What title of respect or form of address would have been used for a
wealthy merchant and his wife in medieval Flanders?  Say the name was
van den Broucke.  How would you say "Mr. and Mrs. van den Broucke" in
medieval Flemish?

For bonus points, if a person who came to a Flemish town from France
called himself after the place he came from, say Calais, would he call
himself Guillaume de Calais or Guillaume van Calais? or something
else?

Thank you,
Archae0pteryx

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 26 Nov 2004 12:02 PST

Well, medielval Flemish was still very close to Low German. It is a
fact that merchants from North Germany who did business in the Flemish
cities then did not need translators. So I assume that the titles of
respect were also similar.

The medieval northern German forms of the modern German titles of
respect "Herr" and "Frau" were "her" and "frouwe" (capitalisation and
standardized orthography was not invented yet, so spelling could vary
very much, as in all European languages before the 19th century). If
used for addressing someone, "min her" and "min frouwe" were used.
Variants were possible, such as "edle frouwe", noble lady.
I think that a Flemish merchant, proud of his social status, would
have expected similar forms of address for himself and his wife. "Her
en frouwe van den Broucke" had been something they had liked, I think.
Or, in a spelling closer to modern Flemish: "Heer en vrouw van den
Broucke". "Her van den Broucke en sin echtegenote" (Heer van den
Broucke en zijn echtgenote, Mr. van den Broucke and his wife) sounds
also convincing, regarding the lower status of women in that time.

I think that a Frenchman named Guillaume de Calais who came to a
Flemish town would have "translated" his entire name, or the locals
would have done so. This was not uncommon in medieval times. In my
opinion, Guillaume de Calais would have been known as Willem van
Calais (provided that the French town was not known under a name that
was easier to pronounce for Flemish tongues).

I have not done any library research, so all this is derived from what
I remember ... therefore, I have not posted it as an answer, just in
case you prefer something backed with sources.

Best regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by archae0pteryx-ga on 26 Nov 2004 12:17 PST

Guten Tag, Herr Scriptor.  I was thinking you might be the one to
answer my question.  Vielen Dank!

In the present instance I do not require research and verification. 
Plausibility is quite sufficient, and I have every confidence in your
memory.  So please post your answer.

Archae0pteryx

Thank you very much, Archae0pteryx! Consider the answer hereby posted.

All the best,
Scriptor

Thank you, Scriptor--just what I needed, and fast, too.  Stick around,
I may have some more.

Archae0pteryx