City Rights in The Low Countries - Overview

Overview

Forced by financial problems, feudal landlords offered for sale privileges to settlements around the year A.D. 1000. The total package of these privileges are the city rights.

Selling a privilege was both a positive and a negative development for the feudal lords. The positive side was the (non-recurrent) revenue. The negative was the loss of power. Over time, the landlords sold more and more privileges. This resulted in a shift of power within the counties and duchies in the Low Countries from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie, starting in Flanders. Some cities even managed to develop into city-states. The growing economical and military power concentrating in the cities led to a very powerful class of well-to-do merchants and traders.