Nieuwe Uitgaven

The politics of factional conflict in late medieval Flanders

“…Sources from medieval Flanders often describe the members of a faction as someone's 'mannen, vrienden, maghen, knechten ende hulpen' ('men, friends, kin, servants and helpers').The first part,'mannen, vrienden, maghen', points to what Boissevain called the core (or nucleus) of a faction, while the second part 'knechten ende hulpen' refers to the so-called periphery. 28 A faction's core always consisted of a network of kin, traditionally called 'vrienden ende maghen' in Dutch.The word 'vrient' could mean both 'friend' and 'kinsman', but at other times it had a clear political connotation, while 'maagscap' usually meant 'kinship' but sometimes also referred to a society or association. 'Bloet' or 'zibbe', then, exclusively referred to actual family ties,'relations by blood'.…”