Philip the Fair received the governor-general of Flanders with marked displeasure, and reproached him angrily with the tyrannical conduct which had been the cause of the disaster. De Chatillon would have undoubtedly fallen into disgrace, had not Queen Joanna, who, as we know, hated the Flemings and exulted in their oppression, found means to exculpate her uncle so dexterously that Philip at length began to believe that he deserved thanks rather than reproofs. And thus the whole wrath of the king was again turned back on the Flemings, and he swore that he would exact from them a dire revenge.
An army of twenty thousand men had been already assembled at Paris, in order to deliver the kingdom of Majorca from the hand of the infidel; and these were the troops of whose gathering Robert de Bethune had spoken to the lords of Flanders. They might easily have marched this host upon Flanders; but Philip would run no risk of defeat, and resolved therefore to postpone his vengeance a short time in order to collect more soldiers.
A proclamation was borne throughout France by swift messengers; the great vassals of the kingdom were informed how the Flemings had put to death seven thousand Frenchmen; and that the king summoned them to Paris with all the troops at their command, and with the utmost speed, in order to avenge the insult. In those times warfare and feats of arms were the sole occupation of the nobles, and they exulted at the very mention of battle; so we need not wonder that this appeal met an immediate and hearty response. From every quarter, from every castle of mighty France, poured the great feudatories of the crown with their vassals; and in a very short time the French army counted more than fifty thousand men.
After the Lion of Flanders and Charles de Valois, Robert d'Artois was the ablest warrior that Europe boasted at that time; and indeed his great and varied experience, gained in numerous expeditions, gave him, in some respects, an advantage over these two commanders. For eight whole years he had never laid aside his armor; his hair had literally grown gray beneath the helmet. The unrelenting hatred with which he regarded the Flemings, who had slain his only son at Furnes, determined the queen to give him the chief command of the whole army; and in truth no one was better qualified for this honorable post than Robert d'Artois.
Want of money, and the daily arrival of the more distant vassals of the crown, retarded for some time the departure of the host. The excessive ardor and precipitation with which the French nobles usually entered on their expeditions had so often proved prejudicial to them, and they had learnt at such heavy cost that prudence and foresight are important elements of strength, that they resolved on this occasion to take every precaution, and proceed with the greatest deliberation.
The fiery queen of Navarre sent for Robert d'Artois, and urged him to chastise the Flemings with the utmost cruelty. She enjoined on him, for instance, "to rip up all the Flemish swine, and to spit their whelps on the point of the sword, and to strike every Flemish dog dead." The swine and the whelps were the women and children of Flanders; and the dogs were those heroes who, sword in hand, were defending their fatherland. The faithful chronicles have preserved for us these shameless words of a queen and a woman, as a token of Joanna's ferocious spirit.
In the meantime, the Flemings had greatly increased their army. The illustrious Master John Borluut had excited the citizens of Ghent to rise and drive out of their city the French garrison; and seven hundred were slain in this insurrection. Oudenarde and several other cities effected their freedom in like manner; so that the enemy retained possession only of a few fortified places, in which the flying Frenchmen found refuge. William van Gulick, the priest, came from Germany to Bruges with a numerous troop of archers, and as soon as Master John van Renesse had assembled four hundred Zeelanders, they united their forces, and, accompanied by a crowd of volunteers, moved toward Cassel, in order to fall upon and expel the French garrison. This city was exceedingly well fortified, so that it could not be taken by surprise. William van Gulick had counted on the cooperation of the citizens; but the French kept so vigilant a guard that they could not make the slightest movement; so that Master William found himself compelled to begin a regular siege, and await the arrival of the necessary stores and battering machines.
The youthful Guy had been received with acclamations in all the most important cities of West Flanders; his presence everywhere infused courage, and inspired every man with a burning ardor to defend his fatherland. Adolf van Nieuwland had also visited the lesser towns, in order to summon together all who were capable of bearing arms.
In Courtrai there lay about three thousand French under the command of the castellan Van Lens. Instead of endeavoring to win the affections of the people by kindness, they exhausted their patience by continued acts of depredation and petty tyranny. Encouraged by the example of the other cities, the inhabitants rose suddenly against the French, and slew more than half of them; the remainder made their escape to the citadel, which they hastily fortified in the best way that they could.
