Now Also July The 11Th Flanders fighting for its independence.

[mrdee 1]

The story about a people on the move: the Flemings.A nation in being: Flanders.The Flemings want their independence from Belgium, and have never been closer.Every year on July the 11th, they remember the Battle of the Guilded Spurs.It has become a symbol in the fight for Flanders' freedom.Read on:On July the 11th, 1302, the battle of the Guilded Spurs was fought on the Groeninge field in Kortrijk.The Flemings had rebelled against the king of France, Philip the Fair, because he bled the rich county of Flanders dry in order to fund his own wars and life of luxury. Furthermore, Philip had broken his word time and again when Flemish noblemen went to negotiate the situation with him.He had also kept the Count of Flanders, the aged Gwijde of Dampierre, in captivity in France. This did obviously not please the Flemings at all, and more and more unrest started, while they felt even strengthtened by the support they received from their leaders, the Deans of the Guilds. Not surprisingly, their dissatisfaction came to an outburst during the Bruges Matins on Friday, May the 18th, 1302. During the nightly attack by surprise, led by Pieter De Coninck, members of the French garrison, together with a lot of French nobles and Leliaarts (Flemings who have taken the side of the French), are killed in the city.Jacques de Ch?tillon, governor for the French king, also liege lord of the County of Flanders, had occupied the city shortly before the riots. He could escape just in time.Lodewijk van Velthem, a Brabant writer at the time, called this occurrence "Good Friday" and described in a few sentences as follows:?This day is called 'good Friday' in Bruges because of this deed Lots of evil came from it Within the city are slain certainly 24 soldiers as well as knights? children and sergeants of France, and many of other countries of which I cannot guess the numbers?.THere is, of course, no doubt that this slaughter induced the wrath of the French king, Philip the Fair.He decided to punish the rebellious Flanders and sent an army of 8500 knights to Flanders.The Flemish army was about the same size, but mostly comprised Guild members, freemen and farmers, strengthened with about 350 noblemen, while the French professional army, partly because of its vast amount of armoured horsemen, was of a much stronger quality.The battle was to be fought on the Groeninge Colter at Kortrijk on July the 11th, 1302. The Flemish army organised themselves in a huge U-shape behind the Big Brook and the Groeninge brook, with the city of stad Kortrijk to their right and the Leie, which took a turn there behind them. Three ?wings? were formed: the "East-Flemings", the left flank (led by Gwijde of Namur), the Bruges citizens on the right flank and in thet middle, where the Big Brook and the Groeninge brook joined, were the other "West-Flemings" . The army of Ieper (about 500 men) guarded the castle of Kortrijk where a small garrison of 334 French soldiers was still residing. The Zealand reserve army of Jan of Renesse was placed behind the three front lines. They had to make sure. First and foremost, that nobody retracted or fled and kill them if that was needed. The order of the Flemish army leaders was "Kill the enemy. Hit out at the horses especially" "Vlaanderen ende Leu" (Flanders and the Lion) is our oncry. Although there were 350 Flemish horsemen (of which some were put there by Jan of Namur and some hired knights from the side of the Meuse and the Rhine region), all Flemish warriors fought on foot. Even William of Gulik and Gwijde of Namur dismounted their horses, took a morningstar and a pike and mingled with the warriors. Only Jan of Renesse watched over the fight on horseback from the back lines. Many Flemish warriors were after revenge : farmers who had suffered gravely under the lootings of the French army in 1297-1300; knights, especially Gwijde of Namur, who had family members living in capture; William of Gulik, whose older brother got killed in 1297 near Veurne during fights between the English army and the French, led by Robert of Artois.Robert of Artois had to know this region quite well, as he was raised in Kortrijk by his aunt Beatrix, the widow of the older brother of Gwijde of Dampierre. Also Raoul de Nesle had warned him to be careful and to lure the Flemings out of their favourable position. Jean de Burlats, the leader of the French crossbow archers, suggested to shoot at the Flemish ranks the whole day. Also Godevaart of Brabant (who distinguished himself in the battle of Woeringen in 1288) shared those opinions and uttered the Fleming would get tired and discouraged. Robert of Artois, with his reputation of feared leader, did not agree with those opinions and claimed his army could easily handle the opposition, while a bit of resistance especially provoked a challenge.Robert of Artois then let his troops move on from the Pottelberg to the Big Brook and the Groeninge brook. Opposite the Bruges citizens along the Big Brook, knight units (bataelge) and crossbow archers under Jean de Burlats took place, as well as the Brabant units. The troops under Raoul de Nesle and Trie stood facing the units of the Bruges Freeland and the other West-Flemings. The units from Normandi?, Picardi?, Hainault (led by Jacques de Ch?tillon), Lorraine and Champagne stood along the Groeninge brook, under direct orders of Robert of Artois. He kept his own troops in reserve behind the units from Lorraine.Around noon on July the 11th, the battle began. At first, some arrows were shot from both sides. The Flemish archers got through their provision of arrows very quickly. The enormous amount ofFrench foot soldiers (the bidauts) moved forward and crossed both brooks, and they threw stones and spears at the Flemish front lines. Those were caught by the big shields and caused no significant losses among the Flemings. Then the Vlemings moved forward and it looked like they were going to push the French foot soldiers into the brook. Since this would make the attack by the cavalry a lot more difficult, Robert of Artois ordered the withdrawal of the foot soldiers and the trumpets blew the start of the attack. The French knights attacked immediately. But a part of the foot soldiers had not heard the order. The myth that the French knights would have crushed their own foot soldiers seems exaggerated. Most of them could move away to the flanks.The left wing, led by Raoul de Nesle, stormed to the Big Brook, but there they had to slow down in order to get across the 3 meter wide brook. After most of the horses had reached the other side, there run was too short to be able to a gap in the Flemish lines.A charge by such a force of knights was an impressive sight. But it is especially a psychological test with the intention to make the opponent flee. But this time the Flemings did not budge. A novelty for this time was that lots of foot soldiers in this battle were armed with morningstars. They stood in closed position with always a man, armed with a lance or a pike standing next to them. The pike was planted into the ground and aimed forward at an angle in order to make the approaching horses fall. THe morningstars then struck to kill the horses and the knights.The foot soldiers kept their closed line of battle and successfully caught the cavalry. The horses and riders are being beaten and hacked on. Godevaart of Brabant tried to forcer a break-through but he had a fall and got killed. Raoul de Nesle, the leader of the left wing, was also killed during this first charge. Many other French riders and pages got killed during this first charge. On the Flemish side, the leader William of Gulik was badly injured because an arrow had pierced his chain male outfit and he was led away from the front lines. The attack by the left wing has been stopped. The French riders on their horses at a stand still cannot defend themselves with their swords against the Flemish foot soldiers with their long pikes. One after one they get slaughtered.The centre of the Flemings, a bit further from the brooks, did get into problems: the French cavalry had a longer runway there and here and there they broke through the Flemish lines like a battering ram. Some of the Flemings flee. The was becoming critical there. The chance the French army was going to break through the Flemish lines zou breken and attack the Flemish troops from the side and from behind was very real. The reserve atmy of Jan of Renesse came to the rescue. There were fights going on all over the lines within a short distance. The cavalry was not powerful enough for such a situation and was slaughtered. The troops of Renesse did not only stop the attack, they also made the French retract. The battle finished in favour of the Flemings after the French commander in chief Robert of Artois got killed when he, with his reserve troops, comprising three batailles, tried to come to the rescue. He was hit off his horse by William of Saeftinghe, a lay brother of the abbey Ter Doest in Lissewege, and after that he was slain by the Flemings with their morningstars.At the right hand side, the same scenario went on. The French riders with the counts of Eu and of Aumale, Mathieu de Trie and Jacques de Ch?tillon could penetrate a bit deeper but their charge was still warded off. Here too, the French riders are slaughtered with the morningstars one by one. Most probably Jacques de Ch?tillon got killed here, but not one chronicler thought this was worth mentioning. In the Flemish ranks, according to Velthem, Boudewijn of Popperode (the viscount of Aalst) and the Zealander William of Boenhem distinguished themselves. The French garrison of Kortrijk, led by the viscount of Lens, tried a final charge with a number of knights, but that was caught by the troops of Ieper and they were driven back into the castle.The French foot soldiers and the left over knights were driven back to the brooks. The riders stood so close together that the back rows were driven into the brooks by their own people. In the end they tried to flee. Many knights on horseback got stuck in the brooks because of their heavy armour and were slain there. The Flemings refused to accept their surrender, against the habits of those times. It became a mass slaughter : apart from Robert of Artois and Pierre Flote (advisor of the French king), seven of the eight French leaders were killed.Beforehand the Flemings had agreed not to take prisoners and not to collect any loot. This was very unusual in those days. According to the rules of warfare at that time, a knight who was hit off his horse was captured, but not killed. Captured knights were worth a lot of ransom money. When the French saw their knights were being slaughtered, they fled. Only near the end of the battle, a few French knights, such as Raoul de Grantcourt, were captured out of respect for braveness and he was being protected by a Flemish knight. He was passed on to the Ghent nobleman Jan Borluut by William of Gulik, the former collected the ransom.The last French reserve troops, led by the count of Saint-Pol, the count of Boulogne and Louis de Clermont could not cross the brooks anymore as the Flemings were waiting again in closed ranks. But they no longer attacked. The soldiers from Bruges saw this, crossed the Big Brook and attacked the French horsemen. Some of them, led by Jean le Brun de Brunembert, defended themselves but were slaughtered. The rest of them fled. Many were cut off on their run and killed. Others, such as the Leliaard William of Mosscher, were pursued up to their camp on the Pottelberg and slaughtered. The few Brabant knights, who had fought under orders of the rebellious Godebaart on the side of the French, tried to save their lives by shouting "Vlaanderen ende Leu", but Gwijde of Namur ordered that they?d all be killed. Their bodies were mutilated.The few French who were left now fled in a panic. Velthem described they were pursued up to ten kilometres from the battlefield. They were hunted until Dottenijs, Zwevegem and Sint-Denijs with more fatalities as a result, foot soldiers as well as riders. The gates of Doornik were locked, to stop the French from seekng shelter there. The count of St. Pol had to spend the night at the nearby Saint-Nicholasabbey. The naked corpse of Robert of Artois remained on the battlefield for three days. The body was found by a minorite from Atrecht, who buried it in the monastery of Groeninge. He had found thirty injuries on the corpse. Even his tongue was cut out of his mouth. On Christmas 1304 Robert of Artois was buried solemnly by his daughter Mahaut in the Cistercian abbey of Maubuisson. Thus far the recapitulation of this historic battle, next you get an analysis of the impact this had and still has on the present day.Sources: Wikipedia, De Guldensporenslag by Karim van Overmeire, Spiegel Historiael by Lodewijk van Velthem.The consequences for nowadays.The battle in those days (Anno 1302) showed parallels, but also differences with the current Flemish struggle:? To begin with it was, just like today,a battle against an occupier, who wanted to limit free trade and to freeze the Flemish economy,and get rich on the back of the Flemings.? However, it was, contrary to taday, not so much a struggle between the populations within one country,Flanders was a kind of ?mini state? of which the leader (the Count of Flanders) was a vassal of the French crown, however, with plenty of rights and privileges of his own.? Also, there was no linguistic struggle whatsoever, given the fact that many of the nobles who fought with the Flemings came from the current Walloon area and many of them could not speak any Dutch (then called ?Diets?) at all. Even the going language in the Count?s entourage was French.? Nevertheless the fact remains we may remember this battle with pride, in that the Flemings had the courage to call for an ?enough is enough? situation and they had the courage to take their fate into their own hands. They did not even fear one of the mightiest armies in Europe and they fought like lions until the enemy was beaten. The fight was also a symbol of the struggle to safeguard our rights, soil and economy. Further proof of this is also the fact that at the beginning of World War one (when we were deemed good enough to give our lives for this rotten country we live in), Albert I, the monarch at the time, referred to the battle when he launched the appeal ?Flemings, remember the Battle of the Guilded Spurs?. (The promise after the war, in which he promised equal rights for the Flemings, was never honoured). ? Also in those days we had traitors, then called ?Leliaerts?, who, for reasons of personal gain and to show themselves as being more aristocratic, sided with the french. (Franskiljon Flemings are unfortunately still great in number today). However, there has to have been a much greater feeling of unity among the Flemings then, something we desperately lack these days.Finally:After Bart De Wever?s refusal to accept Elio Di Rupo?s proposal a strong, though completely correct signal was sent to the Walloons.Of course, De Wever had the knife on his throat, knowing fairly well he was feeling the breath of Vlaams Belang in his ncek and that, at the slightest concssion, the politilandscape could look completely different at a next election.Therefore, Flemings, stay united and fight, make clear to the other Flemish parties to form a real Flemish front this time, and go till the bitter end to finally achieve what so many before us even gave their lives for: A free and independent Flanders.Wishing you brilliant July the 11th celebrations.Keep going strong,