Noblemen in the Late Medieval County of Zeeland. An Analysis of their Political and Socio-Economic Position around the Year 1475The late medieval period is often portrayed as a period of crisis or transition for the nobility. This contribution represents a first step towards testing this assumption empirically. The political power and feudal property of the noblemen in the county of Zeeland around the year 1475 are mapped for this purpose. The analysis shows that the noblemen had a strong grip on the county through their offices and the Estates of Zeeland and that their income came primarily from their feudal rights. The growing power of the prince and the towns did not affect the position of the noblemen fundamentally. The long-term development of the composition and power of the noble population can be established by constructing a number of such snapshots. A regional perspective on the history of the nobility also counterbalances the emphasis placed by some historians on the importance of state service for noblemen. This article is part of the special issue 'The history of the nobility in the Netherlands and Belgium'.

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The practices of marriage and inheritance and the representation of kinship among the medieval nobility are often studied separately, despite the argument that changes in conceptions of kinship accompanied the evolution of family structures, property transmission systems, and political organization. This article combines the practical and ideological aspects of kinship by analyzing its meaning for the nobility in late-medieval Zeeland. It demonstrates that the variety in power, wealth, and status among the noble families resulted in different reproductive strategies according to their standing and objectives. Regional institutions and property structures had a great impact on aristocratic family strategies in Zeeland, but did not result in different family structures or conceptions of lineage compared to the surrounding principalities.