Wim Blockmans is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at Leiden University. His research interests include medieval history; political, economic, social and cultural aspects of Flanders, Holland and other territories in the Low Countries in the 13th to the 16th century; and state formation in late medieval and early modern Europe. He is a member of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, Academia Europaea, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium.