Map of Ghent, 1534, by Anonymous

Amidst the fields and densely-settled towns of early sixteenth century Flanders, a bustling city of 50,000 people brimmed with skilled artisans, meticulously weaving fabrics that adorned the courts of Europe. Ghent was a testament to the region’s preeminence in the wool trade, but resentment towards royal policies would spell its doom.

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🐑 Throughout the late medieval and into the Renaissance, the region of Flanders (in modern-day Belgium) emerged as the epicenter of the European wool trade, with Ghent at its forefront. Flemish cloth, renowned for its quality and craftsmanship, commanded high prices in markets across the continent, fueling the region’s economic growth and cultural prestige.

☠️ However, Ghent’s golden age was not to last. Tensions and disputes between the city’s guilds and the Habsburg government over guild governance and taxation erupted in 1539 into open revolt.

👑Emperor Charles V arrived in force with 5,000 soldiers. The city offered no resistance, and Charles’ response was violent and humiliating: twenty-five were executed, while others were forced to process through the town (some wearing hangman’s nooses around their necks), begging the emperor for mercy.

⌛ The revolt marked a turning point for Ghent. In the following decades, merchants and commercial trade migrated to Antwerp, some 50km / 37mi to the northeast. Antwerp and its port would emerge as the new center of commerce in the Low Countries, becoming one of the largest centers of trade and art in all of Europe for a time. Ghent would languish in the shadow of its behemoth neighbor, witnessing a gradual decline in its fortunes as economic opportunities dwindled and the Dutch Revolt ravaged the towns and countryside of the Low Countries.

📖 For more, read Realms of Ritual: Burgundian Ceremony and Civic Life in Late Medieval Ghent by Peter Arnade (https://www.amazon.com/Realms-Ritual-Burgundian-Ceremony-Medieval/dp/0801430984)

📝 Source: from the collections of the University of Ghent

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