CHAPTER XVII.

PROGRESS OF THE ART IN FLANDERS.-ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD.

It is tolerably clear, from our previous narrative, that the arts in Belgium began to flourish immediately after the accession of the house of France to the throne of Burgundy. But all the elements of strength existed before their time, and required but their vigour to develop them with speed. In truth, what Flanders wanted up to that time was peace, order, and cessation from intestine feuds, and this the stronghanded policy of the Dukes produced. Under Louis de Maele and his immediate predecessors, Flanders and its cities rose to great commercial and manufacturing importance; but the Counts of Flanders had neither power nor prestige to keep within due bounds the unruly spirit of their cities. They provoked it, on the contrary, by attempts to wrest from them their fairest privileges, and turned the energies of the people from the pursuit of peaceful riches to that of redressing wrongs. They had all to lose in such a struggle, threatening as it did their only source of wealth -the trade of their dominions. The Flemish communes were as rich as they were powerful. To have conciliated instead of exciting their hostility, should have been the aim of skilful rulers. But the principles which governed the communes were not quite reconcilable with those of

the noblesse. On one great question they were especially at variance; and the history of the Flemish communes is that of free trade against exclusiveness. On the Rhine, where each petty prince swelled his revenue by erecting toll-bars and impeding trade, commerce flourished, as it were, in spite of them. In Flanders, trade was in the hands of the municipalities. They manufactured the raw material, and ruled the ports. The duties levied on foreign produce enriched their coffers, and not the exchequer of the princes. To wrest these ways and means from the communes was the ceaseless effort of the Counts of Flanders. They quarrelled with their people, and then sought foreign aid for their subjection. France, ever jealous of possessing these rich and important provinces, at all times afforded them assistance. England, on the other hand, too anxious for their welfare to leave them without aid, encouraged them in struggles against their Counts and France. The Flemish nobles-consisting not alone of those who held their ground "en chasteaux forts," as Guicciardini says; but of the citizen noblesse, which also boasted of descent took part in general against the communes, and formed the adverse factions of the "Leliarts," or partisans of the Lily, and the " Clauwerts," or Wielders of Cleavers. For years the Clauwerts asserted their superiority in arms against the Leliarts. They triumphed at the battle of the Spurs, where the flower of French chivalry was routed and destroyed, and kept up their ascendency even against Louis de Maele, their last Count.

Nothing at this time exceeded the wealth and power of the cities. Bruges, which at first was but a church upon an island, had grown at the Crusades into a fortalice,

square in shape, with battlement and drawbridge. The church of St. Donat occupied the centre, and there the Counts, like Baldwin of the Iron Arm and Guy de Dampierre, were wont to hear the mass.1 The waters which surrounded the old fortalice, or Bourg, were formed into canals, the chief of which was broad and deep, and communicated with the port of Sluys. That port was also fortified, and the channel was deep enough to admit the largest vessels.

*

Philip Augustus, after his return from the Crusades, sent a powerful fleet to Sluys, and forced the entrance. The booty was so great as to astonish him. It comprised the manufactured goods of every clime, and tons of raw material. Unfortunately for him an English squadron hove in sight, and Philip burnt his fleet and plunder. But the riches which he found are a proof how wealthy were the merchants of the time. So rich were they, indeed, that Sluys recovered instantly from her disaster, and continued, with Bruges, to prosper, as the largest trading port of Europe.

England always took a special interest in Bruges, and every effort of the Counts of Flanders to coerce the communes brought the British kings to her support. The trade advantages of Bruges and Ghent were thus increased by rivalry between the communes and the princes. The first of these advantages was the importation, free, of wool from England, the mere hint of stopping which was a signal for tumult throughout the entire breadth of the country. Then came, in 1127, the privi

1 Histoire de Bruges. Bruges, 8o. 1850. p. 20.

lege of a Hanse.1 This, which was called the English Hanse, because its counter was in London, was granted to the Brugeois when William of Normandy signalized himself in the attempt to deprive the Flemish cities of their fundamental rights. William of Normandy had acted in this the part of king Stork, having but a few months before been chosen to rule by the united will of the very cities which he now endeavoured to reduce to subjection.

The merchants of the Hanse were privileged to try their civil actions before arbitrators chosen amongst the merchants of the city. The president in London was a citizen of Bruges, who took the title of Count of the Hanse, and all the towns had members. Those which joined the company at first were Yprès, Damme, Lille, Bergues, Furnes, Orchies, Bailleul and Poperinghe; and later followed St. Omer, Arras Douai, Cambrai, Valenciennes, Peronne, St. Quentin, Beauvais, Abbeville, Amiens, Montreuil, Rheims, and Châlon.

This English Hanse, the Hanse Towns, the merchants of Lombardy and Venice, and those of Novgorod, kept up the prosperity of Bruges by their trade, and the erection of spacious counters there. The fair of Bruges was then what that of Leipzig is at present, crowded with traders from every country of the world.2

Torn, however, by internal dissensions, Bruges and the other Flemish cities had neither choice nor leisure to foster art and bring it to the high perfection which it

1 Kervyn de Lettenhove, Hist. de Flandre, 8o. Brux. 1847, vol. ii. p. 291.

2 Ibid. p. 299.

afterwards attained under the Dukes of Valois. Philip the Hardy, John the Fearless, and Philip the Good, wielding more powerful resources than the Counts of Flanders, and being backed by the agricultural districts of Burgundy, were enabled to quell, in a great degree, the turbulence of their cities, which enjoyed under them more lasting peace and quiet. The wealth which they had amassed was partly expended in the peaceful rivalry which arose between the noblesse and citizens, each contending who should carry off the palm of taste in art. Thus the School of Bruges progressed. It is true that previous to this time the civic authorities of Belgian cities were already known for their partiality to public exhibitions of their power and taste; but these were far less comprehensive than later efforts of the same description. The ceremonies incident to the arrival in Bruges of Thierry d'Alsace, with the relic of the Holy Blood, which for ages made the chapel of that name in St. Donat the rendezvous of countless pilgrims, were marked by a display of tapestries and banners creditable to the age in which they were produced;' but public taste then showed itself more frequently in sumptuous apparel and gorgeous stuffs than in works of art. Under Louis de Maele, the public appreciation of what required a more refined attention and cultivation was increased. That prince perceived the progress of this feeling, and founded the Corporation of St. Luke, at Bruges.

The school which then arose so rapidly to perfection

1 Hist. de Bruges, ut sup., p. 31.

2 Delepierre (O.), Galerie d'Artiste Brugeois, 8°. Bruges, 1840, p. 6. Sanderus, Fland. Illust. ut sup., tom. ii. p. 148.