City rights are a feature of the medieval history of theLow Countries, and, more generally, theHoly Roman Empire of the German Nation. Aliege lord, usually acount,duke or similar member of the high nobility, granted to a town or village he owned certaintown privileges that places without city rights did not have.
InBelgium,Luxembourg, and theNetherlands, a town, often proudly, calls itself a city if it obtained a complete package of city rights at some point in its history. Its current population is not relevant, so there are some very small cities. The smallest isStaverden in the Netherlands, with 40 inhabitants. In Belgium,Durbuy is the smallest city, whilst the smallest in Luxembourg isVianden.
When forced by financial problems, feudal landlords offered for sale privileges to settlements from around 1000. The total package of these comprisestown privileges.
Such sales raised (non-recurrent) revenue for the feudal lords, in exchange for the loss of power. Over time, the landlords sold more and more privileges. This resulted in a shift of power within the counties and duchies in the Low Countries from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie, starting inFlanders. Some of these cities even developed intocity-states. The growing economic and military power concentrating in the cities led to a very powerful class of well-to-do merchants and traders.[1]
Privileges
Freedoms
Governance
Note several of the following were first granted city rights during the medieval period.
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The first community in the contemporary Kingdom of theNetherlands to receive city rights wasDeventer in 956. It can be argued that some cities have older rights: for instanceNijmegen may have been granted city status during theRoman Empire. Another case isVoorburg, which is built on the site of the Roman settlementForum Hadriani and was granted city status in about AD 151, but was abandoned in the late 3rd century: thus the current settlement is not considered an uninterrupted continuation of the Roman city. At the end of theMiddle Ages, the number of grants of city status fell dramatically.
The strong position of merchants and traders allowed the Netherlands to become the first modernrepublic in the 16th century.
The institution of city status gradually came to an end with the development and centralization of a national government. In the Netherlands the last city to receive real city rights[clarification needed] (as defined above) was Willemstad in 1586. During theDutch Republic, onlyBlokzijl gained city rights (in 1672). After theBatavian Revolution in 1795, municipalities were styled after the French model and city rights were abolished by law. Although partially restored after 1813, cities did not fully regain the authority they had previously had: law-making and the judiciary had become part of thestate. After theConstitution of 1848 and the Municipal Law of 1851, the differences between the legal privileges of cities, towns, and villages were permanently erased.
In the early 19th century, when several important towns (especiallyThe Hague) wanted to call themselves cities, the custom of granting city status was briefly revived. The last grant of city status in the Netherlands was toDelfshaven in 1825. But the city status granted during this period was quite different from the privileges bestowed in the Middle Ages, and were merely symbolic. This is also the case for cities such as The Hague andAssen, which received their status during the Napoleonic period.
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