Guilds of Brussels
The Guilds of Brussels (
Third Estate. As of 1421, they were also able to become members of the Drapery Court of Brussels. Together with the Seven Noble Houses, they formed the bourgeoisie of the city. Some of their guildhouses can still be seen as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt
in Brussels.
Composition
Rather than being limited to a specific trade, each of the nine "nations" grouped a number of guilds.
These "nations" were:[2]
- Nation of Our Lady: butchers, salt-fishmongers, greengrocers, sawyers, goldsmiths and silversmiths.
- Nation of St Giles: boatmen, plumbers and fresh-fishmongers.
- Nation of St Lawrence: hatters, tapestry makers and linen weavers.
- Nation of St Gery: tailors, stockingmakers, embroiderers, second-hand clothes dealers and barber surgeons.
- Nation of St John: goldbeaters and glassmakers, saddlers and harness makers, turners, plasterers and stuccatores, thatchers and basket weavers.
- Nation of St Christopher: chairmakers.
- Nation of St James: bakers and vintners.
- Nation of St Peter: glovers, shoemakers and cobblers.
- Nation of St Nicholas: swordsmiths, pedlars, spurriers and gilders, gunsmiths, carpenters, and the stonecutters, masons, sculptors and slaters.
Abolition
The guilds in Brussels, and throughout Belgium, were suppressed in 1795, during the French period of 1794–1815. The furniture and archives of the Brussels guilds were sold at public auction on the Grand-Place in August 1796.[2]
See also
- Drapery Court of Brussels
- Seven Noble Houses of Brussels
- Bourgeois of Brussels
- Livery company
- Leyniers family
- Van der Meulen family
- Van Dievoet family
References
- ^ David M. Nicholas, The Later Medieval City: 1300–1500 (Routledge, 2014), p. 139.
- ^ State Archives in Belgium, Brussels, 1980), pp. 270–271.