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In recent years, the topic of accounts from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period has experienced a historiographic renewal of interest from several standpoints, including the source itself in its materiality and within the context of the literate culture (monument ), the institutions producing those sources or the use of the data from the accounts (document ). Yet, the importance of these sources for the history of social control had hardly been discussed in scientific meetings until the Brussels conference. The proceedings of this conference consider several aspects of this issue, including the critical analysis of the sources, the way institutions and groups were controlled and the control they exerted themselves, the administration of justice and the digital stakes regarding these source collections. Most papers focus on the transition period between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (14th-16th c.), although some other aspects were highlighted for the 18th century. Most of the papers in this volume concentrate on the Belgian, French, Savoyard, Burgundian and Dutch territories, while some of them deal with England or the Holy Roman Empire.

5463 ISBN 978-90-5746-783-7

9789057467837

Illustration de couverture : Bruxelles, Archives générales du Royaume, Chambre des comptes, comptes en registres, 12878, comptes de Jehan de Neuverue maire de Nivelles, 1423-1425, folio 1 recto.

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Monuments ou documents ? Les comptabilités, sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles) Monuments or documents ? Accounts : sources for the history of social control (13th-18th c.)

Médiévales ou modernes, les comptabilités font depuis quelques années l’objet d’un renouveau historiographique sous des angles variés, incluant la source elle-même, en lien avec sa matérialité et la culture de l’écrit (monument ), les institutions productrices ou l’exploitation des données (document ). L’intérêt de ces sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social n’avait en revanche guère fait l’objet de rencontres ; c’est chose faite avec le colloque de Bruxelles. Ses actes abordent différents aspects de cette question, de la critique des sources au contrôle des institutions et des groupes en passant par l’administration de la justice et les enjeux numériques de ces collections. La période de transition entre le Moyen Âge et les temps modernes (XIVe-XVIe siècles) est privilégiée par la plupart des communications, bien que d’autres aspects aient été mis en lumière pour le XVIIIe siècle. Sur le plan géographique, les territoires belges, italiens, français, savoyards, bourguignons et néerlandais ont concentré l’essentiel des recherches présentées dans ce volume, avec quelques excursions en Angleterre ou dans le Saint-Empire.

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Monuments ou documents ? Les comptabilités, sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles) Monuments or documents ? Accounts : sources for the history of social control (13th - 18th c.)

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É dité par W irth -J aillard , A ude M usin , N athalie D emaret , E mmanuel B odart , X avier R ousseaux

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MONUMENTS OU DOCUMENTS ? LES COMPTABILITÉS, SOURCES POUR E E L’HISTOIRE DU CONTRÔLE SOCIAL (XIII –XVIII SIÈCLES) ACTES DU COLLOQUE INTERNATIONAL DE BRUXELLES (ARCHIVES GÉNÉRALES DU ROYAUME, 13–15 DÉCEMBRE 2012)

MONUMENTS OR DOCUMENTS? ACCOUNTS : SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF TH TH SOCIAL CONTROL (13 –18 C.) PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BRUSSELS (STATES ARCHIVES, 13–15 DECEMBER 2012)

ARCHIVES GÉNÉRALES DU ROYAUME ET ARCHIVES DE L’ÉTAT DANS LES PROVINCES

STUDIA 154

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Monuments ou documents ? Les comptabilités, sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social (XIII –XVIII siècles) E

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Actes du colloque international de Bruxelles (Archives générales du Royaume, 13–15 décembre 2012) Monuments or documents? Accounts : sources for the history of social control (13 –18 c.) TH

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Proceedings of the International Conference of Brussels (States Archives, 13–15 December 2012)

Édité par Aude WIRTH-JAILLARD, Aude MUSIN, Nathalie DEMARET, Emmanuel BODART, Xavier ROUSSEAUX

Bruxelles 2015

“Non obstant le commandement de mondit seigneur” Bonnore Olivier’s account and the double-edged sword of social control Bart Lambert

1.

Introduction: “receveur de noz deniers extraordinaires”

On 23 April 1445, the Burgundian duke Philip the Good appointed Bonnore Olivier, a native of a Ligurian seaside town who, over the past two decades, had earned his spurs in the world of international trade and banking in Bruges, his first Receiver of Extraordinary Finances in Flanders, Lille, Douai and Orchies1. In the spirit of rationalisation that permeated the ducal administration during the first half of the 1440s and following a short-lived attempt to establish a similar institution for all the pays de par de ça in 1438-14392, the office was created to maximise princely revenues by centralising a number of authorities which, before, had rested with a multitude of particular receivers. The tasks of the new officer were manifold and diverse, including the confiscation of bastard goods, dead-hand property and the belongings of those who had committed suicide or had been accused of homosexual activities. He was to claim commodities washed up on the shores after shipwrecks and to collect the right of heriot, the tax on letters of ennoblement and that on the sale of fiefs. The receiver also administered a panoply of commercial rights, such as the fines on the export of bullion, the import of English cloth and the forgery of cloth seals, and the imposition on each Genoese ship in the harbour of Sluys. Dealing with a nobleman outraged over the encroachment on his jurisdiction, a merchant pretending ignorance about trading privileges and the shocked heiress of a man who had recently stepped out of life on one and the same day, Bonnore Olivier would

1

2

For Bonnore’s biography and an overview of his career, see Jonas BRAEKEVELT, Bart LAMBERT, “Bonnore Olivier: courtier ligurien de la fiscalité bourguignonne (1429-1466)”, in Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, vol. 90, no. 4, 2012, p. 1155-1191. Jonas BRAEKEVELT and Bart LAMBERT, “Olivier, Bonnore”, in Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek. Deel 20, Brussels, Koninklijke Academiën van België, 2011, col. 639-646. Archives Municipales de Lille, Inventaire Desplanque, no. 16973, fol. 312 v°-313 r°.

MONUMENTS OU DOCUMENTS ?

wield an unprecedented amount of fiscal power and monitor nearly all domains of Burgundian social life until the end of the 1450s. Usurping the previous preventive, repressive and restorative authorities of local bailiffs, Olivier was entitled to act against infractions and, depending on the nature of the crime, to fine the culprits, to confiscate their goods or to do both. Whereas Jehan van der Stuer and Gerard Janszoon from Oudenburg incurred a fine for taking bullion out of the county in 1446-14483, the Florentine company of the heirs of Ubertino Bardi had their consignment of Greek wines seized in Damme in 14484. Under specific circumstances, Bonnore could allow the accused to come to a financial arrangement or composition, suspending all further proceedings. In the more frequent case of a forfeiture or a collection in kind, he was to draw on his commercial experience and to organise the sale of the goods. Following the arrest of a Dijon merchant who had ignored the ban on English cloth in 1446-1448, he managed to get a good price on the market for each of the man’s possessions, including says, pieces of Brabant cloth, linen, fur coats, squirrel skins and raw silk5. Each year, the receiver was expected to account for all of his activities to the Chambre des Comptes. Apart from a sixteenth-century copy of a fragment, part of the Pièces Comptables in the Archives Départementales du Nord in Lille6, only one of Olivier’s accounts has been preserved. The thirty-folio register, covering the period 1446-1448 and kept in the Belgian State Archives in Brussels7, provides an intriguing window on how central authorities manoeuvred their way into individuals’ daily lives in the fifteenth-century Low Countries. As the diversity of his office brought him into contact, and often also into conflict, with such a wide array of people and institutions, the receiver’s name would, over a period of fifteen years, return in urban and sheriff’s accounts, registers of orphans chambers, cartularies of church fabrics and many more sources as regular as clockwork. When pieced together, they not only allow us to reconstruct a crucial episode in the relationship between the State and its subjects, but also between the State and its officers. 3 4 5 6 7

Archives générales du Royaume, Brussels (hereafter AGR), Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 27 r°. Stadsarchief Brugge (hereafter SAB), Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1447-1453, fol. 77 v°. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 7 r°-v°. Archives Départementales du Nord, Lille (hereafter ADN), B 2463, no. 86945. Robert-Henri BAUTIER, Janine SORNAY, Les sources de l'histoire économique et sociale du Moyen Âge – Les États de la Maison de Bourgogne. Tome I, Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984, p. 56.

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« NON-OBSTANT LE COMMANDEMENT DE MONDIT SEIGNEUR »

2.

“Prestre bastard” and “povre femme trespassee”: anatomy of the taxpayers

The work of the Receiver of Extraordinary Finances did not only touch upon an extremely wide range of aspects of public and private life, the intervention he made into people’s daily business was often substantial, inevitable and irreparable. Bonnore Olivier acquitted himself of his task with a voraciousness which left little room for extenuating circumstances and which could make him cash in more than once on the same occasion. In 1446, he collected the two lb. gr. tax which every patron of a Genoese ship that entered the Zwin estuary was obliged to pay from Luis de Bondenario. Shortly thereafter, Bondenario’s carrack ran into the rocks before the English coast. When Bartolomeo Brixis, a fellow Genoese, tried to sell a piece of cloth which he had rescued from the ship’s cargo in Sluys, Olivier’s sergeants confiscated the merchandise as shipwrecked goods and, thus, belonging to the duke. Five Venetian seamen who had bought part of Brixis’ booty were equally caught and made to let hold of their acquisitions8. Not troubled by age, gender, social, economic or political backgrounds, Bonnore Olivier elbowed his way throughout the Burgundian Low Countries. In 1434 Clare Bardaens had entered the Bruges beguinage of the Wijngaard. Born from an extramarital affair, her goods belonged to the lord with the highest jurisdiction, in this case the Burgundian duke. In 1446-1448 she died and the receiver collected her property worth 17 lb. 6 s. par9. As so many of his fellow foreign merchants, the Italian Jacopo da Carmignano had not only engaged in commercial activities when visiting Bruges10. During his stay, he had also fathered no less than ten illegitimate children. After his death, his legacy worth 28 lb. par. was registered before the city’s Orphans Chamber and two guardians were appointed for the time of the children’s minority. In 1446, one of them, Jannekin, died prematurely, which led Bonnore Olivier to claim 17 of the 28 lb. par. Only after concerted efforts 8 9

10

AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 19 r°, 21 r°, 22 r°. OCMW Archives Bruges, B3A, Accounts Oppermeester Wijngaard Bruges, fol. 2 r° (unfoliated, own foliation). AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 11 v°. For the beguine communities in Flanders, see Walter SIMONS, Cities of Ladies. Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200-1565, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. In 1438, Carmignano held an account with the Milanese Borromei bank in Bruges. http://www.queenmaryhistoricalresearch.org/roundhouse/default.aspx. Two of Carmignano’s sons, Ambrosius and Christoffel, acquired Bruges citizenship. SAB, Poorterboeken, 1434-1550, fol. 3 r°, 71 v°.

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could Olivier be persuaded to sign a composition, a financial arrangement out of court, which enabled the guardians to get hold of Jannekin’s money11. Sometimes the consequences of the receiver’s intervention were still visible in the city’s streetscape years after date. Philips van Roesselare was the bastard son of Jan van Roesselare, a highly respected Bruges alderman and councillor between 1377 and 140412. Philips made his living as a member of the soap workers’ guild and, from 1412 to 1442, served as its master on six occasions.13 In 1437, he collected the city’s excise taxes on Hamburg and Delft beer14. Clearly part of the socially and financially well to do, Philips owned houses and land along the city’s canals15, bought annuities for the benefit of the poor in Sint Kruis near Bruges together with his wife Katheline van Zegghebrouc16 and rubbed shoulders with the cream of foreign merchants, higher clergy and ducal functionaries in the exclusive Confraternity of the Dry Tree17. His success was cut short in 1447, when the soap worker died and his considerable property, worth 9,600 lb. par., fell prey to fellow Dry Tree member Olivier18. Part of the booty were three neighbouring houses with lands, stables and a private pathway situated next to the Prinsenhof, the duke’s lavish Bruges residence in the Noordzandstraat19. The Receiver of Extraordinary Finances sold the real

11

12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19

SAB, Registers Orphans Chamber, Sint-Janszestendeel, Book 4, fol. 20 r°. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 11 v°. The act before the Orphan’s Chamber speaks of a remission, but the arrangement seems to have been agreed by Olivier independently without the involvement of a formal pardon by the prince or a superior officer. For the difference between remissions and compositions, see Bernard DAUVEN and Aude MUSIN, “Composition et rémission: deux modalités complémentaires du droit de grâce? La place de la composition dans le paysage judiciaire bourguignon”, in Marie-Amélie BOURGUIGNON, Bernard DAUVEN, Xavier ROUSSEAUX (ed.), Amender, sanctionner et punir. Recherches sur l’histoire de la peine, du Moyen Âge au XXe siècle, Louvain-laNeuve, Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2012, p. 49-60. SAB, Wetsvernieuwingen Stadsmagistraat, 1377, 1379, 1390, 1391, 1392, 1393, 1394, 1395, 1396, 1398, 1399, 1401, 1402, 1403, 1404. SAB, Wetsvernieuwingen Ambachtsbesturen, Warandatie van de Zeep, 1397-1785, 1412, 1415, 1420, 1423, 1438, 1442. SAB, Urban Accounts, 1436-1438, fol. 11 r°-v°. “Obituaire du Couvent des Carmes à Bruges”, in Annales de la Société d’Emulation, n° 50, 1900, p. 245-248, 251-252. SAB, Cartulary Oude Wittenboek, fol. 189 v°. SAB, Membership Register Confraternity Dry Tree, fol. 31 v°. On the confraternity, see Andrew BROWN, “Civic Ritual: Bruges and the Counts of Flanders in the Later Middle Ages”, in English Historical Review, 112 (446), 1997, p. 291-292. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 13 v°-14 r°. For Olivier’s membership of the Dry Tree, see SAB, Membership Register Confraternity Dry Tree, fol. 2 r°. ADN, B 1606, Onzième Registre des Chartes (1440-1451), fol. 212 v°.

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estate portfolio to Pieter Mennin, who still owned the premises in the 1460s20. Illustration 1: Fragment of the 1562 Bruges city map by Marcus Gerards

Highlighted are the properties between the Ontvangersstraat, the Noordzandstraat and the Helmstraat confiscated by Bonnore Olivier from bastard Philips van Roesselare in 1447. On the left the ducal Prinsenhof residence is visible. Source: © MAGIS Brugge.

Of an even more lasting kind was the impact Olivier had on the life, or, more correctly, the afterlife, of Wulfart van der Burch. Van der Burch, the husband of Marguerite van Halewyn and holder of fiefs in Alveringem and Lampernisse, belonged to one of the most respected families in the castellany of Furnes, that had been very successful in securing seats in the city’s bench of aldermen. According to Hervé Douxchamps, van der Burch was omitted from the family’s genealogies by nineteenth-century historians because he might have been a bastard, a disgrace which was still mentioned by earlier authors21. Bonnore Olivier’s account reveals that Wulfart was not only an illegitimate child but that he took his own life by hanging in 1447, a 20 21

SAB, Registers Orphans Chamber, Sint-Jacobszestendeel, Book 5, fol. 10 r°, 147 v°. Hervé DOUXCHAMPS, “Les quarante familles belges les plus anciennes subsistantes. Burch”, in Le Parchemin, vol. 63, no. 318, 1998, p. 112-125.

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decision which would have embarrassed his family even more. As was the case with anyone who had committed suicide, the totality of his belongings was forfeited for the benefit of the duke and sold for 12,000 lb. par., the highest amount recorded in the account, to his son Joos van der Burch, archducal counsellor and receiver under Maximilian of Austria and Philip the Fair, and to Achilles van der Berghe22. Illustration 2: Portrait of Wulfart van der Burch, whose properties were confiscated by Bonnore Olivier in the castellany of Furnes following the former’s suicide in 1447

Source: © Fondation van der Burch – Château fort d’Ecaussines-Lalaing – photo Marie Henrion.

People living in, trading in or visiting the Burgundian Low Countries around the middle of the 15th century could cross Bonnore Olivier’s path in several stages of their lives, including the ones which today are considered 22

AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 24 v°. Pieter DONCHE, “Joos van der Burch (+ 1497) en de raadsels rond zijn diptiek”, in Vlaamse Stam, vol. 44, no. 1, 2008, p. 61-110.

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as particularly intimate and which, even four centuries later, could discomfit their descendants. The receiver could knock on taxpayers’ doors on more than one occasion and more than once came to take away their whole property. Many tried to resist, few succeeded. In 1456, Colard Bueyds removed the sign that Bonnore Olivier had put up in front of the house he was renting in Bruges. The building was being sold at auction on behalf of the duke after the previous owner, bastard Michiel de Joncheer, had passed away. Bueyds was caught by the sheriff and made to pay 12 lb. par.23.

3.

“Et eut ledit receveur grandes parolles”: anatomy of a tax collector

Running as a red thread through the many confrontations is the strong identification of the office of Receiver of Extraordinary Finances with the person executing it, both on the part of Bonnore Olivier himself and in the perception of his contemporaries. When, in 1452, the city of Bruges sent a messenger to Lille it was to negotiate the release of some of its citizens who, on their way from Biervliet, had been arrested “for certain matters regarding the office of Bonnore Olivier”24. In 1456, the Castilian Pieres de Carbonne was imprisoned in Damme “against Bonnore Olivier, because of his office”25. When, in 1459, the widow of Jan van Raveschote claimed part of the inheritance of Karel Schunkel, the Bruges aldermen thought it better to call upon “Bonhore Olivier or his clerks”26. For the fifteenth-century Burgundian the name of the officer made any specification redundant. If the indelible impression his activities had left on the ones who had had to do with him went a long way towards earning him a reputation as a household name, the rather personal style in which he took care of business should have done the rest. At the end of 1447, the German Hansa complained to the Four Members of Flanders that, in the presence of the Bishop of Tournai, Bonnore Olivier had spoken “many immoral and scandalous words” about its merchants, which was “no way for a good man to behave” and which, it said, it had never encountered with any other officer. The Hansards requested the representative assembly to send for him and to reprimand him severely.

23 24 25 26

AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 13776, Sheriff Account Bruges, 20 sep.-14 dec. 1456, fol. 97 r°. SAB, Urban Accounts, 1452-1453, fol. 31 v°. SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1447-1453, fol. 167 v°. SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1453-1460, fol. 284 r°.

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Bonnore replied that he had nothing to do with the Four Members27. In 1451, the Bruges authorities sent a legal expert to the Bishop of Tournai, head of the ducal council in the absence of the chancellor, to warn him that Olivier had spoken in an offensive way in the aldermen’s chamber28. Two years later, in the same place, the receiver went even further. When a settlement judged by the aldermen was not to his liking, he started acting coarsely and threatened the magistrates. The court’s police force was called for and locked him away. Only after Pierre Bladelin, the maître d’hôtel and a close colleague of Olivier, had made clear that he had acted inappropriately, did the troublemaker calm down and offer his apologies, arguing that he had misunderstood the settlement29. Still he refused to provide a pledge to guarantee the execution of the aldermen’s verdict, believing that his person and his goods were more than sufficient. He was held in custody until two friends were found willing to stand surety for him30. Corruption, abuse of power and the conflict between public and private interests may have been the order of the day for many late medieval officers31, but, here too, Bonnore Olivier and his entourage did more than their bit. In 1441-1442, three years before the start of his ducal career, he had already made a submission, an arrangement to avoid a courtly procedure, for an unspecified crime in Bruges32. Throughout his office, he made a habit of seizing all belongings of merchants caught with only a small amount of banned English cloth33. In 1447, the German Hansa stated that Bonnore’s sergeants had robbed Johan van Woeringen and Pauwels Rode, two of its merchants, of their travel money in Sint-Andries near Bruges34. One of Olivier’s assistants, Pierre Plash, arrested as a young man for pulling a knife and attacking a man in 1429, was even banished from Flemish soil in 1458

27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34

Goswin VON DER ROPP (ed.), Hanserecesse von 1431-1476, Leipzig, Duncker und Humblot, 1876-1892, vol. 7, p. 754, 766-767. SAB, Urban Accounts, 1450-1451, fol. 46 v. SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1447-1453, fol. 328 v°-328 r°. SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1453-1460, fol. 22 v°-23 r°. Willem Pieter BLOCKMANS, “Privaat en openbaar domein. Hollandse ambtenaren voor de rechter onder de Bourgondiërs”, in Jean-Marie DUVOSQUEL, Erik THOEN (ed.), Peasants & Townsmen in medieval Europe. Studia in honorem Adriaan Verhulst, Ghent, SnoeckDucaju, 1995, p. 707-719. Alain DERVILLE, “Pots-de-vin, cadeaux, racket, patronage. Essai sur les mécanismes de décision dans l’État bourguignon”, in Revue du Nord, n° 80, 1988, p. 471-487. SAB, Urban Accounts, 1441-1442, fol. 17 r°. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 7 r°-v°. VON DER ROPP (ed.), Hanserecesse…, p. 827. VON DER ROPP (ed.), Hanserecesse…, p. 754.

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by the Bruges aldermen35. Unfortunately, we do not know the motivation of their verdict. More than once, Bonnore Olivier’s public activities occurred in suspiciously close proximity to his private business. The epicentre of his undertakings was the castellany of Furnes, where, in 1446-1448, he pocketed over 12,000 lb. par. after the suicide of Wulfart van der Burch and where he collected most of his revenues outside the city and the Franc of Bruges36. The receiver was married to Jehane Knibbe, a member of a recently ennobled local family that amassed the highest amount of mandates in the city of Furnes between 1426 and 1450. He owned extensive landed property in the castellany, including possessions near Alveringem37, where van der Burch held his fiefs. Intersecting with the growing tension over the control of the Furnes city council, Reinoud Knibbe had been embroiled in a violent feud with Pierre III van der Burch, Wulfart’s uncle, before 143838. Reinoud’s son Lyman would be appointed guardian of three of Bonnore Olivier’s children after the receiver’s death in 146639. Another of his children, Elisabeth, was married to Anthonius fs Anthonius de Baenst, lord of, among other villages, Alveringem40. In 1453, a Castilian ship sank before the coast of Cadzand. After washing ashore, the freight was confiscated by the receiver and his assistants, but had to be returned to the original owners following a court procedure before the Bruges bench of aldermen. Upon restitution, the Castilians complained that many items had been taken by “those of Cadzand”. Following a short investigation, Bonnore’s clerk Loy Baye was convicted for embezzling part of the cargo41. Olivier himself, who was involved in several dike construction companies in Cadzand and held an ideally situated fief 35 36

37 38

39 40

41

ADN, Chartes de l’Audience, no. 529. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 13772, Sheriff Account Bruges, 9 May-19 September 1429, fol. 6 v°. Olivier realised 56.2 percent of his revenues in 1446-1448 in the city of Bruges, 10.4 percent in the Franc of Bruges and 8.6 percent in the castellany of Furnes. BRAEKEVELT, LAMBERT, “Bonnore Olivier…”, p. 1173. BRAEKEVELT, LAMBERT, “Bonnore Olivier…”, p. 1159-1160. Frederik BUYLAERT, Jonas BRAEKEVELT, “Rural political elites and social networks in late medieval Flanders: the castellany of Furnes”, in Georges MARTYN, René VERMEIR, Chantal VANCOPPENOLLE (ed.), The Flemish Institutions in the Early Modern Era, Brussels, Algemeen Rijksarchief, 2011, p. 87-113. SAB, Registers Orphans Chamber, Sint-Niklaaszestendeel, Book 5, fol. 32 r°. Alveringem was part of the lordship of Zantevelde, inherited by Anthonius after the death of his brother’s daughter in 1497-1498. Library Count F. de Limburg Stirum, Brussels, 17th Century Genealogy De Baenst Family, unfoliated. “Cheulx du pays de Caedsant en avoyent emblé beaucop”. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 13704, Bailiff Account Bruges and Liberty of Bruges, fol. 47v°.

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alongside the shore and across the Zwin mouth in Sluys42, said to have been unaware of his staff’s malversations. The criticisms were all but limited to offensive language and secreting merchandise. In the exercise of his office, Bonnore Olivier violated the privileges and customs of cities, ecclesiastical institutions, noblemen and merchant colonies, causing outrage, official complaints and endless hours of court hearings. He claimed revenues which he was not or only partly entitled to and he interpreted his competences endlessly more liberally than the bailiffs who had preceded him and certainly than the people he had to deal with. Confronted with pirates on the North Sea, the Biscayan captains Fernande dit Caricaval and Jehan Darmenida saw no other choice than to seek refuge in the port of Sluys in 1446-1448. Knowing that their cargo contained English cloth and referring to the ban on such textiles on Flemish soil, Olivier prepared to arrest their freight. The Biscayans resisted, arguing that their privileges enabled them to enter the port freely as long as they did not unload their goods. The receiver gave in, but still did not let them leave without having them agree to a 75 saluts d’or composition43. When, in 1447, he took hold of the bastard goods of Philips van Roesselare for the duke, the provost of the Bruges’ Saint Donatian’s church and the Lord of Maldegem protested that part of the property was situated within their jurisdictions. 804 lb. par. were sequestered, forcing Bonnore to pay another visit to the Great Council44. Also in 1447, the governors of the Tables of the Holy Ghost in Bruges complained to Duke Philip the Good, that as long as anyone could remember, they had been accustomed to administer the totality of the inheritance of those poor in their parish who, during their lifetimes, had enjoyed the institutions’ charity. The revenue from these properties allowed the governors to organise the deceased’s funeral, to look after his or her children and to continue distributing alms and meals to the needy. While previous bailiffs had always respected this, the administrators had now been informed that several of their visitors were being harassed on a daily basis by the Receiver of Extraordinary Finances, who, in their view without any legal grounds, claimed the possessions of those whose parent had committed suicide or was born from an extramarital affair. After consulting his council, the duke decreed that in the future, the goods of the poor who had been

42 43 44

SAB, Leenhof Burg Brugge, 1435, fol. 51 v°. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 20 r°. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 13 v°-14 r°.

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supported by the Tables of the Holy Ghost in Bruges would be exempt from any claims by Olivier or any other receiver up to the amount of 24 lb. par.45. Biscayan shipmasters, local magnates and Flemish charitable institutions were far from the only victims of Bonnore’s alacrity. Genoese merchants, the viscount of Bergues Saint-Winoc, Castilian traders and many others alike denounced his lack of respect for their rights. The German Hansa was driven to such despair by the receiver’s violations of their privileges that they openly wondered whether he even realised they had any at all46. With the subtlety of a ramming rod, Bonnore Olivier ploughed himself a way through the delicate landscape of privileges and customs, itself often the result of centuries of meticulous negotiations.

4.

“Ledit Bonnore a delayé de venir compter”: when the controller escapes control

Despite the trail of controversy he left behind and the fact that he worked in an era in which the ducal administration was dominated by rivalling factions and merciless settlements, Olivier remained in office for about fifteen years. There are strong indications to assume that at least part of the stir he caused was intentional and part of a bigger plan. The long list of authorities that Philip the Good had entrusted to the receiver in 1445 covered many areas of the public and private domain where the claims of Burgundian fiscality had not been firmly established yet and were often heavily contested by others. A memorandum sent to ducal secretary Fierabras Boids in March 1445, one month before Olivier’s appointment, even gives away the idea behind the creation of the new office quite explicitly. Boids had to gain more information about “those rights and matters which must and could belong to the extraordinary revenues”47. Bonnore Olivier was perhaps the most complete exponent of that fiscalité par intermédiaire or fiscality by proxy that became increasingly popular in Burgundian finance from the 1430s and 1440s onwards. Invested with a very high degree of independence, reflected both in the authorities he was given and in his remuneration, and, thus, absolving the duke himself of most 45

46 47

OCMW Archives Bruges, Table of Our Lady Bruges, charter no. 242. For the Tables of the Holy Ghost in Bruges, see Michael GALVIN, “Credit and Parochial Charity in Fifteenth-Century Bruges”, in Journal of Medieval History, 28, 2002, p. 131-154. VON DER ROPP (ed.), Hanserecesse…, p. 755. “Toutes les droitures et choses qui doivent et peuent competer et appartenir a notre recepte extraordinaire”. ADN, B 17665, folder “Olivier (Bonnore)-receveur de l'extraordinaire”.

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responsibility in the eyes of the beholders, it was his job to break the ice, to claim new territories for the Burgundian treasury or at least to create precedents which could be exploited by others later. Established by patent letters, the prerogatives of the new office could only be disputed in the ducal courts: while questioning the authority of other tribunals, such as the Bruges aldermen, to judge his activities48, Olivier’s 1446-1448 account contains several references to contestations which would only be settled before the Great Council. Either the receiver won and some more revenue was secured for the ducal cause, or he did not and the prince could intervene as a benevolent mediator, reconciling his subjects with his unruly officer49. Still, considering the highly polemic way in which Bonnore Olivier conducted business, it is not always easy to determine whether the receiver only crossed those boundaries which he was supposed to cross, or whether he took his assignment too seriously even for the ones who had appointed him. In the two years covered by Olivier’s only remaining account, an internal document, he was repeatedly overruled and reprimanded by members of the ducal household. In the spring of 1446, the Portuguese knight Fernão Gonçalves de Miranda visited Philip the Good. He remained at court for the next four months, was appointed ducal counsellor and chamberlain and provided with a pension of thirty-six sols a day. On 10 October, he left for Portugal again, sent on a secret mission by the duke50. Twenty miles outside the harbour the mission ended in tragedy: the Castilian ship carrying the embassy perished in a storm before Walraversijde and, apart from five seamen who could save themselves by clinging on to a piece of wreck wood, the whole crew drowned. Bonnore salvaged the cargo, but was ordered to return the recuperated pieces of clothing to the lucky survivors by Duchess Isabel of Portugal herself51. Another ship sank in Baasrode near Dendermonde, a seigniory which technically was no part of the county of Flanders but where Olivier, according to ducal letters issued in 1454, was entitled to collect taxes52. The vessel was owned by a Ghent citizen but the madder and other commodities it transported belonged to merchants from Tournai and Valenciennes. After storing the goods, Bonnore was summoned to Brussels by Philip the Good 48 49 50

51 52

SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1453-1460, fol. 21 r°-v°. BRAEKEVELT, LAMBERT, “Bonnore Olivier…”, p. 1157. Jacques PAVIOT, Portugal et Bourgogne au XVe siècle (1384-1482): recueil de documents extraits des archives bourguignonnes, Paris, Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, 1995, p. 40, 112-113, 365-366. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 17 r°-v°. ADN, B 17676, folder “Tenremonde – bailli”.

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and was made to understand he had to give the merchandise back immediately, as it concerned a very sad accident. On his way back, Olivier passed through Ghent, where he ran into the disadvantaged merchants. They made him appear before the local aldermen, who asked him again to let go of the goods and added that anything carried on a ship that was property of a Ghent citizen was exempt from any confiscations. Bonnore thought their requests were unreasonable and categorically refused to comply, “notwithstanding the order of my said lord”. Another animated quarrel followed and only after the intervention of some “good and notable people” did the receiver arrange a composition with the merchants from Tournai and Valenciennes. The motivation he gave for his obstinacy was that to cave in would be detrimental to the duke’s finances and could set a dangerous precedent for the future53, a reasoning which he also voiced in other cases. What was never brought up, was the performance based contract that had assured the duke of his loyalty, guaranteeing Olivier a fifth of all revenues from his office plus expenses and yielding more than 3,967 lb. par. between 1446 and 1448 alone. The absence of a clear dividing line between the private and the public domain that allowed Philip the Good to divert the attention on his officers, equally enabled Bonnore to lend a cast of ducal approval to the pursuit of his personal interests. In 1454, the aldermen of Damme and Sluys accused the receiver of stocking oil, a product that often figured in the rescued cargoes of ships, on his own account, a practice that went against the stipulations of the Bruges staple54. The same year the Castilian nation outwitted Olivier by claiming he had saved shipwrecked goods in his capacity as private entrepreneur, rather than as public officer55. Even when taking into account the grey zone between the official discourse and the real nature of the job, which constituted the essence of his work, it seems as if the receiver who had a deeper impact on Burgundians’ daily lives than any of his fellow officers was escaping all control himself. This naturally met with fierce resistance from the supreme control organ of Burgundian finance, the Chambre des Comptes. Already in 1445, Chancellor Rolin and the maîtres des comptes had opposed the creation of the new office as it would deprive the traditional bailiwicks of most of their revenues and would considerably jeopardize their proper functioning. The way in 53 54 55

“Non obstant le commandement de mondit seigneur”. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 3154, fol. 8 r°-v°. AGR, Chambres des Comptes, no. 33593, Urban Account Damme, 1453-1454, fol. 19 r°. SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1453-1460, fol. 21 r°-v°.

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which Bonnore put his commission into practice only increased their concerns: the marginal notes of the 1446-1448 account suggest that the receiver had still not presented his documents for inspection in Lille in 1450. Numerous reminders and fines were issued to no avail. Particularly during the second half of the 1450s, the period in which he spent most of his time chasing a noble title in his North Italian region of birth56, Olivier ignored every call to account for his business. In 1454, the Chambre des Comptes did succeed in reducing his remuneration from twenty to 12.5 percent of his revenues, but their plea to abolish his office altogether was rejected57. His authorities were only restricted when the receiver himself indicated he could not cope with all his responsibilities in July 144658. In 1461, Bonnore Olivier resigned from all of his duties. The maîtres des comptes were still demanding to hear his accounts59.

5.

Concluding remarks: the double-edged sword of social control

Following Olivier’s resignation, former Bruges alderman Adriaan Screvel was appointed the new Receiver of Extraordinary Finances60. Unfortunately, neither his accountancy nor that of any of his successors has been preserved. As such, the 1446-1448 account remains a unique witness of the often very concrete way in which the State intervened in its subjects’ lives around the middle of the 15th century. For fifteen years, people living in the Burgundian Low Countries had had to deal with Bonnore Olivier when they tried to come to grips with the suicide of their loved ones, when they wanted to settle the inheritance of their bastard parents or when they sought to find what was left of their sunken ship. The receiver’s power cut both ways though: the very same document that embodies the tightening grip of the Burgundian State also illustrates its inadequacy, as the one who was responsible for the account’s content managed to avoid its grasp, also for fifteen years.

56 57 58 59 60

Jonas BRAEKEVELT, Bart LAMBERT, “Genoese Merchant, Burgundian Officer and Ligurian Lord : the Many Metamorphoses of Bonnore Olivier”, forthcoming. BRAEKEVELT, LAMBERT, “Bonnore Olivier…”, p. 1188. ADN, B 17665, folder “recette extraordinaire de Flandre”. ADN, B 17688, folder “recette extraordinaire de Flandre”. SAB, Civiele Sententiën Vierschaar, 1453-1460, fol. 382 v°.

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Table des matières Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Welcoming Speech. The Belgian State Archives and the historical research: Current state and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Karel Velle Les archives des Chambres des comptes aux Archives générales du Royaume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Lieve De Mecheleer D’une éthique des marchands à un droit comptable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Gérard Minaud Comptabilité provinciale, écriture du crime et modèles de disciplinement dans les Terres de l’Église (XIIIe-XVe siècles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Armand Jamme Les engrenages cachés. Comptabilités « d’usage » pour l’histoire de l’officium inquisitionis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Luca Fois Punir et composer. La justice artésienne sous le règne de la comtesse Mahaut (1302-1329) à travers les comptes de bailliages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Christelle Balouzat-Loubet Justice et police dans le Barrois (1320-1420). Les structures administratives à partir des sources comptables de prévôtés . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Mathias Bouyer Instruments de « politique criminelle », témoins de la justice ou reflets des désordres ? L’exemple des comptes du maire de Nivelles en Brabant (1378-1550) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Xavier Rousseaux


La comptabilité d’un officier de justice à Lille à la fin du XIVe siècle. Le gouverneur du souverain bailliage de Lille, Douai et Orchies (1379-1390) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Jean-Baptiste Santamaria Les exploits de justice dans les comptabilités domaniales du comté de Bourgogne au début du XVe siècle. Au-delà de la volonté gestionnaire . . . . . . . 179 Sylvie Bépoix De accusationibus, inquisitionibus ac poenis. Qualiter et quando sit ad inquisitionem procedendum. Particularisme juridique et contrôle social dans le duché de Savoie au milieu du XVe siècle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Daniela Cereia Les cisterciennes du Val-Benoît et leurs « compteurs ». Une emprise laïque sur une communauté religieuse (milieu XVe siècle) ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Adèle Berthout Les comptes de la ville d’Augsbourg et les formes du contrôle social à la fin du Moyen Âge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Dominique Adrian “Non obstant le commandement de mondit seigneur”. Bonnore Olivier’s account and the double-edged sword of social control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Bart Lambert Account and Town Records as Mirrors of Social Change and Control in the 15th and 16th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Christian Speer Une « comptabilité » des fous ? Nouvelles approches pour l’étude de l’internement et du contrôle social entre le XVIIe et le XVIIIe siècle : sources, méthodologie et perspectives de recherche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Lisa Roscioni Les comptes « perdus » de la ville de Mons (1700-1794). Une source pour l’histoire du contrôle social urbain en Hainaut au XVIIIe siècle. Contenu et perspectives de recherche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Kevin Troch Table ronde du vendredi 14 décembre 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Pistes de recherche et de réflexion. Quelques remarques en guise de conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Lars Behrisch

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TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Résumés / Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Les auteurs / The Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Table des matières / Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

345

S 154

In recent years, the topic of accounts from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period has experienced a historiographic renewal of interest from several standpoints, including the source itself in its materiality and within the context of the literate culture (monument ), the institutions producing those sources or the use of the data from the accounts (document ). Yet, the importance of these sources for the history of social control had hardly been discussed in scientific meetings until the Brussels conference. The proceedings of this conference consider several aspects of this issue, including the critical analysis of the sources, the way institutions and groups were controlled and the control they exerted themselves, the administration of justice and the digital stakes regarding these source collections. Most papers focus on the transition period between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (14th-16th c.), although some other aspects were highlighted for the 18th century. Most of the papers in this volume concentrate on the Belgian, French, Savoyard, Burgundian and Dutch territories, while some of them deal with England or the Holy Roman Empire.

5463 ISBN 978-90-5746-783-7

9789057467837

Illustration de couverture : Bruxelles, Archives générales du Royaume, Chambre des comptes, comptes en registres, 12878, comptes de Jehan de Neuverue maire de Nivelles, 1423-1425, folio 1 recto.

en Belgique 154

chives de es de l’État en Be elgique A

Monuments ou documents ? Les comptabilités, sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles) Monuments or documents ? Accounts : sources for the history of social control (13th-18th c.)

Médiévales ou modernes, les comptabilités font depuis quelques années l’objet d’un renouveau historiographique sous des angles variés, incluant la source elle-même, en lien avec sa matérialité et la culture de l’écrit (monument ), les institutions productrices ou l’exploitation des données (document ). L’intérêt de ces sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social n’avait en revanche guère fait l’objet de rencontres ; c’est chose faite avec le colloque de Bruxelles. Ses actes abordent différents aspects de cette question, de la critique des sources au contrôle des institutions et des groupes en passant par l’administration de la justice et les enjeux numériques de ces collections. La période de transition entre le Moyen Âge et les temps modernes (XIVe-XVIe siècles) est privilégiée par la plupart des communications, bien que d’autres aspects aient été mis en lumière pour le XVIIIe siècle. Sur le plan géographique, les territoires belges, italiens, français, savoyards, bourguignons et néerlandais ont concentré l’essentiel des recherches présentées dans ce volume, avec quelques excursions en Angleterre ou dans le Saint-Empire.

S tudia

Monuments ou documents ? Les comptabilités, sources pour l’histoire du contrôle social (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles) Monuments or documents ? Accounts : sources for the history of social control (13th - 18th c.)

at en Belgique Archives d A ude

É dité par W irth -J aillard , A ude M usin , N athalie D emaret , E mmanuel B odart , X avier R ousseaux

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tat en Belgi