[p. 523] Urban Diplomatics in the Northern Low Countries

Origin of the town secretariat

Let us focus now on the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch, a town in the province of North Brabant with a population of 10.000 in 1300 and fifteen thousand people in the fourteenth and fifteenth century15. The earliest evidence of urban diplomatics is the so-called “privilege of the city”, granted by the Duke of Brabant at the end of the twelfth century16. This right possibly came into existence with cooperation from, and in close agreement with, the town representatives and the Duke, and consolidated a system of rights which had existed earlier. This charter is the oldest product to be passed on from the town [p. 526] charter practices and remains for at least four decades the only charter in the urban context. In the second quarter of the thirteenth century (more specifically the period 1230-22 November 1245) the town concentrated in all probability on updating “the city privilege” from the end of the twelfth century17. Although this was passed on as a deperditum, the contribution of the town has been indirectly established by Kruisheer. He proved that the so-called keure of Haarlem was based on the — now lost — charter of ’s-Hertogenbosch, and that there must have circulated annotated written versions in the city18.

The first town charter in the name of the bailiff, the aldermen — named scabini — the jurats and the citizens of ’s-Hertogenbosch only surfaces in 124219. From that moment onwards a steady stream of charters is set in motion. First charters by the bailiff, aldermen, jurats and the citizens and later by two aldermen. The first charter to be passed on — decreed by the aldermen of ’s-Hertogenbosch — dates from 125820. Alongside this the town also validated with the town seal two charters, emanating from its citizens21. From 1260 onwards we witness in every successive decade from the thirteenth century at least a 100 % increase in the number of charters decreed, up to almost 50 charters between 1290 and 129922. For the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we can talk in numbers of thousands of original charters which were passed on, not counting the charters which were only passed on as transcripts or known as deperdita. In the thirteenth century, town production only comprised of charters, specifically charters on voluntary jurisdiction. No trace of town accountability, such as that which was, for example, passed down from the town of Dordrecht in the thirteenth century23, can be found in this period for ’s-Hertogenbosch. Although town charter practices began just before the middle of the thirteenth century, the employment of the first permanent town scribe can only be determined with 100 % certainty approximately hundred years after the founding of the town24. This scribe was practically solely responsible for the entire charter production for the town in the period 1281-1311. He also took upon [p. 527] himself the task of writing charters for other individuals and institutions, meant for the town, such as among others the Duke of Brabant25, the Lord of Boxtel26, the Deans of Woensel27, as well as an agreement between the abbey of Echternach and a local lord28. This research into the initial phase of the town secretariat and the urban diplomatics has been exclusively carried out using the palaeographic-diplomatic method of research. Insights into the organization and structure of the town secretariat can only be obtained by this method. The source material itself from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries does not contain obvious data about the towns’ administrative organization29. The first steps to create a town administrative secretariat are only visible fifty years after the first urban charters were drawn up. A similar pattern is evident in the towns of Holland and Zeeland. In the fourteenth century the structure of the secretariat in ’s-Hertogenbosch was expanded with a permanent body of scribes, who wrote all the charters for the aldermen according to rigid and well-balanced guidelines30.

Nature of the production

When we want to determine the nature of the production of the town secretariat we have to make a distinction again between the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century and the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. In the first phase the activities of the town secretariat were limited to granting and updating town privileges, conceptualising and writing charters, with a comparative proclivity towards charters on voluntary jurisdiction, the provision for external correspondence of the town’s governing body with towns in the Low Countries and with more distant locations, the preparation of certificates for the guilds, bonds and obligations for citizens from ’s-Hertogenbosch as well as for others, economic rules and by-laws, and affairs concerning water management (polder letters), etc. Whether or not there was also a possibility of any form of transcribed accounts within the town secretariat at this time is still a tricky question. There are neither direct nor indirect indications of the [p. 528] existence of such sources31. Also the codification of ordinances in any form is lacking, in contrast to Tournai and Flemish towns such as Saint-Omer and Lille, where records of town ordinances were kept from as early as the thirteenth century32. During the second stage, the second half of the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, we see the emergence of several new typological sources such as accounts, records of voluntary jurisdiction, records of legal verdicts, cartularies, civil registers etc. It is possible that a number of these sources have their roots in the first phase, but there is no obvious proof of this33.

Development and expansion

The development and expansion of the town secretariat in ’s-Hertogenbosch took place relatively unhindered. Neither within the city walls nor in the direct vicinity were there, in fact, any great potentially competitive offices which possessed an extensive writing centre. There was no chancery of the bishop nor official’s chancery, such as the one present in Utrecht34. Another potentially dominant factor, the chancery of the duchy of Brabant, was still in its initial [p. 529] stage of development and, therefore, could not be viewed as a serious competitor35. During the thirteenth and fourteenth century the town secretariat even took on part of the production of some of the charters issued by the duchy36. The office of the notary also did not have the power to curb the expansion of the town secretariat. The transfer and encumbrance of property in the district ‘de Meierij’ of ’s-Hertogenbosch had to be done before the aldermen of the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch or in the place where the property was situated37. Indeed, the presence of the first notaries dates from 131738, the point at which the town secretariat was already firmly established. There is really no question of two clearly separated bodies within the town, because a large number of notaries also carried out the function of town scribe39. In the period 1383-1531 sixteen of the twenty-six town clerks were also notaries40. We can even speak of a peaceful coexistence of aldermen and notaries in the area of charter production41. Failing the presence of any other office for the production of charters, the town secretariat could flourish unfettered. Other centres of production which could have severely inhibited the developmental process in its early phase, such as the presence of an abbey or a religious chapter where the production of charters was carried out, were not present in the newly founded town. We see examples of such a state of affairs in Utrecht and Middelburg, where respectively the canons from the local chapters and the scribes from the abbey transcribed the charters at the request of the towns’ governing bodies42. The town secretariat of ’s-Hertogenbosch, therefore, enjoyed a high level of [p. 530] expansion which was not only due to factors such as economic development, a strong increase in the population, its role as an administrative and judicial centre of the district “de Meierij”, but also to its enormous pulling-power as a writing centre which it exercised on the surrounding area. The recording and expedition of deeds of transfer was indeed not restricted to transactions in the town, but also included property transactions from all over its district. For example, with regard to the charters governing real estate which were recorded in the town register during the period 1397-1399, the town-country ratio is as follows : 80 % of the transactions have to do with goods from outside the town and its jurisdiction, while only 16 % concern goods from within the town itself43. The main reason behind the fact that people from all over the district chose to have these transactions recorded and authenticated in ’s-Hertogenbosch was the prevailing right of the ‘ingebod’44. This implied that on the basis of the charters issued, creditors could summon debtors who lived outside the city and who did not fulfil their obligations, to stand before the bailiff’s courtroom and demand satisfaction, up to and including the confiscation of goods and public auction45. The legal security that this compulsory procedure gave to the parties involved increased the number of charters recorded in ’s-Hertogenbosch and reduced the number of charters produced by some of the smaller local offices in the region. The development and success of the town writing centre in ’s-Hertogenbosch is therefore largely due to the absence of competitive writing centres and the appeal which it had to the surrounding area as a professional producer of charters.

Sealing, form of dating and language of the charters

The form in which the town production increased can be, broadly speaking, divided typologically, into three categories : firstly, the large group of charters, secondly the records, and thirdly the documentary scrolls. I will focus on the charters. The charters from ’s-Hertogenbosch have seals, as do most of the charters from towns in the Low Countries. Exceptions to this are the charters from the aldermen’s chest of Arnhem46 and the records of Middelburg47 and [p. 531] Kampen48. In Arnhem the charters were not given to the recipient, but rather stored in the aldermen’s chest, the locus credibilis. In Middelburg and Kampen, charters on voluntary jurisdiction were kept in registers. The chirograph, as known from cities as for example Nivelles49 and Tournai50, does not occur in the region of the Northern Low Countries. During the first phase, the town charters from ’s-Hertogenbosch, including the charters concerning property transactions and those where only the bailiff was involved, were given the town’s seal51. This practice changed completely from the seventies of the thirteenth century, with the unique exception of the aldermen’s seals in 126152. Peculiar to ’s-Hertogenbosch is also the fact that in exceptional circumstances the usual aldermen’s seal in the fourteenth century was replaced by a small (town) seal ad legata53. The aldermen’s charters moreover, had no longer the town seal, but the personal official seals of the aldermen. The use of personal official seals in ’s-Hertogenbosch is remarkable. It is comparable to the practice in Maastricht54 but differs from the practice in the region of Holland and Zeeland, Utrecht and South-West Brabant. The aldermen in ’s-Hertogenbosch [p. 532] have seals with their names on them and a description of their position ‘scabinus in Busco/Busco-ducis’55. On the seals used in Utrecht, Aardenburg, Bergen op Zoom56, Breda57, Roosendaal58, Nijmegen, Dordrecht, Delft and Middelburg, a description of the aldermen’s function is not given59. In the region of West Brabant a number of aldermen in the thirteenth and fourteenth century did not yet have their own seals, but asked for the seal to be issued by other groups of aldermen, local dignitaries or the clergy60.

As far as the form of dating is concerned, ’s-Hertogenbosch adhered to the Easter style which was maintained in Brabant61, with a day reference to the church calendar. In the middle of the fifteenth century the Easter style is also recognized by others as the official year style of the town of ’s-Hertogenbosch. In a charter from Vught, a small village nearby, the system of dating reads as follows : “Dit is uytgesproecken ende gesciet opten XVIIIsten dach van februario in den iair ons Heren dusent vierhondert ende tsestich, na gewoenten van scriven [p. 533] der stat van den Busch”62. Also in a charter of the hereditary Field Marshall of Brabant, the date is explicitly referred to as follows : “Ghegheven ende gedaen opten neghensten dach in februario int jaer ons Heren dusent vierhondert ende neghen ende veertich na costume van scrivenen in der stadt van den Bossche”63.

The last aspect I will mention is the use of the language, the choice between Latin or the vernacular. As far as the type of language used in the town secretariat is concerned, one has to distinguish between the charters issued by the town’s governing body, and the charters of voluntary jurisdiction : with regard to the first category, the move from Latin to Dutch took place in the first half of the fourteenth century. With regard to the second category, the scribes rigidly stuck to Latin until the middle of the sixteenth century. It was on 12 October 1552 that the governing body of ’s-Hertogenbosch finally decided that henceforth Dutch had to be the official language of the aldermen’s charters of ’s-Hertogenbosch, despite protests from the cities’ secretaries. The act could only be drawn up in Latin upon the specific request of the parties concerned64.

In the whole eastern part of the province of North Brabant charters in the vernacular surface in the last decades of the thirteenth century65. Broadly speaking, one can say that around the middle of the fourteenth century the vernacular was used in a large number of places66. In the western region of the [p. 534] province we have to wait until the beginning of the fourteenth century to see the first vernacular in the charters of the city. In Breda charters in the vernacular date from 1307 and 130867, but afterwards, Latin continued to be predominantly chosen until the middle of the fourteenth century68. In Bergen op Zoom the aldermen issued their first Dutch charter in 130469, in Steenbergen in 130570 and in Wouw in 131071. The move from Latin to the vernacular occurred much earlier in Holland and Zeeland : here it showed up in the second half of the thirteenth century and had completely replaced Latin in the fourteenth-century charters72.

The late surfacing of the vernacular in the province of North Brabant, compared to Holland and Zeeland is thus remarkable.