Factionalism and State Power in the Flemish Revolt (1482-1492)

"It was a damned plague that caused great sadness in Bruges, because the citizens were divided into two factions. Brothers were separated. Even husbands and wives quarrelled about the factions".¹

The factional struggle between Monetans and Philippins held Flanders firmly in its grip during the Flemish Revolt. This was the battle for the regency during the minority of the count of Flanders, Philip the Fair, between 1482 and 1492. The faction of the Monetans supported the regency of Philip's father Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, while the faction of the Philippins defended the existence of a regency council that would govern the county in Philip the Fair's name.² As the quotation above states, this factional struggle not only separated social entities, such as families and married couples, it also spread a "plague" of violence in the city of Bruges. Several historians (including Jacques Heers and Wim Blockmans) have already shown that factional struggle made medieval and Renaissance politics more violent.³ They argue that there was no central control mechanism that could stop one faction from using brute force against the other because state power was weak. In a more recent article William Beik states that factional splits were endemic during periods of weakness of the central state because of the nature of the social system. According to Beik, an aristocratic society required effective sharing of resources through taxation, venality, and clientage. When the system of financial and economic redistribution faltered because of the inadequacy of central authority in times of political weakness, "it produced instead popular unrest, jurisdictional blockage, and factional conflicts."⁴ This article, however argues, that weak state power did not cause factional struggle, because it assesses periods of weakness of central power only as an opportunity to grab power that a political alternative to central authority could seize upon. While weakness of the central government does explain why the state could not pacify factional violence in the city, it does not clarify the origins of the conflict. Without the existence of powerful political challengers to the regime factional conflict would not have taken place in periods of weak state power, and therefore, I would argue, we must consider additional social factors in order to understand factional struggle. Challenging factions are powerful when they have at their disposal important economic resources, an alternative political program, and a cohesive social body. These aspects cannot be ignored when studying factional conflicts.

The goal of the present article is to explore a medieval case in which an urban faction evicted the faction that was supported by central authority: namely, the case of Bruges during the period of the Flemish Revolt. The political position of the state was fundamentally weakened because its sympathizing faction in town did not have a comparable power basis as its opposing faction. The lack of financial and economic means on the state level not only deprived the state elite of the use of force against its adversaries, it also weakened the social networks of its faction in town. By using the opportunity presented by the temporary weakness of central authority, a forceful challenging faction could gain power in town if it felt the need to. In such a case the social support, strong ideas, and sufficient resources enabled the opposing faction to succeed in its mission. In moments power shifted from faction to faction, vengeance reigned over the city, and a spiral of violence held urban society in its grasp. Factional struggle was like a "damned plague" of which the citizens could not rid themselves.

In my examination of this case, social theory, especially that of Pierre Bourdieu, will help to formulate my argument, for I define a faction as a "cluster of social capital." At the same time, historical research can help to concretize sociological terminology. Firstly, because this article also aims to make a contribution to the discussion on state building, I will explain what is meant by "state power" as used above. Secondly, the term "social capital" and a general analysis of historical samples will give new insights into the social history of factions. Thirdly...