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A Dynasty Divided: Philip the Good and the Fractures Within

15 June 2026

The Burgundian state in the mid-fifteenth century looked, from the outside, like one of the most formidable powers in Europe. But power is always partly performance, and behind the tapestries, the tournaments and the gilded ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Fleece, it was quietly coming apart.

Beautiful Burgundian Bureaucracy and the Citizens of Ghent

4 May 2026

Philip the Good ruled over a sprawling collection of territories  (Flanders, Brabant, Holland, Hainaut and more) that shared little beyond a common ruler. To hold them together, he built an ambitious centralising bureaucracy, appointing loyal outsiders as stadhouders to govern provinces on his beha

Uncovering Amsterdam’s Queer Histories

4 August 2025

Dutch history, as we know it, leaves a lot unsaid. The voices of women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ communities are too often missing from the mainstream narrative. Elyzabeth Gorman is here to change that. A former New York theatre professional turned Amsterdam tour guide, she digs through the city

Our Top Podcasts of the Year

19 December 2023

Join us in bidding goodbye to 2023 with the podcasts we have published this year on the fascinating history of the Low Countries. They are worth another listen. Sit down by the fireplace. Relax with a glass of wine and enjoy the stories.

Dikes, Dams and Ditches: How the Low Countries Learnt to Deal With Water

26 January 2023

When the Netherlands and Belgium did not exist, people spoke of the Low Countries when referring to the area around the river deltas. Water has always played an essential role in the history of that region.

Demonic Goats, the Flying Dutchman and a Hand-Chopping Giant: Legends From the Low Countries

18 August 2021

Why do the Japanese love a dog from Flanders? Why do Americans admire a Dutch boy who stuck his finger in a dyke? Why are there so many swans in Bruges? Why were cats thrown off the belfry in Ypres? And why is 'The Flying Dutchman' a scary phenomenon? Find out in this episode about folk tales and le

#7 – Getting Down in Town

22 April 2021

Freed from the need to be working the land due to the improvements in agriculture, people in the Low Countries began congregating in urban centres. For the first time, members of the common class were able to put their fingers onto the scales of power, and begin to balance it back in their favour by

#6 – Ploughin’ Forward. An Agricultural Revolution in the Middle Ages

30 March 2021

At the end of the first millennium, for most people in the lowlands, it didn’t matter who their count or duke or emperor was. For them, life was nasty, brutish and short, and involved an overwhelming amount of backbreaking manual labour. But an agricultural revolution was about to change the lives

#5 – Welcome to Family Feudalism

30 March 2021

The disintegration of Charlemagne’s empire at the end of the 9th century left the lowlands part of a larger entity, Lotharingia, wedged between two much more powerful kingdoms, East and West Francia. If you were an ambitious noble, controlling one of the many small, swampy territories and you wish

#4 – Charles in Charge

24 February 2021

In the latter half of the 8th century, events and circumstances around Europe became vastly influenced by a man who ruled a huge empire from his capital city of Aachen, just a stone’s throw away from the lowlands. His name: Charlemagne or Charles the Great (c.742-814).

Gezellig! The Legacy of Dutch Around the Globe

9 February 2021

What is the origin of Dutch? Why does the language sound familiar on all continents? What do Yiddish, English and Russian have in common? What is the difference between Dutch spoken in Belgium and in the Netherlands? And why were cuddle-buddy and one-and-a-half-metre-society voted Dutch words of the

School Bags on Flagpoles and Other Special Customs

10 December 2020

Why do the Dutch hang school bags on flagpoles, place giant blow-up dolls on their front lawn and have clocks without numbers in their pubs? And why do the Flemings celebrate newborns by eating ‘poop beans’, close the curtains in their house and welcome friends by the backdoor? In this podcast, 

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