Dijkenbouwers of rustverstoorders? De Vlaamse graven en de strijd tegen het water in de laatmiddeleeuwse Vlaamse kustvlakte (veertiende-zestiende eeuw)

Abstract

Dike builders or disrupters of the peace? The counts of Flanders and water management in the coastal wetlands (from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries). During the late mediaeval period, water management in the coastal wetlands of the Low Countries was strongly decentralized. It remained untouched by the judicial and administrative policies pursued by Burgundian and Habsburg rulers which aimed to centralise control. In the case of Flanders, this had more to do with government indifference to the situation on the ground than with local resistance government policies. Many initiatives in the field of water management that have been traditionally attributed to the counts of Flanders, were in fact initiatives that were developed, financed and implemented locally, with only tacit support from central government. And yet in the extremely fragmented water management organisation of late medieval Flanders, a coordinating authority was vital to accommodate the divergent interests of local water boards or cities, and to overcome structural disparities in the funding of sea walls. In the absence of any obvious financial reward for themselves and constrained by the private strategies of their officials, the Flemish rulers did not dare disturb the local balances of power to overcome obvious deficiencies in coastal water management.