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‘Look out! Get back!’ Horse-drawn traffic and its challenges in Belgian cities in the early modern period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2022

William Riguelle Open the ORCID record for William Riguelle [Opens in a new window]
William Riguelle*
Affiliation:
Université Laval, 2325 Rue de l'Université, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Email: william.riguelle.1@ulaval.ca
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Abstract

The horses transporting men and merchandise were key actors in urban development at the very time they placed the city's ability to organize and adapt in doubt. Cities of the southernmost Netherlands and the Principality of Liège were forced to cope with the constant challenge represented by traffic in poorly designed arteries, with a morphology inherited from the medieval period and completely ill-suited to the movement of carriages and wagons. The problem posed by traffic in Belgian cities reached a critical threshold in the seventeenth century, a period in which we observe an increase in the number of horses and harnessed teams. The complications caused by this growing surge culminated in the next century and were marked by the formation of a police force obliged to face the challenge traffic represented. Consequently, numerous urban decisions were taken, transforming both the street's ‘lifestyle’ and physiognomy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , August 2023 , pp. 387 - 403
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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18 Roche, La culture équestre de l'Occident, vol. II, 9. The author points out that the number of horses tripled in that period. Ibid., vol. III, 7.

19 Both water and land routes increased and improved in quality in that period, which considerably strengthened links between cities and the countryside. On this subject, see Badot, ‘L'organisation du transport des personnes’, 105–33, at 105; B. Blondé, ’De transportwegen en de economische ontwikkeling in de regio Antwerpen-Mechelen-Lier (1710–1790)’, Bijdragen tot geschiedenis, 78 (1995), 93–106; C. Bruneel and L. Delporte, ‘La chaussée gage de prospérité? Le Roman Pays au XVIIIe siècle’, ibid., 67–91; H. Deceulaer, ‘Urban artisans and their countryside customers: different interactions between town and hinterland in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent (18th century)’, in B. Blondé, E. Vanhaute and M. Galand (eds.), Labour and Labour Markets, between Town and Countryside (Middle Ages–19th Century) (Turnhout, 2001), 218–35; B. Blondé, ‘Feeding cities. Transportation costs, paved roads and town–countryside relationships in eighteenth-century Brabant’, in P. van Cruyningen and E. Thoen (eds.), Food Supply, Demand and Trade. Aspects of the Economic Relationship between Town and Countryside (Middle Ages–19th Century) (Turnhout, 2012), 123–41.

20 P. Edwards, ‘Horses and elite identity in early modern England: the case of Sir Richard Newdigate II of Arbury Hall, Warwickshire (1644–1710)’, in P.F. Cuneo (ed.), Animals and Early Modern Identity (Aldershot, 2014), 131–48.

21 C. Rommelaere, Voitures et carrossiers de XVIIIe et XIXe siècle. La Belgique face à la France et l'Angleterre (Brussels, 2004), 25.

22 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Aldermen, Grand Registry, 43, 21 Jan. 1778, fols. 101v–103v, at fol. 102r; ‘Ordonnance touchant les aubergistes et les loueurs de chevaux, qui exercent leur industrie au détriment du service public de la poste au chevaux’, 19 Jan. 1778, in M.-L. Polain (ed.), Recueil des anciennes ordonnances de la Belgique. Principauté de Liège (ROBPL) (1860), 797–8.

23 Roche, La culture équestre de l'Occident, vol. II, 64–6.

24 For information on these types of vehicles and their characteristics, see Rommelaere, Voitures et carrossiers, 50–65.

25 Liège, Liège University Library (LUL), manuscripts, 174, Sommaire historial de Liège depuis l'an 1538 jusqu’à 1668, [n.d.], fol. 939.

26 Ibid ., 1014, Chronique du Pays de Liège, 1736, fol. 1164.

27 Abry, L., ‘Revue de Liège en 1700’, BIAL, 8 (1866), 273–99Google Scholar, at 289.

28 Roche, La culture équestre de l'Occident, vol. I, 360.

29 Rommelaere, Voitures et carrossiers, 36.

30 Loir and Preyat, ‘À pieds, à cheval, en voiture’, 56. It also depends on different contexts, such as war and sieges, when troops and their mounts are withdrawn to the city. On this, see Liège, LUL, manuscripts, 174, Sommaire historial de Liège depuis l'an 1538 jusqu’à 1668, [n.d.], fol. 834; Liège, State Archives, Liège, Chapitre Saint-Lambert, secrétariat, 94 [n.d.], fol. 394r; Namur, State Archives, Ville de Namur, 765, 18–20 Jul. 1745.

31 A. Pardailhé-Galabrun, ‘Les déplacements des Parisiens dans la ville aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Un essai de problématique’, Histoire, economie et société, 2 (1983), 205–53, at 224.

32 Borsay and Salnot, ‘Transport et divertissement’, 94.

33 Horses also took up a lot of space, requiring the construction of stables, drinking troughs and considerable additional space to store their food, as evidenced by several visits made in the mid-eighteenth century to cloister houses in ecclesiastical establishments of Liège, in order to inventory their reserves of hay, straw and oats. Liège, State Archives, Liège, Privy Council, 389, Visites des établissements ecclésiastiques et recensement de leurs réserves de foin, paille et avoine, 23 Oct. 1747.

34 P. Bragard et al., Namur et ses enceintes. Une fortification urbaine du Moyen Âge à nos jours (Namur, 2009).

35 P. Whitfield, London: A Life in Maps (London, 2006), 59.

36 On the role of the street, see also M. Garden, ‘Histoire de la rue’, Pouvoirs, 116 (2006), 5–17; A. Farge, Vivre dans la rue à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1979).

37 Liège, State Archives, Commune of Verviers, R15, 13 May 1773, fols. 274–5.

38 J.-L. Laffont, ‘L'animal dans la ville à l’époque moderne. Le cas de Toulouse’, in M.-C. Marandet (ed.), L'homme et l'animal dans les sociétés méditerranéennes (4ème journée d’étude du Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Sociétés Méditerranéennes et du Pôle Universitaire Européen de Montpellier et du Languedoc-Roussillon, 20 novembre 1998) (Perpignan, 2000), 187–251, at 237.

39 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 110, 23 Oct. 1641.

40 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 19, 30 Oct. 1750, fol. 181v.

41 Denys, C., ‘La mort accidentelle à Lille et Douai au XVIIIe siècle: mesure du risque et opposition d'une politique de prévention’, Histoire urbaine, 2 (2000), 95–112 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 104.

42 Or 12.5% of all accidents. Ibid.

43 Pavements only began to appear in the late eighteenth century, and then only in limited numbers owing to the difficulty of laying them in many streets. Ibid., 105, 108.

44 No mention of collisions with other animals can be found in the sources consulted. However, it is more than likely that accidents with livestock or dogs did occur, but have left no trace.

45 This very real situation, Daniel Roche explains, runs counter to the one recommended in handbooks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which instructed coachmen to be patient, control their speed and respect their animals. Roche, La culture équestre de l'Occident, vol. I, 315–16.

46 É.-G. Lafosse, Nouvelle pratique de ferrer les chevaux (Paris, 1758), 32–3; L.-S. Mercier, Tableau de Paris, vol. V (Amsterdam, 1783), 329–30. Étienne-Guillaume Lafosse (? –1765) was a blacksmith in the king's small stables in Versailles.

47 L'homme sans-façon ou lettres d'un voyageur allant de Paris à Spa, 1st part ([n.p.], 1786), 198.

48 Magnette, F., ‘Un poème sur Liège à la fin du XVIIIe siècle’, Wallonia, 19 (1911), 277–300 Google Scholar, at 284.

49 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 3686, 31 Jan. 1711.

50 It should be noted that no regulations concerning the maximum weight wagons could carry have been found.

51 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 3686, 31 Jan. 1711.

52 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Privy Council, 1083, 24 Apr. 1723, fols. 10r–12v; Denys, Police et sécurité, 218.

53 Studeny, L'invention de la vitesse, 124.

54 Degueurce, C., ‘La ferrure des chevaux de travail à Paris aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècle’, Histoire urbaine, 44 (2015), 41–60 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 41; Liège, Bibliothèque Ulysse Capitaine (BUC), Cap. 10360, Gazette de Liège, avec privilège, 28 Oct. 1785.

55 Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Bibliothèque royale, VB 7845A, Gazette des Pays-Bas, 14 Dec. 1775.

56 Denys, ‘La mort accidentelle à Lille et Douai’, 104.

57 Liège, BUC, Cap. 10360, Gazette de Liège, avec privilege, 31 Dec. 1784; ibid., 20 Oct. 1788.

58 Denys, C., ‘Les activités des sergents de ville de Namur au XVIIIe siècle’, ASAN, 70 (1996), 199Google Scholar. See in particular Namur, State Archives, Namur, High Court, 1340, 18 Sep. 1761, fol. 79; ibid., 10 Mar. 1763, fol. 117; ibid., 10 Jun. 1763, fol. 121; ibid., 5 Aug. 1763, fol. 123; ibid., 24 Jan. 1764, fol. 131; ibid., 21 Feb. 1764, fol. 134; ibid., 18 Jul. 1767, fol. 208.

59 Namur, State Archives, Namur, High Court, 1340, 29 Apr. 1771, fol. 313.

60 Ibid ., 9 Mar. 1765, fol. 153.

61 Ibid ., 18 Jun. 1770, fol. 293.

62 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 2202, 7 Aug. 1602, [n.f.].

63 See, for example, Namur, State Archives, Namur, Reports, 773, Règlement de police pour la ville de Charleroi, 1779, fol. 19v.

64 On this subject, see in particular Namur, State Archives, Namur, Borgnet and Golenvaux, 3757, 22 Apr. 1749; Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 231, 13 Oct. 1790; Denys, Police et sécurité, 219.

65 Studeny, L'invention de la vitesse, 124.

66 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Borgnet and Golenvaux, 3858, 8 Aug. 1761; at infra.

67 Ibid . Drivers should slow down at street corners.

68 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 7406, 1765, [n.f.]; State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 10461 [9 Dec. 1765 – 10 Feb. 1766]. The Quatre Coins or ‘four corners’ was a crossroads at the intersection of the present-day Rue Saint Jacques, Rue de Fer, de l'Ange and Rue Émile Cuvelier.

69 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 10461 [9 Dec. 1765 – 10 Feb. 1766].

70 Ibid .

71 Studeny, L'invention de la vitesse, 71.

72 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 1083, 8 Feb. 1745 [n.f.].

73 Ibid .

74 Namur, State Archives, Namur, High Court, 1341, 28 May 1782, fol. 125.

75 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 1083, 8 Feb. 1745, [n.f.]; ‘Political edict of the city of Namur’, 6 Oct. 1687, in J. Grandgagnage (ed.), Coutumes de Namur et coutume de Philippeville, vol. I (Brussels, 1869), 344.

76 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Borgnet and Golenvaux, 3757, 22 Apr. 1749; Namur, State Archives, Namur, Provincial Council, 231, 13 Oct. 1790.

77 However, nothing was said about their carts, which is logical since they were the tools of their trade and were intended to be loaded at the market.

78 ‘Ordonnance générale sur les marchés et la police de la ville’, 28 Oct. 1600, in L. Lahaye (ed.), Cartulaire de la commune de Dinant, vol. IV (Namur, 1891), 271–3, at 271.

79 F. Jacquet-Ladrier, ‘L'urbanisme à Namur au XVIIIe siècle’, Confluent, 29 (1974), 8–11, at 9.

80 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Reports, 773, Règlement de police pour la ville de Charleroi, 1779, fol. 19v.

81 Namur, State Archives, Namur, High Court, 1341, 23 Dec. 1779, fol. 111; Liège, State Archives, Liège, Privy Council, 1091, 24 Sep. 1768, fols. 3v–4r.

82 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 29, 5 Jun. 1773, fol. 185r–v.

83 ‘Ordonnance amplifiant celle du 29 avril 1724, touchant la conduite des charrettes dans les rues de Liège’, 13 Dec. 1725, in Polain (ed.), ROBPL (1860), 580.

84 A similar situation can be seen with cart dogs, as a city ordinance in Mons stated (31 Jul. 1773) that drivers might allow them to roam freely when they were not using them.

85 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 1083, 8 Feb. 1745, [n.f.].

86 Namur, State Archives, Namur, Reports, 773, Règlement de police pour la ville de Charleroi, 1779, fol. 19v.

87 Liège, LUL, Cap. 10360, Gazette de Liège, avec privilège, 19 Jan. 1776; ibid., 7 Dec. 1792; ibid., 12 Dec. 1792; ibid., 17 Dec. 1792; ibid., 20 Feb. 1793. Horses could also escape from stables: ibid., 13 Feb. 1793.

88 Loir, C., ‘Circulation et théâtromanie au temps des embellissements. La question de la mobilité dans les projets de salles de spectacles à Bruxelles (1785–1792)’, Histoire urbaine, 38 (2013), 111–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 For the example of Liège, see Liège, State Archives, Liège, Privy Council, 66, Protocol, 13 Dec. 1725, fol. 375r; Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 19, 30 Oct. 1750, fol. 181v; ‘Ordonnance enjoignant aux possesseurs des maisons qui ont seuils, boutiques, toitures et entrées de caves faisant saillie sur les rues, de les faire disparaître’, 19 Apr. 1692, in Polain (ed.), ROBPL (1855), 192; ‘Ordonnance de police qui étend aux faubourgs de Liège, les dispositions du mandement du 4 septembre 1728, relatives aux auvents, grilles de fer, gouttières et enseignes des maisons’, 14 Jun. 1779, in Polain (ed.), ROBPL (1860), 837–8; G.-L. De Berghes, ‘Police ordinance for the city of Liège’, 4 Sep. 1728, in Polain (ed.), ROBPL (1855), 614–16. See also Barles, S., ‘La boue, la voiture et l'amuseur public. Les transformations de la voirie parisienne, fin XVIIIe – fin XIXe siècle’, Ethnologie française, 153 (2015), 421–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

90 Namur, State Archives, Namur, High Court, 1340, 7 Feb. 1760, fol. 38. Lighting was introduced in the eighteenth century.

91 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Privy Council, 136, 22 Jul. 1791, fol. 209r–v.

92 Jacquet-Ladrier, ‘L'urbanisme à Namur’, 9.

93 H. De Beco, La fermeté de Liège aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Heule, 1975), 55. These elements can still be seen today in several cities.

94 Liège, State Archives, Liège, Cité de Liège, 30, 16 May 1774, fol. 37v.

95 C. Denys, La police de Bruxelles entre réformes et revolutions (1784–1814) (Paris, 2013), 67.

96 W. Riguelle, ‘La police des animaux dans les Pays-Bas et la principauté de Liège (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles)’, Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 97 (2019), 459–84.

97 F. Vanhemelryck, ‘Bijdrage tot de studie van het politiapparaat in het Ancien Regime’, Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 50 (1996), 7–37.

98 Borsay and Salnot, ‘Transport et divertissement’, 101; Roche, ‘Histoire des animaux, 10.

99 Borsay and Salnot, ‘Transport et divertissement’, 103.

100 On this subject, see P. Lavedan, J. Hugueney and P. Henrat, L'urbanisme à l’époque moderne. XVIe–XVIIIe siècles (Geneva, 1982), 75; Bragard et al. (eds.), Namur et ses enceintes.

101 Cockayne, Hubbub.

102 Robichaud, Animal City; Riguelle, ‘La police des animaux’.