Libels in the City. Bill Casting in Fifteenth-Century Flanders and Brabant

Abstract

Using evidence of fifteenth-century Flanders and Brabant, this article situates bill casting in the medieval Low Countries in its wider social and political context. Over the past few decades there has been a tendency to focus on the ‘symbolic act’ of writing and distributing pamphlets, rather than studying their contents and political impact. In this contribution, we do not contest the symbolic meaning of bill casting, but we do argue that the contents and language of a libel were significant - even the most significant - features that made them a dangerous weapon. From this point of view, casting a bill in a ‘symbolic place’ was considered a strategy to give more weight to the discourse and the arguments the pamphleteer used. Though it was often composed of a language of retribution in order to accuse governors publicly, the statements and the associations the libel made with other texts and ideas on government were primarily aimed at influencing a public debate on a political issue. The analysis of the libels under scrutiny in this essay shows that the pamphleteers considered the urban governors to be accountable for their deeds and, consequently, the latter were criminalised in the pamphlets because they claimed that the governors’ policies did not take the welfare of other citizens into account. Of course, a fierce discussion about whose welfare governors needed to pursue was an integral element of the conflict during which the libels were posted. The main aim of this seditious act was therefore to participate in that debate.