Charter of Kortenberg

On September 27, 1312, the Duke of Brabant signed the Charter of Kortenberg that should better be referred to as a constitution. It was valid for the entire duchy of Brabant. From this charter originated a kind of "Parliament of Kortenberg" or a "Council of Kortenberg" or what was called an assembly of "The Lords of Kortenberg". With this Charter the Duchy of Brabant was the first state in the Low Countries or perhaps even the first state of Europe to give the estates the right for participation. Actually one of the first democratic decisions in feudal Europe.

The control organ, a precursor of the later "Estate assembly" (namely, the first estate was the clergy, the second estate was the nobility, and the third estate was the municipalities) gathered in the Abbey of Kortenberg and elsewhere with ups and downs until 1375.

From 1332 on the council was extended by two more members, so that there were 16 Lords; Antwerp got a second member and the Walloon Brabant town of Nivelles (Dutch: Nijvel) also got a member. In 1340 documents were sealed with a special seal on which a tree was planted on a little hill (the "short" or "sharp"?). The seal bore the words "SIGILUM COMMUNE : CONSILII DE CORTENBERGHE" (the common or usual seal of the Council of Kortenberg).

Although the Magna Carta is commonly regarded as the very first charter giving rise to medieval European constitutionalism, the Charter of Kortenberg appears to have been far more democratic in nature. This mainly because the beneficiaries of the Magna Carta were only the barons while the beneficiaries of the Charter of Kortenberg included all citizens, expressly 'the rich and the poor' (riken ende armen).

Reinforcing this view is the composition of the Council of Kortenberg which clearly marks a difference with the more 'elitist' Magna Carta. Whilst the Magna Carta was to be implemented by a council of 25 barons, the Council of Kortenberg counted four knights and ten townsmen. In the financial commission of August 1314 the nobility were only two against the representatives of eight towns.

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Wikipedia