Heerlijke rechtspraak en de plattelandsbevolking in Oost-Nederland (circa 1480-1570)

Seigneurial courts and the rural population in the eastern Netherlands (c. 1480-1570)

This article studies the impact of seigneurial lordship on rural communities through an analysis of the litigants active in a seigneurial court of the lords of Bergh (van Bergh) in the eastern Netherlands. The results show that the rural population barely made use of the court but was often charged before it. Meanwhile, inhabitants of the small town of ‘s-Heerenberg figure prominently among the plaintiffs. This finding fits within the development of the court, being both permanently located within the town and dominated by its inhabitants. Given the wide variety of options for conflict resolution mechanisms open to the rural inhabitants of premodern Europe, these results suggest that the seigneurial court in this case did not serve the interests of the rural population, but rather those of the citizens of ‘s-Heerenberg. This conclusion is surprising in light of recent research and testifies to the widely different effects seigneurial lordship could have on rural societies within the Netherlands.