DAMME--THE SEA-FIGHT AT SLUIS--SPLENDOUR OF BRUGES IN THE MIDDLE
AGES--THE FALL AND LOSS OF TRADE
Damme, where the patriots mustered on the eve of the Bruges Matins,
is within a short hour's stroll from the east end of the town.
The Roya, which disappears from view, as we have already seen,
opposite the Quai du Rosaire, emerges from its hidden course at
the west end of the Quai du Miroir, where the statue of Jan van
Eyck stands near the door of the building now used as a public
library. This building was once the Customs House of Bruges,
conveniently situated in the neighbourhood of the Market-Place, and
on the side of the Roya, which thence stretches eastwards between
the Quai du Miroir and the Quai Spinola for a few hundred yards,
and then turns sharply to the north, and continues between the
Quai Long and the Quai de la Potterie, which are built in rambling
fashion on either side of the water. Some of the houses are old,
others of no earlier date, apparently, than the seventeenth or
eighteenth centuries; some large and well preserved, and some mere
cottages, half ruinous, with low gables and faded yellow fronts,
huddled together on the rough causeway, alongside of which are
moored canal-boats with brown hulls and deck-houses gay with white
and green paint. At the end of the Quai de la Potterie is the modern
Bassin de Commerce, in which the Roya loses itself, the harbour for
the barges and small steamers which come by the canal connecting
Ostend with Bruges and Ghent; and near this was, in ancient days,
the Porte de Damme, through which Breidel and his followers burst
on that fateful morning in May 600 years ago.
To the right of the Bassin a broad canal, constructed by Napoleon
in 1810, extends in a straight line eastwards, contained within
dykes which raise it above a wide expanse of level meadow-lands
intersected by ditches, and dotted here and there by the white-walled
cottages with red roofs and green outside shutters which are so
typical of Flemish scenery. About two miles out of Bruges one comes
in sight of a windmill perched on a slope at the side of the canal,
a square church-tower, a few houses, and some grassy mounds, which
were once strong fortifications. Even the historical imagination,
which everyone who walks round Bruges must carry with him, is hardly
equal to realizing that this was once a bustling seaport, with a
harbour in which more than a hundred merchant ships, laden with
produce from all parts of the world, were sometimes lying at the
same time. In those busy times Damme, they say, contained 50,000
inhabitants; now there are only about 1,100.
Beyond Damme the canal winds on through the same flat landscape,
low-lying, water-logged, with small farmhouses and scanty trees, and
in the distance, on the few patches of higher ground, the churches
of Oostkerke and Westcapelle. At last, soon after passing the Dutch
frontier, the canal ends in a little dock with gray, lichen-covered
sides; and this is Sluis, a dull place, with a few narrow streets, a
market-place, two churches, and a belfry of the fourteenth century.
It is quite inland now, miles from the salt water; and from the
high ramparts which still surround it the view extends to the north
across broad green fields, covering what was once the bed of the
sea, in the days when the tide ebbed and flowed in the channel of
the Zwijn, over which ships passed sailing on their way to Bruges.
But any English traveller who, having gone a little way out of the
beaten track of summer tourists, may chance to mount the ramparts,
and look down upon the fields which stretch away to the shores of
the North Sea and the estuary of the Scheldt, and inland beyond
Damme to the Belfry and the spires of Bruges, is gazing on the
scene of a great event in the naval history of England.
Here, on what is now dry land, on the morning of June 24, 1340,
800 ships of war, full of armed men--35,000 of them--were drawn up
in line of battle; and further out to sea, beyond the entrance of
the Zwijn, the newly-risen sun was shining on the sails of another
fleet which was manuvring in the offing.
[Illustration: BRUGES. Qua du Miroir]
'In the cities of Flanders,' says Dr. Gardiner, 'had arisen
manufacturing populations which supplied the countries round with
the products of the loom. To the Ghent and Bruges of the Middle
Ages England stood in the same relation as that which the Australian
colonies hold to the Leeds and Bradford of our own day. The sheep
which grazed over the wide, unenclosed pasture-lands of our island
formed a great part of the wealth of England, and that wealth depended
entirely on the flourishing trade with the Flemish towns in which
English wool was converted into cloth.' When, therefore, Edward
III. claimed the throne of France, and the Hundred Years' War began,
it was of vital importance to the trade of Flanders and England
that the merchants of the two countries should maintain friendly
relations with each other. But Philip of Valois had persuaded the
Count of Flanders, Louis de Nevers, to order the arrest of all
the English in Flanders, and Edward had retaliated by arresting
all the Flemings who were in England, and forbidding the export of
English wool to Flanders. The result was that the weavers of Bruges
and the other manufacturing towns of Flanders found themselves on
the road to ruin; and, having no interest in the question at issue
between the Kings of France and England, apart from its effect
on their commercial prosperity, the burghers of Bruges, Ghent,
and Ypres, under the leadership of the famous Jacob van Artevelde
(anticipating, as one of the modern historians of Bruges has noticed,
what the Great Powers did for Belgium in 1830[*]), succeeded in
securing, with the assent of Philip, the neutrality of Flanders.
The French King, however, did not keep faith with the Flemings,
but proceeded to acts of aggression against them, and a league
against France was formed between England and Flanders.
[Footnote *: Robinson, _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, p. 107.]
In June, 1340, Edward, who was then in England, hearing that an
immense number of French ships of war were at anchor in the Zwijn,
set sail to give them battle with a squadron of 300 vessels. The
English fleet anchored off the coast between Blankenberghe and
Heyst on the evening of June 23, and from the top of the dunes the
English scouts saw in the distance the masts of the French ships
in the Zwijn.
As soon as there was light next morning, the English weighed anchor
and sailed along the coast to the east; past lonely yellow sands,
which have swarmed during recent years with workmen toiling at the
construction of the immense harbour of See-Brugge, which is to
be the future port of Bruges; past what was then the small fishing
hamlet of Heyst; past a range of barren dunes, amongst which to-day
Duinbergen, the latest of the Flemish watering-places, with its
spacious hotel and trim villas, is being laid out; past a waste of
storm-swept sand and rushes, on which are now the digue of Knocke,
a cluster of hotels and crowded lodging-houses, and a golf-course;
and so onwards till they opened the mouth of the Zwijn, and saw
the French ships crowding the entrance, 'their masts appearing to
be like a great wood,' and beyond them the walls of Sluis rising
from the wet sands left by the receding tide.
It was low-water, and while waiting for the turn of the tide the
English fleet stood out to sea for some time, so that Nicholas
Béhuchet, the French Admiral, began to flatter himself that King
Edward, finding himself so completely outnumbered, would not dare
to risk fighting against such odds. The odds, indeed, were nearly
three to one against the English seamen; but as soon as the tide
began to flow they steered straight into the channel, and, Edward
leading the van, came to close quarters, ship to ship. The famous
archers of England, who six years later were to do such execution
at Crecy, lined the bulwarks, and poured in a tempest of arrows so
thick that men fell from the tops of the French ships like leaves
before a storm. The first of the four lines in which Béhuchet had
drawn up his fleet was speedily broken, and the English, brandishing
their swords and pikes, boarded the French ships, drove their crews
overboard, and hoisted the flag of England. King Edward was wounded,
and the issue may have been doubtful, when suddenly more ships,
coming from the North of England, appeared in sight, and hordes
of Flemings from all parts of Flanders, from the coast, and even
from inland towns so far away as Ypres,[*] came swarming in boats
to join in the attack. This decided the fate of the great battle,
which continued till sunset. When it ended, the French fleet had
ceased to exist, with the exception of a few ships which escaped
when it was dark. The Flemings captured Béhuchet, and hung him
then and there. Nearly 30,000 of his men perished, many of whom
were drowned while attempting to swim ashore, or were clubbed to
death by the Flemings who lined the beach, waiting to take vengeance
on the invaders for having burned their homesteads and carried
off their flocks. The English lost two ships and 4,000 men; but
the victory was so complete that no courtier was bold enough to
carry the news to King Philip, who did not know what had befallen
his great fleet till the Court jester went to him, and said, 'Oh!
the English cowards! the English cowards! They had not the courage
to jump into the sea as our noble Frenchmen did at Sluis.'
[Footnote *: Vereecke, _Histoire Militaire de la Ville d'Ypres_,
p. 36.]
It is strange to think that Flemish peasants work, and cattle feed,
and holiday visitors from Knocke, or Sluis, or Kadzand ramble about
dry-shod where the waves were rolling in on that midsummer's morning,
and that far beneath the grass the timbers of so many stout ships
and the bones of so many valiant seamen have long since mouldered
away. And it is also strange to think, when wandering along the
canals of Bruges, where now the swans glide silently about in the
almost stagnant water which laps the basements of the old houses,
how in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ships of every nation
carried in great bales of merchandise, and that rich traders stored
them in warehouses and strong vaults, which are now mere coal-cellars,
or the dark and empty haunts of the rats which swarm in the canals.
'There is,' says Mr. Robinson, 'in the National Library at Paris a
list of the kingdoms and cities which sent their produce to Bruges
at that time. England sent wool, lead, tin, coal, and cheese; Ireland
and Scotland, chiefly hides and wool; Denmark, pigs; Russia, Hungary,
and Bohemia, large quantities of wax; Poland, gold and silver;
Germany, wine; Liége, copper kettles; and Bulgaria, furs.' After
naming many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, that sent goods,
the manuscript adds: 'And all the aforesaid realms and regions
send their merchants with wares to Flanders, besides those who
come from France, Poitou, and Gascony, and from the three islands
of which we know not the names of their kingdoms.' The trade of
Bruges was enormous. People flocked there from all quarters.
'Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies;
Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.'
We read of 150 ships entering in one day, and of German merchants
buying 2,600 pieces of cloth, made by Flemish weavers, in a morning's
marketing. A citizen of Bruges was always at the head of the Hanseatic
League, and maintained the rights of that vast commercial society
under the title of 'Comte de la Hanse.' Merchant princes, members
of the Hanse, lived here in palaces. Money-changers grew rich.
Edward III. borrowed from the Bardi at Bruges on the security of
the Crown jewels of England. Contracts of insurance against maritime
risks were entered into from an early period, and the merchant
shipping code which regulated traffic by sea was known as the 'Röles
de Damme.'[*] There were twenty consulates at one time in Bruges,
and the population of the town is said, though it is difficult to
believe that this is not an exaggeration, to have been more than
200,000 before the middle of the fourteenth century.
[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, _Bruges Ancienne et Moderne_,
p. 14.]
Six years after the Battle of Sluis, Louis of Nevers was killed at
Crecy, and his son, Louis of Maele, reigned in his stead as Count
of Flanders. He was a Leliart to the core, and his reign of nearly
forty years, one long struggle against the liberties of his people,
witnessed the capture of Bruges by Philip van Artevelde, the invasion
of Flanders by the French, the defeat of the Nationalists, and the
death of Van Artevelde on the field of Roosebeke. Nevertheless,
during this period and after it Bruges grew in beauty and in wealth.
The Hôtel de Ville, without the grandeur of the Hôtel de Ville at
Brussels, but still a gem of mediæval architecture, was built on
the site of the old 'Ghiselhuis' of Baldwin Bras-de-Fer. Other noble
buildings, rich in design and beautiful in all their outlines, and
great mansions, with marble halls and ceilings of exquisitely carved
woodwork, rose on every side; towers and pinnacles, shapely windows
and graceful arches, overhung the waterways; luxury increased; in
the homes of the nobles and wealthy merchants were stores of precious
stones, tapestries, silk, fine linen, cloth of gold; the churches
and many buildings gleamed with gilded stone and tinted glass and
brilliant frescoes. Art flourished as the town grew richer. The
elder and the younger Van Eyck, Gerard David, and Memlinc, with
many others before and after them, were attracted by its splendour,
as modern painters have been attracted by its decay; and though the
'Adoration of the Immaculate Lamb' hangs in the choir of St. Bavon
at Ghent, the genius which coloured that matchless altar-piece
found its inspiration within the walls of Bruges.
The history of Bruges for many long years, especially under the
rule of the House of Burgundy, was, in the midst of war, turmoil,
and rebellion, the history of continuous progress. But all this
prosperity depended on the sea. So long as the Zwijn remained open,
neither war nor faction, not even the last great rising against
the Archduke Maximilian, which drove away the foreign merchants,
most of whom went to Antwerp, and so impoverished the town that
no less than 5,000 houses were standing empty in the year 1405,[*]
could have entirely ruined Bruges. These disasters might have been
retrieved if the channel of communication with Damme and Sluis had
not been lost; but for a long time the condition of this important
waterway had been the cause of grave anxiety to the people of Bruges.
The heavy volume of water which poured with every ebbing tide down
the Scheldt between Flushing and Breskens swept past the island of
Walcheren, and spread out into the North Sea and down the English
Channel, leaving the mud it carried with it on the sands round the
mouth of the Zwijn, which itself did not discharge a current strong
enough to prevent the slow but sure formation of a bank across its
entrance. Charters, moreover, had been granted to various persons,
under which they drained the adjoining lands, and gradually reclaimed
large portions from the sea. The channel, at no time very deep,
became shallower, narrower, and more difficult of access, until at
last, during the second half of the fifteenth century, the passage
between Sluis and Damme was navigable only by small ships. Soon
the harbour at Damme was nearly choked up with sand. Many schemes
were tried in the hope of preserving the Zwijn, but the sea-trade
of Bruges dwindled away to a mere nothing, and finally disappeared
before the middle of the sixteenth century.
[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, p. 25.]
And so Bruges fell from greatness. There are still some traces of
the ancient bed of the Zwijn amongst the fields near Coolkerke,
a village a short distance to the north of Bruges--a broad ditch
with broken banks, and large pools of slimy water lying desolate
and forlorn in a wilderness of tangled bushes. These are now the
only remains of the highway by which the 'deep-laden argosies'
used to enter in the days of old.
'BRUGES LA MORTE'