The Low Countries Radio

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, something was quietly comingapart.

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 behalf and restructuring the Chambers of Accounts. His most significant innovation was the Great Council, which became the highest court of appeal across all his lands, displacing local autonomy in favour of ducal authority. This bred real resentment among cities and nobles accustomed to governing themselves.

Dutch history, as we know it, leaves a lotunsaid. The voices of women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ communities are toooften missing from the mainstream narrative. Elyzabeth Gorman is here to changethat.

A former New York theatre professional turned Amsterdam tour guide, shedigs through the city’s archives to uncover the hidden and erased stories of the past. With her company Badass Tours, she brings these powerful narratives back to life. In this podcast, Gorman takes us deep into the queer history of the Netherlands.
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Nestled in the leafy suburb of Tervuren just outside Brussels, the AfricaMuseum has long stood as a monumental symbol of Belgium’s colonial past. Founded in 1898, the museum once served as a powerful propaganda tool in the service of King Leopold II’s imperial ambitions in the Congo and Central Africa. Today, however, the institution finds itself at the centre of a very different mission: decolonisation. In this podcast, Bart Ouvry, Managing Director of the Africa Museum, speaks candidly about the challenges of leading this transformation.

On a crisp October morning, history came alive under the vaulted ceilings of Amsterdam's City Archives. A modest parchment, locked away for
centuries, brought us face-to-face with the city's ancient origins. Known as the Toll Exemption Privilege, this document—dated 27 October 1275—marks the very first mention of Amsterdam. In this podcast, senior curator Erik Schmitz explains the significance of the Toll Privilege, describing it as "a tangible link to the foundation and resilience of the city," that now celebrates its 750-year jubilee.

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