History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 7

At the outset the Flemish economy had been agricultural, but about the 12th century
Flemish trade and industry became of real international importance. A crisis in the old
manorial organization of agriculture and an expansion of the money economy
coincided with the rise of towns as centres of trade and industry. The cloth industry,
which was soon working mainly with English wool and producing high-quality textiles,
had its largest centres at Ghent and at Ypres. Until the 13th century Flemish
merchants conducted their trade abroad, especially at the fairs of Champagne, but
later merchants of all nations came to Flanders, and the seaport of Brugge became a
centre of world commerce. Flanders profited from its geographic situation, being an
intermediary between the Mediterranean and the Scandinavian and Baltic countries
and also between England and the Rhineland (especially Cologne).
Alexander Agricola Arnulf I Augier Ghislain de Busbecq Baldwin I Baldwin II Baldwin II
Baldwin IV Charles Guido Bentivoglio Guido Bentivoglio Guy Jacob van Artevelde
Jean de Ockeghem Louis I Louis II Louis II Nicolas Gombert Robert I Robert II Thierry
William Clito
Flanders had a tumultuous history in the 13th and 14th centuries. Philip’s successor,
Baldwin VIII (1191–95), lost Artois and other southern domains to France, and
Flanders was fatally weakened by the departure of his successor, Baldwin IX, to
become Latin emperor of Constantinople (as Baldwin I) in 1205. The French king
Philip II Augustus seized the chance to influence the succession in Flanders, and
when the Flemings resisted and formed an anti-French alliance with John of England
and the Holy Roman emperor Otto IV, Philip defeated the coalition at the Battle of
Bouvines (1214).

Flemish resentment of French influence continued, however, and in 1297 the count of
Flanders, Guy of Dampierre (1278–1305), entered an alliance with Edward I of
England against Philip IV of France. Philip was nevertheless able to invade Flanders
in 1300 and take Guy prisoner. In 1302 the Flemings of Brugge massacred the town’s
French garrison (an event known as the Matins of Brugge), and Philip sent a powerful
French army into Flanders to take revenge. The Flemings, however, inflicted a
disastrous defeat on this army at the Battle of the Golden Spurs (July 11, 1302). This
victory saved Flanders from French occupation, and France formally recognized
Flemish independence in 1305.
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