In context of the late medieval state centralisation, the political autonomy of the towns of the Low Counties, Northern France and the Swiss Confederation was threatened by tensions with higher levels of power. Within this conflict both rulers and towns employed symbolic means of communication to legitimise their power position. The authors of Symbolic Communication in Late Medieval Towns explore how new layers of meaning were attached to well-known traditions and how these new rituals were perceived. They study the public encounters between rulers and towns, as well as the use of rituals to express the political and religious relations between the various social groups within the town.