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InBrussels, as in most European cities,[1] one needed the capacity of bourgeois (equivalent to German burgher or English burgess; in French bourgeoisorcitoyen[2] de Bruxelles; in Dutch poorterorborger van Brussel; in Latin civis[3]oroppidanus[4] Bruxellensis) in order to not only exercise political rights, but also to practice a trade, which, in Brussels, meant to be a member of the Guilds or of the Seven Noble Houses. The charter of Brussels, as codified in 1570 in articles 206 and following, provided the conditions of admission to the bourgeoisie of the city.[5] The Bourgeois were the patrician class of the city. This social class was abolished by Napoleon during the French occupation.
The non-bourgeois inhabitants, called "inhabitants" in French and "ingesetene" in Dutch, have none of these political rights, but are not less protected by communal laws, and can appeal to urban justice, as well as buy property. The capacity of Bourgeois, which implied an oath, was seen as a pledge of loyalty to the city and the urban community.
In Brussels, the bourgeois were sometimes called "poorters" name often given to citizens of important cities called walled cities. This word derives from the Dutch word fallen into disuse poorte,[6] city or place closed by walls, like the imposing stone houses that the rich bourgeois of the Seven Noble Houses lived in during the early days of the city, and to which was also given the name of "poorte" or "porta" in Latin, and whose synonym was "herberg" or "hostel" and which are also called steen. Each of these "poorte" had a name, for example: "Poorte van den Galoyse", "Poorte van Coeckelberg", "Gouden Poorte", "Priemspooerte", the "Raempoorte" (in Overmolen), "porta t 'Serclaes' known as 'the Palace', 'Slozenpoorte' (on the Sablon), 'Poorte van de Tafelronde' or 'Poorte van Vianen'.
The European Medieval practice of naming houses was rich and varied in Brussels.
The capacity of bourgeois, that is to say of citizen of a city having political rights in opposition to the simple inhabitants, forms the base of the urban organisation of cities. This urban system in Europe dates back for many cities still existing today to Greco-Latin antiquity, others were founded around the year one thousand.[7] This system of urban civilization developed in parallel to the rural civilization rooted in the Neolithic era.[8]
Under Napoleon, the Law abolished for good, in the territories that were submitted to France, the differences of status between cities and countryside and abolished the quality of bourgeois or citizen of a city. In other parts of Europe, as it is now in Switzerland (Swiss bourgeoisie), this system has endured. In Germany it was slowly abolished, and only Hamburg and Bremen retain the Hanseatic designation freie Stadt from their days as free imperial cities.
The following is a chronological list of surviving Brussels bourgeois families[9] with the date of admission and of which of the Seven Noble Houses (Lignages in French) they currently descend from, if any. Namely, the houses of Sweerts, Sleeus, Steenweeghs, Roodenbeke, Serroelofs, Coudenbergh, and Serhuyghs.
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van der Noot Family, (Houses of Sweerts, Steenweeghs and Roodenbeke)
Leyniers family (Houses of Coudenbergh, Sweerts and Sleeus).
d'Arschot family, then van Schoonhoven, then d'Arschot-Schoonhoven (House of t'Serroelofs)
van Droogenbroeck family (House of Sweerts)
Meeûs family, (Houses of Sweerts and Sleeus)
t'Kint, then t'Kint de Roodenbeke family (House of Roodenbeke)
Van der Meulen family
de Lens family (Also bourgeois of Paris, established there under Louis XIVasgoldsmithofPhilippe I, Duke of Orléans.).
van der Borcht family (Houses of Sweerts and Sleeus).
van Dievoet family (Houses of Sweerts, Sleeus, Serhuyghs, t'Serroelofs, Coudenbergh, Roodenbeke and Steenweeghs) (also bourgeois of Paris until 1802, where the family was called Vandive).
de Viron family (House of Sweerts).
Dansaert family.
Orts family (House of Sweerts).
Allard family.
Poelaert family.
van Hoorde family.
Wittouck family.Il n'y a pas si longtemps, tout compte fait, que notre Préhistoire est révolue. Dans l'angle nord-ouest de l'Europe, la vie, durant le haut Moyen Âge, a ressemblé de très près, matériellement et socialement, à ce qu'elle avait été à l'âge du Fer, soit que la tradition s'en fût purement et simplement maintenue, comme ce fut le cas hors des limites de l'Empire romain, soit qu'elle ait repris vigueur, ce qui advint en deçà de ces limites. Dans le domaine des techniques, l'archéologie ne cesse de multiplier les preuves de cette situation. (...) Forges, charronnages ou poteries rurales sont, au début du Moyen Âge, tout à fait dans la tradition de l'âge du Fer. Tandis que notre mode traditionnel d'agriculture, fondé à la fois sur l'élevage pour la viande et le lait et sur la culture du blé, remonte plus haut encore: à l'origine même du Néolithique européen continental (Danubien), c'est-à-dire au Ve millénaire au moins. Il n'en va pas autrement du plan dispersé de nos villages qui s'oppose à l'habitat fortement groupé que connaît l'Orient dès le Néolithique. Et la même origine vaut pour nos vieilles chaumières aux murs de colombage, hourdés de torchis et coiffés d'un toit à double pente. (...) Ajoutons que nos campagnes ont conservé parfois jusqu'à l'aube de la révolution industrielle de vieilles techniques protohistoriques. (...) Nous devons donc nous demander s'il n'existe pas quelques très vieilles continuités plongeant dans la Préhistoire qui peuvent conférer à la physionomie de la Wallonie actuelle certains traits particuliers.