The history of Flanders - Chapter 13
From Karel Den Goede to Willem Clito
Written by: Charles
Vanderhaegen - slightly modified and translated by Herman Boel - Edited
by David Baeckelandt July 2008
Published with kind permission of Charles Vanderhaegen.
One murder was not enough
On 2 March 1127 Karel den Goede, thirteenth count of Flanders, is murdered in Brugge by Bordsiard. The murder was to be the final piece of a plot by the whole Erembout family, headed by chaplain Berthulf and his cousin Bordsiard, against the count because the latter had refused to raise them to the peerage because of their predial descent. It was not the final piece, though, because the hatred of the Erembout family towards the count was so deep that even this cowardly murder could not satisfy their minds. This is shown by a number of misdeeds that followed the murder and which were primarily directed against the count's knights.
Barely had Karel been murdered or Bordsiard and his gang attacked the armourbearers who were under the command of Themaart, the bailiff of Burgburg, who had accompanied Karel to church but who had remained in the back of the church with his men out of respect. All were murdered after which the gang went into town, shouting revenge and swinging their arms. Anybody on their way was routed with fear and dismay.
When they arrived at the house of Wouter, one of Themaart's sons, they broke into the house. Wouter tried to escape but he failed. Lambert Nappin, Bordsiard's father, chopped off his head with his axe. The other son of Themaart could at first escape by horse, but was caught up near 't Zand where he was also murdered. The conspirators now returned to the church to look for Wouter of Lokeren, one of Karel's advisors who at the time urged the count to restrain the Erembout family. Bordsiard and a certain Isaac, a valet of Karel's who had betrayed his master, grasped him in church, dragged him outside and beat him to death with sticks and stones.
Meanwhile Karel's body was still at the altar where he had been murdered. The Saint Donaas priests dare not touch him because the church had been dishonoured. They finally consulted and decided to hand the body over to Fromold, one of Karel's knights who had escaped the massacre, to lay it out. The body was put on a barrow in the middle of the choir, surrounded by four candlesticks with burning candles and some crying women, as was customary at the time in the church of Saint Donaas.
At the same time chaplain Berthulf and his gang discussed on how they could get their hands on the body of the count. They feared that if Karel were to be buried in Brugge, they would forever remain the subject of reproach and disgrace. They eventually decided to send someone to Gent and to ask Arnaud, the abbot of the Blandinusberg, to remove Karel's body from Saint Donaas and to bring it to Gent to bury it there.
The abbot was apparently happy in his sadness that his beloved count and a gloryful martyr would be buried in his church. He agreed to Berthulf's request and left the same, i.e. still on 2 March, on horse for Brugge where he arrived the next morning. Together with the chaplain and his nephews he had a shrine made for the count's body and took it to Gent with a horse cart.
But it went not as easy as planned. When the abbot entered the church with Berthulf's nephews and the shrine, the wailing women noticed something was not right. Some of them ran out of the church and screamed that the count's body was being stolen.
The news spread through the town like wildfire. The chaplain and abbot now tried to get the body out of the church before the whole of Brugge would be aware of what was happening. When their plan with the shrine had failed, the chaplain had a new coffin placed in front of the church door. His men-at-arms then entered the church, took the barrow it was on en carried it outside to put it in the waiting coffin. They failed again.
When they heard the news from the women, the canons of Saint Donaas came hurriedly, took the barrow and carried it with violence back to the choir. With all the commotion and seeing the large number of citizens of Brugge who were in front of the church, the chaplain had no choice but to give up his plans. He ordered to have the shrine brought to the upper ambulatory and to leave it there. A good hypocrite, he said mass the next day, i.e. on 4 March, in the church of Saint Peter, just outside Brugge, in honour of the men he had had murdered.
By all those events Berthulf and his companions no longer felt as sure of themselves as before and therefore decided to have their armourbearers man the church of Saint Donaas, which had been fortified as a fortress during the Norman raids. This way the church had become a refuge in case something went wrong.
The return of Willem of leper
As the whole Flemish country mourned for the count's death, there were a few people who were not that sad, especially Willem of leper, the illegitimate son of Robrecht de Fries' youngest son Filip. We read about him when we were talking abuot Clementia, Robrecht II's wife, and the war she had waged against Karel to make Willem of leper count. The attempt had failed but now, with Karel's death and as Karel had remained childless just like the former count Boudewijn Hapkin, Willem thought there was a new opportunity to seize the count's throne.
Already on 6 March, Willem sent messenger Godescalk Thaihals of leper to the chaplain of Brugge with the following message: "My master and close friend, lord Willem of leper, sends you and your family his regards and friendship, with the assurance of an immediate assistance to all that may be of service to you". The chaplain welcomed this message with joy and after a few secret meetings it was decided that the conspirators would acknowledge Willem as successor of Karel and as count of Flanders as soon as his nomination would come up. Furthermore they would supply him of great support against possible other candidates.
They thought this was the only solution for the chaplain and his mates to remain unpunished for their murders and other crimes. They advised the messenger to convince Willem that he had to try to immediately convince everybody in his entourage, with violence if need be, to acknowledge him as count of Flanders without reservation.
Willem liked this a lot. As soon as Thaihals returned from Brugge and conveyed the chaplain's message to Willem, he had all Flemish traders who where in Ieper for the annual fair detained and released them only if they swore loyalty to him as count of Flanders. From their side, Berthulf and his people used rich donations and generous promises to get a number of advocates who would support Willem's nomination as count if this were necessary.
At the same time he sent a letter to the bishops of Doomik and Noyon in which hes asked them to employ their ecclesiastical authority to reinstate the church of Saint Donaas, who had been dishonoured by the murder on Karel, so that it could host mass again. He also asked the citizens of Veurne, among them he had much family and many allies, to pay tribute to Willem as future count and he asked the citizens of Brugge to fortify their city should there ever be an act of revenge against them for the murder of Karel. That act of revenge came, sooner than they had expected.
The act of revenge
The day Karel was murdered and the conspirators had crossed Brugge shouting and with their swords drawn, a chamberlain of the count, called Gervaas van Praet, had fled the city after he had sworn he would avenge the murder on Karel. This man had the highest position among Karel's councillors, among the members of the count's feudal liege court and he held a rank among the most powerful barons.
So Gervaas was a powerful man with a lot of influence. He succeeded in five days to gather around thirty knights, who had been among Karel's closest friends. With this fierce army he marched already on 7 March to the conspirators.
The first target of the avengers was the small town Ravenschot, not far from Eeklo, the location of the castle of Wilfried Cnop, one of Berthulf's brothers. The castle was seized, burnt and largely destroyed. Wilfried Cnop could escape with some of his men en shortly thereafter join the chaplain in Brugge whom he informed of the disastrous news.
Gervaas now headed for Brugge, but the conspirators had closed the city gates to prevent Gervaas and his soldiers from entering the city. That was useless as Gervaas had made a pact with some citizens which stipulated that those citizens would secretly open the gates at night. They did and thus Gervaas and his soldiers entered the city. The two antagonists started a fierce fighting. Berthulf's soldiers defended themselves intensely, but had to withdraw on the Burg, the castrum of the Flemish counts. They did succeed in destroying the two bridges over the Reie (canal) that connect the Burg with the city. The traitors were now confined and the siege had started.
From all sides reinforcements arrived, among which Zeger, also
called Siger, the bailiff from Gent with his army gang, and Iwan, the
brother of Boudewijn of Aalst.
A large number of citizens, summoned by the bailiff, also joined the
besiegers. On 16 Maart appeared Petronella van Saksen,
widow to Floris I, count of Holland, with her son Diederik VI and a
mighty army of armourbearers. Petronella hoped her son would be elected
count of Flanders.
On 19 Maart the Burg was assailed. It did not go all too well because the battle lasted until 19 April when the Burg tower, where the defenders had hid themselves, was mined to have it come down. The besieged, twenty-seven in total, could only surrender in order not to be buried under the rubble. They were seized and thrown in jail, called the Loove, pending the ordeal of the king of France, Lodewijk VI, also called the fat one. We shall see further on that he had already arrived to settle the succession of the deceased count.
The punishment...
Except for Wilfried Cnop, the twenty-seven captured rebels
consisted largely of subordinates. The other ring leaders had already
taken to their heels before the fall of the stronghold. None of them
could escape the revenge.
Bordsiard had already left the Burg on 13 April and found a refuge with
a certain Beernard. The latter turned him in to the bailiff of Rijsel
who took him to Brugge. There he was sentenced to be broken on the
wheel. He remained with broken limbs on this dreadful instrument of
torture from morning till late in the evening until he died from
exhaustion.
Chaplain Berthulf managed to escape but when he sought protection with his former ally Willem of leper, the latter betrayed himw. Willem turned him in to the judicial authorities in Brugge hoping for his own rehabilitation with regard to the message he sent to the chaplain at the time to give his claim to the throne another chance. Berthulf was nude, his arms crossed on his back, tied to the jaw, and died after being tortured in an unimaginable way.
Lambert Nappin, Berthulf's brother and the father of Bordsiard, who had also escaped, was shortly after arrested in a small village not far from Brugge and was hanged at the spot.
Haket, the Brugge viscount and another of Berthulf's brothers, who had found refuge with his daughter in Lissewege, was also caught and also ended up at the gallows.
Isaac, Karel's armourbearer, who had betrayed Karel and who had murdered Karel's councillor Wouter of Lokeren together with Bordsiard, was taken prisoner by Willem of leper gevangen, was tied up at his feet, and was tied to the saddle of his horse with a rope. He was dragged like this to the Brugge marketplace where he was hanged.
Finally, Wilfried Cnop, another brother of Berthulf, had his hands tied on his back. He was terribly beaten and led to the tower of the castle where the rebels had surrendered. He was thrown from the castle and died immediately.
The other twenty-six prisoners were also brought to the tower and one after the other was thrown down. Nobody received mercy, no one had right to defence, no one survived.
Medieval jursdiction!
Karel's burial service
We saw that on the night of his death Karel's body had been taken care of by a certain Fromold. The next day the chaplain had put the body in a shrine and had it taken to the upper ambulatory of Saint Donaas. It will remain there until 20 April, when the rebel surrender and when the canons can enter the church again.
Karel's body had remained undisturbed all this time, seven weeks in total. Now was the time to solemnly bury the deceased count. French king Lodewijk VI had appointed the bishop of Doornik to organise the ceremony. He set the date for the burial on 25 April.
The canons now took the body from the shrine, wrapped it in a deer's skin, put it in a new shrine and carried it from Saint Donaas to the church of Saint Christoffel, followed by an impressive procession of bishops and abbots with the king of France leading. The body remained in the church of Saint Christoffel for three days to enable the canons to prepare the church of Saint Donaas for the burial.
On 25 April a large procession with the king, bishops, abbots and a large number of citizens went to Saint Christoffel took the count's body to Saint Donaas and put it in a marble tomb in the middle of the choir.
Thus, Karel's body found peace 53 days after his death. He will be canonized in 1884.
The king of France in Flanders
When the king of France, Lodewijk I, also called the fat one, heard about Karel's death and about the uproar that followed it, he decided to intervene in the succession dispute. As Karel had no successor, there were a large number of candidates who claimed the throne.
On 13 March the king arrived in Atrecht with a small group of knights. He immediately gathered the Flemish knights to discuss the succession and to decide who had a right to it.
There were many candidates. First of all there was Willem of leper, the former protégé of Clementia, spouse of Robrecht II. There was the young Dutch count Diederik, who was presented by his mother Petronella, widow to Floris II, the count of Holland. There was Boudewijn IV, count of Henegouwen, at the time driven away from Flanders by Robrecht de Fries. There was Amaud of Denmark, cousin of the deceased count. And, finally, there also was Diederik van de Elzas, son of Diederik, the duke of Upper Lorraine and grandson via his mother of Robrecht de Fries.
It is noteworthy that Diederik of Holland, Boudewijn IV and Diederik van de Elzas were all princes of the German empire and claimed the throne of Flanders which was a fief of the French king.
Aside from these five candidates, Lodewijk also had his own candidate: Willem of Normandy, later called Willem Clito or Guillaume Cliton (i.e. son of king or prince), the son of Robert of Normandy, who had locked up his brother Henry I, king of England, in 1106 and who will die in 1134. Lodewijk VI had then taken young Willem in custody to curtail Henry I's ambitions. So Willem was the grandson of Mathilde, the oldest daughter of the Flemish count Boudewijn V, who had married William the Conqueror in 1053. Lodewijk VI claimed that this descent gave him the right to the Flemish throne. Furthermore he could be a trustworthy ally in case of another war with England.
The talks lasted until 23 March and, according to the feudal laws of that time, consisted of two stages. The first stage was called the designatio, the stage where the king suggests a candidate in this case Willem of Normandy. The second stage was called the electio, where the meeting approved the suggested candidacy. This was in fact more a consensus than an electio, as the latter had nothing to do with an election. It was just a confirmation of the king's designatio.
Thus Willem Clito got the Flemish throne but he had no power yet. Two candidates who had not even been allowed to speak, protested against Clito's appointment. The first protestor, Willem of leper, disputed the king's choice by occupying Veurne, Cassel, Aire, and Sint-Winoks-Bergen. Lodewijk VI, joined by Gervaas van Praet and accompanied by Willem Clito, marched with a well armed army to leper and besieged the city. This did not last long. The citizens of leper, absolutely not pleased with the treacherous Willem who had used force in the past to have them acknowledge him as count of Flanders, opened the city gates. Lodewijk and his soldiers went entered the city and captured the surprised Willem. Without much fuss he was brought to Rijsel and put into the local prison.
Seal of Lodewijk VI, king of France
A second rival candidate who did not agree with Clito's election, was Boudewijn IV, the count of Henegouwen, greatgrandson of the notorious Richildis. He was irritated by Clito's appointment and to get rid of his anger, he attacked Oudenaarde and burned the city, after which he returned to Mons fearing an action of revenge by Lodewijk. We will not hear from him again until Willem Clito's death. This Willem Clito is now the undisputed count of Flanders.
Bibliography:
1. DUCLOS, Ad. "Karel den Goede", Uitg. De Zuttere-Van Kersschaver,
Brugge 1884.
2. LE GLAY, Edward. "Histoir de comtes de Flandre", Brussel
1843 blz. 246
3. GANSHOF, L. "Vlaanderen onder de eerste graven", UitG. Standaard
1944.
4. GANSHOF, L. "Le roi de France en Flandre en 1127 et 1128", Uitg.
Librairie du Recueil Sirey, Parijs 1949.