e Dieu et du
Soleil_.' With the crusades, the importance of Valenciennes notably
increased, and with its importance the independence of its burghers. The
leading part taken by Godfrey de Bouillon in the early crusades is a
proof of the power of these Flemish towns. When Baldwin of Flanders
assumed the imperial purple at Constantinople, he did it expressly to
benefit the commerce of the Flemish cities. At this day it is believed
that there exist, in some palace of the sultan at Constantinople,
tapestries of Oudenarde taken to the East by Baldwin, who was born at
Valenciennes in 1171. At Valenciennes, too, were born his sister,
Isabelle of Hainault, the first wife of Philip Augustus of France, his
brother Henry, Emperor of the East, and his two daughters. One of these
daughters, Marguerite, grown to woman's estate, besieged Valenciennes
because the burghers refused to recognise her as the born Countess of
Hainault. Gilles Miniave, provost of the city, plainly said to her when
he refused to surrender: 'We have taken and we intend to kill your
soldiers, madame, as abettors of tyranny.' This was as much to the
purpose in its way as the firing on the royal troops by the farmers of
Lexington in America in 1775.

In the middle of the fourteenth century Valenciennes was so wealthy that
Jean Party, provost in 1357, was regarded as the richest man in Europe.
He went to Paris during the fair of the Landit, and for his own account
bought up all the goods brought there for sale at one swoop; he then
retailed them at a great profit. He was invited to attend the court of
France, and went there so magnificently attired as to excite the
jealousy of the French nobles, who treated him in consequence with undue
arrogance. He took off his cloak, enriched with fur and jewels, as no
seat was offered him, made it into a roll, and sate down on it. When he
rose with the rest to leave, he left the cloak where he had sate on it.
The royal heralds, dazzled by the splendour of the garment, gathered it
up, and one of them hastened with it after Jean Party, calling out to
him that he had forgotten it.

'In my country,' said the haughty burgher turning towards the herald,
'it is not the custom for people to take their cushions away with them!'

One of the predecessors of this proud citizen, Jean Bernier, gave a
banquet in 1333 to all the allies of the Comte de Flanders, which is
celebrated by the chroniclers as the grandest ever seen in Flanders.
The