Patrician class of the city
In
Brussels
, as in most European cities,
[1]
one needed the capacity of
bourgeois
(equivalent to German
burgher
or English
burgess
; in French
bourgeois
or
citoyen
[2]
de Bruxelles
; in Dutch
poorter
or
borger
van Brussel
; in Latin
civis
[3]
or
oppidanus
[4]
Bruxellensis
) in order to not only exercise
political rights
, but also to practice a
trade
, which, in Brussels, meant to be a member of the
Guilds
or of the
Seven Noble Houses
. The
charter
of Brussels, as codified in 1570 in articles 206 and following, provided the conditions of admission to the
bourgeoisie
of the city.
[5]
The Bourgeois were the
patrician
class of the city. This social class was abolished by
Napoleon
during the
French occupation
.
Capacity of bourgeois
[
edit
]
The non-bourgeois inhabitants, called "inhabitants" in French and "ingesetene" in Dutch, have none of these political rights, but are not less protected by
communal
laws, and can appeal to urban justice, as well as buy
property
. The capacity of Bourgeois, which implied an
oath
, was seen as a pledge of loyalty to the city and the urban community.
In Brussels, the bourgeois were sometimes called "poorters" name often given to citizens of important cities called walled cities. This word derives from the Dutch word fallen into disuse
poorte
,
[6]
city or place closed by walls, like the imposing stone houses that the rich bourgeois of the
Seven Noble Houses
lived in during the early days of the city, and to which was also given the name of "poorte" or "porta" in Latin, and whose synonym was "herberg" or "hostel" and which are also called
steen
. Each of these "poorte" had a name, for example: "Poorte van den Galoyse", "Poorte van Coeckelberg", "Gouden Poorte", "Priemspooerte", the "Raempoorte" (in Overmolen), "porta t 'Serclaes' known as 'the Palace', 'Slozenpoorte' (on the Sablon), 'Poorte van de Tafelronde' or 'Poorte van Vianen'.
The European Medieval practice of naming houses was rich and varied in Brussels.
The capacity of bourgeois, that is to say of citizen of a city having political rights in opposition to the simple inhabitants, forms the base of the urban organisation of cities. This urban system in Europe dates back for many cities still existing today to
Greco-Latin antiquity
, others were founded around the year one thousand.
[7]
This system of urban civilization developed in parallel to the rural civilization rooted in the
Neolithic
era.
[8]
Abolition by Napoleon
[
edit
]
Under
Napoleon
, the
Law
abolished for good, in the territories that were submitted to
France
, the differences of status between cities and countryside and abolished the quality of bourgeois or citizen of a city. In other parts of Europe, as it is now in
Switzerland
(
Swiss bourgeoisie
), this system has endured. In
Germany
it was slowly abolished, and only
Hamburg
and
Bremen
retain the
Hanseatic
designation
freie Stadt
from their days as
free imperial cities
.
Subsisting bourgeois families of Brussels
[
edit
]
The following is a chronological list of surviving Brussels bourgeois families
[9]
with the date of admission and of which of the
Seven Noble Houses
(Lignages in French) they currently descend from, if any. Namely, the houses of
Sweerts
,
Sleeus
,
Steenweeghs
,
Roodenbeke
,
Serroelofs
,
Coudenbergh
, and
Serhuyghs
.
15th century
[
edit
]
- 1447, approximately,
Leyniers
family
(Houses of Coudenbergh, Sweerts and Sleeus).
- 1452, approximately,
d'Arschot
family
,
then
van Schoonhoven
, then
d'Arschot-Schoonhoven
(House of t'Serroelofs)
- 1458, 11 January,
van Droogenbroeck
family (House of Sweerts)
- 1458, 9 August,
van Cotthem
family (House of Sweerts)
- 1460, approximately,
Meeus
family
, (Houses of Sweerts and Sleeus)
- 1461, approximately,
Devadder
ou
de Vaddere
family
.
- 1487, 9 July,
Aelbrechts
said
de Borsere
family (House of Roodenbeke)
- 1488, 9 May,
van Droogenbroeck
family (House of Roodenbeke)
- 1489, approximately,
t'Kint
, then
t'Kint de Roodenbeke
family
(House of Roodenbeke)
- 1490,
Van der Meulen
family
- 1490, approximately,
Jambers family
- 1490, 4 December
Ranspoet
family (House of Roodenbeke):
- 1492, 27 June,
O(l)brechts
dit
de Vos
family (House ofRoodenbeke):
- 1498, 6 April
Moyensoen
family (House of Roodenbeke):
16th century
[
edit
]
- 1501, approximately,
de Lens
family
(Also
bourgeois of Paris
, established there under
Louis XIV
as
goldsmith
of
Philippe I, Duke of Orleans
.).
- 1543,
van Volxem
family
(House of Serhuyghs) (established in
Trier
in
Germany
at the end of the XVIII Century)
- 1590, approximately
Damiens
family(House of
Sweerts
).
- 1590, approximately,
de Walsche
family (House of Coudenberg).
- 1591, approximately,
Robyns
, then
Robyns de Schneidauer
family (House of Sleeus).
17th century
[
edit
]
- 1601, approximately,
van der Borcht
family (Houses of
Sweerts
and Sleeus).
- 1608-1609,
van Berchem
family.
- 1611-1612,
Roberti
family.
- 1617-1618,
van Dievoet
family
(Houses of Sweerts, Sleeus, Serhuyghs, t'Serroelofs, Coudenbergh, Roodenbeke and Steenweeghs) (also
bourgeois of Paris
until 1802, where the family was called
Vandive
).
- 1619-1620,
van der Belen
family (House of Sweerts).
- 1623-1624,
Maskens
family (House of Serhuygs).
- 1626-1627,
de Viron
family (House of Sweerts).
- 1633-1634,
Dansaert
family.
- 1637 and 1655,
Blondeau
family
.
- 1649, 3 July,
Orts
family (House of Sweerts).
- 1655, 12 January,
Blondeau
.
- 1668,
de Burbure
family
.
- 1683, 20 January,
Deudon
family.
- 1696, 22 March,
Poot family
or
Poot-Baudier
family (House of Sweerts).
- 1698, approximately,
Heyvaert
family
.
18th century
[
edit
]
- 1707, 12 October,
Drugman
family
.
- 1711, 7 January,
de Meurs
family
.
- 1712, 14 June,
Demeure
family.
- 1711, 3 June,
Brinck
family (the family moved to
Canada
) (House of Serhuyghs).
- 1729, 29 January,
Fanuel
family (currently House of Sweerts).
- 1733, 22 September,
Cattoir
family.
- 1741, 21 June,
de Reus
family (House of Serhuyghs).
- 1745, 10 February,
Picque
family.
- 1752, 24 February,
Triest
family (House of Sleeus).
- 1752, 29 May, and 1755, 18 February,
Allard
family.
- 1753, 10 March,
Stinglhamber
family (of
Bavarian
origins).
- 1764, 16 June,
van Cutsem
family
.
- 1766, 19 September,
Walckiers
family (House of Coudenbergh).
- 1767, 3 August,
Marouse
family.
- 1768, 17 June,
Hap
family (House of Serhuyghs).
- 1769, 14 July,
Lequime
family.
- 1776, 8 February,
Heger
family
.
- 1782, 8 April,
Poelaert
family
.
- 1783, 12 February,
de Voghel
family (House of Serhuyghs).
- 1785, 14 January,
van Hoegaerden
family.
- 1786, 11 December,
van Hoorde
family
.
- 1794, 27 May,
Wittouck
family
.
- 1794, 10 September,
D'Ieteren
family.
- 1794, 16 December,
Pitseys
(Putseys) family.
- 1795, 7 January,
Becquet
family.
- 1795, 29 January,
Janlet
family
.
- 1795, 9 March,
Van Nuffel
family
.
- 1795, 20 May,
Wielemans
family (House of Coudenbergh).
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"History of Europe - The bourgeoisie"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
2019-11-13
.
- ^
During the Ancien Regime, the following were used indiscriminately: in Dutch,
borger van Brussel and
poorter van Brussel
, In Latin:
civis Bruxellensis and
oppidanus Bruxellensis
and in French:
bourgeois de Bruxelles
and
citoyen de Bruxelles
. See: 1644: Steven Ydens,
Histoire du S. Sacrament de miracle: garde a Bruxelles
, 1644, p. 36: (FRENCH) "En la susdite annee mille quatre cens trente six, un honnorable personnage nomme Gilles du Mont Chevalier & citoyen de Bruxelles, fit eriger une Chappelle au mesme lieu, ou le miracle estoit advenu : & y fonda trois Messes a dire": 1755: Gabriel Dupac de Bellegarde,
Memoires historiques sur l'affaire de la bulle Unigenitus
, 1755, p. 446:
Mais cette cruelle inquisition a ete encore poussee plus loin a l'egard de M. du Cellier ecclesiastique, citoyen de Bruxelles, mort le 14 du mois
; 1783: Jean Baptiste Lesbroussart,
De l'education belgique ou Reflexions sur le plan d'etudes, adopte
1783, p. 14:
tandis que l'autre jouirait de la lumiere des lettres a quel titre le fils d'un citoyen de Louvain, d'Anvers, ou de Gand recevrait-il une autre"; 1785:
Theodore Augustine Mann
,
Abrege de l'histoire ecclesiastique, civile et naturelle
, 1785, volume 1, p. 50: "Un citoyen de Bruxelles ne sera emprisonne ailleurs que dans cette ville meme. Personne ne pourra se saisir d'un citoyen, que le seul Amman ou ses sergens".
- ^
Example: in
Collection de memoires relatifs a l'histoire de Belgique
, Societe de l'histoire de Belgique, n° 16, Brussels, 1863, p. 114: "
in hoc loco insignis quidam vir ex aula Imperatoris, civis Bruxellensis, qui narrabat se iterum atque iterum monachum convenisse de quibusdam negotiis, quae tum ad meam, tum aliorum causam pertinerent.
"
- ^
F. Favresse,
L'avenement du regime democratique a Bruxelles pendant le moyen, 1932: "
Arnoldus de Lapide, oppidanus Bruxellensis, est cite en aout 1244
", or Edouard Terwecoren,
Collections de precis historiques
, Brussels, 1869, p. 286: "
honestus vir Jacobus Taie, oppidanus Bruxellensis, alter magistrorum fabricae ecclesiae beatae Gudulae, aetatis annorum LXX vel circiter
"
- ^
Recueil des anciennes coutumes de la Belgique
, published by order of the King of the Belgians, under the direction of the Justice Ministre, by a special commission,
Coutumes du Pays et duche de Brabant, quartier de Bruxelles
, Volume 1, Coutumes de la ville de Bruxelles, by
A. De Cuyper
, advisor to the
Court of Cassation
, member of the Royal Commission for the publication of ancient laws and ordonnances of Belgium, Brussels, Fr. Gobbaerts, printer (publisher) of the King, successeur d’Emm. Devroye, rue de Louvain 40, Brussels, 1869.
[1]
- ^
Word listed by Jan Louys D'Arcy,
Het groote woorden-boeck, vervattende den schat der Nederlandtsche tale, met een Fransche uyt-legginge
, Rotterdam, printed by Pieter
van Waesberghe
, 1651. The word
poort-grave
is also derived from this word, meaning mayor of the city.
- ^
Henri Pirenne
,
Les villes du Moyen Age, essai d’histoire economique et sociale
, Bruxelles, Lamertin, 1927.
[2]
Archived
2012-02-06 at the
Wayback Machine
, also :
Les villes et les institutions urbaines
, Alcan, 1939.
- ^
Pierre Bonenfant
, Professor at the
Brussels University
, "Racines prehistoriques de la Wallonie", in
Histoire de la Wallonie
published under the direction of
Leopold Genicot
, Toulouse, Privat, 1973, p.37-39: (FR)
Il n'y a pas si longtemps, tout compte fait, que notre Prehistoire est revolue. Dans l'angle nord-ouest de l'Europe, la vie, durant le haut Moyen Age, a ressemble de tres pres, materiellement et socialement, a ce qu'elle avait ete a l'age du Fer, soit que la tradition s'en fut purement et simplement maintenue, comme ce fut le cas hors des limites de l'Empire romain, soit qu'elle ait repris vigueur, ce qui advint en deca de ces limites. Dans le domaine des techniques, l'archeologie ne cesse de multiplier les preuves de cette situation. (...) Forges, charronnages ou poteries rurales sont, au debut du Moyen Age, tout a fait dans la tradition de l'age du Fer. Tandis que notre mode traditionnel d'agriculture, fonde a la fois sur l'elevage pour la viande et le lait et sur la culture du ble, remonte plus haut encore: a l'origine meme du Neolithique europeen continental (Danubien), c'est-a-dire au Ve millenaire au moins. Il n'en va pas autrement du plan disperse de nos villages qui s'oppose a l'habitat fortement groupe que connait l'Orient des le Neolithique. Et la meme origine vaut pour nos vieilles chaumieres aux murs de colombage, hourdes de torchis et coiffes d'un toit a double pente. (...) Ajoutons que nos campagnes ont conserve parfois jusqu'a l'aube de la revolution industrielle de vieilles techniques protohistoriques. (...) Nous devons donc nous demander s'il n'existe pas quelques tres vieilles continuites plongeant dans la Prehistoire qui peuvent conferer a la physionomie de la Wallonie actuelle certains traits particuliers.
- ^
Jan Caluwaerts published the list of Brussels bourgeois in his book "Poorters van Brussel-Bourgeois de Bruxelles", facilitating the research of many people interested in their Brussels origins.