CHAP. XXXV.
THE CUTLER OF GHENT IS MADE PRISONER IN BATTLE.—THE GHENT MEN ARE DEFEATED.—THEY ARE AGAIN DEFEATED AT HULST AND MOERBEKE.
The french ambassadors had scarcely left Ghent, when upward of five thousand men in arms issued forth to combat the duke's army wherever they could meet it. They had chosen for their leader a cutler of Ghent, a large heavy man, who had boasted that he would overcome the duke; and his townsmen promised, that if he should succeed, they would make him lord of Waes, and indeed of all Flanders.
They marched for Hulst, a large village, in which was Anthony bastard of Burgundy with a strong force of well-tried men at arms, thinking to surprise him: but he had received intelligence of their coming, and advanced out to meet them. A sharp engagement took place, when they were defeated, with the loss of full three thousand men, and the cutler and several of the ghent men were taken. The bastard sent them to his father, the duke, who had them all hanged, or strangled, because they would not ask his pardon; and such was their obstinate hatred to him that, although they were promised mercy if they would ask it, they refused. This was surely a wonderful sign of obstinacy!
Those who had escaped from this battle, to the amount of two thousand, fled to Moerbeke, wherein was a large company of their townsmen, then besieged by the Hollanders, ignorant of this defeat at Hulst. On seeing such numbers approach, the Hollanders drew up in battle-array, and attacked them with such effect with their cross-bows that many were slain. In the mean time, the bastard, who had pursued them, now came up; and they were so severely handled that, of the two thousand, few, if any, escaped death or being made prisoners.
The garrison of Moerbeke, witnessing the discomfiture of their countrymen, abandoned the town and fled to Ghent; so that when sir Anthony de Bourgogne and the Hollanders were preparing to attack the intrenchments, they found them empty, and entered the place without resistance, which they plundered of every thing worth taking away, and then set the town on fire.
The duke of Burgundy was, at this time, at a large village called Hoiguemustre[140], in the country of Waes. The french ambassadors found him there on their return from Ghent, and told him all they had seen and heard in that town: on which the duke swore, that he would never make peace with them until they should submit unconditionally; and that if they would not do so by fair means, he would force them to it, or die in the attempt.
Without longer delay, he departed for Axel, which he conquered, and the whole of the country of Waes,—and thence he approached Ghent, and fixed his quarters at a place called Longpont, not far from the town. When those in Ghent saw this, they sent to the French ambassadors to request them to obtain passports from the duke, for a deputation to wait on him, to propose articles for a peace.
The good duke at the request of the ambassadors, and in compliment to the king of France, granted passports, but told the messengers from Ghent, that he would never conclude any treaty with them until they had submitted themselves and their town to his will. While this was passing, the duke's army made daily excursions to the gates of Ghent, burning and destroying houses, mills, and farms around, without mercy. In addition to these miseries, there raged in Ghent an epidemical disorder, which carried off such numbers that it was terrible to hear of it; insomuch, that those who remained, fearful of worse happening to them, sent to solicit the ambassadors to return to their town, which they did,—and, having assembled in the market-place, displayed the passports from their lord, and desired that all who wished for peace would stand apart, and the others on the contrary side. This was done, and the party for peace amounted to only seven thousand, while those on the opposite side were upwards of twelve thousand.
The ambassadors, observing so great a difference, desired them to assemble again on the morrow, when they would endeavour to bring about an agreement between them; but on the morrow, only those who wished for peace appeared. They desired that the ambassadors would return to the duke, with a deputation from them, to endeavour to mediate a peace by any possible means. The ambassadors so far prevailed that the duke consented to a truce of six weeks, on condition that the men of Ghent would deliver to him good and sufficient hostages (if during this term peace could not be effected), to indemnify him for the loss he should incur by disbanding his army and the expense of raising another, and, for the due payment of the garrisons he should leave round Ghent, and in Courtray, Oudenarde, Alost, and Dendermonde during these six weeks. It was also stipulated, that no provision should enter Ghent in the mean time, but that what was already therein must supply their wants; nor was any thing to enter the principal towns of Flanders, without leave first had at the gates.
It was agreed, that the conferences for peace should be holden at Lille, and that the deputies from Ghent should not amount to more than fifty. These preliminaries being settled, the truce was proclaimed throughout the duke's army; and he then gave permission for his men at arms to return to the places they had come from, excepting such as he had left in garrison in the towns aforesaid. The duke went to Brussels, and his ministers to Lille. The ambassadors from France sent a herald to proclaim the truce in Ghent; but as his attendant was dressed in a surcoat of the arms of the duke, namely, the cross of St Andrew, he was seized by the populace, as he was leading his horses to water, and instantly hanged, out of pique to the duke, and by way of revenge for the death of the cutler. The herald returned in safety, but very much frightened.