468 A. D. 1301. 



pered by reftridions and impofts. In the year 1301 thefe harfh raea- 

 fures provoked a tumult in Ghent, wherein two of the magiftrates and 

 eleven other inhabitants loft their lives. In the following year above 

 1 ,500 people periflied in the fame way at Bruges : and at Ypres tho 

 whole of the magiftrates were killed. Similar tumults were raifed 

 afterwards at Louvain and other places in Brabant by the cloth- 

 weavers and others, who thought themfelves opprefled by the reftridlive 

 laws ; and many of them emigrated to England and other countries, as 

 we fhall afterwards fee. [Di? Witl's Inter ejl of Holland, p. 47, Etigl. 

 trapJI.'l 



The cataftrophe at Bruges feems to have been, at leaft partly, occa- 

 fioned by the intemperance of fpeech of a foolifli woman. In May 

 1 301 Philip the Fair, king of France, with his queen, made a progrels 

 through Flanders, which, he alleged, had devolved to him as fuperior 

 lord. They were everywhere received with the greateft demonftrations 

 of refpeft, and the people of every city made the moft pompous difplay 

 of opulence and magnificence. At Bruges the fplendour of the ladies 

 gave great offence to the queen, who peevifhly exclaimed, ' I thought 

 * I was the only queen here, but I fee there are many hundreds more.' 

 After their departure a diftuvbance arofe among the citizens concern- 

 ing the payment of the public expenfes, incurred by their reception of 

 their royal vifitors, which they muft have thought very ill beftowed. 

 The deacon of the weavers, who was called King Peter, with twenty-five 

 other confiderable men, were put in prifon by the praetor, but inftantly 

 releafed by the populace. Many other difturbances enfued ; and finally 

 the French were driven out of Bruges. \_Meyeri j4ntiales Flattdria,/. 88 

 b.] If the queen had had the good fenfe to rejoice, that the people, 

 who were to be her hufband's fubjeds, were enjoying the due rewards 

 of their honeft induftry, or could have only commanded her temper 

 fo far, as to affume an appearance of gratioufly accepting the refpe<fl: 

 paid to her, which would have coft her nothing, inftead of difplaying 

 her childifh envy and littlenefs, there would perhaps have been no op- 

 pofition to her hufband's claim *. 



1302, November 7"' — King Edward, by fummonfes to the warden of 

 the Cinque ports, and to the magiftrates of Dover, Sandwich, Rye, Win- 

 chelfea, Romney, Hythe, Pevenfey, and Faverfham, ordered their quota 

 of fifty-fcven vefTels to be ready at Are (or Ayr on the weft coaft of Scot- 

 land) on next AlFumption day, in order to aft againft the Scots. But, as he 

 wanted men more than veflels, he defired they would fend only twenty- 



* She died with a vtry bad cliara£lcr — ' altera pic of Cologne with a fight of licr face, won the 



' Jcfahd, ma<;nnque pars caufse Imjus traga;dia; tt hearts of the ladles of that great city. \_M. Paris, 



' crueniiiTimi belli.' \_Meyer, f. loS a.] — Ifabil, /. 415.] How cheaply may thofe of high rank 



the filUr of Henry HJ, when (lie went over to attach the people to their iiitcreft ! 

 he married to the emperor, by indulging the pco- 



