Abstract
The study of the nobility in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands in the late Middle Ages has been at best impressionistic (Huizinga) or limited to a small elite, a region or a family. Our project is aimed at reconstructing the role and position of the nobility in five central territories in the Low Countries. We intend to provide a thorough analysis of the socio-political and socio-cultural evolution of the high, average and lesser nobility, based on a systematic prosopographical study of three cross-sections (around 1425, 1475 and 1525). Two Ph.D.-students will focus on the nobility in Zeeland and Hainault respectively, while the applicant and co-applicant will concentrate on Holland, Brabant and Flanders. This will provide a solid base for a synthesis on the history of the Burgundian-Habsburg nobility, against the background of the process of state formation.