County of Flanders

Louis VII gladly assisted the rebels.

With them joined the king of Scots, the counts of Flanders, Boulogne, and Blois, and many other great lords who owed a grudge to the English king or the Angevin house.

Revolt broke out in April in Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Brittany, and before long in England also.

Henry showed all the energy and courage of his masterful nature.

His generosity made him forgive when others would have punished, but it was impossible to have a final peace with France.

Philip would not be satisfied till he had made himself the true sovereign of his land, nor Richard till he was secure from French attacks.

In 1197 Richard obtained the alliance of the courts of Flanders and Champagne, and of the Bretons, who recognized his nephew Arthur, Geoffrey's son, as their duke.

In the same year he planned and built his great castle Chateau Gaillard on a bend of the Seine above Rouen to defend his capital.

In the south, the Duchy of Burgundy was held by Richard the Justicer.

In the north, the County of Flanders, formed as a march by Charles the Bald against the Northmen, was now under Baldwin the Bold, a powerful and turbulent vassal, quarreling with everyone and disturbing the peace even of the royal domain itself.

At Paris, another march, Robert, Duke of France, the brother of the king's late rival Eud, the deadly foe of his race and name, ruled over the greater part of central Gaul north of the Loire and, as was then not infrequently the case, enjoyed considerable wealth as lay abbot of Saint-Denis and Saint-Germain of Paris and of Saint-Martin of Tours.

Even the narrow extent of the royal domain, composed of a small district round the city of Laon and Compiègne, was threatened in the north by Herbert II of Vermandois, 902-943.

Charles left no male heir, and his possessions passed to his daughter Mary, who was betrothed to Maximilian, son of the Emperor.

Louis, however, seized Picardy, Flanders, Artois, and the Duchy of Burgundy.

Flanders and Artois were afterwards regained by Maximilian, but in spite of many negotiations, Picardy and Burgundy were permanently annexed to the French crown.

There was little national unity in the Spanish peninsula in the middle of the 15th century.

The kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre were opposed to one another, and there was provincial strife as well as strife of classes within each kingdom.

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By the Treaty of Noyon, 1516, Charles was to have returned Spanish Navarre to the d'Albret, but this had never been done.

Francis held the Duchy of Burgundy, part of the Burgundian inheritance of Charles, and the two monarchs had rival claims in Flanders and Artois.

He was the new son-in-law of the West Frankish King Charles the Bald, known as Charles II.

He was gifted a piece of land as a dowry, and it was called the Galle of Pegas Flanderensis.

The origins of Flanders lay in the Pegas Flanderensis, I'm not sure if I pronounced that correctly, but anyway, an area composed of Bruges and its environments under the administration of the Frankish Empire.

At first, Florence was a district, but beginning in the 9th century, a line of Flemish counts succeeded in erecting a quasi or quasi-independent on the borders between French and German kingdoms.

By the promise of great subsidies, he bought the aid of the dukes of Brabant and Guilders and the counts of Holland and Hainaut.

He also negotiated a league with the Flemish cities, who were greatly discontented with their ruler, Louis, Count of Flanders, a devoted vassal and supporter of the French king.

The Flemings had no wish to make war on England, with whom they transacted an immense trade, buying the fine English wool and making it into cloth, which they sold all over northern Europe.

When Count Louis seized and imprisoned all the English merchants he could lay hands on, October 1336, his subjects were so enraged with him for stirring up war that they entered into correspondence with King Edward and offered to aid him even against their own feudal lord.

The lead in the rising was taken by Jacob van Artevelde, the famous brewer of Ghent, a wealthy citizen who had turned demagogue and ruled the guilds of his native town with a despotic sway by means of his ready tongue and his strong will.

The Count's power in Flanders was small compared with that of his turbulent subject.

Emboldened by the knowledge that he would not lack allies on the continent, Edward began to treat the French king much as Philip had been treating him for the last four years.

He gave shelter to Robert Count of Artois, a French prince of the royal house who had been driven into exile by his cousin, and began to gather together a fleet in order to pay back the late piratical raids on the English coast.

Charles left no male heir, and his possessions passed to his daughter Mary, who was betrothed to Maximilian, son of the Emperor.

Louis, however, seized Picardy, Flanders, Artois, and the Duchy of Burgundy.

Flanders and Artois were afterwards regained by Maximilian, but in spite of many negotiations, Picardy and Burgundy were permanently annexed to the French crown.

There was little national unity in the Spanish Peninsula in the middle of the 15th century.

The kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre were opposed to one another, and there was provincial strife as well as strife of classes within each kingdom.

Any door, the right support.

By the Treaty of Noyon, 1516, Charles was to have returned Spanish Navarre to the d'Albret, but this had never been done.

Francis held the Duchy of Burgundy, part of the Burgundian inheritance of Charles, and the two monarchs had rival claims in Flanders and Artois.

Once they returned there again 89 days later, they reportedly found nothing left to plunder, and so burned it down.

The next year, Asgeir and his force raided on foot in the area of Flanders from their base in Rouen.

In the face of the Frankish army, they had to overwinter on Jeufosse Island, from where they controlled the important entrance to the Seine and the Frankish interior.

By 853, new groups of Vikings, mainly Norwegians, led by Sigtrygg and Godfrid, began sailing up the Seine and establishing their own bases.

Now, the matter of baptism also weighed into the decision.

Converting a Viking pagan leader to Christianity would be an important victory in France's Christianizing mission.

Charles first offered Rollo the addition of Flanders, but Rollo declined because the land was too marshy.

Then Charles offered Brittany, an independent duchy that West Francia had failed to conquer, but which bordered the lands already offered to Rollo, and Rollo accepted.

Chapter 2, Part 3.

The Crusade in Flanders.

Invasion of Scotland.

The King's Favorites.

At this time a revolution took place in Flanders, which had a special interest for Englishmen.

The people of the Low Countries were always well affected to the English, with whom they were united by commercial interests, but the Counts of Flanders favoured France.

In the days of Edward III, the Flemings under James van Artevelde had for some time thrown off allegiance to their Count and openly allied themselves with England.

And now, under the guidance of Philip van Artevelde, the son of their former leader, they in like manner rose against Count Louis II, who was driven out of Ghent, first to Bruges and afterwards into France.