_The Coelveren and the Blankarden_
Strangely enough it was the patricians themselves who placed in the
hands of the lesser folk the weapon with which they presently won
independence. For years past it had been cause of just complaint that
municipal affairs were managed in the interest of one class only, and
before the middle of the twelve hundreds things had come to this pass:
the men in office considered alone their own advantage and the advantage
of their kinsfolk and their friends. Hence heartburning, jealousy,
strife without end, the upper classes split into factions, and sometimes
the fire thus enkindled burnt so fiercely that it could only be
extinguished by the shedding of blood. This was so all over Brabant, and
in the year 1260 there broke out a conflict which brought forth
unlooked-for results.
The Coelveren and the Blankarden were two of the mightiest families of
Louvain; for generations past they had been rivals, and they hated one
another with 'a perfect hatred.' Whatever may have been the first cause
of their mutual hostility, the quarrel was of ancient date; it had been
handed down from father to son, and had become in each case a family
tradition.
The times were favourable to disorder. Duke Henry III. had just died
(February 6, 1260); his eldest son had not yet reached man's estate; his
widow, Adelaide of Burgundy, harassed by ambitious kinsmen, who claimed
a share in the administration of the realm, was holding the reins of
government with faltering hands. For years past the rival families had
been only waiting for an opportunity to settle their long dispute, and
hardly had Duke Henry been laid in the grave than they flew to arms.
What was the immediate cause of the conflict is unknown, but it is
always easy to find a pretext when men are determined to fight, and the
war in this case was probably the outcome of some very trifling affair.
Be this as it may, opinion was sharply divided at Louvain as to which
side was in the right, and men took such interest in the quarrel, and
party feeling ran so high, that by the end of the year 1262 there was
not a patrician in the city who had not taken up arms on behalf of one
or other of the belligerents.
Nor was this all: the Blankarden had sought and obtained the support of
Duchess Adelaide, and the Coelveren, casting about for some pillar of
strength to counterbalance this advantage, presently found a more
dangerous ally--the mob. They appealed, and not vainly, to that herd of
downtrodden and plundered helots, who for years had been writhing under
the sense of their wrongs, and riot and confusion reigned in the city
for two years;[9] and then matters, instead of becoming better, grew
worse, for Adelaide added fuel to the fire: she provided the
belligerents with a fresh bone of contention. On the ground that her
elder son Henry was incapable, she disinherited him, and proclaimed her
younger son John heir to the Duchy of Brabant, whereat the Coelveren
cried 'Shame! If Henry were indeed as poor a creature as his mother
alleged, that were no excuse for trampling on the rights of
primogeniture. Could he not appoint responsible ministers and rule
through them?' The Blankarden, of course, were of the opposite opinion,
and shouted their loudest for John, but, supported by the great mass of
the people, their rivals were strong enough to silence them, and when
presently Adelaide and her younger son appeared before the gates of the
capital they found them shut.
[9] _See_ Divæus _Annales_, 1262.
Meanwhile the strife had extended to the whole of Brabant, and until
1267 the land was a prey to civil war; and though at last a
reconciliation was effected, and the Coelveren consented, for a
consideration, to acknowledge John, the government of the city had
become completely disorganised, and the patricians, who for five years
had been disporting themselves by cutting one another's throats, were
not only thinned in numbers, but had lost credit.
Before the war they had been hated and despised, but until then at least
they had been feared. The craftsman hitherto had only ventured to snarl
and show his teeth. He was a bolder dog now. The experience of the last
five years had shown him something of his own might. He had not only
fought, and fought on the winning side, but it had been in great measure
owing to his efforts that the victory had been won. If he could fight so
well for others, why not one day fight for himself? The flame of hope
was rekindled within his breast. That was something. It was probably
some such thought as this which moved him to demand as guerdon for his
services a boon which would place him in a position to do battle with
some chance of success. The moment was a propitious one for craving
favours. Duke John and a considerable number of the aristocracy were
alike beholden to the men who petitioned--men flushed with victory, and
still under arms. Fear, if not gratitude, then counselled compliance,
and the boon was not denied. By the charter which John granted to
Louvain in 1267 it was expressly ordained that the craft guilds, which,
until now, had been purely industrial corporations, should henceforth be
endowed with military organisation, and that each guild should march
under its own banners, and be commanded by its own elected chiefs.
The result was what might have been, and what probably was, foreseen,
though no doubt the situation developed sooner than the longest-headed
of them had expected: before the year was out the rabble who had thus
been imprudently armed turned their weapons against the men who had
armed them, and though the rebellion was promptly quelled, and the
ringleaders were sent into exile, it was impossible to extinguish the
flame of hope which recent events had enkindled. The craftsmen were
firmly convinced that the flowing tide was with them, and though the
victory was not in their day, after events showed that they had
accurately gauged the situation.
During the confusion incident on Duke Henry's death, the craftsmen of
several other towns had likewise been able to wrest some shreds of power
from their patrician taskmasters. In some places, notably at Brussels,
the old Council of Jurors was re-established, but in no case was its new
lease of life a long one. The young Duke had little sympathy with
democratic ideas, and no sooner was he firmly established on his throne
than he set to work to restore the old order of things. John the First
was a strong man, and with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm he
accomplished his purpose, but it was only a putting off of the evil day.
The plebeians were for a moment cowed, but their spirit was not crushed.
Confident in the justice of their cause, they bent their heads to the
storm, and possessed their souls in patience.
Presently (1302) the victory of Courtrai sent a thrill through Europe,
for what a triumph it had been. 'On the one side was Philippe le Bel,
the mightiest prince of his day, with all the chivalry of Navarre and
all the chivalry of France, and a host of mercenary forces from all
parts of Europe; on the other were the weavers of Bruges and a troop of
Flemish boors, half naked, bare-headed, and with no other weapon but
the rude _scharmsax_ of their forebears--and these puny folk had
conquered: the tyrants who would have enslaved them lay humbled in the
dust.' When the news of the victory was noised abroad the downtrodden on
all sides took heart, and in the cities of Brabant a general uprising
was the immediate outcome. But the day of their triumph was not yet:
other was the social and political situation in Brabant to that in the
neighbouring county. The rulers of Brussels and Mechlin and Louvain were
of a different stamp to the men who had tyrannised over Bruges and Ypres
and Ghent. The latter were an effete and decrepit aristocracy--a herd of
_ledigoers,_ as working men contemptuously called them--mere loafers who
despised that trade which had enriched their fathers, and who knew of no
other means of increasing their dwindling income than by bribery and
corruption; the former were for the most part practical business men
actively engaged in commercial pursuits, and shrewd enough to reap a
large profit from their several avocations. Nor were they, like the
patricians of Flanders, at loggerheads with their sovereign. On the
contrary, they regarded him as their natural protector, and were on the
best of terms with him. In their eyes the Duke of Brabant was a highly
respectable and most efficient officer of police, who, as such, deserved
their confidence and esteem, and though the wages they paid him were
certainly high, they considered on the whole that he was well worth his
price. And the Duke on his part regarded them as men peculiarly worthy
of his affection, for his expenses were heavy, and he was often short of
cash, and they were always ready to make him presents with other
people's money, or even to advance him their own when he could give them
reasonable security and they were assured of a fair rate of interest.
In a word, these two forces were necessary to one another, and they were
wise enough to know it. Thus united they were irresistible, and the
plebeians hurled themselves in vain against the bedrock of their
omnipotence. As long as this state of things lasted there was but one
issue to their most strenuous efforts--defeat.
Once, indeed, by rare good fortune the craftsmen of Brussels almost
achieved success, but the cup of triumph was dashed from their hands as
they were carrying it to their lips. It happened thus. During the reign
of Duke John II. and his wife Marguerite, a daughter of King Edward I.
of England, there arose at Brussels, on the vigil of Candlemas 1306, a
quarrel between two citizens, in the course of which one of them
received a sword thrust. The wounded man does not seem to have been
seriously injured, but the outrage had been committed in a public place;
the assailant was an aristocrat, the victim a son of the people. That
was enough. Riot ensued. The Duke was out of town. The patricians, left
to their own resources, were powerless in face of the mob, and before
daybreak riot had become revolution. Throughout the hours of darkness
the city was a prey to the wildest disorder. Property of all kinds was
vowed to destruction; strongholds, in which patricians were hiding, were
taken by storm and wrecked; the mansions of the richest and most hated
merchants presently went up in flames. The Duchess in vain left the
shelter of her palace on the Coudenberg, and, with her life in her
hands, confronted the mob. The rioters hailed her with shouts of
derision, and though they offered her no personal violence, they laughed
her authority to scorn. The people were drunk with their own excesses,
and Brussels that night was a pandemonium. The storm was a fearful one
whilst it lasted, but its fury was soon spent, and at the meeting of
craftsmen, which was held next morning to deliberate on the future
government of the city, the men who had been rioting in the streets all
night showed singular moderation.
They decided that the magistracy should consist as heretofore of seven
aldermen, but that henceforth the people should name them; that two
financial assessors should be added to the city council, and that the
Jury should be once more re-established. And when the time came to elect
a new magistracy they gave further proof of their conciliatory
dispositions, for whilst they took care to safeguard their own
interests, they were not unmindful of the class prejudice of their
vanquished opponents: the new aldermen were all of them members of the
old ruling class chosen from among the little band of patricians whose
sympathies were known to be with the popular cause.
The new order of things, however, did not last six months. John II.,
deeply wounded at the scant civility shown to his wife, refused to
acknowledge the new constitution: the patricians' quarrel, he said, was
his own, and, worse still, he swore to make no terms of peace without
their consent, and until they had been fully indemnified for the losses
they had sustained. This was in the middle of February 1306. Some
attempt at negotiation seems to have been made, but without success, and
early in May the patricians in a body left the town for Vilvorde,
whither John had shortly before arrived along with what knights he had
been able to muster, and whither also presently came the craftsmen in
battle array, determined to exact at the sword's point the privileges
denied them. When the knights at Vilvorde saw the crowd drawing nearer
and nearer to camp, some of them suggested that 'the curs meant
submission'; when the howling pack was at their throats, they knew
better. During the first shock of battle the Duke himself was unhorsed,
some said slain, and for a moment the craftsmen thought they had won,
but it was only for a moment, they soon found to their cost that their
enemy was again in the saddle and in the forefront of the fray, whereat
they lost heart, and unable to bear up any longer against the charge of
the cavalry frantically made for home. The patricians followed at full
speed. It was a wild, fierce race for Brussels. On its issue hung their
fate. The people knew it, and fear and hope gave to their feet wings. If
only they could outstrip those cursed horsemen, were it but by a
hair's-breadth, they would slam the town gates in their noses, and thus
at the last moment turn defeat into victory. Vain hope. The hour of the
craftsman's salvation had not sounded yet: the outcome of the contest
was a dead heat, and once more the iron entered into his soul.
Seventy craftsmen had been slain at Vilvorde or in the mad rush home,
the old constitution was re-established with all its odious privileges
and all its time-honoured abuses, and there was a heavy bill of costs to
pay, wherein note this item, 'a hundred _livres_ to Willem Moll for
burying weavers and fullers alive.'
At Mechlin, at Léau, at Tirlemont, at Louvain, all of which towns were
about this time the scene of insurrection, the result was the same: in
every case the patrician triumph was accomplished with less difficulty
than at Brussels, and everywhere the lot of the plebeians became harder
than it had been before.
The most stringent precautions were taken to guard against further
disorder, craftsmen of all kinds were disarmed, their guild meetings
strictly prohibited, and at Brussels at least it was death for a weaver
or fuller to pass the night within the town.[10] These turbulent folk
were enjoined to remain after dusk in their own wretched suburbs or pay
the price of their temerity.
[10] Within, that is, the first line of ramparts. For their circuit,
_see_ map (dotted line). The outer ramparts were not constructed till
some fifty years later (1357-1359): during the reign of Duke Winceslaus.
No vestige of them remains but the Porte de Hal. Their site is now
occupied by the Outer Boulevards (_see_ map).
Nor was this all. On the 12th of June, 1306, Duke John authorised the
magistrates of Brussels to crush any further outbreak by any means they
thought fit. In the following September he granted like faculties to the
magistrates of Louvain, and presently all the cities of Brabant agreed
together that the craftsman banished from any one of them should, _ipso
facto_, be an outcast from all the rest.
What could they do, these small tradesmen and artisans, with their
wrists handcuffed and irons on their feet, but bewail their hard lot and
the evil days on which they had fallen, and weary Heaven for a
deliverer. Presently a deliverer was sent them, but the days of their
expectation filled three score years, and during all that time their
adversaries were at peace. Not only was their will law in the cities
where they dwelt, but they gradually extended their dominion far into
the open country, and, continually encroaching on the prerogatives of
their Duke, at last succeeded in reducing his sovereignty to little more
than a name, and themselves, to all intents and purposes, directed the
helm of State.
The patricians of Brabant had at length ascended the mountain of their
ambition, but for no long time were they able to hold the high place
which their gold had conquered.
III.--Genealogical Table of the Dukes of Brabant from
Godfrey I. to John III.
$Godfrey I.$
(Longbeard), Count of Louvain
from 1095, Duke of Brabant from May 13, 1106,
_d._ Jan. 15, 1140
|
|
$Godfrey II.$, _d._ 1142
|
|
$Godfrey III.$, _d._ Aug. 10, 1190
|
|
$Henry I.$ (The Warrior), _d._ Sept. 5, 1235
|
|
$Henry II.$, _d._ Feb. 1, 1248
|
|
$Henry III.$, = Adelaide
_d._ Feb. 6, 1260| of Burgundy
|
+------------------+---------+
| |
Henry, $John I.$
retired into a (The Victorious),
monastery, 1267, _d._ May 3, 1294
renouncing his right |
to the duchy to |
his younger brother $John II.$, = Marguerite,
John _d._ Oct. 17, | daughter of
1312 | Edward I. of
| England.
|
$John III.$