FLANDERS
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FLANDERS
his suzerain. His son Baldwin VII, Ilapkin (1111-
1 1 19), enforced strict justice among the nobility. Like
liis father, he died while supporting the cause of his
suzerain. His successor was Charles, son of Saint
Canute of Denmark (1119-27). The new count was a
saintly prince and a great lover of peace. His stern
justice, however, angered a few greedy nobles, who
murdered him while he was praying in the church of
Saint-Donat in Bruges. Louis VI, King of France,
then gave the County of Flanders to William of Nor-
mandy, a grandson of the Conqueror, but William's
high-handetl way of governing the country soon made
him unpopular and the Flemings turned to Thierry of
Alsace, a descendant of Robert I. William died in the
war which ensued, and Thierry's candidacy received
the royal sanction. Thierry (1128-68) granted privi-
leges to the Flemish communes, whose origin dates
from this period, and took part in the Second Crusade.
His son Philip (1168-91) granted new privileges to the
communes, did much to foster commerce and indus-
try, antl was a generous protector of poets. He made
a political blunder when he gave up Artois to France
as the dowry of his niece, as this dismemberment of
the county led to many wars with the latter country.
Philip died in the Holy Land during the Third Cru-
sade. His successor was his brother-in-law, Baldwin
VIII, the Bold, of Hainault (1191-95). Baldwin IX
(1195-1205) is famous in history as the first Latin
IDmperor of Constantinople. He died in 1205 in a war
against the Bulgarians, and the Counties of Flanders
and Hainault passed to his daughter Jeanne, who had
married Ferdinand of Portugal. This prince was in-
volved in the war of King John of England against
Philip II of France, and was made a prisoner at the
battle of Bouvines (1214). He was released in 1228,
only to die shortly afterwards. Jeanne (1205-1244)
administered the counties wisely during her husband's
captivity, and after his death she increased the liber-
ties of the communes to counteract the influence of the
nobility — a policy which was followed by her sister
Margaret, w'ho succeeded her in 1244. Upon Mar-
garet's death, in 1279, her children by her first hus-
band (Bouchard d'Avesnes) inherited Ilainault, while
Flanders went to the Dampierres, her children by her
second husband.
The battle of Bouvines was the beginning of a new era in the history of Flanders. Vp to that time the counts had occupied the foreground; their place was hence- forth taken by the communes, whose power reaches its acme in the course of the thirteenth century. Bruges, the Venice of the North, had then a population of more than 200,000 inhal)itants; its fairs were the meet- ing place of the merchants of all Europe; Ghent and Ypres had each more than 50,000 men engaged in the cloth industry. This commercial and industrial activ- ity, in which the rural classes had their share, brought to Flanders a wealth which manifested itself every- where — in the buildings, in the fare of the inhabitants, in their dress. " I thouglit I was the only queen here," said the wife of Philip the Fair on a visit to Bruges, "but I see hundreds of queens around me." The intellectual and artistic activity of the time was no less remarkable. Then flourished Henry of Ghent, the Solemn Doctor; Van Maerlant, the great Flemish poet, and his continuator, Louis van Velthem; Philip Mussche, the chronicler, who became Bishop of Tour- nai; and the mystic Jan van Ruysbroeck. Then, too, were built the beautiful guild-halls, city-halls, and chirrches, which bear witness at once to the popular love for the fine arts and Flemish religious zeal — the guild-halls of Bruges and Ypres, the churches of the Holy Saviour and of Our Lady at Bruges, those of Saint- Bavon, Saint-Jacques and Saint-Nicolas at Ghent, and of Saint-Martin at Ypres. Still more worthy of admira- tion was the internal organization of the commtmes, which, owing to the beneficent influence of the Church, had become so powerful a factor in the moral welfare
of the masses. Guy of Dampierre (1279-1305) suc-
ceeded his mother Margaret, and inaugurated a new
policy in the administration of the county. His pre-
decessors had on the whole lieen friendly to the
wealthy classes in the Flemish cities, in whose hands
were the most important offices of the communes.
Guy, who aimed at absolute rule, souglit the support
of the guilds in his conflict with the rich. The latter
appealed from liis decisions to the King of France, the
wily Philip the Fair, who readily seized upon this op-
portunity of weakening the power of his most import-
ant vassal. Philip constantly ruled against the count,
who finally appealed to arms, but was defeated.
Flanders then received a French governor, but the
tyranny of the French soon brought about an insur-
rection, in the course of which some 3000 French were
slaughtered in Bruges, and at the call of the two pa-
triots, de Coninck and Breydel, the whole covmtry
rose in arms. Philip sent into Flanders a powerful
army, which met with a crushing defeat at Courtrai
(1302); after another battle, which remained unde-
cided, the King of France resorted to diplomacy, but in
vain, and peace was restored only in 1320, after Pope
John XXII had induced the Flemings to accept it.
Guy of Dampierre, who died in prison in 1305, was suc-
ceeded by his son Robert of Bethune, who had an un-
eventful reign of seventeen years. The successor of
the latter was his grandson, Louis of Nevers (1322-
1346), who was unfit for the government of Flanders
on account of the French education he had received.
Shortly after his accession, the whole country was in-
volved in a civil war, which ended only after the Flem-
ings had been defeated at Cassel by the Iving of France
(1328).
At the breaking out of the Hundred Years War, the Flemish communes, whose prosperity dependeil on English wool, followed the advice of Ghent's great citi- zen, Jacques van Artevelde, and remained neutral; the count and nobility took the part of the French king. When the policy of neutrality could no longer be ad- hered to, the Flemings sided with the English and helped them to win the battle of Sluis (1340). By that time Van Artevelde had become practically mas- ter of the country, which was very prosperous under his rule. He was murdered in 1345, and Louis of Nevers was killed the next year at the battle of Cr6cy. His son Louis of Male (1346-1384) was a spendthrift. The communes paid his debts several times, but they finally refused to give him any more money. He managed, however, to get some from Bruges by grant- ing to that city a licence to build a canal, which Ghent considered a menace to her commerce. A new civil war broke out between the tw'O cities, and peace was not restored until Charles VI of France had defeated the insurgents at Roosebeke (1382). Louis of Male's successor was his son-in-law, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1384-1404). This prince and his son, John the Fearless (1404-1419), being mostly inter- ested in the affairs of France, paid little attention to those of Flanders.
The situation changed after Philip the Good, third Duke of Burgundy (1419-1467), had united under his rule the whole of the Low Countries. Philip wanted to weaken the power of the communes for the benefit of the central government, and soon picked a quarrel with Bruges, which was compelled to surrender some of its privileges. Ghent's turn came next. A con- tention had arisen between that city and the duke over a question of taxes. War broke out, and the army of Ghent was utterly defeated at Gavre (1452), which city had to pay a heavy fine and to surrender her privi- leges. In 1446, Philip created the Great Council of Flanders, which, under Charles the Bold, became the Great Council of Mechlin. Appeals from the judg- ments of local courts were henceforth to be made to this council, not to the Parliament of Paris as before. Thus were severed the bonds of vassalage which for
