_Philip of Alsace and the Charter of the Franc_
Philip of Alsace reigned over Flanders from 1168 till 1191, and
notwithstanding his frequent wars the land prospered under his rule. In
his method of government he followed the policy of Dierick his father.
Like him he was a builder of cities--Nieuport and Damme, at least, owe
their origin to Philip of Alsace--and like him he was a promoter of
popular liberties and popular institutions. It seems to have been the
mission of the princes of the House of Alsace, as Kervyn justly
observes, to proclaim the rights of the communes of Flanders, and their
fulfilment of it is their greatest glory. Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Furnes,
Gravelines, Nieuport, Dunkirk, Damme, are among the famous cities to
which one or other of them granted municipal charters. But the charter
which will interest the reader most was conceded to neither city nor
town, but to the inhabitants of that vast irregular-shaped tract of
country in the neighbourhood of Bruges which went by the name of its
Franc, or, as we should perhaps say, its Liberty, and comprised within
its borders no less than ninety-one parishes, and the towns of Ostend,
Blankenberghe, Eccloo, Dixmude, Lisseweghe, Ardenburgh and Sluys--all of
them in these days centres of no little importance. Though from time
immemorial, as we have seen, the yeomen who inhabited this district had
been to all intents and purposes a free and independent people, who
elected their own chiefs and lived under their own laws, it was Count
Philip of Alsace who first gave legal sanction to their political
constitution, and the instrument by which he did so was the famous
_Keurbrief_ of 1190.
As with the first Flemings, with our own Saxon forefathers, and probably
also with the ancestors of all nationalities of Teutonic origin, the
Wehrgeld, or, as Green calls it, 'the Blood-wite,' or compensation in
money for personal wrong, and mutual responsibility were the mainspring
and corner-stone of the judicial code which Philip's charter sanctioned.
Eye for eye, limb for limb, life for life, or for each its equivalent in
current coin, this is the rough-and-ready theory which runs through the
whole of this remarkable piece of legislation. But it was not only for
personal injury that punishment in kind or an allotted fine was exacted;
it was the penalty also attached to other offences. Thus the man who had
been convicted of breaking down a dyke was condemned to suffer the loss
of the hand with which he had broken it, and probably, by way of
compensation for the damage which he had thereby entailed, to forfeit
all his goods; and it was a penal offence in the Liberty of Bruges to
marry an infant without the consent of her heirs-at-law. 'Whosoever,'
runs this curious enactment, 'shall be convicted of wedding a girl who
has not yet arrived at years of discretion, without the consent of those
of her relations who are her heirs presumptive, shall be liable to
forfeit all his goods, and if such an one shall have carried his infant
bride out of the realm, her heirs may lawfully take possession of her
goods; but if the aforesaid girl, repenting, shall presently return
home, and be willing to quit her unlawful spouse, her property shall be
restored to her; but if, on the contrary, she will not leave him, then
shall she in no wise recover it.'
The life of each man had its allotted value, which varied according to
rank and station, and curiously enough, in days, when throughout Europe
the priesthood was held in high esteem, the clerk's life was valued at
only one half the price of the life of the Karl. Just as the Salic law
fixes the composition for the murder of a Roman proprietor at the half
of that payable for the murder of a Frank, so the law of the Liberty of
Bruges valued the life of a clerk, who was considered as a Roman, at
only half of the value of the life of a Karl.
As to the fines imposed, the _Keurbrief_ ordained that they should be
levied in the first place on the property of the offending party, and if
this were too inconsiderable to realise the required sum, that his
fellow guildsmen should make up the deficiency.
Bearing all this in mind, Hacket's demand that the limbs and lives of
Charles's murderers should be spared becomes intelligible. It simply
meant that the usual fine should be imposed in lieu of the death
penalty, which, under the circumstances, was not unreasonable.
Some of the enactments contained in this remarkable code are
sufficiently curious. Take, for example, the following: 'Whosoever shall
harbour a _scurra_[18] for more than one night, may lawfully duck such
an one on the morrow if he or she refuse to quit his abode.' Others are
no less remarkable for their practical common sense. For example the
prudent regulation anent weights and measures. 'All weights and
measures,' runs the article in question, 'shall be the same in the
villages as in the towns. Any headman convicted of falsifying weights
and measures shall pay a fine for each offence of three livres, any one
found in possession of false weights shall forfeit a like sum, and
double the damage caused thereby.'
The game laws of the Liberty of Bruges were singularly oppressive.
Perhaps Philip stipulated for their insertion in the _Keurbrief_ as the
price of the large concessions he had made. In a country well-stocked
with stags and boars, to say nothing of ground game, the following
enactment must have been an intolerable burthen:--Whosoever shall be
prosecuted for fencing in his property against game, if he refuse to
undergo judgment by red-hot iron, shall submit to an inquiry by the
Count, and if he be found guilty, all his goods shall be at the
disposition of the Count and the châtelain, but his life and liberty
shall be safe. The Flemish did not obtain complete redress of this
iniquitous law until 1477.
If the reader should wish to know something more of this interesting
document we would refer him to Gheldorf's _Histoire Constitutionelle de
la Ville de Bruges_, where the original text is given, together with a
French translation and explanatory notes, p. 465.
The magistrates of the Franc administered justice to those submitted to
their jurisdiction in their _Landhuus_ on the west side of the Bourg.
The building of Philip's day has long since disappeared. It was replaced
in the early fifteen hundreds by Van den Poël's sumptuous _Palais du
Franc_, of which a remnant is still standing, and still forms one of the
most picturesque groups in the city of Bruges. The most charming view of
its quaint turrets and gables is from the great fish market along the
Quai Vert.
Count Philip of Alsace was not only a builder of cities, a promoter of
democratic institutions, the friend
[Illustration: THE PALAIS DU FRANC]
of the manufacturer and the merchant, he ever showed himself a generous
patron of letters and of art. So, too, his countess, Elizabeth of
Vermandois. She delighted in the company of minstrels and troubadours,
and herself presided over a Court of Love. To Bruges, in the days of
Philip and Elizabeth, flocked half the literary men in Europe. Grave
theologians like Andreas Silvius, or Philip of Harveng; historians like
Lambert of Ardres, or Hugh of St. Victor; poets like Chrétien de Troyes,
or Colin Muset, and a host of the most famous authors of the day. Here,
in the Loove Palace, or in the pleasaunce of Winendael hard-by, they
were wont to read aloud to the assembled Court the romances of chivalry
then in vogue. _Erec_, _Enide_, _Clegès_, _Le Chevalier au Lion_,
_Yseult_, _Tristan de Léonnois_, and the rest. The nameless authors of
these two last dedicated their works to Philip himself, and Chrétien de
Troyes wrote his famous _Saint Graal_--'the Church's counterblast,' as
Green calls it, 'to the whirlpool of Arthurian romance'--
Por le plus preud homme
Qui soit en l'Empire de Rome
C'est le quens Philippe de Flandres.
That the Count himself was a man of some literary attainment, the
following interesting letter seems to indicate: 'Knowledge is not the
exclusive privilege of clerks,' writes Philip of Harveng to his friend
and patron, Philip of Flanders. 'It is well to be able to lay aside
strife and politics, and go and study in some book, as in a mirror. The
lessons that illustrious men find in books, add to their nobility,
increase their courage, soften their manners, sharpen their wit, and
make them to love virtue. The prince who possesses a soul as lofty as
his dignity loves to hear wise counsel. How thankful you ought to be to
your parents that from your childhood they had you instructed in
letters' (Epist. XVI., p. 81).
There is another circumstance in connection with Philip which it will be
interesting to note. When St. Thomas à Becket fled before the fury of
Henry II. he for a time found shelter at the Flemish Court. The memory
of his sojourn there still lingers at Bruges. The chapel which he
consecrated in Philip's château at Maele is still standing, and the well
at Tilleghem, where legend says he once slaked his thirst, is still
called by the country folk St. Thomas's Well.