During the late 15th and early 16th century, Antwerp replaced Bruges as “gateway city”. In this period, Antwerp transformed from a medium-sized Brabantine city into the leading metropolis within the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands. Most post-war historiography focused on the demographic and economic aspects of Antwerp’s growth, but devoted less attention to the impact on the political elite and to the question how this group dealt with the opportunities and challenges that accompanied the urban expansion process. This project aims to conduct a social study of the composition and evolution of the Antwerp magistrate between c. 1450 and c. 1550. Quantitative and qualitative approaches will be combined to chart the social mobility, the interaction and overlap between political and commercial elite, the marriage networks and ownership structures of the leading political families, as well as their relationship with the Antwerp craft world and the Brabantine and Flemish nobility. The central objective of this project is an in-depth study of the Antwerp political elite. This study will enable a comparative analysis between the aforementioned elite, the elites of other European “gateway cities” (i.e. medieval Bruges, 17th century Amsterdam and 18th century London) and a selection of cities in the Low Countries.