me the Flemings
by arms, recommended Philip to do so by treaty, and the King accordingly
concluded a pacification, one condition of which was that the Count of
Flanders should be released from prison to negotiate terms of fresh
accommodation. The Flemings received the aged Count with respect; but he
brought no terms which they were willing to accept; and he returned, as
he had pledged his word, to captivity at Compiegne, where he soon after
died.

For the campaign of the following year Philip, in lieu of Italian
infantry, took sixteen Genoese galleys into his pay, commanded by
Rainier de Grimaldi. This admiral passed through the Straits of
Gibraltar and assailed the maritime towns and shipping of Flanders. Guy
of Namur mustered to oppose them a fleet of greater numbers; but the
Genoese, accustomed to naval warfare, defeated the Flemings and took Guy
of Namur prisoner. Philip, at the same time, assembled a large army at
Tournai, and marched to Mons-la-Puelle, near Lille, where the Flemings,
to the number of seventy thousand, were encamped within a
circumvallation of cars and chariots. There was no Robert of Artois on
this occasion to precipitate a rash onslaught, and by Philip's order the
southern light troops harassed the Flemings all day with arrows and
missiles, allowing them no repose. Toward the evening many of the
French withdrew to refresh themselves and take off their armor; the King
himself was of this number; the Flemings, perceiving this slackness, and
divining the cause, poured forth from their encampment in three
divisions, which at first drove all before them, and reached as far as
the King's tent, then in full preparation for supper. The monarch
himself, without armor or helmet, was fortunately not recognized; his
secretary, De Boville, and two Parisians of the name of Gentien, whom
Philip had always about his person, were slain before his eyes. The King
withdrew, but it was to arm, mount on horseback, and cry out to his
followers to stand their ground. He himself, says Villani, "one of the
strongest and best made men of his time," fought valiantly until his
brother Charles and most of the barons, recovering from the first panic,
came to his rescue, and the Flemings were finally repulsed and put to
the rout. William of Juliers fell on the side of the Flemings; the son
of the Duke of Burgundy and many others on that of the French. Philip
immediately laid siege to Lille, deeming the Flemings totally
discomf