Namen en wapens van de leden van de vroedschap van Utrecht van 1618-1719 1702 - 1719

This anonymously produced print depicts the names and coats of arms of members of the Utrecht city council from 1618 to 1719. As a visual record of local government, it tells us a lot about Dutch society in the early modern period. Heraldry was big business in the Netherlands. A coat of arms was a status symbol that could signal nobility, land ownership, trade links or religious affiliations. Here, we see them used to map the social networks of the Dutch Republic. The print reminds us that power was often inherited, and that it circulated among a relatively small number of elite families. How much did these families actually represent the interests of the wider population? You could investigate this question in local archives, genealogical records, and histories of Dutch government. What emerges from such research is a picture of society that’s far from egalitarian – one where power was concentrated in the hands of a few.