The crowd’s two faces: keeping the peace and fearing the stranger in late medieval Flanders

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the reputation of crowds in relation to judicial practice in fifteenth-century Flanders. Medieval chronicles tend to frame rebellious crowds as frighteningly irrational rather than strategic in order to discredit the political movements they described. Legal records from Bruges and Ghent suggest this stereotype extended to disturbances unrelated to revolt. Bailiffs’ accounts and banishments reveal concern for neighbourhood unrest and sudden violence stemming from interpersonal disputes as well as political action. Although bailiffs pursued individuals for instigating conflicts, the crowd played an important role in judicial practice, from investigations to executions, affirming legal decisions and preserving urban peace. These contrasting stereotypes affected patterns of prosecution in fifteenth-century Bruges and Ghent. Bailiffs tended to place blame on individual instigators when the crowd acted against the interests of law enforcement. As the reputation of the crowd was law-affirming, the riotous crowd had to stem from an outside, corrupting influence.