The history of Flanders - Chapter 14
The short rule of Willem Clito, 14th count of Flanders
Written by: Charles
Vanderhaegen - slightly modified and translated by Herman Boel - Edited
by David Baeckelandt July 2008
Published with kind permission of Charles Vanderhaegen.
Willem Clito is recognized as count of Flanders
On 13 March 1127 the king of France, Lodewijk VI, also called "the Fat one", comes to Atrecht to have a successor elected to the throne after the death of Karel den Goede who had been murdered on 2 March. Karel had remained childless and therefore had no direct successor. As there were many candidates, the Flemish knights were invited to gather in Atrecht to discuss the succession to the throne.
The discussions lasted until 23 March and after a long procedure according to the feudal laws of that time came the electio (election) of Willem Clito, also called Willem of Normandy as candidate count of Flanders.
After this royal and knightly appointment, the municipalities also had to give their approval before the candidate could permanently claim the title of count of Flanders. Already on 27 March the city of Brugge started with the preparations of the ceremony for the final election. Not only the citizens of Brugge but also the Flemish people of the surrounding areas were invited to attend the ceremony. The priests came with their fiertels on which the most important citizens of the city had to take an oath by which they committed themselves to choose this candidate who "would rule the county in a useful way and who would defend the rights of the county against its enemies with determination".
Three
days later the knights returned from Atrecht and gathered in Brugge
where they were welcomed with cheer and bell sounds. Without wasting
much time, they went to the field outside Brugge where everything had
been set up for the ceremony and where a large number of citizens had
gathered to hear the knights' report of the Atrecht discussions.
A certain Walter, who had been the Schenker (Pourer) (*)
of Karel den Goede and who had been part of the group of knights that
had participated in the election of Willem Clito in Atrecht,
got
up to speak after, according to tradition, he had held up the letters
with royal seals of the king of France to show the crowd that
the
message he brought indeed came from the king. The message was as
follows:
"Listen, dear citizens, to what the king and barons, after thorough and careful investigation, have decided. The princes of Frans and the senior citizens of Flanders, after having heard the king, have chosen as count for your country: the young Willem of Normandy, noble by descent and filled with courage... In accordance with this decision I not only ask you, but also recommend you to accept in all sincerity Willem, chosen by the king and the Flemish knights as count of Flanders, also as your count. I also add to say to you in name of the king and his people that he, in good faith, as count from now on abandons his right to collect ground levy and allowance in hard money".
(*) Schenker (Pourer) = The schenker was someone of noble blood who had the right to pour out the wine at the princely table in a royal house. The word "schenker" is a Flemish purism. The right word is "boutillier" or °échanson", which is derived from the medieval Latin scantio, which means schenken (to pour).
After hearing this message, the most important citizens of the city, who had taken an oath of loyalty, gathered to decide whether they would acknowledge the proposed candidate as count or not. In order to ensure a general consensus, twenty nobles were sent to Gent to get to know the opinion of the citizens there.
Meanwhile,
the king, accompanied by Willem, had left Atrecht and
travelled
via Rijsel where the citizens had sworn loyalty to the proposed count.
They arrived in Brugge on 4 April.
The next day, i.e. on 5 April, a
procession led by the king and consisting of Willem, their knight, the
Flemish barons, the sworn citizens, some priests
of Saint Donaas, and another group of citizens of
lesser
importance, went to the field outside of the city where everything had
been prepared.
Right after the most important of them had gone onto the platform, the two royal charters were being read out loud. The first charter gave the priests of Saint Donaas the right to choose their own chaplain, i.e. without any say from the count or anyone else. The second charted confirmed what Walter had already announced in his message: that the count had abandoned his right on tax for the transportation of goods and the ground tax. The latter meant that the ground of Brugge, which had so far been in the private possession of the count, now became the possession of the citizens, or at least of the wealthiest among them. Furthermore the citizens of Brugge and Gent were free of tolls.
Once
these charters had been read aloud, both the king and young William
swore that they would uphold the clauses in the charters "in
good faith, honest and sincere, without craft or deceit".
This
was followed by a short consultation between the Flemish barons and
citizens, which ended with the acceptance of Willem as 14th count of
Flanders. This happened somewhat reluctantly, because not all barons
were satisfied with the nomination but accepted it anyway, rather out
of necessity than sympathy, because for now they could not come up with
a better solution.
In any case, young Willem of Normandy thus became Count of Flanders, protected by the French king, possibly out of affection, but surely because the king thought this appointment would turn Flanders into a strong ally against the English king Henry I. You will remember that this English king had confined his brother Robert in Cardiff castle after his return from the crusades, and that he had seized his county of Normandy unlawfully at the expense of Willem, Robert's son, and to the irritation of the French king.
Lodewijk the Fat one still hoped, possibly with the help of the county of Flanders, to drive away the English from Normandy, but, as we shall see further on, he did not succeed. Normandy will remain English until 1468.
On 5 April 1127 Willem Clito is recognized as 14th count of
Flanders by the Flemish barons and citizens.
Another murder
As Willem had become count of Flanders and as the murder on Karel den Goede had been avenged, the French king decided he no longer needed to stay in Flanders. He had obtained what he wanted: Willem was now count and had to sort things himself.
The king and his retinue left Brugge on 6 May 1127 and, an interesting detail, also took Robert Haket with him. This Robert Haket, son of Haket, the viscount of Brugge who was involved in the plot against Karel den Goede and who had been hanged in Lissewege. Robert had not participated himself in the murder, but as the son of one of the most important conspirors, the king judged that he also had to be eliminated. He had counted on the support of the citizens of Brugge, but did not get it because Robert had not acted personally nor jointly with the conspirors against Karel. This had provided Robert with quite some sympathy among his fellow citizens.
The king held another opinion and therefore decided to deal with this matter personally. He wanted to impose his will at any expense and did this in a very unknightly manner. The king had asked Robert to accompany him, with the pretext of taking him to France. A few miles outside the city he ordered the soldiers to tie Robert's feet under their horses, to do an about-turn and to hand him over to the executioner in Brugge where he was decapitated the very same day.
Royal jurisdiction. Willem pressed for money.
After having accompanied the French king to the border of the county, Willem returns to Brugge and immediately has all people questioned who were closely or remotely involved in the storming of the Burg. This interrogation fitted in the disappearance of the treasure of the late Karel. It was assumed to be considerable and someone must have robbed it from the count's personal quarters without anyone noticing.
No matter how much was searched, there was no trace of the treasure. Until now it is a mystery what has happened with a treasure. In any case there was no treasure now and Willem, who was not particularly rich, even poor to knightly standards, had to find other means to solve his financial problems.
To do this, he had to consolidate his power and restore peace in the country. He started by transferring his most dangerous opponent, Willem of leper, whom he had captured during the storming of the city and whom he had locked up in the Lille prison, to Brugge where he was again locked up under heavy guard in the tower of the Burg.
Peace settled in again and for a while nothing special happened thanks to which Willem's authority got stronger and he was no longer looked at with suspicion by the citizens of Brugge and surrounding areas which was the case during his election. Of course this did not solve his financial problems, but it gave him the false idea that the citizens would now obediently listen to him.
Willem had spent the largest part of his youth in Flanders, but he had no experience with ruling a country and he did not realise that there had been profound changes in recent years in the development of the cities. He behaved like a dictator who could afford anything and he did not take into account the particularly comprehensive rights the cities had received at the expense of the count's power during Boudewijn Hapkin's and Karel den Goede's rule.
When his financial position became hopeless, he could only think of levying taxes and tollage, even though he had sworn at his election to abandon them forever. As far as we know, the citizens or at least the largest part of them refused to pay these unjustified taxes which led Willem to objectionable practices. He started to sell offices and dignities for hard cash, not taking into account the required competence. It went even so far that he gave robbers and other criminals the right to buy off their punishment for money.
Revolt!
This could only go completely wrong. The expected revolt against Willem started in the month of August (1127) by a strange event that occurred in Rijsel during the Saint Peter festivities. Willem and his retinue were on the market where Willem had his soldiers detain a serf for an unknown reason. In that time serfs had a non free status which found its juridical foundation in the personal bond to a master. So a serf was linked to a master and could only be handed over to another master by his/her own master. Willem in fact committed a theft which not only led to general indignation from the citizens, but also incited them to undo this unlawful deed.
Willem had barely returned to his residence or he was besieged by a crowd of angry citizens. His servants were grabbed and assaulted but Willem himself could escape the violence by fleeing hastily. Willem experienced this as a terrible insult which he could not leave unpunished, and he didn't. A few days later he returned to Rijsel with a group of soldiers and succeeded in having the surprised citizens pay 1400 silver marks as compensation for what they had done to him.
This was only the beginning. On 3 February (1128) also Saint Omaars rebelled, but the revolt was heavily punished when Willem entered the city with his soldiers and, just as in Rijsel, had the citizens pay him a substantial amount of silver marks. From Saint Omaars he had to go to Gent where there was also a rebellion. The citizens from Gent, however, had prepared themselves for the coming of Willem and they had appointed two mighty lords of Flanders, Daniel of Dendermonde and Iwan of Aalst, to lead the resistance against Willem.
When Willem arrived at the gates of the city, he was met by Iwan of Aalst who spoke to him as follows: "Everybody knows, lord count, what violence you have brought onto the citizens of Rijsel and Saint Omaars and that you want to do the same to the citizens of Gent.. If you are prepared to relinquish your plan and to rule the land without dishonouring it, we are prepared to keep you as count. Should you, however, refuse this offer, we demand that you leave the country. We shall then hand over the rule of the county to another man, someone capable and worthy to rule".
In fact, Willem now had the opportunity to mend earlier mistakes, but he did not seize it. On the contrary, instead of being obliging, he challenged Iwan to a duel. Iwan refused with the words: "There is no reason to fight. Let us convene peacefully in Ieper in five days to settle this dispute".
What Willem probably did not know, was that Iwan was so self-assured because he had a secret promise from the English king Henry I to aid Flanders militarily against the enemy in case of war.
But even if he had known, it would not have made any difference to the stubborn Willem. As Iwan had proposed, he came to Ieper, but not with peaceful intentions as he had the city entirely occupied by his soldiers in order of battle. When Iwan and Daniel appeared before Ieper on the agreed date and watched the military spectacle, they sent Willem the message that they no longer recognized him as count due to him breaking his word. They then returned to Gent.
The rift was now complete, but another thing happened. The man Iwan had referred to without name in his speech to Willem before the gates of Gent, was Diederik van den Elzas, son of Diederik II, duke of Upper Lorraine, and Gertrudis, daughter of Robrecht de Fries. We have seen that Diederik was one of the candidates to become count after the death of Karel den Goede but did not succeed because of Willem Clito. Besides, Diederik had already come to Gent by request of the citizens of Brugge to join them in their fight against Willem.
The citizens of Saint Omaars had already nominated their candidate, namely Aarnout of Denemarken, son of Ingertha, the sister of Karel and therefore his nephew. He had also been one of the six candidates but had been refused by the king just like Diederik.
The end
Willem had no story against a population that was fully against him and two candidates who wanted to take over his position. Yet, he did not give up and looked for anyone who was willing to be at his side. He released Willem of leper (whom he had locked in the Burg of Brugge). This was of not much use. As soon as Willem of Ieper returned in his city, they citizens, who only wanted to recognize Diederik as count, drove him away. Willem of leper has been of no value whatsoever to Willem Clito. Besides, after the death of the latter, Willem of Ieper will yield to Diederik and swear loyalty to him.
Abandoned by everybody and at his wits' end, he asked the king of France for help. The king agreed and came with a small army to Atrecht where he received a delegation of the Flemish knights who told him frankly that they no longer recognized Willem Clito as count of Flanders because he had committed purgery. They also shocked Louis by declaring that they "explicitly deny him the right to appoint a new count for the available throne". This was clearly a declaration of independence towards France. The king protested for a while and also besieged Rijsel, which failed completely, and eventually returned to France.
Willem succeeded in taking Saint Omaars and made Aarnoud of Denemarken swear that he would give up his ambitions to become count of Flanders for good. Aarnoud then returned to Denmark and disappeared from the scene of battle.
This had been Willem's last victory. On 27 July 1128 his army engaged the Flemish army, led by Diederik, at the gates of Aalst. Willem headed his army tempestuously and fearlessly against the hated enemy but was struck in the back by an arrow of a certain Nicasius Borluut while a spear of another soldier pierced his chest.
On 27 July 1128 Willem Clito is cut down in battle before the
gates of Aalst.
This was the end of Willem Clito, the 14th count of Flanders, after barely 16 months of rule. He had to leave the throne to his enemy Diederik van den Elzas.
Bibliography:
1. GANSHOF, L. "Vlaanderen onder de eerste graven", Uitg. Standaard
1944.
2. LE GLAY, Edward. "Histoire de comtes de Flandre", Brussel
1843