author, with Jan Dumolyn, of "Patterns of Urban Rebellion in Medieval Flanders, "Journal of Medieval History, XXXI (2005), 369-393.

The authors thank Marc Boone and Frederik Buylaert for their comments and Shennan Hutton for help with translation.

C 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.

I Richard Grassby, "Material Culture and Cultural History," Journal of Interdisciplinary His-

tory, XXXV (2005), 594, 595. For urban space, see Peter Arnade, Martha Howell, and Walter Simons, "Fertile Spaces: The Productivity of Urban Space in Northern Europe," Journal of In-

terdisciplinary History, XXXII (2002), 515-548 (introduction to a special issue entitled, "The

Productivity of Urban Space in Northern Europe").



2 WIM DE CLERCQ, JAN DUMOLYN, AND JELLE HAEMERS

Individuals' identities can be studied through their represen- tations-that is, written evidence about them (chronicles and archival documents) combined with the archaeological artifacts, architectural space, and art history associated with them. Cases in point are Peter Bladelin (c. 1410-1472) and William Hugonet (c. 1420-1477), two late medieval self-made men, who rose from

wealthy, though non-noble, families to become high-ranking officials at the Burgundian court, with access to the small inner circle around the Valois dukes of Burgundy. In 1448, Bladelin, having obtained a license from Duke Philip the Good, founded a large new town of 200 hectares and built a castle at Middelburg, near Bruges in the county of Flanders (Figure I). Bladelin served as an important financial councilor for the duke; after 1452, he bore the title Lord of Middelburg. Following his death, the fief was bought by the powerful William Hugonet, chancelor of Bur- gundy.

This article examines how these men interacted with their material environment in an attempt to understand their place within the culture of fifteenth-century political elites in Western Europe. This case study of Middelburg shows that "new men" in governmental administrations invested their economic capital in the construction of an elite identity. Through radical transformation of their physical environment and interaction with material culture, these two parvenus created a powerful self-image that stressed their recently gained power and authority. Thus did Bladelin and Hugonet establish material links with the highest noble ranks. They also negotiated their social position by imitating the patterns of display exhibited by the duke and the high-ranking nobles at the court of Burgundy. In this fruitful dialogue between man and material culture, material culture and architectural space were socially shaped, while at the same time material culture and architectural space socially shaped the men themselves.

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT OF FIFTEENTH-CENTURY FLAN-

DERS The fifteenth century witnessed increased social mobility among the elite groups in medieval Flanders. The centralizing dynasty of the Valois dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Good (1419- 1467) and Charles the Bold (1467-1477), tried to construct a

"modern state" by employing the services of the well-trained urban political elites of Flanders. In the later Middle Ages, class bar-



MATERIAL CULTURE AND ELITE IDENTITY 3

Fig. 1 Geographical Setting of Middelburg

North Sea

Scheldt estuary

Zwin iiii i ii

Hoke uis

* Bruges 15km

iii~i:iiiiiiiiiir~ji0 1 5kmi"iiiiiil iiiiilsiii

riers between the nobility and the roturiers (commoners) began to break down, and a new social group of officials came into promi- nence. Like other emerging states, the Burgundian state needed specialists in law, administration, and finance. In time, it developed a professionalized bureaucracy, which strengthened its grip on society.2

Eventually, the prince rewarded his loyal servants with money, power, and prestige. As they accumulated wealth, the upper layers of this group of councilors and officers sought to become a new "state nobility." The process of state formation provided them with forms of "capital"-in the broad sense of "auxil- iary means" or "resources," as defined by Bourdieu-that they could invest to enable their own social and cultural strategies. 2 Pierre Bourdieu, "Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field," Sociological Theory, XII (1994), 1-18; Walter Prevenier, "Officials in Town and Countryside in the Low Countries: Social and Professional Developments from the Fourteenth to the Six- teenth Century," Acta Historiae Neerlandicae, VII (1997), 16; Bertrand Schnerb, L'Etat bourguignon (1363-1477) (Paris, 1999), 228-261; Dumolyn, Staatsvorming en vorstelijke ambtenaren in het

graafschap Vlaanderen, 1419-1477 (Antwerp, 2003). On the concept of the "modern state" and the role of elites, see Jean-Philippe Genet (ed.), L'Etat moderne: gen se: bilans et perspectives (Paris, 1990); Wolfgang Reinhard, "Introduction: Power Elites, State Servants, Ruling Classes and the Growth of State Power," in idem (ed.), Power Elites and State Building (London, 1996), 1-18; Wim Blockmans, A History of Power in Europe: People, Markets, States (Antwerp, 1997).




Bourdieu distinguishes different types of capital. Economic capital includes money and forms of direct property; cultural capital cov- ers educational qualifications, tastes, and cultural goods; social capital comprises social relationships and networks; and symbolic capital is the acknowledgement, perception, or recognition of the other types of capital. Thus, in the service of the state, the upper echelon of officers gained money and political influence, while

they consolidated their social networks.3 Nobility was a specific form of "symbolic capital." As mani-

fested in public space, it determined how the public perceived other forms of capital. The highest-ranking officers generally pur- sued noble status, vivre noblement, not only for themselves but also for their descendants. Imitating the nobility, they tried to construct their families around a patrilineal heritage. For bourgeois upstarts aspiring to a higher social standing, elements of this symbolic capital included lordship over a village or town, the accumulation of landed property, alliances with daughters of uncontested noble families, a noble lifestyle, conspicuous consumption, magnificent urban residences, and rural castles. Mimicry of the splendor and culture of the Burgundian court-including the establishment of

religious foundations-was fundamental to this process of upward social mobility. All of these elements of noble symbolic capital involved material components. Attention to material culture can reveal how these officials deployed their capital, as the cases of Bladelin and Hugonet show.4

BLADELIN AND HUGONET: BURGHERS IN THE SERVICE OF THE DUKE

Bladelin's life is reasonably well documented. He descended from a non-noble family in Veurne-Ambacht, a rural district in the western part of the county of Flanders. His father, also named Pe- ter, became a rich burgher in the commercial gateway city of

3 Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Praxis (New York, 1977). For more information about social capital, see "Patterns of Social Capital," a special issue in two parts,Journal of Interdisciplin- ary History, XXIX (Winter and Spring, 1999), 339-782. 4 On vivre noblement, see Howard Kaminsky, "Estate, Nobility, and the Exhibition of Estate in the Later Middle Ages," Speculum, LXVIII (1993), 679-681; Jean Bartier, Lcgistes etgens de

finances au XVe si&le: les conseillers des ducs de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles le Tembraire

(Brussels, 1952-1955). Jan Dumolyn, "Patriarchaal patrimonialisme. De vrouw als object in sociale transacties in het laatmiddeleeuwse Vlaanderen: familiale strategieen en

genderposities," Verslagen van het Centrum voor Genderstudies-UGent, XII (2003), 1-28. See, in a different context, Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of In- stitutions (New York, 1902), 68-1oi.




Bruges and built a castle, called "De Leeste," near the town. Bladelin the younger began his political career in the service of the city where he was appointed councilor in I430. Between 1436 and 1440, he was treasurer of Bruges, an office awarded exclusively to rich burghers since it carried a personal financial responsibility. During the 1436 revolt of Bruges against Duke Philip the Good, Bladelin acted as the duke's agent within the city, trying to find a compromise between the central government and the urban elites, to the detriment of the middle-class rebels. After the revolt, Bladelin collected the fine that the rebellious city owed to the duke. In 1435, he married Margaret van de Vageviere, daughter of a wealthy Bruges family. In 1440, the duke rewarded Bladelin for his services by granting him the office of general receiver of all finances, one of the most important financial posts in the Burgundian state.5

In 1444, the duke appointed Bladelin treasurer and governor general of Burgundian state finance. Around 1447, he became the treasurer of the illustrious knightly Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Duke Philip the Good. Financial officers could use the large sums of money in their care for their own personal invest- ment, and Bladelin took full advantage of his opportunity. According to Chastelain, a Burgundian chronicler, Bladelin was "riche de biens defortune outre mesure" (wealthy beyond measure). In 1446, he also became master of the Burgundian court (maistre d'ostel), making him responsible for the practical organization of the pageantry at the Burgundian court. He probably also operated as an advisor for the renovations of the ducal residence in Bruges from 1446 to 1452.6

5 See, in general, Joseph Jean De Smet, "Bladelin (le chevalier Pierre)," Biographic Nationale (Brussels, 1868), II, 445-447; idem, "Le chevalier Bladelin, surnommi Leestmakere, et la ville de Middelbourg en Flandre," Bulletin de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, XXII (1866), 424-436; Greta Milis-Proost, "Bladelin, Pieter," Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, II (1967), 61-63; Fortune Koller, Au service de la Toison d'Or (les officiers) (Dijon, 1971), 60-62. The most recent and complete biography is Max Martens, Pieter Bladelin en Middelburg (Middelburg, 1994), completed by idem, "Nieuwe biografische gegevens over Pieter Bladelin, de stichter van

Middelburg," Jaarboek van de heemkundige kring Het Ambacht Maldegem, V (1999), 244-250; idem, "Aanvullingen bij de biografie van Pieter Bladelin," ibid., X (2004), 81-104; Pieter Donche, "De familie Bladelin in de Kasselrij Veurne van 1230 tot de 16de eeuw," Vlaamse Stam, XXXVI (2000), 353-392. Dumolyn, De Brugse opstand van 1436-1438 (Kortrijk-Heule, 1997), I87, 208, 224. 6 Blockmans and Prevenier, The Promised Lands: The Low Countries under Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530 (Philadelphia, 1999), 143; Joseph Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Oeuvres de Chastellain




In 1452, as a clever diplomat, he prevented the people of Bruges from joining Ghent in rebellion against the duke, although the Ghentenars took revenge by destroying his countryseat in the village of Wingene. Once again he acted as an intermediary between the ducal court and Bruges. Thanks to this position, and his financial means, he could climb the ladder of the Burgundian state in a spectacular way. He used his different official functions to op- erate as a power broker between the government and its subjects. In 1464, 1465, 1467, 1468, and 1472, for example, he was one of the ducal officers commissioned to appoint new mayors and aldermen in Bruges. By then, he had acquired a "noble" identity in the city registers of Ghent. Between 1468 and 1470, Bladelin must have been knighted. He died in April 1472. In his will, he pre- sented himself as "knight, lord of Middelburg in Flanders, councilor and master of the court of our lord the Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders," without mention of his bourgeois background or his connections with his hometown of Bruges.7

After Bladelin's death, several noblemen tried to take advantage of his lucrative heritage. To keep up their status, noblemen had to accumulate economic capital-financial and economic profits, yielded by seigniorial incomes, or rewards and gifts, granted by the empowering lord. But Bladelin's heirs did not suc- ceed in accumulating economic capital; they lost their wealth in a judicial battle over his testament. In 1476, William Hugonet, chancelor of Duke Charles the Bold, bought out the heirs for an enormous sum of money, thereby becoming the new lord of Middelburg.'

(Brussels, 1844), V, 44; Albert Van Zuylen Van Nyevelt, Episodes de la vie des dues de Bourgogne a Bruges (Bruges, 1937), 267, 271-273. 7 Haemers, De Gentse opstand (1449-1453). De strijd tussen netwerken orn het stedelijke kapitaal (Kortrijk-Heule, 2004), 301-303; Dumolyn, "Investeren in sociaal kapitaal: Netwerken en sociale transacties van Bourgondische ambtenaren," Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis, XXVIII (2002), 417-438; Blockmans, "Patronage, Brokerage and Corruption as Symptoms of

Incipient State Formation in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands," in Antoni Maczak and Elisabeth Muller-Luckner (eds.), Klientelsysteme im Europa derfrrihen Neuzeit (Munich, 1988), 117-126. City Archives of Ghent 301/48, fi I9r, October 17, 1464 (we thank Frederik Buylaert for this reference). Charles Verschelde, "Testament de Pierre Bladelin, fondateur de Middelbourg en Flandre, conseiller et maitre d'h6tel du duc de Bourgogne, tresorier de l'ordre de la Toison d'Or, 17 mars 1472," Annales de la Sociedt d'Emulation de Bruges, XXX (1879), 9-10. 8 Some of the material that follows is a summary of Haemers, "Middelburg na Pieter




Like Bladelin, Hugonet descended from a non-noble family, which participated frequently in the city politics of Macon, Bur- gundy. As an intelligent, university-trained jurist, he entered the service of Duke Philip the Good in 1455 and garnered further social recognition in 1467 through his marriage to Louise de LayS, the daughter of a noble family from the Beaujolais. He climbed further up the political hierarchy in the regime of Philip's succes- sor, Charles the Bold, who, in 1471, knighted him and appointed him to head the ducal administration as chancelor of Burgundy. At the time of his appointment, Hugonet had served Charles the Bold for only six years, but he had become a trusted friend. As chancelor, Hugonet carried out the duke's autocratic policy, serving as a chief architect of the political ideology of the central state. Charles the Bold systematically rewarded him with gifts, money, and fiefs (he became lord of Sailliant, Espasse, Liz, etc.). Hugonet's new political position required that he own property throughout the Burgundian empire. He bought houses in Mechelen, Brussels, and Bruges, becoming viscount of Ypres in 1474, and obtained the fief of Middelburg, the finest jewel in his crown, in 1476.'

Like Bladelin, Hugonet set great store by outward appear- ances. He displayed his influential position by accumulating symbolic capital and inhabiting a prestigious castle. But Hugonet's close connection with the duke and his policies also ruined his career. After Charles the Bold was killed in battle at Nancy in 1477, the Flemish cities imprisoned the officials of his autocratic regime, which had reduced the urban elites' power. Bruges occupied Hugonet's castle of Middelburg in March 1477. Considering him

responsible for the duke's policies, the burghers of Ghent exe-

Bladelin: De juridische en militaire strijd tussen vorst, stad en adel om sociale erkenning en

politieke macht (1472-1492)," Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis, CXLII

(2005), 215-265. Philippe Contamine, La noblesse au royaume de France de Philippe le Bel a Louis XII: Essai de synthese (Paris, 1997), 135; Rik Opsommer, Omme dat leengoed es thoochste dinc van der weerelt: het leenrecht in Vlaanderen in de 14de en 15de eeuw (Brussels, 1995), 345. 9 The biography of Hugonet is based on Werner Paravicini, "Zur Biographie von Guillaume Hugonet, Kanzler Herzog Karls des Kiihnen," in Festschrift fiir Hermann Heimpel (G6ttingen, 1972), II, 443-48 I-reprinted in idem, Menschen am Hof der Herzoge von Burgund: Gesammelte Aufsitz (Stuttgart, 2002), I24-I25-and on Veronique Flammang, "Compte du tutelle de Loyse de LayS, veuve du chancelier Hugonet, 1479," Bulletin de la Commission

Royale d'Histoire, 169 (2003), 51-162. Arno Vanderjagt, "Burgundian Political Ideas between Laurentius Pignon and Guillaume Hugonet," Fifteenth-Century Studies, IX (1984), 197-213.




cuted him in April 1477. Because Hugonet's political authority was based on his relationship with Charles the Bold, he could not survive-politically or physically-the dramatic death of his master. 10

Shortly after the revolt of 1477, the city of Bruges bestowed the property of Hugonet on his heirs, his widow and children. But after a new revolt in 1483, the Bruges rebels once again seized his castle and his fief. They occupied the castle to emphasize the city's power over the countryside. Collaboration with the rebels earned John De Baenst, an ambitious noble and one of Bladelin's former heirs, the right to live in the castle and enjoy its prestige. In the late 1480s, the castle of Middelburg became a pawn in the war between the rebels and the new count of Flanders, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, husband of Mary of Burgundy, Charles' heir. Maximilian was imprisoned in Bruges in 1488. Later that year, Bruges captured and partially destroyed the castle. Only after the civil war ended in 1492 could William Hugonet II take possession of it and, under the auspices of the Habsburg dynasty, restore it. For almost a century, descendants of this "noblesse de robe" family inhabited the fief of Middelburg."

The castle was the crowning achievement of both Bladelin and Hugonet, a public statement proclaiming their standing, their power, and their close relationship with the upper class. The several privileges that the dukes awarded to Bladelin and Hugonet to enhance the prestige of their official rank also increased the power of the Burgundian state. How exactly did Bladelin and Hugonet employ their power to construct their elite identities?

FOUNDING A NEW TOWN Like other high-ranking officers, Bladelin invested much of the money that he had gained from

Io For the revolt of 1477, see Blockmans (ed.), 1477: Le privilege gendral et les privilhges regionaux de Marie de Bourgogne pour les Pays-Bas (Kortrijk-Heule, 1985); Frederik Hugenholtz, "The 1477 Crisis in the Burgundian Duke's Dominions," in John Bromley and Ernst Kossmann (eds.), Britain and the Netherlands (Groningen, 1964), 33-46; Helmut

Koenigsberger, Monarchies, States Generals and Parliaments: The Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (New York, 2001), 42-72. For revolts in general, see Dumolyn and Haemers, "Patterns of Urban Rebellion in Medieval Flanders," Journal of Medieval History, XXXI (2005), 363-393. Marc Boone, "La justice en spectacle: La justice urbaine en Flandre et la crise du pouvoir 'bourguignon' (1477-1488)," Revue Historique, CXXV (2003), 43-65.

I Blockmans, "Autocratie ou polyarchie? La lutte pour le pouvoir politique en Flandre de 1482 I1492, d'apres des documents inedits," Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, CXL

(I974), 257-368.




serving the state in landed property. In 1433, he began buying land in Heile parish and elsewhere. That same year, his brother-in-law, Colard le Fevre, bought the Hof van Middelburg from the abbey of Middelburg in Zeeland. In 1440, Bladelin bought this fief from Le Fevre and united it with other fiefs, such as the Brieven van Aartrijke and the Paddepoele in Maldegem. For ten years, Blade- lin accumulated different parcels with the purpose of uniting them. In 1444, the duke assembled this complex into a single property called the Hof van Middelburg in Vlaanderen, giving it to Bladelin as a fief and manor. It was ducal policy to grant important fiefs to chief officers to assist them in their efforts to achieve noble status.12

Bladelin possessed several other seigneuries: He was lord of Poelvoorde, Cappelhout, Poedelberch, Ten Paercke, Scaecx, Ter Heule, Gorinchem, and Vijve, all of them relatively small Flemish fiefs. He tried to accomplish a similar accumulation and concen- tration of land in the vicinity of Courtrai and on the isle of Cad- zand. This attempt to buy divided parcels and unite them into a single feudal possession was typical of successful, late medieval officers in Flanders. Village lordship augmented both (noble) symbolic capital and personal authority.'"

After 1448, Bladelin constructed the new town of Middel- burg and the castle next to it. Bladelin's urban planners laid out the new town in a symmetrical, rectangular plan divided by a regular grid of streets. The plan divided the town into six main plots, in which living areas, commercial workshops, and religious and administrative buildings were carefully situated (Figure 2). The street grid remains intact to this day, the modern plots similar to those

12 The small rural estate, hof van Middelburg, which was established in 1280, located in the

parish of Heile, and owned by the abbey of Middelburg-in-Zeeland (Holland), later became the site of the new town. Bladelin kept the name Middelburg but added the suffix "-in- Flanders" to distinguish it from another Middelburg. G. Claeys, Het hof Bladelin te

Bru•gge (Bruges, 1988), I5-16. Dumolyn, "Pouvoir d'Etat et enrichissement personnel: investisse- ments et strategies d"accumulation mis en oeuvre par les officiers des ducs de Bourgogne en Flandre," Le Moyen Age, CXI (forthcoming). 13 Verschelde, Geschiedenis van Middelburg in Vlaenderen (Bruges, 1867), II, 32, 35; Martens, "Pieter Bladelin, heer van Poelvoorde, Cappelhout, Poedelberch, Ten Paercke, Scaecx, Ter Heule en Gorinchem, burggraaf van Vijve," Jaarboek van de heemkundige kring Het Ambacht

Maldegem, X (2oo4), 49-79; Opsommer, "De Wetachtige Kamer van Vlaanderen en de

ondergeschikte leenhove circa 15oo: Enkele opmerkingen omtrent de Vlaamse feodale piramide," in B. Jacobs and P. Nave (eds.), Hoven en banken in Noord en Zuid (Assen, 1994), 160.



IO WIM DE CLERCQ, JAN DUMOLYN, AND JELLE HAEMERS

Fig. 2 The New Town of Middelburg (Drawing Based on the Com- bined Evidence from Excavations and the Van Deventer Map, c. 1550)

Water

Buildings

Religiuous or official buildings

Streets and squares

D Green areas

Watchtowers

SCity mill

+ Church and other religious buildings

7

indicated on Van Deventer's I550 map. Although planners and surveyors of new towns generally favored symmetry and a rectangular site, the layout of Middelburg's street grid had a striking axiality; the main street of the town ran directly to the entrance of the castle domain. The same road continued beyond the popu- lated area toward Bruges in one direction and Aardenburg in the



MATERIAL CULTURE AND ELITE IDENTITY 1 II

other, thus connecting the castle-the dominant centre of the private space-with the central areas inside (marketplace, harbor, and church) and the public space outside the town. Presumably, the city planners took optimal advantage of a pre-existing (Roman?) road connecting Bruges and Aardenburg as a central axis in their design. This axiality emphasized the special position of the castle and its owner in the physical and mental conceptualization of the town. 14

The urban planners used significant spatial elements, like a moat, a wall, and town gates to distinguish the new town from the countryside and illustrate its distinct prestige. They separated the new power center from the countryside, which did not possess privileges as did the young town. A moat completely surrounded the city, and later (1466), with the permission of the duke, the lord added gates and a wall. At the southwestern side of the town, the city moat was connected with the moats of the castle. The large waterworks that surrounded the castle consisted of two large rect-

angular moats, separated from each other by an earthen bank, which set the castle in a wide watery landscape. A bridge spanned the 25-meter-wide moat between the castle and the town. The

city hall that Bladelin constructed was yet another symbol of

Middelburg's status, independent of the surrounding area. It was, for all intents and purposes, a new city, ruled by the inhabitant of the castle.15

Both castellans had to develop a strategy to keep their town economically viable. This micro-region had no need for another major centre of production or commerce; it already had such im-

portant economic and strategic cities as Bruges, Damme, Sluis, and

Aardenburg. In 1465, Bladelin obtained the duke's permission to

organize an annual fair in his town. He also ordered the digging of a small canal to connect Middelburg to the river Lieve, an important economic vein connecting Ghent with the ports around the Zwin, and thus to Damme, Bruges, and the sea. Bladelin and later

Hugonet selected certain crafts to be the economic base for the

city. Bladelin attracted coppersmiths from Dinant-recently sub-

14 Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture (New York, 2002), 126. These later new towns were inspired by the symmetry of Greek and Roman models of city planning. 15 Verschelde, Geschiedenis van Middelburg, 34. In 1458, Bladelin received the duke's permission to establish a mayor and seven aldermen in Middelburg. See Louis Gilliodts-Van Severen, Couturme du Franc de Bruges (Bruges, 1880), III, 209-212.



12 j WIM DE CLERCQ, JAN DUMOLYN, AND JELLE HAEMERS

jugated by the duke-where metal working was a specialty, and weavers of high-quality tapestry and other workmen to move inside the city walls. These high-end crafts made the city economically less vulnerable to agricultural crises; the families of craftsmen remained active in the city for the next 120 years.16

Specialized craft production also implied access to particular resources as well as to markets. Licensing the installation of crafts in the new town was crucial to the creation and use of elite identity in elite networks, since skilled artisanship was considered as much a political activity as an economic or artistic one. For in- stance, the ducal family ordered tapestries from local weavers during a two-week stay at Middelburg Castle. In 1472, presumably for services that Bladelin had rendered him during his exile, the English King Edward IV granted Middelburg lucrative trade privileges, such as the wool staple of northern England and the right to sell copper within a wide area. In short, the economic incentives improved the status of the new town. Towns were not only political entities; they were also nexuses of economic markets.17

Bladelin did not create this late medieval town for economic reasons. He constructed it to express his dominance over the area and to justify his noble aspirations. Historians have noted that the founding of medieval cities was much rarer in the late Middle Ages than in earlier periods, especially in northwestern Europe. Cauchies, who compared the investments of Bladelin and Jean de Lannoy, another high-ranking Burgundian nobleman, argues that a quest for glory and eternity, along with rivalry within his own social class, drove Bladelin to found the town. Bladelin's aspirations to noble status seem to have motivated him to possess

16 De Smet, "Notice sur Middelbourg en Flandre," Messager des sciences historiques, IV (1836), 332-348; Verschelde, Geschiedenis van Middelburg, 50. For the economic geography of the county of Flanders, see Peter Stabel, Dwarfs among Giants: The Flemish Urban Network in the Late Middle Ages (Louvain, 1997). Flammang, "Compte," 107-108; J. Buge, "De lDinantsche

Koperslagers en hun verblijf te Middelburg-in-Vlaanderen," Kunst: Tijdschrift voor Kunst en letteren, VIII (1904), 77-81; Raymond Van Uytven, "De Veille Montagne en het

galmeimonopolie van de Schetsen," Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis, LXXXIV (200oo), 191-203; Alexandre Pinchart, "La fabrication de tapisserie de haute-lisse 'a Middelbourg en Flandre," Annales de la Societr d'Emulation de Bruges, XXXII (1881-1882), 388. 17 Peter Peregrine, "Some Political Aspects of Craft Specialization," World Archaeology, XXIII (I99i), 8; P. Wason The Archeology of Rank: New Studies in Archaeology (New York, 1994), o09; Martens, "Voornaam bezoek te Middelburg. De kermisweek van 1470," Heemkundige Bijdragen uit het Meetjesland, VII (1993), 97-10o4; Livia Visser-Fuchs, "Edward IV's Grants of Privileges to People and Places in the Low Countries, 1472-1478," Publications du Centre Europdeen d'Eitudes Bourguignonnes (XIV-XVIe s.), XLIV (2004), 157.




Middleburg and its castle as icons of feudal lordship. Although economic success was a sine qua non for Middelburg's future via- bility, Bladelin-in contrast to most other nobles, who mostly invested in landed property-seems to have created the town as an arena to project his social and political ambitions and to display his new identity as a nobleman.18

CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL ASPIRATIONS Both Bladelin and Hugonet were wealthy enough to initiate cultural, religious, and charitable projects that enhanced their social standing. Their power and social status also allowed them to invest in the cultural and spiritual capital that were essential to "vivre noblement." Hugonet's enormous collections of books and tapestries was a sign of his intellectual (and luxurious) life style. Bladelin was famous for the triptych that he commissioned, one of the masterpieces of the Flemish Primitives. His portrait (now in Berlin) was painted by Rogier van der Weyden at some point between 1456 and 1461. Art historians suspect that in 1470, Hugonet likewise commissioned a portrait-this one by Hugo van der Goes-that turned out to be a masterpiece (also in Berlin). The two masterpieces are exceptional because their owners occupy the middle, rather than one of the wings, of the canvas, next to a nativity scene, with a castle and town in the background. Bladelin and his wife appear on the left panel of the triptych, which also features shops selling copper. This painting contains references to all of the secular and religious underpinnings of the idealized feudal lordship to which Bladelin aspired: the production of religious art, the castle, the town, the close connection with a powerful feudal overlord, and commercial prosperity. The triptych served Bladelin as a mode of self-representation. '

18 Many medieval cities were creations of local lords, but most of them were established in an earlier period. See Joseph Morsel, L'aristocratie mndievale: La domination sociale en Occident

(Ve-XXVe sidcle) (Paris, 2004), 225. New towns in the late medieval period are rare in North- western Europe. According to Rutte, status, ideology, strategy, politics, and economics were the prevailing motives for founding new towns in the late medieval Low Countries (Reinout Rutte, "Falen of slagen: Motieven bij laat-Middeleeuwse stadsstichtingen," Historisch- Geogrqfisch Tijdschrift, XVIII [2002], I-I I). Jean-Marie Cauchies, "Deux grands commis bitisseurs de villes dans les Pays-Bas Bourguignons: Jean de Lannoy et Pierre Bladelin (vers 1450/60)," in "De Jacques Coeur a Renault." Gestionnaires et Organisations. Collection Histoire, Gestion, Organisations (Toulouse, 1995), 58. 19 Pinchart, "La fabrication," 388; Flammang, "Compte," 61-71; Anke and Werner Paravicini, "L'arsenal intellectuel d'un homme de pouvoir: Les livres de Guillaume Hugonet, chancelier de Bourgogne," in Dominique Boutet and Jacques Verger (eds.), Penser le pouvoir




To establish his religious credentials, Bladelin built a church dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul in the heart of the town between 1452 and 1460. He patronized the church himself, but his foundation held much more significance. Like the acquisition of landed property, the jurisdiction over a town, and the possession of a castle, the establishment of a church was also a pillar of feudal lordship in the townscape. In 1452, Bladelin founded a hospital dedicated to St. John in his new city and probably the ar- cher's guild of St. Sebastian in 146o. In 1470, he received permission to add a chapter of six canons, a parish priest, and two chaplains to the church of Middelburg. In their wills, both Blade- lin and Hugonet donated rents to the hospital-just as the Bur- gundian duchess, Mary of Burgundy, and her husband, Maximil- ian of Austria, did in 148 I-"for the salvation of their soul."20

Bladelin and Hugonet participated in a common upper-class practice, designed to commemorate the noble deeds of the de- ceased and to keep their presence vivid, even long after their deaths. William II Hugonet continued the spiritual pursuits of his predecessor by establishing a Poor Clares cloister at Middelburg in

i515; his sister was the first abbess. According to his last will, Bladelin arranged to be buried in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Middelburg and, if he died outside his city, to be carried to the church by forty local paupers. It was typical for the comital councilors in Flanders to be buried in the great collegiate churches established and patronized by the counts of Flanders, except for those noble councilors who still preferred the parish church in their own lordships. Together with the masses offered for his salvation, the (still existing) luxurious tomb of Bladelin oc-

au Moyen Agqe (VIIIc-XVe sichle): Etudes d'histoire et de littmrature offertes Fran(oise Autrand (Paris, 2000), 261-325; Albert Derolez, Benjamin Victor, and Wouter Bracke, Corpus catalogorunl Belgii: The Medieval Booklists of the Southern Lowu, Countries. IV. Provinces of Brabant and Hainaut (Brussels, 200oo), 376-385; Hanno Wijsman, "Patterns in Patronage: Distinction and Imitation in the Patronage of Painted Art by Burgundian Courtiers in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries," in Stephen Gunn and Anteun Janse (eds.), The Court as a Stage: England and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages (Woodbridge, 2oo6), 53-69; Elisabeth Dhanens, "Nieuwe gegevens betreffende de Bladelin-retabel, toegeschreven aan Rogier van der

Weyden," in Archivum Artis Lovaniense. Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis van de Kunst in de Nederlanden, opgedragen aan Prof Em. Dr.J. K. Steppe (Louvain, 198 I), 45-52; Laurinda Dixon, "Portraits and Politics in Two Triptychs by Rogier van der Weyden," Gazette des Beaux Arts, CIX (1987), 18-90go; Dhanens, Hugo van der Goes (Antwerp, 1998), 205-208. 20 Oliver Creighton, Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval

England (London, 2005), 1IO; Verschelde, Geschiedenis van Middelburg, 47-50, 150, 182, 190,

208; Haemers, "Middelburg," 243.




cupied a prominent position in the liturgical atmosphere of the

city. In this final act of representation for posterity, Bladelin wanted to display his noble credentials.21

THE MIDDELBURG CASTLE: ARCHITECTURE IN DIALOGUE WITH A NO-

BLE IDENTITY The single most dominant expression of noble aspirations and claims to public space was the castle of Middelburg. It is the clearest example of the personal building program that both of these men undertook and of their urge for a noble lifestyle. Apart from the construction of a new town, both Bladelin and Hugonet had initiated large private building programs for castles and urban residences. In 143 5, Bladelin built his large residence in the Bruges Naaldenstraat. He also possessed smaller castles at Wingene and Oostkamp, villages near Bruges. Hugonet was the owner of houses in Mechelen, Brussels, and Bruges, but he also restored the castle of Sailliant in Burgundy.22

Castles, as the centerpieces of seigniorial space, should be viewed as the residential, administrative, and defensive focus in their landscapes. Their symbolic power often surpassed their military importance. Coldstream notes that by 1300, the castle fortress had given way to less military, more palatial residences, which evolved into the aristocratic residential palaces of the sixteenth- century Renaissance. Yet the symbolism of warfare persisted. These buildings, still called castles, maintained all of the symbolic martial details: towers, gatehouses, moats, and drawbridges. Few were seriously defensible, but a castle's crenellation served as an announcement that, socially speaking, the owner of the house had arrived. Castles were visible manifestations of seigniorial authority and conspicuous consumption.23

Middelburg castle was built between 1448 and 1450; today

21 Contemporary cases of commemoration are studied by Jean Chiffoleau, La comptabilite de l'au-deld: les hommes, la mort et la religion dans la region d'Avignon a lafin du Moyen Age (vers 1320- vers 148o) (Rome, I980); Boone, "Un grand commis de 1'Etat burgundo-habsbourgeois face '

la mort: le testament et la s6pulture de Pierre Lanchals (Bruges, 1488)," in Jean-Marie Duvosquel and Ann Kelders (eds.), Album Pierre Cockshaw (forthcoming); Paravicini, "Zur

Biographie," 130; Verschelde, "Testament," 1-12; Dumolyn and Katrien Moermans, "Distinctie en memorie: Symbolische investeringen in de eeuwigheid door laatmiddeleeuwse hoge ambtenaren in het graafschap Vlaanderen," Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, CXVI (2003), 332-349. 22 Bartier, Ldgistes et gens, 240.

23 Morsel, L'aristocratie, Ioo; MatthewJohnson, Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Re- naissance (London, 2002), 122-123; Coldstream, Medieval Architecture, 168; Creighton, Castles and Landscapes, 65.




only the foundations remain. The castle was heavily damaged during an assault by the Flemish cities, directed against Maximilian of Austria, in 1488. The residence was re-occupied after the attack but repeatedly seized during the Dutch Revolt of the sixteenth century and (re-)occupied by armies of different origin during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Excavations revealed that a part of the southern wing was repaired in the fifteenth century, possibly following the 1488 destruction, but it never fully recov- ered from the attack of 1604 by the Spanish commander Ambrogio Spinola, which totally destroyed large sections of it. The southern corner tower was never rebuilt; it was replaced by earthworks, most likely during the twelve-year truce when the lordship of Middelburg constituted a part of the Spanish territory. As a strategic fortress in the front line between the Spanish and Dutch troops during the Dutch Revolt, the castle became a victim of military misfortune after 1579. In 1607, a witness from Damme described it, once "the most beautiful, biggest and most important fief of the Franc of Bruges," as a "ruin, . . . desolated and destroyed .... ready to be totally dismantled." By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the castle had totally fallen into disrepair. It disappeared quickly, and the site became a quarry for bricks. To- day only the foundations are left.24

A close examination of the archaeological excavation results, particularly such material remains as foundations and building materials, provides insight into the social meaning of the edifice. Although no standing walls are preserved on the site, the architectural design of the castle, the pattern of access, and the choice and spatial deployment of building materials, revealed from the excavations and from a plan made in 1702, suggest a determined and

24 Our knowledge of the castle's layout is based on both archival and archaeological data. A

plan dating from c. i608 for the reconstruction of the city defenses and an elaborate plan with

drawings by Senneton de Chermont, a French military engineer, in 1702, offer especially de- tailed information (Fonds Midlebourg, 14, Archives de l'Armee de Terre, Vincennes

[France]). The excavated parts of the castle fit perfectly with these documents. Moreover, they add substantial architectural information for those parts of the castle that had already been

destroyed or had disappeared after 1604. See De Clercq, Pedro Pype, and Steven Mortier, "Archeologisch onderzoek in Middelburg-in-Vlaanderen: Drie jaar opgravingen op het

opper- en neerhof van het kasteel van Pieter Bladelin," Jaarboek van de heemkundige kring Het Ambacht Maldegem, X (2004), 272-294. Fonds Maldegem Ambacht, charters Maldegem en

Middelburg, charter of 26 Mars 1607, State Archives of Ghent; Gilliodts-Van Severen, Coutumes des pays et comte de Flandre. Quartier de Bnruges: Coutumes des petites villes et seigneuries enclav&es (Brussels, 1891), III, 222-223.




highly symbolic conceptualization. The re-organization of space and the use of architectural "levels" as nonverbal communicators established the lord's identity and transmitted it to the outside world. To create this effect, the castle and the surrounding domain were deliberately built to be seen in stages, from the viewpoint of the town (Figure 3). The castle domain consisted of two parts laid out on the main axis that runs through the landscape and the city. Both of these parts were made of brick with a parament of fine white sandstone from the Gobertange quarries (province of Brabant-Wallon, Belgium) under and just above the waterline.

Visitors could come directly from the center of the city, its commercial and religious core, into the castle (the de facto heart of the town) after crossing the moat via a bridge that gave access to the first part of the castle domain-the lower court. They would

gradually, and increasingly, confront the status and identity of the owner while progressing through the different stages of the castle and its environs. The first stage was marked by a material and mental barrier, the large moat that separated the world of the citi- zens from that of the lord. The next stage was the front of the outer court, with its distinctive architectural features. Excavations and maps show that the lower court was a T-shaped construction; its longest side faced the city, creating the impression of a much

larger building. The entrance was flanked by two small half- rounded towers, and two other small, 27o-degree towers on the corners. The spatial patterning of building materials found in the moat at the front-side of the lower court showed an intense clus-

tering of finely hewn white sandstone. The other end of the lower court included a gallery and an herb garden.25

Just inside the complex proper, where riders finally left their horses, visitors were once again confronted with the identity of the owner in a sort of reception room. Judging from the spatial patterns in the archaeological discoveries, this room was paved with tiles bearing Bladelin's emblem and the motif of the firesteel, a decorative element introduced by John the Fearless, Philip the Good's father, and adopted by Philip as the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece. This was a startling departure from the nor- mal architectural style of lower courts, which typically housed

25 Martens, "Het kasteel van Middelburg," Jaarboek Van de heemkundige kring Het Ambacht

Maldegem, III (1997), 179-189.



Fig. 3 Plan of the Castle of Middelburg, Showing the Spatial Pattern of Finds and the Gradual Identification of the Owner

Emblems of Bladelin and Rooms, stoves with emblems of the Lord, the Duke Front of the inner court the Order of the Golden Fleece Moat

and allies and moat > >

14

Private residence of the Lord Decorated front of outer court

Plan based on 1702 map (gun-holes probably not 15th century) 4 Excavated parts

SNew viewpoint / change in perception

0

--lO"- 'm




personnel and facilities, and did not feature an elite design. The presence of the elaborate floor points to the unique nature of the Middelburg castle complex. Even at the outer stages of the castle, in the interior of the lower court, the floor and other architectural elements played an essential role in advertising the lord's identity. These shifts in architectural design displayed the power of the castle's lord, impressing Bladelin's and Hugonet's guests even before they entered the actual domain. In addition, the walls became nar- rower at the entrance to the building, as if hastening visitors toward the main goal-the upper court and the residence of the castle's lord.26

The lower court was separated from the upper court by another moat, 8 meters wide, part of the double-moated waterworks that surrounded the castle. The entrance to the upper court became visible only at the bridge. Massive rounded towers at the corners, a three-quarter-rounded stair tower, and a large half- rounded tower, grouped closely together, flanked the entrance. The front wall with its five towers (three large ones and two smaller staircases giving access to them) contrasted with the other walls, which had no towers, except for a half-rounded tower in the middle of the southwestern side. Placing all of these impressive architectural elements on only one side of the building created an asymmetrical design, an overpowering display that heightened visitors' awareness of the owner's identity and power. In the next stage, beyond another moat, stood massive towers 12 meters wide, even grander monuments to the lord's identity.27

The upper court, which was not revealed until the end of the prolonged entrance, consisted of a square enclosure around which the buildings were arranged. The main residence, consisting of the rooms where the lord lived and met with his guests, was situated on the side opposite the entrance to the court, accessible via a

26 Jacques Laurent, "Le briquet de la maison de Bourgogne," Revuefranfaise d'hdraldique et de sigillographie, I (1938), 55-64. For John the Fearless, see Schnerb, Jean sans Peur: Le prince meurtrier (Paris, 2005). On the Order of the Golden Fleece and its objectives, see Baron de

Reiffenberg, Histoire de l'ordre de la Toison d'Or depuis son institution jusqu'ai la cessation des

chapitres gnderaux (Brussels, 1830); Bernhard Sterchi, Uber den Umgang mit Lob und Tadel: Nor- mative Adelsliteratur und politische Kommunikation im burgundischen Hofadel, 1430-15o6 (Turnhout, 2005); Raphael de Smedt, Les chevaliers de l'Ordre de la Toison d'Or au XVe siecle (Frankfurt am Main, 2000). 27 The corner towers had a diameter of 12.5 meters and consisted of masonry 2.30 meters thick.




grand staircase. The staircase almost literally lifted visitors to the higher level of the lord's private space. Within the main building, rooms were built on three different stages. Some of these rooms had large fireplaces, and others contained highly decorated stoves displaying the heraldic motifs of the lord and his allies. These tech- nologically innovative heating systems were not only rare and expensive; they also featured materials that flaunted the lord's identity (as discussed below).

IMITATING NOBLE CULTURE The plethora of decorative elements and architectural embellishments in the Middelburg castle all heightened the status of the residence and its lord; they conveyed the immaterial message of power, status, and nobility. People can conquer space only by dividing, organizing, and reducing it to their own scale, by actualizing its subdivisions. As Lefebvre ar- gued, space is a mix of conceptual, perceptual, and representa- tional attributes. The Middelburg castle's architectural divisions or barriers were symbolic steps through which the many layers of the lord's identity became apparent.28

This ambitious private architectural project also bears a striking resemblance to the building program and material culture of the Burgundian dukes, whose castles, designed landscapes, gar- dens, deer parks, and large townhouses were intended to display their power and to make them the center of attention throughout their territories. In Dijon, Rouvres, Argilly, or Germolles in Bur- gundy, artists and gardeners embellished the interiors and exteriors of ducal residences, developing them into remarkable spaces of artistic innovation, as well as magnificent symbols of the central- ized Burgundian state. Painters such as William de Ritser graced the ducal residence in Ghent with the heraldic emblems of Burgundy-the firesteel and the slogan, "Jamais outre (never further)." The luxury of the palace reflected the authority of the dukes and legitimized their claim to power. Moreover, by invest- ing heavily in the Ghent residences and granting specialized duties

28 Graham Fairclough, "Meaningful Constructions: Spatial and Functional Analysis of Me- dieval Building," Antiquity, LXVI (1992), 348-366; Abraham Moles and Elisabeth Rohmer, Psychosociologie de l'espace, textes rassembles, mis en forme et presentus par Victor Schwach (Paris, 1998), 62-63; Arnade, Howell, and Simons, "Fertile Spaces," 529; Henri Lefebvre, The Pro- duction of Space (Malden, Mass., 2003).




to local corporations, the dukes attempted to link urban power elites financially to the court and the Burgundian state apparatus. Other high-ranking officers of the Burgundian state also moved to Ghent and Bruges and invested in city dwellings, all of them con- tributing to the ducal "theatre-state.'"29

Striking parallels can also be drawn to areas outside the Burgundian sphere. The "New Castles" in England also exemplify the social advancement of such self-made men as merchants, civil servants, and financiers. Luxurious castles were the symbol of their arrival. The English nouveaux riches of the later Middle Ages constructed many residences designed to accommodate house- hold, family, and guests and to reflect the owner's achievements as a state official, soldier, or recently ennobled gentleman, and they were built to a scale comparable to, and sometimes surpassing, those of long-established families. The licenses to add crenella- tions, given by Richard II, allowed certain English dignitaries to express their social advancement. Powerful officials, such as Edward Dalyngrigge, lord of Bodiam, who climbed the social ladder through service in the wars of Edward III, as well as by in- creasing wealth, (re)built castles broadcasting their new social position. These buildings had a rectangular plan featuring an open court, with square or round towers and imposing gatehouses. They were constructed as units and always completed in a relatively short time. The fact that they were often built on new level sites and had only one defensive ward indicates their function as symbols of power rather than defensive structures."3

29 Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet, "Decor of Ducal Residences," in Art from the Court of Bur-

gundy: The Patronage of Philip the Bold and ohn the Fearless (1364-1419) (Paris, 2004), 140-141; Patrice Beck, "The Ducal Residences: Architecture as the Theatre of Power," ibid., 137-139; Krista DeJonghe, "Bourgondische residenties in het graafschap Vlaanderen: Rijsel, Brugge en Gent ten tijde van Filips de Goede," Handelingen van de Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde van Gent, LIV (2000), 93-134; Arnade, "City, Court and Public Ritual in the Late-Medieval Burgundian Netherlands," Comparative Studies in Society and History, XXIX (1997), 296-3 14; Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, La ville des ceremonies: Essai sur la communication

symbolique dans les anciens Pays-Bas bourguignons (Turnhout, 2004); Boone and Th&rese de

Hemptinne, "Espace urbain et ambition princieres: les presences materielles de l'autorite princiere dans le Gand me'dieval (12e sibcle-i540)," in Paravicini (ed.), Zeremoniel und Raum

(Sigmaringen, 1997), 290-292, 295.

30o Francois Matarasso, The English Castle (London, 1995), 156-164; Anthony Emery, "Late-Medieval Houses as an Expression of Social Status," Historical Research, LXXVIII (2005), 157-158.




Johnson noted the similarity in the building programs by Lord Dalyngrigge at Bodiam Castle, Lord Cromwell at Tattershall Castle, and Lord Dudley, Earl of Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle. Cromwell was a mid-fifteenth-century treasurer, like Bladelin, who, as Johnson shows, contrived his building program to be an important step in negotiating his social position. In Johnson's words, "The castle reveals itself gradually to the visitor, giving access circuitously. Status was communicated through movement through the building." Castles such as Middelburg and its English equivalents were highly visible, physical manifestations of seigniorial authority in an imitative age.31

CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES THROUGH MATERIAL CULTURE Mate- rial objects from Middelburg castle point to a much more inten- sive process of identity construction than has been found in the castles of the English nouveaux riches. Many objects served as material signs of immaterial elements of identity, social networks, and power relations. The floor tiles found at the lower court, for example, and the stove tiles from the residence reveal patterns of net- working, imitation, and display of wealth designed to associate the self-made man with the duke and the highest nobility. These significant emblematic markers expose the social aspirations of the inhabitants of the castle and their relationship with the network of high-ranking people around his court, the natural "habitat" of Bladelin and Hugonet. The floor tiles consist of three different types, all of which were made in a nonlocal clay of pink-greyish color, containing flakes of mica and unidentified black inclusions (Figure 4). The surface of the tiles is tin-glazed, covering a white background on which illustrations in blue and purple (cobalt- oxide) were painted. One type of rectangular tile depicts two in- tersecting banderols-one with the initials "PB" and the other with small leaves (bladelin means "small leaf" in Middle-Dutch). Another type of floor tile is square; it, too, is inscribed with "PB." In this series, the two letters are interwoven with a bundle of small leaves.

31 Johnson, "Self-Made Men and the Staging of Agency," in Marcia-Anne Dobres and

John Robb (eds.), Agency in Archaeology (New York, 2000), 218; Carenza Lewis, Patrick Mitchell-Fox, and Christopher Dyer, Village, Hamlet and Field: Changing Medieval Settlements in Central-England (Manchester, 1997), 231-.




Fig. 4 Tin-Glazed Floor Tiles of Spanish Origin, Found in Middel- burg, Depicting (P)ieter (B)ladelin and the Firesteel

210.

? tD

.. .• :•,•:..

This symbol seems to have been Bladelin's favorite emblem, since it is also on his tomb in the church of Middelburg and on the ceiling of the gallery in his Bruges residence (Figure 5a). These same emblems appear on some clerical robes and probably also on a painting that has disappeared from the church, indicating a delib- erate emblematic cross-referencing in secular and religious space.32

The third group of floor tiles shows a circle in the centre of a square and a one-quarter circle in each corner, each containing one-quarter of a letter. In the layout of the floor, the points where four tiles join at each corner form the "P" or "B" in alternating order. The circle in the middle contains a firesteel striking a flintstone. Flames of fire shoot in various directions. The firesteel, being the unique symbol of the duke and the Order of the Golden

32 Martens, "Pieter Bladelin en Middelburg," v7.




Fleece, is also found in the palaces of the Burgundian dukes. The large ceiling beams of the great room of Bladelin's house in Bruges were also decorated with the heraldic devices of the duke and the firesteel (Figure 5b).33

Like the nobles at court, Bladelin ordered his tiles from Spain. To say that this material was expensive would be an understate- ment. The Valencia region, and particularly the production area of Manises, was renowned for its tin-glazed tiles, which were produced using traditional Moorish methods and used in elite architecture throughout Western Europe. In the late fourteenth century, dukes Philip the Bold and John of Berry invited Spanish craftsmen John of Valence, John of Gironne, and John le Voleur to make tiles on command for their castles and palaces. Because of its typically Spanish mica-rich material, Bladelin's tiles can be traced to Spanish craftsmen working in their hometown of Manises. Bladelin may have had connections to these artists, or at least a network of their contacts that he could access. These special tiles have been found only in a few places. The (slightly older) tin- glazed tiles found on the site of the ducal residence in Arras are decorated with the arms of Burgundy. A more close connection, however, can be observed in the tin-glazed tiles in the palace of the duke of Berry."4

Similar patterns of interwoven letters appear on lead-glazed tiles in the Hotel-Dieu at Beaune (Burgundy), built in the middle of the fifteenth century by Nicolas Rolin, the chancelor of Bur- gundy. On these tiles, the letters N(icolas) and G(uigone) are interwoven, indicating the names of the chancelor and his wife, thereby stressing the strength and lasting character of their mar-

33 I)e Jonghe, "Bourgondische residenties," io6. 34 The cuerdo seca and arista production techniques indicate the Spanish origin of the

Middelburg tin-glazed tiles. We are grateful to Frans Caigny and Leon Geyskens for their

helpful remarks and suggestions about these tiles. See Valencia- Vlaanderen, Middeleeuwse ceramiek-- Valencia-Flandes, Ceracmica medieval (Bruges, 1997), 219. Personal initials are also found on objects related to Etienne Chevalier, a contemporary of Bladelin who was also a non-noble upstart at the French court. See Claude Schaefer, Getijdenboek voor Etienne Cheva- lier. Jean Fouquet (Utrecht, 197I). Christopher Norton, "Medieval Tin-Glazed Painted Tiles in North-West Europe," Journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, XXVIII (1984), 133- 173; idem, Carreaux de Pavement du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance (Paris, 1992); Philippe Bon, Les premiers "blues" de France: Les carreaux de faience au decor peint fabriques pour le duc de Berry, 1384 (Mehun-sur-Yevre, 1992). See also Jeannine Rosen and Thierry Cr6pin-Leblond (eds.), Images du pouvoir: Pavements defaience en France du XIIf au XVIf sidcle (Lyon, 2ooo), 6o-68.



Fig. 5 a Emblem (P)ieter (B)ladelin in the Ceiling of the Gallery at the "Hof Bladelin," Bladelin's Residence in the Bruges Naal- denstraat b The Ceiling Beam in the "HofBladelin," Decorated with the Firesteel and the Heraldic Motifs of the Dukes of Burgundy

j,;:: F:::i_--_:: ::i::; S. w ii::




riage. Besides his important office, this contemporary colleague of Bladelin at the ducal court was also a bureaucratic careerist who made his fortune from his loyal service to the duke. Like Bladelin, this non-noble jurist developed an important building program that continues to mark his identity.35

The next remarkable discoveries are the several stove tiles specifically made to order (Figure 6). These niche-like, semi- tubular pieces were the main building blocks of innovative heating systems originally from Eastern Europe that the Flemish elites installed in Ghent and Bruges after the mid-fifteenth century. Be- cause stoves took a central position in important chambers, such as audience areas and dining rooms where lords met their guests, the heraldic motifs and emblems referring to the lord and his allies would be conspicuous. These rooms, where semipublic functions sometimes occurred, were hierarchically superior to less specialized halls.36

Several stove tiles from Middelburg offer tangible evidence of the relationship between material culture and the construction of identity. The first series of stove tiles depicts the combined heraldic symbols of Louis of Bruges, lord of Gruuthuse and his wife (Figure 6a). In 1472, this powerful nobleman became earl of Win- chester, when the fleeing English King Edward IV found accom- modation in Louis' pompous palace in Bruges. In the 146os and 1470s, Louis of Bruges had significant political influence at the Burgundian court, and from 1463 until 1477, he was governor of the county of Holland. He was also renowned as a rich art patron. As loyal confidants of the duke in the city of Bruges who sought to increase their political influence there, Bladelin and Louis were often together. As a sign of their political cooperation, and as a ges-

35 Brigitte Maurice-Chabard (ed.), La spendeur des Rolin: Un m&cknat privo a' la cour de

Bourgogne (Paris, 1999); Schnerb, L'Etat bourguignon, 238-246. Like Bladelin, Rolin also ordered an altarpiece to be painted by Rogier Van der Weyden. See Stephen Kemperdick, Rogier van der Weyden (Cologne, 1999), 65-69; Dirk De Vos, Rogier van der Weyden: het

volledige oeuvre (Antwerp, 1999); Wijsman, "Patterns in Patronage," 64-67. 36 Claudia Offmann and Manfred Schneider, Von der Feuerstelle zum Kachelofen- Heizanlagen und Ofenkeramik vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit (Stralsund, 2001); Elisabeth Chalmin-Sirot, "Les modkles princiers et leur imitation dans le milieu seigneurial en terri- toire, Genevois et Savoyard (XIVe-XVe sikcles)," in Annie Renoux (ed.), Aux marches du

palais: Qu'est-ce-qu'un palais medieval? Donnees historiques et archeologiques (Paris, 200oo), 1I 8-I 19; Christian de M&rindol, "Essai sur la distinction des espaces par le decor • l' poque medievale:

iconologie et topographie," ibid., 73.



Fig. 6 Stove Tiles with Arms of Gruuthuse (a, c), Maximilian of Aus- tria and Maria of Burgundy (b), and Related Pieces Found in Brussels (d) and Bruges (e)

25cm

a

d.. ...

SOURCES Figure 6d: Anna Buyle, "Meer over de fragmenten van een kacheltegel uit het Hof van Hoogstraaten te Brussel: het embleem van Isabella van Portugal," Monulmenten en

Landschlappen, IX (1990), 55; Figure 6e: City Archaeological Service of Bruges.




ture typical of Burgundian gift exchange, Gruuthuse might have provided stove tiles for Bladelin's castle.37

The firesteel on these tiles cross-reference Gruuthuse with the duke, the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Bladelin. Since Gruuthuse was received as a member of the Order in 1461, these tiles can be dated after this year and before the death of Bladelin in 1472. The firesteel also appears on stove tiles found in palaces of state officers and noblemen in Brussels, situated near the ducal court (Figure 6d). Excavations at the Prinsenhof, the ducal residence at Bruges, in 2004, discovered a fragment of a stove tile decorated with a double-headed eagle and a chain of firesteels (Figure 6e). The presence of the stove tiles in the castle of Middelburg symbolized the social network and the social capital of the lord. They materialized the "immaterial" social capital that the lord of the castle possessed.3-

The last series of stove tiles excavated in Middelburg show the heraldic motifs of Mary of Burgundy and the single-headed eagle, the pre-eminent symbol of the Habsburg dynasty (Figure 6b). In April 1477, a few months after the death of Duke Charles, the nobles of the Burgundian court arranged a marriage between Mary and Maximilian of Austria, whom they expected to be a competent military leader in the war against the French king Louis XI. Since Mary died in 1482, the production of the stove tile would seem to date before that year, although it might have been the result of a later propaganda effort. However, the tiles were

37 See, for example, Malcolm Vale, "An Anglo-Burgundian Nobleman and Art Patron: Louis de Bruges, Lord of la Gruthuyse and Earl of Winchester," in Caroline Barron and Nigel Saul (eds.), England and the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages (New York, 1995), 115-13 I; Martens (ed.), Lodewiijk van Gruuthuse: Mecenas en Europees diplomaat ca. 1427-1492 (Bruges, 1992). In 1452, Bladelin and Louis together prevented Ghent rebels from entering the city of

Bruges. As a result, the privileges of Bladelin's city were extended (Haemers, De Gentse

opstand, 301).

38 Anna Buyle, "Maer over de fragmenten van een kacheltegel uit het Hof van

Hoogstraaten te Brussel: het embleem van Isabella van Portugal," Monumenten en

Landschappen, IX (1990), 52-56; Dirk Van Eenooghe and Marcel Celis, "Het 'Hof van

Hoogstraaten,' de Brusselse verblijfplaats van Antoine de Lalaing," Monumenten en

Landschappen, VII (1988), 36-63; Dirk Van Eenooghe, "Grafelijk afval: Onderzoek van een beerput uit het Hof van Hoogstraten te Brussel," Archeologie in /laanderen, V (1995/6), 263- 301. See also Sebastiaan Ostkamp, "Symbolen van huwelijk en familie op de materiele cultuur van de hoogste adel (ca. 14oo-1525)," in P. Woltering, W. Verwers, and G. Scheepstra (eds.), Middeleeuwse toestanden: Archeologie, geschiedenis en monumentenzorg (Amersfoort, 2002), 305- 337. Remarkably, the firesteel does not appear on stove tiles found in Gruuthuse's residence in Bruges. See Stephane Vandenberghe, "Fragmenten van de kacheloven van Lodewijk van Gruuthuse te Brugge,"Jaarboek van de Stad Brugge (1989), 188-194. Personal communication

by Bieke Hillewaert, city-archaeological service of Bruges.




most likely a gift from the duchess to the Hugonet family, maybe as a part of their religious foundation of 1481 in the church of Middelburg. Again, this princely favor shows that, despite the

decapitation of William I Hugonet, his descendants still had the

patronage of the Habsburg dynasty. Hugonet's pursuit of a noble

lineage had attained its final goal: His family was elevated into the

higher society of the Habsburg state.39 The tiles show a pattern of material culture limited to the du-

cal court and its members. The Middelburg objects were highly significant emblematic markers, indicating aspects of identity, status, and power. While some of these objects were typical exam-

ples of the gift-exchange common in Burgundian culture (for example, the Gruuthuse tiles), others were clearly made on the orders of the owner (for example the Bladelin tiles). By deliberately using these tiles in the architectural space of his castle, Bladelin not only expressed a certain level of status through their cost and rar- ity, but he also participated in a cultural tradition that derived from the milieu of the highest nobility. By depicting his personal initials in association with the emblems of the duke of Burgundy, he both honored the dynasty and underlined his noble status by symboli- cally intermingling himself, his membership in the noblest of noble orders-the Golden Fleece-and his feudal overlord, the duke of Burgundy. Thus was his identity represented. Immaterial relations became materialized and exposed.

CONSTRUCTING MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL IDENTITIES Bladelin and Hugonet successfully exploited the opportunities offered by the emergence of the modern state in Western Europe. Their bureaucratic competence and their close relationship with the duke of Burgundy resulted in personal financial profits that they invested in symbolic capital-the acquisition of a noble status. To confirm their new social standing, these self-made men had to em- brace "vivre noblement." They assumed a noble life style, which included specific types of clothing and behavior. However, as this article demonstrates, they also employed a much more extensive material culture to establish their new identities, not the least of which was Bladelin's creation of a new town. Bladelin claimed his social position by claiming space. This act of dominance was un-

39 William II Hugonet was one of Emperor Charles V's councilors (Haemers, "Middelburg," 260).




Fig. 7 Possible Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Middelburg Castle, Based on Archaeological, Archival, and Art-Historical Information (3D by AnImotions)

precedented in late medieval Flanders. Moreover, Bladelin and Hugonet crowned their social-climbing achievements by copying the architectural patterns and material culture of ducal residences."4

Space is a reification of social relations. A new city and a grand castle, fashioned with the icons of feudal lordship-a crenulated town and castle conforming to specific patterns of material culture-contains a social meaning that derives, literally, 40 Kaminsky, "Estate Nobility," 702-703; Van Uytven, "Showing off One's Rank in the Middle Ages," and other essays, in Blockmans and Janse (eds.), Shouwing Status: Representation of Social Positions in the Late Middle Age (Turnhout, 1999), 20-34.




from the materiality itself. Bladelin's space acquired meaning precisely as a result of its ability to display social status. In turn, the castle and its rich furniture legitimized Bladelin's and Hugonet's newly gained social position as self-made men. In their dialogue with material culture, socially shaped space became a the- ater of social relations. The morphology of the city and the castle of Middelburg are suitable expressions of a noble ideology.4'

Noble identity involved conspicuous consumption and the display of symbolic capital. Identity, however, is also the product of social and political action and interaction. The material expressions of status and identity generated by Bladelin, Hugonet, and other self- made men in the fifteenth century were more than just the con- sumer habits of wealthy men. The meaning of their use of material culture becomes clear only within narrative contexts. Their history must be situated against a social and historical background in which conscious personal aspirations and contemporary cultural movements play prominent roles. Identity found expression through material culture and architecture, and luxurious residences were conspicuous statements in elite society.42

Bladelin and Hugonet continuously manipulated material culture to create an environment that emanated noble identity. Material culture contributed to "vivre noblement" identity, which, in turn, contributed to material culture. Thus was cultural identity materially translated into a readable symbolic language. For new power holders like Bladelin and Hugonet, the social stigma of relatively humble origins needed the overcompensation of an exuberant way of life to purvey noble distinction. Middelburg was an ideal place to live the noble life, and it was also close enough to the economic source of social success, the Bruges market and its financial networks, for self-made men like Bladelin and Hugonet to thrive.

41 Arnade, Howell, and Simons, "Fertile Spaces," 542. On the influence of social identity on the creation of (urban) space, see Boone and Stabel (eds.), Shaping Urban Identity in Late Medieval Europe (Louvain, 2000); Blockmans, "Reshaping Cities: The Staging of Political Transformation," Journal of Urban History, XXX (2oo3), 7-20.

42 Grassby, "Material Culture," 596; Matarosso, English Castle, i33; Johnson, "Self-Made Man," 215; Emery, "Late-Medieval Houses," 157; Kaminsky, "Estate Nobility," 709.



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