A Loire hajósai és az Orléans-i híd a százéves háború végén

Abstract

The paper aims to present how the association of the boatmen on the river Loire influenced local politics and the royal government in the Loire region from the end number of measures affecting free navigation and trade on the river, and it seems that the royal government was confident to entrust the control of the river trade to them. However, the Loire’s boatmen had many competences – they had special relations to the bridges of the valley, which made terrestrial traffic possible but were extremely dangerous to their boats and even represented a completely different system of control. In this sense, it is especially interesting to see these boatmen join the reconstruction works of the bridge of Orléans, and participate in a certain way in the life of the bridge on feasts and urban events. They were probably convinced of the growing importance of the bridge of Orléans in the life of the citizens, and they tried to emphasize their presence in this area in concurrence with other urban powers.