199. THE CITIES OF FLANDERS
COUNTY OF FLANDERS
In the Middle Ages the Netherlands, or "Low Countries," now divided between Holland and Belgium, consisted of a number of feudal states, nominally under the control of German and French kings, but really quite independent. Among them was the county of Flanders. It included the coast region from Calais to the mouth of the Scheldt, as well as a considerable district in what is now northwestern France. The inhabitants of Flanders were partly of Teutonic extraction (the Flemings) and partly akin to the French (the Walloons).
FLANDERS AS A COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CENTER
Flanders enjoyed a good situation for commerce. The country formed a convenient stopping place for merchants who went by sea between the Mediterranean and the Baltic, while important land routes led thither from all parts of western Europe. Flanders was also an industrial center. Its middle classes early discovered the fact that by devotion to manufacturing even a small and sterile region may become rich and populous.
FLEMISH WOOL TRADE
The leading industry of Flanders was weaving. England in the Middle Ages raised great flocks of sheep, but lacking skilled workmen to manufacture the wool into fine cloth, sent it across the Channel to Flanders. A medieval writer declared that the whole world was clothed in English wool manufactured by the Flemings. The taxes that were laid on the export of wool helped to pay the expenses of English kings in their wars with the Welsh, the Scotch, and the Irish. The wool trade also made Flanders the ally of England in the Hundred Years' War, thus beginning that historic friendship between the two countries which still endures.
[Illustration: BELFRY OF BRUGES Bruges, the capital of West Flanders, contains many fine monuments of the Middle Ages Among these is the belfry, which rises in the center of the façade of the market hall. It dates from the end of the thirteenth century. Its height is 352 feet. The belfry consists of three stories, the two lower ones square, and the upper one, octagonal.]
[Illustration: TOWN HALL OF LOUVAIN, BELGIUM One of the richest and most ornate examples of Gothic architecture Erected in the fifteenth century The building consists of three stories above which rises the lofty roof crowned with graceful towers. The interior decoration and arrangements are commonplace.]
BRUGES, GHENT AND YPRES
Among the thriving communities of Flanders three held an exceptional position. Bruges was the mart where the trade of southern Europe, in the hands of the Venetians, and the trade of northern Europe, in the hands of the Hanseatic merchants, came together. Ghent, with forty thousand workshops, and Ypres, which counted two hundred thousand workmen within its walls and suburbs, were scarcely less prosperous. When these cities declined in wealth, Antwerp became the commercial metropolis of the Netherlands.
FLANDERS AND FRANCE
During the fourteenth century Flanders was annexed by France. The Flemish cities resisted bravely, and on more than one occasion their citizen levies, who could handle sword and ax, as well as the loom, defeated the French armies, thus demonstrating again that foot soldiers were a match for mailed cavalry. Had the cities been able to form a lasting league, they might have established an independent Flanders, but the bitter rivalry of Ghent and Bruges led to foreign domination, lasting into the nineteenth century. [30]
THE CITIES AND CIVILIZATION
The great cities of Flanders, Germany, and Italy, not to speak of those in France, Spain, and England, were much more than centers of trade, industry, and finance. Within their walls learning and art flourished to an extent which had never been possible in earlier times, when rural life prevailed throughout western Europe. We shall now see what the cities of the Middle Ages contributed to civilization.