Princely frailty in the pre-Burgundian Low Countries (ca 1200-ca 1430)

The Low Countries experienced many episodes where princely power was made precarious. Those crises had often to do with what might be called princely frailty, a blatant incompatibility of the monarch’s body and person with the expectations and ideals of political society. Although tolerated, female succession systematically gave rise to protests, civil wars or attempts to restrict princely prerogatives. As far as children counts or dukes were concerned, they had to face hard times through stormy regencies,abuses of their overlords,and constitutional infringements, but also to fear manoeuvres from their beloved uncles. Around 1400, youth was a political blunder in itself, thanks to a clever use of the humoral theory by opposition. More generally speaking, health was a mere matter of discourse, which could be invoked to bring monarchs to disrepute.Princely proximity of death was of benefit to noble and urban oligarchy, since too generous testaments tended to place successors under the yoke of representative counsels. Numerous counts, dukes or heirs to the throne fell in battles in the 13th and 14th centuries– others were killed in tournaments, wounded or captured on the battlefield. All of them caused huge damages to their principalities, related to succession, to their internal stability, to their economy, or even to their degree of freedom. Besides, princes seemed to be more and more dispossessed of their own bodies. Marriages were imposed on them by their parents, by their sovereigns or, in an increasing manner, by their subjects. Finally, various forms of captivity could occur. Thus, princely frailty reveals itself as the other side of monarchical strengthening: the princely person was– as a consequence– divided, discussed and disputed. It was a trump card in the hands of new political interlocutors and the very condition of their appearance on the stage