‎Ben Eersels, Jelle Haemers (eds)‎
‎Words and Deeds. Shaping Urban Politics from below in Late Medieval Europe‎

‎, Brepols, 2020 Hardback, 224 pages, Size:178 x 254 mm, Language: English. ISBN 9782503583860.‎

Reference : 65692

‎Summary This book focuses on the city and urban politics, because historically towns have been an interesting laboratory for the creation and development of political ideas and practices, as they are also today. The contributions in this volume shed light on why, how and when citizens participated in the urban political process in late medieval Europe (c. 1300-1500). In other words, this book reconsiders the involvement of urban commoners in political matters by studying their claims and wishes, their methods of expression and their discursive and ideological strategies. It shows that, in order to garner support for and establish the parameters of the most important urban policies, medieval urban governments engaged regularly in dialogue with their citizens. While the degree of citizens' active involvement differed from region to region and even from one town to the next, political participation never remained restricted to voting for representatives at set times. This book therefore demonstrates that the making of politics was not the sole prerogative of the government; it was always, to some extent, a bottom-up process as well. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Shaping urban politics from below. Citizen participation in late medieval Europe Jelle Haemers & Ben Eersels Part I: Institutional bargaining. Councils and institutions of broader participation The Universitas Massilie, an Assembly of the Whole City? Power Struggles and Social Tensions in Marseille During the 14th Century, Fran ois Otchakovsky-Laurens Popular politics and political transformation in Burgos, 1345-1426 Pablo Gonzalez Martin The introduction of large councils in late medieval towns: the example of Stockholm Sofia Gustafsson Part II: Interest groups and interactions. Craft guilds in urban politics Requested and consented by the good crafts. A new approach to the political power of craft guilds in late medieval Maastricht (1380-1428) Ben Eersels Craftsmen, urban councils, and political power in the Swabian cities of the Holy Roman Empire (14th-15th centuries) Dominique Adrian Giving Artisans a Voice: The Political Participation of Guilds in German Towns Sabine Von Heusinger Part III: Discourse, ideology and conflict Injury and Remedy. The language of contention in the southern Low Countries, 13th-16th centuries Jelle Haemers Discourse and collective actions of popular groups in Castilian towns before the 'Revolt of the Comuneros': the case of Valladolid Beatriz Majo Tom Ideologies and political participation of the commons in urban life of Northern Atlantic Spain during the late Middle Ages Jesus Solorzano Telechea The Politics of Record-Keeping in Fifteenth-Century English Towns Eliza Hartrich Conclusion: urban revolts and communal politics in the Middle Ages: problems and perspectives Jan Dumolyn‎