Introduction

Under dramatic circumstances, the Brabant towns entered into a brotherhood in 1415. On 25 October that year, Duke Anton of Brabant, who ruled from 1406, had been killed in the battle of Azincourt and the duchy fell to his eldest son, 12-year-old John IV. Meanwhile, a variety of foreign princes and some Brabant nobles tried to take advantage of the power vacuum. To deal with the situation, the Brabant barons, knights, nobles and the powerful cities of Leuven, Brussels and Antwerp entered into an alliance, promising to protect the country and their minor monarch. In other words, from the perspective of the Brabanters, John IV functioned as a modern head of state, as a symbol of unity.

Curiously, the alliance would later play a role in a coup precisely against John IV. By 1420, this minor and unstable duke had fallen under the influence of the Dutch count John of Bavaria, and a clique of nobles and patricians. Now, the Brabanders invoked the alliance to depose the duke and thus sideline his advisers. A fierce war of words ensued. In that context, a copy of the covenant was made.

This text is also interesting for another reason. The treaty fits into a long series of national alliances concluded in Brabant from the mid-thirteenth century onwards. The towns were always involved, in some cases the nobles.

Physical Description

The copy of the charter is written in a fifteenth-century cursive. The text is contained in a small paper cartulary. Ketting- and haarlijnen are clearly visible. A later, (nineteenth-century?) hand has made notes in pencil.