rode off to the English camp, where she encountered a sister of Louis de Nevers, who had espoused the English cause with "the courage of a man and the heart of a lion." Though treated with great deference, the illustrious representative of Flanders does not appear to have sped in her mission, and the Flemish militia only escaped from their perilous position by giving in their adhesion to the prolongation of the Truce of Esplechin.

office of ruwaert, but there can be no question that he was virtually commanderin-chief of the Flemish militia, and president of the three good towns of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres. In this capacity he prohibited all tampering with the currency, and caused a canal to be dug from Ghent to Damme, by means of which water communication could be maintained with England. The owners of the lands thus appropriated to the public service were handsomely compensated, and from the manner in which this fact is mentioned by M. l'Espinoy it may be inferred that such considerateness was unusual in those days. It is said that Flanders was now divided into three military circles, and it may be that what was previously a common understanding was now, for the first time, definitely arranged; but it is certain that the three good towns had long arrogated to themselves the right of imposing their will on the other Communes, and of regulating at least the foreign relations of the whole country of Flanders. It is further stated that, for military purposes, the town of Ghent was marked out into two hundred and fifty sections in order to facilitate the assembling of the trained bands to meet a sudden emergency.

On November 9 Louis de Nevers met the deputies of the Communes at Damme, near Bruges, and in a sort of parliament strongly exhorted them to repudiate the English alliance, and return to their ancient allegiance to Philip of Valois. Failing in this attempt, the count is accused of entering into a plot to overthrow the commercial aristocracy, trusting to the co-operation of the lower orders, always jealous of those immediately above them. The three "good towns" had extorted from the count a charter which conferred upon them the exclusive monopoly of weaving, to the prejudice of the small towns. The artisans, thus deprived of their livelihood, naturally demurred to such selfish and high-handed proceedings, and at Ardenberg flew to arms. At this critical juncture Van Arteveld displayed his usual promptitude, and, hastening to Another innovation is attributed to Van the seat of disturbance, slew with his own | Arteveld, though M. Vanderkindere dishand one Peter Lammens on the threshold putes his claim to originality, and shows, of his own house -"probum ac nobilem almost conclusively, that he merely revirum," as he is described by Meyer. vived and modified an old arrangement. This act of violence for a moment shocked It is, however, commonly averred that and alarmed his followers, till he bade Van Arteveld divided the citizens of them enter the house, where they would Ghent into three classes, the poorterye, find a sufficient proof of the dead man's the weverye, and the neeringhen. treachery. They rushed in and found a poorters were wealthy burghers, sons or banner probably the banner of a weav- descendants of men who had retired from ers' guild whereupon indignation gave business, and exercised a large hereditary place to admiration, and they warmly ap-influence with a conservative tendency. plauded the deed which at first they were disposed to blame. Unhappily, episodes | of this kind are only too frequent in the annals of Flanders, and to a certain extent excuse Hallam's harsh appreciation of those sturdy democrats. Louis de Nevers became alarmed for his own safety, and in the first week of 1342 fled to the court of France.

It is now time to consider the principles by which Van Arteveld was guided in his administration of Flanders. Even his enemies admit that during the seven years and seven months of his supremacy the country attained to a degree of wealth, prosperity, and influence, which it had never before enjoyed. It is open, indeed, to doubt whether he nominally held the

The

The weavers, whose numbers have been estimated at forty thousand men, depended upon the maintenance of peaceful relations with all their neighbors, especially with the English, from whom they drew almost entirely their supply of the raw material. Their political principles were of a democratic and revolutionary order, at the same time that they stoutly asserted their own monopoly, as shared with their brethren of Bruges and Ypres, to the prejudice of the smaller towns. The neeringhen comprised all other industries, with the exception of the fullers, and had made themselves notorious for their

From ruke warten, to keep the peace: Anglicè "ward" or "warden."

wild excesses and tumultuous outbreaks. | Ghent, and Ypres, he is accused of seBut here we are met by the obvious objec- cretly instigating the citizens of the extion that no mention is made of the full- cluded towns to resent this privilege, and ers, whose rivalry with the weavers was to contravene his own charter. The frequently illustrated by violence and weavers of Poperinghe thus drew down bloodshed. In this difficulty M. Vander- upon that place the jealous wrath of the kindere adduces cogent reasons for be- favored citizens of Ypres, who fell furilieving that Van Arteveld struck out the ously upon the town, slew many of its poorters from the municipal council, and inhabitants, and destroyed all the clothconferred the total magisterial authority looms in the adjacent hamlets. A riot and civic government upon the three in the following year took place in Ghent, classes actually engaged in trade, com- where Jan Steenbeeke accused Van Armerce, and industry, represented in coun- teveld of violating his oath and aiming cil by their respective dekenen, or deacons. at a military dictatorship. Van Arteveld As the neeringhen consisted of fifty-two denied the charge with vehemence, and petits métiers, including the brewers, the would have slain his accuser on the spot, council would have been swamped, had had he not fled to his own house, in which each of these deputed its deacon to the he was besieged by members of at least governing board." It was consequently thirteen, perhaps of twenty-six guilds. ruled that these fifty-two dekenen should The magistrates, however, intervened, elect an euverdeken, whose position should and restored tranquillity by confining Van be similar and equal to that of the masters Arteveld in the prison, known as that of of the two principal guilds. The poorters, Gerard the Devil (Gerards dievels steen), to preserve their local influence, now in- while Steenbeeke was carried off to the scribed themselves members of one or Graevensteen, or Count's prison. Armed other of these fraternities. Van Arte- men crowded into Ghent from all the veld, for obvious reasons, chose the country round, but the civic authority was brewers' guild,* and was at once elected so firmly established that a regular entheir deken, and straightway the other quiry was instituted, which resulted in dekenen unanimously made choice of him Van Arteveld's release, and in the banishas their euverdeken. In this capacity he ment of his adversary and fifty-two of his was entitled to a guard of swert-draegers, partisans exclusive, says Meyer, of a or swordsmen, clothed in red tunics, with "matrona quædam honesta." stripes on their sleeves. There seems to have been a re-election of captains in 1342, when the popular choice again acclaimed Jacob Van Arteveld as their chief hooftman, giving him as colleagues "Willem van Vaernewijc, Gelloet van Leins, Pieter van Candenhove, and Joos Hapere," of whom, notwithstanding a slight difference in the spelling of the names, the last only was a new man.

In that same year lamentable disturbances broke out at Poperinghe. Although Louis de Nevers, probably under coercion, had conferred the monopoly of the cloth manufacture upon Bruges,

A far worse business than this was the great fight in the Friday market-place, on Monday, May 2, 1345, between the weavers and the fullers. The latter, it is said, demanded higher pay for their labor, which was refused in such a manner that they flew to arms. The real motive of this civic commotion is very obscure, but apparently it had more to do with mutual jealousy than with a difference about the value of their services. The mad fury with which the battle was fought attests a deeper and fiercer animosity than could have been engendered by a dispute about a groat a day more or less. In vain did the priests endeavor to separate the comThe "Memorie-Boek der Stadt Ghent" and the batants by carrying aloft the consecrated tical terms, the one in Flemish, the other in French. host. Neither weavers nor fullers cared, They both express themselves to the following pur- at such a moment, for the ministers or port: "The said Jacques d'Artevelde, although he was of gentle birth and of noble extraction, to stand better symbols of religion. The contest only in the favor of the people who had raised him, chose ceased when the fullers gave way and and selected a guild, which was that of the brewers, not fled, leaving their deacon and fifteen hunthat he followed that business, but to enjoy its privileges dred of their number dead upon the marand immunities, and was elected the first souverainen deken (or doyen-souverain) of the said town, where he ket-place. The deacon of the weavers was much loved and esteemed: in which he was followed by several other noblemen of the town, in order was Gérard Denys, a personal friend of to be in favor with the people, and in the hope of attain- Van Arteveld, to whom he was mainly ining that dignity and office of souverain-doyen; and debted for the distinction he had attained, through this it is that Messer John Froissart and other and who bravely fought by his side throughout that untoward strife.

Vicomte de Thérouenne describe this incident in iden

historians write that the said Jacques d'Artevelde was a brewer- not being cognizant of liis person or quality."

The

day was appropriately named "den quaden Maendag," bad or unlucky Monday; and the supposition is not altogether unfounded which dates from that slaughter the ill-feeling that ere long proved fatal to Van Arteveld. His conduct on that occasion must necessarily have alienated the fullers and their partisans among the petits métiers who, we are told, had grown weary of the English alliance, which implied the supremacy of the weavers' guild. On the other hand, it may be assumed that, after the battle was fought and won, the chief of the State would exert himself to save the vanquished from the malice of the victors, and by so doing would give umbrage to the latter, and provoke the jealousy of their leader and head-man. Very little, however, is known of the internal condition of Ghent between 1342 and 1345, and this for a reason which will presently appear.

the deacon of the weavers' guild, de-
scribed by Meyer as a factious fellow and
fond of revolutionary changes-
"homi-
nem factiosum ac novarum rerum cupi-
dum."

While Van Arteveld, presuming on his influence with the men of Ghent, postponed his return until he had won over the two other "good towns," Gérard Denys made such excellent use of the advantage thus carelessly thrown in his way that the artisans began to distrust their great captain, and to suspect him of selfish and ambitious designs. According to Sismondi, the duke of Brabant secretly fostered these doubts, and fiiled their minds with disquietude, for no better reason than that he desired to betroth his daughter to the count's son, afterwards Louis de Mâle. When the unwelcome tidings reached Van Arteveld that his own townsmen had turned against In the first week of July, 1345, Edward him, he is accused of having obtained III. once more anchored in the Zwyn, or from the king of England the support of harbor of Sluys. He was accompanied a small body of five hundred Welshmen, by a numerous fleet, either for protection under Sir John Maltravers, with whose or in furtherance of a scheme to convert assistance he undertook to slay his rival the county of Flanders into a dukedom, and compel the people to submit to the with the Prince of Wales as its liege lord. new order of things. It is further stated Whether this project was first conceived that Gérard Denys, having received inby the English king, or by his gossip, formation that these troops were lying in Jacob van Arteveld, is somewhat uncer- ambush near one of the gates, called the tain, nor is it a matter of much moment; burghers to arms, and effectually prebut it is probable that it was engendered vented their entrance. Another account, in the subtle brain of the Brewer of however, actually introduces these five Ghent. Be that as it may, Edward re- hundred men by night into Van Arteveld's ceived the deputies of the chief communes house, and states that seventy of them on board his great ship, the "Katherine," were killed in the subsequent riot. In and submitted for their consideration the the first place, it is very unlikely that, programme above mentioned. The dis- with the remembrance of the recent and cussion terminated in the deputies ex- terrible fight in the Friday market-place, pressing a wish to refer the question to Van Arteveld would imagine that he could their respective constituents, as they had overawe such a turbulent and bellicose no authority to decide an affair of such population by a handful of light-armed and grave importance. It is plain, however, ill-disciplined troops such as Fluellen's that the proposition, though warmly sup- countrymen are known to have been in ported by Van Arteveld, was not gener- those days. Secondly, it is quite conceivally acceptable. Although no reluctance able that the report may have been circuhad been manifested to transfer their alle-lated and believed that English soldiers giance from Philip to Edward, provided the latter succeeded in making good his claim to the French crown, strong repugnance was shown to renounce the lordship of a fellow-countryman in favor of a foreigner who would almost necessarily be an absentee. The council was accordingly adjourned until fuller instructions could be obtained, and, if Froissart may be trusted, Van Arteveld persuaded the citizens of Bruges and Ypres to fall in with Edward's views. In Ghent, however, he was opposed by Gérard Denys,

were either within the walls or at no great distance from them, because a small body of archers seems really to have been disembarked at Sluys with the intention not of marching upon Ghent, but of aiding the Communes to recover Termonde, or Dendermonde, which had been surprised by the count, and was then in his possession. These archers may very well have obtained early intelligence of the tragedy which had been enacted at Ghent, and may have been the first to convey the unwelcome news to Sluys, without hav

ing either entered or approached that | bold, soldier-like temperament. Finding that prayers and entreaties availed nothing