« A no grant besoing, en boine mounoie et bien contee »
The XIIIth century Flemish counts’ appeal for funds to moneylenders from Arras
p. 153-168
Résumé
Throughout the XIIIth century, the countesses of Flanders Joan (1212- 1244) and her sister Margaret of Constantinople (1244-1278) had to rely on ad hoc loans in order to cover their expenses caused by political, economic or military decisions. Such ad hoc credits were granted by the Flemish towns and by the countesses liege lords, the French king and English king (money fief), but also by « foreign » partners. Among these « external » financiers, not only Northern Italian merchants (Lombards) but also several members of the bourgeoisie of Arras played a significant role. For the latter group, several letters of obligation and quittances reporting on the financial transactions between the countesses of Flanders and the Arras families Crespin, Louchart, Wago and le Brogne have survived. So far, the well-documented case of Arras loans has mainly been analyzed for its content. However, studying the diplomatic and material features of these records might lead to additional conclusions on how these financial transactions were prepared, performed, recorded and finalized. By bridging the gaps between « content » and « form », separate documents and compiled records, and making use of different methodological approaches, this contribution will offer a more in-depth view of the usurarios de Attrebato in XIIIth century Flanders, and more particularly of their role and representation in the financial comital administration.
Au cours du XIIIe siècle, les comtesses de Flandre Jeanne (1212-1244) et sa sœur Marguerite de Constantinople (1244-1278) ont dû faire appel, à maintes reprises, à des crédits externes ad hoc pour financer leurs dépenses causées par des décisions politiques, économiques et militaires. De tels crédits ont été accordés par les villes de Flandre et les suzerains des comtesses, les rois de France et d’Angleterre (ce dernier en procurant un fief de bourse), mais aussi par des partenaires étrangers. Parmi ces créditeurs extérieurs, des marchands italiens du Nord (Lombards), ainsi que plusieurs membres de la bourgeoisie arrageoise, ont joué un rôle prépondérant. Quant à ce dernier groupe, un grand nombre de lettres obligatoires et de quittances sont préservées, et nous rendent compte des transactions financières entre les comtesses de Flandre et les familles arrageoises des Crespin, des Louchart, des Wagon et des Le Brogne. Jusqu’à présent, le cas des financiers d’Arras, lequel est richement documenté, a été étudié principalement du point de vue du contenu des documents. Cependant, analyser leurs caractéristiques diplomatiques et matérielles peut également aider à mieux comprendre la manière dont ces opérations de prêts ont été préparées, présentées, enregistrées et finalisées. En comblant le fossé qui sépare le contenu de la forme des documents, et en utilisant différentes approches méthodologiques, cette contribution s’attache à donner une vue plus générale sur les usurarios de Attrebato actifs en Flandre au XIIIe siècle, en particulier sur leur rôle et représentation dans l’administration financière comtale.
Texte intégral
1On December 5, 1244, Margaret of Constantinople succeeded her sister Joan as countess of Flanders and Hainaut. Although Margaret was more mature and experienced than her sister, then 12 years old, had been when she came to the throne in 1212, Margaret did not begin her reign with a clean slate, since Joan had left her with a huge burden of debt amounting to 164,000 pounds parisis. Of this total, 60,000 pounds were unpaid debts and obligations made by countess Joan during her reign; 30,000 pounds were legacies and compensations specified in Joan’s will; 48,000 pounds were to be spent to purchase an annuity for Margaret’s brother-in-law Thomas of Savoy, countess Joan’s second husband; and finally 26,000 pounds went to the French king as feudal relief and succession fees for the part of Flanders belonging to the French crown1. Moreover, during her own reign, countess Margaret faced a series of additional costs: expenses from the succession war between the houses of Avesnes and Dampierre2, costs for marriages, crusades, reliefs and annuities for her children; payments to support the expansionist policies of her son Guy, and finally, regular expenses for gifts and acquisitions of movables and immovables3. However, in spite of these large expenses, both Joan and Margaret could rely on substantial revenues from the expanding economic activities of the Flemish towns and the increase in commercial trade and incomes created by new non-domanial revenues such as tolls, taxes, fines, tonlieux, conduits and rents4. And yet these sources of income were not sufficient to cover comital expenses, which forced the countesses to negotiate ad hoc loans with creditors. The needed ad hoc credit was granted by the Flemish towns5 and by the countesses’ liege lords, the French king and English king, who granted them a monetary fief, but also by foreign partners. Among these external financiers, not only Northern Italian merchants – chiefly Lombards6 – but also a group of bourgeois from Arras played a significant role7.
The well-documented case of Arras
2The Arras bourgeois, the subject of this paper, left behind many surviving individual obligation letters and quittances that reveal the financial transactions between the countesses of Flanders and the Crespin, Louchart, Wago and le Brogne families of Arras. The documents are now stored in the archives of Ghent, Brussels and Lille8. For the period under study, four additional documents are valuable: the first is a charter9 dated December 1244, drawn up just before the death of Joan of Constantinople, in which her sister Margaret confirmed unpaid debts to a list of creditors10; the second is a list of debts recorded in December 127811, at the end of Margaret’s reign in Flanders; the third record is a similar list of debts drawn up by the administration of Count Guy of Dampierre in 129012; and the fourth is a 1290 list compiled by the comital receiver of Flanders in Bruges, which also enumerated debts and repayments13. In addition, there is an account book (memorial) written by Jean Makiel, the clerk and general receiver of count Guy of Dampierre, covering 1270 to 127514. In all of these registers and debt lists, a separate section is dedicated to the bourgeois d’Arras.
3Although specialists in the fields of financial, legal and institutional history, including Georges Bigwood, Raymond De Roover, Theo Luykx and others15, have closely analysed the commercial activities of the burghers of Arras, these historians’ attention was focused on the content and context rather than on the diplomatic form of the documents involved. By uniting both perspectives, this paper offers a document-based analysis of this group of XIIIth-century Northern French moneylenders, who clearly differentiated themselves from their Italian competitors.
Patrician families of moneylenders: the Crespin and the Louchart
4From the late XIIth and early XIIIth century, the wealthy town of Arras, along with Douai and Lille, was known for its commercial activities and entrepreneurship based on financial transactions and petty money-lending16. Among the Arrageois bourgeois families of means, all members of the urban patriciate, the Crespin and the Louchart families had particularly famous reputations as large creditors of princes, towns, religious institutions and local nobles17. The Crespins and Loucharts were certainly not the only bourgeois families in Arras who were active in loaning money, purchasing annuities from towns, and other commercial activities. Families like the Nazard, the Hukedieu, the Lanstier, the Wago, the de Paris, the Wyon and the Douchet regularly appear in XIIIth century financial and commercial documents18.
5While we do not know exactly how the Crespin family acquired its fortune, we can surmise that it grew by a combination of landed property, trade in wine and cloth, and lucrative money-lending. The most prominent Crespin men who dominated the list of creditors from Arras were one closely related group, Robert I († 1242) and his sons Robert II, Ermenfroy († between 1278 and 1290) and Jean Crespin († between 1290 and 1299), and a single man, Baudouin (Baude) Crespin. Although Robert I and his son Robert II performed several transactions together with Baudouin Crespin, there is no evidence about the degree to which they were related. Generally the Crespin maintained a cordial relationship with the comital House of Artois, and several family members, including Robert II (from 1255 to 1265) and Jacques (1308), son of Ermenfroy and grandson of Robert I, held office in Arras as aldermen or treasurers (Jacques, 1306)19.
6During the XIIIth century, the Louchart family, represented by its most important members Audrefroy, Jacques, André and another Jacques, developed its reputation and fortune in a very similar manner to the Crespins20. They held political offices as aldermen and even served as sergeants and panetiers at the French royal court (Jacques, c. 1284), they were closely connected to the princely courts of Artois and Flanders, and they engaged in trade, owned land and houses, and received monetary fiefs21. In 1296 a Jacques Louchart was listed as the valet of the general receiver of Flanders, Jakemon of Deinze22. According to Georges Bigwood, both families stopped dealing in money as soon as they entered the ranks of nobility, undoubtedly the positive result of their political appointments and efforts to associate themselves with princes and sovereigns23.
Between protection and opposition
7Although kings and princes had promoted commercial activities and favoured merchants in their territories in the XIIth century, they faced a new common concern around 1200: the struggle against usury24. In line with papal bulls from the XIIth century, secular authorities began sending the clear message that they would not tolerate usury in financial transactions in their territories25. In 1199, Baldwin IX, count of Flanders and Hainaut, proclaimed in a charter that the money trade and grants of credit at interest were henceforth strictly forbidden26. A few decades later, in 1233, French king Louis IX, with the consent of his barons, promulgated a similar act, including a clause stating that any loan negotiated with Christian or Jewish usurers would be prosecuted27. In the meantime, the pope continued to take action on a series of usury complaints he received from Flanders and northern France. On cases of blackmail involving Arras moneylenders, including members of the Wago and Hukedieu families, pope Gregory IX ordained in several mid-XIIIth-century bulls that the usurers were to be punished severely according to the conditions proclaimed at the Lateran Council and forced to give back what they illegally had taken from others28. In the same period pope Gregory IX bestowed a long series of bulls on the most important abbeys in the dioceses of Arras, Thérouanne and Tournai, which stated that clergy were strictly forbidden to bury people who were excommunicated or interdicted, or anyone who had a public reputation as a usurer in their parishes29.
8As for the Crespin and Louchart families, the status of nobility did not wash away their notorious reputation as money-grubbers30. Fragments of troubadour literature and criminal trial records from the late XIIIth and early XIVth century tell of their arrogance, fraudulent avoidance of taxes and duties, and armed interventions against debtors; citizens who didn’t repay their debts on time were beaten up or arrested, their possessions were confiscated, or the money was simply stolen from others. Although more than once the acts of violence were brought to court, the violators were usually acquitted, thanks to their connections. However, members of the Crespin and Louchart families were often victims of acts of vengeance as well. Several Loucharts were killed during the XIVth century, and their murderers were also acquitted31. The final piece of evidence attesting to their arrogance comes from a note in the Bruges accounts stating that Jacques Louchart had ordered the town magistrates to raise a statue to honour him in St. Donatian church in 128832.
The count (esse) s of Flanders as (indirect) borrowers and guarantors
9Although the monetary activities of the Arrageois families were at their height between 1260 and 1340, the oldest evidence of loan transactions by Crespins dates back to 1223. In that year, Guy of Châtillon, count of St-Pol, borrowed two amounts, 1,040 and 9,000 livres parisis, from Baudouin Crespin and several other Arras residents33. Two years later, in August 1225, countess Joan of Flanders borrowed 2,050 livres parisis from Robert and Baude Crespin, for which Daniel, advocate of Arras, stood surety34. There are no records of other loans from the Crespin to countess Joan, since Italian and Jewish moneylenders lent her the ransom of 34,000 livres for the release of her husband Ferrand of Portugal35, a captive in Paris after the defeat at Bouvines, around 122136. On Georges Bigwood’s and Theo Luykx’s lists of loans granted by the burghers of Arras to the House of Flanders, countess Margaret and her son Guy of Dampierre appeared often as borrowers after 126037. As official borrowers they are listed more than thirty times between 1264 and 1296, for a total of more than 50,000 livres parisis38. In August 1294, count Guy of Dampierre’s deputy and general receiver Jakemon of Deinze negotiated a loan of 253 pounds and clearly stated in the contract that the amount was borrowed « a mon grant besoing pour faire les besognes mon chier signeur le conte demanda»39.
10The obligation letters, quittances and lists of debts reveal other recurrent practices. One pattern is that the counts of Flanders sometimes borrowed money in their own name from the Arrageois moneylenders while the sum was actually destined for a third party, such as a town or one or more noble confidants. For example, in 1287 Guy of Dampierre borrowed 100 livres from Robert and Baudouin Crespin, but another contract from the same file reveals that Henry of Moorslede, a noble knight, swore to repay the count the entire amount at maturity40. Another example of this kind dates from May 1292, when count Guy and his sons Robert of Nevers and Guillaume of Crèvecoeur borrowed 5,568 livres from the same Crespins, while the real creditor was John, duke of Brabant, who was married to countess Margaret’s granddaughter Margaret of Dampierre41. In his obligation letter the duke promised to compensate the creditors and named his cousins, including Hugh of Châtillon, count of Blois, as sureties42.
11Another pattern was that Margaret and Guy of Dampierre regularly stood surety for loans officially contracted for towns43, abbeys44, or other people45, but Margaret and Guy were the actual beneficiaries. In August 1276, for example, Margaret and Guy secured a loan of 3,664 pounds contracted with Baudouin Crespin and others by Philip of Bourbourg, lord of Verlinghehem and Margaret’s general receiver, along with eight bourgeois of Douai46. The loan was recorded on the list of debts drawn up by the comital administration at Christmas 1278; 1,200 livres of it were paid at the reneghes of 1277, and the outstanding balance was to be paid a year later, at the reneghes of 127847. Beginning in the 1280s there were similar deals in which towns acted as offical borrowers for hidden and indirect comital loans48.
Organization of the transactions: cooperation, location and intermediaries
12The abundant source evidence provides insight into the practical organization of the Arras moneylenders, the people involved and the methods they used to insure that they would be reimbursed. There were significant differences between their strategies and those of their Italian counterparts, the Lombard merchant-bankers and Sienese merchants. The moneylenders from Arras did not form societies, or companies as the professional Italian merchant-bankers did49. Sometimes the Arrageois operated with two or three fellow lenders, but their occasional cooperation never produced the institutions of the Italian business houses, such as lending tables, manned by the Lombards and patented by the count or city government50. Because the Arras moneylenders did not deal in funds administered by a company, their capital remained private.
13Most of the payments and reimbursements of the money due to and lent by the Arrageois burghers were made locally by messengers of both parties, who met each other either at the home of the grantor or at the comital residence in Lille51. In contrast to the transaction procedures followed by the Lombard companies, who worked with local representatives at the annual fairs in northern France and Flanders52, the Arras creditors did not always do business at the fairs53. A 1266 guarantee letter, for instance, in which the provosts of Béthune and Mons announced that they would be sureties for a sum borrowed by countess Margaret and her son Guy from Lambert Hukedieu, burgher of Arras, stated that the money would be disbursed at the Champagne fair, but repayment had to be made in Arras54.
14Most of Margaret of Flanders’ business dealings were arranged by her trusted official, Philip of Bourbourg. As her first general receiver of Flanders, he not only coordinated the central financial administration between c. 1260 and 1280, but also served as an intermediary to settle her financial transactions. As a professional go-between, he negotiated the loans, collected the borrowed sums and took responsibility for repayment on the due dates55. Although the only obligation letters and loan quittances mentioning his role as intermediary were contracted with the Italian Lombards and merchants from Douai, he probably took part in financial transactions with the burghers of Arras as well56.
Diplomatic features of the obligation texts: highlights and silences
15Rather than earning profit from exchange rates, the usurers of Arras put their capital to work in two financial instruments: high-interest loans and purchases of annuities, mostly from cities57. The Crespin and Louchart families were especially notorious for their high interest rates, amounting to fourteen or sixteen percent per year, although twenty or even fifty percent rates were common penalties for a debtor who did not repay the money on time58. Since usury was repeatedly condemned after the Lateran Councils of 1139, 1163 and 117959, most XIIIth-century obligation letters did not record the loan interest. Instead, they only stated the amount of the money due to the creditor, to be reimbursed on a specific maturity date. This sum was not the amount the borrower had received, but a larger sum which included the actual interest. Ironically, many obligation letters to the creditors of Arras, often introduced by countess Margaret as nos chiers amis or dilecto nostro, underlined the fact that the money was counted carefully and granted legally, producing no extra costs for either party60. The motivation for contracting a loan was usually formulated vaguely in the terms of a nostre grand besoing, or the Latin equivalent61.
16Following the names of the creditor and the borrower, the amount of the money due and the (generally fixed) date for repayment, the Arras obligation instruments specified the most important part of the contract: the penalty clauses in the case of non-payment. To ensure that the money would be repaid, moneylenders often stipulated watertight guarantees in the loan contract. All comital loans were secured by one or more guarantors – family members, noble friends, courtiers and burghers – who pledged to reimburse the money in case the debtor failed to do so, often with the condition that their own property would be forfeit62. If that happened, the debtor compensated the sureties afterwards in a separate letter of indemnification63. It is noteworthy that in several obligation letters after 1267 to members of the Crespin, de Paris and Louchart families, all from Arras, countess Margaret added that she renounced any means she might ever use to invalidate the contract, including papal indulgence, canon law, or any type of secular privilege. This clearly illustrates that, despite all ecclesiastical and princely efforts to keep usury to a minimum, even the counts themselves looked the other way if they had the opportunity to contract another loan64.
17If the guarantors were princes or sovereigns, the pledges might also include « command clauses » in which they committed themselves to instituting measures that would damage the commerce of their own merchants if payment was in default. Although we have no examples of this in the Arras transactions, there is early evidence of these clauses in the transactions with Italian bankers. For example, countess Joan of Flanders borrowed about 35,000 livres in 1221 from Italian and Jewish bankers to help pay the ransom for the release of her husband Ferrand65. The contact was guaranteed by the countess of Champagne, Blanche of Navarre, and her son Thibauld. Joan promised that they would prohibit all Flemish merchants from attending the annual fairs in Champagne and elsewhere and confiscate all the merchants’ possessions, if she failed to repay the loan66.
Material aspects of the originals: written proof of contract and end of contract
18In addition to the textual structure of documents and the interconnections among documents belonging to the file of individual loan transactions, the materiality of the original records sheds light on procedures. Material features of the originals reveal that the document itself, as the instrumentum, was a crucial part of the negotiation. Many obligation letters stated that the principal or outstanding balance would be paid to the man who bore the contract, either the borrower himself or a messenger67. After the money was repaid, the parties annulled the contract’s content by cutting the parchment through several times. The incisions were made in two ways: with a straight cut running parallel to the fold of the parchment68, or with one or two diagonal incisions made after the document was folded in half or thirds69. When the juridical action was complete and the document or file was stored in the comital archives, the clerk wrote de debte paiié on the back of the originals.
19Furthermore, all but a few contracts and quittances were sealed70 and had the same external appearance as other comital charters. Although we might expect that commercial documents would have cursive handwriting and a less careful finish because of their temporary character, beautiful surviving examples were written in a slow and posed hand, decorated71, and carefully prepared72.
Conclusion
20With their lucrative deals founded on onerous contracts and their social and professional relationships with sovereigns and territorial princes, the moneylenders from Arras built up significant economic and political power, so that by the end of the thirteenth century they had become a respected and feared group who could no longer be ignored by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities.
21Previous analysis of the well-documented Arras loans to the Flemish countesses and others, worth over 84,000 livres parisis by 129073, focused on content and gave scholars insight into the different groups of debtors, amounts of the loans and interest, payment procedures, agreements, reimbursement and terms of repayment, and the parties who stood surety for the sums borrowed. Analyzing the diplomatic and material features of these records, along with complementary sources related to these transactions, such as registers and financial surveys drawn up by the Flemish comital administration, papal bulls and conflict resolution documents, produces additional conclusions on the preparation, performance, recording and perception of these financial transactions. By using different methodological approaches and bridging the gaps between « content » and « form » and between separate documents and compiled records, this paper develops a deeper and richer view of the usurarios de Attrebato in XIIIth-century Flanders, their importance for the development of the private credit system in our region, and more particularly, their impact and representation in the comital financial administration.
Notes de bas de page
1 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen en het grafelijk patrimonium in Vlaanderen tijdens de regering van Margareta van Constantinopel (1244-1278), Brussels, 1961 (Verhandelingen van de koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor wetenschappen, letteren en schone kunsten van België. Klasse der letteren. Verhandelingen, 39), p. 98, 271; Id., Johanna van Constantinopel, gravin van Vlaanderen en Henegouwen: haar leven (1199/1200-1244), haar regeering (1205- 1244), vooral in Vlaanderen, Brussels, 1946 (Verhandelingen van de koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor wetenschappen, letteren en schone kunsten van België. Klasse der letteren, Jaarg. VIII, 5) p. 423-425.
2 This conflict, stemming from the fact that Margaret had children from both her husbands Bouchard of Avesnes and William II of Dampierre, finally ended in a division of the patrimony. Since John of Avesnes, Margaret’s son from her first marriage, died in 1257, his son John succeeded his grandmother in the county of Hainaut in 1280. William III of Dampierre, the eldest son of Margaret from her second marriage, died in 1251, and the county of Flanders went to his younger brother, Guy of Dampierre, in 1278. Ch. Duvivier, La querelle des d’Avesnes et des Dampierre jusqu’à la mort de Jean d’Avesnes (1257), Brussels, 1894.
3 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., chapter 2.
4 To manage the administration of these new sorts of revenues, an office of general receiver was established by countess Margaret around 1262. Philip of Bourbourg was the first to bear the title. E. Kittell, From ad hoc to routine: a case study in medieval bureaucracy, Philadelphia, 1991, p. 15-20; on the organization of the financial administration in Flanders before the office of general receiver was created, see E. Strubbe, Egidius van Breedene (11..-1270), grafelijk ambtenaar en stichter van de abdij Spermalie: bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het grafelijk bestuur en van de Cistercienser Orde in het dertiendeeuwsche Vlaanderen, Bruges, 1942 (Rijksuniversiteit te Gent. Werken uitgegeven door de Faculteit van de Wijsbegeerte en Letteren, 94); A. Verhulst, M. Gysseling, Le compte général de 1187, connu sous le nom de Gros Brief, et les institutions financières du comté de Flandre au XIIe siècle, Brussels, 1962 and T. Soens, D. Tys, Het ius notarii Flandrie, een miskende getuige van de ontwikkelingen in de administratie van het graafschap Vlaanderen (XIIe-XVe eeuw), in Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis, 138, 2001, p. 3-32.
5 5The system of negotiable contributions (beden) by the Flemish towns to support the count’s expenses partially evolved to a more permanent fiscal system (the Transport of Flanders) at the beginning of the XIVth century. H. Van Werveke, Les charges financières issues du traités d’Athis (1305), in Revue du Nord, 32/126-127, 1950, p. 81-93 and W. Prevenier, De beden in het graafschap Vlaanderen onder Filips de Stoute (1384-1404), in Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 38/2, 1960, p. 330-365. On the urban public debts during the Burgundian period, see M. Boone, Le crédit financier dans les villes de Flandre (XIVe-XVe siècles): typologie des crédirentiers, des créditeurs et des techniques de financement, in Barcelona quaderns d’historia, 13, 2007, p. 59-78. On the interrelation between the dukes of Burgundy and their Flemish officials, focusing particularly on credit, see M. Boone, J. Dumolyn, Les officiers-créditeurs des ducs de Bourgogne dans l’ancien comté de Flandre: aspects financiers, politiques et sociaux, in J.-M. Cauchies (ed.), Finances et financiers des princes et des villes à l’époque bourguignonne, Turnhout, 2004 (Burgundica, 8), p. 63-77.
6 Thomas Blomquist, building on Raymond De Roover’s criticism of Bigwood and Kulischer, advocates making a technical distinction between the Lombards who were engaged in pawnbroking and petty money-lending, and the Lombards who represented the large Italian merchant-banking houses. However, he also argues that the social and professional boundaries between these two groups were not as tight as De Roover suggested. Th. Blomquist, The early history of European banking: merchants, bankers and lombards of thirteenth-century Lucca in the county of Champagne, in The Journal of European economic history, 14/3, 1985, p. 521-536. R. De Roover, Money, banking and credit in medieval Bruges: Italian merchant-bankers, lombards and money-changers, a study in the origins of banking, Cambridge (Mass.), 1948 (The medieval Academy of America. Publications, 51), and, of the same author, New interpretations of the history of banking, in Journal of World History, 2, 1954, p. 38-78; G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique et économique du commerce de l’argent dans la Belgique du Moyen Âge, 2 vol., Brussels, 1921-1922; J. Kulischer, Warenhändler und Geldausleiher im Mittelalter, in Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung, 17, 1908, p. 29-71. On the early settlement of Lombard money traders in the Low Countries, see C. Tihon, Aperçus sur l’établissement des Lombards dans les Pays-Bas aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles, in Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 39/2, 1961, p. 334-364. On the organization of their business enterprises in the later Middle Ages, see D. Kusman, Usuriers publics et banquiers du prince: le rôle économique des financiers piémontais dans les villes du duché de Brabant (XIIIe-XIVe siècle), Turnhout, 2013 (Studies in European urban history [1100-1800], 28); and M. Boone, Le crédit financier… cit., p. 65-71.
7 The obligations, quittances, letters of indemnification and other (financial) documents list of the moneylenders of Arras with various Latin and vernacular terms: cives or civis Attrebatenses, bourgeois or borgois d’Arras, cytoiene or citoien d’Arras. Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., annexes 11, 35, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 65, and 66.
8 Respectively in the State Archives (SA) in Ghent, the General State Archives (GSA) in Brussels, and the Archives départementales du Nord (ADN) in Lille.
9 The research for this article is partly based on charters from the online database Diplomata Belgica: Diplomata Belgica. The diplomatic sources from the medieval southern Low Countries, dir. by Th. de Hemptinne et al., Brussels (Royal Historical Commission), since 2015, <www.diplomata-belgica.be>. References to a specific record since will be listed as follows: DiBe ID 12345.
10 Brussels, GSA, Trésor de Flandre II/Boîte 1, ad datum 1244, edited in Th. Luykx, Johanna… cit., p. 606-610 (DiBe ID 27058).
11 Ghent, SA, Gaillard 517, edited in Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 449-453 (annexe 122). See also G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., I, Brussels, 1921, p. 94-95.
12 Ghent, SA, Charters of the counts of Flanders, non analysed supplement, sheaf L n. 61, edited in G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., II, Brussels, 1922, annexe 15, p. 293-298.
13 Lille, ADN, B4059.
14 Ghent, SA, Gaillard 20bis, edited in J. Buntinx, Het Memoriaal van Jehan Makiel, klerk en ontvanger van Gwijde van Dampierre (1270-1275), Brussels, 1944, p. 71: registrum debitorum, lists several members of the Crespin family (cf. infra).
15 Their most useful works are cited in notes 1 to 5. More recently an (unpublished) master’s thesis on the Crespin family was written at the University of Caen: C. Bride, Les Crespin: seigneurs sur les marches de la Normandie (1025- 1310), [Caen], 2010.
16 A. Derville, La finance arrageoise: usure et banque, in M.-M. Castellani, J.-P. Martin (eds.), Arras au Moyen Âge: histoire et littérature, Arras, 1994 (Collection Langue et littérature françaises, 1), p. 37-52. For Douai, see Martha Howell, especially Documenting the ordinary: the « actes de la pratique » of late medieval Douai, in A. Kosto, A. Winroth (eds.), Charters, cartularies, and archives: The preservation and transmission of documents in the medieval West, Toronto, 2002, p. 151-173, and Weathering crisis, managing change: the emergence of a new socioeconomic order in Douai at the end of the Middle Ages, in M. Boone, W. Prevenier (eds.), La draperie ancienne des Pays-Bas: débouchés et stratégies de survie (14e-16e siècles). Actes du Colloque tenu à Gand le 28 avril 1992, Leuven, 1993 (Studies in urban social, economic and political history of the medieval and modern Low Countries), p. 85-120, along with many other publications.
17 A. Derville, Les élites urbaines en Flandre et en Artois, in Les élites urbaines au Moyen Âge. Actes des Congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur public, Rome, 1997 (Collection de l’École française de Rome, 238), p. 119-135, 127.
18 J. Lestocquoy, Les Patriciens du Moyen Âge: les dynasties bourgeoises d’Arras du XIe au XVe siècle, Arras, 1945 (Mémoires de la Commission des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais, V/1), and, of the same author, Deux familles de financiers d’Arras. Louchard et Wagon, in Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 32/1, 1954, p. 51-76. See also W. Blockmans, Financiers italiens et flamands aux XIIIe-XIVe siècles, in Aspetti della vita economica medievale. Contributi del Convegno di studi nel X anniversario della morte di Federigo Melis, Firenze-Pisa-Prato, 10-14 marzo 1984, Firenze, 1985, p. 192-214.
19 For an extensive genealogical survey of the Crespin and Louchart families, see G. Bigwood, Les financiers d’Arras. Contribution à l’étude des origines du capitalisme moderne, I, in Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 3/3, 1924, p. 465-508, in partic. p. 478-490. See also J. Lestocquoy, Les dynasties bourgeoises… cit., p. 79-85.
20 B. Delmaire, Louchard, in Lexikon des Mittelalters, V, Stuttgart, 1991, col. 2138-2139, in Brepolis Medieval Encyclopaedias-Lexikon des Mittelalters Online. The families became related through the marriage of Robert III Crespin to Marie, daughter of Jacquemon Louchart. J. Lestocquoy, Deux familles de financiers… cit., p. 62.
21 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., p. 490-498.
22 E. Kittell, From ad hoc to routine… cit., p. 90 and 105 (n. 118).
23 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., p. 499-500.
24 Id., Le régime juridique… cit., I, p. 575-603.
25 Other examples of early XIIIth-century bullae: DiBe ID 13698 (dated 1205), in which pope Innocent III charges the bishop of Tournai (Goswin) to punish severely the clerks within his diocese who are guilty of usury, adultery or concubinage. In 1217, pope Honorius III ordered the dean of the chapter of Messines to investigate a local complaint about practices of blackmail and usury. If the dean and canons found the complaint to be valid, the usurers were then to be punished according to the conditions proclaimed by the Lateran Council (DiBe ID 15700).
26 DiBe ID 396. W. Prevenier, Een woekerverbod van de Graaf van Vlaanderen uit 1199 gezien in het licht van kanoniekrechtelijke handschriften, in Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis, 34, 1966, p. 194-225.
27 DiBe ID 18860. See also M. Greilsammer, L’usurier chrétien, un juif métaphorique? Histoire de l’exclusion des prêteurs lombards (XIIIe-XVIIe siècle), Rennes, 2011.
28 Examples from Diplomata Belgica: DiBe ID 32513 (dated 1231); DiBe ID 18659 (dated 1230); DiBe ID 32507 (dated 1228); DiBe ID 18982 (dated 1231); DiBe ID 32515 (dated 1231); DiBe ID 19251 (dated 1232). In 1250, a group of Italian merchants/bankers (cahorsins) from Douai declared that they would abstain from usury. DiBe ID 29290. See also G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., I, p. 575 and following pages.
29 Examples from Diplomata Belgica: DiBe ID 25699 (dated 1228) for the abbeys of Cîteaux; DiBe ID 26600 (dated 1234) for the abbey of Salzinnes; DiBe ID 32423 (dated 1234) for the abbey of Roermond; DiBe ID 26173 (dated 1241) for the abbeys of Cîteaux; DiBe ID 19112 (dated 1231) for the abbey of Haspres; DiBe ID 19423 (dated 1234) for the abbeys of Cantimpré and Bellingen; DiBe ID 19738 (dated 1234) for the abbey of Prés-Porcins in Tournai; DiBe ID 29462 (dated 1235) for the abbey of Saint-Martin in Ypres; DiBe ID 20279 (dated 1236) for the abbey of Saint-Nicolas in Ypres; DiBe ID 20858 (dated 1238) for the abbey of Maroilles; DiBe ID 22542 (dated 1245) for the abbey of Houffalize (Val-des-Ecoliers); DiBe ID 30779 (dated 1234) for the abbey of Vrouwen-Park and 23066 (dated 1246) for the abbey of Park; DiBe ID 23173 (dated 1246) for the abbey of Ename; DiBe ID 23290 (dated 1246) for the abbey of Saint-Peter in Ghent; DiBe ID 23672 (dated 1248) for the abbey of Huy (Croisiers); DiBe ID 22052 (dated 1249) for the Order of Saint-Sépulcre; DiBe ID 24717 (dated 1249) for the Hospitallers; DiBe ID 29360 (dated 1251) for the hospital of Our Lady in Lessines.
30 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., p. 501-503.
31 Ibid., p. 504-507.
32 K. de Lettenhove, Histoire de Flandre. II. Époque communale, 1128-1304: depuis l’avénement de Thierri d’Alsace jusqu’à la mort de Gui Dampierre, Brussels, 1847, p. 363 (pro statua Jacobi Louchard in ecclesia Sancti Donati facienda), cited in J. Lestocquoy, Deux familles de financiers… cit., p. 63.
33 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], in Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 3/4, 1924, p. 770.
34 Ibidem.
35 In contrast to G. Doudelez, who assumed that the 2,050 livres borrowed from Robert and Baude Crespin and Wago of Arras was also intended for Ferrand’s release, Th. Luykx argues that this money was used to pay for the elimination of the so-called False Baldwin, an impostor who claimed to be Joan’s father, count Baldwin VI/IX, returned from the East. Th. Luykx, Johanna… cit., p. 256-257. See also G. Doudelez, Les résultats de la bataille de Bouvines et l’exécution du traité de Melun par la Flandre, in Revue des questions historiques, 1937 (mars), II (documents), p. 22-62, esp. p. 56. On the False Baldwin, see G. Lecuppre, Jeanne de Flandre, traîtresse et parricide. Thèmes radicaux d’une opposition politique, in Reines et princesses au Moyen Âge. Actes du cinquième colloque international de Montpellier (24-27 novembre 1999), Montpellier, 2001 (CRISIMA, 1), p. 63-70 and H. Platelle, Erreur sur la personne. Contribution à l’histoire de l’imposture au Moyen Âge, in Universitas. Philosophie, Théologie, Lettres, Histoire, Questions d’aujourd’hui. Numéro spécial pour le centenaire des Facultés catholiques de Lille (1877-1977), Lille, 1977 (= Mélanges des sciences religieuses, ann. 4), p. 117-145.
36 Th. Luykx, Johanna… cit., p. 244-245. See also G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., [annexes], p. 4-5.
37 37Examples: in June 1264 (Margaret: 1,200 lb. par.); September 1267 (Margaret: 1,620 lb.); January 1268 (Guy: 1,625 lb.); August 1268 (Margaret: 400 lb.); 1276 (Margaret: 7,500 lb.); February 1287 (two times) (Guy: 100 lb. + 1,296 lb.), April 1289 (Guy: 288 lb.); October 1289 (two times) (Guy: 489 lb. + 3,439 lb.); April 1290 (Guy: 1,405 lb.); June 1290 (Guy: 2,800 lb.); May 1292 (Guy, together with his sons Robert and William: 5,568 lb.); June 1292 (Guy together with his son Robert: 15,000 lb.); December 1292 (Guy: 4,000 lb.); February 1293 (Guy: 40 lb.); May 1295 (Guy: 2,830 lb.); December 1295 (Guy: 1,200 lb.); September 1296 (Robert, son of Guy: 600 lb.). G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], p. 770-796.
38 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 264-269; G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], p. 769-797.
39 Ibid., n. 139, p. 790 (26 August 1294). Ghent, SA, Gaillard 442.
40 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], n. 65, p. 778-779 (15 February 1287). Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 428.
41 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], n. 112, p. 784-785 (May 1292). Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 637.
42 Lille, ADN, B4050/3361.
43 Example of Bruges: G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], n. 85, p. 780-781 (October 1289).
44 Example of the abbey of Saint-Amand-en-Pévèle: ibid., n. 76, p. 780-781 (1288). Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 531.
45 Example of Baude d’Estrées and Simon Malet, bourgeois of Douai: ibid., n. 15, p. 772-773 (1268). Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 137 (obligation letter of countess Margaret); Lille, ADN, B4033/1552.
46 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., II [annexes], n. 21, p. 772-773. Ghent, SA, Gaillard 517; Lille, ADN, B1561/205.
47 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 450 (annexe 122).
48 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], n. 61 (Audenarde, November 1286) and n. 62 (Furnes, November 1286); p. 778-779, n. 77 (Bruges, 14 October 1288) and n. 85 (Bruges, date of operation or document unknown); p. 780-781 n. 135, p. 790-791 (Bruges, 26 April 1294).
49 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., p. 500; Id., Le régime juridique… cit., p. 175-179.
50 Ibid., I, p. 180 and following pages.
51 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 74, note 1.
52 G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., I, p. 56-57 and II, p. 267-269 (annexe 4, edition). In November 1267, three merchant companies from Siena took legal action against the town and aldermen of Saint-Dizier, who stood surety for the repayment of three amounts borrowed from them by John of Dampierre, lord of Saint-Dizier and Dampierre and grandson of countess Margaret. The latter, together with her son Guy and her grandson Robert, had co-signed the initial obligation letter. The judgement letter, drawn up on behalf of the fair guards and the officials of Troyes, presented a plan for repayment and stated that if the debtors would fail to reimburse, they would be brought before the ecclesiastical court of justice of Troyes and the court of the fair of Champagne, where they risked suffering both ecclesiastical and secular censure. See also R.-H. Bautier, Les foires de Champagne. Recherches sur une évolution historique, in La Foire, Brussels, 1953 (Recueils de la société Jean Bodin pour l’histoire comparative des institutions, 5), p. 97-147.
53 Although the lists of XIIIth-century obligations registered by the aldermen of Ypres repeatedly make mention of the fairs of Ypres, Lille and Thorout as the maturity date for loans contracted to burghers of Arras, including members of the Crespin and Louchart families, it is not likely that the sums borrowed were actually reimbursed at the fairs. C. Wyffels, Analyses de reconnaissances de dettes passées devant les échevins d’Ypres (1249-1291), Brussels, 1991 (Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique. Commission royale d’histoire, 83), p. 22, 65, 75, 85, 87, 104 (some examples). However, from the lettres de foire, we do know that burghers from Arras frequented these fairs, albeit probably more often in their capacity as merchants than as moneylenders. On these lettres de foire, see the contribution of Martha Howell and Thérèse de Hemptinne in this volume. See also G. Des Marez, La lettre de foire à Ypres au XIIIe siècle: contribution à l’étude des papiers de crédit, Brussels, 1901.
54 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 260 and 363 (annexe 44).
55 E. Kittell, From ad hoc to routine… cit., p. 73-81.
56 Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 73-80.
57 G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., p. 501; G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., I, p. 175-179.
58 Ibid., p. 444-445.
59 W. Prevenier, Een woekerverbod… cit., p. 195.
60 Examples: [the amount] in pecunia bona et bene numerata, cessante omni illicita pactione, mutuo gratis credidit et deliberavit. Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 372-375 (annexe 55, 56, 57). See also W. Blockmans, Financiers italiens et flamands… cit., p. 200.
61 Examples: Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 360-361 (annexe 41), p. 370-371 (annexe 53). Obligation letters for loans contracted to Sienese financiers more often use the words pro nostris et terrarum nostrarum inevitabilibus negociis et necessariis utilitatibus procurandis, agendis et expediendies to identify the motivation. Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 259. However, in place of these general statements, the charters and obligation letters countess Joan co-signed in the early 1220s specify a more concrete purpose for the borrowed money, namely to negotiate the release of her husband count Ferrand: ad redemptionem karissimi domini mei Fernandi or pro libertatione carissimi viri mei Fernandi. Th. Luykx, Johanna… cit., p. 244. Examples: DiBe ID 16416, 16439 and 30619 (for the chapter of Saint-Donatian in Bruges), and DiBe ID 16604 (for the chapter of Saint-Pierre in Lille).
62 Example of a security letter dated September 1266 in which countess Margaret promised to be surety for a sum of 6,000 lb. borrowed by her son Guy from Geoffroy Louchart, burgher of Arras: « Et, se li devant dis Audefrois n’estoit paijés de toute le dete devant dite au terme devant noumé et il i avoir cous et damages u fesist despens, nous, Margherite, contesse devant dite, li renderiens tous les cous et tous les damages, k’il i aroit, et tous les despens, k’il i feroit, sour sen voir dit sans autre prouvance faire avoec le dete devant dite; et tout cou avons nous proumis a tenir au devant dit Audefroi u a sen commant par abandon de tous nos biens. » Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 364-365 (annexe 46) (Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 121). Other examples: ibid., p. 328 (annexe 11), p. 359-360 (annexe 40), p. 370-371 (annexe 53), p. 371-372 (annexe 54).
63 Example: DiBe ID 30626 dated 1225, in which countess Joan promises to indemnify Daniel, advocate of Arras, who had stood surety for the recovery of debts to Robert Crespin, Baudouin Crespin called Strabo, and Laurent Wago, burghers of Arras (Lille, ADN, B1010/414). G. Bigwood, Les financiers… cit., [annexes], n. 3, p. 770-771.
64 Example: Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 370-371 (annexe 53): « Et pour toutes ces convenences tenir et aemplir, ensi com ci devant est dit, nous obligons tous nos biens en quelconkes liu qu’il soient trovet en droit, en loi et en abandon, ke li bourgois devant dis les puist prendre u faire prendre partout u que nous les aiens comme les siens duskes a tele dete et a tele convenence, ki ci devant est devisee. En toutes ces choses nous renoncons et avons renonciet a toutes exceptions, a toutes bares, a tous privileges, a toutes indulgenses, a toutes gracies, a tous respis, a toutes letres impetrees u a impetrer del apostole u de legat et d’empereur u de roi u d’autre persone, a toute aive de loi crestiene de Sainte Glise et de loi mondaine et a toutes les choses, ki aidier u valoir nous poroient encontre ces convenences et au devant dit bourgois et a sen hoir, se de lui estoit defalit, poroient grever u nuir. » Other examples: ibid., p. 371-383 (annexes 54, 55, 56, 57, 62, 65, 66). See also W. Blockmans, Financiers italiens et flamands… cit., p. 199-200.
65 See notes 35 and 36.
66 G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., I, p. 63. Th. Luykx, Johanna… cit., p. 244-245. DiBe ID 16703 (dated 1221): quod si forte praedicta pecunia persoluta non esset terminis constitutis, et tunc dicti comitissa et comes Campaniae ad requisitionem ipsorum creditorum nundinas suas interdiceret omnibus mercatoribus, burgensibus terrae nostrae [of countess Joan of Flanders], et tam in nundinis quam extra nundinas saisirent et caperent, tam res quam corpora burgensium et mercatorum terrae nostrae, ubicumque ea invenirent, sive in terra sua, sive alibi, et ea tenerent donec de praedicta pecunia, de costamentis plenarie satisfactum creditoribus supradictis.
67 Example of an obligation letter of countess Margaret dated September 1268: Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 379-380 (annexe 62) (Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 135): « faisons savoir a tous, ke nous [countess Margaret] devons a nos boens amis Jakemon et Sawalon, […] citoiens d’Arras, u a celui u a ceaus, ki ces letres rendera, deus mile lib. de paresis, qu’il nos ont presteis de lor propre chateil a nostre besoign, en boene mounoie et bien contee ».
68 Example, among many others: Ghent, SA, Saint-Genois 114 (dated August 1265).
69 Example, among many others: ibid., Saint-Genois 128 (dated September 1267), 508 (dated October 1289).
70 Example, among others: ibid., Gaillard 282, quittance of February 1287 (n.s.) with the well-preserved seals of Robert and Baude Crespin.
71 Example, among others: ibid., Saint-Genois 175 (dated May 1273).
72 Example, among others: ibid., Saint-Genois 531 (dated May 1290).
73 The amount of debts due to burghers of Arras at Christmas 1278, at the end of countess Margaret’s government in Flanders, was 8,464 lib. parisis. Th. Luykx, De grafelijke financiële bestuursinstellingen… cit., p. 289-290, p. 449-451 (annexe 122). In 1290, when a similar list was drawn up for Margaret’s son Guy of Dampierre, this amount had run up to more than 73,000 lb. G. Bigwood, Le régime juridique… cit., II, p. 293-298 (annexe 15). See also J. Lestocquoy, Les dynasties bourgeoises… cit., p. 32.
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Université de Gand
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