Joyous Entry

Originating in the Middle Ages, it generally coincided with the affirmation or extension of the city's civic rights and privileges.

The term is also occasionally used in relation to royal entries in Medieval France, Luxembourg, Hungary, Scotland, and elsewhere.

The leading artists available designed temporary decorated constructions such as triumphal arches, groups of musicians and actors performed on stands at which the procession halted, the houses on the processional route decorated themselves with hangings, flowers were thrown, and fountains flowed with wine.

A formal first visit to a city by an inheritor of the throne of Belgium upon his accession and since 1900 for a crown prince upon his marriage, is still referred to as a "Joyous Entry", a reminder of this tradition of the rule of law.

One of the functions of the Council of Brabant was to ensure that new legislation did not contravene or abrogate the liberties established in the Joyous Entry.

Ferdinand Receives the Keys of the City from the Virgin of Ghent , print after a painting made by Antoon van den Heuvel for the Joyous Entry by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Ghent in 1635
The Joyous Entry of John of Austria into Brussels , 1 May 1577. Print from 'The Wars of Nassau' by W. Baudartius , Amsterdam 1616.
Joyous Entry into Brussels of Archduchess Maria Elisabeth on 9 October 1725 by Andreas Martin