_The Final Catastrophe_
Upon the death of Marie of Burgundy the storm for a moment lulled.
Philip of Hornes had fled the country; the Estates-General had assembled
at Bruges to provide for the administration of the realm during the
minority of the legal heir to all Marie's domains, her son Philip, now
an infant of three years of age; and Maximilian, who knew very well
that, in accordance with the marriage treaty of 1479, his authority over
the Netherlands should now come to an end, and who hoped, nevertheless,
to prevail on the communes to appoint him Regent of Flanders and
guardian of his infant son, was showing himself as conciliatory as
possible. He consented to the perpetual banishment of his favourite
Philip of Hornes, suffered the burghers to open negotiations with Louis
XI., with a view to the instant termination of the war with France, and
did not hesitate to confirm a treaty of peace, which they concluded at
Arras on December 23, 1482, and that, notwithstanding that the King of
France was thereby acknowledged suzerain of Flanders, and that as such
Louis XI. had confirmed and renewed all the rights and privileges
granted by Marie at the commencement of her reign.
Meanwhile little Philip had sworn to respect the liberties of Flanders,
and the deputies of the Estates-General had quietly appointed a council
of regency to act in his name, viz., Adolphe of Clèves,[38] Lord of
Ravestein, a kinsman of Maximilian's, erst his competitor for Marie's
hand, and the most popular man in Flanders; Philip of Beveren;[38a]
Adrien of Rasseghem; and Louis of Bruges, Lord of Oostcamp and Lord of
Gruthuise, knight of the Golden Fleece, peer of Flanders, France and
England--Edward IV. had created him Earl of Winchester in gratitude for
the kindness which he had shown him in the days of his exile at
Bruges--and, what he prized most of all, a burgher of his native town.
The patron and friend of Caxton and of Colard Mansion, he was a
marvellous lover of books, and had gathered together in the fascinating
palace which he built for himself on the banks of the Roya--not his
least glory, and which still bears witness to his love of the beautiful,
and to the distinction and refinement of his taste--so rich a collection
of choice manuscripts that the Gruthuise Library was said to equal, if
not to surpass, the world-renowned library of the Dukes of Burgundy. In
a word, he was a worthy scion of the house of Erembald, a patriot true
to the core, the richest and the mightiest and the most beloved of the
burgher-nobles of Bruges.
As for Maximilian, he was as meek as a lamb. A rebellion had broken out
in Holland, and perhaps he was unusually short of cash. Certain it is
that on the eve of his departure for that country, on June 5, 1483, he
confirmed at Hoogstraeten, for an annual pension of twenty-four thousand
_écus_, the authority of the council of regency appointed by the
Estates-General. Before the end of the year, however, the conjunction of
events had changed the Duke's dispositions. The man he most feared, the
royal burgher of Ghent, that most incomprehensible of devotees, who
stopped before no crime, and never undertook any matter of moment
without first commending it to God, King Louis XI. of France, had at
length set out on that inevitable journey which all his life long he had
looked forward to with apprehension and dismay.
For years past the old man had been ailing. Some said that he was a
leper; he had certainly had a paralytic stroke in the spring of 1480,
and the sands of his life were fast running out when the Flemish
ambassadors waited on him at the Château du Plessis, at the beginning of
the year 1483, to obtain his ratification of the Treaty of Arras. It was
evening when they reached the palace. They found the old King huddled up
in the corner of a room purposely ill-lighted so as to hide the
disfigurement which disease had wrought in his countenance, and so weak
that he was unable to rise to receive them. His right hand was
completely paralysed, and when they brought the Book of the Gospels, on
which he was to swear to observe peace, he just managed to raise his arm
sufficiently to touch it with his elbow.
Louis knew that his end was near. He had summoned François the
thaumaturgus of Paula from the depths of Calabria to beseech him on
bended knees for a few days' respite, and the saint had given him no
hope. 'Set thy house in order,' he had said, 'for thou wilt die and not
live.' Presently, towards the close of the year, it became clear to the
King's physicians that there was no hope of further prolonging his life.
Louis had strictly forbidden that any one should pronounce in his
presence _le cruel mot de la mort_, his approaching end must be
euphoniously announced to him by the sentence, '_Parlez peu_;' but
Olivier le Dain, erst barber of Thielt, now Count of Meulan, who had for
thirty years past been in the King's service--ever since the days when
Louis was in exile at Bruges--with brutal levity hurled these words at
his dying benefactor: '_C'est fait de vous pensez à votre conscience_,'
and a few hours afterwards the old King passed quietly away.
The news of Louis's death found Maximilian elated by an easy and
unexpected triumph over his Dutch rebels. Men wiser and more wicked than
he had little difficulty in persuading the weak and vacillating prince
that fortune herself had cancelled the bond of Hoogstraeten, and he lost
no time in revoking the powers therein granted anent the government of
Flanders. Nor were the Regents slow to reply. On the 15th of October
they sent in a long memorial: in virtue of the marriage treaty of 1477,
the right of _mainbournie_ did not appertain to the Duke of Austria, his
assumption of the arms of the county of Flanders was altogether illegal,
he had overwhelmed the land with taxes, pledged the Sovereign's domain,
sold the crown jewels and given ear to the perfidious counsel of
strangers--let France, the suzerain, judge betwixt them. To all of which
Maximilian replied with reproaches and insult: he in no way recognized
the right of the Regents to speak in the name of the country--men of
little weight, headstrong, proud, who desired more their own profit than
the welfare of the realm. Gruthuise and his comrades responded no less
warmly: Adrien Villain, William Rym and the rest were men of as great
weight as by far the larger number of the Duke's friends, some of whom,
alike Germans and Burgundians, were in a very small way before they came
to Flanders; for the rest, they had in no wise usurped the government of
the county, no prince had ever been acknowledged in Flanders save by the
consent of the 'three members,' and in the absence of the Sovereign, or
during his minority, it was for the Estates to provide for the
government of the county, and after all, justice was better administered
in Flanders than in Brabant, where Maximilian still retained about his
person the murderers of Myn Heer van Dadizeele. Further declaration from
Maximilian: whilst he in no way recognized the right of tradesmen to put
themselves on a par with the gentlemen of his Court, he begged leave to
observe that the treaty of 1477 was invalid; the Duchess of Burgundy had
affixed her signature to a document the contents of which she did not
understand; and he ended up by summoning the Lords of Gruthuise, and
Ravestein, and Borsselle, and Beveren, who were knights of the Golden
Fleece, to Brussels, on the feast of St. Andrew, November 30, there to
submit their conduct to the judgment of their fellow knights.
No further correspondence between Maximilian and the council was carried
on for the moment. The States sent a mission to Charles VIII. to appeal
for his arbitration; as suzerain, they said, and affianced spouse of the
heiress-apparent, he was doubly interested in the matter, they would
abide by his decision; and Maximilian, on his side, prepared to make war
on his subjects, hoping to prevent by his victories the mediation of the
French King. With this object in view he advanced on Bruges with the
army which had lately been victorious in Holland,--this was in the
beginning of February 1484--with much trumpeting drew up his men in
order of battle in front of the Bouverie gate, and sent a herald to the
city fathers demanding that it should be opened. But Sheriff Van
Bassevelde, who was their mouthpiece, would have none of it. 'Go tell
your master,' he said, 'that if he desires to speak with the magistrates
of Bruges they are ready to give him audience in the council chamber of
the _Hôtel de Ville_, where they are now assembled, provided his escort
do not exceed ten or at most twelve persons.'
Maximilian had reckoned on a rising in his favour. A plot to assist him
there certainly had been, but his friends, who were numerous, made no
sign, and he retired to Oudenburg in dudgeon, thereby leaving them at
the mercy of their foes. Active inquiries were at once set on foot as to
the number of conspirators, and not a few leading citizens were found to
be compromised. Note amongst them ex-burgomaster John Breidel, a
descendant of the great patriot; this man, along with many others, was
put to death, and Peter Lanchals, of whom we shall hear again, condemned
to banishment.
For sixteen weary months the war dragged on. Backed, as they were, by a
large French army, under the command of Crévcoeur, the greatest
captain of the fourteen hundreds, it seemed at first almost certain that
the Flemings would presently succeed in driving Maximilian back again to
Germany; but Crévcoeur was not a _persona grata_ to the burghers, they
could never forget that he had fought against them in the days of Louis
XI., and when the palm of victory was almost within their grasp, it was
snatched from them by the frenzied hand of suspicion.
In the month of June 1485, Crévcoeur encamped at Ghent--here too was
little Philip--nor were quarrels slow to arise between the burghers and
the men who had come to defend them--matter for no great wonderment; the
hosts were Flemish merchants, and the guests French soldiers.
One morning Crévcoeur set Philip on horseback, and made him ride
through the city, in order to show him to the people. Forthwith a report
was spread abroad that the French were going to carry the young prince
off to Paris, and so threatening was the attitude of the mob that
Crévcoeur deemed it prudent to quit Flanders and take up his
headquarters at Tournai. This was on June 11, 1485.
Meanwhile Maximilian, profiting by these quarrels, for it was not only
at Ghent, but throughout Flanders, that opinion was divided, had been
scattering gold broadcast amongst those burghers who were known to be
wavering in their allegiance to France, and by this means had succeeded
in raising up a party in his favour at Ghent and at Bruges. On June 1,
when the people of the latter city were making solemn procession round
the _Place du bourg_, with relics, and incense, and torches, to implore
the protection of Heaven for the armies of Flanders, news came that the
town gates had been treacherously opened to Maximilian's mercenaries,
and immediately afterwards a great troop of knights and German horsemen
galloped into the market.
So sudden and so unexpected was the calamity which had befallen them
that the burghers, who seem to have lost their heads, made no show at
resistance, and when John of Houthem, the German commander, made them a
speech, and asked the vast throng assembled before him whether they
wished for peace or war, a great cry went up: Peace! Peace! 'Then will
you accept the Archduke for regent,' demanded Houthem, 'and acknowledge
his right to the guardianship of his son?' and, with one mouth, the
people answered, 'We will.'
So too was it at Ghent. The funds expended in corruption there proved an
equally satisfactory investment. Hardly had the burghers hounded their
French friends out of the city than, just chastisement, Maximilian's
Germans took possession of it.
Presently the Archduke of Austria himself arrived at Bruges, and,
before the end of the month, a treaty of peace was signed, in virtue of
which he obtained the regency he had so long coveted, and the
guardianship of his son. He in return granted an amnesty to all who had
taken arms against him, save only certain of the ringleaders. Amongst
them note Jan van Keyt, erst Burgomaster of Bruges, and Franz van
Bassevelde, famous for the boldness with which he had opposed
Maximilian's threats two years before. These men suffered death in the
market-place, and their heads were set up on the turrets of the Halles.
Note also among the excluded, Louis of Gruthuise, and that,
notwithstanding that he had claims on Maximilian's gratitude, for no man
had done more than he to strengthen the tottering throne of Marie of
Burgundy. As a knight of the Golden Fleece, Louis of Gruthuise had the
right to be tried by the brethren of his order, but he refused to
exercise it. He was a burgher, he said, of the city of Bruges, and
desired no other judges than the magistrates of his native town.
Maximilian, however, did not dare go to extremities, Gruthuise was too
popular and too powerful; he sent him prisoner to the Château of
Vilvorde, and made him pay a fine of three hundred thousand _écus_.
By the end of the year 1485 the Archduke of Austria had not only
re-established his authority in Flanders, but also throughout the whole
of his son's domains.
Maximilian was one of those men whose appetites grow larger with eating.
Conciliation increased his exigencies. Yield to him but an inch, and he
asked for an ell, and when he got his ell he wanted a furlong. Fortune
was singularly kind to him for a time; she gave him so much rope that he
did not know what to do with it, and presently essayed to hang himself.
The first use which he made of his re-established authority was to break
the oath which he had solemnly sworn at Bruges, and carry his son Philip
out of the county; the second to further irritate the three _bonnes
villes_ by appointing the Franc fourth member of Flanders. The charter
by which he committed this piece of folly was signed at Frankfort on
February 16, 1486, immediately after he had been elected King of the
Romans. The acquisition of this new and pompous title seems to have
completely turned his head, and he gave himself over to the wildest
dreams of ambition, fatuously believing that his would be the glorious
destiny which the crowd of soothsayers and astrologers who frequented
his Court had predicted for him. The kingdom of Hungary, the duchy of
Milan were already his by right of conquest, and by the same right also
the crown of Naples, and at the sword's point he had demanded, and led
back from France, his daughter Marguerite, whom the Treaty of Arras had
made the bride of Charles VIII., that direst foe who had stirred up
trouble for him at Liège, equipped fourteen great ships in support of
his rebellious Dutch subjects, and, worst of all, by promises and deeds
had aided and abetted the hated burghers of Flanders, and would, but for
their suspicions, have brought their affairs to a successful issue.
Presently the time arrived when Maximilian believed that he was going to
realize this vision. On the 14th of August 1486, at the head of a great
army, he set out for France. At Bruges the day before he had listened to
an harangue by Hermolao Barbaro, the Venetian ambassador, who told him
that all his successes had been his own handiwork, and his reverses the
work of destiny. Puffed up by this flattery, he started fully convinced
that he would soon be reckoned amongst the greatest conquerors the
world had ever seen, and so sure was he of his approaching success that
he dated his letters from Lens, '_première ville de notre conqueste_.'
Never was man doomed to be more bitterly disappointed. Disaster followed
disaster; the treasure which he had squandered in corruption brought in
no return; the princes whose support he had purchased failed him in the
hour of need; his mercenaries threw down their arms for lack of pay, and
presently he was constrained, with his cap in his hand, to humbly ask
the help of the men he most despised, and withal to endure the shame of
a curt refusal. The burghers of Flanders, the three _bonnes villes_ made
answer, in no way approved of the war with France, and were perfectly
content with the Treaty of Arras; and when Maximilian threatened to
collect taxes himself, they not only laughed at his threats but
clamoured for redress of grievances. Whereupon Maximilian, in
desperation, led the remnant of his army against his own subjects; but
his efforts in Flanders were no more successful than they had been in
France, and he was constrained to fall back on Bruges, the one town
which had not yet openly broken with him.
Great was the consternation of the burghers when on December 16, 1487,
Maximilian entered their city. His German mercenaries, it was well
known, had for months past received no pay, and were now living on
plunder. This in itself was no small cause of alarm. Moreover, the
burghers profoundly distrusted him. His shameless disavowal of the
Treaty of Arras had shattered their dearest hopes and overwhelmed them,
to boot, with taxes, and it was now more than suspected that the real
object of his visit was to wring from them fresh supplies--nay, that the
city was to be deprived of its franchise and handed over to plunder.
There were some garrulous old men still living who remembered the
horrors of fifty years ago under Philippe l'Asseuré, and a new exodus to
Antwerp was the outcome of their harrowing stories. Whereat Maximilian
sought to re-establish confidence with fair speech:--he desired nothing
better than peace with France, had, in fact, demanded and received a
safe conduct from the French King, with a view to a meeting anent this
very object.
Meanwhile the Ghenters had taken Courtrai, and the Duke, in consequence,
had sent an embassy to them to treat for peace, but the victors proudly
refused to deal with any but Flemish, and Maximilian, at his wit's end,
besought the good offices of Bruges.
The burghers did not refuse, but they made their conditions:--the
dismissal of the German guards, whose insolence and insubordination were
intolerable in a commercial community, and until this was accomplished
they would themselves take charge of the city gates.
After some hesitation the Duke deemed it prudent to yield: Philip of
Hornes would soon be at Bruges with reinforcements and then he would be
in a position to reassert his authority.
Presently (January 24, 1488) the deputies returned from Ghent with news
that they had failed in the object of their mission. Maximilian, who
received them in the hall of his palace, was bitterly disappointed, and
though at his urgent request the burghers promised to try again, from
that moment he again resumed his machinations against them, and mistrust
and suspicion and evil foreboding were once more rife in the city. That
very night his conduct at a banquet given in his honour at the _Hôtel de
Richebourg_ by the widow of Martin Lem (burgomaster in the time of
Charles the Terrible) was not a little disquieting. He had suddenly left
the table to make a tour of the ramparts, carefully examining the number
of guards at the gates, distributing money amongst them, and so forth.
On January 27 he left the city, ostensibly for the purpose of hawking,
but no one believed that sport alone was his object. So too on the 28th,
and on the 31st he received two pieces of news:--Philip of Hornes was
close to Bruges, and the second deputation to Ghent had been as
unsuccessful as the first.
The die was cast. Maximilian drew up his German guard in the courtyard
of the palace and sent messengers to Hornes to enter the town at once by
the _Porte des Maréchaux_. The same evening, accompanied by Burgomaster
Van Nieuwenhove, one of his creatures, and a small band of attendants,
to this gate he came, and demanded that it should be opened; but the
gatekeepers, who suspected foul play, flatly refused. No power on earth,
they said, should make them open their gates. There was no time to waste
in parleying, the main object being to quietly admit Hornes and his
reinforcements; but the burghers were aware of what was doing, and the
Regent hastened with like result to the _Porte de Gand_ and the _Porte
Ste. Croix_. More fortunate at the _Porte Ste. Catherine_, by this exit
he went forth--may be its guardians believed he was bent on some further
excursion--dispatched messengers to Hornes to bid him enter at this spot
and not to attempt to do so by the _Porte des Maréchaux_, once more
returned to the city and endeavoured by force to keep the way open for
him. But the guardians, crying 'Treason, treason,' had meanwhile aroused
the neighbours, and before Hornes could effect an entry they had lowered
the portcullis. Whereupon Maximilian fled to the Princenhof and
[Illustration: PORTE DES BAUDETS]
summoning _Écoutète_ Peter Lanchals bade him take measures to obtain
possession of the city gates. It was too late. What had occurred at the
_Porte Ste. Catherine_ was now known throughout Bruges, and all the
gates were strongly guarded by armed guildsmen. Almost in despair, the
Regent gave orders to fire the town, hoping that in the confusion Hornes
would somehow or other be able to effect an entrance--vain hope; the
fires were no sooner kindled than extinguished. Maximilian, however, was
not yet at the end of his tether. The _Porte de Gand_ had been entrusted
to Mathew Denys, Dean of Carpenters, who was said to be favourably
disposed towards him. Again he sallied forth with a handful of faithful
Germans, and again he was disappointed. With rude speech and violent
gestures Mathew disdained his addresses. 'Deliver your dean into my
hands,' cried Maximilian, furious at his refusal, 'and I will load you
with benefits.' This, to the soldiers under Mathew's command. 'While
there is a drop of blood in our veins,' was the reply, 'we will never
abandon him.' 'Then at least let me leave the town,' cried Maximilian,
but neither would they grant this request; they felt sure he would be
off to Damme to summon the little garrison there to join the army of
Hornes.
Whereupon council of war, and assembly in the _Place du bourg_ of all
the Duke's forces, strenuous exertions on the part of Peter Lanchals to
rouse the burghers of his party to rally round Maximilian, much
reluctance on their part to do so, great curiosity on the part of the
multitude to learn what was going on, and no little anxiety on the part
of the Germans to maintain order. _Stact! Stact!_ they shouted, making a
hedge with their halberds as the crowd pressed them closer and closer,
which, in plain English, means 'keep back,' but in the excitement and
turmoil of the moment, the people thought the soldiers cried _slact,
slact_, that is 'strike, strike,' and fled helter-skelter, cry-out as
they went that the Germans were going to slay them. Whereat panic
unspeakable, and whilst the tocsin shrieks over the city, a host of
armed guildsmen file into the market-place, bringing with them
forty-nine cannons and fifty-two standards; and a crowd of trembling
priests secrete in the crypt of St. Donatian's, in the secret chambers
in the thickness of the walls, in the vast _grenier_ above the vaults,
in holes and crannies, wherever they can, their relics and their art
treasures, and frantically call on clerk and sacrist to save them from
the Germans; messengers are sent off in hot haste to summon help from
Ypres and Ghent; Maximilian, trembling for his life, withdraws to his
palace, but not by way of the market-place; the whole town thrills with
excitement and a burning desire for vengeance, increased tenfold when
news comes of the arrest of the incendiaries, two Moors in the service
of Count van Zollern. Not a burgher but was convinced that Bruges had
escaped disaster by the skin of her teeth.
Meanwhile Lanchals's house had been searched; it was found to be full of
weapons, but Lanchals himself was not there--fresh proof of his
nefarious designs--and in the market-place a reward of fifty _livres de
gros_ was publicly offered for his arrest.
Though the patriots Van Keyt and Van Bassevelde had been dead three
years, their skulls were still impaled above the Halles--one on each of
the turrets which flank its façade. To suffer them to remain there, now
that the city was in their power, were an insult to the dead, and the
burghers determined to remove them, were actually engaged in doing so,
when suddenly the Regent's ministers appeared on the scene,
conciliatory, quaking. He was ready, they said, to pardon the people's
sedition. 'Pardon us!' roared a thousand throats, and a thousand fingers
pointed to the ghastly relics of Maximilian's vengeance. 'Pardon us! The
miscreant who offers us pardon is ten times more guilty than we.'
'What then would you have?' faltered Paul de Baenst. 'A new burgomaster
and a new _écoutète_,' replied the guildsmen, 'instead of Peter Lanchals
and Jan van Nieuwenhove, who merit death.' So terrified was Maximilian
that he dared not refuse the demand, and Josse de Decker was named
burgomaster, and Peter Metteneye _écoutète_.
For two days Maximilian remained shut up in his palace; on the 4th of
February he ventured out, and from the balcony of the Halles endeavoured
to explain, but the people refused to hear him. 'Wait,' they shouted,
'wait until the deputies of Ypres and Ghent come'; nor was this all. He
was forced to listen in silence to a long letter from the sheriffs of
Ghent, which must have been gall and wormwood to him, a letter promising
help, announcing the defeat and death at Courtrai of his favourite
Hornes, and offering congratulations that Bruges was now out of danger.
Nor until he had heard the command given to make diligent search for his
counsellors, in order to bring them to justice, was he at length
suffered to return to his palace.
On the morrow fresh news came from Ghent. Adrien of Rasseghem had just
torn up the _kalfvel_ of 1485. 'For God's sake do not disarm. Be not
deceived by Maximilian's specious promises, but keep good watch over him
until the meeting of the Estates-General, and make sure of the persons
of his counsellors.'
Great was the enthusiasm of the burghers, and they set about pitching
tents in the _Grande Place_, for the weather was bitterly cold, and they
were determined to remain under arms until all danger was past. In the
midst came news that Maximilian had fled, news which turned out to be
false, but in order to calm the people the burghers invited him to show
himself among them, and presently he appeared in the market-place,
gorgeously arrayed in cloth of gold and seated on a magnificent charger.
Nor did he meet with a lukewarm reception; the people cheered him to the
echo. Their hatred was for the moment transferred to the members of his
council. Whereat Maximilian, no doubt relieved, made them a speech: he
had no thought of leaving Bruges; if they doubted his word, let them set
a watch at the palace. The burghers, who were practical men, replied
that they would consider his proposal, and at the end of half an hour
informed him that the deputies of the three _bonnes villes_ were just
about to meet, and that while they were discussing matters it would be
well for him to take up his abode in the Craenenburg.
The Craenenburg was at this time the property of Hendrieck Nieulandt, a
merchant of great wealth, to whom Maximilian was heavily indebted. It
was situated at the corner of the _rue St. Amand_, and was the most
magnificent private residence in the market-place. From its balcony the
Counts of Flanders were wont to witness the public games and festivities
which so frequently delighted the citizens of Bruges, and there
Maximilian had himself been diverted, some three weeks before, by the
squeaks and grunts and ungainly bounds of a herd of frantic swine, and
the no less uncouth shouts and falls of the blind sportsmen who were
pursuing them. Not a very edifying spectacle, one would think, for a
prince who longed for and afterwards grasped an imperial diadem, and who
would, if he could, have put on his finger the ring of the fisherman.
But, other times other manners, and let us never forget, as a recent
writer aptly and pithily has it, 'Notre ancêtre du moyen âge est un
grand enfant, il s'amuse aux choses extraordinaires pullulant aux pays
lointains, et par dessous tout ... il est grossièrement joyeux.' He was
all that certainly in Bruges at the close of the fourteen hundreds, and
perhaps his descendants in the same city are all that to-day.
The King of the Romans, attended by a numerous suite, took up his abode
in Nieulandt's palace on the evening of the 4th February 1488. Shortly
afterwards, perhaps the next day, the deputies from Ghent and Ypres
arrived, the Ghenters bringing with them two thousand armed men. All the
trades guilds of Bruges were assembled in the _Grande Place_ to welcome
them, and their advent was greeted with cheers and the thunder of
cannon. After solemnly attending Mass in St. Donatian's the general
assembly of the three _bonnes villes_ was declared open, and presently
business commenced. There were some who were sanguine enough to believe
that peace would be the outcome, but for the burghers to come to an
understanding with Maximilian was in reality a task almost impossible of
accomplishment. The Prince was so shifty and the people were so
exacting. The chief point at issue was the guardianship of young Philip.
Maximilian had shown himself in forty several ways, the men of Ghent
alleged, unworthy to exercise the rights of a father, and he must never
again be permitted to do so. Had he not sworn to educate his son in
Flanders, and then taken him out of the county? Before any terms of
peace were arranged they must have some solid guarantee that Philip
would be brought back again. Then there was the question of the Treaty
of Arras, and the alleged plot to ruin Bruges, a matter which called for
instant investigation, and if their suspicions--they were more than
suspicions--should prove correct, justice must be meted out to the men
who had instigated it, and there were a hundred other grievances to be
redressed before any lasting peace could be established.
Meanwhile Charles VIII. was doing all in his power to help the Flemish
people. Divesting, as suzerain, of their legal authority all those
officers who continued to act for and in the name of Maximilian, 'who,'
he averred, 'had usurped the regency, violated sworn treaties and minted
base coin in his own name,' authorizing the burghers to themselves
appoint magistrates who should 'act in the name of the child Philip, now
held prisoner by the King's enemies,' and to coin their own cash,
signing charters innumerable, confirming ancient privileges, conferring
new rights, granting full liberty to the merchants of Flanders to travel
without let or hindrance throughout the kingdom of France--in a word,
showing himself generally the friend and staunch supporter of democracy,
the last barrier, as it seemed to him, to the Germanisation of the
Netherlands.
On the 13th February all these charters were solemnly read in the
market-place at Bruges, as well as the text of the Treaty of Arras, and
a long report on the attempted destruction of the city, whereat the
guildsmen wax furious, break into Maximilian's palace--the
Princenhof--find there four hundred barrels of gunpowder, scaling
ladders innumerable, and something more ominous still, coils upon coils
of stout rope. What was this for? Not a man of them but believed that
the Duke had meant to hang him. Next day, in consequence, arrest of
fourteen privy councillors, Flemings, Burgundians, Germans, four of them
in Maximilian's own chamber. All of these men had fancied themselves
safe because they were attached to the royal person.
The same evening a deputation of burghers pay Maximilian a visit of
condolence, bid him take heart, and assure him that they bear _him_ no
enmity; that his person is perfectly safe in their hands, and that they
are ready to do anything in their power to make him comfortable.
Maximilian, nevertheless, unconvinced and exceedingly depressed.
February 16, commencement of trial of Jan van Nieuwenhove and sundry
others arrested the day before. Great deliberation on the part of the
judges who, sitting with closed doors, have already spun out the
proceedings for two days, when the mob outside, losing all patience and
frantically shouting that the judges have gone
[Illustration: Hôtel Gruthuise]
to sleep and it is time to awaken them, break into the Court House, drag
the accused forth into the market-place, and presently bring hither the
rack.
On the evening of February 17, Carnival. Hell let loose:--a weird
farrago of gibbering masks, and wailing ghosts, and gorgeous dresses; a
veritable pandemonium of obscene songs and lecherous yells and
hysterical laughter; a drunken whirlwind of mad furies shrieking
vengeance, whilst, to the strains of delirious music, they wildly dance
around the headsman's block and bloody axe, and, a still ghastlier
thing, a rack of new and improved fashion, which has never yet been
used, but soon will be, set out in grim array before the Halles.
Suddenly the air grows thick with smoke, the Belfry gleams out roseate
against the black sky, and great tongues of flame dart up to heaven.
Somehow or other the venders of fruit and fried fish and cheap finery
have managed to fire their booths, and thus, during the small hours of
Ash-Wednesday morning, the fierce orgies are fittingly brought to a
close with a fiercer conflagration.
The tumult of Monday night seems to have had the desired effect. When
the Court re-assembled on Ash-Wednesday morning the judges were wide
awake, and one after another in rapid succession the accused were found
guilty and condemned to death. Before, however, the sentences which had
been passed were carried out, it was deemed prudent to change the place
of Maximilian's imprisonment. On more than one occasion he had almost
effected his escape, and the Craenenburg was not thought to be
sufficiently secure. Moreover, it was not roomy enough to accommodate
the numerous retinue of gaolers with which, under the guise of
attendants, it was deemed necessary to surround him. Perhaps too the
burghers wished to spare Maximilian the pain of seeing his friends die.
During the whole period of his captivity they seem to have treated him
with the utmost consideration, regarding him not so much as a criminal
as an amiable but dangerous lunatic, whom, indeed, for the sake of the
public weal, they were bound to put under restraint, but whom, at the
same time, they were no less bound to make as comfortable as possible.
When he passed through the _Grande Place_ on his way to his new prison
and in trembling accents besought the people to see that no harm befell
him, 'have no fear,' they cried, 'we bear you no grudge, your
counsellors alone are to blame,' and the palace to which they led him,
in the _rue St. Jacques_--it had recently been occupied by Jean Gros,
Chancellor of the Golden Fleece--was in all probability hardly less
spacious and no less luxuriously furnished than the Princenhof itself.
[Illustration: KITCHEN IN GRUTHUISE]
Some idea may be gathered of the stately homes of the burgher-nobles of
Bruges during this period from the recently-restored habitation of the
Lords of Gruthuise, the most perfect and the best preserved of the few
mediæval palaces still left to the city; and be it noted that the _Hôtel
Gruthuise_[39] of to-day is only a fragment of the original building;
there was another great wing on the further bank of the river connected
with it by a bridge, nor is it likely that the mansion of the Chancellor
of the Golden Fleece was in any way less magnificent. Here, then, we may
picture to ourselves the same beautiful pavements of glistening white
tiles relieved by delicately-designed patterns in red and blue and green
and gold; the same wealth of carved oak in door and shutter and ceiling;
the same huge chimney-pieces of carved stone, brilliant with colour,
jutting out over hearths not deeply set in the thickness of the wall, as
in England, but shallow and broad and high and all lined with fair
ceramic tiles of russet and sage green, and glowing now, for it is
winter-time, in the light of flaming timber placed on dogs richly
wrought in brass or iron. We know that costly tapestry was hung on the
walls and that curtains of silk and velvet draped the windows; of their
delicate texture and marvellous design a visit to the museum beneath the
Belfry will show something, and here, too, are treasured up not a few
specimens of the beautiful carved oak furniture, as well as of the
glassware and pottery, which was used at Bruges when Maximilian was a
prisoner there; whilst the pictures of the Van Eycks of Memlinc and of
other artists of the period bear witness to the glorious colouring of
the woven fabrics and the embroidery of those days.
Nor was the King of the Romans without companions or means of
distraction. Twelve members of his household were permitted to share his
prison. _Tir à l'oiseau_ was inaugurated in the courtyard. From time to
time the trade guilds with flaunting banners marched past his windows,
'in order to occupy his leisure and to drive away his melancholy.' His
table too was sumptuously served. The burghers had even got his plate
out of pawn for him, and every evening some of the most stately of them
were wont to pay him visits, in order, as they said, to cheer him with
conversation friendly and loving--_vriendelic end mimusamelic_.
[Illustration: CHIMNEY-PIECE IN THE GRUTHUISE PALACE]
Nor was this all. _Écoutète_ Peter Metteneye was in constant attendance,
as he was in duty bound to be, and at his beck and call were thirty-six
servants, who, like their chief, never left the house. But Maximilian
knew very well that all this solicitude on the part of Myn Heer Peter
was not the outcome of a keen desire to exactly fulfil the obligations
of his office, but was rather prompted by fear lest his victim should
escape; that his thirty-six servants were in reality thirty-six
turnkeys, and that the _Écoutète_ himself was gaoler-in-chief. What
wonder that when Antoine de Fontaine came to visit Maximilian in Master
Jean Gros's mansion he found him '_fort amaigry et pâle_.'[40]
In consenting to quit the Craenenburg Maximilian had removed the last
obstacle which might perhaps have prevented or at all events retarded
the execution of those of his friends who were prisoners like himself.
The day after he left a great scaffold draped in black was erected in
the _Grande Place_. Gilbert du Homme, a Norman, erst Burgomaster of the
Franc, died first, then came Jan van Nieuwenhove; so battered and weak
was he with the torture which he had undergone that they had to give him
an armchair in which to await his turn for death. Perhaps the sight of
his misery had unnerved the executioner; he struck three times before he
succeeded in severing the head from the body.
Another man who had been Burgomaster of Bruges perished the same day,
Jacob van Dudzeele, Lord of Ghistelle. He had been arrested in the
Craenenburg under the very eyes of Maximilian, and to the last he
protested his innocence. 'For fifty years,' he said, 'I have served the
princes who have succeeded one another in the government of this county,
and I have never played the traitor. If any man affirm the contrary, I
am ready to do battle with him, no matter who he may be, and to do all
that behoveth a good and loyal knight, a nobleman, and a burgher of this
town.'
Note that Ghistelle here esteems his citizenship no less highly than his
knighthood or his nobility. Such was the wont of the burgher-nobles of
Bruges. In vain the lady of Ghistelle besought the guildsmen to spare
her lord. In vain his children, the Provost of St. Donatian's, the Dean
of Notre Dame and the foreign merchants, joined their supplication to
hers. Jacob's head rolled on the scaffold.
On the 15th March Peter Lanchals, long sought for, was at last found,
betrayed by one of his friends for a hundred _livres de gros_ and to
save his own head, for death had been decreed against any man who should
shelter him. He was arrested the same day by Burgomaster Jan van Haman,
who conducted him to the Steen, and the howls of contempt and hatred
which greeted his passage through the city were kept up around his
prison all night. The men of Bruges were beside themselves with a
delirium of fierce gladness. Volleys of cannon were fired off, bands of
music paraded the town, and they danced and drank in the streets till
morning, for had not this man been Maximilian's head and heart and right
hand in all his infernal machinations? Had he not intended to deliver
Bruges over to be pillaged by the Germans? Had not the whole devilish
plot been of his hatching? That cruel instrument of torture which he had
invented, more cruel than any known hitherto in Flanders, should
persuade him to own it. And it did, whatever we may think of an
assertion made under such circumstances. By a strange irony of fate
Lanchals was the first to test the efficacy of his own invention.
Tortured as he had been, and in pitiable plight, Peter still clung to
dear life. 'Put me in some black hole and there let me eat out my
heart,' he vainly pleaded, 'but for God's sake let me live!' When at
length he saw that the people had no pity, he suffered the executioner
to strip him of his clothes. One of the guild deans touched the gold
chain which he wore round his neck. 'Sir Dean,' said the dying man, 'you
know well that no burgher of Bruges can be condemned to forfeit his life
and his goods,' and he handed the chain to his confessor and begged him
to give it to his wife; then he besought the people that his body might
receive honourable burial, and having commended his soul to God, he bade
the executioner do his duty. In addition to his tomb and the chantry
erected by his widow in the Church of Notre Dame--the same chantry in
which now stand the tombs of Charles the Terrible and Marie of
Burgundy--there is yet another souvenir at Bruges, and a more pleasing
one, of poor Peter Lanchals:--the graceful, long-necked birds which
disport themselves in great flocks, sometimes as many as thirty or forty
of them together, on the canals and streams of the city. These birds
belong to the corporation, and they are the descendants, tradition says,
of the swans which Maximilian, when he regained his liberty, bade Bruges
maintain for ever as a perpetual memorial of his favourite's death.
Lanchals, it should be noted, signifies in Flemish, long neck, and the
swan is a prominent figure in the Lanchals family arms.
The news of these executions and of others, which, like them, were the
outcome, it was said, of 'the justice of the people,' made Maximilian
tremble in his prison. Perhaps he had cause to do so. The men of Venice
had written to the men of Bruges to urge them to cut off his head: _Homo
mortuus non fecit guerram_. And there were others who trembled for
him--his father, the Emperor Frederick III., who wrote to the
magistrates of Bruges warning them that he should hold them personally
responsible for any evil which might befall the King of the Romans; the
Pope, who threatened interdict; several German princes, who were making
ready, it was said, for invasion; and his son Philip, who summoned the
estates of Hainault and of Brabant with a view to obtaining their good
offices. They invited the communes of Ghent and Bruges to meet them in
conference at Malines. Louis of Gruthuise, now set at liberty, threw in
his weight on the side of conciliation, and early in the spring of 1488
the Estates-General of all the provinces of the Netherlands met in
solemn conclave at Ghent. Two great measures were the outcome of their
deliberations--a treaty of confederation by which the various provinces
mutually bound themselves to defend their rights and privileges, and a
treaty of peace with Maximilian of which the conditions are sufficiently
curious. The communes on their part promised to set their prince at
liberty without further delay, on condition that he should undertake to
dismiss his foreign _gens de guerre_ within four days. In order to
facilitate their departure the three _bonnes villes_ undertook to pay
Maximilian within a month twenty-five thousand _livres_ Flemish upon the
understanding 'that if the aforesaid _gens de guerre_' had not departed
within the stipulated period, the money should be expended in the
payment of '_autres gens de guerre_ who by force should expulse them.'
For the rest, it was agreed that Maximilian should at once bring back
his son to Flanders, and that during his minority the county should be
administered by the three Estates in Philip's name, that Maximilian
should strictly adhere to the Treaty of Arras, cease to quarter the
arms of Flanders on his escutcheon and promise to protect Flemish
merchants all the world over, and that the communes should pay him by
way of _solatium_ an annual pension of a thousand _livres_.
There was some difficulty at first as to sureties. Maximilian had named
the Duke of Saxony and the Marquis of Baden, but these princes hesitated
to guarantee his good faith; it were an undertaking, they averred, too
risky. The knot was at length cut by Philip of Cleves, who, on learning
of the difficulty, wrote to Maximilian offering to do anything in his
power to help him. Philip was the son of the Lord of Ravestein, one of
the four regents whom Maximilian had accepted at the commencement of his
son's reign. He was a man deservedly popular amongst the burghers, his
influence with them had contributed in great measure to the successful
issue of the negotiations, and in due course his name appeared at the
head of the list of guarantors.
The communes, however, were not yet satisfied, and that, though
Maximilian, in order to further reassure them, had renounced Philip's
homage so that he might be free to take up arms against him in the event
of his breaking his troth, and Philip, at his request, had bound himself
by oath to do so. The treaty of peace, they said, must be ratified by
the Pope, the Emperor and the imperial Electors, and before Maximilian
was set free he must undertake to obtain such ratification. He seems to
have had no hesitation in doing so, for the same day he left Jean Gros's
palace and, preceded by priests with relics, and guildsmen with banners
and torches, betook himself to the market-place, where, on the very spot
on which the scaffold had lately stood, a magnificent throne had been
erected, surmounted by a richly-embroidered canopy. Hard-by there stood
an altar, and on it was set a Book of the Gospels and amid flaming
torches the Host. Before these sacred objects Maximilian presently knelt
down and 'with much seeming fear and reverence took the appointed oath.
"Of our free will we promise," he said, in a voice so sweet'--we are
quoting the words of one who heard him--'that it would have melted a
heart of stone, "of our free will we promise and swear in good faith on
the Sacred Host here present, on the cross, on the Book of the Gospels,
on the precious body of St. Donatian and on the Canon of the Mass to
carry out wholly and entirely the treaty of peace and alliance which we
have concluded with our well-beloved Estates ... and on our princely and
royal word, on our honour, and on our faith we hereby promise never to
do anything to violate it."' Maximilian having thus pledged himself, the
Bishop of Tournai solemnly blessed all those who should keep inviolate,
and afterwards solemnly cursed all those who should presume to infringe,
the treaty agreed to that day (May 16, 1488). Then followed a sumptuous
banquet, then, at St. Donatian's a _Te Deum_, after which Philip of
Cleves, who had only just reached Bruges, took oath 'to aid them of
Flanders against all infractors of the said peace, union and alliance.'
At length, after an imprisonment of eleven weeks, Maximilian was once
more free. Towards sundown he set out for his château at Maele, the
deputies of the Estates of Flanders accompanied him part of the way, and
before he bade them farewell he again confirmed his promises.
'Monseigneur,' Philip had said, 'you are now a free man, tell me frankly
your intentions.' 'Fair cousin of Cleves,' replied Maximilian, 'believe
me I shall keep my word,' and thus they parted.
Great was the joy of the city of Bruges, and the people determined to
make a night of it in the _Grande Place_, as is still their wont upon
festive occasions, with malt liquor and music and dancing, without which
accompaniments no Flemish festival ever has been, or probably ever will
be, complete. Suddenly the band of musicians who had stationed
themselves on the summit of the Belfry ceased playing. They had descried
a hundred tongues of flame rising up from the woods of Maele.
Maximilian's foreign _gens de guerre_ were celebrating their master's
return by firing the peasants' homesteads, and though next day
Maximilian sent word to Bruges that the incendiaries had not acted under
his instructions, and perhaps he spoke the truth, what had happened was
far from reassuring, and men began to doubt whether the peace which had
just been signed would after all be one of long duration; nor were their
fears ill founded. From the first the King of the Romans had been
playing a double part. Even whilst the negotiations with his burghers
were pending he was secretly pressing the imperial Electors to send
their armies against them; four days after the peace of May 16 had been
publicly proclaimed in the cities of Flanders he felt himself strong
enough to drop the mask.
Maximilian had now taken up his abode in the impregnable fortress of
Hulse, and from thence he issued a proclamation to all the communes of
Flanders informing them that he did not intend to observe the treaty he
had sworn to. An oath, he said, taken under obligation had no binding
force.
It was enough. Maximilian had once more shown the cloven hoof, the
Flemings had once more been deceived, and soon in every city and in
every hamlet in Flanders the tocsin was shrieking war.
In an age when treason and suspicion of treason were rampant throughout
the realm, when on all sides men were plotting against their neighbours
and at the same time were surely convinced that their neighbours were
plotting against them, Philip of Cleves affords us a bright and shining
example of loyalty and good faith. An honest, straightforward, generous
man, conscious of the cleanness of his own heart and his own hands, he
found it difficult to convince himself that even those whom he felt it
his duty to oppose were inspired in any sort by motives less
conscientious than his own. As soon as he had learned of Maximilian's
treachery he thus wrote to him:--
'PRINCE MONSEIGNEUR,--In fulfilment of my oath, and for fear of
offending God our Creator, I have promised to aid and assist the
three members of Flanders. This with very great regret of heart I
now signify to you, for, inasmuch as it toucheth your noble person,
as your very humble kinsman I would fain do you all service and
honour, but inasmuch as it toucheth the observance of my oath I am
bound to God, the Sovereign King of Kings.'
They made him captain of the Flemish army, and all that was noblest and
all that was best in Flanders rallied to the side of the communes; men
like Louis of Gruthuise and Philip of Burgundy, and even the Lord of
Chantraine, who from the walls of Sluys had threatened the frantic
guildsmen during the reign of terror at Bruges. Nor under Philip's
leadership do we find the burghers guilty of the excesses--the
bloodshed, the violence, the illegal confiscations--which had rendered
their government so evilly notorious at the time of Maximilian's
captivity. Their chief object for the moment was to quell the German
mercenaries who were scouring the whole country, pitiless in face of
submission, craven when their victims showed fight. Thus, on the night
of the 8th of June these marauders had surprised Deynze; before morning
it had gone up in flames, and of its people but a handful were left to
tell the tale; so too Courtrai, where the citizens and their wives and
their children perished along with the churches in which they had sought
refuge; but when they appeared before the walls of Ypres and found there
the burghers of Bruges under Louis of Gruthuise standing beside their
cannons, they halted and cried out for a truce. 'What God can your
master invoke to witness his oaths?' were the scornful words hurled back
to them.
It does not lie within the scope of this handbook to give any detailed
account of the incidents of the campaign which followed. Save the
abortive attempt to take Sluys, and Maximilian's equally futile
endeavour to obtain possession of Damme, they only concern indirectly
the city of Bruges. Suffice it to say that though during the first few
weeks of the struggle the Communes held their own, after twelve months'
hard fighting they were compelled to submit.
Under the circumstances no other issue was to be expected. Maximilian
had behind him the strength and resources of the empire, and he was
actively supported by Henry of England, who for political reasons had
now become his staunch friend, whilst the Flemish mistrusted their only
ally the French, and by their jealousy and suspicion foiled all their
efforts to save them.
On October 30, 1489, a treaty of peace was signed. By it the communes
undertook to acknowledge Maximilian as Regent of Flanders, to pay him a
fine of five hundred thousand livres, of which two-thirds was to be
forthcoming before Christmas, and to send deputies to beg his pardon
and perform in their name the usual childish humiliations; whilst the
King of the Romans agreed to dismiss his German garrison, to grant a
full and complete amnesty, to confirm all the administrative acts of
Philip of Cleves and his council, and to swear to observe all the rights
and privileges of the county of Flanders.
When first the treaty was signed the joy at Bruges was unbounded, but
when it became a question of the first instalment of the indemnity, and
of assessing the amount for which each commune was liable, trouble again
broke out. The three _bonnes villes_ complained that they had been
assessed unfairly and appealed to Philip of Cleves, who, foreseeing at
the time that the treaty was signed that the trouble was not yet in
reality over, had retired to the great fortress at Sluys, and from that
vantage post was watching events.
About this time Adrien van Rasseghem, a citizen of Ghent, who had
hitherto been taken for an honest man and a staunch patriot, having been
corrupted by Maximilian, turned traitor and opened the city gates to the
Germans. Some four nights afterwards, as he was returning home, he was
attacked by a band of armed men and slain, and next day Philip of Cleves
publicly avowed that he was responsible for what had happened; whereupon
the Count of Nassau, Maximilian's lieutenant in Flanders, threatened
Bruges with fire and sword unless she should instantly submit and break
her alliance with Philip. The burghers refused. The city and the whole
country round was seething with misery. The land, long untilled, and
almost bereft of inhabitants, was so infested by wolves that the
peasants dared not lead out their flocks to pasture. The dikes,
altogether neglected, because no man in these troublous times had
leisure to repair them, had at last given way, and great part of the
country-side was flooded. But this was not all. The peasants had to
contend with a foe more to be dreaded than wolves and fiercer than
rushing waters: English and Spanish and German adventurers were
ravishing and slaying and burning everywhere. The historic castle of
Maele, save the basement and one great tower, which is still standing,
had been reduced to ashes, and every night the watchers on the Belfry
saw the sky grow suddenly red with some new fire. In the town matters
were worse. So great was the expense of the war, that from August 1 to
October 27 (1490) it had cost the burghers ten thousand six hundred
_livres de gros_, and the city treasury was empty. Trade was altogether
at a standstill, for months past no vessel had entered the harbour, the
foreign merchants had migrated to Antwerp, the land supplies were all
intercepted by the Count of Nassau, and even rich men were starving. So
real and so great was the distress, that among the crowd of famished
wretches who daily waited outside the bakers' shops to obtain a meagre
pittance of bread, not a few dropped dead in the streets. Yet,
notwithstanding all this, Bruges was resolute. In the hour of his
necessity she would not break with the man who had risked his all to
save her. Nor did Philip of Cleves show himself less generous. As soon
as he knew that he alone was the obstacle to the re-establishment of
peace, he wrote to the _Echevins_ of Bruges, begging them to make the
best terms they could, leaving his interests out of the question. At
last, after several abortive negotiations, a treaty was signed at Damme
on November 29, 1490. Bruges agreed to pay eighty thousand _couronnes
d'or_ as her share of the fine fixed by the Treaty of Tours, to make
humble apology to the Count of Nassau, and to hand over to him sixty
persons to be dealt with according to his pleasure; but for all that she
did not escape pillage. A house-to-house visitation was made, and all
the gold and silver and precious objects that they could discover the
Germans laid hands on. Nassau reserved no small part of the booty for
himself. It is said that the famous Hôtel de Nassau at Brussels was
built with the funds thus raised, and a hundred years later, during the
troubles under Philip II., his descendant William of Orange was
reproached with it: _le Comte Inghelbert vouloit que l'on vous hachât
tous en pièces, et la maison du Comte Henri de Nassau fust faicte des
amends de ceux de Bruges_.
Thus disappeared amid riot and terror the last remnant of that
prosperity which had so long made Bruges glorious.
As for Philip of Cleves, he held his ground manfully at Sluys for two
years longer. At length, owing to an accidental explosion by which he
lost all his ammunition, he was compelled to surrender to Maximilian's
English allies under Sir Edward Poynings. Nevertheless, such was the
esteem in which he was held, even by his enemies, that he obtained an
honourable peace. True he swore fidelity to Maximilian and resigned to
him the town of Sluys with the small fortress. But he was permitted to
hold the great castle until such time as Maximilian should pay him a sum
of forty thousand florins, for which he was in his debt. Further, he was
assured an annual pension of six thousand florins, and all his property,
which had previously been confiscated, was assured to him.
Later on we find him fighting under the banner of the Cross, and
presently, when he visited Rome, Pope Alexander VI. averred that to him,
along with Gonzalves, was due the honour of having kept the Infidel out
of Italy.
V.--Genealogical Table of the Counts of Flanders from Philippe le Hardi
to Philippe le Beau.
=Marguerite= = =Philippe= (le Hardi), Duke
(of Maele) | of Burgundy, son of John
_d._ 1405 | II. of France, _d._ 1404
=John= (the = Marguerite, daughter of
Fearless) | Albert, Count of
_d._ 1419 | Hainault and Holland
+-----------------+------+-----------------------+
Iola Prellæa, = =Philippe= = Isabel of Agnes = Charles of Marie = Adolph I
a Portuguese | (l'Asseuré) | Portugal | Bourbon | of
lady. Perhaps | _d._ 1467 | | | Cleves
one of the | +--------+ +------+ |
ladies of | | | +--+
Isabel of | (1) Catherine = =Charles= (the = (2) Isabel |
Portugal | daughter of Terrible) | Adolph II
| Charles VII. _d._ 1477 | = (3) Margaret of of Cleves
| of France | York (sister Lord of
| | of Edward IV. Ravestein
| | of England) |
Anthony | _d._ 1503 |
Lord of Beveren | |
(le grand bâtard | |
of Bourgogne) +----------+ Philip of
| | Ravestein
Philip of =Marie= = Maximilian of
Beveren _d._ 1482 | Austria, son of
| the Emperor
| Frederick III.
+-----------+--------------+
=Philippe= (le Beau) Marguerite, betrothed to
_d._ 1506 Charles VIII. of France
Philip ended his days in the forest of Winendael, hard-by Bruges, clad
in a hair shirt and leading a life of no little austerity, perhaps by
way of penance for the murder of Adrien van Rasseghem, the one blot on
his character.