Military Pay and Taxation in Early 16th Century Holland during the Guelders War
James P. Ward
Illustrations here show the Old Stock Exchange (Oude Beurs) at Antwerp, still partly existing, and a public notice provided by the Cornelis Floris Society which reads as follows:
OLD STOCK EXCHANGE
In the 15th century a stock exchange was housed in the courtyard of a building called 'The Rhine'. The wooden structure of that 'Oude Beurs' (Old Stock Exchange) was renewed in 1515 with stone pillars. The “Pagadder” Tower from which ships on the River Schelde could be observed dates from the first half of the 16th century.
This article is based on early 16th century sources in the archives of Holland. It contains data on pay scales to different ranks of professional soldiers (landsknechts) in the Burgundian-Habsburg armies at the time of the Guelders War. The article also contains data on pay to civilians in Holland guarding towns and cities against attack by Guelders forces.
Costs of the war and the high level of taxation by extra-ordinary aides are described. Two monetary standards of payment, one in Philips Guilders and a 20 percent higher pay standard in Gold Guilders are revealed. This led on several occasions to discontent among soldiers on the lower rate, and to mutinies, several of which are described. As a result of their opposition to the many extra-ordinary aides needed to pay the soldiers, the cities of Holland in 1507 won for themselves the right to inspect the numbers of men engaged by the government at The Hague, and to audit the accounts of the extra-ordinary aides.
As the war intensified the government, with the cities of Holland as guarantors, borrowed increasingly large sums of money from merchant bankers in order to pay the soldiers it hired. By this arrangement the cities of Holland had to make legally binding agreements with the bankers, pledging their contributions to the extra-ordinary aides to pay the interest on those loans. Consequently, from 1512 onwards there was a transition to a system of long term public borrowing. In the early 16th century two merchant bankers from Antwerp were active in arranging loans in Holland; Hieronymus (Girolamo) Frescobaldi, and Balthazar Busin.
READ MORE: MilitaryPayandTaxation.pdf
Louise von Baden and Christoph von Schmid’s “Biblische Geschichte”
James P. Ward
The book which is shown in photographs below is believed on circumstantial evidence to have belonged to Princess Louise Amalia Stephanie (1811-1854), Princess of Baden, and subsequently to her brother-in-law William, 11th duke of Hamilton (1811-1863), whose wife was Maria Amalia Elisabeth Caroline (1817-1888), Princess of Baden, dowager duchess of Hamilton.
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Click on the images for a large view
READ MORE: Louise von Baden and Christoph von Schmids Biblische Geschichte.pdf
The
Government's use of hostage-taking (Gijzeling) in Early Sixteenth
Century Holland to enforce extra-ordinary aides for the Guelders
war
James P. Ward
The Tax Collectors
attrib. Reymerswaele
Suppliants in the office of two tax collectors
This article (here with its
original title and with the references in the footnotes included in full
at the end) was printed and published as J. P. Ward, "Hostage taking (Gijzeling)
in Early Sixteenth Century Holland, and the Guelders War" in: L. Sicking
and M. Damen (eds), Bourgondie voorbij. De Nederlanden 1250-1650.
Liber alumnorum Wim Blockmans, Hilversum 2010; pp. 355-366.
Abstract: A major theme in the work of Wim Blockmans is his
research into early institutions of popular representation in the Low
Countries and in Europe generally. Chief among those institutions in the
Low Countries from the late Middle Ages onward were the States General
and the States of the individual provinces. Blockmans proposed a number
of conditions necessary for popular institutions of representation to be
successful, one of the most important of which was a willingness of
partners to negotiate agreement. Consensus presupposes a state of law
and order in which the interests, rights and privileges of the citizen
and of the government are recognised and protected. Blockmans listed
sanctions which lay authorities in the Low Countries in the late
medieval and early modern period could impose in order to maintain law
and order. Chief among them were corporal punishments, banishment,
enforced pilgrimages, the pillory, and money fines.
The sanctions named did not exhaust the authorities' means to persuade
or coerce its citizens to behave themselves in a civil manner, because a
milder measure used was a form of hostage-taking or detention called
gijzeling. The article consists of two parts. The first describes
the procedure of gijzeling. The second part describes the use to
which the government in Holland put gijzeling in the early
sixteenth century during negotiations with city magistrates about the
supply or aides. More exactly, the article describes the enforced
consent to and payment of extra-ordinary aides for the Guelders war.
It is also proposed that the long delays caused by the legal processes
were a factor in the introduction in 1512 of a newer method of raising
money for the government by long term bankers' loans, where the interest
on the loans was paid by the cities of Holland from the aides.
READ MORE: Ward, Gijzeling, Bourgondie voorbij.pdf
Keynesianism before Keynes?
Unemployed weavers and a proposal made at Leiden in 1523
James P. Ward
Dirc Ottensz, a burgomaster of Leiden ca. 1520
This note describes a proposal contained in
anonymous letters to the magistrates of
READ MORE: KeynesLeiden.pdf
Military Drill and Words
of Command. Queen Elizabeth II’s “Spin-wheel” and Emperor Maximilian I’s
“Snail”
James P. Ward
Landsknechts
Guards Band
British sovereigns celebrate their official birthdays with an Honours List , and traditionally with a military parade called The Trooping of the Colour which is held every year on the second Saturday in June. There the sovereign presents new Colours and takes the salute of the regiments of guards at a march past on Horse Guards Parade in London. The parade with its ceremonial is shown on BBC television every year to millions of viewers worldwide. A detail is that at a certain point in the ceremony the massed bands of the guards are lined up, standing at attention on the parade ground, but as a result of earlier movements they are facing, as it were, “the wrong way”. The trombone players appear at the back, while the (bag)pipes and drums are at the front, the reverse of the normal order. But at a word of command the whole formation begins in slow marching time to make a massive turning movement which appears to be unique in the annals of military drill.
At that point in the proceedings television commentators invariably remark on how complicated the movement is, and how its origins appear to be unknown. Military men who are present to give advice to the television people, and to add comment for the viewers, are also at a loss to explain the origins of the drill. A website dedicated to the Trooping of the Colour affirms that “it is the responsibility of the Garrison Sergeant Major to ensure by rehearsals that it is executed correctly”, and moreover, “that it appears in no drill book or manual of ceremonial , but is passed down from memory to each new generation of bandsmen”. This appears therefore to be a prime example of oral history. It opens the way, moreover, for investigation into the origins of military drill movements in general, and especially this one called the “Spin-wheel” which is performed by the guards at the British sovereign’s official birthday parade.
READ MORE: spintwo.pdf
Participative government in
James P. Ward
Emperor Maximilian I
Emperor Charles V
Regent Margaret
Stadholder
of Austria
Jan van Egmond
In common with other modern states the
One of the oldest such institutions still functioning
is the Hoogheemraadschap of Rijnland, the district surrounding
READ MORE: Participative government; LIAS (2004)
HADRIANUS
BARLANDUS AND A CATALOG OF THE
COUNTS AND COUNTESSES OF HOLLAND PUBLISHED
AT AMSTERDAM BY DOEN PIETERSZ
James P. Ward
Jacob Cornelisz van Oostzanen
At the beginning
of the sixteenth century the printer Doen Pietersz published a series of
woodcuts by the artist Jacob Cornelisz of Oostzanen (1470-1533),
depicting the counts and countesses of Holland from the tenth to the
sixteenth century. Editions of this `Catalogus’ are known which are
accompanied by anonymous texts in Latin and in French which provide
short biographies of the persons depicted.
The series with texts in Latin is described here, and questions which
are addressed are: who was their author, what were his sources, how
accurate are the histories of the counts and countesses, and how are
they to be evaluated as examples of early sixteenth century
historiography. It is shown that Hadrianus Barlandus (1487-1539) was the
author, and the so-called `Divisiekroniek’ of Cornelius Aurelius (c.
1460-1531) was probably his main source.
READ MORE: Barlandus. Humanistica Lovaniensia 2006
