Les « plaintes » des villes flamandes à la fin du xiiie siècle et les discours et pratiques politiques de la commune

In the medieval world, petitions formulated by collectivities often directly or indirectly reflected political languages circulating among larger social groups than the elites. As a legal and political tool, petitions implied that justice had to be delivered by rulers, who had to provide remedies when the rights and privileges of individuals or groups were not respected or people could not maintain a decent livelihood. During the last quarter of the thirteenth century, a remarkable series of petitions made up by Flemish city-dwellers has been conserved. They had been made up in the context of a general wave of political and socio-economic unrest which would eventually lead to the Flemish revolt of 1302. This article discusses both the ideological discourses of these texts as their perlocutory effects as “political speech acts”.