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No. 104 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE - Nov. 16, 1833
TOWN OF YPRES.
YPRES, or Ypern (for that is the Flemish name), is not now what it was of old; but it is still a considerable town, and it retains numerous memorials of its former greatness, in the public buildings with which it is crowded. It still ranks with Bruges and Ghent as one of the three chief towns of Flanders, and its population is believed to amount to about fifteen thousand inhabitants. It stands on a stream called the Yper, which flows through it from south to north, and then makes its way to the sea, into which it falls about midway between Dunkirk and Ostend. This stream descends from some grounds of very moderate elevation, a few miles from the town; the rest of the country around which is nearly a complete flat, like the greater part of the Netherlands. In this situation the town is seen from a considerable distance, and makes a handsome appearance as it rises in the midst of the plain, with its embattled walls, and its throng of spires. The extent of the present walls is not quite four English miles, making a circle of about a mile and a quarter in diameter. The surrounding country is remarkably rich and beautiful, part of it being woodland, and the rest consisting of green meadows and corn-fields, everywhere interspersed with orchards, gardens, and villages.
The pride of Ypres is its Town Hall, which stands near the centre of the town in a large open space, called the great market-place. It is a magnificent building, surrounding a quadrangular space, measuring four hundred and sixty-two feet from east to west, and fifty in the opposite direction, here divided into two courts by a pile of building which crosses its centre. From the middle of the south front rises a lofty square tower, in which are a clock and bells, and which bears the appearance of being still more ancient than the rest of the building. The erection of the hall is said to have been begun in 1342, and in popular tradition the work is attributed to the English, who certainly, however, were not in possession of the place either then or at any other period. The notion seems to have originated merely in the great fame which the English had acquired in these parts by their warlike achievements, and which made them be regarded as the authors of every thing wonderful, in the same way as in our own country we still attribute many old buildings, the origin of which is forgotten, to Caesar and the Romans. We have another vestige of this popular veneration for the memory of the English in the tradition which deduces the name of the city itself from a celebrated British warrior, called Iper, who is imagined to have built and colonized it. We do not know if there is any more truth than there usually is in these idle stories, in a statement which Antonius Sanderus makes respecting this Town Hall, in his splendid work entitled "Flandria Illustrata." He says that there never has been seen in it either a spider or a cobweb; and he accounts for the circumstance, by imputing it, not to the superior dusting and scrubbing of his countrymen, but to some supposed quality in the wood.
The building next to the Town Hall, which is most deserving of attention in Ypres, is the Cathedral, which stands in its neighborhood. This is a light and elegant Gothic structure, more remarkable, however, for its decorations than for its dimensions. Besides the Cathedral, which is dedicated to St. Martin, Ypres contains four parish churches, of which that of St. James the Greater, built in the twelfth century, is the largest. There are also numerous religious houses for both sexes. About a century ago fully a third of the city used to be covered with the buildings belonging to these establishments.
The city of Ypres, however, is more interesting on account of what it formerly was than for what it now is. It still contains some manufactures of cloth, serges, ribands, and thread; but at one time its inhabitants appear to have formed the greatest manufacturing community in the world. A census of the population taken in 1342, made it amount to above two hundred thousand souls. Soon after this, however, its decline began. In a French edition of Ludovico Guicciardini's 'Description of the Low Countries,' published at Antwerp, in 1609, it is remarked, that whensoever and in what quantity soever the rain of adversity had in former days fallen upon Ghent and Bruges, Ypres had always received some drops of it; and that this city, indeed, being the weakest of the three, had often been severely punished, and obliged to pay the forfeit for misdeeds which the other two had committed. All these towns suffered both by the attacks of foreign enemies and by their own internal dissensions. The middle of the fourteenth century was in the Netherlands, as in France and in England, the age of political convulsion—of the first considerable efforts, since the establishment of feudal institutions, made by the body of the people to throw off the oppressive yoke under which they were everywhere kept down. Some contemporary writers attribute these tumults of the commonalty to the improvement which had now taken place in their condition, as compared with that of their forefathers; and there can be no doubt that there is much truth in this representation. As long as the condition of the people was one of almost brutal destitution and misery, they submitted to be treated like the inferior animals; but as they gradually outgrew this absolute penury and helplessness, they became more indisposed to endure the oppression to which they were subjected, and began first to murmur against it, and then attempt to throw it off. The attempt, as was to be expected, was not skillfully directed in the first instance, and was productive of no immediate good effects; but it prepared the way for future and more successful struggles. It served at least as an example, and, that once given, the rest followed of course.
For this leading step in the onward march of civilization, we are mainly indebted to the citizens of Ypres and other Flemish towns. The cloth-weavers of these towns were the first commonalty in Europe that became, to a certain extent, independent of their feudal lords, and acquired a degree of inherent power and importance by means of manufactures and trade. They were accordingly the first to rise in extensive and formidable concert against the system of misrule by the grandees and lords of the soil which then universally prevailed. And from the Netherlands the movement was propagated into other countries. English liberty in particular is probably much indebted to these sturdy burghers. To us they gave much more than their example. Edward III brought over to England large numbers of these cloth-workers from the Netherlands, who settling here, communicated to our laboring classes their own arts and habits of industry, and may also be supposed to have transmitted and diffused that new spirit of liberty which had principally induced them to leave the land of their birth. Elizabeth also, long after, again increased the population of this island by opening her ports to those mechanics of the Low Countries who were driven abroad, in her day, by the tyrannical conduct of the Spanish government of that province, as administered by the notorious Duke of Alva.
The first insurrection of the Flemings, however, against their princes, was, as we have observed, attended with very disastrous results to Ypres and the other towns, whose inhabitants engaged in it. "Before the commencement of these wars in Flanders," says Froissart, in commencing his account of the attempt made by the people, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, to restrain the oppressions of their governors, "the country was so fertile, and everything in such abundance, that it was marvelous to see, and the inhabitants of the principal towns lived in very grand state." But the war laid all this prosperity waste. "The people," he says, "were very murderous and cruel, and multitudes were slain or driven out of the country. The country itself was so much ruined, that it was said a hundred years would not restore it to the situation it was in before the war *."
This war was left for some time at first to rage between the Earl of Flanders and his insurgent subjects, who, according to an old custom of the country, having chosen themselves leaders, assumed the name of White-hoods. At length, however, the French king, Charles VI, struck in, to the aid of his brother potentate; and although the rebels had been hitherto successful at every point, this interference speedily turned the scale. The following is the account which Froissart gives of the submission of the city of Ypres to the powerful force which the Earl was now enabled to bring against it:—
"As soon as the citizens of Ypres learned that the Earl was on his march thither with such a force, they were greatly alarmed; and the principal and richest inhabitants held a council, in which they resolved to open their gates, and go out to meet him, with offers to replace themselves under his obedience, trusting to his mercy. It was well known to him that they had allied themselves with Ghent through fear of the lower ranks, such as weavers, fullers, and other ill-intentioned people of the town; they besides depended on his kind and merciful character for their pardon. As they had resolved, so did they execute; and upwards of three hundred in a company went out of the town, carrying the keys of the gates with them. On meeting the Earl of Flanders they fell on their knees, and begged for mercy, saying, that they personally, and the whole town, resigned themselves to his will. The Earl took pity on them, made them rise, and granted them his pardon. He entered the town of Ypres with his whole army, and remained there for three weeks, sending back those of the Franc and of Bruges to their several towns. During his residence in Ypres, he had upwards of seven hundred weavers and fullers beheaded; and all those who had been any way concerned in admitting John Lyon and the Ghent men into the town, who had slain the knights and men-at-arms whom he had sent thither, and which had enraged him so much. To prevent them again rebelling against him, he sent three hundred of the principal inhabitants to prison in Bruges, escorted by a handsome body of men-at-arms."
But these successes of the Earl of Flanders and his ally, the king of France, soon aroused a strong feeling of hostility against France in England. Froissart attributes this to envy.
However this may be, Lord Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, having been about this time appointed by Pope Urban VI commander-in-chief for England, of what was called a crusade in the interest of that pope against his rival Clement IV, and having as such been placed at the head of a formidable force, he and his troops embarked for the continent, and landed at Calais on the 23rd of April, 1383. A consultation was then held by the leaders with the object of determining in what direction they should next proceed; when it was resolved that the expedition should march into Flanders.
They then sent to the insurgents in Ghent for their aid.—"When Peter du Bois, Peter le Nintre and the captains in Ghent," continues the historian, "heard that the English demanded their assistance, and were lying before Ypres, they were much pleased, and prepared themselves to march thither as speedily as possible. They set out from Ghent on the Saturday morning after the octave of St. Peter and St. Paul, to the amount of near twenty thousand, with a very considerable train of carts, and in good array. They march by Courtray, and came before Ypres. The English were rejoiced at their coming, and made great cheer for them, saying they would take Ypres, and then conquer Bruges, Damme, and Sluys, making no doubt that before September they would have conquered all Flanders. Thus did they boast of their good fortune."
The issue, however, was very mortifying. "It always happens," says Froissart, "that in war there are gains and losses; very extraordinary are the chances, as those know well who follow the profession. The siege of Ypres was pushed on with unwearied force; and it was fully the intention of the Bishop of Norwich, the English, and Peter de Bois, to conquer Ypres by storm or otherwise, as the vigor of their attacks showed." But all their assaults being attended with no result, they resolved to adopt a new plan of operations. Froissart continues, "The English and Flemings, finding they could not take the town by storm, and having expended much of their artillery, resolved to have quantities of faggots made and collected, with which and earth they would fill up the ditches, so that they might advance to fight hand to hand with the garrison, undermine the walls, and, by throwing them down, win the place." Before this expedient could be executed, however, news was brought that the King of France was advancing with a powerful body of troops; and on receiving this intelligence, the bishop and his captains thought it best upon the whole to endeavor to make their escape as fast as they could. They reached home, and also contrived to carry with them a good deal of booty; but they were not thought to have brought much honor back from their campaign. "When these knights," the historian tells us, "returned to England, they were attacked by the common people, who told them they had behaved very badly in their expedition, for, from the prosperity they had had at the beginnings, they ought to have conquered all Flanders."
* We quote from the English translation by Jones.
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