On Friday 22 April 2022 (4pm CEST), Falco Van der Schueren (Ghent University, History Department) will deliver a paper titled '“Van der macht van hervachteghen lieden". On the origins of municipal voluntary jurisdiction in late medieval Ghent'.

Unique for medieval Ghent was the existence of erfachtige lieden, descendants of the first landowners who settled in the city’s port around the tenth century. Due to their economic dominance they gradually acquired social, political and legal privileges which set them apart from the common people as urban patricians. In 1297 the count of Flanders approved them competent to register private deeds of local citizens and even long after their demise in 1302 they remained important for the municipal voluntary jurisdiction in Ghent alongside the aldermen.

Falco Van der Schueren (Ghent University) is a PhD fellow appointed by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). His research project unravels the complexity of late medieval voluntary jurisdiction in the Southern Low Countries. From a comparative and legal historical perspective it considers how local laws and customary practices affected the interactions between various intermediaries who were competent to record mutual transactions.

This will be the 32nd open lecture organized by the Digital Research Network for Medieval Urban History, an initiative of Queen Mary University London and the Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies at Ghent University. All welcome! If you haven't previously attended open lectures, please contact Stefan.Meysman@UGent.be for the Teams link.