Leaving the Market, Taking the Square: Space and Mobility in the Revolts of Late Medieval Tournai

Abstract

Abstract This article studies the relation between the movement of people and objects and the use of urban places during revolts in late medieval Tournai. It posits that fixed locations were but one ingredient in the construction of medieval spaces of protest and contestation, and that most other essential elements, such as people, objects, and performances, were in fact mobile. As shown here through the case of Tournai, the mobile nature of these elements allowed rebels to transform urban space and its meanings as they moved across the town. The first part of the article looks at how rebels utilized mobility to disrupt and re-appropriate ordinary itineraries. The second part focuses on the “Becquerel revolts,” a series of uprisings that took place in a small, peripheral square. This is to show how urban guilds, by effectively managing to move people, objects, and performances to unexpected locations, not only took control of specific places, but also created their own spaces of contestation.