Civic Cohesion in Turbulent Times: Galbert of Bruges, the Urban Community and the Murder of the Count of Flanders in 1127

Abstract

This contribution will examine the nature of the urban community in early twelfth-century Flanders on the basis of Galbert of Bruges’ De multro, traditione et occisione Karoli comitis Flandriarum, an account of the murder of Charles the Good, the count of Flanders, in 1127. A clerk at the chancery of the Flemish counts in Bruges, Galbert wrote an insider’s perspective on an urban community in turmoil. His work was an attempt to come to terms with a disruptive episode in the city’s recent past and reaffirm its civic identity, towards the citizens themselves and in relation to its worldly overlords and neighbouring towns. This article thus explores a number of crucial aspects of citizenship in the high medieval Low Countries, e.g. who belonged to the urban community and who did not; which public actions were legitimate and which ones were to be avoided; what goals an urban community should pursue, who was to pursue them and through what means.