Een liedeken van den slach van Blangijs

Abstract

Een liedeken van den slach bij Blangijs (‘a song of the battle of Blangijs’), printed in the Antwerp Songbook of 1544, is a popular political song which stands out for its substantial Flemish identification. The lyrics chant the Habsburg victory over the French in 1479 but must date from a later time because of literary and political discrepancies. Compared to other narrative sources regarding the event, the song resembles the sixteenth-century Habsburg memory tradition concerning the battle. These discursive resemblances, the intense Flemish identification and a call for a new victory in the last verse situate the song’s creation and performance in the early sixteenth century. In the 1520s, the memory of the battle must have been relevant again during a Habsburg campaign against the French. This article emphasizes the importance of both the historical and the literary background of a political song. Only multidisciplinary analysis can connect the sung events to events of singing, to finally shed light on a medieval song’s political function.