my brother has made any engagements with you, he
had no right to do so." And he had the Count of Flanders taken off
immediately to Compiegne, "to a strong tower, such that all could see
him," and his comrades were distributed amongst several towns, where they
were strictly guarded. The whole of Flanders submitted; and its
principal towns, Ypres, Audenarde, Ter-monde, and Cassel, fell
successively into the hands of the French. Three of the sons of Count
Guy retired to Namur. The constable Raoul of Nesle "was lieutenant for
the King of France in his newly-won country of Flanders." Next year, in
the month of May, 1301, Philip determined to pay his conquest a visit;
and the queen, his wife, accompanied him. There is never any lack of
galas for conquerors. After having passed in state through Tournai,
Courtrai, Audenarde, and Ghent, the King and Queen of France made their
entry into Bruges. All the houses were magnificently decorated; on
platforms covered with the richest tapestry thronged the ladies of
Bruges; there was nothing but haberdashery and precious stones. Such an
array of fine dresses, jewels, and riches, excited a woman's jealousy in
the Queen of France: "There is none but queens," quoth she, "to be seen
in Bruges; I had thought that there was none but I who had a right to
royal state." But the people of Bruges remained dumb; and their silence
scared Philip the Handsome, who vainly attempted to attract a concourse
of people about him by the proclamation of brilliant jousts. "These
galas," says the historian Villani, who was going through Flanders at
this very time, "were the last whereof the French knew aught in our time,
for Fortune, who till then had shown such favor to the King of France, on
a sudden turned her wheel, and the cause thereof lay in the unrighteous
captivity of the innocent maid of Flanders, and in the treason whereof
the Count of Flanders and his sons had been the victims." There were
causes, however, for this new turn of events of a more general and more
profound character than the personal woes of Flemish princes. James de
Chiltillon, the governor assigned by Philip the Handsome to Flanders, was
a greedy oppressor of it; the municipal authorities whom the victories or
the gold of Philip had demoralized became the objects of popular hatred;
and there was an outburst of violent sedition. A simple weaver, obscure,
poor, undersized, and one-eyed, but valiant, and eloquent in his Flemish