Brabant, Limburg und die Übermaasländer : eine Studie zur territorialen Finanzgeschichte bis zum Ende des 14. Jahrhunderts

Today's Belgian provinces of Brabant and Limburg, which were independent territories in tract the Middle Ages, emerged during the course of the 10th century from the former domain of Reginars. After Otto II had transferred the county Leuven in 978 to Lambert, a son of Reginar III, Lambert and his successors developed the small territory into a powerful dominion. The domain reached its political apex with Johann I (1269-1294). As the victor of the dispute over hereditary succession in the domain of Limburg, he reigned over two territories from 1288 onwards and was the most powerful ruler in Lower Lorraine. In the 1270s he appointed the first financial administrators in their posts and with their help built up a system of tax administration. While the numerous individual bills from the first half of the 14th century indicate the existence of organised tax administration, the complete bills of the tax administrators of the domain are only available from the year 1363. They continue without interruption until 1404 when Duchess Johanna entrusted the dominion to her grandnephew Antoine de Bourgogne. This thesis focuses on the administrators' bills from Brabant and Limburg from the year 1396, when Philipp of Burgundy assumed sole power of Limburg and the Limburg bills were no longer cleared in Brussels but in Lille. This means that the bills can only be compared with each other to a certain extent as the Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders had far greater financial possibilities than Johanna of Brabant ever did