Urban Historiography and Politics in Fourteenth-Century Utrecht. New Findings on the Dutch Beke (c.1393)

Abstract

Although the chronicle commonly referred to as the ‘Dutch Beke’ (Nederlandse Beke) is constructed as a regional history of Utrecht and Holland, it is possible to see in its narrative the beginnings of urban history-writing in the Northern Low Countries before 1400. This article sets out to analyse the urban character of the chronicle, building on Antheun Janse’s argument that it was written in Utrecht city government circles and aimed at an audience of the city’s elite families. Textual analysis shows that the author voiced a civic discourse in which the city and burghers of Utrecht were indispensable in defending the bishop’s territory. He can also be shown to engage in the construction of a collective memory of local party strife, in which he supported the city council’s discourse around 1393. This provides an argument for its function and strengthens Janse’s hypothesis that the town clerk Jan Tolnaer Jr († c. 1403) was the author of the chronicle.