Map
by Jacob van Deventer of the city of Deventer, ca. 1550, adjusted
to show the structure of ca. 1360-1400.
Deventer
Burgerscap is
a subgroup of the Dutch Living History society'Die
Landen van Herwaerts Over'. We portray
citizens from the Hanseatic city of Deventer in her heydays of the
late fourteenth century and have chosen the specific year of 1370
to focus on.
To be able to portray citizens well one has to have historical sources
to base these portrayals on. The archive of Deventer provides in this
very well. With almost none missing the city accounts (nowadays known
as the cameraars-accounts)
have been kept from 1337 onwards and also the records of the merchant
guild, from 1249 to 1387, are still around today.
Deventer was an important German city in 1370. It was in the Hanseatic
League and also the 'princeps inter pares' of the cities of the Oversticht (todays
Dutch provinces of Overijssel & Drenthe,
then part of the Sticht, the bishopric of Utrecht), she had
connections a.o. with the duke of Guelders and traded directly with
numerous hanseatic and non hanseatic cities located in between Flanders
and todays eastern Germany.
This setting of late fourteenth century Deventer gives us the opportunity
to portray civilians from all levels of society such as craftsmen
and merchants. And because Deventer
was almost always in a state of war at this time, be it with
local lords, the bisshop of Utrecht (the 'Landlord') and even the king
of Denmark, we also portray the Deventer citizens as being thecity
militia on campaign.
