State-formation and national identity in the late medieval period have been focused in much of recent research on political and ideological developments of the late Middle Ages. Authors like Wim Blockmans and Marc Boone have stressed the importance of Burgundian state formation in the Low Countries for the process of ...
(Show more)State-formation and national identity in the late medieval period have been focused in much of recent research on political and ideological developments of the late Middle Ages. Authors like Wim Blockmans and Marc Boone have stressed the importance of Burgundian state formation in the Low Countries for the process of unification of the various principalities. This movement has often been described as a top-down movement: the prince conquering and unifing his new territories while imposing central institutions and streamlining existing ones. This session wants to tackle some of the issues relating to this process from a bottom-up perspective. How were various social groups involved in the developments (courtiers, local elites, state officials, etc.)? What was the impact in the various principalities? They were organised politically, economically and socially often in a very different way, and the involvement of the social groups in the process of state formation could also differ greatly.
This paper will study the impact and the process of adaptation and assimilation of state formation and on the centralisation of local government and social structure. In particular continuity and recuperation of already existing groups and institutions will be focused. State formation and the creation of national identity cannot influence and change the position and strategies of local governing elites, unless political change affects the structures of the organisation of society itself.
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