This article analyses the Joyous Entry of Maximilian of Austria into Antwerp on 13 January 1478 and provides an edition of the text probably written by a rhetorician from Antwerp, in which this event was described in detail. Using a range of narrative and administrative sources we provide the entry with a political and social context and situate it within the negotiating process between a new prince and his subjects on the one hand, and between the different interest groups both on a local and regional level, on the other hand. The manifold tableaux vivants staged in Antwerp, as well as the actual entry procession, were far more than instruments of‘political communication’ or vehicles for princely or urban ‘propaganda’. Although the prince in the end had his financial wishes in the form of new subsidies granted,there were many meetings between the Estates of Brabant, which were dominated by the towns, and Maximilian’s officers, in which the demands of the subjects were put on the table. Even though the Antwerp guilds and rhetoricians who were in charge of the entry were maybe not directly involved in these negotiations,they knew exactly what was at stake. This becomes clear from the themes they addressed in their tableaux, in which they showed they were able to integrate a myriad of knowledge traditions, ranging from the Bible to decretals of the pope,and from imperial to Carolingian history, into a meaningful message which fitted into the contemporary political context. Dit artikel analyseert de Blijde Intrede van Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk in Antwerpen op 13 januari 1478 en geeft een editie van een gedetailleerde beschrijving van deze gebeurtenis, waarschijnlijk opgeschreven door een Antwerpse rederijker. We schetsen de concrete politieke en sociale context van de intrede aan de hand van een reeks narratieve en administratieve bronnen. Daarbij situeren we deze intrede als een onderdeel van het onderhandelingsproces tussen een nieuwe vorst en zijn onderdanen aan de ene kant, en tussen diverse belangengroepen op ...