Flanders 1303-1304

Three Battles to Try

Flanders Revolt

by Victor O. Schmidt

The great revolt in the Flemish towns found its origins in the social and class struggles already alluded to. The patricians of the town, the echevins, monopolized all the municipal offices and the guilds which managed the economic affairs of the town. The commoners, by the 13th century were ineligible by law, to rise into the echevinage and rigorous measures taken to ensure that no commoner ever rose high enough by gaining enough money, to buy his way in. They stopped the wages of their workers, reduced them arbitrarily, cheated them on quantity or quality of materials and frequently forced them to work for nothing at all, or to buy only from their own shops at inflated prices.

These patricians had so ensconced themselves that they only grew richer. Some have asserted that this class was not without its responsibilities, and point to the marvelous public works and buildings erected by these patricians, or the frequent demands for money made by the counts of Flanders which the patricians paid. Yet it must be remember that then, as now, the rich never pay their own bills, but instead arrange for the poor to pay them. If the prince needed money or a new canal had to be built the patricians merely dipped into the public treasury and not their own purses. If the public treasury was empty, they imposed a new tax on the commune, a tax to which they themselves were exempt.

Finally, when the prince was bought off, the privileges and rights wrung from him benefitted their class only, or the public work built was restricted to their own use exclusively. Command mobilization, it seems, was doing quite well. The patricians further felt no inclination to limit their tyranny to the economy. The poorer tradesmen were forbidden to carry their tools around with them because they could be used as arms, and they were forbidden to gather in groups of more than seven. The echevins, Pirenne, asserts, were even allowed to abduct the daughters of the middle class and their retainers those of the poor for their own lecherous purposes. Certainly this may be merely lower-class resentment spilling over into imagined atrocity, yet it testifies to the intense class hatred that infected these cities.

That these oppressions should weigh heavily on the towns comes as no surprise, and as the population of weavers, fullers, and dyers, the "blue-nails;" the very lowest rung of the economic ladder became more impoverished they became more hostile and bitter. The patricians, realizing this saw only increased exactions and repression as the answer. This of course only served to multiply the numbers of the disaffected and fan the flames of their anger to a white heat.

Violent strikes, upheavals and riots were the result. Throughout this period the old feudal nobility usually sided with the commons against the patricians. This was not from any feeling of solidarity with the "jackanapes" but rather from the old maxim of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." The counts of Flanders and the nobles in the smaller towns continually found new allies among the commons. The patricians, ever more fearful, and realizing that they could not control the population, nor bridle the knights, invited in the French.

The French, since the time of Philip Augustus, had wanted to annex Flanders. Their aim was simple - plunder; the French king was poor, the Flemings rich, and they wanted to sack the country. The struggle began when Philip of Alsace (1157-1191) was Count of Flanders. Yet the real trouble began in the reign of the countess Margaret (1244-1278). Threatened by the artisans, above all the wool workers, and disturbed by the sympathy which the countess showed the craftsmen, the patricians of the great towns threw themselves on the French. In 1275 the countess had broken the power of "The Thirty Nine of Ghent" and they had appealed to the Parliament of Paris. This gave the French precisely the legal foothold that they desired, and have proven so adept at exploiting. The accession of Guy of Dampierre (1278) was the turning point. Guy was open and adamant in his refusal to be dominated by the patricians of the great towns, and openly gave his support to the commons.

The king of France at this time was Philip the Fair, and he and his lawyers lost no time in exerting his influence. The bailiff of the Vermandois became in Flanders a sort of royal agent, constantly interfering with the Count. The banner of the lilies hung from the belfries of the town, and over the houses of the patricians whom Philip took under his personal protection. From this time these "medizing" patricians were called Leliarts (men of the lilies). The commons called themselves The Clauwaerts (Men of the claw because of the claws of the Flemish Lion), and the hatred the commons felt for the patricians was extended to France as well. Of course, Philip cared less for the patricians than the Count of Flanders did, and the French king, who aimed at nothing less than absolute monarchy, would devour them and their foolish little liberties as soon as he was in power. The French Kings received all appeals to royal justice, reserved all cases that could have any pertinence to royal rights to themselves, and imposed the use of French as the judicial language.

This policy drove the count of Flanders, Guy of Dampierre to rebellion and made him the Ally of Edward I of England. Edward could not do much for him and abandoned him in 1297. Guy and his two sons, Robert of Bethune and William of Crevecoeur, surrendered to Philip in May of 1300, and were imprisoned. Philip visited Flanders and was entertained lavishly and slavishly by the patricians, who then turned around and forced new taxes on the poor to pay for these celebrations. The French occupying troops behaved like beasts, that is to say, they behaved like themselves.

The poor and the middle class, maddened by defeat and indignity, rushed to arms and massacred the occupying army commanded by James of Chatillon, the royal governor. The mobs rampaged through the streets under the cry of "schild en vriendt". The Frenchmen, who tried to raise the cry, were betrayed by their accent and were cut down along with the patricians. At this point the rebels were joined by two other sons of Count Guy of Flanders, Guy and John of Namur, and the handsome and brilliant grandson of the Count, William of Julich. Many other members of the feudal nobility now joined the weavers and blue-nails and the communal uprising became something of a national revolt.

The French were swept away, holding little besides the towns of Ghent, and Cassel, and the citadel of Courtrai. A relieving army under the King's brother, Robert of Artois, took the field to suppress the rebels. The rebels, led by Guy of Namur and William of Juliers, his cousin, stood battle outside of Courtrai. The stage was set for one of the most stunning upsets in all of history.

The campaign that ensued resolved itself into three major engagements and several abortive sieges. These actions were Courtrai, Arques, and Mons-en-Pevele. The first was an unqualified Flemish victory. Depending upon which source you are reading, the last two are either Flemish victories of a less spectacular nature, or defeats.

More Flanders

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