Austrian Netherlands Research Papers

In 1714 the treaties of Rastatt and Baden ceded the southern Netherlands to the Habsburg monarchy. The southern Netherlands were not contiguous to the rest of the monarchy and furthermore enjoyed their own distinct local rights and... more

In 1714 the treaties of Rastatt and Baden ceded the southern Netherlands to the Habsburg monarchy. The southern Netherlands were not contiguous to the rest of the monarchy and furthermore enjoyed their own distinct local rights and traditions.
Early modern composite monarchies worked primarily through the intermediation of power between the sovereign, local elites, the estates and civil servants. Integrating local nobles into the structures of power was an important tool in managing composite monarchies. Léopold Philippe, fourth duke of Arenberg, was a powerful, wealthy and high-ranking noble in the southern Netherlands. Hence he was a key player in the mediation of Habsburg sovereignty in the region. His military career is well known. However, he featured prominently in other important positions on behalf of the Habsburg sovereigns: he was grand bailli (governor) in Hainault; he facilitated the grant of subsidies and credits by the estates to the ruler; and he was a member of governmental advisory boards. This article examines in an exemplary way those areas of activity, illustrating the range of action of a member of the high nobility, and showing how Habsburg power was transmitted to distant provinces which historians have little taken into account in this respect.
Under Charles VI, Léopold Philippe amassed local offices in the military and civil establishments in the Austrian Netherlands. He enjoyed a wide scope of action. As grand bailli he staffed the magistrate of Mons, for example, and he presided over the estates in Hainault, who were responsible for approving taxes. As supreme commander of the armed forces in the Austrian Netherlands he played an important role in stabilizing Habsburg sovereignty during the War of the Austrian Succession, particularly following Maria Theresa’s accession to power.
This paper specifically investigates the negotiation of power between the sovereign and noble elites. On the one hand, Léopold Philippe utilized his social capital in the estates of Flanders, Brabant and Hainault for the benefit of the monarchy by mediating subsidies and cheap credit as well as arranging debt refunding. On the other hand, he used the emperor’s trust in pursuit of his own interests, even opposing Vienna’s official representatives in Brussels to the detriment of government policy.

Quand il est question de rites d'accession au pouvoir, l'historien belge de l'époque moderne fait plutôt pâle figure face à ses confrères voisins, qu'ils soient français ou anglais. Il n'a en effet pas de splendides cérémonies du sacre à... more

The part on Austrian Lombardy and the Austrian Netherlands of the description of the Habsburg Monarchy by Joseph II in 1768 for his brother Leopold, Grand duke of Tuscany.

Die Münzprägung Erzherzog Leopold Wilhelms von Österreich. In: Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft 45. Wien 2014, p. 1–14

Although the book is written in Czech, it has a long English summary (17 pages). It is aimed at a synthetic perspective on the overseas policy of the Central European Habsburg Monarchy in the period between the end of the War of the... more

Although the book is written in Czech, it has a long English summary (17 pages). It is aimed at a synthetic perspective on the overseas policy of the Central European Habsburg Monarchy in the period between the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and the French Revolution. The authors depict Charles VI coming to the throne in Vienna, his experience from Spain and the alliance with Great Britain, the leading European naval, commercial and industrial power in those times. They describe Charles’s effort to modernize the Monarchy and build up a naval fleet and merchant marine. It is those not completely successful attempts to develop the trade with the Ottoman Empire following the peace treaty of Passarowitz (1718) that are analysed. Unfortunately, the support of free ports in the Austrian Littoral yielded only limited outcomes due to a consequence of an array of both objective and subjective obstacles, which failed to be overcome even with the help of the merchant monopoly held by the Oriental Company. On the other hand, those who enjoyed the considerable success were merchants from the Austrian Netherlands, the territory that would be incorporated as part of the Central European monarchy on the basis of the Peace of Utrecht (1713). They and their foreign partners exploited the weak and corrupt Austrian administration in the region and successfully penetrated into the trade with Asia.
They had established business contacts with Arabia, India and China, and their trade produced considerable profits. However, as a result of the resistance of other European powers, the mutual competition and the absence of diplomatic support during the talks with indigenous rulers, the initial form of single missions to Asia organised by small consortia was abandoned to be replaced by the trade under the leadership of the multinational Ostend Company’s monopoly. The Company was extremely prosperous, especially as to the trade with China, but it was also fruitfully developing colonies on the Coromandel Coast of India and Bengal. However, the history of the Company was negatively affected by the development of European policy, which resulted in the Company suspension (1927), afterward its dissolution (1731) in exchange for the dynastic interests of the Habsburg house. First, the traders from the Austrian Netherlands faced that reality by conducting the trade under foreign flags, later on they went abroad and participated in varying degrees and different ways in establishing new East India companies in Denmark, Sweden and Prussia.
The loss of the Ostend Company was believed to be grievous in the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the failure in the Netherlands, Vienna refocused attention to the Austrian Littoral, where a series of reforms in the sphere of navigation, trade, industry and education, as well as the Maria Theresa (later Levant) thaler introduction, or a bit delayed changes in customs policy of the Monarchy, led to creating favourable conditions for the foreign trade development on a small territories of ports of Trieste and Fiume. From the 1770s, Trieste served as a transit port with a lot of contacts starting with the Mediterranean, over western and northern Europe, to America. What had the considerable importance there was the trade with the Ottoman Empire, whose control was taken over by the merchants from that state, who would settle in Austrian ports and other centres of the Monarchy. Fiume remained a less important port in the Monarchy oriented mostly on export of agricultural products from Hungary. The history of the city was considerably influenced by the company of Arnoldt Urbain and his partners established after 1750. However, its importance did no lie in the trade exchange but industrial sugar production as it had gained monopoly in the sugar import and processing.
The last attempt the Habsburg Monarchy made to penetrate into the Euro-Asian trade by the form of the privileged trading company was cooperation with English businessman William Bolts, his Asiatic Association, and later on the Imperial Asiatic Company of Trieste and Antwerp. Despite partial success, also this attempt ended up in failure in 1785. Yet the overseas trade of the Monarchy had been developing successfully. The penetration of Austrian ships on the Danube into the Black Sea in 1782, a new inflow of traders from the Balkans to the Monarchy, the development of the port in Trieste and measures employed to improve safety transformed the Monarchy into the largest business partner of the Ottoman Empire. Also the port in Ostend was prosperously growing, from where the trade with India, the USA and the Caribbean region would be still conducted. Shortly before the trade was disturbed by the French Revolution, the overseas trade of the Habsburg Monarchy heading towards the West and the South interconnected, and acquired the global dimension.

Přestože je kniha napsána v češtině, má rozsáhlé anglické resumé (17 stran). Je pokusem o syntetický pohled na zámořskou politiku středoevropské habsburské monarchie v období od konce války o dědictví španělské do francouzské revoluce. Autoři v úvodu líčí nástup císaře Karla VI. na trůn ve Vídni, jeho zkušenosti ze Španělska a ze spojenectví s Velkou Británií, přední evropskou námořní, obchodní a průmyslovou mocností té doby. Popisují Karlovo úsilí o modernizaci monarchie a vybudování vojenského i obchodního loďstva. Analyzovány jsou nepříliš úspěšné pokusy o rozvinutí obchodu s Osmanskou říší po uzavřené Požarevackého míru (1718) a podpora svobodné plavby v Rakouském Přímoří. Podpora přístavů v Terstu a Fiume měla však jen omezené výsledky v důsledku řady objektivních i subjektivních překážek, které se nepodařilo překonat ani s pomocí obchodního monopolu Orientální společnosti. Podstatné úspěchy na druhé straně slavili obchodníci z Rakouského Nizozemí, území připojeného ke středoevropské monarchii až na základě utrechtského míru 1713. Ti, spolu se svými zahraničními partnery, využili slabé a zkorumpované rakouské správy v oblasti, a úspěšně pronikli do obchodu s Asií. Navázali obchodní spojení s Arábií, Indií a Čínou a jejich obchody přinášely mimořádné zisky. V důsledku odporu ostatních evropských mocností byla počáteční podoba jednotlivých výprav do Asie organizovaných malými konsorcii opuštěna a nahrazena obchodem pod vedením monopolu multinárodní Ostendské společnosti. I ona dosahovala mimořádné prosperity, především v obchodu s Čínou, úspěšně ale rozvíjela i kolonie na Koromandelském pobřeží Indie a v Bengálsku. Do dějin společnosti však negativně zasáhl vývoj evropské politiky, v jehož důsledku byla společnost nejprve suspendována (1727) a posléze zrušena (1731) výměnou za dynastické zájmy habsburského domu. Obchodníci z Rakouského Nizozemí této skutečnosti čelili nejprve vedením obchodu pod cizími vlajkami, později odešli do zahraničí a podíleli se v různé míře a různým způsobem na zakládání nových východoindických společností v Dánsku, Švédsku a Prusku.
Ztráta Ostendské společnosti byla v habsburské monarchii považována za bolestnou, a po neúspěchu v Nizozemí se pozornost Vídně obrátila opět do Rakouského Nizozemí, kde série reforem v oblasti plavby, obchodu, průmyslu a školství, jakož i zavedení tereziánského (později levantského) tolaru a s určitým zpožděním i změny v celní politice monarchie vytvořily na malém území přístavů Terst a Fiume vhodné podmínky pro rozvoj zahraničního obchodu. Terst od sedmdesátých let 18. století fungoval jako tranzitní přístav s rozsáhlými kontakty od Středomoří přes západní a severní Evropu až do Ameriky. Zásadní význam zde měl obchod s Osmanskou říší, který ale zcela ovládli obchodníci z tohoto státu, kteří se usazovali i v rakouských přístavech a dalších centrech monarchie. Fiume zůstalo méně významným přístavem monarchie, orientovalo se především na vývoz zemědělských produktů z Uher. Do dějin tohoto města výrazně zasáhla po roce 1750 založená společnost Arnoldta Urbaina a jeho společníků. Její význam nespočíval v obchodní výměně, ale v průmyslovém zpracování cukru, na jehož dovoz a zpracování získala monopol.
Posledním pokusem habsburské monarchie o průnik do euroasijského obchodu formou výsadní obchodní společnosti byla spolupráce s anglickým podnikatelem Williamem Boltsem, jeho Asijskou asociací a posléze Císařskou asijskou společnosti v Terstu a Antverpách. I tento pokus skončil navzdory dílčím úspěchům v roce 1785 neúspěšně. Zámořský ochod habsburské monarchie se přesto úspěšně vyvíjel. Průnik rakouských lodí po Dunaji do Černého moře v roce 1782, nový příliv obchodníků z Balkánu do monarchie, rozvoj přístavu v Terstu a opatření ke zlepšení bezpečnosti přeměnily monarchii v největšího obchodního partnera Osmanské říše. Úspěšný byl i růst přístavu v Ostende, odkud byl i nadále veden obchod s Indií, Spojenými státy americkými a karibskou oblastí. Těsně předtím, než obchod narušila francouzská revoluce, se zámořský obchod habsburské monarchie směřující na západ i východ propojil a nabyl celosvětové dimenze.

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- by Michal Wanner and +1
  Karel Staněk
- •
- 20
  History of India, Ottoman-Habsburg relations, History of Colonial India, History of China

Faisant suite à l’exposition Mansfeld au Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art en 2007 qui réserva une large place au château de Mansfeld au temps de son fondateur, la présentation actuelle aux Archives nationales ainsi que le catalogue de... more

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- by Mirella Marini
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- 26
  Women's Studies, Women's History, Early Modern History, Courts

Early modern composite monarchies functioned by maintaining local rights and traditions and the successful accommodation of noble elites in the army, diplomatic corps, and regional governments. Scholars commonly focus on the integration... more

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- by Veronika Hyden-Hanscho
- •
- 20
  Sovereignty, Seventeenth Century, Habsburg Studies, Nobility

Contains chapters on: - The spread of rinderpest throughout the Austrian Netherlands and an investigation of why some regions were hit harder than others. - The implementation of a stamping out policy and the difficulties that were... more

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- by Filip Van Roosbroeck
- •
- 8
  History, History of Medicine, Rural History, History of Science

The map shows the Austrian Netherlands in the year 1794, just before the french conquest. It is part of the permanent exhibition on the history of Luxembourg in the "Musée Dräi Eechelen – forteresse, histoire, identités" in Luxembourg.

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- by Martin Uhrmacher
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- 15
  History, Early Modern History, Habsburg Studies, Belgian History

After the War of the Spanish Succession the Southern or Spanish Netherlands became the Austrian Netherlands. Promptly after handing over the power the imperial government tried to assure that her new dominions would yield as much... more

Über Jahrhunderte hinweg pflegte die in mehreren west- und zentraleuropäischen Ländern reich begüterte Adelsfamilie Arenberg ein Naheverhältnis zum Haus Habsburg. Der Band untersucht die wechselseitigen Verbindungen dieser hochadeligen... more

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- by Veronika Hyden-Hanscho
- •
- 15
  Military History, Women's History, Habsburg Studies, Nobility

Through an in-depth analysis of two case studies from a rural deanery in Flanders, this MA thesis tells in vivid detail the story of peasant communities managing their religious identities in an ever-changing confessional world. By... more

For no less than 300 years, c. 1550-1860 the Dutch way of fishing was the envy of neighbours in the North Sea area and looked upon as the undisputed best practice. This was a lasting consequence of the Dutch Golden Age in fishing... more

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- by Bo Poulsen
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- 97
  History, European History, Cultural History, Economic History

Sur un plan de la forteresse de Luxembourg réalisé en 1843 (conservé à la Staatsbibliothek de Berlin) figurent les esquisses de plusieurs inscriptions et sculptures qui étaient encore visibles dans les fortifications à l'époque, et dont... more

De televisieserie De Bende van Jan de Lichte biedt een unieke blik op de onderbuik van de achttiende eeuw. In lijn met de succesroman van Louis Paul Boon krijgen we een beeld van armoede, misdaad en dagelijks leven in een eeuw die zelden... more

The very first issue of the multidisciplinary Open Access journal Early Modern Low Countries is now available online! Early Modern Low Countries is dedicated to the study of the history and culture of the Low Countries between 1500 and... more

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- by Joris Oddens and +2
  Helmer Helmers
  Violet Soen
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- 115
  European History, Military History, Intellectual History, Cultural History

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- by Joris Oddens and +4
  Helmer Helmers
  Violet Soen
  Brecht Deseure
  Julia van Marissing
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- 117
  European History, Military History, Intellectual History, Cultural History

[In Dutch] Deze paper beschrijft de identiteitsontplooiing van de Vlaamse Olijfberg, een kleine gereformeerde minderheidsgemeenschap in het rurale hinterland ten oosten van Oudenaarde, doorheen de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw. Door de... more

Ambulant Workers from the french Auvergne and Limousin in the Duchy of Brabant

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- by Filip Van Roosbroeck
- •
- 5
  Rural History, Austrian Netherlands, Epizootics, Medical History

"Traditional accounts of the process of state formation equate the eighteenth century state formation process with the declining importance and influence of private contractors in matters relating to the management of the resources for... more

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- by Thomas Goossens
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- 10
  Entrepreneurship, History, Military History, Logistics

Scholars in the history of the self often stress the importance of change in the late eighteenth century, noting an increasing stress on interiority, stability, wholeness and self-control. Their analyses are often based on sources... more

Scholars in the history of the self often stress the importance of change in the late eighteenth century, noting an increasing stress on interiority, stability, wholeness and self-control. Their analyses are often based on sources pertaining to literate elites: learned philosophical tracts, memoirs and diaries, journals and novels. The aim of my dissertation is to analyse whether common people also took part in the new modes of selfhood, and if so, how this came to be in the area that is currently Belgium.
To tackle this question, I take inspiration from philosophers in the tradition of Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. They have argued that the self was not primarily formed through voluntary self-reflection, but through power and in particular the power of the criminal courts. The self is formed as a response to the demand for people to give an account of themselves. I suggest that we need to add more historical detail to their analyses, looking what kinds of self-narratives courts demanded, and that we should expand the scope of the inquiry by attending to broader processes of everyday stigmatization.
My main sources are criminal trial records of people suspected of homicide, prostitution, suicide and sodomy before the courts that had jurisdiction over Brussels, Antwerp and Kortrijk between 1750 and 1830. These were complemented with pardon letters sent to the Governor between 1750 and 1795. Through interrogations, depositions and supplications, these records provide us with interactions between magistrates and a broad cross-section of society, with people from the lower social regions especially well presented.
The thesis consists of nine chapters. The first two chapters concern practices of ‘regulation’ of the self. In the first chapter, I argue that throughout the period, a socially oriented and malleable self was promoted by families, friends and neighbours of wrongdoers. Conversely, the criminal justice system, which I study in the second chapter, increasingly encouraged an individualised and introspective self, with a true nature which could only be changed with great difficulty.
In the third and fourth chapter, I shift the perspective away from general regulating practices towards specific technologies with which people could change their self. The first one is the technology of religious penance, which continued to be hugely popular. The second one is the experience of going through criminal trial – the experience of being accused, being questioned, confessing or denying accusations. I find that in both cases, there was an increasing stress on interiority and depth from the late eighteenth century on.
In chapters 5 and 6, I look at the accounts people gave of themselves when they stood accused in criminal court, at how they interpreted their own actions. First, I discuss narratives in which people portrayed themselves as rational beings, acting as anyone else would have acted in a particular situation. Then I analyse narratives in which they claimed that they were not themselves at the time of their actions. While both types of narratives occurred throughout the period, misbehaviour was increasingly ascribed to either character flaw or insanity.
The final two chapters deal with two important threads in the history of the self. Chapter 7 studies sentimentalism and its influence in the courts and in wider society, observing that it was not only an affair of the middling sorts, but also of the lower classes. The final chapter attends to the ambiguities of the concepts of human nature and inner nature in criminal records. As the general appreciation of human nature became more positive in the late eighteenth century, court increasingly needed to attend to individual natures to understand crime.
In conclusion, my thesis confirms that the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries witnessed an increasing stress on depth, interiority and individuality: the period witnessed what Nietzsche has called ‘the internalization of man’. This was not only an affair of the elites, but affected people of all social layers. The criminal justice system was an important institution for the dissemination of models of the self. Its influence was not uncontested: everyday practices of stigmatisation, for instance, continued to make a socially oriented, malleable self acceptable. But almost no-one could entirely ignore the new practices of the interior and stable self.

Erzherzog Leopold Wilhelm und der Niederländische Kunstmarkt. In: Exhibition Catalogue: Haag (Hg.), Sammellust. Die Galerie Erzherzog Leopold Wilhelms. Wien 2014, p. 45–51

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- by Dirk G. Van Waelderen
- •
- 6
  Austrian Netherlands, Brussels, Turks, Public Celebration

Vanaf 1769 tot ongeveer 1785 werden de Oostenrijkse Nederlanden, zoals vele Europese regio's, geteisterd door een hevige uitbraak van een veeziekte. Ondanks een opvallend doortastend overheidsingrijpen, zorgde deze ziekte voor een... more

When in 1715 the Southern Netherlands changed its sovereignty from the Spanish to the Austrian Habsburgs, one of the former wealthiest North European regions became part of the Central European Habsburg Empire. For nearly 100 years, the... more

When in 1715 the Southern Netherlands changed its sovereignty from the Spanish to the Austrian Habsburgs, one of the former wealthiest North European regions became part of the Central European Habsburg Empire. For nearly 100 years, the Austrian Netherlands played an important role in the financial management of the Habsburg monarchy in the form of contributions, subsidies, credits and loans. Revenues from the Austrian Netherlands were used not only to cover the local defence budget in Brussels, but supported Viennese needs as well. Besides regular tax payments and contributions, the financial support from the Austrian Netherlands consisted of extraordinary subsidies and credits accommodated by the estates in wartime if necessary. Substantial amounts of money supported for example the increasing costs of the War of the Polish Succession and the Austro-Russian-Turkish War. This paper aims at considering the financial role of one of the most distant provinces of the Habsburg Empire for the central administration and imperial warfare under Charles VI with particular attention to the role of the estates as principal creditors for the monarchy in wartime.
Two examples shall illustrate the relationship between wartime events, the financial needs of the monarchy, and the estates as creditors. Firstly, the estates of the county of Hainault granted in 1735 a loan of 2.5 million Brabant guilders. Important concessions by the central administration in respect of the taxing authority in the county were necessary to gain the consent of the estates. Secondly, the credits and subsidies of 1738, 1739 and 1740 have been made possible because of the intermediation of the Duke of Arenberg between the estates of Brabant and Hainault, the central administration in Brussels and Charles VI. Arenberg’s social capital in the estates’ assemblies and his service for the imperial cause will shed light on the negotiations and proceedings between the estates and the emperor. Finally, a never realized debt restructuring project entrusted to the Duke of Arenberg indicates first plans of a debt management in the Habsburg monarchy at the very end of Charles’ reign.

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Even though there is a growing body of literature on investigation techniques, that early modern judges, examining magistrates, bailiffs, and other actors deployed to solve all sorts of criminal cases, literature has largely failed to... more

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- by Gerrit Verhoeven
- •
- 11
  History, Criminal Justice, Early Modern History, Urban History

En étudiant l’essor sans précédent d’une presse en langue française dans la périphérique capitale néerlandophone des Pays-Bas autrichiens au milieu du XVIIIe siècle, cet article analyse les conditions d’élaboration d’un appareil... more

En étudiant l’essor sans précédent d’une presse en langue française dans la périphérique capitale néerlandophone des Pays-Bas autrichiens au milieu du XVIIIe siècle, cet article analyse les conditions d’élaboration d’un appareil médiatique à visée locale et internationale depuis Bruxelles. À partir d’archives inédites (papiers du Conseil privé de Bruxelles, correspondances diverses, production périodique imprimée ou refusée) témoignant des représentations et des stratégies médiatiques mises en œuvre par les autorités, il s’agira de comprendre les enjeux d’un gouvernement par les médias au milieu du XVIIIe siècle du point de vue des pouvoirs. En accordant une part importante de la réflexion aux projets journalistiques avortés et aux dissensions entre les protagonistes, cette contribution fait entrer au cœur des pratiques politiques médiatiques, de manière à saisir la diversité des acteurs et ce que pouvait être une intelligence politique des médias au XVIIIe siècle.

By studying the unprecedented growth of a French-language press in the Dutch-speaking capital peripheral of the Austrian Netherlands in the mid-18th century, this article recounts the conditions for the development of a media strategy, with a local and international focus, the center of which was Brussels. From unpublished archives (records from the Privy Council of Brussels, various letters, periodicals published or refused) revealing media representations and strategies implemented by the authorities, this article examines the stakes of a government by the media in the mid-18th century from the point of view of powers. By giving particular attention to the aborted journalistic projects and the dissensions between the protagonists, this study allows to get into the core of media political practices, so as to grasp the diversity of the actors involved in these communication dynamics and what political intelligence of the media was possible in the ‘century of the Enlightenment’.

The second issue of the multidisciplinary Open Access journal Early Modern Low Countries is now available online! Early Modern Low Countries is dedicated to the study of the history and culture of the Low Countries between 1500 and 1830.... more

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- by Joris Oddens and +1
  Helmer Helmers
- •
- 105
  European History, Military History, Intellectual History, Cultural History

Whereas early modern migration history has been traditionally based on citizenship rolls, marriage registers, censuses and myriad other sources, this research explores the value of eyewitness reports before the Antwerp criminal court in... more

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- by Gerrit Verhoeven
- •
- 17
  History, Cultural History, Economic History, Literacy

For the most part, few if any details are forthcoming about the existence of ornament prints, pattern-books and handbooks in the workshops of silversmiths and jewellers in the long eighteenth century. They were omitted from inventories... more

For the most part, few if any details are forthcoming about the existence of ornament prints, pattern-books and handbooks in the workshops of silversmiths and jewellers in the long eighteenth century. They were omitted from inventories because they were work-related material that was used as a source of inspiration or mnemonic. That work-related material was often passed down for generations from silversmith to silversmith, from father to son and from master to journeyman. Only in the event of a (public) sale do more details sometimes come to light, but then a degree of caution is necessary for several reasons: 1. the prints may have been a business asset of the silversmith who was working as an art or print dealer; 2. in a number of cases the prints were included in their art collection not as work-related material, but as collectables; 3. a number of prints were sometimes added posthumously by heirs, the executors of wills or auctioneers. T’Sas’ and Tiberghien’s auction catalogues illustrate these mechanisms well, but at the moment the number of known auction catalogues of silversmiths from the Southern Netherlands is too limited to allow us to draw any definitive conclusions.

It is to be hoped, however, that as in the case of the recovered catalogue of the book auction of silversmith Jean François Joseph Beghin, more examples will emerge and shed further light on the subject. On an iconographic level, prints after the oeuvre of Rubens and in his footsteps prints after Van Dyck, still played an important role in the eighteenth century, not only in terms of quantity but also as a marketing instrument for auctions. The rare references to specific ornament prints and designs by Le Pautre, Germain, Babel and Forty confirm the generally accepted proposition that the French style had a great influence on the development of silversmithing in the Southern or Austrian Netherlands. With the exception of a set by Heylbrouck from Ghent, no eighteenth-century Flemish ornament prints were mentioned.

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- by Wim Nys
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- 8
  18th Century Art, Prints and Drawings, History of Ornament, Austrian Netherlands

After his ascension to the throne in 1813, William Frederick was quickly accepted as a father-monarch who united the various factions previously vying for power in the Dutch Republic. When in 1815 the Sovereign Principality of the... more

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- by Joris Oddens
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- 13
  Cultural History, Nationhood, Identity (Culture), Political Culture

The third issue of the multidisciplinary Open Access journal Early Modern Low Countries (EMLC) is now available online! EMLC is dedicated to the study of the history and culture of the Low Countries between 1500 and 1830. It is published... more

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- by Joris Oddens and +3
  Helmer Helmers
  Brecht Deseure
  David Van Der Linden
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- 17
  Cultural History, Art History, Early Modern History, Political History

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- by Olivier Latteur
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- 14
  Intellectual History, Roman roads, Austrian Netherlands, Barrows

Food had become a serious issue in eighteenth century Antwerp. Knives and forks, spoons, cups, glasses, napkins, salt & pepper cellars, coffee sets, and a wide range of other tableware were increasingly listed by notaries in post-mortem... more

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- by Gerrit Verhoeven
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- 11
  History, Cultural History, Economic History, Criminal Justice History

When rinderpest broke out in the Austrian Netherlands in 1769, a policy of eradication was instituted in which koeimeesters ‐ local lay veterinary healers ‐ played a pivotal role. They continued to be relied upon despite criticism by... more

When rinderpest broke out in the Austrian Netherlands in 1769, a stamping-out policy was instituted in which koeimeesters – local lay veterinary healers – played a pivotal role. They continued to be relied upon despite criticism by... more

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- by Filip Van Roosbroeck
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- 8
  Expertise, History of Medicine, Rural History, History of Science

The War Treasury of the Southern Netherlands has as yet received very little scholarly attention. This institution was created in 1718 as part of a broader reform of the Brussels central government by the Austrian crown, and it was... more

In early modern times, noblewomen played a crucial role in estate manage-ment and patronage. Especially in times of crisis, such as during the Dutch Revolt (15681648), women could hold important and hitherto underesti-mated functions... more

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- by Mirella Marini
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- 20
  History, Early Modern History, Courts, Habsburg Studies

Austrian Netherlands

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