_The Great Humiliation_
The great struggle with the communes of Flanders was continued by
Philippe l'Asseuré, who ascended the throne upon the death of his
father, John the Fearless, in 1419, but from this time forth, slowly but
surely, the cities lost ground, and ere Philippe was gathered to his
fathers, in 1467, the stubbornest of them had made their submission.
It was not until 1437 that serious trouble began at Bruges. Its
ostensible cause was the old dispute anent her jurisdiction over Sluys,
but in reality it was the outcome of the people's discontent at
Philippe's centralizing policy, and at the ignoble means by which he
pursued it; by stirring up strife betwixt class and class, and town and
town, and man and man; by corrupting magistrates, in order that they
might lend themselves to the falsification of money, and the increase of
taxation; by undermining the authority of city officers by modifying the
basis on which it reposed, and by exciting the lower classes against
them.
The treaty of Arras, by which Philippe concluded, on July 1, 1435, a
formal alliance with France, was profoundly unpopular with the Flemish
burghers, and the war with England, in which it involved them, was still
less to their liking. They knew very well that it was not to their
interest to quarrel with their former ally, and if in those days there
had been in England an Edward III., or an Artevelde in Flanders, they
would have had no hesitation in joining hands with the English against
the tyrant who was oppressing them, as they had done in the days of
Louis of Maele. As it was, it needed all Philippe's tact and sophistry,
and no inconsiderable expenditure of cash in bribes, to induce them to
render him assistance, and perhaps even then there was some secret
understanding with the enemy. The force which the burghers had given him
only remained under arms some two months, from June 11 to August 26,
(1436). When the Burgundian fleet under De Horne fled before the English
admiral, a great cry went up from the Flemings encamped before
Calais--_'Go, go wy zyn all vermanden_,' and they forthwith packed up
their traps, staved in the casks of wine that they were unable to carry
with them and returned to their homes.
In consequence of this defection Philippe was compelled to raise the
siege of Calais, and soon the English were overrunning the greater part
of West Flanders. Henry VI., as soon as he had learned what had
happened, sent letters to all the towns which acknowledged his
authority, bitterly complaining of 'the disloyal conduct of that most
faithless Philippe, commonly called Duke of Burgundy,' who, having
acknowledged his suzerainty from his (Henry's) youth upwards, had at
length ventured to renounce it. In doing so, the letter continued,
Philippe had rendered himself guilty of _lèse-majesté_ and had thereby
forfeited all claim to the county of Flanders, which, as its suzerain,
Henry now awarded to his own uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. This
letter was dated August 30, 1436. Soon all the towns in the
neighbourhood of Calais were in Gloucester's hands; at Poperinghe he
was solemnly recognized as Count, and presently the English fleet was
seen slowly coasting along towards the waters of the Zwyn where De Horne
was anchored off Sluys, but dared not go out to engage it. Indeed the
news of its approach filled him with such consternation that he fled to
shore. His fate is not without significance. Wandering about amongst the
sandhills, he presently fell in with a band of Karls, who recognizing in
the woe-begone stranger the admiral of their Count's fleet, used him so
ill that he died from the effects, at Ostend, a fortnight later.
About this time the burghers of Bruges sent an armed force to Sluys,
demanding that the fleet and the town should be handed over to them, on
the ground that from time immemorial Sluys had been subject to their
jurisdiction. But Sluys was a hot-bed of Leliaerts, or Burgundians as
they were now called, as it had been since the days of Louis of Maele,
and though the Bruges men brought with them an order, signed by the
Duchess of Burgundy, and had come ostensibly to defend the port against
the English, the governor, Roland van Uutkerk, refused to permit more
than forty of them on board ship, and the rest were forced to spend the
night in the open, in torrents of rain, save some half-dozen, who
perhaps had friends in the city, and somehow or other managed to find a
lodging there. These men, however, next morning incurred an
inconvenience greater than a wetting. When their comrades remonstrated
on the treatment which they had received, the men who had lodged in the
city were forthwith thrown out of window. Every other citizen of Bruges,
who happened to be in Sluys, was ordered to at once quit the town under
penalty of losing his head, and Van Uutkerk, declaring that the whole
gang of them were traitors and mutineers, bade them go back to the
place from whence they came.
What was the true cause of this extraordinary reception accorded by the
Sluysers to men who were supposed to be their allies, and had come forth
ostensibly to fight for the Duke? Was it simply the outcome of the
national jealous temperament, or did the Sluysers suspect, or had they,
perhaps, been secretly informed, that some great act of treachery was in
contemplation by the men of Bruges, that if the fleet and the citadel
had been given into their keeping, they would have handed them over to
the English? It is hard to say. 'The influence of the Dukes of
Burgundy,' notes Kervyn, 'has so deeply penetrated the historical
sources of this period that it is almost impossible to throw light on
questions relative to the movements of the Flemish burghers.' Certain it
is that Bruges was profoundly mortified and disappointed, and that a
riot ensued, during which the Duke's representative, _Écoutète_ Eustace
Buch, fell a victim to the people's anger. But this was not all. The
charter of 1323, which placed Sluys under the jurisdiction of Bruges,
having been solemnly read from the Halles gallery, the city magistrates
were called upon to explain why and how they had connived at its
infraction, and their answers not appearing satisfactory, so great was
the feeling of the people, that the houses of several of them were
sacked. So terrified was the Duchess of Burgundy at the threatening
attitude of the mob that in the midst of it all she set out for Ghent,
where Philippe was at present stationed, and though no attempt was made
to offer Isabelle violence, or to restrict her personal liberty of
action, the burghers deemed it prudent to retain as hostages two of her
women, the widow of Jean de Hornes, and the wife of his successor,
Roland van Uutkerk, who were actually snatched from the ducal litter.
In all this we may see the handiwork of the guildsmen, and likewise in
the events which followed. The city of Bruges was not left to fight her
battle alone. The Franc gave her assistance--a circumstance not a little
remarkable, as the men of the Franc and the men of the city had already
begun to grow jealous of one another--and, more remarkable still, all
the neighbouring communes, including Ghent, rallied round her. Philippe,
unable to resist the united pressure thus brought to bear on him,
acknowledged the rights of Bruges over Sluys, consented to the
banishment of Roland van Uutkerk for a hundred years and a day, and
intimated that he would shortly come to Damme with a view to redressing
grievances.
Thus far fortune had favoured the men of Bruges, but she was not
destined to show herself their friend much longer. When Philippe reached
Damme, on the 4th of October, he at once made it known that before
anything else could be done, the burghers must lay down their arms; but
that, if within three days a general disarmament were effected, he would
at once re-establish and confirm all the ancient rights and privileges
of the city. The guildsmen seem to have been satisfied of Philippe's
good faith, for by the 9th of October the disarmament was completed, but
when four days had gone by, and Philippe made no sign of fulfilling his
part of the contract, they began to grow suspicious; and when presently
information was brought them that the Duke had only named Damme as the
place of conference in order to obtain possession of that important
vantage post, and that since his arrival there he had been secretly
reinforced by troops from Lille and from Holland, they knew that they
had been duped, and at once made ready for battle. Soon the
market-place was again filled with armed guildsmen, and auxiliaries from
sixty-two neighbouring communes to boot.
[Illustration: OLD HOUSES AT DAMME]
Far from precipitating hostilities, these war-like preparations had the
effect of deferring them. Philippe had not sufficient soldiers to risk
an engagement, and when three days later the foreign merchants resident
in Bruges volunteered their good offices, he consented to resume
negotiations. By the end of the month terms were agreed upon. The
burghers once more disarmed, Philippe confirmed their rights and
privileges, and when he had done this, they in their turn sent deputies
to Damme to make humble apology for the disturbances which had recently
taken place in their city. But so little confidence did they place in
the Duke's good faith that they detained his ambassadors at Bruges until
their own had returned from Damme.
Thus was peace for the moment established. Neither party was satisfied
at the issue of the negotiations, but neither party was at present
strong enough to re-open the contest, and the winter passed on amid much
grumbling and no little display of sulkiness on each side.
Meanwhile, Philippe was watching the course of events. Early in the
spring (February 11, 1437), with a view to weakening the three _bonnes
villes_, he granted a charter to the Franc, by which he recognized that
corporation as fourth member of the Estates of Flanders, and forbade any
freeholder submitted to its jurisdiction to become a burgher of the
city. Whereat riot ensued, and blood again flowed in the streets.
Burgomaster Maurice van Varsenare who endeavoured to quell the tumult,
was slain for his pains in front of the Belfry, and beside him too fell
his brother Jacob, who essayed to defend him. Presently the storm
ceased, and the burghers began to tremble for the consequences of their
hot-headedness. They sent an embassy to Philippe with excuses and
explanations, and Philippe gave them a curt reply. Business in Holland
demanded his attention, but on his way there he would pass through
Bruges. Three months later, on May 22, he reached _St. Michel_, a
stone's throw from the city. With him was a numerous retinue of
knights, and four thousand Picard footmen--men hated of Flemings--but in
order to disarm public opinion, he had sent word to Burgomaster van de
Walle that he alone would enter Bruges with a handful of attendants, and
that the soldiers should camp at Maele.
Great then was the astonishment of that magistrate when next morning he
went out to welcome the Duke, and found all his Picards with him, and
recrimination and confabulation ensued, which lasted two hours, during
which time, unperceived by the angry burgomaster, the soldiers were
preparing to march.
At length, turning to his men-at-arms, and at the same time pointing to
the city, Philippe dropped the mask. 'That,' he cried, 'is the Holland
that we have come to conquer,' and, without waiting for further parley,
made for the city. Some of the foremost knights had already reached the
market-place ere the tocsin gave the alarm, but hardly had it sounded
than armed burghers seemed to spring up from the pavement; they were
swarming through the crooked streets and narrow lanes like angry ants
whose home had been disturbed, and so threatening was their attitude
that Philippe, when he reached the Church of St. Sauveur, bade his men
withdraw by the way they had entered. Covering their retreat with
arrows, they made for the Bouverie gate, but only to find it shut; and
thus Philippe, cut off from the bulk of his army, was at length in the
power of the guildsmen, who, raging about him like rabid hounds, had
already struck down not a few of his bodyguard. In another instant the
Duke himself would have been slain and Flanders saved from long years of
misery. If it had not been for the tenderness of heart and misplaced
loyalty of Burgomaster van de
[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. SAUVEUR]
Walle, the whole course of European history would have been altered,
less blood and fewer tears would have been shed, and perhaps to this day
Bruges would have remained a great and flourishing city. This intrepid
old man, when he found that all his efforts to calm the mob were
unavailing, somehow or other procured a smith, and at the risk of his
life stood over him whilst he broke open the lock of the Bouverie gate.
Philippe rushed out, and with a handful of knights escaped to Courtrai.
As for his Picards, they fled in dismay. Twenty of them were taken
prisoners, and they paid the penalty of their would-be depredation with
their heads. A hundred and sixty of the Duke's own retainers likewise
fell into the hands of the guildsmen, but at the intercession of the
clergy and the foreign merchants their lives were spared, and they even
received honourable treatment.
Then followed nine months of dire warfare, and at each successive step
the men of Bruges suffered themselves to be hoodwinked. At the very
outset, as we have seen, they had lost a grand opportunity by allowing
Philippe to slip through their fingers. Then came the raising of the
siege of Sluys, almost in the hour of victory (one of the town gates had
been actually demolished) at the instigation of the Ghenters, who
averred that the Duke was prepared to treat for peace, a matter of the
highest moment, as foreign merchants were on all sides fleeing the
country.
The accomplishment of the task in hand was a matter of life and death to
Bruges, for with Sluys in the hands of the Burgundians, the way of the
Zwyn was barred, and Bruges cut off from the sea, and yet the burghers
had not sufficient backbone to withstand the entreaties of their
so-called friends, and presently they regretted their pusillanimity. No
sooner was the siege raised than the Burgundians poured out of Sluys,
and harried all the country round, and a band of a hundred and thirty of
them ventured even to the very walls of Bruges, and were on the point of
driving off a large herd of cattle intended for the provisionment of
the city when a thousand guildsmen swooped down on the marauders, took
not a few of them prisoners, and put the rest to flight.
The final catastrophe was brought about by the open defection of Ghent.
For some time past she had been halting between two opinions, but the
success which the men of Bruges had obtained over the marauding knights,
at the gates of their city, had emboldened her to make a definite
engagement to fight shoulder to shoulder with Bruges until peace were
established in Flanders, and even to despatch to her assistance a small
band of fighting men; but presently one of her leaders, Rasse Onredene,
a man who passed for an ardent patriot, but was in reality in Philippe's
pay, pointed out that it would be more to the advantage of Ghent to act
the part of peacemaker, with a view to arranging honourable terms than
to openly side with either of the belligerents; and when a deputation of
Bruges men went out, as they thought, to confer with their allies at
Eecloo, they found them posing as neutral mediators. Soon they
discovered that they were not even neutral, but open supporters of the
Duke, and that they would compel them even by threats to absolute
submission. Bruges refused the terms offered with disdain, Ghent
retaliated by declaring her an enemy of the state, and if it had not
been for the inclemency of the season--it was now December--she would
have forthwith commenced a campaign against her rival.
Bruges was thus left alone to brave Philippe's fury, and in what plight!
Cold, starving, plague-stricken, eaten up with leprosy. The absence of
supplies from foreign ports--she had long been cut off from the sea--and
the devastation of the surrounding country had produced famine; then
came that other handmaid of war, Pestilence, and on her heels, Winter,
before his time. Added to this, the prevailing misery had favoured the
spread of a disease always lurking in the insanitary cities of the
period, and the weird cry of the lazar and the clang of his doleful bell
were now heard in every street.
[Illustration: The Lepers' Hospital, Marché au Fil]
'From the wretched hovel of the working man writhing in the clutches of
famine, from the burning couch of the plague-stricken, and from the
barred cell of the leper, there rose up one cry, poignant as the
necessity which dictated it: Peace, peace.' Thus Kervyn, in his usual
high-flown way.[35]
In face of evils such as these, and with the entire population
clamouring for peace at any price, what could a handful of burghers do,
however brave and resolute? There was but one course open to them, and
early in February (1438) Bruges threw herself on the Duke's mercy; but
Philippe was deaf to the prayers of her representatives, prostrate and
trembling before him, nor was it until Isabelle of Portugal had thrown
herself at his feet that he at length vouchsafed to hear them, and even
then the declaration which he made on March 4, 1438, breathed a spirit
of cynicism, in which generosity had no part. He was mighty enough, he
said, to destroy the town of Bruges _et le mettre à toute misère et
povreté_, but, at the same time, it did not suit his convenience to
utterly crush the chief purveyor of food stuffs in his domains.
For the rest, the conditions which Philippe exacted were sufficiently
burthensome. Bare-headed and bare-footed the burgomaster, sheriffs and
other officials must meet him a league from the city upon the next
occasion he should come there, and after having sued on their knees for
mercy, and made him an offering of their persons and their goods,
present to him the keys of the city, which he should be free to keep or
return according to his good pleasure.
All this, though sufficiently galling to the burghers, inflicted on them
no real or, at all events, no material injury, but the remaining
conditions threatened alike their pride, their persons and their
pockets--a fine of two hundred thousand golden Philippes (afterwards
reduced to thirty thousand), the re-establishment of the hated _Kalfvel_
of 1407, and forty-two noble citizens, whom Philippe mentioned by name,
excluded from the general amnesty which, if these terms were accepted,
he professed himself ready to accord. Needless to say that Bruges
acquiesced, and soon the headsman was plying his bloody trade in the
market-place.
Note amongst those who were condemned to death the chivalrous
burgomaster, Louis van de Walle, who had saved the Duke's life at the
risk of his own, during the riot of 1437, and likewise his wife and his
son. Philippe showed his gratitude by commuting the death sentences of
the two former to one of life-long imprisonment in Winendael Castle. But
the son was executed before his parents' eyes, and Louis himself, ere he
was reprieved, was put to torture. Did he wish that he had let the
guildsmen have their way on that memorable occasion before the Bouverie
gate?
The standard-bearer of Oostcamp was another of Philippe's victims. His
bloody head, adorned with that wreath of roses which Bruges had awarded
to his commune for having been the first to come to her assistance when
Philippe was plotting against her in 1436, was impaled on an iron spike,
and set up on the parapets of the Halles.
To the Franc, too, was meted out punishment--twenty-two of her freemen
excluded from amnesty, and a fine so heavy--twenty thousand golden
Philippes--that many of her most opulent landowners were reduced to
want.
This was not the kind of peace which Bruges in her misery had prayed
for. All kinds of rumours were afloat, a general spirit of disquietude
was abroad, men on all sides were expecting some fresh and terrible act
of vengeance. Not a few resolved to emigrate, and in order to hide their
purpose from the Duke alleged that they were going on pilgrimages to our
Lady of Walsingham, to the three Kings of Cologne, to St. Martin of
Tours--to any popular shrine that was not within reach of his long
fingers. But Philippe got wind of their real design, succeeded in
arresting not a few of them ere they had crossed the frontier, and all
who fell into his clutches he put to death. Whereupon the foreign
merchants waxed wroth. How could trade flourish in face of the
_espionage_, the persecution, the bloodshed with which Philippe had
been so long harassing Flanders? and then, too, there was the war with
England, which in itself was fatal to their interests. Unless peace were
forthwith made, commercial intercourse with that country re-established,
and Flanders tranquillised, they would in a body quit the realm, and
indeed not a few of them packed up their chattels and went. Thereupon
Philippe took fright, set bounds to his evil humour, opened negotiations
with England, concluded a truce for three years, prolonged it next year
to five, and thus little by little confidence was restored and peace
once more established, and when two years later Philippe triumphantly
entered Bruges amid flaming torches, and clashing bells, and the blare
of silver trumpets, the people received the tyrant who had crushed them
with enthusiastic ovations and every outward manifestation of goodwill.
Not content with performing the stipulated humiliation, the burghers did
more than Philippe had prescribed. They erected triumphal arches,
adorned their houses and their public buildings with rich drapery, and
strewed flowers along his path; nor was this all--at intervals they set
up allegorical groups, typical of repentance and submission. Thus, hard
by the _Porte de Ste. Croix_ stood St. John the Baptist, bearing in his
hands a scroll on which was written: _Ego vox clamantis in deserto:
parate viam Domini_. Further on stood four prophets, each with his
parchment scroll, after the manner of the figures in the painted windows
of the period. On the first was inscribed--'Thy people shall rejoice in
thee'; on the second--'The prince of God is in the midst of us'; on the
third--'Come let us return to the Lord,' and on the fourth--'Let us do
all that the Lord saith to us.' Thus did these worthy merchants
cringe--an edifying sight--before the blood-stained tyrant who twelve
months before had tortured and slain their noblest fellows. For them he
had become as the Saviour of the Gospel, aye and as the God of Abraham,
for they chose the sacrifice of Isaac to typify the absolute obedience
which they owed to him. And who shall blame them? The craven cur who
licks the hand which has struck him is after all a more sagacious beast
that the mettlesome hound who resents an unjust blow by springing at his
master's throat. The former is sometimes received back into favour, the
latter is not unfrequently hanged. In the present case, as we shall see,
the burghers had their reward.
Till the close of Philippe's reign Bruges was at peace.
During ten years a great calm reigned throughout Flanders. 'Remember
Bruges,' Philippe had said to the citizens of Ypres, who for a moment
showed signs of being restive, and the warning was enough. But the men
of Ghent were made of sterner fibre, and when in 1450 Philippe would
have taxed their salt, they broke out in open rebellion. For three years
the burghers did battle for liberty with heroism and fortitude, but with
so redoubtable an opponent there could be but one issue to the conflict,
and in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, the saddest year of
the fifteenth century, Kervyn calls it, Ghent too was conquered.
All this time the prosperity of Bruges was seemingly increasing by leaps
and bounds, but it was but the glow of the sunset which presaged eternal
night, though the pomp and splendour of the Ducal Court--the most
splendid Court of the richest sovereign in Europe--made the sunset a
golden one.
Magnificent _fêtes_ and gorgeous tournaments were following one another
in rapid succession, sumptuous palaces were springing up on all sides,
sanctuaries were being everywhere enlarged and adorned with a countless
array of art treasures. But there was another side to the picture. In
spite of lotteries and the sale of annuities, in spite of direct
taxation--a means of producing revenue hitherto unknown in Bruges--there
was now a constantly recurring and constantly increasing deficit in the
annual city budget, and the list of persons constrained to accept public
relief, including as it now did not only obscure names, but alongside of
them the names of clergymen, of merchants, and of men of honourable and
ancient lineage, was each year growing longer and longer. Intrigue, and
riot, and suppression, and the silting up of the Zwyn were driving trade
from Bruges. A host of merchants had left for Antwerp, a city less
subject to internal commotions; not a few, as we have seen, had
emigrated to England, to Germany, to the South of France, whilst the
shipping, which could no longer find its way into the harbours of Sluys
and Damme, now sought shelter in other ports.
This was the state of affairs at Bruges during the time which elapsed
between her humiliation in 1440 and the death of Philippe l'Asseuré in
1467--a time of peace and quietude after the long years of strife; a
time of _fêtes_ and royal pageants; a time of much intellectual
activity; a time of music, and poetry and art; but a time also of
gradual commercial wane, and in the midst of it the stupendous intellect
of the man who had accomplished all this became clouded, like the city
which he had beautified and destroyed, by premature decay. The astute
tyrant, who had been able to tame the burghers of Flanders, and, in
spite of bloody deeds, to make himself beloved; the cultured patron of
art who had known how to appreciate the works of the Van Eycks, and of
Roger Van der Weyden; the clear-headed man of business who had received
a heritage encumbered with debt, and, before his decease, was the
richest prince in Europe, now passed all his time in a little workshop
dyeing old fragments of cloth, fitting together pieces of broken glass,
and sharpening needles. Early in 1466 he was struck down with apoplexy;
though he rallied from the attack, his physicians knew that his days
were numbered, and on Monday, the 15th of June, 1467, the end came. They
buried him at Bruges in the Church of St. Donatian, and so great was the
throng at the funeral, and the heat engendered by thousands of candles,
that they shattered the gorgeous stained windows to let in the air.
[Illustration]