Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/455

 1920 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 447 Les CMtelains de Flandres. Par W. Blommaert. (Ghent : van Goethem, 1915.) M. PiRENNE, in his Histoire de Belgique (Bk. I, ch. i), has called attention to the peculiar importance of the castellan in the administrative system of Flanders during the early middle ages, and it is surprising that no Belgian scholar before M. Blommaert should have attempted a methodical survey of the evidence relating to the history of this office. He has confined his atten- tion to the printed sources ; but he deserves the greatest credit for the pains which he has taken, and for the good judgement with which he has analysed and co-ordinated a large number of stray allusions to the powers and privileges of the castellans. He has studied in detail the history of five principal castelries — Bruges, Ghent, Douai, Lille, Saint-Omer ; and as the result of these special investigations he is able to conclude with an essay on the general powers of the castellan. Except in the case of Saint-Omer we learn nothing from the chronicles about the origin of the early Flemish castles. The castle of Saint-Omer was in existence by 891, and it was built to protect the abbey of Saint-Bertin against the Northmen. No doubt some of the other castles originated about the same time and originally served the same purpose. But the castle at Ghent is first mentioned in the year 940, that of Douai in 941, that of Bruges in 944, that of Lille in 1054. M. Blommaert thinks it possible that in some cases the castles were intended to serve rather as administrative centres than as military posts. The castellan of Saint-Omer is first men- tioned in 938 ; those of other castles not before the eleventh century, and in some cases not before the twelfth. This may be a mere accident, for our sources of information in these centuries are scanty. But it is possible that the castellan was not a personage of importance before the eleventh century, and that his administrative powers were grafted by degrees upon the office of a local military commander, es the county of Flanders expanded into a substantial principality and the counts began to feel the necessity for an organized system of administration. Of the castelry as an administrative district we have an isolated notice in the eleventh century ; the castelry of Bourbourg is mentioned in 1057 ; in the twelfth century we find references to those of Saint-Omer (1122), Ghent (1133), Bergues (1137), Furnes (1141), Courtrai (1164). If these dates are any indication of the time at which the castelry became recognized as a juris- dictional unit, then it was a short-lived institution ; for in the thirteenth century we find that the power of the castellan is slipping from his hands and that the castelry is honeycombed with privileged areas. There is, however, a more certain inference which can be deduced from these chronological data. The Flemish castelry, considered as an adminis- trative and judicial organization, is not of French or German origin. Such castelries as those of Tournai, Cambrai, Holland, and Zealand were palpable imitations of the Flemish model. Flanders was completely divided into castelries before neighbouring powers began to appreciate and to adopt the new system. M. Blommaert does not allude to the castelries of Champagne ; but it seems probable that the counts of Champagne were the most thorough-going imitators of the Flemish institution. Nor does