F L A N D E R S. 
4 49 
And he thinks, with Tome others, that the iflhmus of 
land which he fuppofes once joined England to France, 
between Dover and Calais, was, fmee the general deluge, 
broke through by an inundation of the German Sea, till 
then only a vaft bay, o'ccafioned, as he conjectures, by an 
earthquake, or fome other extraordinary means; which 
thereby finding a new courfe into what we now call the 
Channel, all thofe flat parts of Flanders were deferred 
by the fea, and became dry, though at firfi marfliy land. 
Sir William Temple leans to this opinion in his account 
of the United Netherlands; as does the abbe Mann, in 
his treatife on this fubjeCt. 
In the year 631, Clotaire king of France, bellowed on 
Lideric, fon of Sal vert prince of Dijon and Burgundy, 
the government of Flanders, then covered with wet and 
marfliy grounds in fome parts, and in others with great 
woods and forefls; on which account he, and many of his 
fucceflorS, were Ailed Grand Forejlers of Flanders. Charle¬ 
magne created Lideric de Harlebeck, then Great Fo- 
refier of Flanders, the firft count or earl of that rich pro¬ 
vince in 793; from whence defcended a long fucceflion of 
the earls of that country ; and in the year 802, Charle¬ 
magne tranfported ten thousand Saxons from beyond 
the river Elbe in Holftein, into Flanders and Brabant, at 
that time, in a great degree, confiding of uncultivated 
forefls. This tranfplantation of Germans thither, has fo 
fixed their language in thofe provinces, as to remain to 
this day ; though much mixed with French in the fouth 
parts, and with Low Dutch in thofe adjoining to Holland. 
In 864 , according to Petavius. Flanders was firft difmem- 
bered from France ; for in that year Charles the Bald, 
king of France, beftowed Flanders on earl Baldwin, who 
married his daughter Judith, as her dowry; and in 960, 
according to De Witt, the woollen manufacture of Flan¬ 
ders, which made fo great a figure for the fix fucceeding 
centuries, took its rife. That eminent writer obferves, 
st That the Flemings, lying neared to France, were the 
firft that began to earn their living by weaving, and fold 
the produce of their labour in that fruitful country, 
(France,) where the inhabitants were not only able to 
feed themfelves, but alfo, by the fuperftuous growth of 
their country, could put themfelves into good apparel. 
Which trade Baldwin the Third, earl of Flanders, about 
the year 960, confiderably improved, by eftablifhing an¬ 
nual fairs or markets in feveral places, without any tolls 
being demanded for goods either imported or exported.” 
The Flemifh hiftorians further fay, that his father Arnold 
being very oid, refigned the government to his fon, in 
959, who thereupon invited over into Flanders all manner 
of handicraftfmen for making all forts of manufactures, 
to whom he granted great privileges. In the year 1112, 
in confequence of a vaft inundation in Flanders; great 
numbers of poor Flemings were forced to take (belter in 
England. They came over in fuch fwarms as to be 
thought a burthen to the nation; upon which Henry I. 
planted them in the wafte parts of Northumberland and 
Cumberland, and about the city of Carlifle. But after¬ 
wards he tranfplanted many of them into the fouth parts 
of Wales, and in the county of Rofs, and a part of Here¬ 
ford ihire ; thinking they might be made profitable to the 
realm, by inftrutting his fubjeCts in the art of clothing; 
and which afterwards undoubtedly took the lead in Great 
Britain. 
In 1252, the learned Lambecius acquaints us, that the 
commerce of Flanders then greatly flourifhed ; owing, 
perhaps, to its happy fituation for trade. “ Of all ports, 
(fays lie,) the ports of Flanders were bed; fuited for en- 
ter-ports; efpecially as the manufactures both of woollen 
and linen, equally "neceflary to all nations, were now fioit- 
rifliing there in the higheft perfection.” In 1274, dif- 
putes arofe between Edward I. or England, and the coun- 
tefs of Flanders, on account of mercantile intercfts. She 
had forcibly feized on many ftiips and much merchandize 
from England and Ireland ; and the Englifh had com¬ 
mitted fimilar depredations on the Flemings, All diffe¬ 
rences, therefore, were now accommodated by a treaty 
between king Edward and Guy earl of Flanders; which 
appears to be the firft commercial treaty ever entered into 
between England and Flanders. It was during this quar¬ 
rel that wool, and all other merchandize, was' prohibited 
to be exported to Flanders; which, confldering that coun¬ 
try’s vaft woollen manufacture, mud have much diftrefled 
them. But fo well and fo amicably was this treaty for a 
confiderable time maintained, that, 1111297, (as we find 
in vol. ii. p. 740, of the Foedera,) king Edward “ grants 
to ;he Flemings a community of merchandize and com¬ 
merce with England ; and particularly free liberty to buy 
and tranfport front his territories in England, Scotland, 
Ireland, and France, wool and all other merchandize ; and 
there to enjoy the famq privileges as do the merchants of 
Lombardy, or any other merchants, Englifh or foreign.” 
Thus the manufactures of Flanders, and its foreign com¬ 
merce, fiouriflied in a mod eminent degree ; and fo rich 
and numerous were its merchants, that, in 1301, every 
town and city in the province vied with each other in 
magnificence and fplendour. At the beginning of the 
above century, the city of Bruges was anived at fuch a 
pitch of grandeur, that Philip the Fair, king of France, 
being there with his queen Jane, they were both utterly 
aftoniftied. “ The ladies of Bruges, (fays Guicciardini, 
in his Hiftery of the Low Country,) put her majefty quite 
out of all patience, to fee how fplendidly they were decked 
with jewels and rich attire ; fo that (lie broke out into this 
paflionate fpeech : I thought that I was the only queen 
here; but I find here are above fix hundred befides my- 
felf queens in this city.” This was the meridian of the 
commercial glory of Flanders; and from this period, as 
mod of the Flemifh hiftorians agree, “ the manufactures 
and trade of that rich and fertile country began gradually 
to decline, whilft pride and luxury increaled.” The 
caufes are varioufly dated ; but the mod obvious are 
thofe which arofe from quarrels and jealoufies between 
the neighbouring cities, the heavy imports laid upon the 
people by its earls, and the continual wars which (ollowed 
betwixt France and England, whereby the whole pro¬ 
vince was frequently defolated, and their interefts and 
connexions varioufly turned to and from thofe great con¬ 
tending powers ; between whofe dominions their country 
was unfortunately (ituated, and hence conftantly open to 
the inroads of them both. Thefe caufes were likewife 
accelerated by her own internal quarrels, and by wars 
with her immediate neighbours, particularly with Hol¬ 
land. In 1304, is recorded an obftinate engagement be¬ 
tween William earl of Holland, fon of John II. who ren¬ 
dered himfelf very famous, by his great victory over 
Guido Dumpier, admiral of Flanders, before the port of 
Zirickzee ; “ in which, (fays Morifotus, in his Orbis 
Maritimus, lib. ii. cap. 13.) ten thoufand Flemings were 
killed or drowned, befides vaft numbers made pnfohers, 
and nearly all their (hips taken. At another time, (con¬ 
tinues Morifotus,) earl William’s fleet, commanded by- 
Grimaldi, a Genoefe admiral, fought Damnier, admiral 
of Flanders, near the faid town of Zirickzee; .when, to 
prevent their (hips from being feparated by the tide, they 
joined them together with iron chains or hooks ; whereas 
the Flemings faftened theirs only with ropes ; the Hol¬ 
landers therefore cutting the ropes in the night-time, the 
Flemifh (hips were thrown into diforder, and daftied againfl 
each other, and their admiral Dumpier was taken, with the 
lofs of eleven hundred men, befide (hips. And in 1322, 
the earl of Flanders attempting to remove the mart from 
Bruges to Sluys, fo great a tumult enfued, that the Bru- 
gians took their earl, and iniprifoned him for fix months.” 
Befides thefe tumults and internal commotions, blun¬ 
ders appears to have been at the fame time implicated 
with the French, in a war with England; until, in 1325, 
feveral of its cities fent deputies to the court of London, 
among which were Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres, to inireat 
feparately for a peace ; which brought on eventually fo 
complete a pacification, that Edward IL in his future 
declarations 
