Introduction

We usually think that a stadholder was in charge, and that the subjects did exactly what he said. That was certainly not the case, as this account shows.

In 1445, the States of Holland forced their stadholder, William of Lalaing, to give an account of the expenses he had incurred to arrange a peace treaty with the Prussian Hanseatic cities. This turned out to be an explosive piece, as the lord of Lalaing was corrupt, a friend of Duke Philip the Good and (thus) not much for carefully accounting for a bunch of citizens from Holland. This text contains the beginning of the account, with the notes of the Court of Auditors, the ‘accountant’ who checked the account.

This is also an interesting document for another reason. The header at the top right and the notes in the margins make it clear that the audit was carried out by a professional accountant,. At the very end of the account, this one makes himself known as Andries van de Cruce (or de la Croix). Two years later, he would be at the cradle of the Hague Court of Audit, the predecessor of today's General Audit Office. He would act as accountant there until his death in 1463.

Physical Description

Account, written on parchment, described by several hands in a Gothic cursive.