"By all the
saints of France," cried Philip, "either France shall become Flanders, or
Flanders France!" And, all the while pressing forward the equipment of a
large fleet collected at Calais for the invasion of England, he entered
Flanders, besieged and took several of the richest cities in the country,
Cassel, Ypres, Bruges, and Courtrai, and pitched his camp before the
walls of Ghent, "to lower," as he said, "the pride of the men of Ghent
and make them bend their necks beneath the yoke of kings." But he heard
that John Lackland, after making his peace with the court of Rome through
acceptance of all the conditions and all the humiliations it had thought
proper to impose upon him, had just landed at Rochelle, and was exciting
a serious insurrection amongst the lords of Saintonge and Poitou. At the
same time Philip's fleet, having been attacked in Calais roads by that of
John, had been half destroyed or captured; and the other half had been
forced to take shelter in the harbor of Damme, where it was strictly
blockaded. Philip, forthwith adopting a twofold and energetic
resolution, ordered his son Philip to go and put down the insurrection of
the Poitevines on the banks of the Loire, and himself took in hand the
war in Flanders, which was of the most consequence, considering the
quality of the foe and the designs they proclaimed. They had at their
head the Emperor Otho IV., who had already won the reputation of a brave
and able soldier; and they numbered in their ranks several of the
greatest lords, German, Flemish, and Dutch, and Hugh de Boves, the most
dreaded of those adventurers in the pay of wealthy princes who were known
at that time by the name of roadsters (routiers, mercenaries). They
proposed, it was said, to dismember France; and a promise to that effect
had been made by the Emperor Otho to his principal chieftains assembled
in secret conference. "It is against Philip himself, and him alone," he
had said to them, "that we must direct all our efforts; it is he who must
be slain first of all, for it is he alone who opposes us and makes
himself our foe in everything. When he is dead, you will be able to
subdue and divide the kingdom according to our pleasure; as for thee,
Renaud, thou shalt take Peronne and all Vermandois; Hugh shall be master
of Beauvais, Salisbury of Dreux, Conrad of Mantes, together with Vexin,
and as for thee, Ferranti, thou shalt have Paris."

The two armies marched over the Low Count