Luke Casalius

ON SAINT LUKE CASALIUS, ABBOT OF AGIRA IN SICILY.

Preliminary Commentary.

Luke Casalius, Abbot of Agira in Sicily (Saint)

[1] Luke Casalius is venerated with ecclesiastical worship by the citizens of Nicosia and of Agira in Sicily: the former because they consider him born in their city; the latter because they had him as Abbot of the monastery of Saint Philip, famous for miracles, enrolled him among the saints of heaven, and have preserved his sacred body until now. Nicosia, Saint Luke born at Nicosia, or Nicosinum, is a populous and large town in the inland territory of the Val Demone, which Lombards and Gauls, as Fazellus testifies in his work on Sicilian affairs, Book 10 of the first decade, brought to Sicily with Count Roger, inhabited promiscuously, and its inhabitants still use the speech of both nations, albeit corruptly. That not far from Nicosia there are remains of a most ancient city, or at Herbita: the neighboring peoples attest, asserts Octavius Caietanus in the Life of this Saint, and it is believed that Nicosia was built from the stones of that ancient city, and that it was Herbita, mentioned by Cicero, Pliny, Diodorus Siculus, Ptolemy, and other authors; which they affirm was the homeland of Saint Luke according to ancient verses placed next to his image, which cannot even be read in their entirety:

Cities exult in their citizens; Herbita more, famous for its Saint Luke Casalius, its own illustrious native. Mocked by his brothers ... the orphan proclaims When the end is made, Amen, a new thing, the stones resound.

The same Caietanus, because in the Acts below he is said to have been born at Nicosia, reports in his Sicilian Martyrology at this day the following: At Nicosia, of Saint Luke the Abbot, Venerated on March 2, surnamed Casalius, of the Order of Saint Benedict, and adds that he is venerated with the permission of the Apostolic See. Menard transcribes Caietanus's Martyrology in his Benedictine Martyrology. Rocco Pirro in Book 3 of his Sacred Sicily, first notice, also indicates that his feast day is more solemnly celebrated on March 2 among his fellow Nicosians with papal permission. A church erected to him: The Acts to be given below add that a church was established by the Nicosians for their citizen Saint Luke, at the place where he had preached a sermon while the stones cried out.

[2] In the same district of Sicily, another city not very far from ancient Herbita and modern Nicosia is Agira, set upon a very lofty and pointed hill of the Val di Noto; which Cicero, Ptolemy, and other ancients have mentioned. In Stephanus's work On Cities it is written Agyrena: Abbot of the monastery of Saint Philip at Agira: whence the common modern name Agira seems to be derived. In the Acts below, Saint Luke is said to have been brought to Argyrium, to the monastery of Saint Philip. There is, says Fazellus in the already cited Book 10, at Agira a church of Saint Philip, most celebrated for the frequency of miracles and so renowned for the concourse of people that the very city has commonly derived from it the name of Saint Philip. Saint Philip, as the tables of the Roman Martyrology attest at May 12, was sent by the Roman Pontiff to that island and converted a great part of it to Christ. The rest, concerning the time of Saint Philip's mission, will need to be examined in his Acts. We read below in the Acts that the body of Saint Luke is kept in the same chest with Saint Philip the Priest. But Caietanus, Pirro, and others report another Philip the Deacon, born at Palermo, a disciple of the former, to whom perhaps the body of Saint Luke was joined. Certainly if Pirro is to be believed, in the upper chamber were found the bodies of Blessed Philip the Younger, a Deacon, of the monk Eusebius, and of the Abbot Luke; which from July 25 of the year 1596 began to be exposed for veneration in a nobler place. In it the body was elevated in 1596: In the same year, on January 21, in the lower chamber,

the sacred body of Saint Philip was unexpectedly found, and on July 15 of the year 1617 it was enclosed in a silver chest with solemn ceremony. So writes Pirro, who then, presenting a compendium of the Life of Saint Luke, narrates things which nearly all pertain to Saint Leo Luke, whose Acts we gave on the Kalends of March: such as the parents Leo and Theotistis, the eightieth year of monastic profession, the hundredth year of age, the Abbot Theodore appointed as successor, and Euthymius given to him as an assistant.

[3] A monk, a man worthy of his name, Bonus, is said below to have written the Life of Saint Luke: Life written: but we do not believe it has been found to date. Caietanus published the compendium of the Life which we give from Nicosian manuscripts written by hand, but, he says, written in barbarous language, and for that reason somewhat polished by him. Gabriel Bucelin in his Benedictine Menology presents another compendium of the Life, into which he inserted the encomium of Saint Leo Luke, Abbot of Mulea, the very same which we published on the Kalends of March from Lessons translated from the Greek, from Ferrarius, having supposed them to be one and the same man, This is wonderfully confused by Bucelin with the Acts of Saint Leo Luke: and that this Saint Luke, Abbot at Agira, died in the monastery of Saint Philip, and that Saint Leo Luke died in Hither Calabria, whose body, subsequently translated to the city of Monteleone, is preserved there to this day, just as the sacred bones of this holy Abbot Luke are exposed for veneration at Agira in his monastery. About these Bucelin thus begins: At Nicosia, of Saint Luke the Abbot, that is, of whom we treat here. Leo, who is also Luke (namely the Abbot in Calabria), surnamed Casalius, formerly Abbot in Sicily. Born at Corleone in Sicily of Christian and honorable parents, etc. — which, along with twenty-six lines that do not pertain here, are copied from the Life of the said Saint Leo Luke, or certainly piously drawn from it, such as these words: He was a great consolation to all who came to him, and he sent no one away from himself sad. Then, after narrating the miracles of Saint Leo Luke, he returns to this holy Abbot with these words: He reached a decrepit age, and finally, blinded by a film over his eyes, etc., down to the words: Holy Father, pray for us — which are given presently in the Life of Saint Luke the Abbot in Sicily. But what follows: When he had reached the hundredth year of age — down to the words: a fragrance of scent filling the cell — must be assigned from here to Saint Leo Luke in Calabria. Then the following is read: He was enrolled by the Supreme Pontiff in the number of the Saints, in whose honor the Nicosians built a church at the place called Amen — which from the above is certainly pertinent here; but the following pertains to Saint Leo Luke: And his memory is held celebrated in the city of Monteleone and the entire diocese of Mileto, and especially at Corleone. Behold what great confusion of matters, in confirmation of which Bucelin adds that he has the following from Sicilian records of Marchesius, Const. Caiet., Octav. Caiet., Philip. Ferrar., Hugh Menard, and the Annals of the great Benedictines. We omit these Annals of Bucelin lest the reader be overwhelmed with tedium; the words of Menard and Ferrarius in his General Catalog, both of whom distinguish the two, we have given both on the preceding day and on this one, together with the already cited Lessons translated from the Greek and published by the same Ferrarius in the Catalog of Saints of Italy, but which concern only Saint Leo-Luke. Octavius Caietanus, besides the Idea of Sicilian Saints published by him, had prepared two volumes recently published by Peter Salerno; which Constantinus Caietanus, brother of Octavius, had long kept in his possession. Marchesius was a subject and study companion of the Abbot Constantinus, and the heir of his many writings, which after the latter's death Bucelin obtained, and perhaps among them the Life of Saint Luke copied from the books of Octavius, because this one was believed to have been of the Order of Saint Benedict, and Saint Leo Luke to belong to the monks of Saint Basil.

[4] In what age or under what ruler Saint Luke flourished, Octavius Caietanus laments that neither from the author of the Life can it be ascertained, The time when he lived is uncertain; nor could he explore it by any other means. What if he lived in the city of Herbita, not yet destroyed, before the incursion of the Saracens? Then he would more conveniently have obtained the same burial as the monk Saint Eusebius, having professed the regular discipline of Saint Basil at approximately the same times, as the above-cited Pirro notes about Eusebius. But since the Acts report that he was born in the town of Nicosia, and that Saint Luke was brought to Nicosia in his old age to console his relatives and kinsmen, Octavius Caietanus considers that he lived after Count Roger founded Nicosia — if indeed it was then founded, since Fazellus only says that Lombards and Gauls, brought to Sicily with Count Roger, inhabited it promiscuously. Why should the manuscript Benedictine Chronicle, written around the year 1483, found in the same Octavius, volume 2, page 32, not be considered to treat of this Saint, in these words? Saint Luke, Abbot of the monastery of Saint Philip at Agira, located in Sicily, a man of admirable holiness, on the Kalends of March according to Usuard (or certainly the Martyrology of Usuard there augmented) departed to heaven — perhaps written as the day after the Kalends of March. The same Octavius lists this holy Abbot Luke in the Chronological Index at the year 800. So much for the time, whence it remains equally doubtful to which Order he should be assigned. Rocco Pirro, Abbot of Noto, at the frequently cited passage writes the following about Agira: as well as to which Order he belonged. That church, built in the form of a Cross by Belisarius and dedicated to Saint Philip, now collapsed, is being restored with new buildings and augmented with a monastery of Basilian monks. On the contrary, Octavius thinks that from the time of Count Roger that monastery was inhabited by Benedictine monks; to whom, if they shed greater light on this history, posterity will owe thanks.

LIFE

Extracted from manuscripts by Octavius Caietanus and published in a more polished style.

Luke Casalius, Abbot of Agira in Sicily (Saint)

BHL Number: 4979

[1] Luke, surnamed Casalius, was born in the town of Nicosia. Saint Luke Casalius born at Nicosia: From his earliest age he devoted himself to letters, educated under a venerable man who was the head of the monastery of Saint Philip at Agira, who at that time was residing in the suburb of Nicosia called Saint Michael. In his tenth year he was brought by the same master to the monastery of Saint Philip at Agira, A monk at Agira, where, ardently desiring to devote himself to God, he took the monastic habit.

[2] As a youth, having earned the good will of all by nothing but the highest virtues, A Priest, he shines with virtues and miracles: and pleasing both God and the monks, he was enrolled among the Priests. In the Priest such qualities of character and piety of soul shone forth that all accordingly ran to him as to a Father; whom he not only consoled with his words but also assisted with signs and sent away; nor did he suffer anyone to depart from him sad.

[3] From this it came about that no one else, with the willing approval and especially the earnest desire of all, passed to the headship of the monastery; but when the Abbot died, Luke was chosen by the burning votes and zeal of the monks to succeed in his place. He reluctantly accepts the headship of the monastery: He alone, out of his modesty, resisted and protested that he was not worthy of that honor. Therefore, as he stubbornly refused the office entrusted to him, that community of monks referred the matter to the Supreme Pontiff; to whose will Luke, being obedient, He becomes blind: accepted the headship of the monastery even against his will. While he administered it with great praise, he was deprived of his sight by a film over his eyes, so that the virtues of the holy Abbot might be tested by God through the affliction of blindness.

[4] One day Luke was returning from Nicosia, where he had been brought to console his relatives and kinsmen. He goes to Nicosia: By chance on the road a desire to mock the old man seized the monks who were his companions of the journey. Having left the town, Deceived by the monks, they stop beside a spring; they give mocking words to the blind man and persuade him that a multitude of townspeople is following, drawn by the desire to hear the Abbot preaching; let him therefore ascend the nearest hill and feed the people, eager for the word of life. The pious man readily obeys; He preaches with no one present, but God, showing that He was mocked in the mocking of one who bore His vicarious office, by one and the same deed both rebuked the monks' license and demonstrated the holiness of His servant Luke.

[5] For when he had preached to the people standing around him, as he had been persuaded to believe, The stones responding Amen: after he had finished speaking and concluded his address with the customary formula, "Through all ages of ages," all the surrounding stones responded, "Amen, Amen." The monks, terrified by the so dreadful voice, fell down; then on bended knees they cried out: Holy Father, pray to God for us, against whom we have sinned by mocking you. To those begging pardon he kindly answered: May God forgive you, my sons.

[6] Then, mounting their mules, they resumed their journey; and when the monks arrived at the monastery of Agira, He returns to Agira: they freely spread abroad the miracle that had happened, extolling God and the holiness of the old man; indeed they so corrected themselves for the better that whenever they began a conversation with the Abbot, they would always say: Holy Father, pray for us.

[7] The old man dies. Luke departed to the Lord in a good old age, on the 6th of the Nones of March, in the monastery of Saint Philip at Agira. His body is preserved there in the same chest with Saint Philip the Priest. He was enrolled in the number of the Saints by the Supreme Pontiff, at the earnest request of the town of Agira. A monk, a man worthy of his name, Bonus, wrote the Life of Blessed Luke; but the Nicosians, wishing to honor their homeland and their fellow citizen, established a church to Saint Luke at the place where he had preached his sermon while the stones cried out, which would proclaim the prodigy to posterity, to the glory of God, who reigns through all ages.

ON BLESSED CHARLES THE GOOD, COUNT OF FLANDERS, MARTYR, IN THE YEAR 1127

Preliminary Commentary.

Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, Martyr (Blessed)

Section I. The Life of Blessed Charles written by contemporary and other authors. His name inscribed in the Martyrologies. Bones elevated.

[1] At Bruges, the most celebrated city of the Flemish, in the year 1127, on the 2nd of March, the Blessed Martyr Charles the Good fell, Marquis or Count of that most noble province, slain by certain seditious men in the church of Saint Donatian; whose virtue the Divine clemency immediately showed to be more eminent to the world by miracles performed at his body; Blessed Charles was slain in the time of Simon, Bishop of Tournai, whence many Princes of Flanders hastened as quickly as possible to avenge the most wicked murder. The territories of Flanders were at that time subject in ecclesiastical governance chiefly to the Bishops of Tournai and Thérouanne. The former of these, who was simultaneously Bishop of Noyon, was named Simon, son of Hugh the Great, brother of Philip I, King of the French; and Simon's cousin was Louis VI, called the Fat, who then ruled France, descended from the same grandfather, King Henry I. In Galbert, below in the Life of Blessed Charles, number 38, Simon the Bishop is said to be the brother of the wife of Charles the Good, brother of the latter's wife; namely a uterine brother. For his mother Adelaide, or Aleidis, after the death at Tarsus in Cilicia on October 18 in the year 1102 of Hugh the Great, her first husband, married again Rainald, Count of Clermont, and bore him Margaret, who was afterward taken as wife by Charles the Good.

The royal family of Charles the Good is explained below in the Acts.

[2] The other Bishop, who presided over the Church of Thérouanne, was Blessed John, and of Blessed John, Bishop of the Morini: a man distinguished for outstanding holiness and learning, who departed this mortal flesh on January 27 in the year 1130, whose illustrious Acts, written by a contemporary author, we published on that day. At the command of this blessed Bishop, Walter, a Canon of the same Church of Thérouanne, and in dignity, as is read after the Acts themselves in the ancient Codices, an Archdeacon, and himself formerly an intimate of Blessed Charles, wrote with great judgment the lineage, life, death, and vengeance of Count Charles. In the manuscript Universal Chronicle of Theodoric Pauli of Gorinchem he is called Walter, Priest of Bruges. At his command the Life was written by Walter the Archdeacon, He himself asserts below in the Life, number 29, that he was summoned from Ypres at the command of Count Charles, and was present with him on the third of the Kalends of March, that is, three days before the murder; and at number 40 he narrates what he had received from the Count himself on the same day in conversation about his feeling and desire for martyrdom. Since, however, he had not been at Bruges when the holy Count was slain, at number 45 he calls God to witness that what he reported about his death and miracles he learned from certain knowledge, on the testimony of the religious man Lord Helias, Dean of Bruges, of Frumold, Provost of Furnes, and of other Clerics and Laymen who affirmed that they had seen these things. And at number 56 he asserts that he learned from the report of a Cleric, summoned by Bertulf the Provost, when he was departing for Ypres. And at number 70 he says that most of those who were present, truthful and religious men, testified to him when he inquired, of whom one, namely Absalon, Abbot of Saint Amand, he deemed worthy to be named on account of his merits of holiness. He continued the narrative of those events which, as he writes at the end before the Epilogue, were completed within about two months after the death of the Count. It appears that Walter published this Life written by him within the months immediately following the death. A few months after the murder,

He frequently mentions William of Ypres, born of Count Philip, son of Robert the Frisian, whom at number 73 he only reports, upon being accepted by King Louis of France and William the Norman as Count of Flanders, to have been commended to the Castellan of Lille for safekeeping, which was done on April 27; but he passes over in silence the fact that the same William was brought captive to Bruges around September 9, as Galbert writes in the other Life, number 131. We give this Life from the very ancient manuscript codices of the Cathedral Church of Saint Donatian at Bruges and of the Abbey of the Dunes, and another manuscript of our own, and we have collated it Published from manuscripts. with the one which in the year 1615 Jacques Sirmond published at Paris from the library of Sainte-Marie d'Igny, but without naming himself; to whom meanwhile Philip Alegambe in the Library of the Society of Jesus, Valerius Andreas in the Belgian Library, Aubert Miraeus in the Belgian Calendar, Anthony Sander in his work on the Saints of Flanders, and others, ascribe that edition. The same Life exists in the manuscript Hagiologium of the library of Rouge-Cloître of the Canons Regular near Brussels, and in a manuscript codex of the monastery of Saint Martin at Tournai.

[3] A second Life of Blessed Charles was composed by Galbert of Bruges, both the public Notary of his city and in most things an eyewitness, whom we gather to have observed everything in person with the utmost diligence from what another Life was written by Galbert, Notary of Bruges, he writes at number 59 in these words: Amid the dangers of so many nights and the conflicts of so many days, since I, Galbert, had no place for writing, I noted down the summary of events on tablets, until, awaiting some respite of night or day, I should arrange the present description according to the course of events, and as you see and read, being in a tight spot, I faithfully transcribed it. An eyewitness, Nor did I note what individuals were doing, on account of the confusion and endlessness; but only this I noted with attentive mind: what was gathered together in the common siege by public decree and deed for the battle and its cause, and to this, as if against my will, I forced myself to commit it to writing. That similar Notaries held great authority with the Counts at that time is clear from what is narrated in this Life, numbers 31 and following, about the Notary Fromald; whom a charter published by Miraeus in his Description of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 139, indicates as having subscribed in the year 1130, among the more illustrious men, to a donation made by Thierry of Alsace to the monastery of Quercetum. We give this Life from a most ancient manuscript codex which we have, written either in Galbert's own time or not long afterward, It exists in various manuscripts. and we have collated it with a double Bruges manuscript. Another manuscript codex was held by André Duchesne, from which he cites very many passages in his Genealogical History of the families of Guînes, Ardres, Ghent, and Calais, published by him in the year 1631. The same codex was subsequently held by Olivier Vredius and he frequently used it in his Genealogy of the Counts of Flanders, and it is now preserved at Ypres in the possession of his son-in-law Jean-Baptiste Bonart, Syndic of that city, from which I arranged for certain passages to be collated. The same Life was once translated into French, a manuscript codex of which Pieter Schrijver testifies he has in his library, in his work on the Princes of Holland engraved in copper and illustrated with commentaries of ancient authors, Also translated into French, and he transcribes some passages on page 42 from, he says, the trustworthy account of Galbert of Bruges, an eyewitness, who faithfully carries out the life and death of Charles the Good in a particular booklet. However, that he thinks Galbert wrote in the French language, we less approve, since the polish of language which shines in the part transcribed by him does not seem to have been of that century, especially among the Flemish, who were foreign to French. Moreover, the most ancient and very numerous codices are in the Latin language, in which we do not doubt he wrote, as at that time public Acts were accustomed to be composed by Notaries. This history is carried forward, as is said at number 25, through the divisions of days and deeds which were done on those very days, down to the death of William the Norman. up to the vengeance noted at the end of the little work. On account of which words, those things might seem to have been added afterward by the author, which are narrated about the defection of the Flemish from Count William the Norman and the election of Thierry of Alsace and the various wars waged on both sides up to the death of William; which we would prefer to omit, since they do not so much pertain to Blessed Charles, if they existed printed elsewhere. But since some excerpts from them are cited by André Duchesne and Olivier Vredius, and we ourselves shall bring forward some below, so that a correct account of the Straten family may be had, we give it complete, so that the reader may drink in a full knowledge of the events.

[4] There flourished at the same time as Count Charles the Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis near Paris, created in the year 1123, A compendium of the Life from Suger, who died in the year 1152. From his pen we have the Acts of Louis the Fat, King of the French, into which he inserts a compendium of the events in the death of Blessed Charles and the vengeance taken, published in nearly the same words in the Supplement to Aimoin, Book 5, chapter 51, which we place below before the other already indicated major Acts. We have besides an ancient Rhyme, An ancient Rhyme in manuscripts. in which a Lamentation on the death of Count Charles and its vengeance is contained, which the aforementioned Jacques Sirmond found in a very ancient codex, copied it, and transmitted it from Paris to Antwerp in the year 1634. There are also some epitaphs formerly composed about Blessed Charles, and printed by Jacques Meyerus in Book 4 of his Annals of Flanders.

[5] The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Canute, King of Denmark, was described a few years after his death by Aelnoth, a monk of Canterbury, Another Life by a certain anonymous author published at Copenhagen: which, printed at Copenhagen at the beginning of this century, was again accurately corrected and illustrated with his annotations, and published also at Copenhagen in the year 1631 by Johannes Meursius. To this Life of Saint Canute in the manuscript codex was joined the Passion of Saint Charles, Count of Flanders, called the son of Canute, and it was also twice printed with it. Its author is anonymous and perhaps Danish, certainly not sufficiently familiar with French, Flemish, and even English families. Meursius did not observe those errors of the writer, a man more learned in Greek antiquity than in the histories of these regions, as we have elsewhere observed concerning Danish affairs. For the rest, we omit those Acts, lest the volume grow, since the curious Reader can read them in print.

[6] Compendiums in the manuscript Chronicles of John of Ypres: About three hundred years ago there lived John of Ypres, Abbot of Saint-Bertin in the city of Saint-Omer, who, delighting in historical study, composed a Chronicle of his monastery, which we have in manuscript. In chapter 41, part 2, he treats of the life and death of Blessed Charles and adds certain benefits conferred on his monastery not indicated by others; and of the monastery of Saint Andrew at Bruges: which, omitting the rest, we annotate to the first Life, as also those things narrated differently in the manuscript Chronicle of the monastery of Saint Andrew at Bruges. Arnold Bostius, a Carmelite of Ghent, who was counted among the learned Belgians two hundred years ago, The testimony of Bostius, in his book On the Patronage of the Most Blessed Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, chapter 7, calls Charles a Martyr, the son of Canute, King and Martyr of the Danes, the shield of the just, the sword against the wicked, who consecrated the first-fruits of his service to Jesus Christ in defending Jerusalem, the mother of the New and Old Testaments and the workshop of our salvation.

[7] The author of the manuscript Florarium of the Saints records Count Charles among other Saints with this encomium: In Flanders, at the town of Bruges, the deposition of Blessed Charles the Martyr, Count of Flanders, Encomium in the Florarium of the Saints. son of Blessed Canute the Martyr, illustrious King of Denmark, father of the poor and most devout protector of the churches; who, around the year of salvation one thousand one hundred and twenty-seven, in the eighth year of his reign, in the church of Saint Donatian, before the altar of Saint Mary, while reciting the fiftieth Psalm after the first three of the Penitential Psalms, and distributing alms to the poor, was slain by the hand of his own servants for the sake of justice; Christ making it known by many signs immediately that he was acceptable to Him. The same is celebrated by Hermann Greven and John Molanus in their additions to Usuard. Galesini has the following in his Roman Martyrology: At Bruges (indeed Bruges, not "Burgis") of Saint Charles the Martyr. and various Martyrologies. He, the son of King Canute the Martyr, received the crown of martyrdom with no less glory. Peter Canisius inscribed him in the Martyrology published in the German language in these words: Likewise the blessed memory of the holy Martyr Charles, Count of Flanders, who rests at Bruges in the Cathedral church of Saint Donatian. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology records him among other Saints of this region in these words: At Bruges in Flanders, then under the metropolis of Rheims, of Saint Charles, surnamed the Good, Count of this province and Martyr, son of Saint Canute, King of Denmark, likewise a glorious Martyr. Then a compendium of his life and death is appended; and the Basilica is called that of Saint Domitian, which is in fact that of Saint Donatian, Bishop of Rheims; other things which we shall reject below are added from the cited Meyerus and Molanus in his Index of the Saints of Belgium and their Feast Days. The same is celebrated by Miraeus in his Belgian Calendar, Baldwin Willotius

in his Belgian Hagiologium, Anthony de Balinghem in his Marian Calendar, and others.

[8] The sacred bones of the same, says Miraeus, having been elevated from the tomb, are devoutly preserved in the sacristy of the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Saint Donatian. Bones elevated from the tomb, He was a man of very tall stature, namely nine feet long; to which length of body the limbs and bones corresponded, which are today viewed there with great admiration. Molanus adds: On the same day a sermon is delivered in the sacristy on his merits, and his relics are exhibited to the people. From the wounded skull, those suffering from fever often drink. At the place of his fall, above the high altar, a cross with four nails was erected by the ancestors in his memory, in the manner in which crosses are commonly erected along the roads in memory of those who have been slain. So writes Molanus. Charles Philip de Rodoan, the fourth Bishop of Bruges, by the zeal of devotion and pious affection which he had toward the bones of the most illustrious former Count Charles the Good, cruelly slain before the altar of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the ambulatory above the choir, where a certain chaplaincy of the Most Holy Trinity is founded, adorned and enclosed in a chapel: decreed, with the consent of the Lords of the Chapter, to have the casket containing the said bones honorably adorned in red silk, and to have it transferred and placed above the altar of the aforesaid chapel, to be enclosed and adorned also at his own expense. The Lords of the Chapter, having deliberated thereupon, consented to the said ornamentation of the casket and the enclosure of the chapel, and the transfer of the same casket (the enclosure of the chapel having first been done), on February 23 of the year 1606.

But afterward the said Lords of the Chapter, at the proposal and urgent request of the same Most Reverend Bishop, A Mass of the Most Holy Trinity, on account of various alleged reasons moving their minds, ordained on the 1st of March in the year 1610 that tomorrow and in the future, in memory of the former Count of Flanders Charles the Good, unjustly slain, a solemn Mass of the Most Holy Trinity should be celebrated, as it has been celebrated. These are inscribed in the cited words of the Register of Capitular Acts of the same Church of Bruges, an extract of which, also signed by the Secretary Mr. Matinus, was procured for us by the Archdeacon of Bruges, Mr. Arnold Crabeels, Licentiate of both Laws and of Sacred Theology. And lest any knowledge of the deeds done and written should be lacking to us, we ourselves traveled to Bruges and observed each thing in person, and venerated the sacred bones of Blessed Charles in the sacristy of the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Saint Donatian.

Section II. A fable about the death of Blessed Charles found in the vernacular Annals of the Flemish and inserted into the histories of later writers.

[9] What we have thus far examined concerning the authors who described the life and death of Blessed Charles and the vengeance taken on the wicked murderers, is of such a kind that scarcely anything more solid could be hoped for concerning any Saint. Against the certainty of the ancient writers, For they committed to writing for the most part those things at which they themselves were present and which they saw being done, or certainly they narrated what they had received from those who had witnessed these events with their own eyes. Moreover, the various authors, in places far distant from one another, each composed their own Acts, unaware of the others' writing — Walter the Archdeacon at Thérouanne, Galbert the Notary at Bruges, the Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis at Paris — with whom the authors of the ancient rhyme and epitaphs agree, as does the Chronologist of the monastery of Saint Andrew, Abbot John of Ypres at Saint-Bertin, and the anonymous Dane in the account of Blessed Charles's death. There may be added John Brando, a Fleming of the Cistercian Order and Doctor of Sacred Theology, who died at the Dunes Refuge in Bruges in the year 1428, who in his manuscript Chronodromus plainly agrees. That work exists in three volumes at Louvain in the College of Arras, most elegantly written on parchment. There also exists another manuscript Chronicle in the College of the Society of Jesus at Louvain concerning the Counts of Flanders, down to Louis de Male, that is, the year 1380, which agrees. I pass over Robert Gaguin, Nicolas Gilles, and other older writers of French history who agree in this matter. Moreover, in our Annotations we have compared the actions of individual persons with most of the contemporary historians who left to posterity in writing the events then occurring in Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, England, Italy, and distant Palestine; for which purpose ancient charters of Kings, Princes, Bishops, and especially of the Counts of Flanders, ancestors of Blessed Charles and his subsequent successors, were of great help, so that the truth may appear established from every side.

[10] Meanwhile, with all these neglected, a monstrosity was fashioned from conflicting, diverse, and mutually contradictory efforts, which was received by very many, [Against the certainty of the ancient writers, fables are obtruded in the popular Annals of Flanders,] even men of some learning, as though it were a divine oracle, and was inserted into the Chronicles of Flanders. A similar Chronicle exists in the common Flemish language, printed at Antwerp in the year 1531; the earlier part of which, carried down to the year 1488, we found at Bruges written by hand in a codex mutilated by the loss of some leaves at the end. What is read in these Chronicles about the death of Blessed Charles is also circulated separately, A formula of proclamation, and even now is read every year at Bruges before the doors of the church, after six horns have first been blown by the lords of as many estates or fiefs subject to this announcement; as it is read in the commentary of Janus Lernutius on the character and worship of Charles the Count, and the commentary of Lernutius: as well as concerning his murder and the vengeance upon the murderers that soon followed. Lernutius was numbered among men who loved humane letters, whom Justus Lipsius's inseparable companion through the universities and antiquities of France, Italy, and Germany, as Valerius Andreas reports after others in the Belgian Library; but he errs when he believed that the booklet on the Life of Charles the Good, written by him, was published at Paris, which his son Jacques Lernutius, having augmented it, had printed after the death of his father at Bruges in the year 1621, prefacing that, having examined his father's papers, he found it much incorrectly and hastily written, and that he had therefore applied the file, interpolated it, and added certain things which he thought suited the matter. On account of which words we think that the elder Lernutius composed this in his youth, when he had not even read a single one of the above-cited authors, of whom he also nowhere makes mention; and that, having afterward obtained knowledge of them, he cast aside that commentary as deformed and not yet polished with the last file, indeed unworthy of a learned man, that his name should be attached to such fables. In the margins are cited Terence, Sallust, Cicero, Apuleius, and Cujacius for the words and expressions inserted, but not without the mark of a youthful mind.

[11] Blessed Charles had scarcely taken up the reins of governing Flanders when Clementia, the mother of the deceased Count Baldwin, then married to the Duke of Louvain, [At the beginning of the reign of Blessed Charles, the destruction of Oudenarde is fabricated,] having allied various Princes to herself, attempted to cast him from the government. Hence arose, says Lernutius, a terrible war... When Oudenarde resisted the woman and refused to acknowledge the dominion of the ruler, she violently attacked the ancient town of the Nervii and gave it over to the soldiers for plunder, the citizens being slain to the last man, from bald to bald, as the saying goes, and the houses utterly consumed by fire. Yet there are some among our writers of history who narrate that the city and citizens were dealt with more mildly, and that only the ringleaders of the rebels were punished, the city being left intact and the goods of the inhabitants unharmed. Whatever the case may be, let the credibility rest with the authors. I have followed the vernacular Annals which I saw, and I do not interpose my judgment in a controverted matter. So writes Lernutius, who from the same vernacular Annals proceeds thus: The instigators and abettors of so cruel a deed were the Count of Mons and the Count of Saint-Pol, together with the Count of Hesdin... who, besides the destruction of Oudenarde, brought many evils upon Flanders. So writes the author, who without interposing his own judgment leaves the credibility with the authors, namely of that vernacular Chronicle of Flemish affairs and of certain writers whom he said narrated that the city and citizens were dealt with more mildly, seeming to indicate Meyer and Marchantius, whom he afterward cites and of whom we shall treat more fully below. Marchantius is silent about these matters. The words of Meyer are as follows: Meyer asserts that the citizens were dealt with more mildly. Clementia invaded and burned Oudenarde, and there is said to have put certain citizens to the ultimate punishment. Thus Meyer more mildly explains the Chronicle, in which only the slaying of citizens is read. Lernutius added "to the last man, from bald to bald" so that he could use it as a proverb. But we consider that absolutely nothing was done at that time concerning Oudenarde, but that what happened after the death of Blessed Charles has been incorrectly transferred here. Walter the Archdeacon, who was living at the time, below in chapter 3 of the Life of Blessed Charles, accurately describes the military tumults stirred up by the said Clementia, without any mention of this destruction of Oudenarde. But after the death of Blessed Charles, the Count of Mons had fortified himself and his men, having been introduced into Oudenarde, to invade the kingdom of Flanders, which more justly belonged to him by right of kinship. But only after the death of Blessed Charles, Then around April 17, Baldwin from Aalst and Razo with a very heavy army of the men of Ghent besieged the castle of Oudenarde. Then the Count of Mons with the burghers of the same place and with a military charge fell upon the men of Ghent; and, put to flight, he killed some, wounded others, and captured many. Indeed the greater part of those fleeing was drowned in the waters — those who, conveyed by ships, had arranged the siege beforehand. Then at the beginning of May, King Louis was going toward Oudenarde, where the Count of Mons had been ravaging our land, The suburb burned, and he was going through Ghent. But our Count William the Norman had preceded the King and had burned with violent hand the suburb up to the stone tower; and therefore many who had taken refuge in the church of that place were burned to death, about three hundred, as they say. On the 4th of the Nones of May, a Wednesday, the King returned to Bruges without the Count. On the 3rd of the Nones of May, a Thursday, around noon, the Count returned. So writes Galbert, who was then living at Bruges, below in the Life, numbers 108, 114, and 122. Behold, the suburb had remained untouched and intact up to that time; and it was then burned not by the Count of Mons but by William the Norman, the newly created Count of Flanders. Meanwhile Meyer dared to write: The Count of Mons, returning hostilely against the Flemish, burned Oudenarde in his anger, where in the principal church very many persons are said to have been burned. But they were burned in the church of the suburb. Let these things be said on the occasion of Lernutius adhering to the vernacular Annals.

[12] Olivier Vredius of Bruges, a vigorous investigator of the antiquity of Belgian affairs, and especially of those of Flanders, whose knowledge and truth he endeavored to extract and establish from the charters of the Princes and from contemporary writers; he was preparing for the press a commentary on the first Counts of Flanders down to Charles the Dane, The fable of the Foresters, rejected by some, is asserted as true by them: with the fable of the Foresters rejected, as this title is expressed in the Belgian Library of Valerius Andreas. But, prevented by death, he did not publish that treatise, or perhaps did not finish it. Meanwhile he rightly wished to reject the fable of the Foresters, which the vernacular Annals, and with them Meyer and Marchantius, propose as the foundation of all truth. Whether Vredius wished to deal with the Acts of Blessed

Charles, to conclude that commentary or rather to exclude them, we have not yet been able to ascertain. Certainly had he more carefully read what is inserted into those Annals about Blessed Charles and compared it with the contemporary writers, he would have rejected it as a most inept fable; especially what is read in those Annals about the murder of the holy Count, the fable about the affairs of Blessed Charles, its occasion, and the vengeance taken on the parricides, as well as in the annual proclamation customarily made publicly at Bruges. We consider that the origin of this embellished fable should plainly be traced to the vernacular comedies which were commonly called Romances of the Rhetoricians, and which used to be exhibited for a prize at public gatherings of cities. Composed from Romances or comedies in the fifteenth century. The time of the said drama we assign to the fifteenth century of Christ, when the city of Bruges was held to be the most famous market of all the cities of Belgium and counted seventeen tribes of kingdoms and nations, which used to have their own houses and colleges there. Of these, the Hanseatic merchants had their scene in this comedy, whom Lernutius calls the profit-seeking nation of the Easterlings, who began to assemble more than a hundred years after the death of Blessed Charles; meanwhile, as if they had brought a great supply of grain by ship from the North, as the Hanseatic merchants flocked to the emporium of Bruges: they were introduced onto the stage and are imagined to have had as buyers the Provost Bertulf and his brother Lambert. These societies or Hanseatic republics were subject to four most celebrated cities: Lübeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Danzig. Under Lübeck were counted Hamburg, Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Lüneburg, Stettin, and other neighboring cities, among which the first commercial league began in the twelfth century, and especially around the year of Christ 1260 or 1270, and then a body of confederated cities was established around the year of Christ 1312 — unless one should rather call it the first member of the whole body — to which afterward around the year 1364 a second member, the metropolis of Cologne, was added, as Johannes Isaacus Pontanus asserts in Book 8 of his Danish History, page 494. These are approximately the times when the city of Bruges was gradually growing into the emporium of Flanders, when it entered into a mercantile league, as they call it, with the individual nations and drew up agreements; which is reported by Sander in Book 1 of Bruges Affairs, chapter 2, to have been done with the Hanseatic cities in the year 1392. By then two hundred and fifty-five years had elapsed from the murder of Blessed Charles; and for nearly the following fifteenth century the same abundance of trade remained among the people of Bruges, which time we have above assigned to the comedy. Still unknown in that century among writers: In that century, however, I do not find that any historian flourished who plucked even a single error from this fable.

[13] In the sixteenth century there lived Paulus Aemilius, a native of Verona, a Canon of Saint Mary at Paris, who died in the year 1529. Described in the sixteenth century by Paulus Aemilius, He, having encompassed the deeds of the French in a commentary praised by many, in Book 5 under Louis VI, called the Fat, inserted the unspeakable murder of Blessed Charles and reduced the said fable, drawn from the vernacular Annals of the Flemish, to a compendium; deserving pardon from the reader for the very reason that he had not seen Walter the Archdeacon and Galbert the Notary, the principal writers of the Life of Blessed Charles, and believed the Flemish Annals should be followed rather than Suger and the Continuator of Aimoin. Somewhat younger than Paulus Aemilius is Jacques Meyer, a Fleming, by Meyer, a native of the district of Bailleul, who died in the year 1552 and was buried at Bruges at Saint Donatian's. In Book 4 of his Annals of Flanders he asserts that a certain Walter, a monk, wrote to John, Bishop of the Morini, about the life and death of this Charles, but that Galbert of Bruges did so much better and more fully; but he errs when he makes Walter a monk, whom others establish as the Archdeacon of the Church of Thérouanne, and by whom we have said this Life was written with great judgment. For the rest, we cannot be sufficiently amazed that, with these authors everywhere neglected, Meyer adhered to his vernacular Annals, to whom the censure which he himself pronounced in Book 17 at the end of the year 1473 concerning Robert Gaguin seems to apply — namely, that those commentaries which he followed, written in the provincial language, are utterly inept and false in many places. Perhaps these vernacular Annals of the Flemish deserve a sharper censure in this history of Blessed Charles, by Oudegherst, Marchantius, and others. since the fable appears to be continuous. Meanwhile, Meyer is followed by Pierre Oudegherst in his Annals of Flanders published in French at the Plantin press in the year 1571, by Jacques Marchantius in his Flanders described in four books of Commentaries and published at the same press in the year 1596, by Jean Georges, a Canon of Bruges, in his Flemish Life of Blessed Charles, by Antoine Sander in his Flandria Illustrata recently published in splendid volumes, and others of the same kind, who without any examination of the facts mix in any fables whatsoever; of which we shall bring forward a few.

Section III. The same fable about the murder of Blessed Charles further discussed.

[14] Walter and Galbert describe the famine and scarcity which raged in Flanders in the two years before the death of Blessed Charles, and commend the singular liberality of the same Count toward the poor. From this public famine begins the fabulous comedy, or formula of proclamation, and first there is established a certain Tammard by name as the Count's almoner, Tammard is fabricated as the Count's almoner, and he is said to have been slain together with the Count on the same day; and thus he would be Themmard, the Castellan of the Bruges castle, whose death and that of his two sons, Walter and Gilbert, both Walter at number 42 and Galbert at numbers 26 and following describe. But from what is next added, it appears that this Themmard, Castellan of the Bruges castle, and Thancmar de Straten (of whose family we shall treat below) have been conflated into one and the same person in the said formula of proclamation Conflated from two men, and in the vernacular Annals of the Flemish, which are followed by Paulus Aemilius, Oudegherst, and Lernutius; but Meyer correctly establishes Tagmar as different from Themmard of the castle, and yet he too calls Tagmar the Count's almoner, from which title the ancients abstain. The occasion seems to have been given by Walter, when at number 25 he reports that he had great zeal in expending alms on the poor and especially on monks. With this scene completed, the Provost Bertulf and his brother Lambert are introduced onto the stage and given the surname of Straten (which name we shall demonstrate below was wrongly attributed to them), and from the above-indicated Hanseatic or Easterling merchants they purchase grain brought by ship from the North. Grain accumulated by the traitors, They also buy all the tithes belonging to the neighboring monasteries, carry them off to granaries, and heap up the storehouses to overflowing. Then the Count, stirred by the tears of the needy, decreed They sold what was taken by force: that Tammard should sell the enormous quantity of grain found in their granaries partly at a fair price and partly, if the people were destitute, measure it out freely, leaving them a sufficient portion for living; and the money collected from the grain sold, which they indignantly refused to accept, he ordered to be distributed among the poor. This is clearly a plausible scene, exhibited by all the more recent writers, including Meyer, Marchantius, and Sander; of which no mention at all is found among the ancient writers. On account of the famine indicated before, Walter reports that the price of bread was reduced by Count Charles and drinking bouts were prohibited; indeed Galbert praises that the brewing of beer was prohibited, a price was set on wine, and it was ordered that legumes be sown — without any disgrace of hoarded grain being imputed to the Provost Bertulf or his family, since both authors carefully investigate other causes of hatred, and indeed lay bare all the crimes of both the Provost Bertulf and his father Erembald, which will appear below more clearly than light.

[15] With Bertulf and his brother Lambert inflamed with anger and hatred, the latter's son Burchard, By them his estate was seized, or Borsiard, intending to avenge the injury, on the counsel of his uncle, seizes part of the estate of his adversary Tammard, the boundary markers previously correctly set for dividing the fields having been fraudulently moved to places convenient and advantageous for himself. But lest this scene appear too meager to the spectators, peasants are introduced, at the command of Borsiard, attempting to steal all the ripe cherries collected from Tammard's orchard. Tammard's servants run up, resist boldly, Cherries stolen by theft, attack with their fists and are repulsed, the cherries being violently snatched away and carried off to Bertulf; the audience applauds the victory. A complaint is brought by Tammard before the Prince; Lambert is summoned with his son Burchard before the tribunal, but these contumacious men do not appear; they order their men to break down the doors of Tammard, and fruits, to beat down the fruits from the trees and steal them. But when Burchard's servants are gathering the fruit belonging to another, they are severely injured by Tammard's retainers, who fell upon them, and they were carried home in a cart. But their masters, about to avenge this blow, hasten to Tammard's estate The fortress destroyed, the uncle and daughter slain. and order the trees to be cut down from the root and the fortress to be utterly destroyed; which deed accomplished, they slay with the sword Tammard's uncle and his pregnant daughter. The crime is reported to the Prince, and upon investigation Burchard is pronounced guilty and ordered to make good all the damage. I omit the rest of this scene, which can be read in the cited formula of the proclamation, and in the said vernacular Annals, and in Lernutius. It suffices to have pointed out that none of these things is reported by the ancient writers of the Life; indeed Tangmar is said in the records of the monastery of Saint Andrew, which we shall cite below, to have lacked offspring by succession even in the time of Robert the Jerusalemite; and therefore to have wished to contribute his possessions to the building of that monastery.

[16] John of Ypres, to demonstrate the piety of Blessed Charles toward ecclesiastics and religious men, narrates that the Abbot of Saint-Bertin approached the Count on the feast of the Epiphany and complained of oppression inflicted by a certain soldier. And this matter was seen as suitable for embellishing the comedy. Count Charles, therefore, having been created King in jest, as is the Belgian custom of celebrating that day, indulging in all joy and merriment, distributed offices and magistracies in jest among the various guests at the feast and cups. The Abbot of Saint-Bertin oppressed by them: When the complaint was lodged by the Abbot, the oppressor is made out to be Lambert with his son Burchard. The Provost Bertulf, having been summoned, flies in rejoicing, hoping to attend that splendid banquet. But when the complaint is repeated by the Abbot, he is sharply rebuked and is to be severely punished together with his brother, unless prompt satisfaction is given to the Abbot and his monastery. All of which, together with other matters cited before, Paulus Aemilius pursues at greater length.

[17] After these events, it is reported that a conspiracy was made at Ypres to kill the Count, A conspiracy against the Count made at Ypres, and besides relatives, eight Canons of Ypres are imagined to have been drawn into it, and the suitable day for perpetrating the murder is set as a Friday — on which day, recurring each week, the Count was accustomed to ward off hunger with only a draught of beer and the use of bread, wearing a hairshirt and lying clothed, going to the church barefoot, clad in a long garment, with a purse hanging at his side, intending to remain there until all the sacred offices were completed and the hour of dinner should summon him. On Tuesday, the last day of Carnival, which that year closed the month of February, the Count returned to Bruges, and slain on March 3, a Friday after Ash Wednesday. and on the following Friday, which was the third day of the month of March, while he was praying in the church without any retinue, he was killed by Burchard. However cleverly and ingeniously these things appear to have been devised,

they are so far from the truth. The Count had summoned his Barons to Ypres for the third of the Kalends of March, which fell that year on the first Sunday of Lent, and on the next day, by their sentence, he ordered the fortification of Burchard to be demolished, and returned to Bruges. On the Kalends of March he responded to the arrogant embassy of the Provost and pressed for restitution. The assassins conspired against his life on the following night, and in the morning, on the 2nd of March, a Wednesday after the first Sunday of Lent, he was slain in the church. So writes Walter the Archdeacon, who, having then been summoned from Ypres by the Count, was able to know what was done, and Galbert the Notary at greater length, who at Bruges observed everything with his own eyes. Paulus Aemilius writes that he was slain on the very day of Ash Wednesday. Meyer in assigning the day followed Galbert the Notary. But when he makes Robert and Lambert, brothers of Bertulf who had already died, guilty of the conspiracy, he errs greatly, as will be shown below. The same Meyer reports that three days after the murder, the body of the Count was honorably buried in the church of Saint Christopher near the market. And the body, three days later, buried in the church of Saint Christopher. But on that day, which was the 4th of March, the noble body was transported to the upper story of the church of Blessed Donatian and enclosed in a tomb constructed out of the necessity of the time. So writes Galbert at number 41. But on April 14, when the upper story was occupied, the body of Blessed Charles was found in it, at whose head stood a burning candle, which those traitors had placed in honor of their Lord. So again Galbert at number 105; but at number 119 the same Galbert asserts that on the 10th of the Kalends of May, a Friday, seven weeks having already passed since his first burial, the tomb of the Count was broken open in the upper story, and his body was reverently raised from it... and, with the King attending, was carried by the Bishop and three Abbots to the church of Saint Christopher. Meyer preferred to follow the tales of the more recent writers rather than the eyewitness Galbert of Bruges, whom he had nevertheless declared to have written much better and more fully.

[18] The comedy thus far presented was changed into a mournful tragedy, and vengeance began to be taken on the assassins. Everything in the formula of proclamation, the Annals of Flanders, the Commentaries of Paulus Aemilius and Lernutius, is filled with errors and mistakes, of which Meyer and others have transcribed various ones; we do not wish to dwell on them lest tedium be brought upon the Reader. Let those who do not wish to acquiesce in the truth set forth by Walter, Galbert, and others compare for themselves what is put forward about each matter; Punishment is fabricated for Lambert, who had already died. we shall touch upon some points in our Annotations; we observe a few here. To Lambert, brother of the Provost and father of Burchard, who had already died, very many things are attributed which had been done by his brother Desiderius Haket, then Castellan of Bruges, about whom most writers are silent. Meanwhile he is said to have escaped from the tower of Saint Donatian under cover of night, but when discovered and seized, he was placed on a butcher's block; after his hands and legs were cut off and red-hot irons were thrust into their stumps, he was hung on a gibbet, to become food for birds — as Meyer also reported from the Flemish Annals. Galbert at number 80 treats of a certain Lambert Archei, who is also said to have escaped in flight, been captured and held in custody. These perhaps were attributed to this Lambert, along with the punishment inflicted on the soldier George, the greatest of the traitors, who with Borsiard, son of Lambert, had killed the Count. After both his hands were cut off, he was struck with a sword and thrown by his feet into a sewer and drowned, as Galbert has it at number 51. But whatever the occasion of the error may be, no mention at all of a Lambert Nappin then surviving is made in any ancient writer.

[19] A similar fabrication is adopted concerning the vengeance taken on the guilty and wicked murderers. In the vernacular Annals of Flanders, in the Formula of proclamation, in the Commentary of Lernutius and others, all the things brilliantly accomplished concerning the said vengeance are attributed to William of Ypres, or of Lo, Various fables about William of Ypres. son of Count Philip, brother of Robert the Jerusalemite; who had a better right of succession to the County of Flanders than Blessed Charles, had he not been born of an illegitimate bed, as will clearly appear below. He, therefore, is imagined, upon hearing of the death of Blessed Charles, to have hastened immediately to Bruges and returned repeatedly, to have investigated both the order and causes of the crime committed, to have summoned soldiers, to have ordered the castle or burg to be besieged, He did not preside over the siege of the burg of Bruges: to have created a new magistracy, to have prescribed the punishment to be inflicted on the captured Lambert and other defendants, and finally, after governing Flemish affairs as a true successor for nine weeks, to have come to Bruges for the fourth time and explained to King Louis how many and in what ways he had inflicted punishment on the accomplices in the murder of Blessed Charles. These and other fabrications can be read in the said vernacular Annals and the Lernutian commentaries. But on the contrary, when on March 16, two weeks after the murder of Blessed Charles, it had been rumored among the Princes of the siege that William of Ypres had been given the County by the King, But suspected of treason, they bore it with indignation. They conspired therefore and pledged their faith that they would never serve under him while he remained Count of Flanders. For he was suspect to all and noted for treason against the Lord Count. So writes Galbert at number 57. For they knew that on March 6 Godescalc Thaihals from Ypres had come as a messenger to Bruges to the Provost and other accomplices in the treason, and had openly conveyed from William of Ypres, his intimate friend, greetings and friendship and the most prompt aid in all things, as far as lay in his power; but the other matters, which shame forbade him to relate publicly, He pledged aid to the accomplices, he disclosed after being brought into the chamber; whence the whole household placed its confidence in William, and called him and accepted him as Count. In which the wise noted that William was conscious of the treason, who had thus greeted the traitors in the maturity of their crime, and with all his power had offered them the most prompt aid by faith and writing and guarantee, as Galbert reports at number 44. Walter adds at number 64 that William, as soon as he heard of the Count's death, on that same day claimed the County for himself, He occupied various places. seized the heavily fortified town of Aire, subdued Saint-Venant, Cassel, Bailleul, Ypres, and the territory of Bergues and Furnes to himself. Meanwhile, seeing the traitors closely besieged by other magnates of Flanders, William too pretended to be their adversary. When Isaac, the Provost's nephew through his sister, was captured and being led from Thérouanne to Aire, he expected the same William, believing he could escape through him, To remove suspicion, he has Isaac killed, since he had been a party to the treason. But after he had come, that Count, concealing that his own conscience was guilty, ordered Isaac to be hanged — which happened on March 23, as the same Galbert has at numbers 80 and 127. Indeed even the Provost himself, who had taken care that briefs and notes on the revenues be preserved for William, was about to be put to the ultimate punishment, and when questioned by him as to who were still secretly guilty and culpable in the death of Count Charles, he answered before all that William knew them as well as he. And the Provost Bertulf. Then William, seized with fury, ordered him to be killed — which is read at number 93 in the same Galbert.

[20] Meanwhile William the Norman had been both proposed by the King and accepted by the magnates as Count of Flanders; but since he was held in contempt by William of Ypres, the King bore ill the pride and contempt of the illegitimate Count of Ypres, as is reported by the same at number 90. He is detained captive at Bruges and Lille. Hence Ypres was besieged and captured by the King, and the rest of Flanders subdued, and William was taken from Ypres to Lille, where from April 26 he was held in captivity until about September 9, when he was taken to Bruges and locked in the highest chamber, with watchmen and guards placed around him who watched him most carefully. Again on October 8 he was taken from Bruges to Lille and commended to the Castellan of that place. So writes Galbert at numbers 121, 131, and 135. These were the first occasions on which he entered Bruges after the death of Blessed Charles. Meyer writes the following about William at the same year 1127: William of Ypres, having sworn allegiance to the Norman and laid aside the title of Regent, is brought out of custody; however, contrary to his faith pledged to the Norman, he deserted to Stephen, King of the English, and immediately, returning by sea with a large English force, seized Sluis, While he is imagined to have occupied Sluis with the English. and raided the surrounding fields in a plundering expedition, it being uncertain whether he was a worse enemy to his homeland or to the Norman. Whence Meyer derived these dreams we cannot find. The vernacular Annals report that after the capture of Ypres this William was held captive at Saint-Omer, but freed by the entreaties of the magnates; then that he went to England and complained to the King about the injury done to him; that he was given the County of Kent by the King and resided there about 24 years. That William was in England and fought for King Stephen around the year 1140 is established from the Chronicles of Normandy, Huntingdon, and a donation made to the monastery of Saint-Bertin, in Vredius's Genealogy of the Counts, page 147. But here the year 1127 is at issue, in which we have said he was held in custody at Bruges and especially at Lille.

[21] In the year 1128 he is freed from prison, Indeed in the following year 1128, when a great part of Flanders had defected to Thierry of Alsace, William of Ypres (as was learned at Bruges on March 27) was brought out of captivity and came to Kortrijk, to aid William the Norman with his counsel and the strength of his men and allies. So writes Galbert at number 152. But when Count William died of a wound on July 27, Thierry of Alsace received peaceful possession of all Flanders, leaving to William of Ypres his former lordship of Lo; who on August 22 of the same year subscribed to the letters of Thierry confirming the customs of Saint-Omer Under Thierry he recovers his possessions, as Willelmus de Lo, and indeed before Iwanus of Ghent and Daniel of Dendermonde, by whom especially Thierry had been summoned and received the County. Those letters were published by Duchesne in Book 4 of the Proofs of the family of Ghent, page 208. Miraeus also in his Description of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 141, produces letters of the same Count Thierry, by which in the year 1130 he confirmed the estates granted to the monastery of Lo, Died in the year 1162. His son Robert. before the witnesses Willelmus, son of Count Philip, and others. This is William of Ypres, or of Lo, of whom Meyer asserts that he died at the monastery of Lo on the 9th of the Kalends of February of the year 1172, and that his tomb was opened in his own time, and his feet and legs were found still intact and much larger than those of anyone then living. So much for that. Robert, the son of William of Lo, is mentioned in a charter of Philip of Alsace which was published from the archive of the Abbey of Furnes by the cited Vredius, page 148. Hence it is also clear that Paulus Aemilius, Meyer, and others err greatly when they report that all possessions were taken away forever from those who had in any way conspired in the murder of Blessed Charles. This will be refuted in what follows as a plainly empty fabrication. On the deeds of William of Ypres in England and his governorship of Kent, the Chronicles of Normandy and England may be consulted.

Section IV. The murder of Blessed Charles perpetrated by the Erembaldine family: wrongly attributed to the Straten family.

[22] While we prepared this entire series of various writers on the life and death of Blessed Charles the Good for the press, and illuminated each particular with its Annotations, we stood transfixed with great amazement that certain of the more recent writers of Flemish history, who imply that they have read these very texts, should proclaim the Stratenses or Stratiani as the guilty parties of the unspeakable murder of so great a Prince, The Straten family and should say that this very powerful Straten family then flourished among the Bruges citizens, when none of the ancient writers, if their records are carefully read, gave even the slightest occasion for writing this. The Straten family near Bruges was a lineage, Dear to Count Blessed Charles: and an illustrious one, dear to Count Charles, from which the Straten domain near the city, close to the abbey of Saint Andrew (which was carved out of it), took its name. Against this family, by an inveterate hatred, was hostile and inimical another and very powerful family, From which the Erembaldine family was distinct, which we call the Erembaldine from its progenitor, as will soon be clear. The dissensions were growing into a civil war of sorts. The Straten house was attacked and devastated by the Erembaldines, and the authority of the Count was violated. When the Magnates of Flanders were summoned to render judgment, guilty of the murder of Blessed Charles. the Stratenses were declared innocent and the Erembaldines guilty, and some house of theirs was demolished. Whereupon the Erembaldines, driven to anger and fury, cruelly slaughtered Blessed Charles as the protector of the Stratiani. This established, we undertake to distinguish both families by a continuous contrast of events.

[23] These homicides whom we call the Erembaldines are written of by Abbot Suger, Erembald was of the dregs of servile condition. below at number 39, as having been of humble birth and of the dregs of servile condition; and that they were of servile condition according to the lines of their kinship, and that therefore they strove by all means to withdraw from the servitude of the Count, who was claiming them for his own servitude, Galbert reports at number 12. Walter adds at number 24 that this was seen as the first occasion of the murder: for from this they began to exercise the most grievous hatreds against the Count. From this dregs of servile condition, therefore, came Erembald, from whom the rest were descended. Galbert at number 113 asserts that Erembald, born at Furnes, Born at Furnes, came to Bruges and was made the man and knight of Boldran, the Castellan of Bruges, and frequently committed adultery with the wife of his lord the Castellan; and that that adulteress promised the adulterer the Viscounty by murder and adultery if her husband should die soon; whence the adulterer constantly plotted the death of his lord, and in an expedition ordered by the Count, in the silence of the night, hurled him into the depths of the Scheldt; and therefore, returning, married his adulteress and with the goods of his lord purchased the Viscounty. So writes Galbert. Made Castellan of Bruges under Baldwin of Lille, The Viscounty is the very dignity of the Castellan itself. But the indicated expedition of the Count was that of Baldwin the Pious, or of Lille, the great-grandfather of Blessed Charles the Good, who, drawn into an alliance of war by Godfrey the Great, Duke of Lotharingia of the Moselle, took up arms against the Emperor Henry III, and on the imperial bank of the Scheldt destroyed the fortress of Eenham, occupied the castle of Ghent after a long siege, and through a peace agreement restored the cities of Cambrai and Antwerp, which he had seized, to the Emperor Henry — as is read in Jacques Meyer, Book 3 of the Annals of Flanders at the years 1046 and 1050. But Sigebert begins that war in the year 1047 and reports that Pope Victor put an end to it in the year 1057; and writes that Baldwin invaded the County of Hainaut, burned the town of Huy, and besieged Antwerp; but on the other hand that the Emperor Henry, with Baldwin fleeing, crossed the Scheldt and captured many of the chief men of Flanders besieged within the city of Tournai. From which the time of the Castellan Boldran of Bruges being thrown into the Scheldt, and of Erembald being substituted in his place, is more than sufficiently shown: in whose possession and that of his descendants that dignity of Castellan remained for eighty years.

[24] Miraeus in Book 2 of his Belgian Donations, chapter 25, and in his Description of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 98, published a donation of the same Count Baldwin of Lille made in the year 1067, Athelard de Straten lived at the same time as him. Indiction 5, to the monks of Saint-Winoc at Bergues; to which, after Count Baldwin and his wife Adela and sons Baldwin and Robert and others, subscribed Erembald, Castellan of Bruges, Erkenbert the Provost, and many others whose names Miraeus omitted. But Sander in his Flandria Illustrata, in the district of the Franc of Bruges, page 292, asserts that in those times the Straten family was powerful and wealthy, and that in the letters of Baldwin of Lille at the year 1067, of which we have treated, Athelard de Straten is mentioned together with Abbo de Rodenburg. Miraeus in another place, in the same Description, chapter 112, produces a charter of Robert the Jerusalemite, by which he creates Rainer, Provost of the Church of Saint Donatian, perpetual Chancellor of Flanders, in the year 1089; to which, after Rainer the Provost and many Canons and others, subscribed Erembald, Castellan of Bruges, and Robert his son; likewise Athelard de Straten. Meyer at the beginning of Book 4 lists the principal magnates who flourished at those times, among whom are read Erenbold, Castellan of Bruges, Albo (above called Abbo) of Rodenburg, and Adelard of Straten. Behold the Erembaldine family plainly distinct from the Straten family, and both flourishing in great esteem among the Flemish.

[25] Erembald had five sons: the previously mentioned Robert, or Rodbertus, who after his father's death was Castellan of Bruges, Erembald's five sons, Lambert Nappin — these two eldest being established as having died before the murder of Blessed Charles — Bertulf, Provost of Saint Donatian; Desiderius Haket, also, as will be shown below, Castellan of Bruges; and Welfric, or Wulfric, or Guelric, surnamed Cnop. Behold the various surnames Haket, Nappin, Cnop indicated by the ancients, but nowhere is "de Straten" or anything similar suggested: which surname, together with the domain, remained with the descendants of Athelard de Straten, With whom lived Thancmar de Straten and others of this family, and these were Thagmar, or Thancmar, who had no children, then Berenwold, or certainly other anonymous persons, from whom were descended the nephews of Thagmar, of whom we shall treat below.

When Robert the Jerusalemite was fighting in the Holy Land, having made a vow, he ordered through his wife an abbey of Saint Andrew to be built on the estate of Betferkerca; Tagmar de Straten had previously encouraged that illustrious work, and also donated very many goods to the same monks; he was held as a secondary founder, as we ourselves have copied from the ancient records of this monastery. In the Description of Miraeus, chapter 125, there exists a charter of Baldric, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, by which in the year 1105, Indiction 8, he granted to the altar of Betferkerca the right of liberty, on the condition that monks be established there. Erembald's sons Robert the Castellan and Bertulf the Provost at Bruges. Among others, Bertulf the Provost, Robert the Castellan, and Lambert Nappin subscribed — three brothers born of the father Erembald. Likewise the aforementioned Tagmar de Straten. By what artifice Bertulf was made Provost, Galbert explains at number 92 in these words: Bertulf could have remembered how, having been violently intruded and imposed upon the Provost Ledbert while still living, an honest man and one who suffered all things for God's sake, he had unjustly and against God usurped the prelature in the temple of God, etc. But Robert, Castellan of Bruges, in Sander, Book 1 of Bruges Affairs, chapter 7, signs the letters of Baldwin (rather Baldric), Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, by which in the year 1096 the altar of Oostburg with the chapel belonging to it, situated in Isendike, was given to the monks of Blandinium. But since Baldric was created Bishop after Radbod's death in the year 1098, there is an error in the assigned year. Again in Sander: Another, or rather the same, Robert, Castellan of Bruges, in the year 1109 signs the letters of Robert the Jerusalemite concerning a certain donation made to the monastery of Formeselle. The same in the year 1101 confirms the privileges of the Church of Saint Donatian. Is this correct? Meyer at that year asserts that the privileges given by Count Robert to that Church were countersigned by Erembald, Castellan of Bruges, with his son Robert, Athelard of Straten, and others. Galbert at number 113 establishes Robert as Castellan in the second place among the sons of Erembald, after Erembald himself, His grandson Walter, Castellan, and then after this Robert he asserts that his son Walter succeeded as Castellan, heir to the Viscounty in the third place. André Duchesne in Book 2 of the Proofs for the Genealogical History of the family of Ghent and Guînes, page 67, published part of the letters of Baldwin with the Axe, Count of Flanders, by which he confirms the exchange of the estate of Oosterseele by the Church of Saint-Bertin for other goods, in the year 1113. To this donation, among others, Walter, Castellan of Bruges, subscribed.

[26] But when the latter died very young, his uncle Desiderius Haket succeeded him, Then Desiderius Haket, son of Erembald. a son of Erembald and brother of the Provost Bertulf. He subscribes to the letters of the same Baldwin for the Church of Formeselle in the aforementioned Duchesne, page 188, in the year 1115 as Haket, Castellan of Bruges; and to other letters in favor of the same Church of Formeselle in Duchesne, page 68, in the year 1117, Indiction 10, as Hachet, Castellan of Bruges. The same Duchesne in Book 2 of the Proofs for the Genealogical History of the Béthune family, page 19, published the letters of Count Charles, by which in the year 1122 he confirms the privileges granted by his predecessors to Wulfric, Abbot of the Church of Saint Bavo at Ghent, where among the witnesses is Haket, Castellan of Bruges. And these are of Haket alone. The same Count Charles the Good and his Butler, or cupbearer, Walter with his brother Cono, endow the abbey of Oudenburg, and to the charter on this matter, signed on the 16th of the Kalends of August in the year 1119, Indiction 12, subscribed Bertulf, Provost of Bruges, From these, the Stratiani are different, Desiderius Haket, Castellan, and Lambert Nappin — three brothers and sons of Erembald; likewise Thancmar de Straten and Berenwold de Straten. Consult the Description of Miraeus, chapter 168. From the said Berenwold were apparently born Walter de Straten and his two brothers, commonly called the nephews of Thagmar, because when their father died they lived with him in his domain of Straten, as will be clear from what follows. After Lambert Nappin also died, his sons survived: Burchard, or Borsiard, or also in the anonymous Dane Fromold surnamed Borchard, and Robert, called by the same anonymous author Lambinus Morunnater. From Robert, afterward Castellan, were born Walter, whom we have said was extinguished as Castellan in his youth, and Albert, and then from a second wife Robert, commonly called the Boy. The latter had a domain at Ravenschot in the district of Bruges, heavily fortified for defense, as Galbert testifies at number 47. But Borsiard had a house, which he fortified, not far from Straten, or perhaps in the domain of the Lords of Straten. Hence hatreds, lawsuits, and military incursions began between the two families, Disputes between the two families: and because, as Galbert says at number 15, the Count favored the just cause of Thancmar de Straten, the Provost Bertulf by price, power, and petition recruited all the knights to the aid of his nephews against Thangmar, and indeed brought in five hundred armed knights and infantry without number, and ordered them to bring tools and axes, etc. In this attack on the dwelling of Thangmar, as Galbert testifies at number 26, Robert the brother of Borsiard fell, whom they suspected had been killed by Henry de Locres, a soldier fighting for the Lords of Straten. What was done about Albert,

whom the same Galbert mentions as a third nephew of Bertulf at number 11, is nowhere indicated, so that he seems also to have fallen when, with a great and strong force collected (these are Walter's words at number 28), they raided almost the entire surrounding region, broke into houses, plundered all moveable goods, stripped the poor, hanged some, and put many to the sword; and this in the absence of Count Charles in France, who, having returned to Ypres, Blessed Charles favors the Stratenses, by the sentence of the Magnates of Flanders, caused the fortification of Borsiard to be demolished, burned, and utterly destroyed. Having returned to Bruges, he admitted intercessors on behalf of Borsiard and granted him a new house, but to be built elsewhere, far from the Straten estate — because, as Blessed Charles asserts in Galbert at number 16, while living up to that point near Thancmar, he never did anything but stir up quarrels and seditions with robbery and murder. From all of which the great power of both families can be gathered.

[27] After these events, six leaders of the faction conspire to murder Count Charles, Therefore he was slain by the Erembaldines: at whose head with his counsel was the Provost Bertulf, and they were Guelric, or Wulfric, brother of the Provost, and his two nephews Burchard, or Borsiard, son of Lambert Nappin, and Robert the Boy, son of Robert the Castellan (but drawn in quite reluctantly by the others), then Isaac, the Provost's kinsman, William of Wervik, and Ingran of Esen. So Walter with Galbert at number 34. Meyer adds three leaders of the faction: Robert and Lambert Nappin, brothers of Bertulf, but already dead, and William, son of Lambert; but we do not believe the latter ever existed in reality, because of the deep silence of the ancient writers, and he was brought into being only in the fabulous Annals written in the Flemish language. When Blessed Charles the Count was slain on March 2 by the hand of the most impious Borsiard, The Straten dwellings were destroyed. on the same day, says Galbert at number 35, those traitors made a sortie against their enemies, namely against Thangmar and his people at Straten, and found their fortified places empty and their courts vacant. For having heard of the crime committed in the death of the Count, they feared for themselves, especially because they had lost their defender... Then those traitors, invading both the fortified place and the court of Thangmar, plundered within all their arms and furnishings, together with a very great spoil of cattle and the clothing of the peasants of that estate, and having thus practiced robbery throughout the whole day, they returned in the evening. This Galbert, an eyewitness, asserts was done at Straten, not, as Meyer says, at Orscampo, or Oostkamp, far from there near the new canal of Ghent.

Section V. The deeds of both the Erembaldine and the Straten families after the murder of Blessed Charles.

[28] Then Desiderius Haket, Castellan of Bruges, came to the defense of the Erembaldines, his brothers and nephews, under whose leadership the suburbs were fortified by the citizens, as Galbert reports at number 46. Gervasius, the Chamberlain of Saint Charles, took up arms against them, The Erembaldines besieged. and on March 7 besieged the fortified place of Ravenschot, which was heavily fortified in defense of the traitors, and on March 8, with Robert the Boy (whose fortified place it was) making a vain sortie against the besiegers, Ravenschot was destroyed by fire and arms, and near Bruges the house of Wulfric Cnop, brother of the Provost, who had sworn the death of the Count, was burned. So writes Galbert at numbers 47 and 48, who then reports that Gervasius, received within the suburb on March 9, besieged the traitors within the castle, which the citizens of Bruges stormed on March 19, as they then stormed the church of Saint Donatian below. Then, as Galbert testifies at number 74, the nephews of Thancmar de Straten set up their banners in the house of the Provost proudly and gloriously and powerfully, and whatever they found within they possessed as their own; the grain and wine which they had obtained they sent out to their estate at Straten. But the citizens cut open the barrel of wine and closed the gates of the suburb, The house of Bertulf occupied by the Stratiani, so that no one could flee, crying out that Thancmar and his nephews ought by right to be hanged, because on their account the Count had been slain, and the Provost and his nephews besieged, and many of their household killed and condemned to a most shameful death. And those besieged — the Castellan Haket and Robert the Boy and others — were waving from the higher tower with their arms and hands, beseeching that those enemies be destroyed, on whose account the most grievous crime had been committed, who had so arrogantly ascended into the house of the Provost and had affixed their victorious banners, when at the time the castle was stormed they were sleeping at home and at their country estate, namely at Straten, where they had been taken under the protection of the Princes. Isaac, the Provost's kinsman, was captured on March 23 and hanged. But on March 30 William the Norman was declared Count of Flanders, Various persons were variously punished. by whom, in place of Desiderius Haket (who escaped from the tower on the Kalends of April and hid at Lissewege with his son-in-law), Gervasius was appointed Castellan of Bruges on April 2. Then on April 11 the Provost Bertulf was hanged at Ypres, and on the 14th of the same month the upper story of the church of Saint Donatian was occupied, and its tower was surrendered on the 19th, and punishment was carried out on May 5, when Wulfric, brother of the Provost, and 27 other accomplices, hurled from the tower, perished. Borsiard was then hanged, and Robert the Boy was beheaded at Cassel.

[29] In the following year 1128, when Thierry of Alsace was taken as Count, the Flemish gradually defected from William the Norman; The people of Bruges adhered to Thierry of Alsace, to whom the Stratenses adhered, even against the people of Bruges, who on March 26 made a sortie for the accepted Thierry before the house of Thancmar. But the next day in the early morning, Thancmar and his nephews burned their own house and dwellings at Straten, The Stratiani adhered to William the Norman, because if they had not done so, Daniel and Ivan with their Thierry would have done it, as Galbert testifies at numbers 151 and following. But on April 11 the nephews of Thancmar attacked the Bruges citizens at the Sands, summoning the citizens to do military service; and on April 23 the nephews of Thancmar burned the house of Fromold the Younger at Berenhem, and on June 12 they burned a house near the castle of Bruges. But the Castellan of Bruges, Gervasius, running up, Walter of the Straten family captured. captured Walter, nephew of Thancmar, through whom the occasion and cause of the whole sedition and battle had originated between Borsiard, the traitor of Count Charles, and Thancmar. The citizens of Bruges clapped their hands together with joy because Walter was captured, who was the head and beginning of all the evil of our land, for whose wiles Count Charles was betrayed — not that he himself had betrayed him, but that he had driven his enemies Borsiard and his people to treason. So writes Galbert at number 174, adding that he says this according to the sense of the common people and according to the fury of those who would have wanted to hang the captive Walter or to have torn him apart with a new and unheard-of manner of death, if the Count had permitted it. Then on July 11, that Walter might recover from his wound, he was brought out of captivity, Two Straten brothers given as hostages. with his two brothers given as hostages, whom Walter, returned to captivity on July 25 of the same month, freed, as Galbert narrates more fully; from whose words, according to the sense and fury of the common people, Walter de Straten, proclaimed the head and beginning of all the evil, seems to have been wrongly numbered among the leaders of the Erembaldine faction, and to have given the occasion for calling them Stratenses or Stratiani.

[30] When William the Norman died of his wound in the same month of July, Thierry of Alsace received peaceful possession of Flanders, Under Count Thierry, Thancmar de Straten, approved also by the Kings of France and England; who in the 2nd year of his County, the year of Christ 1129, confirmed the donations made to the monastery of Oudenburg; to which, among others, Thancmar de Straten subscribed, who in the same manner countersigned the letters of donation of the same Count Thierry for the Abbey of Quercetum in the year 1130. See Miraeus in his Description of the Churches of Belgium, chapters 139 and 168. Thancmar, or Tachmar, was a man distinguished for power and wealth, who, lacking offspring by succession, appointed Christ as the heir of his goods, bestowing them on the monastery of Saint Andrew; whose devotion grew to such an extent that, having professed the monastic life there, then a monk of Saint Andrew, he lived laudably and died in holiness, as Sander describes from the account of Henry Zypaeus, Abbot of the said monastery of Saint Andrew, in the cited Flandria Illustrata, page 292. From which it is clear that this Tangmar is rightly established by us as different from Themmard, the Castellan of the Bruges castle, who was slain with Blessed Charles. In the same Sander, Riquard vander Straten subsequently subscribed to the letters of the said Thierry of Alsace, Other Lords of Straten. perhaps another of the brothers of Walter vander Straten, of whom we have treated above. Another Richard, Lord vander Straten, is also reported to have lived in the year 1230. Sander adds that the lordship of Straten afterward belonged to the Costerius, Dudezele, Halmale, and Ghistelle families. But at Bruges we have learned that it now belongs to the Prince of Chimay and the Count of Middelburg.

[31] Let what has been said about the Straten family suffice; only some things remain to be said about the Erembaldine or traitorous family. Paulus Aemilius asserts that none of the conspirators was spared, and not only was the death of the slain Count demanded of the guilty, The fabrication that the Erembaldine family of traitors was extirpated: but whoever touched them by any degree of kinship, and even those somewhat better known, were either driven out by the sword or, through fear, took upon themselves a voluntary and distant exile, with their neighbors detesting and execrating them. Meyer adds that, according to some accounts, a part of these parricides, exiled from their homeland, made their way to Ireland, and with the permission of the King of England cultivated a certain island there called Gerina, and grew there into such a large nation that they even dared at some point to rebel against the King himself. In Flanders their buildings were razed to the ground, with the power of restoration denied forever. All their fields and possessions were condemned to the heaviest tributes, and their progeny was cursed and condemned for eternity. So writes Meyer and others who followed him; all of which is plainly disapproved by us, as is clear from what was said above about William of Ypres, son of Count Philip. Haket the Castellan, brother of the Provost, But the matter will become most clear in the case of Desiderius Haket, Castellan of Bruges, brother of the Provost Bertulf and uncle of Burchard, or Borsiard. This man, as soon as Blessed Charles had been slain, ascended into his house with his men to hold it, and undertook the protection and defense of his brothers and nephews and other conspirators; then he violently extorted all the keys of Blessed Charles — of the house, of the chests and coffers that were in the house — along with other things, and brought them under his own power. What was done on the first day Galbert narrates at numbers 26 and 36. Enclosed thereafter within the castle with the others and besieged, he was in such hatred of the rest that a certain Robert from his household, his runner and servant, was intercepted and killed in the middle of the market and dragged into the marshes. For William the Norman could not be admitted by the people of Oudenburg as the new Count unless both he and the King promised that Haket the Castellan and the rest of the traitors would never hereafter be heirs in the County of Flanders, as is read in the same Galbert at numbers 51 and 89. Meanwhile the besieged obtained the opportunity to parley, in which Haket spoke in favor of the liberation of all, demanding perpetual

exile for the guilty, but for himself, the Provost Bertulf, and Robert the Boy, whom he wished to claim as innocent together with himself, full and safe liberty. On behalf of the besieging multitude, a knight named Walter answered, but proved all of them guilty, with no one excepted: He was numbered among the rest of the traitors, And so henceforth, he added, the fealty and homage which we have until now maintained toward you, we renounce by casting our straws, we condemn, we reject. When the response was finished, all seized their straws and renounced their obedience, homage, fealty, and guarantee. So writes Galbert at numbers 64 and 65. But on the Kalends of April, as he asserts at number 86, on a Friday, on Good Friday, the Castellan Haket escaped from the tower alone, and crossed over to Lissewege, and there he lay hidden with his daughter, whom a knight of great lineage and full of riches had formerly married there. For that fugitive was waiting to see what he should do next. He fled from the tower: On the next day, Holy Saturday of Easter, Gervasius was appointed Castellan in his place in the castle of Bruges.

[32] The aforementioned knight was called Walter Crommelin, or Clomlijn, who first brought aid to the citizens of Bruges against William the Norman, as Galbert testifies at number 149. Both the son-in-law of Haket and his son Robert survived in the time of Thierry of Alsace, and retained peaceful possession of their property. Of this matter two illustrious testimonies are provided by André Duchesne in the Proofs to Book 2 of the Genealogical History of the families of Ghent and Guînes. Here, having produced on page 70 the letters of Thierry of Alsace by which he confirmed the possessions of the Abbey of Saint Peter at Ghent, he adds on page 71: Under Count Thierry he retains possession of his property, Other letters of Thierry, Count of Flanders, by which he takes care to settle and completely decide, in the presence of his principal Barons, the dispute between the Abbot of Saint Peter and Haket, formerly Castellan of Bruges, over the fact that within the circuit of the parish called Liffinga, the aforesaid Church has from ancient times possessed sheep-pastures on the seashore, to which a certain new land has been joined and consolidated by the sea's alluvion. These things were done under the seal and sign of the aforesaid Count Thierry. Witnesses: Ivan of Aalst, Daniel of Dendermonde, Gerard of Oudenarde, Wenemar, Castellan of Ghent, Baldwin of Bailleul, Everard of Ghent, Christian of Gistel. Done at Bruges, in the year of the Word Incarnate 1133. So writes the document. Of the named Barons, Ivan of Aalst, Daniel of Dendermonde, and the Castellan of Ghent, each with his own knight, had besieged the castle of Bruges from March 10 and 11, and together with others had renounced the obedience, homage, fealty, and guarantee of the Castellan Haket and others, and now these same Barons settle and decide a dispute about a certain possession of Haket with their Count Thierry. What is added about Haket's son and son-in-law in the same Duchesne at the same page 71 reads as follows: As also Robert his son and Walter Crommelin his son-in-law: Letters of the same Thierry, Count of Flanders, by which he settles the dispute between Gislebert, Abbot of Saint Peter at Ghent, and Robert, son of Haket, formerly Castellan of Bruges, and Walter Crommelin, his son-in-law, over land at Testrep and the tithe of Groede. Sign of Count Thierry, S. of Ivan of Aalst, S. of Daniel of Dendermonde, S. of Gerard of Oudenarde, S. of Raso the Butler, S. of Thierry the Chamberlain, S. of Michael the Constable, S. of Wenemar, Castellan of Ghent, S. of Ghislebert, Castellan of Bergues, S. of Baldwin, Castellan of Lens, S. of Walter of Nivelles, S. of Baldwin of Bailleul, S. of Gervasius of Ythelhem, S. of Everard of Ghent, S. of Walter Crommelin. Done at Bruges, in the year of the Word Incarnate 1133, Indiction 11, in the reign of King Louis in France, under the principate of Thierry in Flanders, in the 6th year of his principate. So reads the document. In the donation of the same Count Thierry to the Abbey of Quercetum in the year 1130, mentioned above, the same son-in-law of Haket, Walter Clomlijn, countersigned.

[33] We omit to heap up further evidence, since from these we sufficiently gather that under Count Thierry an amnesty was granted, that is, an obliteration of injuries and a perpetual oblivion of the past; The fabulous formula of proclamation should be omitted. and that that progeny did not remain cursed and condemned for eternity, as Meyer, Marchantius, and Lernutius attempted to prove from the fabulous formula of proclamation which is read before the doors of the church; and Lernutius indeed, because it was imagined that the Count was slain on a Friday, reports that this execration was accustomed to be performed on the first and second Fridays of the month of March. But because from Walter and Galbert and other ancient writers it was certainly established that Blessed Charles was slain on the 2nd of March, a Wednesday, the condemnation began to be proclaimed on the 6th of the Nones of March, and, if Meyer is to be believed, at the sound of a trumpet, but Marchantius wrote that the progeny was execrated by a horn-blower. All of which will better be omitted after reading this document, since God, the primal Truth, is not honored by so many packed-together lies.

Section VI. The series of the Castellans of the city of Bruges and the Provosts of Saint Donatian, pertaining to this history, correctly ordered.

[34] Since the later writers had almost no knowledge of the Castellans and Provosts of Bruges, The Castellans of Bruges at that time, of whom we have already treated, I repeat their catalog. The Castellans were: Boldran, under Baldwin of Lille, around the year 1050; Erembald for forty and more years; Robert his son; then Walter, born of the said Robert; Desiderius Haket, also a son of Erembald; upon whose deposition, Gervasius, the Chamberlain of Blessed Charles; and upon the latter's death, Radulf, who along with Gervasius de Praet subscribed in the year 1143 to the letters of Count Thierry for the Church of Sainte-Marie de Tronchiennes. Whether this second Gervasius was the son of the former, or rather gave later writers the occasion for error when they surname him "de Praet," we leave for others to examine. At the same time Gervasius of Ythelhem, mentioned above, was still living. Sander surnames the Castellan Gervasius "of Bruges," which we also do not accept. For the same Sander in Book 1 of Bruges Affairs, chapter 7, when he presents the ancient Castellans of Bruges, shows great ignorance of the sequence: Ineptly reported elsewhere, he was ignorant of Boldran, places Robert before Erembald, and again adds him as if he were a different person — indeed he does not disclose that he was the son of Erembald; nor does he establish Walter as the latter's son, to whom he correctly adds Haket, but who he was is passed over in silence; but most incorrectly, with Haket removed, Arnulf of Nielles is placed at the year 1120 either as Castellan or as a relative of the Castellans of Bruges, mentioned in the letters of Manasses, Count of Guînes, and his wife Emma. Those letters were published by Duchesne in the above-indicated Proofs, page 39, but with Arnulf and other witnesses omitted. But soon on pages 40 and 41, Arnulf, or Ernulf, of Nielles is produced among the witnesses at the years 1120 and 1128, with absolutely no added dignity of Castellan or kinship with the Castellans. But that, with Arnulf excluded, Desiderius Haket was the Castellan of Bruges from the year 1115 to 1127 is most certain from the above; upon whose deposition Gervasius succeeded, and upon his death Radulf.

[35] We have also indicated the Provosts of the Church of Saint Donatian: Erkenbert, Rainer, Ledbert, and Bertulf; in whose place, below in Galbert at number 120, Roger is substituted, who died in the year 1157, as we ourselves read on the sepulchral stone in the choir of Saint Donatian. Meanwhile Sander in Book 2 of Bruges Affairs, chapter 1, and from him the Sainte-Marthes in volume 2 of the Gallia Christiana among the Bishops of Bruges, propose an inept series, although it is said to have been carefully collected, As also the series of Provosts of Bruges. and omitting Ledbert they enumerate eight more, and they are: Erkenbert, Rainer, Bertulf, Guy the Chancellor, Bertulph, Roger, Arnulf of Straten, Roger. Of these, one and the same person is named as different by the interposition of others: Bertulf and, with one letter changed, Bertulph, and Arnulf of Straten, at the time when Charles the Good was murdered. Likewise Roger and Roger are a single person, wrongly distinguished; and the death of the latter should not be placed in the year 1147, since the sepulchral inscription indicates he died ten years later. Guy the Chancellor is interposed because he countersigned the foundation made by Robert the Jerusalemite in the year 1105 for the Abbey of Saint Andrew. But they do not seem to have read the letters of foundation, which we have said above were countersigned by the Provost Bertulf with his two brothers. Hugh, Chancellor of Rogia, subscribed in the year 1130 to the donation made to the monastery of Oudenburg, but is not therefore to be numbered among the Provosts of Bruges, even if no Provost is found to have countersigned that donation, which can be seen in Miraeus's Description of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 139.

Section VII. The murder of Blessed Charles, from the Acts of Louis the Fat, King of the French; by the author Suger, Abbot.

[36] We have proposed to commemorate briefly in a narrative, avoiding tedium, this outstanding deed — beyond which no nobler one was accomplished from his youth to the end of his life — not how but what he did. The famous Count, the most powerful man Charles, Saint Charles adorned with virtues, son of the King of Denmark, related through the aunt of Lord King Louis, when he had succeeded by right of kinship to the most valiant Count Baldwin, son of Robert the Jerusalemite, administered the very populous land of Flanders as strenuously as diligently: an illustrious defender of the Church of God, conspicuous for his liberality in almsgiving, a distinguished guardian of justice. By his own men, whose pride he had chastised, When, as debtor of the honor he had received, he appropriately enough demanded by the judgment of the court certain powerful men — of humble birth but puffed up with wealth — who were proudly striving to distance the line of their kinship from his dominion (for they were of the dregs of servile condition), they — namely the Provost of the Church of Bruges and his men, most arrogant men and notorious traitors — most cruelly plotted against him. When therefore he came to Bruges on a certain day, attending the church of God in the early morning, prostrate on the pavement, holding in his hand a book of prayers, he was praying; when suddenly a certain Burchard, nephew of the aforesaid Provost, a truculent henchman, together with others of the same most wicked root and other accomplices of the most vile treason, crept up quietly behind him as he prayed — indeed as he spoke silently to God — and carefully, with drawn sword, gently touching the neck of the Count as he lay prostrate on the ground, so that he might raise himself a little and unwittingly direct himself toward the striker's sword, He is slain in the church, applying his sword to him, with one blow the impious man most wickedly cut down the pious, the slave his Lord. And those who stood by as cooperators in the impious murder, thirsting for his blood, like dogs raging over abandoned carcasses, delighted in tearing apart the innocent: glorying exceedingly that they could accomplish in deed the sorrow they had conceived and the iniquity they had brought forth. And adding iniquity upon iniquity, blinded as they were by their own malice, whatever Castellans, whatever nobler Barons of the Count Together with some of his retinue, they could find either in the same church or outside in the castle, they butchered them, unprepared and unconfessed, with the most unfortunate kind of wretched death. But we believe that it greatly profited them that, slain in this way for the fidelity of their Lord, they were found praying in the church, since it is written: "Where I find you, there I will judge you." Ezekiel 24:14

The savage men, burying the Count in the very church (lest, if he were mourned and buried honorably outside, the devoted people might be incited to vengeance for his glorious life Against the impious traitors, and more glorious death), making the church itself a den of thieves, fortified both it and the Count's house adjoining the church, and with whatever provisions of food were ready, they deliberate with the utmost pride both to protect themselves thence and to win the land to their side. Therefore the Barons of Flanders who had not assented to these things, stunned with horror at so great and wicked a deed, paying tearful funeral rites and avoiding the stain of treason, By the Barons of Flanders: the King of France is invoked: denounce this to Lord King Louis — and not to him alone, but by flying fame throughout the whole world. The King, stirred both by the love of justice and by the affection of kinship to vengeance for so great a treason, and not detained by the war of the King of England or of Count Theobald, enters Flanders boldly, burning with all his might of spirit and effort to destroy most atrociously the most wicked men. He appoints as Count of Flanders William the Norman, son of Robert the Jerusalemite, Count of Normandy (for by right of kinship it pertained to him). When he descended to Bruges, not fearing the barbarism of the land nor the vile line of the traitorous kinship, he presses the traitors, besieged in the church and tower; He besieges them. he forbids provisions beyond their own, which by divine providence were also resisting their use as unfit. When he had crushed them for some time with famine, pestilence, and the sword, they abandoned the church and retained only the tower — so that the tower might hold them.

[37] Now therefore, despairing of life, when their harp was already turned to mourning and their music to the voice of weeping, the most wicked Burchard, by the consent of his companions, slipped away in flight, wanting to leave the land Punishment is inflicted on Burchard, the killer of the Count, but unable to, his own iniquity alone preventing him; returning to the house of a certain friend and intimate, he was intercepted by the King's command, and by an exquisite kind of wretched death, bound atop a high wheel, exposed to the rapacity of crows and birds of prey, his eyes gouged out from above and his whole face torn apart, pierced a thousand times from below by arrows and lances and javelins, he was most miserably killed and thrown into a sewer. Bertold, however, the head of the iniquity, when he had similarly resolved to escape, and had wandered about quite freely here and there, returned out of sheer pride (for he said: Who am I, or what am I?), he too was captured The Provost Bertulf, and, subjected to the King's judgment, was condemned to a deserved and most wretched death. For he was hung on a gibbet with a dog, and whenever the dog was struck, it turned its rage against him, devouring his whole face by chewing; and sometimes also — horrible to say — it defecated on him. And thus he ended his wretched life with a death that was more wretched than the most wretched, perpetual. Those whom he had shut up in the tower, forcing them to surrender by many hardships, he hurled down one by one, one after another, before their own people with their necks broken. Others hurled from the tower, A certain one of them also, Isaac by name, who had been tonsured and made a monk in a certain monastery out of fear of death, he affixed to a gibbet. Having thus won the victory at Bruges, the King with his men hastens to Ypres, a most excellent fortress, against William the Bastard, the supporter of the treason, William of Ypres ejected from his possessions. to take vengeance on him as well. He lures the citizens of Bruges by both threats and blandishments, sending messengers to them. And while William comes out to meet him with three hundred knights, one part of the royal army rushes upon him, while another part boldly seizes the castle from the side through another gate, and retaining it, banishes William, disinherited from all Flanders. And because he had aspired to possess Flanders through treason, he deservedly obtained nothing in all of Flanders. Therefore, with Flanders washed and as if rebaptized with these and various modes of vengeance and the shedding of much blood, and with William the Norman established as Count, the King returned victorious to France, with God's help.

[38] The aunt of King Louis, the mother of Blessed Charles, Adela, is called the uterine sister of Bertha, daughter of Floris I, Count of Holland, who, married to Philip I, King of the French, How the mother of Blessed Charles was the aunt of King Louis. bore him the said Louis. But Gertrude, the mother of Bertha, after the death of her first husband Count Floris, married again Robert the Frisian, by whom he begot Robert the Younger, the Jerusalemite, Adela the mother of Blessed Charles, and Gertrude the mother of Thierry of Alsace, later Count of Flanders. For the rest, what is added about the dog in the punishment of Bertulf, Galbert narrates thus at number 94: The raging crowd of Ypres, intent on the death of the Provost, had twisted the entrails of a dog around his neck, and pressed the mouth of the dog against his mouth as he was already breathing out his last breath, comparing him and his deeds to a dog.

LIFE

by the author Walter, Archdeacon of the Church of the Morini.

From three manuscript codices and the edition of Jacques Sirmond.

Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, Martyr (Blessed)

BHL Number: 1573

By the author Walter the Archdeacon.

PROLOGUE.

To his Lord and Father, worthy of the merit of holiness, to be honored with all reverence of devotion, John, Bishop of the holy Church of Thérouanne, Brother Walter, the useless servant of his favor, offers the obedience of due and total subjection.

[1] The revered authority of your paternity has commanded my humble self to run through with my pen all the things that have been done, as they occurred, and to transmit them in writing to the knowledge of posterity: because in our times most horrible crimes, execrable to the entire world, have been perpetrated in these parts by wicked men, and in vengeance for them the judgments of divine justice have stood forth in great dread, weighed with a most equitable balance of retribution in proportion to their enormity; and all these things are as unheard of to past generations as they are more wonderful to the present. All of these things your providence has decreed should be written and preserved in writing to be made known to future times, The Life was written to instill love of God in the good, fear in the wicked: so that when they are read or heard, the good, having considered so great an equity of the Supreme Judge, may grow more ardently in the love of Him; and the wicked, having known so terrible a judgment of divine vengeance, may through fear of Him restrain themselves from their wickedness. To your command has been added the friendly petition of Lord Goscelin the Dean and of our brothers, always to be received by me with all honor; to which I desire with fervent desire to comply in all things pleasing to God. Therefore, compelled by the authority of your holiness and by fraternal charity, I shall undertake (with the help of Him who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and who waters and by watering makes fruitful the dryness of my tongue with the dew of His grace) to do what you enjoin: relying more on the virtue of obedience than on that literary knowledge which I have not yet sufficiently attained to dare to venture this.

[2] I shall endeavor, moreover, since this also pleases you, having avoided every stain of falsehood and the uncertainty of popular opinion, to relate with a simple narrative, as best I can, what was done; so that, being less intent on seeking out the superfluous trappings of words and the ornaments of rhetorical colors, I may thus avoid a tedious prolixity, yet without being so devoted to excessive brevity that I am found to conceal the truth necessary for the reader's knowledge of those things which I either saw myself or indubitably learned from the testimony of truthful men. And so that everything that is said may shine forth more easily, Chapters inserted for clarity. I have arranged to designate the entire sequence of the following little work, comprehended in brief titles, with numbers prefixed to each on the page; so that a somehow dark page may by no means produce tedium for the reader, and a more expeditious access may be open for finding what is sought. But if I do not run through each thing in natural order, I ask the reader not to be disturbed by this; but let it be permissible sometimes opportunely to anticipate and set forth things that came later when they present themselves, and sometimes to append earlier things by recapitulating in an artificial order; provided that, where reason requires it, it sufficiently appears what was done at what time.

INDEX OF CHAPTERS.

PART I

The deeds of Blessed Charles in his youth under the Counts of Flanders, Robert the Frisian and Robert the Younger: the journey to Jerusalem.

Chapter I.

[3] In the year of the Word Incarnate 1127, Indiction 5, Count Charles slain on March 2 in the year 1127, on the sixth of the Nones of March, the peace of our land was destroyed, its quiet disturbed, its honor annihilated, and almost all the happiness of mortals extinguished; and the detestable beginning of wars, labors, disgraces, and every unhappiness commenced. For on the very day of that year, in the life of one man the lives of many were endangered; and from the undeserved death of one, the deserved deaths of many, by the just judgment of God, were propagated in a kind of terrible generation. Psalm 108:14 For then, according to the Prophet, the iniquity of our fathers came into remembrance before the Lord, and our ancient sins began to be struck with a new vengeance; so that, when he in whose hand after God the salvation of the people had hitherto stood was removed from the midst, it might be manifestly understood that the censure of divine judgment, which had previously lain hidden in the secret foreknowledge of God, was now coming forth into the open. For on that very day, to the ruin of many, Charles, Count of Flanders, was slain at Bruges in the church of Saint Donatian, by the execrable crime of certain men — the son of Canute the Martyr, formerly King of Denmark, and of Queen Adela, The son of Saint Canute, King of Denmark: who afterward married Roger, Duke of Apulia. But that we may more clearly show the occasion of his murder and the heavenly vengeance terribly dealt out against the authors of his death, we choose to begin our little narrative somewhat further back.

Chapter II.

[4] His father, the aforesaid King, after he was slain After his murder, by the treachery of his own men in the church to which he had fled in fear of death, he is brought to his grandfather, Robert the Frisian, Count of Flanders, since the Lord worked signs and wonders through him, was counted among the Martyrs and has been held in great veneration among the Danes from then until now. The Queen, however, with this little son of hers, returned to Flanders to her father Robert, the most valiant Marquis, grandson through his daughter Adela of Robert, formerly King of the Franks, surnamed the Frisian, and to her most noble mother Gertrude, descended from the illustrious stock of the Saxons; By his mother Adela, and having stayed there for some time, she was given in marriage by her parents to the aforementioned Duke Roger. To whom she also bore a son named William, who succeeded his father in the Duchy when he died, Then married to Roger, Duke of Apulia, and ennobled in many ways the honor he received by the nobility and valor of his character. But when he heard of the death of his only full brother, he first began to grieve inconsolably, and then also to languish fatally. When he realized he was in danger, he summoned the Archbishop of Salerno and the Bishop of Troia, By her son, donated to the Apostolic See, and desiring that what he had done earlier while in good health should also be confirmed by their testimony, whatever movable or immovable property he appeared to possess on earth, he delegated in perpetual right of possession to the blessed Prince of the Apostles Peter and his Vicar, the most holy Pope Honorius, from whose sacred mouth I frequently heard this; and thereafter he departed this light in the confession of the Lord.

[5] This Charles of ours, however, having passed through the years of his boyhood, when he reached manhood and received the belt of knighthood, devoutly went to holy Jerusalem to visit the Lord's sepulcher; As a youth he fights in the Holy Land: and there, bearing arms against the Pagans, the enemies of our faith, he fought valiantly for Christ the Lord for some time, and dedicated to Him, whom he prudently recognized should be served above all others, the first-fruits of his labors and deeds; soon by divine

ordinance providing, he returns to Flanders to his uncle Robert the Younger, the Marquis, He returns to Flanders: and is received by him with the honor that befitted such a young man.

Chapter III.

[6] Since we have now incidentally made mention of this glorious Prince, it seems worthwhile to commemorate briefly certain notable marks of his virtues. For this is that illustrious Count Robert, To his cousin Count Robert, the son of the elder Robert the Frisian, who, having heard that holy decree of the Council of Clermont — which is to be recalled with the memory of all the Saints — namely concerning the rescue of the venerable place of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection from the hands of the Pagans and the vindication of the Christian faith, immediately judged, taught by the Gospel, that his wife and children, and lastly all that he possessed in the world, should be set aside for the service of Christ the Lord; and, bearing the insignia of His Cross upon his shoulders and following as best he could the bodily footsteps of Christ Himself, he hastened eagerly with others whom the same grace had inspired to fulfill that mandate of the Apostolic See with all constancy of faith. In which expedition, and in the storming of the cities of that land, A valiant man in the storming of Antioch and Jerusalem: especially Antioch and holy Jerusalem, he gave innumerable illustrious proofs of his courage and prowess, some of which are contained in that history which has been written about the deeds of the Franks conquering Jerusalem for Christ. From which it suffices here to commemorate this one thing to his praise: that on account of the invincible constancy of his spirit he is recorded to have been called by the very Arabs and Turks "the son of Saint George."

Chapter IV.

[7] Therefore, when the unbelieving nations had been conquered by the strong hand of the Lord, and in the holy city Arnulf had been elevated with the honor of the Patriarchate and Duke Godfrey with the diadem of the kingdom, with the Lord prospering him he returned to his own land, He returns to his own land: and governed his territory for the rest of his life with great distinction, happily and with notable modesty.

p. After this was captured in the year 1099; hence the kingdom of Jerusalem was offered to him when he was afterward made Count, as Galbert reports at number 9.

q. Robert the Younger, Called the Younger because he ruled Flanders with his father for about 17 years, but after the latter's death in the year 1094, he ruled alone.

r. That council was held in the year 1095, in the month of November, at the instigation of Blessed Peter the Hermit.

s. The journey to the Holy Land: The first mentioned by William of Tyre in Book 1, chapter 17, is Hugh the Great, brother of King Philip of France, the second is Robert, Count of the Flemish... the eighth Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon. Robert's journey is described in Book 2, chapter 16 and following, as also in Tudebodus and other writers of this expedition.

t. Antioch was captured in the year 1098, June 3, and that the Lord of the Flemish Count and Lord Tancred were among the first to scale its walls, Antioch captured, by whose leadership the rest were governed, is written by William of Tyre, Book 1, chapter 21.

u. Jerusalem was stormed in the year 1099, July 15, on a Friday, at the ninth hour. William of Tyre, Book 8, chapter 18. And Jerusalem. Indeed those who entered immediately after Duke Godfrey were the Count of Flanders and the Duke of Normandy. Hence Robert is surnamed the Jerusalemite.

x. Tudebodus in Book 4 reports a battle joined with the Turks, with Duke Godfrey, the Flemish Count Robert, and Hugh the Great leading the way, when Saints George, Theodore, and Demetrius were their leaders from heaven, Robert, why called the son of Saint George? and the terrified Turks took flight; so that from this too he could have been called the son of Saint George by them; which is also noted in the manuscript Chronicle of the monastery of Saint Andrew founded by him.

y. William of Tyre, Book 9, chapter 13: After these deeds, the God-beloved and God-devoted Princes, the Counts of the Normans and Flemish, having happily completed the course of the pilgrimage they had undertaken, arrange to return to their own lands.

PART II

Flanders offered to Blessed Charles by Count Baldwin: and his assumption of it.

Chapter V.

[8] When Robert died at Meaux, After the above-described reception of our Charles, a short time having passed, he died in France near the city of Meaux, having been ill for a few days, and was buried in the monastery of Blessed Vaast at the city of Arras with great mourning of all, His son Baldwin left as heir: leaving as his heir his young son Baldwin, whom he had begotten of his most noble wife Clementia. Who, not long afterward, having obtained from King Louis the gift of the knightly belt and his father's inheritance, and using especially the counsel of Lord Charles and being instructed by his teachings, grew in a short time to such eminence of courage and valor that he appeared wonderful to all who observed his prowess, and became altogether formidable not only to all neighboring Counts and Dukes but even to Kings themselves. But just as his valor had shone forth beyond the measure of his age with sudden increase, so by the hidden disposition of God opposing his undertakings, it could not long endure. For at that time he had taken under his patronage and protection William the Disinherited — the son, that is, of Count Robert, son of William, King of the English, surnamed the Conqueror (which Robert had been begotten of Queen Matilda, full sister of the aforesaid Robert the Frisian, as had his brothers William and Henry, and whom his same brother Henry, King of the English, held captive) — He endeavors to recover Normandy for his kinsman: this William, I say, a young man, and had equipped him with his military arms. And because he had resolved to restore to him his inheritance of Normandy, with the latter's uncle, who had obtained it after the capture of his father, resisting with all his might, he was harassing it with grievous and frequent incursions. He had already subdued a great part of it with its towns and fortifications; and was compelling almost all the rest, while King Henry himself was unable to defend it either by force of arms or by the abundance of his wealth, to tremble in an amazing way at the fear of his sword. Proverbs 21:30 But truly, as the Prophet says, there is no strength, there is no counsel against God: truly He alone is powerful, who is able, when He wills and how He wills, to bring to nothing the power of all.

Chapter VI.

[9] For when he was accomplishing so great things and planning much greater ones, his shield, as they say, having been driven against his forehead by the blow of a certain enemy knight, and a small swelling having arisen from that blow in the very place where the salutary sign of the Cross used to be imprinted, the whole summit of so great a power, which had grown so quickly into, as it were, a great mountain, subsided more quickly, He is injured: and like smoke, appearing for a little while, vanished. For with the care of the physicians daily growing worse, he began to sicken, and at last in the town of Roeselare, having obtained the monastic habit with the utmost devotion and humble supplication, he died of the illness with which he had been afflicted for about ten months, In the year 1119 he dies: in the year of the Lord 1119, on the 15th of the Kalends of July, and was carried to the monastery of Saint-Bertin, and with the immense weeping of all the magnates of the land and a pitiable lamentation, he received burial before the altar of the Holy Cross on the 13th of the Kalends of the same month.

Chapter VII.

[10] Nevertheless, although his mother, with certain others agreeing out of love for William, son of Count Philip, son of the above-mentioned Robert the Frisian (who had married a granddaughter of the same Countess, With William of Ypres set aside, and whom she most greatly wished to succeed her son), greatly resisted, before he departed from this light he had himself appointed this glorious man of whom we proposed to treat, Charles, Charles is made Count of Flanders, whose probity and industry he had often proved in many things, and had entrusted to him the governance and direction of all affairs; to whom he had also previously joined in marriage the noble maiden Margaret, having first married his wife, the daughter of Rainald, Count of Clermont, and had given him

the County of Amiens together with the castle of Encre. All of which I would attribute not so much to the disposition of that young man as to the ordinance of the Supreme Judge, who inclined the will of a youthful spirit, less suited to mature counsels, wherever He wished, by His hidden inspiration. For it is written, "The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord, and He inclines it wherever He wills." By wondrous divine providence. For unless the decree of the Divine will had ordained these things to happen thus, the love of one person would never have outweighed in his estimation the love of three — and these his mother, his cousin, and his cousin's wife. Proverbs 21:1 This was also most clearly declared by the signs of subsequent events. For who, I ask, cast down with such speed the great billows of warlike storms, enormously raised up against him, unless He who, through the ministry of this man, wished for a time to provide for the tranquillity of those whom He had made? Whence the Psalmist says: "He made the storm a calm, and the waves thereof were still." Psalm 106:29

PART III

The generous spirit of Blessed Charles, severe toward the wicked, benevolent toward the good and the miserable, especially in time of famine.

Chapter VIII.

[11] For after he had assumed the government of this land in the order already described, Countess Clementia, impelled by blind envy for the aforesaid reason, allied herself in the bond of matrimony to the Duke of Louvain, He is attacked in war by the Duke of Louvain, with the treachery of some of the magnates of the land also supporting her; and she disrupted the pact of concord which her son, Marquis Baldwin, in his last moments had made between Charles and her; and with her husband, together with the Count of Mons, assenting to her, The Count of Mons, the King of France, and the King of France Louis secretly favoring her undertaking (however, as many thought), she prepared to expel him from the territory of Flanders, of which she then held about twelve towns. Hugh also, Count of Saint-Pol, surnamed Campdavaine, And the Count of Saint-Pol: perceiving this opportunity to exercise his malice, began to renew his ancient and long-standing hatreds against him, and to raid the parts of the land bordering his own, and to devastate everything in his customary fashion more violently than usual with both burnings and plunderings.

Chapter IX.

[12] When therefore all of these conspired unanimously for his destruction Victor through divine protection, and stirred up the savage tumults of war on every side to the ruin of our people, He who by the hidden judgment of His power scatters the counsels of the nations, and reproves the thoughts of the mighty, and reproves the counsels of Princes, looked down from His holy height: Psalm 72:10 the Lord looked down from heaven upon the earth, to hear the groaning of the captives and to loose the children of the slain. For to His faithful Charles He graciously granted both an intrepid confidence to wage war against them and an invincible power to conquer them all. For all that tumult of wars raging round about was repressed in a short time with as great swiftness of victory as was the fierceness of pride with which it had been raised. For wonderful are the raisings of the sea; wonderful is the Lord on high. Psalm 92:6 For I consider it not so much a matter of wonder He forces his adversaries to seek peace: that he repressed in a short time the movements of such great Princes, stubbornly rising against him, as that he struck the utmost terror of himself into all of them, without almost any shedding of blood; to such a degree that, after whatever conditions of peace they had obtained from him, none of them dared to renew rebellion even once, or to give the slightest occasion for suspecting it of him.

[13] Therefore the Countess, now more unhappily a Duchess, pressed by her husband's unexpected successes, was forced to seek peace from him He recovers four towns: and to surrender to him four of her towns, namely Dixmude, and Bergues, Aire, and Saint-Venant. And she who had previously intended through war to unjustly obtain what belonged to others, having lost a great part of her own, learned to be content with the rest and to enjoy peace. He himself, however, preserved his full faith toward her as toward all, and from that time treated her with all honor and courtesy.

[14] But when Hugh persevered in his insolence, he afterward destroyed the castle of Saint-Pol, which had been surrendered to him, He destroys the castle of Saint-Pol: and reduced all its fortifications to level ground, and compelled him, against his will, to live more quietly thereafter and to devote himself to agriculture, which his previous rampaging round about had prevented. But afterward, as they say, necessity having been changed into willingness, he seemed to embrace this gladly, and as long as that Prince lived, he judged it more advantageous to be grateful for the security of peace than to disturb and be disturbed by the losses of plundering and burning.

[15] He also found Walter, Count of Hesdin, preparing rebellion He expels the Count of Hesdin: with his customary folly and madness and conspiring with Hugh, and expelled him not only from his castle but from the country, and appointed another successor to him. However, in the last year of his life, taking pity on him, he granted him some suitable revenues for the necessary support of his livelihood. He also so thoroughly tamed the Count of Mons and Thomas, Count of Coucy, who were accustomed to disturb our borders with all their might, He tames the Counts of Mons and Coucy: that they not only refrained from inflicting injuries on others, but also bore quietly, whether they wished to or not, those inflicted on themselves by chance. Thus, with every disturbance of wars settled with God's help, the land was silent in his sight.

Chapter X.

[16] Having obtained this tranquillity of peace, I am by no means sufficient to explain in words how great he showed himself to be. For devoted to God, he humbled himself with all humility before all His servants, Reverent toward ecclesiastical and religious men, namely the Prelates of Churches and all Religious, and obeying their commands reverently, he bore patiently and humbly the corrections by which they judged he should be reproved according to place and time, He allows himself to be admonished by them: and promised amendment and caution in the future with all meekness. This seems to us the more praiseworthy in his conduct because it is found rarely and with difficulty in other leading men, not only of this world but also of ecclesiastical dignity. Most of whom, after they have attained the summit of even a slight power and have begun to be honored by any of their subjects, soon forgetful of their natural condition and their own frailty, and as if elevated by some pinnacle of vanity, they look down on the rest, whom they fail to recognize as their equals by the order of nature. They believe themselves wiser and more upright than all those whom they surpass by the lot of dignity. Who, while given over to the pleasures of the world and defiled with the filth of vices, and puffed up with the swellings of pride and vainly exalted, utterly disdain to be corrected by the reproofs of anyone; by which indeed they are often made more bitter rather than amended. And thus, while they fear neither God nor men, they rush like unbridled horses headlong into vices. And so that those who are in filth

according to Scripture, let them be yet more filthy, it is brought about by the dread judgment of the Almighty, that not only is there no correction to restrain them, but often there is even flattery to nourish their vices: inasmuch as subjects not only do not reprove what is wrongly done by them, but even, so that the sinner may be praised in the desires of his soul, they often praise out of eagerness to please what they ought to have censured out of zeal for righteousness. Revelation 22:11 Whence it was said also to Ezekiel: "I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, and you shall be mute, and not like a man who rebukes, for you are a rebellious house." Ezekiel 3:26 And through the Prophet: "My people, those who call you blessed, they themselves deceive you." Isaiah 3:11

Chapter XI

[17] But our venerable Marquis Charles showed himself meek and humble toward those who corrected him, and frequently even gave them thanks; he commends himself to their prayers: and with devout supplication he asked that they would obtain for him by their prayers divine help, so that he might put into practice what they had said. In this he considered himself to be obeying and deferring not so much to men as to God, whose ambassadors they were: knowing and prudently observing what was said by the mouth of Truth itself in the Gospel: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who receives you, receives me." Luke 11:16 Nor did he burden the churches and the people under his authority with any exactions whatsoever, according to the wicked custom of other princes, he reduces exactions: but rather, diligently providing for the common welfare of all, he greatly relieved them, and like a devoted father he took solicitous care for everyone in common.

[18] This can indeed be proved by this fact, that when in those two years before his death the barrenness of the land and the scarcity of harvests had brought about a great shortage of food, on account of barrenness he forgives revenues to the farmers: he mercifully remitted a large portion of his revenues to the farmers, from which he himself was supposed to live and support his household; and by absolutely prohibiting for a time not only superfluous but often even necessary brewings and drinkings of beer, and by imposing a measure of frugality upon the immoderate, he forbids drinking: he wisely provided with fatherly solicitude the necessary sustenance of life for all. He also decreed that whoever should make bread for sale should sell not one loaf, as was customary, but two, however small, for each penny, he lowers the price of bread: so that any poor person who might not have a penny would have the means to buy with even a half-penny.

[19] What, I ask, would he do in great matters, who took such great care in the smallest? At the time when he saw that many were destitute, he assigned a hundred of them to each of his estates, of which he had many, and ordered that a daily allowance be distributed to them from his own resources. Moreover, in whatever city, town, or village he might be, innumerable people flocked to him daily: to whom he distributed food, money, he distributes alms to the poor: and clothing, especially with his own hands — to such an extent that at Ypres on a single day he distributed seven thousand eight hundred loaves, as the memory of those who were present has reported. For he suffered no one to go away from him disappointed, he even gives away his own garments: and the garments, exceedingly precious ones, which he wore, he frequently took off himself and gave to them generously. For he had heard that Gospel saying: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7 and 25:40 And that other: "Whatever you did for one of the least of mine, you did for me." He was so affected by their miseries that, when he saw them harassed or afflicted in any way, he grieved for them from his inmost being, himself fulfilling in his own measure what the Apostle says of himself: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" 2 Corinthians 11:29 Moreover, lest in all these things he should be regarded as remarkable for singularity on account of such excellence of liberality, he frequently invited others also to this same work of piety, not only by example, he urges others to do the same: but also by the word of exhortation. For he said that so great an opportunity of obtaining the kingdom of God should by no means be neglected by the pious minds of the faithful: but that for this reason one should sow in the present in blessing, so that from blessing they might reap eternal life in the future.

So the knight desisted, and the Abbot returned consoled.

PART IV

The occasion of the hatred stirred up against Blessed Charles.

Chapter XII

[20] But, as according to the same Apostle he might be all things to all men, just as he appeared gentle to the humble, so he appeared severe to the proud — soothing the former with lamb-like gentleness, deterring the latter with leonine severity. 1 Corinthians 9:22 Severe toward the proud: Moreover, those unjust slanders by which they were accustomed to oppress the poor, he restrained with such strictness of rigor that, according to the Prophet, he delivered the needy from the hand of sinners, and curbed the malice of the wicked oppressors of the poor: lest it rage beyond measure: so that what the love of justice did not temper, at least the fear of vengeance might restrain. Psalm 81:4 Moreover, the untamed ferocity of the barbarians inhabiting the maritime parts of Flanders, and barbarous brawlers: hitherto accustomed cruelly to shed human blood with contempt for the fear of God, he restrained with remarkable severity. He also completely forbade the raising of standards, by which, when lifted on high, they would summon confederates to battle, and which on account of the frenzy of those raging for war that tongue was accustomed to call Bacchas. And he was either loved or feared by all to such a degree that in so great a multitude of a fierce people, scarcely anyone could be found who would consider it safe to oppose in the slightest his ordinances promulgated for the public welfare.

[21] Moreover, how great an emulator of truth and justice he was can be gathered from this: that in fulfilling promises he strove to show himself effective, keen in judging cases: and in investigating the merits of cases altogether keen. Nor did the grace of God fail him in this, by whose instruction he examined with a wonderful acuteness of subtlety whatever matters needed to be handled: and detecting and rebuking iniquity, while exalting and defending equity, he upheld justice in all things to the utmost of his power. first he wishes satisfaction to be given to clerics and Religious: In all these matters he very often observed this order: that if ever clerics or religious monks had cases to plead in his court, compelled by some necessity, he would first hear their complaints and settle their cases before all others, and only then turn to other matters to be dealt with. For he judged it altogether unworthy and unfitting that those who ought to devote themselves to reading or prayer should linger in court or in the business of such affairs, in accordance with what the Apostle says: "No one serving as God's soldier entangles himself in secular affairs." 2 Timothy 2:4

Chapter XIII

[22] Since therefore this illustrious man was endowed with these and many other virtues, for the enumeration or explanation of which all that we can say is insufficient, the more the good were delighted by his good endeavors, the more the wicked were tormented: He incurs the hatred of the wicked: since they saw that by his integrity the life of those whom they envied was protected, and they saw and lamented that their own schemes were impeded. And because their wickedness, fettered by the chains of fear of him, was not permitted to rage at will against the ruin of others, they seemed to themselves to be endangered by his well-being; and whatever they saw accruing to others, they considered to be lost to their own advantage. Incited by these incentives of cupidity and goaded by the stings of rapacity, they first began to envy, then to exercise secret hatreds against him, and then finally, loosening their tongues in detraction, they began to tear the life of the just man with canine teeth. In this they duly followed in the footsteps of their fathers the Jews, who are shown to have persecuted the Lord and Savior with the same malice that the Prophet long before commemorated, saying in their person: "Let us lie in wait for the just man, because he is useless to us and contrary to our works." Wisdom 2:12

Chapter XIV

[23] There was in those times a certain Provost of Bruges, Bertulf by name, Of Provost Bertulf: Archdeacon and Chancellor of the entire Flemish court; who, since the world smiled upon him, had accumulated immense riches (for he possessed very ample estates both from his paternal inheritance and from the liberality of princes, namely of Charles and his predecessors), and lest anything of temporal prosperity should seem to be lacking to him, on account of an excessive abundance of things: by the great multitude of his relatives, friends, and men, of whom he had innumerable ones obedient to him, he attained the summit of the greatest power. Excessively satiated by all these things, the wretch was puffed up with pride. This, as I confidently believe, would never have happened to him, had God's grace been protecting him, if he had wished to use humbly the good creatures of God granted to us as provision on this journey through the vale of tears, rather than, in a perverse order, to enjoy and delight in them. Root out, good husbandman, the thorns from the soil of my heart, so that in it the seed of your word may bear fruit, if not a hundredfold or sixtyfold, then at least thirtyfold. Hear me with that wise man of yours who prays to you: "Grant me only what is necessary for my sustenance." Proverbs 30:8 Genesis 28:20 And as the Patriarch Jacob wishes, bread to eat and clothing to cover me. But, to return to our subject, since this son of the light of this world flourished with all the goods of this world, swollen with the typhus of pride: abundance of riches gave birth to power, and power in turn gave birth to and brought forth pride for him. Puffed up by this he despised all others, and inflated with excessive arrogance he could no longer contain himself. And because, as the master of the household is, of his nephews and household members: so also are his household members; his nephews and household members, whom the unhappy man nourished and loved with excessive carnality against his own salvation, when, as it were, iniquity proceeded from their fatness, began to suffer from the same plague as he.

Chapter XV

[24] Now it happened that a certain noble knight brought a plea against another noble in the Count's court concerning the breach of a truce, and the latter, casting upon him the reproach of servile condition — because he had married a kinswoman of that Provost who was said to be a bondwoman of the Count — refused to answer him as a free man. [the reproach of servility, cast as if by calumny upon a kinswoman, is seized upon:] Wherefore all that kinship of the Provost blazed with intolerable anger even against Count Charles and that knight. For this calumny seemed to redound upon them all. This case was therefore debated for a long time, but was finally settled in such a manner that the lady who had been stigmatized should personally, with the assenting hand of twelve nobles, claim her freedom with the Count's consent, and that the Count's complaint against that remaining kindred should remain in force. This suspension of the calumny, therefore, seemed to Lord Charles to have been the first occasion of his murder. For from this they began to exercise the most grievous hatreds against him.

Chapter XVI

[25] That ancient serpent, therefore, and enemy of the human race, having watched for this opportunity to exercise his malice, immediately thrust himself into the midst of the malicious and proud; and because in the minds of those who boast that he is king over all the sons of pride, he had placed the throne of his kingdom, the crafty one prepared for them yet another snare by which they might be more frequently ensnared and cast down. For a certain Burchard, nephew of that Provost, namely the son of his brother Lambert, after enmities arose between Burchard, nephew of the Provost, and Thancmar: a man exceedingly haughty and great in his own eyes, was waging grievous enmities against his neighbor Thancmar (who, as it was reported, had a great zeal for expending alms on the poor and especially on monks) and his nephew Walter, enmities that had arisen from the most trifling causes, and on both sides they were committing no small number of killings. But Charles, the worshiper of God, frequently demanded from them by the authority committed to him by the Lord the conditions of truces, and often compelled them to peace even against their will: he reconciles peace: striving to be found among the number of those to whom it is promised by Truth itself saying: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9

Chapter XVII

[26] But the Provost and his men, who seemed to themselves the stronger and more proud, suspected that he was inclining to the protection of the other party; and because, being evil in their own conscience, they were inwardly tormented by the bile of their minds, they complained that what he labored to do for the common welfare was being done for their depression. And so, incited by the goading of envy, exasperated by raging anger, and puffed up by the inflation of pride, on account of a hostile incursion made against another: they attacked Thancmar when he was unsuspecting and fearing nothing adverse on account of the truce, suddenly and unexpectedly, and having destroyed the bond of peace, they broke into his lower courtyard and anxiously compelled him to flee into the upper fortification; they cut down the bushes and scattered, demolished, and destroyed everything found in the lower areas. Having received this injury, Thancmar brought a not unjust complaint to the Count; he summons the malefactors to court: he set forth the damage inflicted upon him not without contempt for the Count, and how he had been gravely endangered. But those men, summoned by the Count to appear at a determined day and place, chose to add contempt to contempt rather than to excuse their absence even through a representative.

Chapter XVIII

[27] This affront, however, the prudent man patiently overlooked, and resolved to wait for them in the meantime and to invite them gently still to the correction of so great an excess. When he afterwards met the Provost at Bruges in a familiar manner concerning all these matters, he overlooks the contempt: and reproved him rather mildly, as was his custom, and the latter had promised, both on his own behalf and on behalf of his men, full amendment on the morrow, he admonishes: he nevertheless neglected it, and neither came himself nor brought them to make satisfaction. But the Count, provoked again and again, although he did not doubt that everything was being done in contempt of himself, he patiently awaits amendment: bearing it with equanimity, even then dissembled from bringing forth just vengeance against the contumacious, and again awaited amendment with long-suffering.

PART V

Public brigandage suppressed by Blessed Charles on the advice of the Barons.

Chapter XIX

[28] But this was in vain. For abusing his patience, and on that account promising themselves impunity for the future, they fell into worse things, driven on by pride, As the adversaries swell with pride: and those who ought to have been the first to amend their former errors by repenting, and to appease the just anger of their Lord even if late by making satisfaction, boldly resolved rather to heap faults upon faults and to pile excesses upon excesses. For having seized upon the Count's absence when he had chanced to go to France (for his presence was always burdensome to all workers of iniquity, like an intolerable prison), they assembled a large and strong band of soldiers, and having gathered a band of soldiers who lay waste everything: and raiding almost the entire surrounding region, breaking into houses and seizing all movable goods, they despoiled the poor and hanged some, and slaughtered many with the sword. Because this had never been accustomed to happen in former times, it appeared utterly intolerable and cruel to all. For it had been established from of old by the Counts of our land and has been observed even to this day as if by law, that however great a war might break out between any persons whatsoever, no one in Flanders should presume to plunder anything, or to capture or despoil anyone.

Chapter XX

[29] Therefore the revered guardian of the fatherland, upon his return, when the atrocity of such great crimes was discovered, was deeply grieved; and because these things had been done during the holy peace, namely within Septuagesima, he summons the Barons to Ypres: he resolved to go forth to avenge not so much his own as God's injury, as was fitting. But since he was eager to know in what manner this should be avenged, he invited his Barons to assemble at Ypres on the third day before the Kalends of March (where I too was present at his command, though for another matter), and to determine from their judgment what needed to be done; and he set forth everything in their hearing in the order in which it had happened; and lest he should seem to be taking vengeance alone, he sought their counsel on all matters. Nor were there lacking those who lamented that they had been unjustly despoiled by the men of Bruges, struck with blows and insults, and who with tearful complaints implored justice for their disgrace. When various people said various things, at length the opinion of all agreed on this: that the Count himself should personally visit those parts, by their judgment: and more certainly ascertain by sight and hearing what had been done; and so temper the measure of vengeance to the measure of guilt. Although he was by no means

entirely ignorant of their malicious machinations against him — especially since the aforesaid Burchard was accused of having said long before: "If someone were to kill the Count, who would avenge him?" — he nevertheless resolved to go, and ordered not a few soldiers to go with him.

Chapter XXI

[30] Setting out with them on the following day, when he had seen the houses overturned, all goods plundered and scattered, he inspects the overturned houses with them: and learned that not even the least means of subsistence had been left to the poor — moved on the one hand by the tears of the wretched, and on the other by the compassion of his inborn mercy — he groaned deeply, and drawing long sighs from the depths of his inmost being, suffused with welling tears, he grieved wonderfully. And first he burned, overturned, and utterly destroyed the fortification of that very Burchard, he demolishes Burchard's fortification: which was nearby, as the seedbed and root of so great an evil; and then, intending to deliberate more carefully concerning both these and other matters, he proceeded to Bruges on that same day — alas, never to return. He returns to Bruges: On the following day, namely the Kalends of March, while he remained there and examined the cases of individuals with equity in his usual manner, the day declined toward evening, and the sun, showing the minds of perverse men destitute of the light of truth, withdrawing from the parts of the world On March 1 he examines the events: which it was accustomed to illuminate with its rays, withdrew from them the spiritual light, and from these the corporeal light, and brought to the sons of darkness the desired opportunity for doing the works of darkness: For he who does evil hates the light.

Chapter XXII

[31] Then, as they report, the Provost summoned to himself Guy of Steenvoorde and a few others who seemed to be intimates of the Count, and enjoining upon them his errand, sent them to his court as if to seek pardon for his nephews. And they indeed, carrying out what they had been ordered, immediately approached the Count, and, as they say, laid before him a plea of this kind, which was not so much peace as complaint: "Let it suffice, my Lord, for your magnanimity to have sated your anger thus far with the punishment and disgrace of Burchard; the Provost's proud embassy: let it suffice for you to have burned his stronghold to his injury and that of his whole family. Now restrain the impulses of your wrath, vainly stirred up against him, and spare the afflicted young man, and forgive him, now at last, though late, who has been provoked by excessive insults. Now, if it please you, let mercy find a place with you, whom the punishment undeservedly inflicted sufficiently and more than sufficiently distresses and torments. Rein in also the force of your hatred and anger against his family, and appease by belated satisfaction at last those whom you have grievously offended."

[32] He responds: To these words the Hero returned his reply in very few words thus: "What is this that you allege — that I have so greatly indulged my passions and inflicted unmerited insults upon your Burchard? For what fitting recompense has been made for Burchard's great excesses, if I burned one little house of his, while he himself remains unpunished? Did not justice far more require he urges restitution: that he restore in full to the poor what he has taken, and suffer punishment in his own flesh for such great crimes? Therefore let him justly restore what he has unjustly seized, and let him acknowledge the condition of his birth, and so find the mercy he seeks. For by what reason can he obtain pardon and still retain the plunder of the poor?"

Chapter XXIII

[33] When these words had been reported to the Provost, although nothing more just could be said than this allegation of the Count — inasmuch as it accorded with the commandments of both the Law and the Gospel — he nevertheless, when he ought to have acquiesced in truth and reason, began with a blinded mind rather to rage, and excessively exasperated by his own passions and inflamed by a diabolical spirit, muttering dire threats and breathing forth heavy menaces, he furnished spurs to those already running and weapons to those already raging, and those whom he ought to have restrained maliciously and fraudulently the envoys report the response: he further incited with the goads of his own wrath. The fury of the madmen and the madness of the furious were further increased by the fact that the aforesaid envoys did not act sincerely, but distorting the Count's words and further embittering the proud spirits of the young men, they said that they would never obtain mercy from the Count unless they all professed themselves to be his serfs.

PART VI

The last pious works of Blessed Charles. The murder committed.

Chapter XXIV

[34] They therefore, from foolish now become insane, with the Provost together with those envoys removed bodily — as one who did everything and yet seemed to do nothing — immediately entered upon a pestilential counsel, Against his life: and began to deliberate with detestable wickedness about the death of their Lord. With the Devil anticipating their counsels by his inspiration, pursuing them by his cooperation, and advancing them by his instigation, with the assassins conspiring: they finally reached this sentence of iniquity: six ringleaders of their faction, namely Guelric the brother of the Provost, the aforesaid Burchard, and Robert the son of another brother Robert, also William of Wervik, and Ingran of Esen, and Isaac the Provost's kinsman, conspired to kill the Count as soon as they could, and bound themselves by a pledge of faith — or rather perfidy — both to carry this out and to keep it secret until it was accomplished.

[35] And these things were done at night, as being works not of light but of darkness. Although all of this was done in secret, it could not remain hidden. For it was conveyed by the rumors of certain persons, warned of the danger, he does not believe: and it was reported to him that there was a plot against his life. But he could in no way be persuaded to believe this — inasmuch as his own conscience not only did not accuse him of having done anything wrong in this case, but even truly justified him for his work of righteousness. This I would readily believe was done by the just and hidden judgment of God: God's wondrous providence: so that, as his merits, our sins, and their nefarious crimes demanded, the palm might be hastened for him, grief for us, and just vengeance for those traitors. For thus, as it may piously be believed, it was fitting that he be granted the rest he desired, and that we be deprived of the defender and protector of whom we were unworthy, and that those villains be punished with a condign penalty. O wondrous dispensation of Almighty God in all things!

Chapter XXV

[36] When that night was spent, the glorious Prince, having groaned somewhat longer than usual upon his bed, arose, washed his hands, and so hastened devoutly to the work of mercy as was his custom. For he had so ordered his life that on all days he would dedicate the beginnings of his works to the Lord: in the morning he gives alms to the poor: so that before he proceeded to the church, he would distribute alms to the poor with his own hands. This he was also accustomed to do barefoot, out of his great devotion to Christ, so that he allowed no one to serve him in this office of piety: with bare feet: but carrying each dish to each person individually, he kissed the hands of each one with the greatest veneration. To this fullness of devout custom he had also recently added that every day he would clothe five poor people with new garments and shoes. He clothes five poor persons: Having humbly offered this sacrifice of almsgiving upon the altar of the sacred faith, about to offer himself as a victim of propitiation, he proceeded to the church, alone he goes to the upper part of the Church of Saint Donatian: accompanied by no soldiers (for they were dispersed throughout their lodgings and chapels everywhere), and prostrated himself in prayer before the altar of the holy Mother of God, Mary, which was situated in the upper part of the Church of Saint Donatian. In which place, while he prayed for a long time, frequently bending his knees, reading the Penitential Psalms: and commended himself more attentively to the Lord, at length he cast himself face down upon the pavement and began to chant as a suppliant the seven Penitential Psalms for the washing away of his sins, with his little book placed before him.

[37] Meanwhile, as the clergy — that is, his chaplains — were singing the Hours of the day, Prime and Terce, in the ecclesiastical manner, when they had already said the Lord's Prayer and were reciting the preces of Terce, and he was reciting the fiftieth Psalm, the fourth penitential one, three having already been said (for he was accustomed to pray in such a way he is surrounded by the assassins: that he could be heard by bystanders), the master of fraud and leader of the crime, Burchard, having attached to himself six swordsmen from the household of the Provost and his own, stood unexpectedly behind him at his side, and first gently touched him with a naked sword, so that he might raise his head to present it for the blow. When he turned his face toward him with head raised, he is slaughtered: the furious man struck that most reverend brow — the scourge of the proud, the lifter-up of the humble — with a violent blow, with many blows received on the head: and dashed his brains upon the pavement; and his accomplices also rushing together to perpetrate the same deed, and striking him unanimously — though in vain, since the first blow had sufficed for his death — they lacerated his head with many wounds, and his right arm nearly severed: and nearly severed his right arm with his hand, with which at that very hour he had offered a penny or rather pennies to a poor woman begging alms, and was holding others to give to those who would come asking.

Chapter XXVI

[38] But now it is fitting to turn my pen aside for a moment from the course of the narrative and to consider, as best we can, the enormity of so great a crime, and the most cruel savagery of those criminals. O most abominable Burchard, what have you done? O most insane Bertulf, the outrageous perfidy of those men: what have you consented to? O all you most wicked accomplices and agents of this crime, what have you devised, what have you done, what have you accomplished? Whom, why, when, where, and how have you killed? Surely your Lord, surely for the sake of his justice, surely in Lent, surely in a church, and this surely without any reverence. Let your crime therefore be compared, if you will, with the crime of your fathers, the detestable Jews. surpassing the malice of the Jews: For they killed their Lord not so much with their hands as with their tongue, outside the city gate; yet they in no way recognized Him as their Lord. For if, as the Apostle says, they had known, they would never have crucified the God of glory. 1 Corinthians 2:8 But you, whom you knew without doubt to be your Lord, in a holy place, in a holy time, did not shrink from killing with both tongue and hands. Therefore you have not only equaled the crime of your fathers by your crime, but have even — if it may be said — surpassed it. Whence you must fear, and greatly fear, lest you who seem to have surpassed them in guilt may also be punished more severely in your penalty than they. By their example too you have rightly lost your place and your people, which you did not fear to commit so great a sacrilege in order not to lose. And these things, unless you worthily repent, are the beginning of sorrows.

Chapter XXVII

[39] But let us now turn away from these sad things and contemplate the happy things concerning the blessed departure of our Charles, things worthy of being recalled with all joy. If indeed we consider him with careful discernment, He is reckoned a Martyr: we perceive not absurdly that he had something in common with the Martyrs — if we may speak with all due reverence to them. For as it is written,

it is not the punishment but the cause that makes a Martyr. Augustine on Psalm 34 But what, I ask, was the cause of this martyrdom, so to speak, if not justice? For he who was killed because he did not turn aside from the rectitude of equity killed for justice: was surely killed for the testimony of truth.

[40] And that you may know that he was by no means entirely ignorant that this peril of death had long been intended against him by those most wicked men, and yet had not turned aside because of the confidence of his just cause, at the assembly of the Nobles at Ypres on the third day before the Kalends of March, and he had predicted that he willingly wished to die thus: as was said above, when mention was made of this most wicked plan of Burchard, hear what pearl he drew forth from the treasure of a good conscience (for the just man is confident as a lion). "I," he said, "will go, and with God as protector I will go securely. Even if it should happen that I am killed there, to fall for justice will certainly be not so much perilous as glorious. As for vengeance, God will provide." And that you may surmise that he said this not in passing or lightly but with deliberation, receive what I myself received from him. For when on that same day toward evening the Provost of the Regular Canons dwelling in that same place had set before me the threats of certain laymen directed against him, and had encouraged others to a similar death: their pride impelling them, and had consulted me as to what he should do about these matters, by common counsel we brought the matter to him as the defender of the humble; and we received from his mouth — or rather, as was afterward made clear, through his mouth from his heart — a response of this kind: "Whatever threats they may direct against you, I am certain that as long as I live, they will not presume to harm you in any way. But even if it should happen that you are killed for truth, what, I ask, could be more glorious than this death? For what is more excellent than martyrdom in glory?" Which, without doubt, as far as I can judge, he would not have said unless he burned with love of martyrdom.

[41] You have seen, therefore, what was the cause of his death; now see, if you will, having previously confessed his sins: what was his work at that hour. He had already long since confessed his sins and was then doing penance for them. He was engaged in prayer at that very hour, as has been said, which he also made more acceptable to the Lord by almsgiving. purified by almsgiving and the shedding of blood: But even if any stains from earthly contagion had clung to him, it is believable that they could have been washed away by the shedding of blood and the bitterness of death. Therefore his killers dug for themselves the pit of death, but they led him through the gate of death to the doorway of life; they stripped him of the tunic of mortality, and clothed themselves with their own confusion as with a double garment.

PART VII

The supporters of Blessed Charles killed. The body placed in a coffin. Miracles, veneration, burial.

Chapter XXVIII

[42] For after this slaughter was accomplished, still thirsting for blood, they attacked Thémard, the Castellan of Bourbourg, Thémard, Castellan of Bourbourg, is wounded: who happened to be nearby, and pierced him with many wounds, the rest having fled. This done, immediately the conspirators whom we mentioned above appeared, each with his satellites, and searching through the entire town — which was as populous and spacious as a city — with no one resisting, they strove to pursue everywhere the rest who had long been destined by them for death. Two of these, namely the sons of the aforesaid Castellan — Walter, still lingering at his lodging and, alas, bravely but vainly resisting, his two sons killed: and Gilbert, trying to escape outside the town in changed clothing with the Castellan of Courtrai — they cruelly killed; and then they returned to search for Walter the Seneschal, whom they feared had escaped by flight. But when they learned that the Castellan had made his confession to a priest, and had received the mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, and had not yet died, they rushed back to him in the church, he is cruelly killed: and seizing him by the feet and dragging him impetuously down the uneven roughness of the steps, they smashed his head against each step, and thus dragging him before the very doors of the church, while he was still gasping in his last moments, they drove out his spirit with a renewed slaughter. As for Walter, when they had searched for him for a long time and did not find him, and were already despairing of finding him, a certain boy is said to have betrayed him and to have pointed out to the pursuers the hiding place also Walter of Lokeren: that had quite opportunely concealed him in such great necessity. When he sensed that he had been betrayed, he immediately took to flight at full speed, and running anxiously reached the altar of Saint Donatian, and covered himself as much as he could with the veil that hung before the altar. In which place the ministers of the devil pursued and seized him, and proudly denying him the opportunity to make confession — the only thing he asked — they dragged him out of the church and killed him.

Chapter XXIX

[43] Therefore the body of Lord Charles, with his servants hiding everywhere and not daring to appear anywhere out of fear of death, since there was no one to bury him, lay for some time in the place where he had been killed, the body of Saint Charles is carried down to the choir: but at last it was carried down below by the service of the clergy, and placed in the middle of the choir, it was attended with the sorrowful office of mourners. Yet rare were those who openly wept for him, or who dared to show any signs of sorrow or grief over his death. So great was the fear of the traitors, who had also decreed by resolution that he should by no means be entombed there, lest his monument should stand as a reproach to their posterity. Upon hearing this, lest it be transferred to Ghent: Arnulf, Abbot of the monastery of Blandinium, arrived swiftly on the following day, and wished to carry him away to be buried in his monastery. When the Provost and his men willingly agreed to this, and the Abbot had prepared a bier, immediately, stirred by the Spirit of God, both clerics and laity took courage to resist, the clergy and people of Bruges oppose it: and began vehemently to object that this should not be done, and even to oppose and reproach them violently with arms to their faces. "If," they said, "you have taken from us our Lord that he might not live, surely you should not also take him from us dead? You who brought it about that we should not have him alive, permit us at least to have him deceased. For we trust that he whom we had as our living patron and protector, even as one slain, we shall be able all the more to have as a faithful intercessor with God." What more? At last they prevailed over the men of the Provost and the Abbot, and carried back the body of their Lord to the upper part of the church for burial. At which hour, with the faith of the people fervent and the merits of the venerable Charles, as it is proper truly to believe, requiring it, I shall not keep silent about the miracle that divine mercy wrought.

Chapter XXX

[44] There was a boy crippled from the cradle with contracted sinews, who was not only unable to walk, but could not even in any way raise himself from the ground. A person of small stature indeed, but sufficiently well known to many because of his misery. For he had lived for about eight years on the alms of the monks of Saint Andrew of Bruges, and had been sustained by their charity. miserably crippled: When the Prior of the place had made for him a certain device, by which, being assisted, he could not so much walk as crawl, he began to move himself along little by little, and arriving in this manner all the way to Bruges, he stayed for some time in the house of Reingerus the Tax Collector. This boy, therefore, being present at that hour near that venerable body, having prostrated himself as a suppliant beneath its bier, devoutly begging the gift of his longed-for health, suddenly those sinews, long contracted, began by entirely divine power to be loosened, and those weak limbs to be raised up, and to be made firm and solid for the use of walking: prostrating himself beneath the bier: and so by the grace of God and the merit of the holy man, he was completely restored to full health, so that no traces of his former disability remained in him. he is suddenly healed: And so he who had come feeble and sad, departed healthy and joyful, giving thanks to God. And because this happened in the presence of a crowd, it could assuredly not remain hidden.

Chapter XXXI

[45] Therefore those who were present and recognized the glory of the Martyr by so manifest a miracle, rendered immense praises with jubilation to the Lord, the bestower of so great a grace. You might then see immediately innumerable people of both sexes and various ages, men and women, running together from every direction in rivalry, the blood and scattered hairs are collected with veneration: reverently wiping up his blood with cloths, and even scraping it from the pavement with iron tools, collecting with veneration the hairs of his head or beard torn by the swords of the frenzied, and storing all these things with every care and devotion to be preserved for their protection in the future. Nor in vain. For his cap, preserved by a certain person, is affirmed to have conferred many benefits of health upon those with fevers, by the grace of God, fever is driven away by the cap: faith preceding. Lest any incredulous person should complain that I am making all this up and speaking from my own invention, I call God to witness that what I have related concerning his death and miracles, I learned from the testimony of the religious man Lord Helias, Dean of Bruges, Frumold, Provost of Furnes, and of other clerics and laymen who affirmed that they had seen these things. But when, after that first miracle was wrought, the faithful were marveling with joy and rejoicing with wonder, and the bells were being rung in praise of God, Bertulf is said to have inquired what that noise meant. When the matter was explained to him as it had happened, not only did he refuse to believe or repent, but turning to mockery and derision, he even ordered the doors of the church to be locked, so that the devout people could not gather.

Chapter XXXII

[46] And these things, since he had been killed on the sixth day before the Nones of March, a Wednesday, took place on Thursday, as we mentioned above. And so, by the fear of the Provost, the gathering of clergy and people was suppressed, and the burial of Lord Charles was postponed until Friday. On which day indeed a few of his men and retainers assembled, and in the very place where he had been killed, he is buried: having constructed a sarcophagus of stone and mortar upon the pavement, they buried him therein. Moreover, the priests and clerics, since neither reason nor authority permitted this to be done in a place the funeral rites celebrated in another church: polluted by homicides and human blood,

commended him to the Lord in another church with the solemnities of Masses and prayers. the funeral rites celebrated in another church:

PART VIII

Vengeance upon the wicked malefactors. Three of them killed.

[47] But the Provost and his men, while they exulted as if their adversary had been cast down, and deliberated and plotted about acquiring the kingdom for themselves, The assassins exult: as if there were no one to gainsay them, they are ignorant of what vengeance is being prepared for them by the dreadful judgment of divine severity. For while they rejoiced over the blood and the plundering of his treasures, which they had seized, the just Judge and most equitable Requiter secretly disposes regarding the retribution. O ineffable goodness and justice of God! His impious persecutors, the Jews, He waited for up to the forty-second year after His passion, but with brief joy: this time of repentance having been mercifully granted to them. But because they, not attending to the fact that the patience of God was inviting them to repentance, treasuring up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath, neglected to repent, they perished by horrible torments in that same year. But for these persecutors of the Just One, He justly shortened the time, and scarcely delayed the retribution until the eighth day. For those, because the primitive Church was being nurtured among them, were to be more mercifully tolerated for a longer time, I believe; but these, because the Church, now advanced, was scandalized among them and through them, were more quickly to be justly judged.

Chapter XXXIII

[48] For behold, on the eighth day, as if Lord Charles were in some manner rising for his own vindication, Gervasius, their neighbor, an honorable and worthy man, having assembled a force of about thirty of his horsemen, He is besieged: attacked the castle of Bruges, and since they did not dare to resist — for the fear of God had fallen upon them — he entered, and forced them to flee into the inner fortification. This I would not doubt was done by divine power, since they far surpassed in number, strength, and fortification. But the hand of the Lord strengthened the few faithful and weakened the strength and spirits of the many unfaithful. Moreover, the heavenly grace so changed the hearts of the citizens of Bruges that they not only did not favor the unjust side of their lords or provide them with assistance, but utterly abhorred their company, and immediately, having joined Gervasius, besieged them in the fortification to which they had fled. Two of them, however, who had been accomplices in the murder of Lord Charles, two captured and killed: were intercepted and seized and, in the sight of the others — certainly as a punishment and a disgrace to them — tortured with various shameful torments, as was fitting, and then at last put to death, and partly thrown into sewers where they could be seen by their lords looking down from the walls.

Chapter XXXIV

[49] Now Isaac, one of the conspirators, a powerful and wealthy man, since he lived at some distance in a very well-fortified place, Isaac escapes by flight: and at that hour had unjustly and irreverently entered the church of Blessed Mary (for he who had not feared proudly to violate the church ought to have humbly avoided entering it), happened to be cut off from the siege by this turn of events, and not managing even for a moment to reach his own house, desiring to save his life, he immediately escaped by flight. His brother Desiderius, who had joined Gervasius against his own kin in avenging the blood of the just man, his house burned by his brother: immediately burst into his house and with his own hands set fire to all his fortification. And had he found Isaac himself within, there is no doubt that he would have killed him to avenge so great a crime. See how great was the hatred of iniquity inspired in them, which overcame even the natural affection of kinship. For in the one who had made himself an accomplice of so abominable a savagery, neither Gervasius regarded the tie of kinship, nor Desiderius the bond of brotherhood. Isaac, however, hiding by day wherever he dared and fleeing by night as he could, made his way to the house of his sister, whom the aforementioned Guido of Steenvoorde had as his wife, and with his guidance fled all the way to the monastery of Saint John of Thérouanne, he hides with his sister; flees to the monastery of Thérouanne: built on the hill overlooking our city. For because, compelled by divine or human fear, he wished to become a monk, he had planned to wait there for a certain monk of Eename who would give him the habit, but he could not remain hidden.

Chapter XXXV

[50] The report also spread by rumor and was immediately made known throughout the entire city that in the monastery of Saint John there were hiding those who had killed Charles, the Father of the fatherland. Arnulf, therefore, the son of the Advocate Eustace, wishing himself also to avenge the blood of the Count — in whose vindication he was already hearing the whole world conspire — as night drew near, directed his officers there to guard the abbey on all sides throughout the whole night, so that those who were hiding could not escape anywhere in the darkness. he is dressed in monastic habit: But Isaac, when he realized that snares were being laid for him, fled trembling to the Lord Abbot Folquin, and finally obtained from him with humble and rather insistent supplication that he should grant him the monastic habit he desired. However, on the following day Arnulf came to the monastery with his men, he is stripped and captured: and having led him out and recognized him by his own confession, he immediately ordered him to be stripped of his monastic garment, and commanded him to be dragged naked and barefoot with his hands tied behind his back to the city amid an uproar. When all the hairs of his head had been completely shaved off so that no traces of his monastic status might remain on him, citizens of both sexes and various ages stood around on all sides, crying out, "Let the traitor be hanged immediately, or burned alive!" But even as Arnulf himself was striving with all his might to carry this out, at last his father with his mother stood in the way, and against the son's will forced him to allow Isaac to be kept alive for some time. he is kept in custody: It is also believable that this was done by divine providence, so that the transgressor might be tormented longer both by the labor of present punishment and the fear of impending death, and might meanwhile be tortured by eternal torments if impenitent, or by purgatorial ones if penitent.

[51] When therefore some days had elapsed, Lord William, the son of Count Philip, whom we mentioned above, who had already after the death of the Count occupied a large part of this land, came to Thérouanne, and obtained from the wife of the Advocate (for her husband with his son was then absent) he is handed over to William of Ypres: that the same Isaac be given over to him. Having a rope tied around his neck, he had him led to Aire, and in the hearing of the whole people, confessing his crimes he is hanged at Aire: and adjudging himself worthy of every punishment, he had him hanged on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of April.

PART IX

The punishment inflicted on Provost Bertulf and Guido of Steenvoorde.

Chapter XXXVI

[52] Now when the aforesaid siege had been begun at Bruges, as was said, by Gervasius and Desiderius, Baldwin of Ghent and Daniel of Dendermonde from the east, Walter of Lillers, Ricard of Woldman, and Theodoric of Dixmude from the west, Others closely besieged by an army: having assembled an army, joined that same siege, and confirmed by oath that they would not depart until they had captured and punished those murderers. And so, after a few days had passed and some assaults had been made, on a certain day they climbed the wall from the southern side, and boldly throwing themselves inside, they violently attacked those traitors and compelled them all to flee within the church of Saint Donatian, they flee into the Church of Saint Donatian: which they had previously defiled with a foul murder. Fittingly indeed, according to their deserts. For it was most fitting that in that very place which they had not feared cruelly to profane in contempt of God and His Saints, they should be forced unwillingly to suffer the hardships of a prolonged siege, the discomforts of watchfulness and hunger and thirst, and the continual terrors of impending death.

Chapter XXXVII

[53] But on the day before this happened, while they were shut in within and others were besieging from without, — it is uncertain whether through the negligence of the besiegers or their connivance (for it is said, and this is more certain, Bertulf escapes: that some of them had been corrupted with money) — the Provost was permitted the opportunity to escape. For he was lowered by a rope from the top of the wall to the ground, and with the help of certain persons was secretly led away from the siege, and traveling by night and hiding by day, he fled, wretched and now pitiable, to the house of Alard of Warneton, who had as his wife a niece of that Provost, Agantrude, formerly Castellan of the castle called Saint-Omer. When he had been hiding in that place for nearly three weeks, he flees to Warneton: and his presence began to be rumored about by certain doubtful whispers and the uncertain opinion of the common people, no longer daring to keep him there any longer, they moved him each night through various places, so that they might thus conceal his flight, which they greatly feared being discovered.

[54] When therefore the days of Easter had been completed — namely the eighth day of the Lord's Resurrection — the report of this concealment came to the knowledge of the aforesaid Lord William, who happened then to be at Ypres. he is sought by William of Ypres: As soon as he heard it, he sprang up immediately, mounted his horse, and set about searching for the same Provost with great commotion and haste. Therefore, having searched the house of Alard and all his hiding places, as well as the house of his daughter, in which that wretched man was reported to have spent the previous night, and not having found the one they sought, the houses where he had been are burned: they were greatly enraged, and first they set fire to both those houses, as if contaminated by the presence of that pestilential man and therefore needing to be purged by fire; and then on the following day they seized his aforesaid daughter, the daughter of his protector is seized: to be mutilated in her limbs unless the Provost were surrendered. Wherefore the same Lord William also renounced the homage of Alard, and having challenged him, and his goods confiscated: seized all his fief; and regarding the dishonoring of his daughter, he gave security by faith and oath under the condition we stated above, and so departed.

Chapter XXXVIII

[55] With matters thus brought to a crisis, Alard and his men began to deliberate on what needed to be done; he is betrayed: and since on the one hand his daughter could not be spared, and on the other they perceived that nothing of safety could be gained for the Provost at the cost of her harm, at length they resolved to surrender the Provost, so as thus to secure at least the safety of his daughter. So that he might be justly compelled to suffer what he was accused of having done, he is led from his hiding place: they had him brought out from the house where they had hidden him by the agency of a certain humble woman, and so handed over to those who had been prepared to seize him. He was therefore brought that same night to the castle of Warneton, and kept there until daylight. There he also asked that a priest be summoned to him, and doing penance for his sins, he made his confession to God and to the priest he confesses his sins to a priest: in the sight of all, and prostrated on the ground and striking his breast with his fists, he humbly prayed that pardon be granted him by the Lord.

[56] But when day had come and he was urged by those who had captured him to travel to Ypres on horseback, he absolutely refused to ride, but preferred to go on bare feet, barefoot he goes to Ypres: even though there was frost. And when he had set out on the journey, he summoned to himself a certain one of the clerics — from whose very account we learned these things — and began to chant antiphonally with him the Ambrosian hymn, Te Deum laudamus. praying and singing psalms: Having finished this, he completed the Hours of Blessed Mary, singing them with the same devotion of supplication, and then turning to psalmody, he applied himself to singing psalms attentively in silence by himself. When the people of Ypres met him and received him, he is mocked by the people of Ypres: leading him to Ypres and beating him everywhere with fists, rods, stones, and the heads of sea fish — which are caught exceedingly large in those parts — and afflicting him with every kind of insult, he always persevered in patience — or as some would say, in hardness — and in silence, and almost until the very moment of death he unceasingly ruminated upon the psalms. Suspended therefore on the gallows by the neck and arms, and slaughtered by the many blows of those striking him, he is hanged: he was at last put to death in such a manner. Concerning him I do not think it should be passed over in silence that as long as he was in prosperity, he greatly abhorred insults and mockeries of this kind. For I know with certainty from the report of some of his intimates that often, when in casual conversation among his household members about the salvific Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His patience was being praised by others, he was not accustomed to endure mockeries: he was accustomed to say: "I wonder why the Lord wished to suffer such things. Certainly if such ruffians insulted me in this manner, I would promptly avenge my injuries, especially if it were necessary, and would at least spit in the face of anyone mocking me." See how the very things he used to judge most intolerable, he was compelled to endure as an increase of his own misery.

Chapter XXXIX

[57] But at the same hour Lord William left Ypres and proceeded to examine the case of Guido of Steenvoorde, Guido of Steenvoorde: who had recently been accused of the same crime — namely that he had given counsel and consent to the death of the Count. in single combat: This Guido, having entered into single combat for this cause against his accuser Hermann, surnamed the Iron, had been superior in the fight in the first encounter and in the second, and having knocked down this same Hermann, weighed down by the excessive weight of his armor, himself equally armed with heavy mail and helmet, and having crushed him by the fall of his own body and so great a weight, Hermann, strengthened in power as if feeling no weight at all, rose up, and overpowering him who, as was said, had twice been superior, began by a reversal to press him to confess the crime he had committed. What more? he is compelled to confess his crime: At length, overcome by divine judgment and convicted of the crime with which he was charged, he was then condemned to the punishment of death. Since this had taken place at Reninge, he is hanged on the same gallows: they immediately seized him, and dragging him to Ypres, they also hanged this now most wretched man beside that pitiable Provost on the same gallows, on the same day, the third day before the Ides of April.

[58] When they had hung for some time and had begun to corrupt the air with their stench, the townspeople again took counsel and determined that they should be cast outside the town and more carefully disposed of there. The cadavers placed on a wheel: For they could not refrain from tormenting even the dead and mocking those whose treachery had deprived them of such a Father and Lord. And so they raised a tall tree, and placing the wheel of a cart on top, having sewn them in the hides of oxen so that they might be preserved longer, they made them sit upon it, furtively taken away: joined to each other and bound together as if in a mutual embrace. But after a few days had passed, their corpses were furtively taken away and buried. O the truly dreadful judgments of divine severity! For who would ever have suspected, to say nothing of Guido, that the Provost of Bruges — the most splendid son of this world, the most affluent in all the riches of this world, and after the Count virtually the most powerful man in all this land — would ever come to such great misery that he could neither live dishonorably nor even be permitted to end this life honorably? But He who casts down the mighty from their seat, and knows from afar what is lofty, and with the most discerning judgment of His equity renders to each according to their works — He alone was singularly powerful to cast down their eminence and reduce their power to nothing, when and how He wished.

family of Ghent, whose great-grandfather Reingotus of Ghent was the brother of Rudolph, whom we also said was the great-grandfather of Baldwin and Ivvan.

p. Therefore Bertulf was not from the beginning hanged outside the city, as the fable indicates.

q. In the monastery of Formesele, according to Iperius; but Lernutius says in the church of Saint Martin.

PART X

The punishment inflicted on Burchard, the slayer of Blessed Charles.

Chapter XL

[59] Now that Burchard, whom we mentioned was the first to strike the head of the venerable Marquis Charles, after sustaining many hardships while besieged, Burchard, slayer of Saint Charles, flees: escaped with human assistance for a short while; but with divine counsel opposing his efforts, he was utterly unable to get away. For, as was later made clear from his confession, having left that tower, he first hid for some time, he hides: and then at night, having taken with him certain companions for the journey whom he did not doubt were faithful to him, he took to flight, judging it more prudent to seek distant regions, intending to seek foreign regions: so that, unknown among strangers, he might more safely conceal himself and somehow prolong his needy and wretched life by dragging it out. When therefore he had come to a certain body of water which he needed to cross by boat, he found a small boat prepared on the bank, and had already boarded it. But when he attempted to push it off from the bank so as to direct it toward the far shore, the boat made immovable, he cannot cross the river: it stood immovable, weighed down by the hidden weight of divine power, and could not be moved from its place. When he perceived this, he began to use all his strength, and to strive with all the effort he could to pull it away from the bank. And when he had struggled for a long time and accomplished absolutely nothing, he called his companions and invited them to come to his aid. even with many helping: They immediately came running in amazement, and though all of them applied every ounce of strength they had to move that one small boat, it nevertheless persevered immovable like a wall, since divine power was making it utterly immovable. O detestable madness of Burchard! Burchard makes light of and ignores the enormity of his crime, which insensible wood execrates and recoils from. The small boat resists the strong impacts of robust men, which is usually easily moved and turned about by the hand of a single boy. But these, O Christ, are your works, who convert the erring to the way of truth, and bend the proud to the grace of humility; who, lest you condemn them eternally, often punish them temporally. For now through the immobility of the boat you admonished this wicked man to recognize his own wickedness and to dread your justice; you who once through the speech of a donkey rebuked the folly of the prophet Balaam.

[60] That wretched man therefore, at last moved to compunction by this miracle and returning to his senses, abandoned the boat and, throwing himself upon the ground, he recognizes the divine punishment: striking his guilty breast with his fist and shedding tears in abundance, he began with much groaning to show repentance for his guilt. For he had never before felt remorse for this sin. And when, after his lamentation, he tried again to move the boat and saw it immovable as before, now more certainly understanding the will of God, he began to despair of his temporal safety, he returns to his hiding place: and immediately, sorrowful and mournful, he sought again his accustomed hiding places.

Chapter XLI

[61] But when he had already been hiding in various places for not a few days, and had chanced to turn aside near Lille into a certain hovel under the guidance of a certain servant of his, he sent that same servant, the guide of his journey, to the house of his uncle Bernard, to ask for bread with which he might refresh his starving soul (for he was hungry). he sends a servant to procure bread: And that man, wishing to carry out what was commanded, willingly obeyed his order, and arriving at the same house, he asked for fine bread for the use of his master — as befitting a man accustomed to luxuries. But by the wondrous judgment of the Almighty, he who sought his master's safety found death, and wishing to bring to the hungry man the food he lacked, he prepared for the guilty man the torments he deserved. For by this occasion he betrayed his master to the aforesaid Bernard, he is betrayed to his uncle Bernard: innocently however, though through other persons; for he did not think his nephew should in any way be concealed from him, since he was his uncle. But it was being directed by the just judgment of God that he who had not feared to kill his own Lord should himself be betrayed by his own servant as one to be killed. Bernard therefore immediately reported this same thing to his brother Hugo. and then to his brothers: Hugo therefore, having taken counsel with his brothers, although he would have preferred to save his nephew rather than betray him — if only he dared — nevertheless reported to the Castellan of Lille and its citizens then to the Castellan of Lille: that he had found Burchard, and he commanded them to come quickly and punish the perpetrator of so great a crime with whatever punishment they deemed fitting. For if he had wished to spare him, there is no doubt that he himself would have incurred a great danger to his own safety.

Chapter XLII

[62] The people of Lille, upon hearing Hugo's message, immediately set out with a great tumult, and having seized Burchard, led him to Lille, captured, he is led to Lille: and prepared a gibbet for him in the marketplace. But he, stirred by the dread of eternal damnation to fear, and heartened by the contemplation of heavenly mercy to hope, he voluntarily confesses his guilt: began to accuse himself with great severity and to proclaim publicly before all that he was worthy of every torment. Finally, he begged that his right hand, which had performed the bloody ministry in the shedding of just blood, be cut off, to wash away the penalty of so great a crime and to merit pardon. he asks that his hand be cut off: But when there was no one who would do this, he himself at least requested that the ability to cut it off be granted to him. But seeing that both requests were denied him, he again turned to self-accusation and the invocation of heavenly mercy. Therefore, by openly confessing and lamenting his guilt, and imploring the regard of divine mercy, and by recalling the mercies shown to ancient sinners in order to hope for the same more confidently, he moves all to commiseration: he moved the hearts of all bystanders to compassion and pity, and by his mournful lamentation compelled nearly all to the shedding of tears; and he strove by every means he could to escape eternal punishments through the temporal afflictions of the flesh. And so he himself voluntarily offered his limbs to the torments, and entangled in the spokes of a wheel and raised up on a tall stake, he dies a slow death on the wheel: persevering in the same devotion, confession, and supplication from the ninth hour of the day until the twilight of the following day, he expired.

PART XI

On the successor of Blessed Charles in the County of Flanders: various contests. William the Norman appointed.

Chapter XLIII

[63] But now it is fitting that we turn the course of our narrative back to earlier times, and relate those events which indeed happened first, In the murder of Saint Charles the good mourn: but have been omitted by us until now. For not all things that happened at the same time could also be told at the same time. After the Marquis had been killed at Bruges, then, as was said, the report of so great an evil was immediately spread in every direction, and on that very day extended nearly thirty leagues. Everywhere, therefore, there was mourning, everywhere groaning and immense grief among the clergy, monks, peasants, the poor, and finally all who desired to live in peace and tranquillity, and to observe and have justice observed. But all robbers and wicked men, their bonds having been broken and they being set free, the wicked fill everything with plunder: (for they had been restrained more by fear of Charles than of God, as was then clearly evident), began to disturb everything, to despoil all merchants and travelers of their goods, and often to bind and imprison them. For so great was the fury and wickedness of perverse men that not even the reverence of the sacred season (for it was Lent) could restrain them.

[64] But with the mercy of Almighty God coming to the rescue, their madness was soon suppressed. For the aforesaid William, the cousin of Lord Charles, William of Ypres occupies various places of Flanders: as soon as he learned of the death of the Count from a messenger, on that same day claimed the County for himself — though in vain — and occupied the most strongly fortified town of Aire, and made all the townspeople swear fealty to him. And when he had also subjugated Saint-Venant, Cassel, Bailleul, Ypres, and likewise the land of Berg and Furnes in the same manner, he suppresses the robbers: he quickly suppressed the disturbances of the robbers in those regions and commanded that peace be maintained. The other Barons of the land also, conferring among themselves and inspired by God, agreed to peace, and each one strove to defend his own territory.

Chapter XLIV

[65] Moreover, the magnificent King of the French, Louis, having heard that his cousin Charles had been killed and that William had seized an honor not owed to him, he is deposed by the King of France: especially without the King's consent, was deeply offended; and desiring both to deprive the latter of the dignity he had usurped and to avenge the death of his friend, he came to the city of Arras around mid-Lent. He also ordered the young William, William the Norman: called the Count of Normandy, who had been impiously disinherited by his uncle Henry, King of the English, as we mentioned at the beginning of this work, and who had recently married a sister of the Queen, to come there. In that city, after they had stayed for nearly fifteen days, and several claimants who asserted that the County of our land belonged to them — namely Arnulf, nephew of Lord Charles, Baldwin of Mons, and the frequent messengers of the aforesaid William, who was already violently holding the aforementioned part of our land — others rejected: had come to the King requesting the same thing, at last the Queen, by God's hidden but just disposition, I believe, prevailed, with the Queen's support, he is made Count of Flanders: and having by great ingenuity inclined the minds of certain Nobles to agree with her, she obtained for her brother-in-law, the Norman Count, the lordship of the County on the tenth day before the Kalends of April.

Chapter XLV

[66] Whose growing power his uncle feared to his own detriment, and strove with all his heart and every art at his disposal to diminish it. Sending therefore his nephew Stephen of Blois, despite the opposition of Henry, King of England: Count of Boulogne and Mortain, and through him and other envoys of his party distributing many gifts and promising more, he solicited the minds of many powerful men, affirmed that Flanders was his inheritance and that it belonged to him by right on account of his uncle Robert of Cassel, and by these means won them over to his favor, and confederated the Duke of Louvain, his father-in-law, and the Count of Mons, and Thomas of Coucy, and inciting others: as well as the oft-mentioned William. All these and their allies he urged and instigated to oppose the royal will and ordinance, and to impede by every means the progress of the new Count — not so much that he himself might obtain Flanders (which perhaps he was already despairing of being able to do) but that he might weaken and destroy the Count's forces, which he suspected to be dangerous to himself.

[67] But the King, having left the city of Arras with the Count after some time, first received Lille, then Ghent and Bruges he occupies Lille, Ghent, Bruges: — though with difficulty (for almost everywhere the partisans of the English were causing great obstruction) — and strengthened the siege with his own presence. Whence the Count, returning after Easter through Lille and Béthune, came all the way to our city of Thérouanne, and was received there with great joy of the clergy and people, and stayed for two days. Afterwards, when he had obtained the castle called Saint-Omer, Saint-Omer: with the Castellan and townspeople receiving him gladly, though under certain promised conditions, and had stayed there a few days, he again passed through Thérouanne and returned to Lille.

PART XII

The Church of Bruges reconciled. The body of Blessed Charles reposited. Miracles. Flanders pacified.

Chapter XLVI

[68] Meanwhile, the King had forced Robert and those other murderers of Bruges to come out of the tower into which they had fled, At Bruges the remaining assassins surrender: and to surrender themselves, and had thrust them all into prison and chains. From their account was made known the miracle that I now relate. From the time they had remained besieged in that same tower of the church, they had enjoyed no taste of any food — of which they had brought a not inconsiderable supply there — any more than if they had been tasting earth; but after they surrendered and came out, they recover the lost sense of taste: they immediately regained the taste they had lost for so long. For when Robert, being thirsty, was given to drink of the same wine he had been accustomed to drink while enclosed there, he praised its excellent flavor and swore that from the beginning of the siege he had not drunk good wine. For he did not know that he had been drinking from the very same wine he was used to. When this was pointed out to him, he recognized the work of God in the chastisement of their sins, and together with the others praised the divine goodness.

[69] Now the King ordered the church of Saint Donatian, which had been polluted in many ways not only by the shedding of blood the Church of Saint Donatian is purged: but also by their execrable and unclean habitation, to be purged of all such filth; and he ordered the venerable body, which had been entombed there more negligently than was fitting, to be carried to another church, so that his funeral might be more diligently attended to there, and then he might be reburied in the church with fitting honor. And so it was done.

Chapter XLVII

[70] But what miracle the divine favor showed there does not seem right to pass over in silence. For many who were present, men truthful and devout, testified to me when I inquired, among whom one — namely Lord Absalon, the body of Saint Charles: Abbot of Saint-Amand — is worthy to be named here for the merit of his holiness; after 53 days: they said that when they had uncovered that venerable body, having dismantled the monument in which it had been placed fifty-three days before, incorrupt, without stench: it was found so free from corruption, to show forth the glory of God and of the holy Martyr, that not even the slightest trace of the least odor rose from it that could offend in the slightest the nostrils of those standing around or handling and tending the same body. Moreover, though it had already been in the tomb for the length of time we mentioned, flexible: it was so flexible, with its wounds raw and entirely fresh, as if he had been killed on that very day. Moreover, so great a fragrance of the sweetest odor divinely filled and pervaded that entire place, it breathes the sweetest odor: that it seemed doubtful to no one that God wished to glorify His faithful servant. "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." This is indeed judged all the more marvelous because we consider scarcely anything else more fetid than the corpses of human bodies.

[71] The church was therefore reconciled by the ministry of Lord Simon, Bishop of Tournai, the church is reconciled: who had been summoned from France by the King for this very purpose, in the ecclesiastical manner. And the aforementioned body was carried back with the utmost devotion and reverence of clergy and people, reverently reposited: and on the seventh day before the Kalends of May it was entombed in the middle of the church, to rise again in glory at the last judgment.

Chapter XLVIII

[72] When all these things had been solemnly accomplished with the honor that was fitting, the King with whatever army he could assemble hastened to Ypres, and on the following day, namely the sixth day before the Kalends of May, with the Count coming to meet him promptly from another direction with his army as arranged, Ypres is besieged: he arrived there around the sixth hour of the day. Now the oft-mentioned William, son of Philip,

having shown less reverence for the majesty of the royal dignity than was proper, boldly came out to meet him outside the town, relying both on the arms and the spirits of the many strong men he had confederated to himself; and began to fight most fiercely against that entire army. But he, thinking he was acting bravely while he most stubbornly resisted the enemy and directed and renewed his battle line against the adversaries, was ignorant, wretch that he was, of what pit of temporal misfortune and adversity had been prepared for him. For some townspeople who had already sworn fealty to him, by the treachery of some citizens: not once but frequently, had conspired with certain other men of his about his betrayal, had sent envoys to the King, and had sworn that they would open the gates to him and hand over William. Woe to the world because of scandals! — indeed, woe to Flanders because of betrayals! It is a thing to wonder at, and no less to pity, that the unhappy land, which had lost its Lord through betrayal, could not acquire another except through betrayal. And this betrayal had been planned by only a few of the people of Ypres. For they had judged it more advantageous to obey the royal will than to be subject to the rule of William and to a power they viewed with suspicion. Not, however, as they said, because they found fault with his person in any way, but because they feared that the dominion of certain of his relatives would prove immoderate.

Chapter XLIX

[73] And so, when the battle had been fought on both sides from the sixth hour until the ninth, with various skirmishes from the north and east, by a signal banner which the adversaries' party had purposely placed on the highest point of the church of Saint Peter as a sign of the coming betrayal, they summoned the squadrons of the opposing side, he is intercepted: and having opened the southern gate, they admitted them into the town. As these immediately ran through the whole town, laying waste everything with plunder and fire, William, only then realizing that he had been abandoned, seized upon the only recourse that seemed to remain — flight; but the flight was too late. For Daniel of Dendermonde, pursuing him as he fled, captured him, and stripping him of his arms, delivered him as a prisoner to Count William. Ypres was therefore that same day despoiled from the northern gate to the southern gate, it is burned: and set ablaze and overrun by an innumerable multitude of soldiers; the King and the Count went to the monastery of Messines, bringing the captive William with them. When on the following day they had committed him to the Castellan of Lille for safekeeping, they proceeded to Aire; and having received it in submission, they very easily subjugated Cassel and the rest of that inner Flanders; and so at last, to avenge the death of the honored Charles, they returned again to Bruges.

PART XIII

The remaining accomplices in the murder of Saint Charles punished. Two escape by flight.

Chapter L

[74] They also had Guelric, the brother of the Provost, whom we mentioned above as having conspired in his death, [Guelric and 28 accomplices in the murder of Saint Charles are hurled from the tower:] together with about twenty-eight other surrendered prisoners brought out of prison, thrown down from the top of a high tower; and so those murderers perished with torments befitting so great an iniquity. Although not all of them had sinned equally in counsel or deed, by consenting to iniquity and providing aid to the wicked, they had all in a way bound themselves with equal bonds of iniquity. And therefore those whose fellowship they had not shrunk from joining were not unjustly punished with the same punishment. As for Robert, whom we also showed above to be among the conspirators, and who likewise, because he was greatly loved by the people and seemed more excusable than the rest by certain considerations, was not thought capable of being safely punished, Robert is beheaded: they decided to take him with them. When they had led him as far as Cassel, and he showed great remorse for his guilt, they had him executed outside the town by the severing of his head.

Chapter LI

[75] While these things were going on, Ingran of Esen, one of the aforementioned conspirators, Ingran, bold at first: who, relying on the protection of his uncle Theodoric of Dixmude, had up to that time been making excuses for sins, and blinded by the darkness of his perfidy, had not blushed to thrust himself impudently into the very sight of the King and the Count, and had boasted that he would manfully defend himself if anyone dared challenge him regarding this crime, began to lose confidence; and at first he kept himself hidden among his own people for some time, he flees to foreign regions: and then, seizing a favorable opportunity, eager to consult his own safety above all else, he fled from his homeland, and in our land until this time — that is, while I am writing this — he has never again appeared.

Chapter LII

[76] But William of Wervik, himself also, as was made clear by the confession of others, one of the conspirators, William of Wervik: whom I had indeed left almost untouched, being occupied with other matters and suspended in expectation of his end, was unable to conceal his wickedness for long. But what he had perpetrated in secret from the murder of Saint Charles he returns to Wervik: immediately appeared by evident signs. For immediately after the murder of the Count and the plundering of his treasury, he returned to Wervik, bringing with him no small portion of it. But he was not permitted to rejoice for long in this fruit of his wickedness. For while he was exulting over the downfall of his adversary and insolently rejoicing over the losses of others, a sudden terror seized him and, having terrified him, drove him out of the borders of Flanders. For he had heard that his brother Lambert, who, as was made clear from the outcome of the single combat he had entered into in the court of the oft-mentioned William, was innocent, seized with fear he voluntarily flees: was being accused of complicity in the death of the Count; and that he himself was being challenged by the same William, to whom he had already surreptitiously done homage. He began to be afraid, and first prepared himself for defense, but on the following day — the stings of his guilty conscience alone tormenting him, though no one was yet pursuing him — taking his wife and a few of his men, and such goods as he could carry, he entrusted himself to flight on the sixth day after the death of the Count. Proverbs 28 For "the wicked flee when no man pursues," as Scripture says.

[77] Moreover, the Castellan of Courtrai, who had previously been his enemy, as soon as he heard of his flight, equipped with an armed band of many soldiers, Wervik burned: made for Wervik; and having plundered all his movable goods, he overturned the entire fortification and, with no one resisting, set fire to everything, so that not even a post remained in the place. He himself, when he had come near Tournai to a certain village, with the people of Tournai pursuing and trying to capture and punish him, his wife left behind on the road, he flees: having lost his wife and the greater part of his men and nearly all his goods, he barely managed to find a horse and escaped, and withdrew into the territory of the Nervii, content with only two companions. There he went to a certain monastery of monks, he takes the monastic habit: and compelled by human fear rather than divine, as was later evident, he assumed the tonsure and habit of a monk. But afterwards, on the pretext of his wife — without whose consent he was alleged to have done this — after a few days had passed, he abandoned the monastic life and returned without hesitation to the world he soon throws it off and takes up arms again: and to the arms he had abandoned. In this deed he made it quite clear enough how insincerely he had taken up that religious purpose. For if the bond of his wife compelled him to dissolve the bond of religion, why did he not abstain from the arms of which he had so long abused? Was this too compelled by the law of marriage? By no means. For if he truly repented of his crimes, he ought to have set aside his arms, clung to his wife (since she required only the marital debt), and eaten his bread by the sweat of his brow, worn out by strict fasting. But now, as we have learned from the report of many, he not only fails to seek to appease the wrath of God by repenting, but with an obstinate heart he does not fear to make excuses for sins, and irritating God rather than appeasing Him, he does not fear to add sins to sins. Therefore he must fear for himself — and we must also fear for him — lest because he delays to turn to the Lord, the wrath of God may suddenly come upon him and destroy him in the time of vengeance. Perhaps for this reason he is kept alive there so long against the will of others, so that if he does not repent during the time granted him, and has proudly abused the gift of God's mercy, he may be struck more severely in the end by the just judgment of God. The same may not absurdly be thought of the aforesaid Ingran. And all these things were accomplished within about two months after the death of the Count.

EPILOGUE

[78] Behold, I have obeyed your will, Reverend Father — indeed your command — and the pious request of my Brothers, as best I could; and presuming even to touch upon a subject so far surpassing the measure of my talent and eloquence alike, as is evident in the result itself, I have exposed myself to the reproof and mockery of many. For a fool, while he does not speak, is often believed to be wise. For his silence is considered not so much a poverty of understanding as the preservation of humility. Whence if I too had been entirely silent, I might indeed have been thought wise, but I would not thereby have been any wiser. But now, because I have betrayed my inexperience by writing, the wise, into whose hands this may perhaps come, will be indignant with me: and some will denounce me as foolish, others will mock me as presumptuous, others will judge me an ignoramus, and not a few will rightly call me a fool. What then, Holy Father, can excuse me, convicted as I am by such clear evidence? I could indeed offer the not unfitting cause of obedience imposed upon me by your authority; but I judge it more profitable

to endure calumnies of this kind — even if I could somehow escape them — than by obstinately excusing my foolishness to add falsehood to the already great heap of my sins, and to take from myself the fruit of humility, and to raise myself up in vain into the haughtiness of vanity. For it is more useful to me to be known as the fool I am, than to be esteemed as the wise man I am not. For the former can produce for the humble a not unfruitful fear, while the latter can beget for the proud, God forbid, a ruinous swelling. May He who condemned all pride by His own humility deign to turn this away from me, together with all other filth of vices. Amen.

ANOTHER LIFE

by the Notary Galbert

from several manuscripts.

Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, Martyr (Blessed)

BHL Number: 1574

By Galbert, from Manuscripts.

PROLOGUE

[1] Since among the Princes of the kingdoms whom we have known in our vicinity, the chief zeal for ascribing to themselves glory and praise had shone forth through feats of arms, and among those same ones a similar desire for governing well was present, the Emperor of the Romans, Henry, ruled with lesser power and fame — who, having reigned for many years, died without an heir. Also of lesser fame and strength the King of the English lived in his kingdom without children, than did Charles, Count and Marquis of Flanders, our natural Lord and Prince; who, because of his fame in arms and his nobility of birth ennobled by royal blood, at the age of seven presided in the County as Father and advocate of the churches of God, The deeds of a great Prince are described in simple style: generous to the poor, pleasant and honorable among his Nobles, cruel and cautious against enemies, who even without an heir was betrayed by his own men — indeed by his most wicked servants — and was killed, falling for the sake of justice. Intending to describe the death of so great a Prince, I have not labored to embellish my style with eloquence or to distinguish various colors of manner, but solely to set forth the truth of events, which, although in a dry style, I have nevertheless committed to the memory of the faithful by writing this extraordinary account of his death. by the author, who was exposed to the dangers of the wicked: Nor indeed did I have a suitable place or opportunity of time when I directed my mind to this work, since our place was at the same time troubled by fear and anguish, to such a degree that without exception both clergy and people were endangered indiscriminately in the loss of both their possessions and their lives. Therefore, amid so many adversities and the most straitened circumstances, I began to restrain my wavering mind, tossed as in a Euripus, and to confine it to the mode of writing. In this compulsion of my spirit, a single spark of charity, nurtured and exercised by its own fire, ignited from their foundations all the spiritual virtues of the heart, and subsequently endowed my person — which fear had possessed outwardly — with a certain freedom of writing.

[2] Concerning this study of mind, therefore, which I have commended in so strait a situation to the hearing of you and of all the faithful in common, if anyone should presume to carp and detract, I do not much care. to whom truth is dear: For what makes me secure is that I speak the truth, plain to all who were stricken by the same peril as I, and commend it to the remembrance of our posterity. I therefore ask and admonish that if the dryness of this style and the small handful of this little work should come into anyone's hands, let him not mock and despise it, but with fresh wonder let him admire what has been written and arranged by God's ordinance in our time alone, and learn not to despise or put to death the earthly powers which we must believe have been set over us by God's ordaining; whence the Apostle: "Let every soul be subject to every power, whether to the King as preeminent, or to Dukes as sent by God"; for "as" here is not comparative but confirmatory; and "as" in Holy Scripture is used for that which truly is — such as "as a bridegroom," that is, truly a bridegroom. 1 Peter 2:13 The murderers, drunkards, fornicators, and servants of every vice in our land had not deserved that a good Prince should rule over them — religious and powerful, Catholic, after God the sustainer of the poor, advocate of the churches of God, defender of the fatherland, and one such that the remaining power of earthly rule might take from him the pattern of good governance and the material for serving God. Seeing therefore the progress of the Church and the Christian faith — as you will subsequently hear — the devil shook the stability of the land, that is, of the Church of God, and disturbed it with deceits, betrayals, and the shedding of innocent blood.

CHAPTER I. The illustrious deeds of Blessed Charles in the County. The Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem offered to him.

[3] Charles, therefore, the son of Cnut, King of Denmark, and born of a mother who was descended from the blood of the Counts of the land of Flanders, Charles was raised in Flanders: was by that affinity of kinship reared from boyhood in our country until he reached the manly vigor of body and spirit. But after he was armed with the titles of knighthood, he undertook outstanding feats against the enemy, by Baldwin, Count of Flanders, he is appointed successor: and obtained good fame and the glory of his name among the powerful of kingdoms. And indeed for many years the Nobles of our land had desired him as their Prince, if only it could have come about. Therefore Count Baldwin, a most brave young man, as he was dying, entrusted both the realm and the Nobles to his nephew Charles, and commended him under the security of their faith.

[4] The pious Count accordingly began, with the prudence of greater counsel, to arrange for the restoration of peace, and to recall the laws and rights of the kingdom, so that gradually, with the state of peace having been gathered from all sides, in the fourth year of his county, through him all things flourished, all things smiled, all things enjoyed the security of justice and peace and manifold happiness. At length, seeing the grace of peace to be pleasing to all, he establishes his realm in peace: he proclaimed throughout the borders of the kingdom that under quietude and security, without the use of arms, all should live together, whoever either dwelt in the marketplace or stayed and frequented the fortified places; otherwise they would be punished with the very arms they bore. Under this observance, therefore, bows and arrows and subsequently all arms were laid aside in outlying places as in peaceful ones. By this grace of peace, men governed themselves by laws and justice, applying all the arguments of their wits and studies to legal proceedings; so that each man, when attacked, might defend himself by the power and eloquence of rhetoric, or when he attacked an adversary, might deceive him by whatever variety of rhetorical coloring. Then indeed rhetoric had its exercises, both through training and through nature: he decrees that disputes be settled by law: for there were many illiterate men to whom nature itself had furnished the methods of eloquence and reasonable ways of conjecturing and arguing, which those who were trained and learned in the art of rhetoric could in no way counter or deflect. But because by their deceits the faithful and the sheep of Christ in legal proceedings were once again wronged, God, who observes all things from on high, did not disdain to reprove His deceivers, so that those to whom He had granted the gift of eloquence for salvation, He might make understand through scourges that they had used that gift for their own perdition.

[5] The Lord therefore sent the scourges of famine, and afterward of mortality, upon all who dwelt in our kingdom, after a solar eclipse: but first He deigned to call back to repentance by the terror of signs those whom He foresaw were prone to evil. In the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand one hundred and twenty-four, in the month of August, there appeared to all the inhabitants of the earth in the body of the sun, around the ninth hour of the day, an eclipse and an unnatural failing of light, so that the eastern part of the sun's disk, being obscured, gradually cast strange clouds upon the remaining parts — not obscuring the whole sun at once, but only in part; and yet the same cloud traversed the entire circuit of the sun, passing from east to west only in the circle of the solar body. Whence those who noted the state of peace and the injuries of legal proceedings were foreboding to all the danger of future famine and death. And since even so men were not corrected — both lords and servants — there came the distress of sudden famine, and subsequently the scourges of mortality fell upon them. Whence it says in the Psalm: "And he called a famine upon the land, and he broke the whole staff of bread." Psalm 104:16 In which tempest no one was able to sustain himself with food and drink in the customary manner, but contrary to custom the feaster consumed at a single meal as much bread the people suffering from hunger and want: as he had been accustomed to eat on various days before this time of famine; and so through such excess he was gorged, and all the natural passages of the receptacles were distended by the excess of repletion of food and drink, and his nature languished. By indigestion and rawness also men wasted away, and still they labored with hunger, until they breathed their last. Many also were swollen, for whom food and drink were loathsome, though they had abundance of both. At which time of famine, in mid-Lent, even people of our land living around Ghent and the Lys and Scheldt rivers ate meat, because bread had completely failed them; and some perishing of hunger on the road: but some, while on the very road, as they were making their way to cities and towns where they might buy bread, were suffocated by hunger and died before they had even completed half the journey; around the estates and courts of the wealthy, and the castles and fortified places, when the poor had come with wretched steps to beg alms, they died begging. Marvelous to say, no one in our land retained their natural color, but such a pallor, the very kin and proper mark of death, was upon all. Healthy and sick languished alike, because he who was healthy in the composition of his body became sick he comes to the rescue: at the sight of the misery of the dying.

[6] Nor even so were the wicked corrected, who at that same time, as they say, had conspired against the death of the most pious Count Charles. But the distinguished Count strove by every means to sustain the poor, to distribute alms in his towns and on his estates, he sustains the poor: both in person and through his servants. At that time he sustained a hundred poor people in Bruges every day, giving to each of them one exceedingly large loaf of bread, from before the aforesaid Lent until the new harvests of the same year. He had arranged the same in his other towns. he orders legumes to be sown: In the same year the Lord Count had decreed that whoever sowed two measures of land at the time of sowing should sow the other measure of land with beans and peas, since this kind of legume would bring forth fruit more quickly and in better time, so that the poor might be sustained more quickly, if the misery and distress of famine did not cease that year. He had likewise commanded the same throughout his entire County, providing for the poor in this way for the future as much as he could; he also sharply rebuked those of Ghent he forbids the brewing of beer: who had allowed the poor to die of hunger before their very doors, though they could have fed them. He also forbade beer to be brewed, so that

of famine, whom they could have fed. He also forbade the brewing of beer, so that the poor might be more lightly and better provided for, if the citizens and inhabitants of the land ceased from brewing beer during the time of famine. For he ordered bread to be made from oats, so that the poor might at least sustain their lives on bread and water. he arranges the price of wine: He commanded that a quart of wine be sold for six coins, and no dearer, so that merchants would cease from the abundance and purchase of wine, and would exchange their wares for the necessities of famine, for other foodstuffs, by which they might more easily abound and more readily sustain the poor.

From his own table he subtracted food for himself daily, he subtracts food from himself; whence one hundred and thirteen poor were sustained: he also distributed new garments, namely a shirt, a tunic, furs, a cloak, breeches, stockings, and shoes, from the beginning of that Lent and his devout fast, in which he was immediately delivered and fell asleep in the Lord, he clothes a pauper daily: daily dispensing to one of the poor until the day on which he died in Christ: and having completed such dispensation and merciful distribution to the poor, he distributes money: he would go to the church, where, prostrate in prayer, he would chant psalms to God, and there, having heard the sacred office as was his custom, he distributed coins to the poor, thus prostrate before the Lord.

[7] While Marquis Charles was living in his County of Flanders in the splendor of peace and glory, Henry, the Roman Emperor, died, Upon the death of Henry, Roman Emperor, and the kingdom of his Empire was left desolate and disinherited without an heir. Therefore the wiser men among the clergy and people of the kingdom of the Romans and Teutons strove by all means to provide for themselves a man noble both in birth and in character to rule the Empire. Therefore, having surveyed the Princes of lands and kingdoms, they entered into deliberate counsel, so that those wiser and more powerful ones in the kingdom would solemnly send suitable envoys, namely the Chancellor of the Archbishop of the city of Cologne, and with him Count Godfrey, to the pious Count Charles, Consul of Flanders, a delegation being sent, requesting and beseeching on behalf of the entire clergy and on behalf of the entire people of the kingdom and Empire of the Teutons, his power and piety, that he would assume the honors of the Empire and royal dignities together with their resources, out of charity alone.

For all the better men, both among the clergy and the people, awaited him to be chosen with the most just desire, he is sought as Emperor: so that if by God's gift he should deign to come to them, they would unanimously exalt him with coronation and the elevation of the Empire, and would establish him as King according to the law of the Catholic Emperor predecessors.

[8] When Count Charles had heard the embassy and their petition, he took counsel with the nobles and Peers of his land as to what he should do about this. But those who had loved him with just love and with the virtue of affection, the good counseling against the malevolent, and who venerated him as a father, began to grieve, and to bewail his departure, and that the ruin of the fatherland would be grave if by chance he should abandon it. Finally those most wicked traitors, who were hostile to his life, counseled him to seize the kingdom and its honors among the Teutons, persuading him of how great the glory and how great the fame it would be for him to be King of the Romans. Those wretches labored to find by what cunning and by what deceits they might be rid of him, whom afterward, when they could not remove him while living, they betrayed, as he was contending with them for the law of God and of men. he remains in Flanders: And so Count Charles remained in his County at the entreaty of his beloved subjects, entrusting and establishing the peace and safety of the fatherland to all, insofar as it lay in his power — Catholic, good, religious, a worshiper of God, he has peace with all: and a provident ruler of men. When he would have been about to perform the exploits of secular military service, he had no enemies around his land, either in the marches or in the borders and boundaries of his territory: for they feared him, or, joined by a bond of peace and affection, they rather sent gifts and presents to each other; but he undertook the contests of secular military service for the honor of his land and for the exercise of his soldiers at the court of some Count or Prince of Normandy or France, and sometimes even beyond the kingdom of France, and there with two hundred horsemen he practiced tournaments: by which he exalted the fame of himself and the power and glory of his County. he practices equestrian games: Whatever therefore he transgressed through the fault of this levity, he amended before God by the manifold redemption of alms.

[9] During this time of his life it happened that the King of Jerusalem fell into captivity of the Saracens, When the King of Jerusalem was captured by the Saracens, and the city of Jerusalem sat desolate without her King: whom, as we have learned, the soldiers of the Christian name, who had devoted themselves to Christian warfare there, hated, because that captured King had been tight-fisted and stingy, and had not governed the people of God well. They therefore entered into counsel, and by common consent sent letters to Count Charles, that ascending to Jerusalem, he would assume the kingdom of Judea, and in that place and in the holy city would possess the crown of Catholic authority and the royal dignity. Nevertheless, having received the counsel of his faithful men on this matter, he was unwilling when asked, he does not accept the kingdom. to abandon the fatherland of Flanders, which he would have governed well for the rest of his life, and much better than he had governed it up to that point, had not those most wicked traitors, full of the devil, murdered their Lord and father, who was full of the spirit of piety and counsel and fortitude. Alas, that they should take away so great a man from the Church of God — of whom the Church and the people of the Eastern Empire and the holy city of Jerusalem, together with the Christian people, had desired and intended and jointly petitioned to establish as King.

CHAPTER II. The occasion of the hatred stirred up against Saint Charles.

[10] Indeed the powers of my soul fail me, and its memory together with the greater power of the soul, namely reason, for praising the good Count Charles: whose merits surpass you all, Princes of the lands, less powerful, unskilled, indiscreet, disordered in conduct. For such was Count Charles at the end of his life among the religious children of the Church, as he excelled in his merits the rulers and many philosophers of the Christian faith: and although he was formerly a sinner and guilty, at the end of a good life, from the fruit of penance, all things worked together for him unto good and the perpetual salvation of his soul. Whence also that saying: "Call no one blessed before his death and final funeral rites." Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.136 And the Apostle: "We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, saints." Romans 8:28 So great a man is killed by his own subjects; Therefore in a sacred place, and in sacred prayers, and in the sacred devotion of his heart, and in the sacred time of Lent, and in the sacred distribution of alms, and before the sacred altar, and among the sacred relics of Saint Donatian, Archbishop of Reims, and of Blessed Basil the Great, and of Saint Maximus who raised three dead persons, unclean dogs, full of the devil, servants slew their Lord.

For surely no one is so senseless, so dull, so stupid, who would not adjudge those traitors to the lowest and unheard-of punishments; who by an unheard-of betrayal destroyed their Lord — they themselves his servants, who should have guarded him. Therefore it was to be wondered at and singularly remembered, that although we have seen many Emperors, Kings, Dukes, and Consular men, we have neither seen nor yet heard of anyone whom it so befitted to have been lord and father, advocate of the churches of God, as it befitted him. For he knew how to be Lord, father, advocate — pious, mild, approachable, beloved and praised by all everywhere: fit for the honor of God and the beauty of the Church, which is truly sufficiently provable, because after the death of so great a man all bore witness concerning his merits — both friends and enemies, strangers and neighbors, nobles and commoners, and inhabitants of every land who had at least heard his outstanding fame — of how great merit he was to be believed before God and men, who fell in the manner of a Christian ruler for the sake of executing the justice of God and for the sake of the salvation of those whom he governed. The men of his peace, magnifying supplantations against him, betrayed him, as in the Psalm: "Even the man of my peace, who ate my bread, has magnified supplantations against me." Psalm 40:10

[11] After therefore the clemency of God had withdrawn its scourges and had utterly frustrated the removed affliction of the times, with abundance of grain restored, He began to lend to the lands the abundance of His bounty, and commanded that granaries be filled with the productivity of crops, that the world overflow with wine and other foodstuffs, and by a certain pleasantness of seasons, at God's command, the whole earth blossomed again. Therefore the pious Count, wishing again to restore the honor of the kingdom, investigated he deals with free men and serfs. who had been his own dependents, who serfs, who free in the kingdom. While the business of the courts was being conducted, the Count was often

present, hearing about the dispute over secular liberty and the condition of serfs — namely that in great affairs and general cases freemen would not deign to render answers to serfs. Those whom the Count could seek out as belonging to his dependency, he labored to claim for himself. One Provost Bertulf of Bruges, and his brother the Castellan in Bruges, together with their nephews Borsiard, Robert, Albert, and the other leading members of that family, strove by every cunning and device to absent and withdraw themselves from the servitude and dependency of the Count: for they too were of servile condition, belonging to the Count's dependency.

[12] Having at length taken counsel, that Provost gave his marriageable nieces, whom he had raised in his house, in marriage to free knights; so that by that occasion of marrying, he and his kin might somehow attain to secular freedom. But it happened that the knight who had taken the Provost's niece as wife [on the occasion of the servile condition cast up against Provost Bertulf and his family;] challenged another knight to single combat in the presence of the Count — a knight who was free according to the lineage of his family. But the challenged man contemptuously responded with a rejection of outrage: namely that he had not been of servile condition but rather propagated in the lineage of free dignity according to the lines of his birth, and for this reason he would not be an equal match to engage in single combat with the challenger. For whoever according to the law of the Count had married a bondwoman as a free man, after he had kept her for a year, he was not free: but had become of the same condition as his wife. Therefore that knight grieved, who on account of his wife had lost the liberty through which he had believed he would be made more free, when he had married her. Therefore the Provost and his kin grieved: and for this reason they strove by all means to withdraw themselves from the servitude of the Count. Therefore, when the Count had understood by the testimony of truth and by the report of the elders of the kingdom that they had belonged to him without hesitation, he endeavored to claim them for his servitude: and yet because the Provost and his kinsmen had not been challenged or sued by the Count's predecessors about servile condition up to this time, he claims them for his servitude: as though it had been dormant and neglected for many ages, it was handed over to the oblivion of all, unless in the aforesaid challenge to combat it had been recalled to the truth of remembrance.

[13] Moreover the Provost, with the whole succession of his nephews, being more powerful after the Count in the kingdom, and more glorious in fame and religion, affirmed that he and his ancestors and successors of his kindred had been free, he is disdained by the Provost as one promoted by him to the County, and with a certain superstition and arrogance he so contended. He labored therefore by counsel and power to withdraw himself and his kin from the Count's ownership and dependency, and for this reason he often reproached the Count thus: "This Charles from Denmark would never have ascended to the County if I had willed it. Now therefore, since he has been made Count through me, he does not remember the good I have done him; on the contrary, he labors utterly to force me with my whole family back into servitude, inquiring from the elders whether we are his serfs: but let him inquire as much as he wishes, we shall always be and are free, and there is no man on earth who can make us serfs." Yet he spoke boastfully in vain: for the prudent Count had understood the detraction of the Provost and his men and their fraud alike, and had heard of their treachery. Since the Provost and his men could not have the effect of their defense — that they should not lose the liberty they had usurped — he preferred, with the whole succession of his nephews, to perish rather than be bound to the servitude of the Count. and he is hated even unto death: And at last, by the perverse and wicked counsel of deceit, they began to treat apart concerning the death of the most pious Count, and finally to devise a place and opportunity for killing him.

[14] The Provost was therefore glad that he had occasions for betraying the Count in the quarrels and seditions that had arisen between his nephews and Thancmar, whose just cause the Count favored: for he had summoned all the knights of our province to the aid of his nephews against Thancmar, whether by price or by power or by petition. when quarrels arose between Thancmar and the nephews of the Provost, He indeed besieged him on all sides in the place where he had fortified himself, and finally, having gathered an armed band, he most vigorously assaulted the besieged, and cut down the orchards and hedges of his enemies. Yet absent, and as though he had done nothing, he did everything by counsel and deceit; he displayed all goodwill outwardly: and he told his enemies that he grieved that his nephews should carry out so many quarrels and so many homicides — nephews whom he had in fact incited to all wickedness. In the aforesaid encounter, therefore, on both sides very many fell that day, wounded and dead. When the Provost understood that the encounter was now taking place, he himself went down to the carpenters who were working in the cloister of the brethren, and ordered their tools, namely axes, to be carried there, with which they might cut down the tower and orchards and houses of their enemies. to plunder and homicide, He therefore sent through the individual houses in the suburb to collect axes, which were brought there most swiftly. And when at night his nephews had returned with five hundred armed knights and infinite foot soldiers, he led them into the cloister and the refectory of the brethren: in which he refreshed them all with a varied array of food and drink, and was glad and gloried over this. And when he thus continually afflicted his enemies and incurred the greatest expense upon those who helped his nephews, first the squires, then the knights began to plunder the peasants, to such a degree that they seized and devoured the cattle and herds of the farmers. Whatever the peasants had possessed for their own use, the nephews of the Provost violently seized and appropriated for the expenses of their men. But from the beginning of the realm no Count had suffered plundering to occur in the kingdom, because the greatest death and battle would have resulted from it.

[15] At Ypres, asked by the peasants for protection, The peasants therefore heard that the Count had come to Ypres, to whom as many as two hundred crossed by night and secretly, and falling at his feet they beseeched the paternal and customary aid from him — that he command the return of their property, namely cattle and herds, clothing and silver, and indeed all the remaining furnishings of their houses, counsel being taken, all of which the nephews of the Provost had seized, together with those who had fought with them day and night in the expedition of that siege. The Count, bearing these complaints of the petitioners gravely, summoned his counselors and also many who were of the Provost's kindred, inquiring from them by what vengeance and by what rigor of justice he should punish this crime. And they gave counsel [he arranges for the destruction of the house of Borsiard, leader of the plunderers.] that without delay the house of Borsiard should be destroyed by fire, because he had exercised plundering against the Count's peasants: and they counseled especially that the aforesaid house be destroyed, because as long as it stood, Borsiard would continue to carry out quarrels and plundering, and moreover homicides, and would thus utterly devastate that neighborhood. The Count therefore descended, having been advised on this matter, and burned the house and utterly destroyed his dwelling. Then that Borsiard and the Provost and their accomplices grieved beyond measure; both because the Count in this deed seemed to have given consent and assistance to their enemies; and because the Count daily pressed them about their servile condition, and labored by every means to bind them to himself.

[16] he comes to Bruges, And so, with the house burned, the Count went up to Bruges. When therefore he had sat down in the house assigned to him, those who were familiar with him came to him and rendered him forewarned, saying that the nephews of the Provost would betray him, since they now presented an apt occasion from the burning of the aforesaid house — although, he admits intercessors: even if the Count had not done this, he would no less be betrayed by them. After the Count had supped, intercessors on behalf of the Provost and his nephews came before him, to entreat the Count to turn his indignation from them, and in pity to receive them back into his friendship. But the Count responded that he would deal justly with them in all things, and even mercifully, he promises to build another house for Borsiard, if the plundering ceases. if they would henceforth cease from quarrels and plundering, and he promised moreover to restore a better house to Borsiard. Yet in the place where the house was burned, he swore that while he held the County, Borsiard would never obtain any possession there, because up to that time, dwelling near Thancmar, he had never done anything but carry on quarrels and seditions against enemies and citizens with plundering and slaughter. But the intercessors, who were partly privy to the betrayal, did not much trouble the Count about reconciliation, and when the servants went to pour drink, they asked the Count to order better wine brought. When they had drunk it up, as drinkers do, they asked to have it poured once more, and abundantly still, so that with their last leave taken from the Count, they might as it were depart to sleep: and at the Count's command, drink was abundantly poured for all those who were present, until having taken their final leave they departed.

CHAPTER III. The nocturnal conspiracy for the murder of Saint Charles. The enormity of this crime weighed.

[17] Therefore Isaac and Borsiard and William of Wervi, Ingran, and their accomplices, having received the assent of the Provost, hastened to carry out what they were about to do not by the necessity of divine ordination but indeed by their own free will: Various persons conspire for his murder, for immediately those who had been mediators and intercessors between the Count and the nephews of the Provost, in the house granted by that same Provost, reported the Count's response; namely that they had been unable to obtain any favor either for the nephews or for their aforesaid supporters, in the house of the Provost, who guards the door but that he would deal with them only as the censure of the chief men of the land should determine by the strictness of justice. Then the Provost and his nephews, withdrawing into the chamber and having summoned those they wished, with the Provost himself guarding the door of the chamber, they gave their right hands to each other that they would betray the Count; and for this crime they called upon Robert the boy, pressing him to give his right hand, about to carry out the same thing together with them,

which they too were about to carry out, for which they had also exchanged right hands among themselves. But the noble boy, forewarned by the virtue of his spirit, perceived that what they pressed upon him would be grave: he resisted, unwilling to be unknowingly drawn into their compact, unless he should first know what course of action they had confirmed themselves to carry out, and preventing the exit of one unwilling to conspire, and when they still compelled him, he withdrew and hastened to leave through the door. But Isaac and William and the rest cried out to the Provost, who was then the doorkeeper, not to permit Robert to leave, until by his command he was forced to carry out what they had demanded of him. Immediately the young man, overcome by the Provost's blandishments and threats, returned and gave his right hand under their condition, ignorant indeed of what he was about to do with them; and immediately after being bound with the traitors he asked what he had done. But they said: "This Count Charles labors by all means for our destruction, and he hastens to claim us as his serfs: we have now sworn to betray him: and you must henceforth carry out with us the same betrayal, both in counsel and in deed."

[18] Therefore the terrified boy, dissolved entirely in tears, said: one strongly detesting it, "Far be it from us that we should betray our lord and the consul of our fatherland. Indeed, truly, if you do not desist, I shall go and openly declare your betrayal to the Count and to all, nor shall I ever, God willing, lend counsel or aid to this pact." But as he fled from them, they dissemble the conspiracy: they violently restrained him, saying: "Listen, friend — as though we were seriously going to carry out the aforesaid betrayal, we have now disclosed it to you: so that by this we might test whether you would be willing to stand with us in some grave undertaking. There is indeed something else which we have still concealed from you, for the sake of which you are bound to us by pledge and compact, which we shall tell you in the future." And as though turning it into laughter, they dissembled the betrayal. And each one of them descended to his place, going out from the chamber. When Isaac had at last come home, he pretended to go to sleep (for he was waiting for the silence of night), and soon, having mounted his horse, he returned to the castle, descending to the lodging of Borsiard and summoning him and the rest whom he wished; they went apart and descended to another lodging, they depart: namely that of Walter, a knight. And when they had entered, They choose another lodging: they completely extinguished the fire that was in the house, lest by the fire's light it should become known to those roused in the house who they were and what business they were conducting contrary to custom at that hour of the night. Secure therefore in the darkness they took counsel that the betrayal should be carried out immediately in the morning, choosing from Borsiard's household the most spirited and daring for this crime, and they promised them great riches. To the knights who would kill the Count they offered four marks, [they promise four marks to the knights who will kill the Count, two to the servants.] and to the servants who would do the same, two marks, and they confirmed themselves by the most wicked compact of all.

Isaac then returned to his house around the twilight of day, after he had encouraged the others by his counsel and had ordered them ready for so great a crime.

[19] Therefore, when the day had come, very dark and foggy, so that no one could discern anything from himself at the length of a lance, Borsiard secretly sent some servants into the court of the Count, to watch for his departure to the church. The Count had indeed risen very early and had distributed to the poor, as was his custom, The Count distributes alms in the morning, in his own house, and was thus going to the church. But as his chaplains reported, when at night he had composed himself in his bed to sleep, he labored with a certain solicitude of wakefulness, his mind indeed confused and troubled, disturbed at night, so that, afflicted by manifold meditation on things, now lying on one side, now sitting up in his bed, he seemed to himself entirely languid. And when he had proceeded on his way toward the church of Blessed Donatian, he enters the church of Saint Donatian: the servants who had been watching for his departure, running back, announced to the traitors that the Count had ascended to the gallery of the church with a few. Then that furious Borsiard and his knights and servants, having taken naked swords under their cloaks, pursued the Count in the same gallery: dividing themselves into two groups, so that from either way of the gallery none of those whom they wished to betray could escape: the assassins approaching, and behold, they saw the Count prostrate in his customary manner beside the altar on a low stool, where he was devoutly chanting psalms to God and prayers, he chants psalms and gives alms: and at the same time distributing coins to the poor.

[20] And it should be known what a noble man and distinguished Count the most impious and inhuman servants betrayed. he is killed, The best and most powerful who had flourished from the beginning of the Holy Church, whether in France, or in Flanders, or in Denmark, or finally under the Roman Empire — these were his progenitors, born of the most noble ancestors: from whose stock the pious Count, formed in our time and raised from boyhood to perfect manhood, never departed from the noble paternal and royal character and the natural decencies of life.

And when before his County he had done many distinguished and outstanding things, he took up the way of holy pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and sailing across the depths of the sea, having gone as a youth to Jerusalem against the enemies of the faith: at last after many perils and wounds often endured for the love of Christ, with a longed-for and most joyful vow, he ascended to Jerusalem, where he also fought vigorously against the enemies of the Christian faith, and so, having reverently adored the Lord's sepulcher, he returned home. In the necessity and strait of that pilgrimage, the pious servant of the Lord learned — as he often related while sitting in his County — how much want the poor suffered, with what pride the rich were puffed up, and finally with how much misery the whole world was shaken: whence he was accustomed to condescend to the needy, and to become strong in adversity, not to be elated in prosperity, and as the Psalmist teaches: "The honor of the ruler loves judgment"; he governed his County by the judgment of Princes and prudent men. Psalm 98:4

[21] When such a glorious Prince had suffered martyrdom in his life, the inhabitants of all lands, stricken by the infamy of his betrayal, grieved exceedingly; and wonderful to tell — the Count having been killed in the castle of Bruges in the morning of one day, namely Wednesday, the report of his impious death in the city of London, the murder is known the next day in London and Laon. which is in the land of England, struck the citizens on the second day after, around the first hour of the day, and around evening of the same second day it disturbed the people of Laon, who are in France far distant from us. As we learned through our scholars, who at the same time were studying at Laon, so also through our merchants we understood, who on the same day were engaged in trade at London. The intervals therefore, either of time or of the aforesaid places, no one could have crossed so swiftly either by horse or by ship.

[22] For the carrying out of this crime of betrayal also, it was disposed by God that the bold and presumptuous men of the blood of the predecessors of Provost Bertulf should be left behind, while the rest had been prevented by death; who, being powerful in the fatherland while they lived, were persons of gravity and abounded in riches, but the aforesaid Provost lived in the clergy with the most severe strictness and with no small pride. The Provost was severe toward the clergy, and proud, For it was his custom, when someone approached his presence whom he knew very well, that with the arrogance of his spirit dissembling, he would out of indignation ask those sitting near him who the person was: and then first, if it pleased him, he would summon and greet the one called. But when he had sold a canonical prebend to someone, he gave the investiture to that person by no canonical election but by force. For none of his canons dared either silently or openly to reprove him. In the aforesaid place of the brethren of the church of Blessed Donatian, there were formerly canons very religious and perfectly lettered, namely at the beginning of the provostship of this most arrogant prelate, elated after the death of the better canons, who, repressing his pride, held him constrained by counsel and Catholic doctrine, lest he should presume anything dishonorable in the church. But after they had fallen asleep in the Lord, that Provost, left to himself, was carried to whatever seemed good to him, and wherever the impulse of his arrogance drove him. Indeed, since he was the head of his family, he strove to set his nephews, raised in great style and finally girded with knighthood, above all in the fatherland, he strives to prefer his nephews above all: and he labored that their fame should become known everywhere: whence he armed his kinsmen for quarrels and seditions, set enemies against them whom they might attack, so that fame might fly through all — namely of how great power and strength he and his nephews were, whom no one in the kingdom could resist or prevail against. At last, being sued about the condition of servitude in the Count's presence, and at the same time by the Count laboring to prove him with his whole succession a serf, and to free himself and his own from the mark of servitude, he was disgraced, as has been said above; he strove by what flight and what cunning to oppose himself to the servitude, and by what power to preserve the liberty he had usurped. And when, obstinate, he could not otherwise, he consummated by a wicked outcome the betrayal which he had long plotted, he collaborates in the murder of the Count both among his own and among the Peers of the kingdom, by himself and through his men.

[23] But the most pious God again deigned to recall His own through the terror of signs: for in the vicinity near us, bloody waters appeared in the ditches as a sign of future slaughter, Before the murder, bloody waters appearing, by which they could have been called back from their crime, had they not conspired with the hardened zeal of their hearts in betraying the Count. Moreover, they often discussed, if they should kill the Count, and other things sufficiently could have deterred them: who would avenge him; and although they did not know what they were saying, "Who?" — that indefinite name denoted infinite persons, who could not be counted in any certain number; since the King of France with a heavy army and likewise the Princes of our land with an infinite multitude came together to avenge the death of the most pious Count. But the misery of this fate has not yet come to an end: rather from day to day they do not cease to avenge the aforesaid death of the Count upon all suspects and defendants and fugitives and exiles everywhere.

[24] We therefore, the inhabitants of the land of Flanders, who mourn the death of our Count and great Prince, mindful of his life, beseech, admonish, and ask that, having heard the true and certain description both of his life and death, whosoever you are who hear it, you beg for his soul the glory and beatitude of eternal life with the Saints forever. The writer's forewarning about what follows. In this subscription of the passion, the reader will subsequently find the divisions of days and deeds which were done on those days, up to the vengeance noted below at the end of the work, which God alone exercised upon the Princes of the land, whom He exterminated from this world by the strictness of death — by whose counsel and aid the betrayal was begun and carried through to the end.

from what is compiled in the vernacular Annals of Flanders, in the Formula of the Proclamation of Bruges, and in the Commentary of Lernutius. We have touched on some matters in the preliminary Commentary.

CHAPTER IV.

The murder of Saint Charles and four others. The flight or captivity of some.

[25] In the year one thousand one hundred and twenty-seven, on the sixth day before the Nones of March, the second day namely after the beginning of that month, two days having passed of the second week of Lent, In the year 1127, March 2, Wednesday of the second week of Lent, on the subsequently dawning Wednesday, the Concurrent being the fifth, the Epact the sixth, around morning; while the pious Count at Bruges in the church of Blessed Donatian, formerly Archbishop of Reims, was prostrate in prayer to hear the morning Mass; out of his pious custom he was distributing the largesses of his alms to the poor, amid prayers and alms, with his eyes fixed on reading the Psalms and his right hand extended for the distribution of alms: for his Chaplain, who managed this office, had placed many coins before the Count, which in the act of prayer he distributed to the poor.

The office of the First Hour had also been completed, and the response of the Third Hour had been finished, when the Our Father was being prayed, when the Count in his custom was devoutly and openly praying while reading; then at last, after so many consultations and oaths and securities made among themselves, first in their hearts the murderers and most wicked traitors, while the Count was devoutly praying and giving alms, the Count is killed in the temple, supplicated and prostrate before the Divine Majesty, left him dead, pierced with swords and repeatedly run through: thus, washed by the rivulets of his own blood from his sins, and his life's course ended in good works, God bestowed upon the Count the palm of the martyrs. In the supreme moment therefore of life and the approach of death, he had turned his most worthy face and royal hands toward heaven amid so many blows, the strikes of swordsmen, as much as he could, and thus he delivered his spirit to the Lord of all and offered himself to God as a morning sacrifice. Indeed the bloodied body of so great a man and Prince lay alone, without the veneration of his men and the due reverence of his servants. Whence whoever heard the event of his death, performing his pitiable funeral with tears, commended to God so great a Prince, who had met the end of martyrdom, mourned. Themar, Castellan of Burbourg, is left as if dead:

[26] They also killed the Castellan from Burbourg, first wounded to death, then dragged vilely by his feet from the gallery to which the Count himself had ascended, and dismembered him with swords at the doors of the church outside. Yet this Castellan, having confessed his sins to the priests of that church, was communicated with the Body and Blood of Christ in Christian manner. For immediately after the Count was killed, those swordsmen, having left the Count's corpse, and having returned to the Castellan whom they had reduced to death in the gallery, made an excursion against those enemies who were present from the Count's court, in order to kill them as they wandered in the castle, as they pleased.

They chased a certain knight Henry, whom Borsiard suspected of the death of his brother, named Robert, two are saved by Castellan Haket: into the house of the Count. He threw himself at the feet of Castellan Haket, who had himself ascended into the same house with his men to hold it, and he took in Henry and together with him the brother of Walter of Locres, and preserved them from their assailants' hands alive.

[27] At that very moment the two sons of the Castellan from Burbourg were betrayed to those same swordsmen, meanwhile confessing their sins to priests in the gallery of the church: whose knighthood was well commended among all, and likewise their way of life. the two sons of Themar are killed, They were called Walter and Giselbert, brothers by birth, equals in knighthood, worthy by the nobility of their handsome appearance to be loved by all who had known them. Who, having immediately heard of the slaughter against the Count and their father, sought to flee: but those most wicked traitors pursued them on horseback at the Sands, at the exit of the suburb. One of the brothers, named Eric, a wicked knight — one indeed of those who had betrayed the Count — threw him from the horse on which he was fleeing, and once thrown down, killed him together with the pursuers. They also pierced the other brother with swords as he rushed in flight at the door of his lodging, as they ran to meet him from the opposite direction. One of our citizens, named Lambert Berakin, hewed him as he fell with his axe, as though he were some piece of wood: and thus they dispatched those slain brothers to the holy blessedness which is in the life above the heavens.

[28] Moreover they pursued Richard of Woldman, a powerful man of that town (whose daughter a nephew of Thancmar had married, Richard of Woldman is saved by flight, against whom the Provost and his nephews had hitherto waged quarrels and seditions) for one league as he fled, who with his knights had gone up to the Count's court, as many of the Princes who on the same day were preparing themselves to go to court. In this pursuit the betrayers were frustrated and returned to the castle, into which the clergy and people of our place had flowed together, and indeed they wandered about stunned at the turn of events. Those who had formerly stood in the Count's friendship, that is, while he lived, certainly feared and, hiding themselves for the moment, turned aside from the sight of those traitors. others from the court, Those who depended on the Count's court and friendship, swiftly turning to flight, meanwhile while the people were in turmoil, fled.

Gervase, the Count's Chamberlain, Gervase the Chamberlain, whom the right hand of God first armed for avenging the death of his Lord, meanwhile fled on horseback toward his Flemish kinsmen. A certain John, a servant of the Count, who had been accustomed to watch over the chamber, John, a servant, divulging the Count's death at Ypres, and whom the Count had loved above his servants, fled from morning riding his horse through byways until noon, and at that time of noon he arrived at Ypres, divulging there the death of the Count and his men.

At which time the merchants of all the kingdoms around Flanders had flowed together at Ypres for the Feast of Saint Peter's Chair, where a universal fair and market were being held: who under the peace and protection of the most pious Count were trading securely. At the same time merchants from the kingdom of the Lombards had come down to the same fair, from whom the Count had bought a silver tankard for twenty-one marks, which, marvelously crafted, concealed from its spectators the drink which it contained. In the concourse of this fair, when the report struck everyone from various places, girding up their goods, they fled both day and night, carrying with them the infamy of our land and spreading it everywhere. the merchants swiftly dispersing from the fair:

[29] Therefore every man who had even heard his fame mourned that Count of peace and honor. But in our castle, in which our Lord and most pious father Charles lay slain, no one dared openly to bewail the event of his death: as if looking upon their Lord as unknown and seeing their father as a stranger, they repressed their griefs and sighs without tears: which griefs, however, they endured all the more heavily within, the less they dared to relieve themselves through tears and wailing. Walter of Locres is sought for death: For the nephews of the Provost and that most wicked of men, Borsiard, with his accomplices, immediately after the flight of their enemies, having returned to the castle, his knights and he himself sought Walter of Locres, whom they most hated. For he had been of the Count's counsel, and harmful to them in all things, who had instigated the Count to this end — to subjugate that entire kindred of the Provost as his serfs.

But that same Walter, also moved by anguish, had hidden himself in the organ-loft, that is, in a certain chamber of the organs of the church in the same gallery, he hides in the organ chamber: where the Count lay slain, from the time when the Count was being killed until the return of those wicked men to the castle, namely when after routing their enemies they returned around noon. They therefore rushed through the doors into the temple, and running about with naked swords still bloody, with the greatest clamor and clashing of arms around the chests and stalls of the brethren of the church, they sought Walter, calling out his name, Themar is killed: and they found the Castellan from Burbourg, whom they had wounded to death in the gallery, still breathing. Dragging him out by the feet, they then at last killed him at the doors of the church. His ring the Abbess of Origny received from him in the gallery while he still breathed, he giving it, so that she might bring it to his wife as a token of his death and as a token of all those things which he had sent word through the Abbess to his wife and children, whose death he himself did not know of except after his own death.

[30] Meanwhile Walter of Locres was sought both within and outside the church. But one of the guardians of the temple had hidden him, to whom Walter had also left his cloak. But from the place where he had hidden, out of fear Walter rushes into the temple: while he heard the clash of arms and heard himself called by name, confused by the anguish of death, thinking he would be better saved in the church, he rushed out, and leaping down from the high vault of the schools, he fled among the midst of his enemies to below the choir of the temple, calling upon God and the Saints with great and pitiful outcry. Borsiard, that wretch, and Isaac, he is seized: a servant and chamberlain and likewise a vassal of Count Charles, pursued him to their hands, raging in the sacred place with drawn and horribly bloodied swords. They were indeed very furious and of the most ferocious countenance, great in stature and grim, and such that no one could look upon them without terror. Borsiard therefore, having seized him by the hair of his head and having brandished his sword, had stretched himself out to strike, and wished to delay not a moment, because he held so desired an enemy in his hands. Yet by the intervention of the clerics he delayed his death, until he might lead him out of the church just as he had seized him. But the captive, certain of death, went crying out: "Have mercy on me, O God." To whom they responded: "We ought to repay you such mercy as you have merited toward us." And having thrust him away from themselves, when they had led him out into the courtyard of the castle, they threw him to their servants to be killed. he is killed: And the servants most swiftly delivered him to death, overwhelmed with swords and clubs and nails and stones.

[31] Meanwhile, running back into the sanctuary around the altar, they sought whether anyone was hiding whom they had prejudged to be killed, and they sent servants inside to search. There were hiding in the first sanctuary near the altar Baldwin the Chaplain and Priest, and Godebert, a clerk of the Count, who, distressed by fear alone, remained sitting thus at the altar. Those found in the sanctuaries from the Count's household, In the second sanctuary, however, Odger the Clerk and Fromald the younger, the Notary, had taken refuge — the one most familiar to Count Charles among all at court, and for that reason more suspect to the Provost and his nephews — Baldwin the Chaplain, Godebert, and together with them Arnold, the Count's Chamberlain, lay hidden. For Odger and Arnold had covered themselves under one tapestry, and Fromold had composed a hiding place for himself beneath bundles of palms, and Odger, Clerks, and thus they awaited death.

Then the servants who had been sent in, searching and turning over all the curtains, cloaks, books, tapestries, and palms Fromold the Notary, which the brethren had carried annually on the Feast of Palms, found first Odger and Arnold; they had also previously found Eustace the Clerk, brother of Walter of Locres, Arnold the Chamberlain, sitting with Baldwin and Godebert, not knowing who he was. Those who were found promised the searching servants Eustace the Clerk: that they would give money afterward, if they were concealed by them.

[32] And when they had at last returned to the choir to Borsiard and Isaac and the rest, those who had been sent in were adjured to accuse any they had found; and the revelation being made, Isaac was most violently moved against Fromold the younger by sudden and heavy fury, so that he swore by God and the Saints that his life could not be redeemed by gold of so great a quantity as the temple itself would be. Fromold is in greater hatred: He also turned the fury of all against that Fromold by crying out that no one had detracted the Provost and his nephews more before the Count. Then, having broken down the doors, Isaac immediately burst in and seized Fromold at close quarters and prepared to lead him out. When Fromold saw him, he did not believe he was being taken by Isaac, but rather redeemed from death through him, he begs for his life: and said: "My friend Isaac, I beseech you by the same friendship which has hitherto been between us, preserve my life, and for my children, who are your nephews, consider what has been preserved through me, lest perchance, with me killed, they be left without a guardian." But he replied: "You shall have that pardon which you have merited by detracting us before the Count." Meanwhile a certain priest came aside to Fromold, he confesses his sins to a priest: advising him to profess to God and to himself the confession of his sins. When he had done this, he drew a golden ring from his finger, despairing of life, and through the priest he sent it to his daughter. Meanwhile Isaac was taking counsel with Borsiard as to what he should better do — whether he should kill him there, or still reserve him for life, until they should extort from him all the Count's treasure, and likewise from Arnold the Chamberlain, whom they had taken captive while present.

[33] In the meantime, the canons of that place ran to the uncle of that Fromold the younger, advising him to meet the Provost on behalf of his nephew's life, with his uncle interceding, incited by the canons, whom they had seen placed within the action of death, whose death Isaac had sworn. Then that elder, hastening, ascended to the Provost in his house with the brethren of the church, prostrate at his feet, asking and beseeching that he defend the life of his nephew. But the Provost at last sent a messenger to forbid his nephews to harm Fromold the younger. But they, having heard the message, sent back word that this could not be done, even if he were present. When this report was heard, the elder meanwhile fell at the Provost's knees, requesting that he himself descend to save him; and he went indeed not with swift step but very slow, as one who cared little about the man, with the others he is taken into the Provost's custody: whom he held very suspect. At last he arrived at the sanctuary, in which nothing holy but all things perverse were being done. At the request therefore of the clerics he took into his own charge all those captured there; under this condition, however, that when Isaac and his nephews should demand those commended to him, the Provost himself would return those captives.

[34] The Provost therefore returned and led those commended to his charge into the chamber of his house, and guarded them most carefully, and said to Fromold, whom he had led away captive: "Know, Fromold, that at the next Easter you shall not possess my provostship, as you were hoping: nor had I merited from you he is rebuked, that you should so detract me" — and Fromold swore that he had acted innocently. Yet it was true that no one at court was so familiar with the Count while he lived, nor so dear, as the aforesaid Fromold. as one supremely dear to the Count: For after the burning of his house, he had rebuilt it from the foundations with royal construction, in a better and more elegant arrangement than it had ever stood before. In comparison with it, none in the world was esteemed better or more useful. Therefore while they were kept shut up and locked in captivity, they had at least a place and time for mourning the pious Count — not as a Lord but as a father, and in familiarity their equal, merciful, humble, meek, useful to the rich and poor in the kingdom. he grieves with the others, Those captives therefore could not speak to one another for grief, except with sighs and sobs which they drew from the deep sorrow of their minds. A pitiable crime, in which the servants were not permitted to die with their Lord and father; but to live after him in greater misery — with whom they would more nobly and most honestly have passed from this world in the sight of God and men by death, than to live with the grief of their Lord's death and — God forbid — to see the traitors flourish under another presiding Count. without the comfort of visitors. And while they were prostrated in this languor of mind, no friend dared even secretly to approach them to speak words of consolation; indeed, if anyone did approach, he was cut off from life.

CHAPTER V.

The burial of Blessed Charles and the others. The miracle of the healed lame man. Plundering of goods.

[35] Meanwhile the corpses of the slain, namely the Castellan and Walter of Locres, were carried out of the castle, The corpses of the 4 slain are carried out, and the Castellan and his most beloved sons were placed together in boats and conveyed to their own houses and castles. The Provost meanwhile walked about in his house with his canons, excusing himself with words as much as he could, with the Provost excusing himself, since he had foreknown nothing of this betrayal. On the same day the traitors made an excursion against their enemies, the assassins making an excursion, namely against Thancmar and his men at Straten, and found their strongholds empty and their courts deserted. For having heard the crime done in the Count's death, they feared greatly for themselves, flight occurs on all sides, because they had lost their defender; and if perhaps they should be hard pressed by siege and shut in by the traitors, no one would be their helper, since they at last understood that all the Peers of the kingdom had given their assent to the betrayal. For they believed that much graver perils would threaten in the future, both for themselves and for the whole kingdom, caring nothing for their possessions, but reckoning only this: if they preserved their own lives — and they fled to safer places. the goods of Thancmar are plundered, Then those traitors, invading both the stronghold and the court of Thancmar, plundered within all arms and furnishings together with the greatest seizure of cattle and clothing of the peasants of that village; and so, having exercised plundering throughout the whole day, they returned in the evening.

And not only these around our vicinity committed plunder, Merchants going to Ypres are despoiled: but many who had foreknown the betrayal, immediately running ahead to the passes of the merchants who were going to the fair being held at Ypres, seized them together with their loads. Having also heard of the deadly betrayal, William of Ypres believed he would henceforth obtain the County, William of Ypres hopes for the County: and compelled all merchants, of whatever place they were from, to swear security and fidelity to him and his, those whom he could capture in the market. Otherwise he did not permit them to depart from him, he demands oaths: but held them captive so long until they had performed all securities for him — and all this was done by the counsel of the Provost and the traitorous nephews.

[36] Now, on the same day declining toward evening, by the common counsel of the Provost and his nephews and their accomplices, they demanded from Fromold the younger, whom they held captive, the keys to the Count's treasury, and likewise all the keys to the house, the keys of the Count's treasures are extorted: whether to the chests and coffers which were in the house, they extorted by force. These Borsiard and Castellan Haket and Walter, son of Lambert from Reddenburg, took into their power.

[37] Concerning the body of the Count (for whose soul the priests had at that time made the commendation, when they also communicated his Castellan with Christ, yet secretly), nothing was done meanwhile: The bloodied body lies there: because his body still lay bloody and alone in the very position of the slaying. The brethren of the church therefore anxiously considered what they should do about it, and what obsequies they should prepare for him, since in that same church no one dared even secretly to perform the divine office, in which so great a slaughter and crime had manifestly been committed. At length, having obtained permission from the Provost, with the Provost's permission, the body wrapped in linen is placed on a bier: by the consent of the brethren, Fromold the elder, having wrapped the noble body in linen, placed it on a bier in the middle of the choir and arranged it with due veneration, and having placed four candles beside it, as is our custom, he was carefully solicitous about the rest. Women alone, sitting around the funeral, guarded by women: watched over it with pious lamentation through that day and the following night. Meanwhile those traitors entered into counsel with the Provost and his Castellan, by what cunning the body of the Count might be carried away,

lest the body, [from the counsel taken to transfer it to Ghent, a message is sent to the Abbot of Blandinium.] which had been buried in their presence, should cause them everlasting reproach: and having craftily taken counsel, they sent for the Abbot in Ghent, who would carry off the Count's body from our place and translate it to Ghent for burial: and so that day was closed, full of grief and miseries, on which the cause of all evil and the disturbance of the kingdoms around us, both present and the very great one to come, had emerged.

[38] On the following night the Provost ordered the church to be fortified on all sides with arms and watches, the gallery and the tower of the temple; The Provost orders the temple fortified with arms: into which places, if perhaps an attack should be made by the citizens, he and his men might retreat. And on that night knights entered the gallery of the church by the Provost's command, armed, fortifying the tower and its exits with continuous watches, fearing that an assault and attack of the citizens would come against them on the following day and thereafter. he fears the fury of the people: On the Sunday after the Count's death, the Provost sent greetings to our Bishop Simon of the See of Noyon. The bearer of the letters was Radulf, a monk of Saint Trudo, he sends to the Bishop of Tournai that the church be reconciled: in which he beseeched that Bishop to reconcile to God the church in which the Count lay betrayed without his knowledge. He also offered arguments for his own excuse, by which he might canonically prove his innocence before the entire clergy and people. The bearer, however, was captured and knocked from his mount, and did not reach the Bishop. When the Provost heard this, he feared greatly for himself.

On Wednesday and Thursday the Provost sent word through a certain servant to Walter of Frorerdeslo, that, adjured by the fealty he had given to him and his nephews, he should hasten to his aid with his forces: and he sent him four hundred marks of silver. he seeks military aid in vain: But that man, having accepted the money, pretended he would come, and never came — except to harm him and his nephews. Bishop Simon, however, who was the brother of Count Charles's wife, pursued the church of the castle of Bruges, and struck those sacrilegious traitors with the sword of anathema; the assassins are struck with anathema by the Bishop: and he utterly forbade any of the faithful to incline to their conspiracy and aid: otherwise, he condemned under anathema all their helpers in the aforesaid evil.

[39] On the fifth day before the Nones of March, Thursday, the Abbot, March 3, the Abbot from Ghent lest the body be craftily taken away, for whom they had sent in Ghent, having ridden all night, came at dawn to the castle to the Provost and his nephews, demanding the Count's body, as they had promised him. The Provost therefore went out, and having convened the Castellan and the nephews who had betrayed the Count, took counsel with them by what cunning the Abbot might carry off the body without tumult. the poor hinder him at first, But immediately the poor, who were expecting alms to be distributed for the Count's soul by the Provost (who had understood the plan sooner, because apart from the poor no citizens wished to go with them or frequent them any longer), began to spread the word that the Abbot had come for this purpose, craftily and by the counsel of the traitors, to carry off the body. pleading, He had ordered a bier to be prepared, on which the body was to be placed and transferred by horses. Meanwhile the poor followed the Provost wherever he went, crying out: "Lord, let it never happen that the corpse of our father, so glorious a Martyr, should be carried away from our place: because if this happens, the place and its buildings will henceforth be destroyed without pity. For the enemies and persecutors who will come upon this castle will have some measure of piety and compassion, so as not to utterly destroy the church in which the body of the blessed Count shall have been venerably buried." And the greatest rumor arose among the citizens about carrying off the body. The Provost and that Abbot were indeed hastening, before the rumor was stirred up in the city, and he had a new bier, just recently made for the removal of the body, brought up to the door of the church. Knights had entered who would lift up the bier which stood in the middle of the choir with the Count, and transpose it into the other bier which stood at the door.

[40] Then the canons of that place, running up, violently replaced the bier of the choir, saying that they wished first to hear from the Provost for what reason he had ordered this. then the canons and clerics, And they went out into the castle where the Provost and his nephews stood, and together with them a very great crowd of citizens who had heard the rumor of removing the body; and one of the elders spoke before all the people: "Lord Provost, if you wished to have acted justly, boldly opposing themselves, you would not have given away without the consent and counsel of the brethren so precious a Martyr, so great a ruler of the kingdom, so great a treasure of our church, which divine mercy and dispensation has granted us as a Martyr. There is therefore no reason why he should be taken from us, among whom he was especially both raised and lived, and among whom by God's ordaining he was betrayed for justice; indeed, if he is taken away, we fear the destruction both of the place and of the church. For by his intercession God will spare us and have mercy on us; lest perhaps, with him taken from us, God should avenge without any pity the betrayal committed among us." But the Provost and the traitors, turned to indignation, ordered the body to be taken. Therefore with a great clamor the brethren of the church rushed to the doors of the temple, and violently resisting, crying out that they would not release the body of the most pious Charles, Count and Martyr, as long as they lived; rather they would die there than permit it to be taken. Then indeed you could have seen clerics armed with boards and stools and candlesticks and all the utensils of the church with which they could resist. In place of a trumpet they rang the bells, and thus summoned all the citizens of the place: who, when they understood the matter, running up armed, with drawn swords surrounded the Count's bier, prepared to resist citizens, summoned by the ringing of bells and armed with swords. if anyone should attempt to take it away.

[41] And when tumult arose both within and outside the church, the divine mercy willed to calm its children from their fury and the clamor of arms. For when the lame and the crippled lay beneath the bier, in that very tumult a lame man, With a lame man healed at the bier, whose foot had adhered to his buttocks, began to cry out and bless God, who for the merits of the pious Count had restored to him the natural power of walking in the sight of all who stood by. Therefore the fame of that miracle calmed everyone. But the Provost and the Castellan and those traitors had ascended into the Count's house, fearing the tumult, and sent word to the citizens that they would do nothing against their will about removing the body. That Abbot therefore returned, glad that he had escaped. The Provost, however, went back and forth, consulting with the traitors and arranging what they would do according to the course of events.

And the brethren of the church continually sought craftsmen and workmen who would know how, for the urgency of the time and its necessity, to construct a vault for burying the Count in that place a vault is prepared, where he had received the palm of martyrdom. And they hastened to do this by every means devised for the purpose, lest perhaps by some trick the body, still unburied and still more easily removable, should be stolen from them. And so that day was closed, full of turmoils and deceit for carrying off the corpse of the pitiable funeral.

[42] On the fourth day before the Nones of the same month, Friday, the canons and the Provost, [March 4, obsequies are celebrated in the church of Saint Peter outside the walls:] to perform the funeral rites as customary, and the sepulcher now being prepared, assembled in the church of Saint Peter outside the walls, where a Mass of the faithful departed was celebrated for the soul of the pious Count; where very few besides the canons made offerings. For from the court no one offered except Baldwin the Chaplain, Odger the younger, and Godebert, clerks of the Count. They returned afterward — both the Provost and the brethren — to the church of Blessed Donatian where the body lay, and having admitted the poor into the church, Fromold the elder distributed coins through the hands of the Provost to all in the church of Saint Donatian money is distributed: who wished to receive them, to the needy, for the salvation of the soul of Charles the pious Count. Which indeed that elder Fromold did not without tears: indeed he spent more tears of piety than coins. For there was a very great assembly of the poor who received the alms. When the distribution of alms was completed, the noble body was transported to the gallery, and the Provost, standing present beside the monument, the Provost weeps for the Count: then at last wept for the Count, whom by the guidance of reason he recognized had been the father of the entire region of Flanders, and he mourned him as such — a man whom indeed he disdained to acknowledge with an obstinate spirit: the body is buried. and he was enclosed in the sepulcher constructed for the necessity of that time; and if not as befitted, nevertheless by the subsequent workmanship and craftsmanship he was enclosed within. Surely his soul, purged by the sufferings of martyrdom, possesses the rewards of his merits in the presence of Him who in this manner disposed that he should die to this world, and live in the heavenly court with God Himself and the Lord, to whom belongs dominion, praise, honor, and glory through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER VI.

The growing insolence of the betrayers, beginning to be repressed by Gervase, the Count's Chamberlain.

[43] On the third day before the Nones of March, Saturday, Fromold the younger was released from captivity, March 5, Fromold is freed from prison: around the evening of that day. And this was done by the great labor of intercessors for him before the Provost and his nephews. They released him at last under this condition: that within eight days after his exit from captivity, he would either be reconciled with those wicked men into whose hands he had fallen, or would abjure the fatherland and go into exile thereafter. He descended indeed to his house with friends and his household, which was worn out with grief and fear of death beyond what can be said, both for him and for itself. For before he was captured, his servants did not dare to go out anywhere without believing they would immediately be pursued, because they were of his household. He therefore feasted with his friends and household, reckoning for certain that he would abjure the fatherland rather than return to the captivity of the traitors, who had betrayed their Lord, the one who loved him above the rest, and whom he himself loved almost more than himself. Therefore before he would ever compose himself in their friendship,

he would have chosen perpetual exile. For it is most grievous for a man to be at concord with an enemy, and contrary to nature, since every creature, if it can, flees what is hostile to it. When therefore he had supped, he arranged for his house and his affairs, and having taken leave of each, he distributed grain, cheeses, and meats to his servants for their sustenance through the time — holding in hope that all things which he now left behind out of necessity and out of love for the most pious Count, he would by God's dispensation possess again, joyful and secure. he willingly departs into exile, And he departed with his father-in-law outside the castle and outside the suburb in which he had hitherto dwelt: whom indeed his friends, commending him to God with lamentation and tears, accompanied as far as was allowed.

At the same time those aforesaid most obstinate traitors, ready for every wickedness, made an excursion against their enemies Thancmar and his men, where they suffered a most base repulse, and returned to the castle with fear and shame.

[44] On the day before the Nones of the first month, Sunday, March 6, William of Ypres promises aid to the Provost and the assassins Godescalc Thaihals from Ypres came as a messenger to the Provost at Bruges with these words: "My lord and your intimate friend, William of Ypres, sends you greetings and friendship, and the most ready assistance in all things, as much as lies in his power, to you and yours openly." The rest, however, which it was shameful to relate publicly, after all had applauded him, he was brought into the chamber and revealed to the Provost and William of Wervi and Borsiard and those few whom they had summoned to themselves within — whence the whole house thenceforth obtained glad confidence in William, to such a degree that they called him Count and accepted him as such. he is assumed as Count by them In the secret of this message, the wise and those who put together conjectures marked William with the mark of betrayal, who had greeted the traitors of our place in the maturity of their crime, and with all his power had offered them the most ready aid by pledge and by writing and by security. When therefore the messenger had returned, the merchants of Flanders, from whatever place they had gathered at the fair in Ypres, were captured, and constrained to pledge fealty, security, and homage to William, and thus to accept him as their Count. Which was indeed done by the counsel of the Provost and his men, hoping they had thus not betrayed the pious Count Charles in vain: and indeed William would have been elevated to the County at the same time, if he had immediately descended to Bruges to exact vengeance for his Lord and kinsman, the betrayed Count. But because it was not so disposed by the Lord, it was necessary to follow the divine ordinance — both the other Princes and the people of the land — and to become unanimous for avenging the death of the most pious Count. Still the suburbanites of our place openly entered into the councils of those lords, namely the Provost and the Castellan and their wicked nephews, and sought out the secrets of their counsels, so that, having thus craftily learned their deceits and machinations, they might be more cautious in the future. At this time the Provost and his men did not cease to counsel and ensnare whomever they could, and he is commended to all. so that they would favor them, giving and promising much. For he sent word to William that he would give him the County, and therefore he urged him to receive homage and securities from all the Flemings whom he could compel either by force or by payment. The Provost sent word to the people of Furnes, who had stood in his friendship, to establish themselves as vassals and men of William.

[45] He also sent letters to the Bishop of Noyon, in which he offered his excuse that he had been privy to nothing in the betrayal of the Count, either in counsel or in deed: and that with the utmost affection he should come to the aid of the children of the church, namely himself and his canons, by taking counsel, the Provost writes to the Bishop of Noyon, by reconciling the churches of the place, and that he should quickly come in person with the authority and presence of his pontificate for the celebration of divine offices. He directed letters under the same tenor to John, Bishop of the Morini. and of Therouanne: At Kerseca, Robert, who had married a niece of the Provost, was sent word to fortify his house and places most firmly, until he should establish William of Ypres as Count. Now that Robert was a free knight before he had taken as wife the Provost's niece, and he seeks subsidies from various people: but after he had kept her for a year, according to the law of the Counts of Flanders, he belonged to the Count in servile condition: whence the most pernicious conflict arose between the pious Count Charles and the Provost and his men over servitude and liberty. And likewise he sent for those Flemings who dwelt near the sea in his vicinity, that they should come with their forces to his aid and that of his nephews, if perhaps someone in the kingdom and County should rise up to seek vengeance.

[46] He powerfully commanded our citizens to surround the places of the suburb with ditches and hedges, so as to defend themselves against anyone whomsoever. the suburbs are fortified by the citizens: At the same time the citizens did indeed fence in the suburb, but with an entirely different intention than what had been counseled and commanded to them, as was afterward made manifest. Therefore they plundered the hedges and timber of the slain Count and of Fromold the younger (who awaited his exile with the confiscation of his property) outside the suburb, and moreover whatever seemed useful to them for the work of fencing; and the citizens, led by the Castellan, constructed towers and bulwarks and exits against the enemy as a common defense. In completing this, therefore, all hastened — both clergy and people. And so there was no rest, by night in watching and by day in working, until, the work of enclosing the suburb being completed, they should assign guards to the individual gates and towers and bulwarks, so that no one might exit unless known, and no one be admitted unless a citizen.

[47] March 7 On the Nones of March, Monday, God unsheathed the swords of divine vengeance against the enemies of His Church, Gervase, the first avenger of the Count's death and stirred the heart of a certain knight Gervase to exercise vengeance more fiercely and swiftly than was estimated at that time; and thus, with his collected wrath, with the full force of his power, that knight raged against those wicked men who had betrayed their most excellent Prince — pious and just, humbly prostrate in the service of God in veneration of Himself and His Saints, in the sacred time of Lent, and in a sacred place, and in sacred prayer — their Lord, the worst of servants, had betrayed to death, among whom he had always believed himself to be safe. formerly his Chamberlain, Gervase therefore, who had been familiar and faithful to his most pious Lord Charles, inasmuch as he had been his Chamberlain and had attended his counsels and arrangements both secretly and openly — grieving and angered for the death of his most dear Lord, with a fierce army of foot soldiers and a ring of knights and a thicket of arms, he fortified himself against the enemies of God, and running up he besieged the stronghold which stood fortified very strongly in defense of the traitors, named Ravenschot: He besieges the stronghold of Ravenschot, which indeed, both by the difficulty of the place and by the fortification itself, was invincible and inaccessible. And he took great plunder in the cattle of that castle and its neighbors. For at the same time all who belonged to those wicked men lived securely, believing that no one in the whole world either wished or was able to rise against their lords, because those wretches had committed so bold a crime against their Lord the Count. For God had blinded them, so that they retained no reason or counsel, but, precipitated into every evil, inebriated with wrath and fury, they wandered in fear and terror — both those who had betrayed the Count and all who remained in their aid. Since they had believed themselves secure, the defenders being thrown into consternation, and considered all in the kingdom either inferior to themselves or their friends, they were not forewarned against any incursion against them: and therefore when Gervase made his attack at Ravenschot, he carried out the greatest plundering. But those who were besieged, intercepted by the unexpected attack, very much stunned — especially because they were few who would defend themselves against so many thousands — despairing of their lives, immediately surrendered to Gervase, on the condition that they might depart with their lives and limbs safe. Therefore the horsemen and foot soldiers who had besieged the stronghold rushed in, having expelled those men, and devastated whatever they found within. But those who had surrendered themselves in the siege, namely the vassals of the traitors, he intercepts: fled by night all the way to us, narrating the outcome to the Provost and his men: whence thenceforth they feared continuously, changing the state of their minds from that pride and arrogance with which up to this time they had acted fierce and without measure and without humility. reinforcements sent in vain. Robert the boy, whose stronghold was to be destroyed by fire and sword in a short time, attempted to make an excursion against the besiegers with a few, but when he foreknew so great a multitude, he abandoned the attack. How great therefore the fear and grief which those traitors labored under, and conversely how great the joy with which all others besides them exulted — it would take too long to set forth, since they understood with equal conviction that God Himself had begun vengeance on every side.

[48] On the eighth day before the Ides of March, Tuesday, the stronghold of Ravenschot was set ablaze and destroyed by fire and arms, Ravenschot stronghold destroyed, March 8 and near Bruges the house of Wulfric Cnop, brother of the Provost, who had sworn the Count's death, was burned. Thereupon Gervase made an advance with his forces toward the castle in which the traitors had fortified themselves, he prepares an advance toward the castle, going around the outskirts and intercepting the passes of those around the suburb of the castle. Our citizens therefore, having heard that God had so quickly begun vengeance, rejoiced in conscience alone, never daring openly to congratulate those who were taking vengeance, because of the traitors who still went and returned securely and powerfully among them. the citizens of Bruges tacitly rejoicing, Privately, however, they gave thanks to God, who with the eyes of His mercy deigned to revisit His faithful in the place of horror and confusion, and who was hastening to exterminate the most wicked murderers who had hitherto scourged the Lord's people with plundering, fires, wounds, and disturbances of every kind. They sent, moreover, secret messengers to Gervase and his men, arranging mutual faith and friendship and the most faithful security. he is invited to the suburb, Moreover they swore vengeance for their Count, and that on the following day they would admit Gervase's army to themselves within the suburb, and receive them as brothers within their fortifications. an oath of mutual fidelity being made. Having heard the embassy, therefore, Gervase and his men — with what gladder and more just spirit they received the words of the messengers I cannot express — knowing that whatever they did in exacting vengeance was disposed by God. Indeed Gervase and his men swore together with the messengers of our citizens, and they were bound under the same oath of faith and security, to avenge their Lord and the most just Count of our land. All this was hidden from those traitors, and from the majority of our citizens utterly — except for a few wiser men of the place who privately and by night composed this kind of salutary counsel for all.

the sole authority against the betrayers: how rightly, is clear from this and what follows.

CHAPTER VII. The siege of the castle of Bruges begun. Military forces joined. Punishment exacted from some of the captured betrayers.

[49] On the seventh day before the Ides of March, the fourth day, when the octave of that blessed Count had dawned — who had migrated from earth to the true octave — Gervase, by agreement with our citizens, was received within the suburb, Gervase approaches the suburb on March 9: at the Sands toward the west of the castle, which was to be the greatest downfall for those traitors. But before this, on the same day, he had terrified Borsiard and Robert the boy and their accomplices by the burning of houses, who, having seen the conflagrations of houses on all sides, had gone out from the castle to observe those arsonists, if they could perhaps attack them. For toward the east of the castle, three taller houses, set ablaze and burning with flames fanned by the winds, the adversaries terrified by the fire and to watch this, the citizens together with Borsiard and his knights, not knowing the agreement made between the townsmen and Gervase, were running about — and the greater part of them armed with those wicked men.

Isaac too, who during the life of the pious Count Charles had been Chamberlain and of the Count's counsel and intimacy, who was the head of the betrayal, was carried on horseback in the excursion with his knights. At length when the knights on both sides had approached each other, the traitors, seeing they could not hold out against so great an army, he invades: since they were very few, turned to flight. But their pursuers, chasing them at full speed, drove the fugitives back into the castle. having entered the suburb When at last they had come into the suburb, Borsiard and his men had paused briefly before the house of Desiderius, Isaac's brother, he pursues the fleeing: seeking counsel as to what they should now do. Meanwhile Gervase, violently pursuing them, came westward to the gates of the suburb and there, with faith given and received from the citizens, he burst in with a very strong force. Still the citizens had remained quietly in their houses as usual. For it was around evening, and many citizens had sat down to their meal, to whom this action was not known.

[50] When therefore those traitors were taking counsel for themselves and stood troubled about their flight, they less foresaw their pursuers rushing through the streets, who assailed them with spears and lances, arrows and every kind of weapon. the citizens joining in, Moreover the greatest tumult and crashing of arms and thunders of shouting had disturbed all the citizens, who, rushing to arms, prepared themselves — some to defend the place and suburb against Gervase, who had been completely unaware of the pact; others, to whom the matter was known, rushed in with Gervase with all their strength and chased those traitors fleeing into the castle. And when the matter was made known among the citizens concerning the agreement and faith and oath of Gervase toward them, then for the first time they rushed together over the bridge of the castle against those who from the side of the wicked were resisting from the castle for battle. On another bridge, there is fierce fighting: which led toward the house of the Provost, there was a great conflict of battle, in which they fought at close quarters with lances and swords. On a third bridge, however, which lay on the eastern side of the castle and extended to the gates of the castle, a most fierce encounter took place, so much so that those standing within, unable to endure the fierceness of the battle, broke the bridge and shut the gates upon themselves. Wherever therefore the citizens had access to those in the castle, the traitors are detained within the castle under siege: there was the fiercest fighting, until those men could not hold out, because intercepted and betrayed by the citizens — whether willing or unwilling, those wretches were driven within the castle, a great part of them wounded, and at the same time paralyzed with fear and grief, and exhausted by the weariness of battle.

[51] Meanwhile Isaac, at the beginning of Gervase's incursion into the suburb, fleeing from the place where they had been taking counsel, Isaac flees: withdrew to his house, which was strong enough. And when he had crossed the bridge that lay between the suburb and his house, he pulled apart and broke the bridge, so that no one might pursue him in flight. At that time George was intercepted, the greatest knight of the traitors, George is captured, the greatest knight of the traitors, who together with Borsiard had also killed the Count, and Desiderius, a knight and brother of the traitor Isaac, threw him from his horse and cut off both his hands. This Desiderius, although he was the brother of a traitor, had nevertheless not been privy to the betrayal. With his hands cut off, that most wretched George had fled to a place both his hands cut off, where he hoped to hide, but immediately accused, he was dragged out by a certain Walter, a knight of Gervase. For that knight, sitting on his horse, commanded a certain most fierce young swordsman to kill him. he is killed: And that man, rushing upon George, struck him with his sword and threw him to the ground: then, cast by his feet into a sewer, that swordsman forced him to be submerged according to his evil desert. A certain man from the court of Castellan Haket was also intercepted, as was Robert the runner: named Robert, his runner and servant, and having been killed, was dragged into the marshes in the middle of the market. A certain most wicked man of Borsiard's servants was also intercepted, named Fromald, who had fled and hidden between two mattresses, dressed in a woman's surplice with which to disguise himself. But dragged out from there, Fromald, Borsiard's servant, is hanged: he was led into the middle of the market, and in the sight of all he was hanged, with a pole thrust through his hamstrings and legs, head hanging down, so that the more shameful parts were turned toward the castle, to the disgrace and ignominy of those traitors who, under siege, stood at the Count's balcony and at the ramparts, watching this being done to their own reproach. Meanwhile they did not cease to shoot arrows at each other and hurl stones and cast javelins from the walls.

[52] At last, as the day closed, during the night, terrors and watches were maintained on both sides, and they laid ambushes for each other — if anyone might steal away to flee from the besieged, or someone might secretly slip through the walls to the besieged to help them. Therefore throughout the entire time of the siege, watches and ambushes were maintained on both sides. each night the fighting grows fiercer. Very often indeed the besieged made attacks every single night on the besiegers with the fiercest encounter, and the fighting at night was fiercer than by day, because on account of their shameful deed the besieged did not dare to show themselves by day — those who in whatever way hoped to hide and escape, so that if perhaps they should escape, no one would suspect them of the crime of betrayal; and therefore at night they fought all the fiercer, inasmuch as they believed that through the Princes of the siege, who had given them their assent, they might perhaps afterward go free and be easily purged of the crime. But the Princes did not care what they promised the besieged, nor how many oaths they made — only that they might extort from them the good Count's money and treasure. And rightly indeed they did so, receiving from the besieged the Count's treasure and moreover many gifts, since no faith and no oaths ought to be observed toward those who, as the most impious servants, had betrayed their legitimate and natural Lord. And surely from their enemies they sought faith and oaths — which were owed to them by none — to be salutarily observed toward themselves, they who had inflicted death upon their Lord and father of the entire County. More justly, therefore, would those who loved the Count, even in death, who also came for vengeance and there endured fears, watches, wounds, assaults, and all the adversities that are customarily suffered in a siege — more justly, I say, would they have obtained the castle and the treasure and the comital possessions after their Lord's death, than those most wicked traitors, who had destroyed both the place and its riches. With this kind of reasoning they often spoke among themselves, both besiegers and besieged. But the besieged offered in their responses only the excuse of the betrayal.

[53] On the sixth day before the Ides of March, Thursday, the Castellan of Ghent hastened to the siege with his forces, and the brother of Baldwin of Aalst, March 10, the people of Ghent and Aalst arrive. named Iwan. On the preceding night of the same Thursday, because Isaac knew and condemned himself as privy to the crime (for the fear of death pressed upon him), he fled with only his squire, and likewise his wife and servants and handmaids and his entire household, Isaac escapes by flight, and wherever they happened to stay in so tight a nocturnal flight, they hid: indeed they left their house and court and the greater part of their furnishings and remaining property, which they had hitherto possessed powerfully and freely, deserted and without counsel, as plunder for their enemies. When this was heard, at dawn the Castellan of Ghent and Iwan, with the multitude of the siege, rushed in, they plunder and burn his buildings, plundering everything which they found useful for their own use and carrying it away. Finally, having placed fiery torches under the roofs, they burned the houses and courts and whatever could be consumed by fire found there. All of which was most swiftly destroyed by the conflagration and the fanning of the winds and the fury of the firestorm, and it was attested by the wonder of all — namely that no building of such size and so much timber had ever suffered so rapid an annihilation.

[54] March 11, Daniel and other magnates join, On the fifth day before the Ides of March, Friday, Daniel, one of the Peers of the kingdom, who before the betrayal of the Count had been in deep friendship with the Provost and his nephews, hastened to the siege, together with Richard of Woldman, Theoderic, Castellan of the town of Dixmude, and Walter the Butler of the Count. Each of these Princes came therefore with all his forces to avenge the death of his Count and Lord. After they had all assembled, together with our citizens, having also summoned all the leaders in the siege, they swore — before they were allowed to enter the suburb — that they would inviolably preserve the places and possessions of the suburb for the safety and benefit of our citizens: then that they would attack with one spirit and one force the most impious adversaries and murderers, conquer them, and they swear fidelity to one another: and by God's will overcome them, and spare none of the guilty their lives, nor by any stratagem of their own lead out and save the guilty, but destroy them and act by the common judgment of the Magnates — for the honor of the kingdom and for the safety of those dwelling in it — they simultaneously confirmed: saving indeed the property of the citizens and their own, and saving the property of all who labored in the siege for avenging the death of the Count.

digging up to the bowels of the earth, went away frustrated.

[67] March 18, On the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April, Friday, ladders were brought up against the walls, and they assailed each other on both sides with arrows and stones. Those who brought up the ladders, Larger ladders of great mass are prepared for the ascent, defended with shields and wearing hauberks, advanced. Many indeed followed to watch how the ladders would be erected against the walls, since on account of the greenness and dampness they were heavy and of great weight, having in height about sixty measures of a man's foot, and in width twelve feet for the lower ladder, and the upper ladder was considerably narrower but a little longer. And when the ladders were being dragged, the hand, voice, and shout of those dragging helped, and the clamors resounded in the upper air.

Then the men of Ghent with armed hand shielded with their shields those who were dragging the ladders. For having heard and seen the dragging, the besieged climbed upon the walls and came forward to the ramparts, hurling an infinite volley of stones and a thick shower of arrows against those handling the ladders. Moreover, spirited and daring youths, having placed small ladders others ascending by smaller ladders which ten men could carry, wishing to anticipate the assault of the larger ladders, ascended to the wall one after another: but when someone attempted the ascent to the summit and over the wall, those who lay in ambush within, lying in wait for the climbers, knocked down with spears and poles and missiles the one clinging to the ladder; they are thrown down by the besieged: so that no one was so bold or so swift that he dared to enter against the besieged by the smaller ladders.

Meanwhile others strove to pierce through the wall with masons' hammers and all kinds of iron tools, and pulling apart a great part of the wall, they withdrew frustrated. But when the multitude of those dragging had climbed near the walls, others labor at piercing the wall: and the fighting grew fiercer on both sides in hurling masses of stones from within, the dense darkness of night prevented both sides from fighting, and the men of Ghent, having suffered much injury, awaited the next day, when the entire siege, together with them, having forcibly erected the larger ladders, would enter against the besieged.

[68] On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of April, Saturday, when at the dawning morning the besieged, harassed on various sides of the castle, March 19, had given their limbs to rest after daily battles; and when they were somewhat more secure, because on the previous day they had fought admirably against the outsiders from Ghent (for with that security the sentinels of the walls on the aforesaid day had entered the Count's house to warm themselves by the fire on account of the harshness of the cold and winds, while the besieged sleep or stand at the fire, leaving the courtyard of the castle empty) — our citizens, on the southern side where the relics of the Saints had been carried out, climbed in by slender ladders and rails which a single man could carry. Inside, indeed, without noise and outcry they gathered themselves into great battle-lines, fortified for fighting. the citizens of Bruges climb the wall, And immediately they arranged that the lesser among them should go to the main gates, to remove the heap of earth and stones from the gates and make an entrance for all those standing outside, who as yet were ignorant of this deed. They also found one gate of the castle on the western side firmly locked with a key and iron lock, and not blocked with any obstruction of earth and stones: which those traitors had kept free so that through it they might receive and send out whomever they wished. and with the gate forced open, Which gate our citizens immediately upon their approach opened with swords and axes, and with the clamor raised around them and the clash of arms, they threw the army in the circuit of the castle into confusion and tumult within. others enter: Therefore the most heavy hand of the siege rushed inside the walls; some to fight, some to plunder whatever they found within, some to enter the church and, having secured the body of the Blessed Count Charles, to transfer it to Ghent.

[69] Then those traitors, who in the Count's house lay dissolved in heavy sleep, some of the besieged surrender: roused by infinite terror and clamor, ignorant of the outcome of events, ran about to see what might be the cause of the clamoring. And when they perceived the perils threatening them, leaping to arms they pressed before the doors, awaiting the encounter. Some of them at the entry of our citizens were intercepted within the castle at one of the gates — indeed many knights, to whom the custody of those same gates had been assigned in the eastern part — who, undergoing the tumult with the citizens who had entered, when they could do nothing further, surrendered themselves to the mercy and pity of their captors. some slipping from the wall flee, one being killed: But some of them, despairing of their lives if they should be captured by the citizens, slid down from the walls — one of whom, hurled headlong in the slide, the knight Giselbert, expired. When little women had dragged him into a house and were preparing his funeral rites, Castellan Theoderic and his men, having learned of his death, coupled him to a horse's tail, dragged him through all the streets of the suburb, and finally hurled him down into a sewer in the middle of the market. Therefore, when the citizens understood that those men wished to resist at the doors of the Count's house, having ascended the steps by which one went to those doors, the Count's house being intercepted, with axes and swords they hewed down the doors, and entering against the besieged, they chased them through the middle of that same house all the way to the passageway through which the Count had been accustomed to cross from his house into the church of Blessed Donatian. In this passageway therefore, which was arched and constructed of stone, there was the greatest encounter: where the citizens fought at close quarters with swords only, because the besieged scorned to flee further. Testing their strength and spirit sufficiently on both sides, they stood immovable, like the wall itself; others fighting until the citizens, having gathered their force, not so much by fighting as by rushing upon the besieged, turned them to flight — namely Borsiard, who, monstrous and wrathful, fierce and unterrified, stronger in bodily vigor, always resisted the citizens face to face, with Borsiard wounding many, striking them down, and with the hammer-like blow of his sword stunning many and casting them to the ground. And they also chased Robert the Boy, against whom no one wished to lay a hand, because they had heard about him and Robert the Boy. that he was said to be innocent of the betrayal: and indeed more so, because he had remained more beloved by all in the kingdom both before and after the betrayal, that noble man had neglected to flee: but at the entreaty of friends he followed the fleeing, and had it not been for his sake, they would have captured Borsiard and his knights there, and at the same time all those guilty of the betrayal. And when the traitors had withdrawn into the temple, they take refuge in the temple: the citizens pursued them no further; but returned to the plunder and spoils, running through the Count's house and the Provost's house and the dormitory of the brethren and the cloister. All those who were present at the siege did the same, hoping perhaps to obtain the Count's treasure and the furnishings of the houses within the walls. the Count's house is plundered, And indeed in the Count's house they plundered many mattresses, tapestries, linens, cups, cauldrons, chains, iron locks, fetters, shackles, sinews, stocks, manacles — all the iron instruments of captivity — and the iron doors of the Count's treasury, and the lead water-pipes which had conducted water from the roofs; believing without any guilt that they could seize these things. In the Provost's house also the Provost's, they seized beds, chests, chairs, garments, vessels, and all his furnishings. In the cellar of both the Count and the Provost, and also the cellar of the brethren, I leave to infinity how much store of grain and meats and wine and beers they plundered. In the dormitory of the brethren, the Canons'. which stood furnished with precious and costly garments, they carried out so great a plundering that they did not cease from the time of entry into the castle until night, going and returning to carry things away.

against whom our citizens ran to meet with arms, and never suffered the men of Ghent even to speak in their presence about carrying off the Count's body. They try to rush in to carry off the body of Blessed Charles, Very greatly and beyond what anyone might believe me, our citizens were indignant that any person should attempt to carry off the body from our place. As they contended, they drew swords against each other, and a tumult arose and a rush of all toward battle. Meanwhile the besieged then harassed the victors as much as they could, and the wiser among them, having heard the tumult a grave contention arising between them and the citizens of Bruges: — both about the victory and the quarrel, namely that the men of Ghent contended that they had the right to transfer the Count's body with them to Ghent, because by their instruments of ladders they had terrified the besieged and forced them to flee from the castle; and that our citizens on the contrary asserted that their instruments had been of no value, that they had done nothing else in the siege than steal and incur heavy expense in our place — settling the disputes, they calmed the tumult, saying: "Do not contend, but rather let us wait together until God shall give us and the kingdom a good and legitimate Count; by whose counsel and that of the Princes of the kingdom and our Bishop and the entire clergy, let the disposition of the body be made."

[72] And pacified in this manner, the invaders of the temple appointed armed and daring men for the invasion. they break into the temple, Having therefore gathered their strength, they impetuously entered and broke through the door of the temple toward the cloister, and drove the besieged from the lower pavement up to the gallery, in which they had impiously and fraudulently betrayed the most worthy Count of the land, and together with their Lord the servants were hemmed in, although they had been shut in with their Lord the Count against their will. Then at last the men of Ghent, having entered the sanctuary, sought that young man whom they had sent ahead in the morning through the capital window of the sanctuary, and they found him crushed and dead in the feathers, whom others falsely claimed had been killed by Borsiard when he carelessly fell into the temple. Nor indeed is there room to describe how great the bombardment of stones from the gallery was upon the victors of the temple's pavements, and how many were overwhelmed, crushed, wounded by missiles and arrows; foully disfigured: so that the entire choir of the temple lay full of a heap of stones, and nowhere did the pavement appear. The walls and glass windows all around, and the stalls and seats of the brethren alike, were cast down; and everything was so confused and ruined that no holy and whole face remained in the temple; but with ugly and shapeless deformity it stood more horrible than any prison. For in the gallery the besieged had prepared ramparts for themselves from the chests and altar-boards and benches and stools and other furnishings of the temple, and had bound them with the ropes of the bells. They had also broken the bells into pieces, and the lead with which the church had been anciently roofed they divided, overwhelming others with it. For below, that is in the choir, the fighting was most fierce: but from the tower and from the doors of the tower such slaughter was made that it does not suffice for me to describe, nor to enumerate the multitude of those struck down and wounded.

[73] Therefore Gervase the knight and Chamberlain and Counselor of the Counts of the kingdom obtained the upper house of the Count with great force, they raise their standards; and ordered his standards to be affixed at the highest point of the house. Gervase in the upper house of the Count, For this was done out of the spite of the besieged, who immediately on the first day of the siege — even on the day when the impious servants had betrayed their Lord — bore standards against their enemies. Whence that William of Ypres bore standards, as though he were Lord and Count of the land, against certain persons who had refused to pay him the Comital revenues, (as before the traitors had done in various places) because they scorned him as Count. Those traitors indeed on the first day of the siege, acting nothing humbly — because they believed the Princes of the kingdom to be their accomplices in their crime and secure in the same faith and friendship with them — had proudly affixed their standards at the highest point of the Count's chamber and at the summit of the church tower, and in the three smaller ones, and in the Provost's balcony, and likewise at the exits of the gates; so that by this it would appear that they were Lords who awaited the Magnates of the kingdom — their friends and accomplices — through whose power they would destroy the siege, and it would remain unavenged that they had betrayed the Count.

Desiderius, Isaac's brother, obtained the lower house of the Count together with our citizens, Desiderius in the lower house and had fixed his standard on the Count's greater balcony. When Robert the Boy saw him passing in the castle from the tower, he reproached him thus: "O Desiderius, do you not remember that you advised us hitherto to betray the Lord Count: accused of being guilty of betrayal: you gave your faith and security for this, and now, having seen our misfortune, you rejoice and persecute us. O would that I were permitted to go out: I would call you to single combat. I call God to witness that you are a greater traitor than we, because you formerly betrayed the Lord, and now us." This reproach he bore not without the censure of all.

[74] In the Provost's house also, the nephews of Thancmar, for whose sake the betrayal was partly committed, as they say, the nephews of Thancmar in the Provost's house, had proudly and gloriously and powerfully affixed their standards. Which all bore very ill, and our citizens were exceedingly grieved, because the Provost and his men before the time of the betrayal had been religious men, behaving amicably toward them, and had treated all with honor in our place and in the kingdom as they dwelled together.

These aforesaid men therefore, after they had obtained the houses and affixed their standards, possessed whatever they found within as though it were their own property. with the indignation of the citizens, Therefore the hearts of our citizens swelled against the nephews of Thancmar, and they sought an occasion for fighting and killing them. Therefore toward the evening of that Saturday, when the nephews of Thancmar were sending out grain and wine which they had obtained in the Provost's house to their rural estates, our citizens met them in the cloister, and drawing swords they hacked open a barrel of wine, and an infinite tumult was stirred up, and the citizens shut the gates of the suburb, so that none of those nephews might escape. of citizens rising against them, But the besieged called upon the citizens, formerly their friends, beseeching that they destroy those enemies, for whose sake they had perpetrated the most grievous crime. The nephews of Thancmar therefore, unable to resist the citizens in that same house of the Provost, sought to flee. Thancmar himself, fleeing, had reached the exit of one gate, and because it was shut, when he was asked what had been the cause of so great a tumult, he lied that a clash had occurred between the besieged and the besiegers. At last he hid in a little house until he should see what would be done about his nephews. And when the citizens crossed through the bridge of Saint Peter and through the bridge of the castle with armed force, Walter the Butler and the other Princes of the siege met them, restraining the tumult with great effort. So many indeed stood with lances in the market that one might have believed the surface of spears to be a most dense forest. Nor was it surprising, since all from the entire kingdom had on the same day flowed together into the suburb, both for plunder and for vengeance, and still more for carrying off the Count's body, and for the wonder of all the things that were being done there. and crying that they should be hanged: All therefore cried out that Thancmar and his nephews should rightly be hanged, because on their account the Count was killed, and the Provost and his nephews besieged, and many of their household killed and condemned to the most shameful death: and therefore they could not endure to spare them; on the contrary, they should condemn them to a more shameful and cruel death — those who had deposed their Lords, the Provost and his brothers and likewise his nephews, more powerful and nobler in the County, by fraud, sedition, and bribery made before the Count. The Princes scarcely restrained the troubled citizens, because Castellan Haket and Robert the Boy, standing in the higher tower with the friends and kinsmen of those same citizens, were beckoning with arms and hands that they should make an assault upon the nephews of Thancmar, who had so arrogantly ascended into the Provost's house and affixed victorious standards, as though they had conquered the castle by their own strength: when at the time our citizens had violently entered the castle, the nephews of Thancmar were sleeping at home and in their countryside. under the protection of the Princes they depart, The tumult was at last settled on this condition: that at that very hour they should leave the house, and humbly remove the standards they had affixed and depart. And they withdrew from there under the escort of the Princes, a perilous escort for them, the Provost's house being left to the citizens and knights: so greatly distrusting the citizens that each of the nephews of Thancmar departed on horseback, each with his own escort riding along. And so the house was left under the guardianship of the knights and citizens of our place, and the grain and wine were divided among the Princes of the siege and the citizens, by whose strength the victory on that day was completed.

[75] And at last that day, being closed, rendered them exceedingly anxious about the nighttime watches to be maintained — the following night, strict watches are kept. both in the courtyard of the castle and in the cloister of the brethren, and likewise in the Provost's house and the refectory and the brethren's dormitory. For the besieged had adopted the plan of destroying by flames the roofs of the cloister and houses around the temple, lest the besiegers have any means of access to them. Thence the stupefied guards kept vigil by night with solicitude and fear. Often the besieged, stealing out secretly during the nocturnal hours, struck terrors into the guards. Moreover, in the confined space of the temple tower, the traitors had ordered their watchmen to sound trumpets and horns and blow horns every night of the siege, still hoping to escape, because the Princes of the kingdom through letters shot into the tower by arrows offered friendship and aid.

[76] The Provost, however, having as his guide the brother of Fulco, a Canon of Bruges — a cunning knight — by command of Walter the Butler, the Provost flees to Kaihem, then Furnes, was conveyed by horse on the night before the aforementioned Thursday to the village of Kaihem, belonging to that same Walter and Borsiard. And when he had hidden there briefly and was accused, with one companion he fled by night to Furnes, to his wife; and from there again, because he could not hide, on the holy night of Good Friday he crossed to Warneston, as we heard that same night, and barefoot to Warneston: and he continued his flight, and going barefoot he willingly endured the penalty of his sins, so that God might pardon so great a sinner for what he had done against the pious Count. And it was sufficiently provable, because afterward, as soon as he was captured, the soles of his feet appeared excoriated, because on the nocturnal journey he had struck his feet against stones to such a degree that blood flowed from them. And truly that man grieved most heavily, who formerly had ruled over all, who had abounded in riches and worldly honor, and when he had flourished in pleasure, would dread the sting of a flea as a javelin; behold, alone and an exile within his own borders, he wandered alone. Let us therefore return from this excursion to the watches of the aforementioned night, in which, as both besiegers

and besieged struck mutual terrors into each other, wearied and exhausted on both sides, they had transposed the day for night as a time for dozing.

CHAPTER XI. A successor given to Blessed Charles in the County of Flanders: William the Norman; other competitors. His schemes devised for transporting the body to Ghent.

[77] March 20. On the thirteenth day before the Kalends of April, Sunday, on the night of Abbot Benedict, from Arras the King of France, Louis, sent greetings to the Princes and Barons of the aforesaid siege, Louis VI, King of France, writes from Arras to the besieging Princes: faith and aid, and moreover all favor for avenging his kinsman and the most just Count of Flanders, Charles, whom it had more justly befitted to have been a King than the Count of the most wicked traitors. "I do not indeed at present have the opportunity of crossing to you, because I have descended here more hastily and with few, having heard and learned the outcome of the affair and the siege. For it did not seem to me wise to fall into the hands of the traitors of the land: since, as we have understood, there are still many who grieve over the besieged and defend their crimes and labor by every means for their escape. Therefore, because the land is disturbed, and conspiracies have already been made in the person of William, he acts against William of Ypres, a bastard: that he should violently seize the kingdom — and nearly all from the cities have sworn against him that they will in no way receive that William as Count, because he is a bastard, born namely of a noble father and a base mother, who, while she herself lived, would not cease to card wool — I will and command you, assemble before me without delay, he summons them for the election of a Count, and by common counsel choose a useful Count, whom you shall have consented to be your equal and to preside over the land and its inhabitants. Nor can the land long be without a Count, except with a graver peril than now threatens."

[78] And when the letters were read before all, behold, while they had not yet responded to the King's letters, whether they would go or not, another messenger arrived from a kinsman of Count Charles, Theoderic of Alsace requests by letter the Flanders due to him: conveying to the Princes of the siege his greetings and natural affection of love toward all the inhabitants of the land. "It is certain to all of you that by right of kinship the kingdom of Flanders pertains to my lot and my power after the death of my Lord the Count. Therefore I want you to consider and act cautiously about the election of my person, and I ask you to be forewarned not to alienate me from the kingdom, who by right and by the claim of kinship, if you send me word, shall be a future Count — just, peaceable, tractable, and a provider of the common good and safety." Then the Princes, and likewise all who had heard the letters sent from the kinsman of the Count in Alsace, declaring them fictitious, were moved by no reaction of response, because the state was in distress, and the King was hastening a meeting from nearby, and they foresaw they could not treat of choosing that kinsman without long deliberation.

[79] Therefore, anticipating the most useful counsel, at the King's command they prepared themselves to go on Monday and Tuesday. Afterward, however, by design and singular counsel, the Princes, having summoned the citizens, rushed to arms on that same Sunday, an assault is made on those besieged in the tower. and attacked the besieged in the tower. And this was done to terrify the besieged more and make them more fearful, so that during the sudden departure of the Princes to the King, they would not dare to leave the tower or flee. Indeed a heavy encounter was fought on both sides, and it still escaped the besieged why they should make an assault on a Sunday, when they had observed all the other past Sundays in peace. March 21 and 22, they go to the King. They went out therefore on Monday and Tuesday to Arras to speak with the King, having arranged for those who would carefully and faithfully guard the tower by night and day, armed, lest any of the besieged should escape.

[80] March 23, Isaac is captured and hanged: On the tenth day before the Kalends of April, Wednesday, Isaac was captured and hanged — my liberator — three weeks having been completed from the killing of the Count, before the Annunciation of Saint Mary; and before Palm Sunday, Lambert Archei escaped from the tower, another escapes by flight, fleeing to the village of Michem, carried by a small boat. He had been of Borsiard's counsel, and had always acted wickedly — counseling, acting, and instigating his lords to every crime: for this reason he was hateful to all who had heard of his deceits in the siege. And since he had been shut up within the castle from the time of the siege until the time he took flight, he was vigorous at every task carried on within — most skilled in archery, stronger in hurling spears and all missiles, and indeed he had wrought mortal slaughter upon the enemy. When he fled, he was sought by the citizens at dawn and throughout the entire day of his flight. For when he stole away from the tower, Borsiard cried out to those who were besieging the tower when and to what place his counselor and so familiar a companion had fled. At last the citizens surrounded the village captured, in which that fugitive lay hidden, and having dragged him from his hiding place, they led him back captive, and would have hanged him in our market, if at that time the Chief men of the siege had been present — who at Arras were consulting about the kingdom. kept in custody, At last he was commended under the security of faith to a certain Gerbert, a citizen of ours, whose kinsman he was, who kept him constrained with cautious custody in chains until the presence of the Chief men of the County, so that by their judgment it might be determined whatever they decided should be done with him.

[81] On the ninth day before the Kalends of April, Thursday, Woltra Cruval reported to our people March 24 that the King of England had made an accord with that William of Ypres, a fabrication about money sent by the King of England to William of Ypres; had furnished infinite money and likewise three hundred knights in aid for obtaining the County of Flanders. Which, although it was false, he nevertheless publicized with simulated fraud as if credible. For it was truly established that that William of Ypres had received from the treasury of Count Charles five hundred pounds of English money through the hands of the nephews of Provost Bertulf; which the betrayers had transmitted from the Count's treasury who, as the most impious traitors, had attempted to set up that same William above themselves and the kingdom; who indeed had obtained from them money, counsel, and aid, and by daily letters sent back and forth among them, they spoke mutual wills and the secrets of their consciences. The aforesaid knight therefore lied that William had received gifts of money from the King of England, wishing to conceal the traitorous conscience of William, who had truly received the money smuggled from the traitors, with which to hire mercenaries, and so with force — once he had obtained the County — the traitors would consequently have accomplished their wishes through him. No Chief man who was about to obtain power in the kingdom wished to openly receive any counsel or message from the traitors, because he would immediately be enrolled under the mark of betrayal. Therefore that William concealed his conscience, and lied that the money had been sent to him by the King — as if he had nothing in common or in secret with the traitors; who nevertheless openly before the time of the siege had sent greetings and the promise of aid by sealed letters to the Provost and his men. At this time Giselbert, nephew of the traitors, Castellan of Bergues, Giselbert flees to Saint-Omer, who was under the mark of betrayal, had taken refuge with the Castellan of Saint-Omer, offering to prove his excuse and innocence before the King and the Peers of the kingdom.

[82] On the eighth day before the Kalends of April, Friday, the Annunciation of the Lord, on which day also the Lord suffered, was celebrated. On Saturday, Palm Sunday, by the contrivance and tricks of the men of Ghent, it was arranged that through the guidance of the great herald and the knight Ansbold and the assent of certain of our citizens, and likewise with the consent of the traitors, March 25, the men of Ghent attempting to carry off the Count's body by trickery, on the night after this Saturday they would enter the castle, and the body of the most pious Count would be received through the hands of the traitors from the windows of the gallery by the Ghent monastery's brethren: and collected in saddlebags and sacks, they would transfer it. Two monks had indeed waited throughout all that time for the opportunity of stealing the body. When therefore those armed men who had provided guidance for the monks walked about around the tower, the sentinels, terrified, sounded horns all around, and the citizens and watchers of the tower summoned rushed against the great herald and the knight Ansbold, they are prevented: and their accomplices, chasing them and wounding some of them, greatly affected with fear of death. The monks had indeed pledged to their helpers one hundred marks of silver if by chance through them they should obtain the Count's corpse. Therefore, having discovered that the monks wished to carry off the Count's body furtively and by payment or by any other means, the forewarned citizens with vigilant bands gave themselves to more careful watchfulness.

[83] March 27 On the sixth day before the Kalends of April, Palm Sunday, our citizens assembled in the field adjacent to the suburb, within the enclosure of the village, having summoned Flemings from all around us, and they swore together upon the relics of the Saints, for electing a Count they swear fidelity, the citizens of Bruges and others, thus: "I, Folpert, Judge, swear that I will choose such a Count of this land who will usefully govern the kingdom of his predecessor Counts, who will be able powerfully to maintain its rights against the enemies of the fatherland: affectionate and pious toward the poor, devout to God, walking the path of rectitude, and who will be such as can and will profit the common welfare of the fatherland." Consequently therefore all the better citizens swore: from Ijzendijke, Alard the Alderman, with his forces; from Oostburg, Haiolus with the authorities of that place; from Reddenburg, Hugo of Berle, and the stronger of that place; from Lapscheure, Oostkerke, Uitkerke, Lissewege, Slijpe, Gistel, Oudenburg, Lichtervelde, Jabbeke — all the stronger and better swore by a similar oath. And the multitude of those swearing to the same was very great.

[84] March 30 On the third day before the Kalends of April, Wednesday, during the silencing of the bells, our Princes who had gone out to the King returned from Arras, to consult about the kingdom and to choose a Count according to the counsel of King Louis, Emperor of France, the Barons having returned from Arras, and the election of all his Barons and those of our land, and according to a prudent and provable examination for the welfare of the fatherland — returning glad and rejoicing with such a report, announcing to us and to all the inhabitants of the land greetings and fidelity on behalf of the King and Barons, and especially to those who in assiduous siege had labored to exact vengeance for the death of Lord Count Charles. "Louis, King of France, sends to all the good children of the kingdom greetings and grace, with letters from Louis VI, King of France, and with royal power in the strength of God and the might of arms, the most unconquerable support of his own presence. Because, foreseeing the grave ruin of the fatherland together with the betrayed Count, we have grieved, and with the rigor of severity and punishment unheard-of before this time we have come together to exact vengeance: and, so that henceforth the land may be reconciled through us and recover

through the Count newly elected by us, whatever you shall hear in the following series of letters, obey and do." Therefore Walter the Butler brought forth the sealed letters of the King before all our citizens who had assembled in the aforesaid field to hear the King's command: and confirming by living voice the testimony of the letters, he said: they declare the one elected Count, "Hear, O our citizens, what counsel and business was done before the King and his Barons, and examined by prudent judgment. The Princes of France and the Chief Men of the land of Flanders, at the King's command and counsel, have chosen for you and for this land a Count — William, a youth, William the Norman: born from Normandy, noble indeed in birth and hitherto raised among you from an infant into a boy, and thence into a strong youth. Whom it is clear you may accustom according to every good custom, and bend him — willing and docile as he is — to all good manners as you wish. Indeed I have chosen him — Robert of Béthune, Baldwin of Aalst and Iwan his brother, the Castellan of Lille, and the other Barons have elevated him to the County; we have pledged fealty, security, and homage to him according to every manner of his predecessor Counts of Flanders. the goods of the traitors given to him: He also, in return for the merit of our labor, has given us lands and estates of the traitors, who according to the judgments of all the Princes have been condemned to proscription, and nothing of property or of mercy remains for them except the most grievous and as yet unimaginable death. I therefore command and desire and counsel without deceit to you suburbanites and all who stand by, that you receive the newly elected Count William, given the County by the King, as your Lord and Count. Moreover, if there is anything that can be given by right of his power — such as the toll and land taxes — he will gladly grant you the toll and likewise the tax on your dwellings within the suburb, with myself announcing it on behalf of the King and the new Count, without deceit or evil design."

Having therefore heard the letters and the voice of the letters' bearer, the toll and tax remitted to others. the citizens postponed their response about the reception or election of the new Count — to be conceded to him — so that, having summoned the Flemings with whom they had established oaths of election, they might together either make the concession or reject the royal commission's letters; and because they had spent the day of speeches in long delays, the citizens returned from the place of assembly, and by common counsel they sent for the Flemings throughout that whole night, that they might either concede or reject the election made in the person of the new Count.

CHAPTER XII

The arrival of Count William with the King in Flanders and Bruges. Oaths made on both sides.

[85] On the day before the Kalends of April, Thursday, after the citizens had assembled with the Flemings, the last day of March, by common counsel they agreed that on Holy Saturday of Easter, twenty knights and twelve of the elder and wiser citizens would go out to meet the King's messengers at the stronghold of Ravenschot for a conference: and there the men of Ghent would await the arrival of our men. For the citizens of the cities and castles of Flanders stood in the same security and friendship with one another, so that they would neither consent to nor contradict anything in the election except in common. In this matter our citizens did not act without the counsel of the men of Ghent, who had sat nearer at their side.

They went therefore as they had prearranged on that same Holy Saturday. The King likewise, as he had prearranged at Arras, The King of France comes with the new Count to Lille; thence to Deinze. descended with the newly elected Count to Lille: where homage was done to the Count, as at Arras. And thence he descended to a village named Deinze, on the road by which he was going to go to Ghent. In that same village the King awaited the men of Ghent, who would receive the new Count according to his command and the election of the Chief Men of the land. Therefore the matter was settled in concord between our men and the men of Ghent concerning the reception of the new elect — that they would receive him as Count and Advocate of the whole land.

[86] On the Kalends of April, Friday, on Good Friday, Castellan Haket escaped from the tower alone, April 1, Haket escapes from the tower. and crossed to Lissewege, and hid there with his daughter, whom a knight of great family and full of riches had formerly married there. For that fugitive was awaiting what he would do next. On the fourth day before the Nones of April, Holy Saturday of Easter, certain of our citizens and men of Ghent who had returned from the conference elected William as their Count and the Count of the fatherland, April 2 making homage, fealty, and security to the Count according to the custom of his predecessor Counts. On the same day Gervase was appointed Castellan in our castle of Bruges by the King and the new Count, Gervase is appointed Castellan of Bruges: for whom his merit was not yet repaid by this reward, since he had done so great and so many things in the siege which I diligently commend to the memory of readers. For at the very hour when Count Charles was being betrayed, he himself, weeping and tearing his hair and clothes, with clapped hands ran crying out in the castle: "Alas! that I alone cannot avenge my Lord and the most just Prince of our land: whom also no man presumes to defend or avenge." And there Gervase himself alone established the beginning of vengeance, and afterward, with God Himself fighting along with him, he brought it to a happy conclusion.

[87] On the third day before the Nones of April, the holy Sunday of Easter, on the feast of the Virgin Theodosia, the Dominical letter being B, April 3, on Easter Day the traitors communicate: both the clergy and people were held in suspense for the arrival of the King and the Count to our place. On this day those most wicked traitors communicated themselves with the Body and Blood of Christ. It is not known, however, through what priest this was done. On the same day the besieged — those most wicked traitors — harassed those passing through the castle with arrows, with no limit of faith or reverence, continuing their lives in expectation of the most shameful death to come.

[88] On the Nones of April, Tuesday, "Water of Wisdom," in the twilight of night, the King together with the newly elected Count William, Marquis of Flanders, came to Bruges, to our suburb, April 5, the King comes to Bruges with the new Count: to meet whom the Canons of Saint Donatian had gone forth, bearing the relics of the Saints and in solemn procession, receiving in royal manner the King and the new Count with joy. On the eighth day before the Ides of April, Wednesday, the King and the Count with their and our knights assembled, April 6 with citizens and many Flemings, in the accustomed field: in which the chests and relics of the Saints were brought together. And silence being imposed, the charter of liberty of the church and the privileges of Blessed Donatian was read before all in the presence of the King and Count: so that against those things which had been written in the pages of the privileges, upon the relics of the Saints, and sanctioned by Catholic Roman Pontiffs, and never violated by any of the Catholic Kings and Counts, the King in his own person and likewise the Count should not oppose themselves by any rash presumption: Privileges of the Church of Saint Donatian, but rather by the prerogative of royal dignity should venerate what had been sanctioned and strengthen it by the authority of his power. The brethren of that church protested that they had the liberty of electing canonically and without simony a Provost, by the concession of the Lord Pope, as is contained in the inscription of their privilege — which Provost, if the King were present, he would by the authority of his office elevate one canonically and without simony elected to the ministry and dignity of his prelacy, and install him in the place of prelacy: and the custom of electing a Provost, but if the King were not present, the Count, functioning in the same power of office, would make the concession of the canonically elected Provost, both in the place of installation and in his own person and his men's, according to the custom of his Catholic Prince predecessors. likewise the remission of the toll and tax,

A charter was also read of the agreement made between the Count and our citizens about the remitted toll and the tax on their dwellings; so that for the price of the election and the reception of the person of the new Count, they would receive from the Count this kind of liberty — that neither they nor the successors of our place should henceforth pay the toll or tax to the Count or his successor; but endowed with that perpetual liberty, as was written in the charter of the agreement, they would receive the oath demanded from both the King and the Count for confirming that same liberty: namely that neither the King nor the Count, by himself or by his ministers, would henceforth trouble our citizens or their successors in our place for paying the toll and tax; but with good spirit and without evil design or subtraction, he would inviolably preserve both the privileges of the Canons and the remission of the tolls and tax. Under this arrangement of conditions therefore, the King and the Count swore upon the relics of the Saints in the hearing of the clergy and people. the King and Count confirm by oath: Subsequently also the citizens swore fidelity to the Count, as was customary, and made homage and securities to him, the citizens swear fidelity to him, as previously to their natural Princes and Lords, his predecessors of the land. Therefore, to render the citizens well-disposed toward himself, the Count added for them that they might by authority and freely correct their customary laws from day to day, and change them for the better, according to the quality of the time and place.

[89] At last, all things being confirmed by the oath of swearing, the King and the Count returned to their lodging: where letters of this kind were brought in the hearing of all, from those who had conducted the siege at Reddenburg, the Chief Men: Privileges demanded by the people of Aardenburg, "We also, the exacters of this siege, will be ready on our part to elect the newly chosen Count of Flanders under this condition: that you condemn and destroy the customary expeditions, and moreover the wicked exactions of the Princes and the new tolls which have been newly established by the crafty counsel of Lambert at Reddenburg, contrary to the customary law of the land — which should be removed from us and from our neighboring inhabitants; and that the peasants may obtain the liberty of going out and pasturing their cattle upon the land which is called

Mor, without the wicked purchase-tax established by Lambert. Moreover, regarding the most grievous purchase-tax on dwellings at Aardenburg, we wish the King and Count to set a certain middle ground, so that each person should redeem by only twelve coins each of those coins which according to the assessment of dwellings they had hitherto redeemed at sixteen coins — the sons after the death of their fathers. For ourselves indeed we establish the law that if an expedition shall have been proclaimed on the part of our Count, he who shall not have a legitimate excuse shall pay the Count twenty shillings. Over all these matters we demand your assent, Lord King, and the concession and confirmation of the new Count, so that he may confirm by oath all things which we have written in this charter and which stand promulgated in the hearing of all.

We admonish and beseech both the person of the King and of the Count and his omnipotence, with the hereditary exclusion of the betrayers, that they never henceforth permit Bertulf the Provost, and his brothers Wulfric Cnop and Haket the Castellan, Robert the Boy, Lambert from Reddenburg with their sons, Borsiard, and the remaining traitors to be heirs in the County of Flanders. they are confirmed: And when a charter of this kind had been read in the sight of all, the new Count swore to confirm and concede with good spirit, and without evil design or subtraction, all things which they had demanded from him. And thenceforth for all the remaining time of the day, those who had formerly been enfeoffed by the most pious Count Charles made homage to that Count, similarly now receiving their fiefs and offices and whatever they had previously held justly and legitimately.

[90] April 7 On the seventh day before the Ides of April, Thursday, again homage was done to the Count, which was accomplished in this order, within the bounds of his faith and security. various persons are received into vassalage under this formula, First they did homage thus. The Count asked if he wished wholly to become his man: and that one replied, "I do," and with joined hands, clasped by the hands of the Count, they were confederated by a kiss. In the second place, the one who had done homage pledged his faith to the Count's spokesman in these words: "I pledge upon my faith that I will henceforth be faithful to Count William, and will observe my homage to him entirely against all, in good faith and without deceit." And the same swore in the third place upon the relics of the Saints. Then by a small rod which the Count held in his hand, he gave investitures to all those who had by this pact made security, homage, and likewise an oath. Eustace of Steenvoorde killed. On the same day Eustace of Steenvoorde, previously slain by the citizens in Saint-Omer, and afterward thrown into the conflagration of the house to which he had fled, was burned to ashes. For under the mark of betrayal he had merited to suffer such a death. On the same day at Bruges the Count gave to Baldwin of Aalst four hundred pounds less twenty, because by his strength and counsel he had been of the greatest value after the King in the County. On the sixth day before the Ides of April, Friday, April 9 homage was likewise done to the Count.

On the fifth day before the Ides of April, Saturday, the King went to Wijnendale to speak with that William of Ypres, the illegitimate Count, William of Ypres resists the election of the Count. concerning the making of peace between him and the true new Count. But it was exceedingly unworthy to that illegitimate Count to enter into a settlement with the true Count of Flanders, or to agree to any arrangement of peace, because he held him in contempt: the King therefore, bearing ill the pride and contempt of the illegitimate Count of Ypres, and disdaining him, returned all the way to us.

On the fourth day before the Ides of April, Sunday, our Count, according to the counsel of the King and the Princes, was about to go to Saint-Omer, but because he had few with him on the road in whom he trusted, he returned to us by night.

CHAPTER XIII.

Punishment inflicted on Bertulf the Provost and Guido of Steenvoorde. The tumult of the citizens of Bruges settled.

[91] April 11 On the third day before the Ides of April, Monday, Provost Bertulf was delivered into the hands of that illegitimate Count, Provost Bertulf, captured, is delivered to William of Ypres: who for that reason had been more zealous and had sought with assiduous labor where he had been hiding — so that, having captured him, and having publicized that he had taken the Provost of Bruges, he might especially enhance the fame of his power, if he inflicted a grave punishment upon him. For, as we wrote above, at the first stage of the betrayal he had sent from Ypres an open salutation to that same Provost and his men: by which he had made his fame most shameful and treacherous throughout all the borders of the kingdoms. Therefore, when he had captured him as a fugitive and exile in the country and among his relatives, yet he could not sufficiently devise by what death-punishment he should destroy the one who was said to be privy to the betrayal. And although that illegitimate man seemed to prove his innocence by such arguments of cunning and astuteness, nevertheless God, whom nothing resists, by whose authority it was said, "Nothing hidden that shall not be revealed," manifested to His faithful this inhuman wickedness and the traitors of so great a Prince, condemned them, proscribed them, and cast them down. Matthew 10:26

So great was the tumult, clamor, and concourse of the people of Ypres he is mocked by the people of Ypres: and the entire vicinity around that one captive man, that we cannot equal it. And as they say, dancing, leading choruses, with diverse acclamations, they preceded and followed the Provost, dragging him with rather long ropes on his right and his left, so that the line of those dragging extended lengthwise and widthwise from each other: so that thus by all men that formerly worthy and most powerful man was shamefully and ignominiously mocked — utterly naked except for breeches, overwhelmed with mud and stones, he was dragged along. he is dragged nearly naked: Except for the clergy and the few who had formerly known the religious man, no one pitied him.

[92] But that man, wearied by so many injuries and harmed by so many reproaches and beatings, watched from afar for the punishment of his death, before whose mind's eye all that he had done could deservedly be recalled to memory, if the mob rushing toward his death had given any space for living. He could indeed have remembered, if he ought, formerly unjustly promoted after another was deposed, how, violently intruded and unjustly placed over the living Provost Ledbert — an honorable man who endured all things for God's sake — he had usurped the prelacy against God in God's temple, infected with vices, had exchanged little prebends by simoniacal heresy, had armed his nephews for every crime with the revenues of the Church; and now at last had delivered to death — either by his assent or his counsel — Charles, a most noble Prince, Catholic and born of royal stock: who, as he professed amid the straits of his punishment, could have defended him from the betrayal had he wished. Before the eyes of his mind he could have set how great the favor, how great the honor, fame, riches, strength, and deference God had freely conferred upon him in the clergy, exalted in honor and glory, of which dispensing grace of God, while he possessed it as though his own and natural, he was utterly not mindful. For he had been so entangled for thirty-six years in all the aforesaid virtues and vices that he seemed in no way able to be extricated. If anyone should wish to hear the multiplicity of his family and the magnitude of his deeds, it is clear he would believe the more marvelous fight of God and His hand which He exercised against them to destroy them. And although I may seem to obtain here a place for describing his genealogy, yet I seem to myself to suffice for the labor of the work begun, and to pass over its descriptions: in which I have proposed to pursue the outcome of the siege, and not the illegitimate origin of the Provost's family and his men.

[93] Therefore that man went — formerly glorious, now ignominious; formerly venerable, now shameful — now he prays modestly: with unmoved face and eyes directed to heaven, and unless I am mistaken, he called upon God, the pitier of the human condition with which He Himself was clothed in this world's kingdom where He rules men — without noise of voices, but in the secret of his mind he had always invoked his helper. Then one of his persecutors, striking his head with a cudgel, said: "O most proud of men, why do you disdain to look at and speak to the Princes and to us, who have the power of destroying you?" But he did not care to look at them, and he was hanged in the middle of the market of Ypres, beside the gallows of thieves and robbers on a gibbet, and they stripped his breeches from him, so that the more shameful parts of his body were exposed. tied to the gibbet, Nothing shameful or ignominious was there that they did not inflict for his punishment. On which gibbet his arms were extended in a cross, and his hands were inserted, and his head was thrust through a hole of the same gibbet, so that the rest of the body of that man, suspended by his aforesaid limbs, would die as though strangled by another's noose. And when he was first suspended, and on that very instrument of the gibbet the man still supported his body by the tips of his feet, so as to at least prolong the span of his wretched life, that illegitimate Count William came to him among so many thousands of those pelting him with stones and hurling things, and imposed silence on all, and said: "Tell me then, O Provost, interrogating William of Ypres about accomplices, I adjure you by the salvation of your soul, tell me, I ask, who are there besides you and Isaac, and besides the manifest traitors, who are still secretly harmful and guilty in the death of my Lord Count Charles?" And he responded before all: "You know equally as well as I." Then William, seized with fury, commanded stones and mud to be hurled at that Provost, and that he be killed. he implies that William himself was one: And behold, those who had assembled to buy fish in the market tore apart the man's body with iron hooks, clubs, and stakes; he is killed, nor did they allow him to be sustained any longer on that prop of the instrument by which he had supported himself on the tips of his feet; but having thrust him from his support, they inflicted the hanging and the loss of life under the darkness of the most bitter death. But that man dying made a complaint about the betrayal by which Walter, a knight from Sarran and his vassal, had delivered him into the same death by which he was now dying: who, when he ought to have provided an escort, deceived him. The crowd of Ypres therefore, raging at the death of the Provost, had twisted a dog's entrails around his neck, and they placed the mouth of a dog against the mouth of the man who was now breathing out his last breath, equating the dog with him and his deeds.

[94] At the same time Wido, a famous and strong knight who had been chief among the counselors of the Counts of Flanders, Guido, a relative of the Provost, had conspired in the same betrayal, because he had married a niece of the Provost, the sister of Isaac. Whence a certain Hermann, called the Iron, a strong knight, immediately after the killing of Count Charles, in the presence of that

illegitimate Count of Ypres, summoned Wido to single combat, in combat with Hermann the Iron, because he had wickedly betrayed his Lord. But Wido leaped forth declaring he would always be ready to defend himself against the charge of betrayal imposed upon him. And a day was determined for them — the same day on which the aforesaid Provost had also endured the torments of his death. And immediately after the Provost's death, all who had been present returned to the court in which the duel had been proclaimed between Hermann the Iron and Wido, and the fighting was fierce on both sides. But Wido had thrown his adversary from his horse, and with his lance laid him flat whenever he tried to rise again. Then that adversary, rushing up closer, repeatedly victorious, pierced the horse of Wido with his sword and eviscerated it. From which Wido at last fell, and drawing his sword assailed his adversary. Indeed the encounter was continuous and most fierce with alternating blows of blades, until, exhausted by the weight and burden of their arms, each of them, having cast aside their shields, hastened to decide the victory of the fight by the strength of wrestling. And that Hermann the Iron fell to the ground prostrate, upon whom Wido pressed down, pounding the face and eyes of the knight with iron gauntlets. Aeneid 1, section 14 But that prostrate man, as is read of Antaeus, gradually recovered his strength from the coldness of the earth, and craftily, while he rested, made Wido feel secure about his victory. Meanwhile, more gently sliding his hand down to the lower edges of the hauberk, in the part where Wido was not protected, seizing him by the testicles and gathering his strength for the point of one single moment, at last defeated, he is killed, and dead is hanged beside the Provost, he thrust him away from himself: by which violent seizing, the entire lower nature of the body being ruptured, Wido fell so prostrate that he cried out that he was defeated and about to die. Then the Count, wishing to attend to his fame in all things through this duel, ordered that same Wido to be hanged beside the Provost on the same gibbet, already dead; so that as they had been equals in betraying, so they might die equally in torment. the bodies are placed upon a cartwheel:

[95] After this the bodies of both men were placed upon a cartwheel, fixed at the top of a very high mast, displayed for all passers-by to see, and bending their arms in mutual embraces as it were around each other's necks, they depicted the image of plotting and consulting about the death of the Lord and glorious and most pious Count Charles — those men being already dead for three days. this is announced at Bruges with the grief of the besieged: And so there came to us, and in the presence of the King, a squire who on the same day had been present and had seen both men hanged at Ypres — the Provost and Wido — announcing their fate. Immediately it was cried out to those who were besieged in the tower how their Lord the Provost had been captured and killed, and that henceforth nothing remained for them except that they should surrender to the King to be dealt with according to their wicked deeds. Therefore grief and anguish, mourning and sighs vexed those wretches, deprived of all hope of life: more strongly than the Princes of the siege, fear and despair besieged them.

[96] On the same day Gervase ordered the carpenters to dismantle a wooden tower battering rams and instruments for destroying walls are fashioned. which had been erected previously for assaulting the walls and now stood uselessly. He ordered its strongest beam to be separated specifically from the rest and prepared, and a battering ram to be made with which the wall of the temple might be pierced. But the archers of the besieged, when they aimed arrows to be shot from the bows curved by the percussion of the strings at the workmen — from the height of the tower in which they dwelt — the bow and the arrow placed upon it, in the very motion by which the archer was hastening to draw, fell from the hands of the one drawing. When the knights saw this happen — those who stood alert and present and stationed opposite every work of the craftsmen, protecting those who skillfully operated the machines of war, such as battering rams, siege-sheds, catapults, ladders, and the like, with which they are accustomed to destroy walls and stone constructions — they prophesied the outcome would be most dire for the besieged, from the fall of the bow and arrow.

[97] On the same day toward evening, a grave tumult arose between Gervase and his men and our citizens. For by the King's command and the order of those Princes of the siege who were attempting to hasten the destruction of the besieged more quickly — and who had expended great costs throughout the entire time of the siege, A law decreed that no one should approach to speak with the besieged: and had labored continually in watches and assaults — by their common counsel, I say, and by royal edict, a universal decree had been confirmed: that no one from the entire multitude of the besiegers should dare to approach the tower and speak with the besieged, lest perhaps the means by which they might be captured should be intimated to them. A law was also imposed against transgressors of such kind — that if anyone acted against this decree, he would be thrown into captivity and punished by the common judgment of the Princes.

Therefore one of the citizens, who had married the sister of a certain besieged knight, secretly approached the tower, asking his brother-in-law for the vessels and garments which he had lent him: and the other returned the vessels he had. When that citizen was passing through the market on his return, a citizen transgressing the law is captured: one of Gervase's knights, who had received from the King and Princes and his lord the command and also the power to capture transgressors of the decree, pursued that citizen and violently seized him as a captive and led him back to the Count's house. Immediately an infinite tumult arose among the citizens, and leaping to arms they invaded the Count's house and Gervase's household, the tumult of the citizens is stirred up, who defended themselves strongly from within. For they cried out that they would never suffer the domination of anyone; rather, it would stand within their power to correct this wrongdoing. And when they had rioted for a long time, Gervase brought forth these words into their midst: "You know, O citizens and my friends, that according to your petition both the King and the Count have now appointed me Vicecount of our place, and according to the decree of the King and Princes it was done that my knight has now captured a citizen and your neighbor who transgressed the decree; and you have personally despised my dignity in this deed — you have invaded the Count's house and my household within it, and finally without reason, with armed force, you have leaped forth in the presence of the King. Now therefore, if you wish, I relinquish the Vicecounty on account of the injury done to me; I dissolve the faith and security established between us, so that it may be clear to all of you that I do not seek to hold dominion over you. If therefore it pleases you, let us convene before the King, with arms laid aside, that judgment may be rendered between our men and yours." And when he had finished his speech, they went up together before the King, it is settled. and were again composed in faith and friendship with each other as before.

CHAPTER XIV.

The siege advanced. The gallery of the temple occupied. Veneration of the tomb of Blessed Count Charles.

[98] April 12, the King designates the method of occupying the temple: On the second day before the Ides of April, Tuesday, the King ascended into the dormitory of the brethren with his wiser men and counselors to carefully note in which part they should ingeniously plan the assault on the temple. For the house of the dormitory was joined to the temple, so that the instruments of siege engines could be prepared in it, with which they would pierce the wall of the temple and enter against the besieged. For when those wretches could not hold the lower parts of the temple, they had blocked the steps by which one would ascend to the gallery with wood and stones, so that no one could ascend nor they descend — only attempting to defend themselves from the gallery and towers of the temple. Between the columns of the gallery they had indeed set up their lookout posts and stations from heaps of chests and piles of benches, the gallery of which is fortified by the besieged: from which they would hurl stones, lead, and masses of things down upon the invaders of the temple. In the tower also they had hung tapestries and mattresses before the openings of the windows, lest they be struck inside by slings and crossbows when the tower was assaulted from outside. At the very top of the towers stood the stronger youths of the besieged, who would cast millstone-sized rocks upon those running about in the courtyard of the castle. And so, having arranged their affairs in a disorderly manner in God's temple, they awaited the end of their death, conferring no reverence or honor upon the blessed funeral which lay buried in the gallery among them — except only this: that barely acknowledging their Lord whom they had betrayed, they had placed a candle at his head which burned continuously in honor of the good Count from the first day of the siege until the day when violent entry was made against them. For they had stored flour and legumes around the Count's tomb, which they consumed daily for their own use to sustain their lives.

[99] Robert the Boy implores the King's clemency, And when the King and his men were more studiously examining and marking the place for piercing the temple, Robert the Boy, thrusting his head out through one of the temple's windows, spoke to the King's knights, beseeching them to be his messengers to the King, humbly saying that he wished to undergo every judgment of the Princes of the land and the Barons of his Lord the King — so that by the law of their judgment, by the merit of his excuse, he might either deserve to live, or if he did not excuse himself, be exterminated by the punishment of condemnation. Yet no man dared to bring the words of the messenger into the King's presence, so gravely was the King angered even to see those traitors. with the great compassion of others. However, our citizens and the King's knights and all who had heard with what humble prayer the young man had besought the Lord King, broke into tears and grieved for him, praying the Lord's mercy on his behalf.

[100] April 13, it is feigned that Borsiard has died, or escaped: On the Ides of April, Wednesday, the besieged fabricated a lie about Borsiard's death — that a quarrel having arisen between Robert the Boy and himself, he had been struck through with a sword — estimating that by this the spirits of the Princes would be softened from their severity, so as not to attack henceforth with such fury as before: and from the tower they proclaimed the death of Borsiard, which they falsely spread abroad. Others asserted he had escaped. When the King heard this, he perceived that those besieged men were now despairing, failing from fear and anguish, and with resolute spirit he decreed that his knights should arm themselves and assault the temple. This was done so that in that encounter, the exhausted and weary besieged might not thereafter be able to sustain so many assaults and invasions so often, but rather yield and give place for Christian victory to the Catholic King Louis and his knights. the besieged are attacked. There was indeed a heavy assault in hurling stones and casting missiles on both sides, from noon until evening.

[101] On this day the King received the keys from Dean Elias of the sanctuary of the Church of Blessed Christopher, because the Count Charles's treasure had been reported to him as having been deposited in that same sanctuary. Silver vessels had been carried out among the relics of the Saints, And when the King entered, he found nothing except the relics of the Saints. Indeed it was true that the Provost had received a golden cup with its cover and a tankard — that is, a silver wine vessel — from the plunder of the Count, from his nephews as a kind of gift in the division of the spoil, and had offered these same vessels to God for the work of the church for the salvation of his soul. When therefore the siege was being conducted and the brethren were carrying out the relics and shrines of the Saints from the castle, those two vessels were secretly placed in a certain chest

and under the guise of holy relics were carried out together with the other relics of the Saints, and the aforesaid Dean entrusted that chest to a certain simple Priest named Eggard in the church of the Lord Savior, and deposited in the church of the Holy Savior, sealed under the veneration of the most worthy relics. How devoutly that simple priest received that chest, and having placed it in the sanctuary poured forth prayers and begged for the salvation of his soul — was manifest by the testimony of his fellow-priests of that same church: and every night he set before it candles, tapers, lamps, and lights, not believing he could venerate those relics enough. afterward returned to the new Count, Truly that priest would have well deserved that, when those vessels were returned to the new Count, the priest might have at least once or more drunk good wine from those same vessels. The King therefore, searching everywhere for this treasure, had sent investigators and spies who would secretly collect the treasure of Count Charles, and he accomplished nothing in this regard. Whence the King even had Robert the Boy beaten with lashes on the second day before his departure for France, and forced him to reveal whether he remembered anything about where some part of the Count's treasure was deposited, and to intimate it to the King. from the accusation of Robert, beaten with rods. By his accusation on the same day, the new Count and the King obtained the aforesaid vessels, as we shall tell in what follows. Others of the besieged proclaimed that Borsiard had escaped, so that under that lie they might be attacked more leniently.

[102] On the eighteenth day before the Kalends of May, Thursday, the battering ram, April 14, which had been made as an instrument for piercing the wall of the temple, was brought into the brethren's dormitory in the same enclosure — on the outside, next to which on the inside the body of the good Count lay commended to God in burial. And immediately a battering ram made in a marvelous manner, the craftsmen of the ram erected graded steps upward, and having removed the wooden wall of the dormitory which stood nearest the temple, they had raised the top of the steps there: so that armed men might advance step by step up to the wall and side of the temple, whoever might dare. For a window in the first structure of the temple, from the order of the ancient construction, lay open where the craftsmen had directed the steps. But a little lower they adjusted the approach of the instruments, so that they would arrange the blows of the ram below the window, and having pierced the stone wall, they would obtain that same window as a doorway for free entry: and there were very wide steps, on whose front ten knights could stand abreast for fighting. Having arranged these things, they directed a most massive beam, suspended by ropes in that same area above those steps, for piercing the temple, and tied cables to it, and likewise armed men beside the cables, by which they would pull it back from the temple, elevated high, and skillfully and ingeniously drive it against the wall of the temple, struck back with strength and force. Above the heads of those ascending, coverings woven of branches and connected to beams had been attached, so that even if the roof of the dormitory should be broken by some contrivance by the besieged, those driving the ram would act securely under the interwoven branches: and they had also placed wooden walls before themselves as a defense, lest they be injured from within by the blows of javelins and arrows.

Therefore, with the ram drawn back from the wall and side of the temple through the cables as far as those suspended with outstretched arms could, with one thrust and one shout they drove the very heavy fall and crash of the ram the wall is pierced: against the temple with the force of their strength and the greatest effort: from each single blow of which a great heap of stones fell to the ground, until the entire masonry and wall in that place where it was struck was pierced through. At the head of that ram also the most solid iron fittings had fortified the beam, so that by no contrivance did it suffer any injury other than that which the force of its mass and strength inflicted upon itself. The long labor of pounding was therefore begun at noon and finished after evening.

[103] Meanwhile those besieged, sensing the weakness of the wall and the perforation to come sooner, with fire being thrown by the besieged, uncertain and irresolute as to what they should do, at last composed burning coals within, smeared with pitch and wax and butter, which they hurled onto the roof of the dormitory. And in a moment the coals, adhering to the tiles, fanned by the wind, vibrated flames so that the greatest flames, stirred up, caught the roof on every side. and stones, From the upper tower they therefore hurled millstone-sized rocks onto the roof of the dormitory, in that part where the ram was piercing the temple, so that they might defend both the fire thrown onto the roof — lest anyone extinguish it — and by stones overwhelmed and hurled from on high upon those piercing the temple, they might protect themselves from the peril of entry. vainly trying to impede: So many and such great stones overwhelmed did not impede the operators of the ram. When therefore the knights had seen the flames of fire vibrating above their heads, one of them climbed the roof, and amid so many hurled stones and missiles he barely extinguished the fire. the opening is obtained: Therefore after so many blows of the ram, a very large hole lay open in the wall of the temple, which was pierced through rather sooner than was believed, because since the time of the ancient burning of the temple, from rain and the inundation of showers the whole structure of the church stood as though rotten, because it had been hitherto naked without a wooden roof. Then an infinite clamor was raised from outside, and all who had fought the besieged at the doors, and below in the choir, and everywhere through the windows, and in every part where they could have provided themselves access — having learned that the temple had been pierced — fought with a fiercer spirit and most eager daring for victory; all of whom indeed from noon until evening attacked steadfastly on both sides, nearly failing from the labor of fighting and the weight of their arms.

[104] spirits rise among the besiegers, But now, having learned of the ram's perforation, refreshed and strengthened in spiritedness, as though they had just then first rushed to arms, they began to harass the besieged and to pursue them without pretense. But the wretched besieged, since they were few in number, were even fewer for battle — those who had not had the fortune of fighting simultaneously in one place, they fail among the besieged: but enduring the hardships of life, now divided on every side resisting — from every direction they suspected loss and destruction from their enemies. Those indeed who in the temple had hurled stones, arrows, poles, stakes, and missiles of every kind against the operators of the ram were all the more timid because they were few and because their companions, divided and nearly failing from long labor, were fighting against so heavy an army; moreover, lacking arms with which to protect themselves, they had none: yet insofar as they dared, they stood their ground. But those operators of the ram and the other knights of the King and the armed and daring young men of our place, eager for battle — when they had observed the besieged from the opposite side — now recalled their spirits, holding before the eyes of their hearts how nobly they ought to die for father and fatherland, and what honorable a victory was proposed for the victors, and how wicked and criminal those traitors had been who had made for themselves a den out of Christ's temple, and — what seemed greater — how avidly and greedily they rushed upon the besieged for the plunder of the Lord Count's treasury and money, the besiegers burst into the gallery of the temple, and for that reason alone they hastened. But of whatever spirit they were, without order, without battle, without any regard for arms, they hurled themselves in one rush through the middle of the hole, so that those rushing in simultaneously deprived the besieged of the place and time for fighting or for killing anyone. For they did not cease to rush until without interruption they had made themselves as it were into a bridge, and — what was dispensed by the marvelous grace of God — they entered without mortal danger to their lives: some tumbling, some stumbling, some thrust in violently, some trying to rise from their fall while being knocked down, others, as is wont to happen in so great a tumult, rushing in without order — with voices and clamors, and the sound of running and crashing and the clashing and clanging of arms, filling not only the temple but the whole castle and its vicinity within — just as those outside were praising and blessing God for the victory with which He had honored His victors, exalted the King and his men, above all glorified the name of His majesty, partly cleansed His Church from its defilers, and for the first time granted that His glorious Martyr and Count of the good should be mourned, surrounded by the pious veneration and prayer of His faithful. they venerate the tomb of Saint Charles:

[105] What therefore was not previously permitted, at last was permitted to Fromold the younger: from long desire and burning spirit to offer vows to God for the salvation of his Lord the Count, to sacrifice a sacrifice of tears and contrition of heart, especially Fromold: and to rejoice with joy at the sight of the place where his Lord lay buried in rest: and then for the first time he prepared the funeral rites for his Lord, whom for so many days buried — that is, forty-four — he had been unable to see. Nor indeed did he see his body, but only the exterior of the sepulcher: he wished indeed, and by the prayer of mouth and heart he begged that God on the day of the common resurrection, among the faithful rulers and the supreme Princes of His present Church, would grant him at last to see his Lord Charles the Prince elevated in double glory, and to remain with him and to be beatified with him forever in the glory of the contemplation of the Holy Trinity. He therefore reckoned it a great gift that beside the tomb of his Lord he was permitted to bewail his death, to lament the fall of the whole fatherland, and to honor with the greatest love the one whom, when he was living, he had loved — now betrayed by his servants. Not without tears indeed he did this. O God! how many vows of Your faithful did You deign to receive on that day: and whatever had been omitted in that same church of divine worship was surely recompensed at that hour by the greatness and multiplicity of the righteous vows. honored by the besieged with a burning candle, A candle therefore stood burning at the Count's head, which those traitors had placed in honor and veneration of their Lord. After therefore they had burst into the temple upon the besieged, and the clamor was raised in flight, as they flee into the tower: those worst of men withdrew both from the breach and from the doors and from their ramparts, and having ascended the tower, they resisted those pursuing them on the steps to defend themselves. Therefore the most Christian victorious knights of the King of France hastened to block and close off the steps with stones and wood, chests and beams and other materials, so that none of the besieged could descend into the gallery where the Count lay. And the King ascending into the temple, the King mourns his death: lamented the death of his kinsman Charles: and he appointed a guard to more carefully watch the tower. In alternating watches therefore the King's knights guarded the tower with the besieged. Whatever therefore was found in that gallery which could be seized was the plunder of all. At last the canons of that same temple, ascending by ladders from the choir to the gallery, appointed certain of the brethren who would keep vigils around the Count's tomb on each successive night.

And when all the furnishings of the temple had been broken and nothing remained in its original state, they looked around at the altars, the Canons keep watch at the tomb: and the altar tables they found to have remained unmoved by God's guardianship; and the brethren, rejoicing together with joy — whatever they henceforth obtained, they obtained not by right or merit, but by God's gift alone. God therefore concluded that day in the defeat of His enemies and in the victory of the faithful, exalting the name of His sovereignty to all the ends of the earth. the besieged sound horns from the tower: Yet those besieged did not desist from instituting their watches for themselves in the tower, sounding horns, and as though they still held some dominion, acting imperiously in so confined a space — not recognizing themselves to have been the most wretched of men. For they had been given over to a reprobate mind. Whatever therefore they did henceforth was neither pleasing to God nor to men, but rejected and hateful.

[106] On the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May, Friday, April 15 the citizens assembled before the King, prostrate on the ground, and besought his dignity the citizens intercede with the King for the liberty of Robert that by the merit of their prayers and services he would grant Robert the Boy the liberty of leaving the besieged, and would accept his legitimate purgation of innocence. But the King himself assented to carry out their petitions, saving the honor and favor of his own person and likewise of the Princes of the land, without whose counsel he had determined to do nothing concerning him. On the sixteenth day before the Kalends of May, Saturday, the Castellan of Ghent, with Arnold of Geraardsbergen and Magnates gathered from his vicinity, arrived ahead, and April 16, others. beseeching the King in every way for the liberation of Robert the Boy. To whom the King said that he could consent to nothing with his honor, without the common counsel of the Princes. Otherwise he would act against his faith and his oath.

and the rest were thrust into prison. But the King wished to do something seemingly great for our citizens, and he commended Robert the Boy to them for guarding Robert left to the citizens: in fetters and chains, on the condition that they would later return him to the King and Count for treatment by the judgment of the Princes. The citizens indeed received the young man — still a youth — into custody as a great gift under the aforesaid condition.

[117] Here it should be noted how God reduced those traitors to fewness, both in family and in place. Before this crime, certain stronger and better predecessors of the same blood had died: to recount them by name would take too long. all punished by God, At last these worst of men were left behind, through whom the dispensation of God was consummated, the betrayal completed, the fatherland desolated, plundering exercised, and the hands of all armed against all. When therefore they believed they had done all things with impunity — which they had done traitorously — and no man dared to inflict vengeance, vengeance was left to God alone: who immediately hemmed them in and shook them with fear, so that they did not dare to go forth beyond the quarter of our place, but rather counseled to fence in and dig around our village and suburb, as we mentioned above. Immediately on the eighth day after the Count's death, shut first in the castle, then the tower, shut in by the siege in the castle, then when the castle had been invaded by our men, chased into the tower, they were more tightly hemmed in: then thrust into prison, they were confined so tightly then into a narrow prison thrust, that they could not all sit at once — three or four at least had to stand. Darkness, heat, stench, and sweat infected them, together with the horror of a despairing life and the uncertainty and shame of future death. The greatest gift of piety indeed would have been granted to them, if they had been allowed to die as thieves or robbers die by hanging.

Therefore, when they were preparing to go out from the tower, one of the youths had presumed to leap from a higher window of the tower, having thrown his sword ahead, and had spiritedly readied himself for a dash. Whom indeed the guilt of his conscience had condemned — he was prepared in the liberty of his bold spirit to follow through with his body. In the very rush, however, others restrained him, and he suffered going to prison together with them. Many indeed of our citizens, seeing the peril of the youth and the misery of the captives, wept, the citizens pitying them, because they could not see their lords being led captive into prison without tears. At last those wretched men came out pallid, bearing the marks of betrayal in their faces, horribly marked with bruises and starvation. Then indeed, at their exit, the number of those rushing into the tower was infinite, others gaping after plunder. and they carried away as plunder everything they found there. While our men were tumultuously running about the tower, Benkin the cottager, having lowered a rope from the tower to the ground, escaped, and hid where he could; until during the night he fled to an island in the sea called Wulpen. Whom indeed, unanimously seeking him, they had believed he hid even in the sewers and filthy places. In the hope of profit and of obtaining the Count's treasure, nearly all who were then present at the siege were eager to climb the tower. Then Castellan Gervase placed his armed knights inside, who would henceforth prevent those rioting and wishing to ascend.

And he obtained the traitors' best wine, provisions and furnishings found. and also cooked wine, which had been the Count's. Bacon, twenty-two pisae of cheese, legumes, wheat flour, also the best iron implements with which to bake bread, and all the furnishings and vessels which they had used — the best quality. However, of the Count's treasure nothing was found there.

[118] On the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, Wednesday, the King went to Reddenburg to see the layout of the place and how that Lambert had fortified himself, April 20 who, accused of the mark and crime of betrayal, was besieged. On which day, by the brightness of the sun and the lightness of the air, God renewed the world around us: because He had expelled the defilers of the temple and church from the sacred place, the church of Saint Donatian is purged and repaired: shutting them up in prison. Gladdened therefore by the gifts of this grace of God, the brethren of the temple, with washings of every kind, cleaned the pavements, walls, and altars of the temple, leaving nothing unwashed: they rebuilt the steps that had been cut down, and as though with a renewed temple, they adorned their place with new furnishings and reconstructions.

[119] On the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, Thursday, a deerskin was sewn in which the Count's body would be placed, and a chest was also made in which to place and enclose it.

On the tenth day before the Kalends of May, Friday, seven weeks having now passed since his first burial, April 22 the Count's tomb was broken open in the gallery, and his body was reverently raised from it with incense and frankincense and spices. the body of Saint Charles For the brethren of that church had believed the Count's body would already be putrid, and that no one could endure the mortal stench, because for seven weeks from the day of the burial made in the gallery, from the first Friday until the Friday which was subsequently the tenth before the Kalends of May, it had been committed to the tomb. Therefore they had prearranged that in the raising of the body from the tomb, found without stench, having lit a fire, they would burn the incense and frankincense placed in the fire near the position of the Count, and so if any stench should breathe from the tomb, it would be repressed by the power of the health-giving odor. And when the stone was lifted and they perceived no stench, they placed the body, wrapped in the deerskin, on a bier in the middle of the choir. The King therefore, having assembled a multitude of citizens and all people in the temple, was waiting [with the King accompanying, it is transferred to the church of Saint Christopher:] until the Bishop and with him three Abbots, proceeding from the church of Saint Christopher with the entire clergy, with the shrines of Saints Donatian, Basil, and Maximus, should meet the funeral and the King at the bridge of the castle, and bring back the blessed body to that same church of Saint Christopher with tears and sighs.

And there the Bishop with the whole choir of priests celebrated the commendation and the Mass of all faithful departed, obsequies are celebrated: for the salvation of the soul of the good Count. On the same day Benkin the cottager was captured, and bound on a wheel fixed atop a mast, Benkin is punished. having suffered the destruction of his life, he became a spectacle for all. At the Sands indeed he merited to die miserably by that torment.

[120] On the ninth day before the Kalends of May, Saturday, an edict went forth from the King and the Princes, [April 24, the church of the Holy Savior is consecrated. April 25, the church of Saint Donatian is reconciled:] that at Ypres and Staden the citizens should equip and prepare themselves for a siege. On the eighth day before the Kalends of May, Sunday, the church of the Holy Savior in Bruges was consecrated. For that church had been destroyed by the conflagration of fire, and its altars broken. On the seventh day before the Kalends of May, Monday, because the altars of the church of Blessed Donatian had not been broken, the Bishop celebrated the reconciliation of the church at dawn.

Then the King and the people, preceded by the Bishop and the Abbots and all the clergy of that place, processed to the church of Saint Christopher, and having brought back the body of the blessed Count, our Lord and Father Charles, to the church of Blessed Donatian, the body is brought back: Roger is created Provost: in the middle of the choir the body, solemnly commended to its God, they enclosed with a fitting tomb. The obsequies therefore being solemnly completed, the King and the Bishop installed Roger as Provost in the position of prelacy, in the midst of the brethren of that same church.

On the same day the King and our Castellan Gervase, with a great army, crossed toward Staden and Ypres together with our citizens. On the same day was the feast of Mark the Evangelist. And it should be noted that God conferred three very great gifts on the church of Saint Donatian on that day: because God deigned to reconcile that church to Himself; He granted the body of the good Count to be guarded in it; and He provided Roger as Provost for that same church.

[121] On the sixth day before the Kalends of May, Tuesday, the King and the Count with a heavy army besieged Ypres, and a tournament was held, and there were fierce military encounters on both sides, when that illegitimate Count William with three hundred knights fought against the new Count at one of the gates. Therefore those most wicked men of Ypres, April 26, Ypres, with the citizens betraying it, is surrendered to the King: just as they had separately agreed with the King in another part of the town, admitted the King and his infinite army. And rushing in they raised clamors and sudden fires of houses. They also exercised plundering, when that illegitimate Count William ran to meet the plunderers, ignorant that the castle had been betrayed, William of Ypres is captured: and likewise himself and his men. The King and the Count therefore seized him, and led him captive to Lille for guarding.

Many indeed after Count Charles's death had gone up to him — such as chaplains and ministers and mercenaries and servants of the daily household of the Count — because that same illegitimate Count of Ypres had been descended from the line of Counts. The people of Furnes also served with him, for this reason: the people of Furnes are subdued: that if he had persisted in the County, they would destroy their enemies by his strength and power. But because God strikes the minds of the wicked, the opposite happened to them. For their enemies, having heard that William of Ypres had been captured, made an incursion against the hostile possessions and houses and households, and demolished by fire and sword all the substance of those whom they hated. And so it was not enough for those wretches that they were captured; they also suffered the losses of their property at home. Therefore both in military service and at home God pursued those traitors who with their Count of Ypres had conspired against the death of the Lord and advocate of the land. All things therefore which that William of Ypres had possessed, our Count obtained; he also captured knights and drove many from the land. Victoriously therefore was the day carried by our men, and they returned with applause and the greatest plunder.

CHAPTER XVII.

Punishment inflicted on many of the guilty. The vessels of Blessed Charles restored. A new inquiry into accomplices.

[122] On the Kalends of May, Sunday, it was reported to us that Borsiard had been captured at Lille, and bound to a wheel fixed atop a mast, Borsiard, captured, is killed. he had lived through that day and the following night, and then perished by the shameful loss of his death. Who indeed had merited to die infinitely, if he could have died as many times — since on account of his crime so many after him were punished, proscribed, hurled down, hanged, and beheaded — and all the faithful offered thanks to God, who had deigned to exterminate so great a murderer from His Church. And it was well disposed that in the passing discomfort of times, with the pleasantness of the month of May, God should restore the grace of peace and the state of our land, May 1, the King departs toward Oudenaarde, with Borsiard hanged and his accomplices captivated. The King therefore, turning aside, went toward Oudenaarde, where the Count of Mons had been harassing our land; and he went through Ghent. But our Count had preceded the King and had burned with violent force the suburb up to the stone tower. And many therefore who had taken refuge in the church of that place were burned together — up to three hundred, as they say.

[123] On the fourth day before the Nones of May, Wednesday, the King returned to Bruges without the Count. On the third day before the Nones of May, Thursday, May 4, he returns to Bruges; afterward the Count on May 5, afterward around noon the Count returned to us, whom the brethren of the church of Saint Donatian received first with a procession, where, having made prayer and offering at the altar according to the custom of his predecessors, and returned to the house of Count Charles, the Count himself powerfully ascended and dined there. There was a tumult and a very great crowd around and within the castle, awaiting what would be done about Robert and the captives.

Therefore the King, having gone out from his lodging, came all the way to the Count. But because the house was full of people and servants and knights, the Count descended to the open area and courtyard of the castle. And all who had been standing in the hall followed him. And when he saw the house empty, as he had prearranged, he ordered the doors of his house shut, and taking only the Princes with him, he re-ascended. Then they arranged from which part those traitors should be hurled down from the tower of the chamber. Which having been arranged, the King and Count sent executioners to the prison, who would craftily summon first Wulfric Cnop, on which day the betrayers are hurled from the highest rampart, brother of Provost Bertulf, and under dissimulation those who had been sent lied to the imprisoned men that the King would deal mercifully with them. Under that hope of mercy, therefore, they came out of the prison without delay. But they did not allow the captives to come out simultaneously. For first they led out that Wulfric, and having led him through the interior passages of the house all the way to the highest ramparts of the tower, Wulfric Cnop, brother of the Provost, with his hands tied behind his back, and thus looking down at the beginning of his death, the executioners cast him down. And that wretch, wearing nothing but a shirt and breeches alone, fell to the ground with his whole body broken and destroyed, preserving little life — he who immediately expired with fatal injuries: a spectacle indeed and everlasting reproach of his family, even of the entire land of Flanders — mourned by no one, he perished.

In the second place they led out Walter the knight, Walter the knight, son of Lambert from Reddenburg, all the way to the precipice, and having tied his hands before him and not behind, at that very moment they wished to hurl him down. But he begged the King's knights who stood nearby, for God's sake, to give him space to pray to God: and pitying him, they let him pray. And when he had finished praying, the youth of more elegant form was thrown down, and falling to the ground, he incurred the peril of his death and immediately expired. Eric the knight, There was also led out a knight named Eric, and similarly hurled down, he fell upon a wooden stairway and tore away a step of the stairway which was fixed with five nails. And it was marvelous that, having been hurled from so high, while still sitting on the ground he signed himself with the sign of the Holy Cross. When women wished to touch him, one of the knights from the Count's house threw a large stone among them, and thus prevented their approach. He could not indeed live longer on the inside, for him the very fact that he lived after the fall was not life but the misery of dying. and 25 others. Therefore, to omit the order of enumeration, all the remaining were similarly hurled down — twenty-eight in all. Some of whom hoped to escape because they had been free of the betrayal. But because fate drew them — nay, rather divine vengeance compelled them — together with those who had been guilty of the betrayal, they were hurled down.

[124] May 6, the King takes Robert the Boy with him: On the day before the Nones of May, Friday, on the feast of Saint John, when he was put into the barrel, the King, beginning to return home, departed from Bruges and took with him Robert the Boy as a captive. At the departure therefore of that young man, our citizens followed him with tears of their eyes and heavy lamentation, because they had loved him greatly. For our men did not dare to follow him on account of the infamy of our place. He, looking back at the weeping and compassion of the citizens, said: "Behold, my friends, since you cannot save my life, at least pray to God that He may deign to have mercy on my soul." He had not gone far from the castle when the King ordered the feet of the young man tied beneath the belly of the horse on which the captive had mounted. After the Count had provided escort to the King, he returned to us in the castle.

[125] On the Nones of May, Saturday. Afterward Dean Elias returned to the new Count the silver tankard and the golden cup of Count Charles with its golden cover, [May 7, the gold and silver vessels of Saint Charles, commended by the Provost to the Dean,] which Provost Bertulf, when he was taking to flight, had commended to the Dean. Robert the Boy had disclosed this treasure to the Count before he departed from Bruges: because, as they say, by lashings the King forced from him that he should reveal whether he knew of any part of the Count's treasure being deposited. returned to the Count: By his accusation on the same day, the new Count and the King obtained the aforesaid vessels, as we said we would tell in what follows. Many marveled at the simplicity of Dean Elias, who, while he had hitherto lived with a certain rigor of sanctity, by the acceptance of this plunder had greatly declined (since by God's authority it is forbidden: "Touch not the unclean thing...") — the tenor of which sanctity and simplicity he had dissimulated. For he returned that treasure to the Count unwillingly, by which he showed well enough how much he had loved that plunder.

He also said that Provost Bertulf had given those vessels to the church of Saint Donatian for the salvation of his soul, believing by this to excuse his innocence. In this we all clearly recognized that the Provost had received the Count's vessels for his own use in the division of the treasure, and being unable to carry them with him when he fled, he left that most wretched plunder with his Dean.

[126] It will be fitting to digress subsequently about the penitence of Borsiard and those who with him had betrayed the Count — Isaac and others. Borsiard repents of the betrayal: They assert that Borsiard recognized his sin and grieved and repented for it, so that he beseeched all the spectators of his gibbet to cut off his hands, with which he had killed his Lord Charles. And he implored all to at least pray and beseech God for the salvation of his soul, since he had merited no salvation in this life. And he implored Almighty God, he asks for the prayers of others: as much as he knew and could, to be propitious to him. Moreover those who were hurled down, when they looked from the ramparts, signed themselves with the sign of the Holy Cross, and invoking the name of Christ Jesus, even while falling in the very crash, they cried out. But because immediately after the crime was committed the traitors were excommunicated, on account of the rigor of justice they were not absolved by the Bishop either before or after their destruction, and therefore they lie buried at crossroads and in open fields outside the cemetery.

[127] Isaac therefore, while he was hiding among monks in monastic habit and foresaw the mob rushing upon him, said to the Abbot: Isaac confesses himself guilty: "My lord, if I had the spirit for fighting, I would not allow myself to be taken without great slaughter: but because I confess myself guilty of the betrayal, I embrace all evils and death itself in time, so that in this present life what I have grievously sinned against my Lord may be punished in me." Therefore the son of the Advocate of Thérouanne approached, he is bound and led to Aire: seizing Isaac and throwing him into chains, until that illegitimate Count of Ypres should come and judge him. Isaac likewise awaited that same William, believing he could escape through him, because he had been privy to the betrayal. But after that Count came, dissembling that his conscience had been guilty, he commanded Isaac to be hanged, because he had betrayed Count Charles.

Isaac indeed, on the road by which he was dragged to the castle of Aire for hanging, openly professed that he had betrayed his Lord. he asks to be afflicted with insults: And he begged the tumult of the people to overwhelm him with mud and stones and cudgels, believing no punishment could be sufficient for him to be inflicted in this life, who had perpetrated so great a crime. He therefore venerated the blows, strokes, stones, and all his punishers, and gave them thanks because they deigned to destroy so grave a sinner. At last when he had arrived at the place of hanging, he piously prepares himself for death, he greeted the post of the tree and kissed the nooses and likewise the tree, and fastened it himself around his own neck, saying: "In the name of the Lord I embrace the punishment of my death, and I beg you all to pray to God with me, that by this bitterness of death it may be punished in me, whatever I, wretch that I am, have sinned against my Lord": he is hanged. and so, having been drawn up by the noose, he merited to die shamefully.

[128] Provost Bertulf had received from God many signs of his death. For when at Bruges the guardian of the church lay ill in a chamber, Provost Bertulf had been variously forewarned, the Provost entered to visit him, and immediately the beams which held the ceiling straight above his head were broken, so that he scarcely believed he could escape from the chamber. At another time also a great beam of his house at Bruges fell — not pushed by any man or wind — directly upon the chair and seats placed beside it, where the Provost had been accustomed to sit powerfully and imperiously. He himself at that time was at Furnes, and everything was utterly broken which had been caught in that same collapse.

At another time also, when the Provost was passing through Ypres beside the gibbet placed in the market, he had even dreamed of being hanged on the gibbet. on which he was afterward hanged, he said to his knights: "Almighty God, what is it that I dreamed last night? I saw in my dream that on this very gibbet I was standing fixed." And he laughed at such a vision and reckoned it as nothing. Of his punishment indeed, but not of his penitence, we have heard something.

Robert the Boy, led all the way to Cassel, Robert the Boy beheaded at Cassel. was beheaded by the King's command: but having confessed his sins, he pardoned his executioner for being about to put him to death.

CHAPTER XVIII

Inquiry into accomplices and helpers of the traitors, and plunderers of the money of Blessed Charles. Various persons privy to the betrayal are dead.

[129] May 21 On the twelfth day before the Kalends of June, Saturday, on the vigil of Pentecost, Eustace, newly appointed Castellan at Furnes by the new Count of Flanders, brought Oldger, formerly Chamberlain of Provost Bertulf, with him as a captive to Bruges, in the presence of all from the Count's court, so that the captive might disclose to the Count who among the Canons or Laymen had obtained from Provost Bertulf the treasure and plunder of Count Charles, [various persons accused of having received the Count's money through the traitors.] or from the nephews of that same Provost. He therefore accused Dean Elias of three hundred marks; the Canon Littera of two hundred marks; Robert the church guardian of mattresses and cloaks and silver; Master Radulf of six silver cups; Robert, son of Lidgard, of one hundred marks of silver. That Oldger had fabricated such lies for himself, in order thus to earn the favor of obtaining his escape. Yet to many it seemed close to the truth (because that Dean Elias had already previously, through the accusation of Robert the Boy, returned the silver tankard weighing twenty-one marks and the golden cup with its golden cover weighing seven marks of gold to the Count himself) that much silver was still being retained — by that Dean as well as by some of his Canons — as was afterward apparent. For Robert, the church guardian, entering and freely going out to those traitors throughout the entire time of the siege, received from them a very great sum of money on the condition that if those traitors should escape, that priest and guardian would return what he had received for safekeeping.

After therefore those wretches were condemned, that guardian wished to craftily conceal the money. He therefore pretended he was going to Jerusalem, and loaded three and a half strong palfreys, and departed from our castle at dawn, and thus carried away the plunder of Count Charles to be offered to Christ in Jerusalem. Because of his deed therefore, the suspicion of all was turned back upon those Canons. On the same day Littera returned three marks of silver to the Count himself, which he had retained from the Provost's silver.

[130] June 22, the Count and others swear mutual fidelity: On the eleventh day before the Kalends of June, the holy Sunday of Pentecost, the Count and Castellan Gervase and Walter of Frorerdeslo and the knights of Flanders who were present swore that they would preserve the peace as much as was in their power throughout the whole land of Flanders.

[131] the month of September After the feast of the Nativity of Saint Mary, which is the sixth day before the Ides of September, on Saturday namely, our Count had Robert brought with him to Bruges — that William of Ypres whom he had taken captive in the invasion of Ypres — William of Ypres with his brother is brought captive to Bruges. and he shut him in the highest chamber of the castle of Bruges with his brother Theobald Sorel: who, when they had stayed together for six days as fellow-captives, Theobald was commended to a certain knight Everard of Ghent for safekeeping. And soon William of Ypres was forbidden to look out through the windows, but allowed only to walk about inside the house. Guards and watchmen were also appointed with him, who most carefully guarded him.

[132] September 16. On the sixteenth day before the Kalends of October, Friday, on the night of Saint Lambert, the Count commanded that from each neighborhood around us and from the citizens of Bruges, the better and more faithful, [an oath being taken, inquiry is made into the accomplices and supporters of the traitors of Saint Charles:] and likewise Castellan Gervase, should swear for the honor of the land, that by true assertion they should profess who had killed Count Charles, or who had killed those who were slain together with that aforesaid Count: who had plundered the property of the Count and of those killed together with him, or of the Count's men and household: who had associated himself in aid of those traitors after the death of the Lord of the whole fatherland: or who had remained with those most impious men before or after the siege: or who had led out those traitors and their accomplices without the permission of the Princes who had besieged the castle and those within: and had therefore secretly received from them money and the treasure of Count Charles: who had afterward detained them and provided aid to those whom the King and Count by the common counsel of the Barons of the land had condemned as guilty and decreed for proscription. Therefore after the oath they sat together in the Count's house, very many are named. and at our place they accused one hundred and twenty-five. And at Reddenburg, together with Lambert, whom they had noted as guilty of the betrayal, thirty-seven.

[133] On the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October, Saturday, on the day of Saint Lambert, the Count, about to go toward Ypres, demanded the toll from our citizens. But the Count was ungrateful to them, the Count demands the remitted toll, because from the toll revenues his knights had been enfeoffed from the time of all his predecessor Counts. For his knights vexed the Count, because he had granted the toll to the citizens, from which they had hitherto been enfeoffed. And they affirmed that the Count could not justly grant this without the assent of his knights, he becomes disliked by the citizens of Bruges: nor had those citizens justly demanded that the Count grant it to them. Whence envy was stirred up between the citizens and the Count and his knights. According therefore to the law of the siege which the Princes had decreed, the Count and his men studied to act after the accusation. For such a law and decree had been established: whoever had led out anyone from among the besieged against the assent of the Princes of the siege, by what punishment the one led out was to be mulcted, by that same torment the one leading him out should be condemned. action is taken against those who had freed some of the besieged. And so, since many of the besieged had been secretly led out for a price, now the relatives of those who had been killed in the siege knelt before the Count, beseeching that he give them those who had secretly, furtively, and treacherously led out the besieged — either to kill or punish them — or that he expel those seducers from the land. And so, constrained by reason, the Count ordered the accused to stand before him, wishing to treat them according to the law of the siege. But they responded that they had not been legitimately accused, but on account of envy and hatred, and not on account of truth: yet they earnestly begged the Count to treat them according to the judgment of the Aldermen of the land, both about the charge of betrayal and about any suspicion whatsoever. Many indeed of the accused were reconciled with the Count, whom the nephews and sons and kinsmen of those who had been killed in the siege still pursued — either because they had smuggled out the traitors who had betrayed the Lord of the land Charles, and at the same time their own father: as were the sons of the Castellan from Burbourg, who even in the presence of the new Count were hastening to challenge Everard of Ghent, who had led out the besieged — namely those who had killed their father and brothers together with the Count of the fatherland — for the sake of money. Having heard this, the greater part of the accused withdrew, whom their own conscience gnawed. The Count therefore took counsel, and having summoned his Barons, he decreed that he would proscribe those accused who had done homage to Count Charles and had likewise provided aid to the traitors besieged with them: but others he would receive for satisfaction, and others he would mercifully receive without judgment into his grace.

[134] It happened therefore by the strict and terrible judgment of God that Walter of Frorerdeslo, one of the Peers of the land, Walter of Frorerdeslo, fallen from his horse, perishes, in a certain military expedition, hurled from his own horse in his own charge, lay totally broken, and shortly afterward died. Indeed it was true that he had been privy to the betrayal of his Lord and father of the entire land of Flanders. Who also, so as to stand in the most certain security with the traitors, had joined an adoptive son of a cobbler — whom his wife had falsely claimed to be her own son — in marriage to a niece of Provost Bertulf. For the father had believed the child to be truly his own, [believed to be a relative of the Provost, on account of a son — but a suppositious one — given as husband to a niece of his,] which formerly the mother, as the wife of the aforesaid Walter, had deceitfully pretended to have given birth to. But the infant she had borne died immediately at birth. She therefore substituted the son of a cobbler, who had been born around the same time, and secretly sent the dead child she had borne to the cobbler's wife, giving her money so that she would confess to having borne that dead one and conceal from her husband what had been done.

And when that stolen and adoptive son had grown up, and all believed him to be truly the son of that Walter, the Provost came and gave his niece — the daughter of his brother's son — as wife to that secretly substituted son, so that they might firmly stand together in every fortune through that marriage, bolder, stronger, and more powerful. Therefore after the death of Walter himself, his wife publicly professed that the boy was not her true son but an adoptive one, whom that same Walter had placed with a certain citizen as a pledge for three hundred pounds. And so by God's art the art of the Provost was deluded: who, when he wished to exalt his family proudly and gloriously through that marriage, deceived by God's art, united it with a cobbler's son. Yet no one dared to lay a hand against Walter, privy to the betrayal. although he had been privy to the betrayal. For he was a Peer of that land, second only to the Count. But God, to whom vengeance was left, exterminated him from the sight of the faithful by a lingering death.

[135] October 8. On the eighth day before the Ides of October, Saturday, before the feast of Saint Riquier, by the Count's command that William of Ypres was taken to Lille, William of Ypres is taken to Lille: and commended to the Castellan of that castle. He feared our citizens, and also those proscribed from the land, lest by some trick they should release William from captivity at Bruges and forcibly rush into the castle. It should be noted that after the killing of Count Charles, Borsiard and his accomplices in the crime, in the manner of pagans and sorcerers, on the night when the Count was first buried, took

a cup full of beer and bread, sitting around the tomb, and placed that drink and bread on the table of the tomb, eating and drinking over the body of the Blessed Count — in the belief that by no means would anyone avenge him.

[136] On the ninth day before the Kalends of November, Monday, before the feast of Saint Amand, Baldwin of Aalst died, October 24, Baldwin of Aalst dies, stained by the evil of betrayal. who was also one of the Peers of the Peers of Flanders, stained by the evil of the betrayal of his Lord Charles — not long after this life he expired. By a lighter occasion of death — namely while he was blowing a horn, and now with his arteries swelling inside from the wind, when all the forces of his head labored at blowing — the marrow of his brain, shaken from its natural place, burst forth through a wound made long ago in his forehead. When the swelling of the winds and his own breath had ruptured this, the marrow which had lain in the brain bubbled out, so that it blocked the passages of the nostrils, eyes, and likewise the throat: and thus he died, bearing the mortal blows of the sword of God. At last, when he was breathing his final breath, he received the monastic habit, and so in the manner of a Christian knight he departed from the world.

Therefore these two aforesaid Princes of the land, since they had died nearby and at an intervening interval, were on everyone's lips and in everyone's memory, so that they discussed their sudden deaths — those whom God after the death of Lord Charles had deprived of life by so swift a sentence and had arranged for them the occasion and order of so light a cause of dying. Against Christian custom indeed they had acted in the siege with the Provost and others, whom they had led out from captivity. For having received money from the Provost and his men, after they had diverted those smuggled out by devious paths contrary to the decrees of the King and the Princes, they left them naked and alone in open fields, until those men, wandering and roaming through fields and villages, were captured and scattered by the extermination of a most wretched death.

[137] On the sixteenth day before the Kalends of January, Saturday, December 17. in the third completed week of the Advent of the Lord, in the same year, in the Ember Days, Desiderius, Isaac's brother, dies, privy to the betrayal. Desiderius, brother of that aforesaid traitor Isaac, died, who, being privy to the betrayal, did not merit to enjoy the happiness of life any longer. From the time of the siege therefore he never dared to go forth openly to the Count's Court, except secretly. For there were many in our County who would have challenged him to combat and convicted him as guilty of the betrayal, if he had openly gone out to the Court. Moreover it was forbidden by the new Count to that same Desiderius, even if he should dare to come to the Court, that no one should pour drink for him: for in the Court he had been one of the cupbearers.

CHAPTER XIX.

The cause of the defection of the Flemings from William the Norman, Count.

[138] Tumult at the fairs of Lille against the Count, August having elapsed: On the Ides of August previously, that is on the feast of Saint Peter in August, when fairs were held at Lille, and the Count wished to capture one of his servants there in the market and had ordered him seized, the citizens of Lille rushed to arms, chased the Count and his men outside the suburb, beating some of the courtiers and hurling the Normans into the marshes, and afflicted many with various other injuries. the citizens are punished with a heavy fine. And immediately the Count besieged all the places of Lille and compelled the citizens to pay him one thousand four hundred marks of silver, if at least they might be pacified in that way. Whence the greatest envy was stirred up between those citizens and the Count, so that henceforth they stood mutually suspicious of each other.

[139] On the third day before the Nones of February, Friday, after the feast of the Purification of the Mother of the Lord, February 3, in the year 1128, the people of Saint-Omer rise against the Count: the citizens of Saint-Omer rose up against the Count, because the Count unjustly wished to place over them the Castellan of that place, who had violently plundered the goods and substance of those citizens and still strove to seize more: he also besieged Saint-Omer with a heavy army. But the citizens had secretly introduced Arnold, nephew of Count Charles, and had made him homage and securities — so that if the new Count should persist in the unjust siege, they are besieged: they would turn to that Arnold. At the same time snow and ice and cold and the east wind had shuddered together over the face of the earth, and therefore they feared the Count's assault, and they paid six hundred marks of silver for repacification. they pay a fine: Whence the greatest envy was stirred up between those citizens and the Count, and henceforth they became suspicious of each other.

[140] On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March, Thursday, before Septuagesima, February 16, the men of Ghent rise against the Castellan, the men of Ghent rose up against their Castellan, because he had always acted injuriously and perversely against them: who transferred himself to the Count, whom he brought for the purpose of repacifying himself and the citizens. The Count therefore, wishing to oppress the citizens and to place the aforesaid Castellan over them by force, and the Count: waited there for some days. Then the citizens, as they had agreed with Daniel the Prince and Iwan, brother of Baldwin, put the Count to the question: and having convened all in Ghent, Iwan was appointed as spokesman for the citizens, with Iwan speaking, and thus he began: "Lord Count, if you had wished to treat our citizens — who are also your citizens — and us, their friends, justly, you ought not to have imposed any wicked exactions or harassments upon us, but rather to have defended us from enemies and treated us honorably. Now therefore, against justice and the oaths which we swore for you — concerning the remitted toll, concerning the confirmation of peace, and concerning the other justices which the men of this land had obtained from the good former Counts of the land, they accuse him of perverting justice, and especially in the time of Lord Charles, and from you — you in your own person have broken them, and have violated your faith and ours, who swore together with you for the same purpose. It is manifest how great a violence and plundering you committed at Lille, and of inflicted violence: and how much you have persecuted the citizens of Saint-Omer unjustly and perversely. Now also in Ghent you will maltreat the citizens, if you can. But since you are our Lord and of the whole land of Flanders, it befits you to deal with us reasonably, not violently, not perversely. Let your Court be placed, if you please, at Ypres, which is in the middle of your land, and let the Princes on both sides and our peers assemble, they prescribe a peaceful assembly at Ypres: and all the wiser in the clergy and people, in peace and without arms, in a tranquil spirit and well-considered, without deceit and evil design, and let them judge. If you can henceforth hold the County saving the honor of the land, I wish that you hold it. But if you are such — namely lawless, faithless, deceitful, otherwise they threaten him with deposition from the County: perjured — depart from the County and leave it to us, to be commended to some worthy and legitimate man. For we are mediators between the King of France and you, so that without the honor of the land and our counsel you should do nothing worthy in the County. Behold, you have treated both us — your guarantors before the aforesaid King — and the citizens of nearly all Flanders perversely, against the faith and oath both of that King and of ours, and consequently of all our Princes of the land."

[141] Therefore the Count, leaping up, would have renounced Iwan's homage, if he had dared in the face of the tumult of those citizens, the Count provokes Iwan to a duel: and he said: "Therefore I wish, having rejected the homage which you made to me, to make myself your equal, and without delay to prove in combat against you that I have hitherto acted well and reasonably in all things in the County." But Iwan refused. And he fixed the day — Thursday at the beginning of the fast, the eighth day before the Ides of March — when they would meet peacefully at Ypres.

The Count therefore descended to Bruges and, having summoned the knights of that vicinity, commanded them to hasten with him to the appointed day with armed force: and having convened the citizens at Bruges, he complained to them how dishonorably Iwan and his men would expel him from the land, if they could, and he begged them to stand faithfully with him. he comes to Ypres with armed force: And they assented. Therefore on the appointed day the Count ascended with armed force and filled Ypres with knights and cotterells, prepared and girded for fighting. Iwan and Daniel also ascended near Ypres, namely to Roeselare, and sent messengers ahead to the Count saying: "Lord Count, because the day was set in the sacred time of the fast, you ought to have come with peace and without deceit and arms, but reasonably — and you have not done so; he is abjured by the men of Ghent: rather you are at the ready to fight against our men: Iwan and Daniel and the men of Ghent announce to you, because you have come deceitfully to kill them, they do not delay to renounce through us the homage which they have hitherto inviolably observed toward you." And those messengers renounced on behalf of their lords, and departed.

[142] Before this time Iwan and Daniel had sent through the castles of Flanders, conveying greetings: "We shall give hostages other cities are drawn into alliance against the Count. and guarantors to each other, if you wish to live with honor in the land, so that if the Count should wish to violently attack you or us, we may run from every side to our mutual defense." And they most gladly agreed to do this, if with the honor of the land and their own they could be rid of this so perverse a Count, who attended to nothing except by what cunning he might persecute his citizens. And they added: "Behold, it is clear how the merchants and all the traders of the land of Flanders are shut in because of this Count, whom you installed in the County of the most worthy father Charles: and already for this year we have consumed our substance, and moreover whatever we gained at another time, either this Count has taken away, or we who are shut up and besieged within this land by his enemies have consumed it. See therefore by what reasoning we may be rid of this plunderer and persecutor of ours, saving however the honor of the land and yours." Meanwhile the Count at Ypres was lying in wait for Daniel and Iwan, gathering to himself all the knights of the land.

[143] March 11, Theoderic of Alsace comes to Ghent: On the fifth day before the Ides of March, the first Sunday of Lent, true report struck us that the young Theoderic, kinsman of Count Charles, had come from Alsace to Ghent, and there awaited until — this Count with his Normans having been driven out — he himself would be received as Count. And it is greatly to be wondered at that Flanders would receive so many Lords, and at the same time was ready to receive the boy from Mons, and Arnold whom they had introduced at Saint-Omer, many Princes aspire to the County of Flanders: and this one who already waits at Ghent, and this abusive Count of ours. For this Norman, our Count, was favored by Castellan Theoderic and his kinsmen and friends; Arnold by those in Saint-Omer; the Count of Mons by those in Arras and in the border regions; this Theoderic by Iwan and Daniel and the men of Ghent, who were hastening to accept him as Count.

[144] On the seventeenth day before the Kalends of April, Friday, the citizens rushed into the castle, inquiring whether Fromold the younger had filled the Count's house with grain, wine, and other provisions for the use of Count William. March 16, the citizens of Bruges begin to oppose themselves: On the same day, having heard that the Count was coming into the suburb of Bruges, they shut the gates against him in case he should come, refusing to hold him henceforth as Count.

[145] On Saturday in the Ember Days, the first full week of the fast now having passed, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, March 17, they are compelled to prepare arms: the feast of the Virgin Gertrude, Castellan Gervase commanded all those who dwelt in his vicecounty to prepare themselves, so that they might ascend to Torhout, ready for battle, on the Wednesday after the aforesaid Saturday, there to wait until our Count William should lead them against Daniel and Iwan for battle.

[146] On the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, on the feast of Abbot Benedict, our Castellan Gervase returned from Torhout to Bruges with his men, and reported that Arnold, kinsman of Count Charles, had already a second time been fraudulently introduced into Saint-Omer by certain citizens. [March 21, they learn that the people of Saint-Omer have again been subdued by the Count:] When the Count of Flanders William learned of this, he hastened with strong forces from Ypres to Saint-Omer, and drove the besieged into the church of Saint Bertin, wishing to burn the church: and he compelled Arnold to abjure Flanders entirely, and likewise those who had been besieged with him.

[147] And on this same day the Count returned to Ypres, preparing to invade Iwan and Daniel the next day with the army mustered at Torhout. On the same day, they conspire with their neighbors: namely Wednesday, our citizens and the maritime Flemings near us swore together to stand united henceforth for defending the honor of the place and the fatherland.

[148] On the tenth day before the Kalends of April, Friday, letters having been sent, those from Ghent together with Iwan and Daniel said to our citizens that they should decide for themselves by the next Monday, March 23, they are solicited into alliance by the men of Ghent: whether they would fully resolve to remain with the men of Ghent and fully renounce the Count; or would fully persist with Count William and oppose the men of Ghent and their lords and friends. Beyond the prescribed day therefore they did not wish to remain in suspense with the citizens of Bruges.

[149] On the ninth day before the Kalends of April, Saturday — "Rebecca said." The citizens of Bruges heard that the Count was striving to descend from Aalter to Bruges, March 24, they oppose the Count, and they denied him the place and his castle. They sent back word to the Count through Castellan Gervase that he should direct himself elsewhere until he had extirpated his enemies from Flanders, and only then would they return to him the place and castle at Bruges. They also required of that same Castellan Gervase that he profess to them whether he had resolved either to remain firmly in the same faith and security with them, or to withdraw from them entirely with his Count. On the same day around evening they saw the Count's transit past us toward Maldegem, they close the gates against him: and immediately our citizens, leaping to arms at the exits of the gates, would have resisted the Count face to face if he had descended to Bruges, and they closed the gates on all sides against him. On the same day Cono, brother of the dead Walter of Frorerdeslo, entered among our citizens and in the middle of the market before all swore to stand henceforth faithfully with the citizens with all his forces. And our citizens had as helpers the knights Walter of Lissewege and his men, they accept reinforcements: and those from Oostkerke, Hugo Snaggaerd and his brothers.

CHAPTER XX.

The election of Theoderic of Alsace as Count of Flanders. The death of Lambert of Reddenburg.

[150] On the eighth day before the Kalends of April, Sunday, on the Annunciation of Saint Mary, the Gospel was read, "Every kingdom divided against itself shall be desolated": to our citizens, both to the clergy and to the people of our vicinity, the Countess of Holland and her brother Theoderic, the adopted Count, sent greetings to the citizens of Ghent and ours. March 25, the citizens of Bruges take up the party of Theoderic of Alsace:

"Whatever you legitimately possess from our predecessor Counts, you shall obtain more firmly through me, if indeed you install me in the County. I shall provide to your merchants and those of all Flanders peace and free passage for trading, and likewise my sister the Countess shall provide the same: to the extent, however, that we give hostages to each other for my receiving from you and for providing you free trading." Immediately Castellan Gervase crossed to the Count at Maldegem, counseling him to go up toward Ypres, because at Maldegem he was virtually held as if besieged, if the men of Ghent should perhaps make an excursion against him. And immediately the citizens of Bruges sent for Daniel, to descend with his forces to them at Bruges. Meanwhile, with Castellan Henry from Burbourg, Arnold — whom they had formerly received as Count at Saint-Omer — was striving with the aid and counsel of the King of England to obtain the County of Flanders. And so the land of Flanders was divided, so that some, still preserving faith and homage to Count William, served with him; others preferred Theoderic, as Daniel and Iwan and the men of Ghent and the citizens of Bruges; others Arnold, such as those at Saint-Omer and that vicinity; others believed the Count of Mons should be preferred. Therefore in such a division the land was desolated.

[151] On the seventh day before the Kalends of April, Monday, Castellan Gervase was unwilling to remain any longer with our citizens of Bruges, because they had denied Count William their place and castle and shut the gates against him, and had adopted Theoderic as their Count. Therefore outside the castle of Bruges Gervase sent for the better citizens, and held this kind of speech with them. March 26, they deal peaceably with Castellan Gervase: "Because I still serve my one Lord, Count William, in faith, from whom I cannot be separated according to the law of the world saving my honor, I cannot have permission to remain with you, who have done so great a contempt to the Count. But because I love you, I will go to the Count: I will plead for you, so that he may grant a truce from you until the next Sunday, lest he inflict any trouble upon you: so that if I can compose you with the Count, I will do so; but if not, I will warn you of every trouble which the Count will inflict upon you, if I can know of it beforehand. I pray you honorably to preserve my wife, sons and daughters and my property, still living within the castle, until the determined day." And all our citizens granted that they would faithfully preserve them.

On the same day Stephen of Boulare entered among us with about forty knights. Our knights made an excursion before the house of Thancmar. [they admit new knights: they receive Theoderic of Alsace. March 27, the houses of Thancmar at Straten are burned,] On the same day Iwan and Daniel led Theoderic of Alsace into Bruges, to be received as Count. Our citizens went to meet him, applauding him.

[152] On the sixth day before the Kalends of April, Tuesday, in the morning, Thancmar and his nephews burned their own house and dwellings in Straten, because if they had not done this, Daniel and Iwan with their Theoderic would have burned them. We learned truly that Iwan and Daniel had not yet made homage and security to that Theoderic, but by leading him through the castles of Flanders they would stir the people and knights to elect him as Count. For without the permission and assent of the Duke of Louvain, Iwan and Daniel could not make the election. For both had pledged their faith to the Duke that they would not elect that Theoderic as Count without the Duke's consent.

On the same day we heard that William of Ypres, released from captivity, William of Ypres holds Kortrijk for William the Norman, had come to Kortrijk, so that by his counsel and the strength of himself and his men he might perhaps help Count William, driven from Bruges and Ghent. Because therefore Iwan and Daniel, two of the Peers and Princes of Flanders, had received from the King of England very many gifts, and were about to receive more for the expulsion of his nephew, namely our Count William, they had resolved to do nothing without the counsel of the King Arnold as Count had been received by the people of Furnes and others. or without the counsel of the Duke of Louvain, whose daughter the King of England and that same Duke were about to give to Arnold, nephew of the most pious Count Charles — whom at the same time the people of Furnes and the Castellan from Burbourg had received as Count; and this by the counsel and aid of the King of England.

Our citizens at last asked Iwan and Daniel themselves: "Why then have you led this Theoderic all the way to us, if we are not going to make faith, security, and homage to him — you first and we in second place?" They answered: "Because when he came to Bruges, he came with us and we with him, so that he might see the layout of the place and test with what spirit the citizens of Bruges would receive him, and those who stood with them joined in friendship and security."

On the fourth day before the Kalends of April, March 29 Thursday, those knights from Oostkerke, having inscribed their names on parchment, sent themselves and many others to Count William at Ypres, knights go over to William of Ypres. and renounced the faith and homage which they had formerly made to that same Count.

[153] On the third day before the Kalends of April, Friday, the citizens of Bruges awaited the return of Daniel and Iwan, March 30 who had previously left the suburb secretly with their knights. For they had fixed this day for our citizens, on which they would make homage and securities to Theoderic of Alsace, and likewise the men of Ghent and the citizens of Bruges and those who had sworn with them. This was before Friday in a leap year; in the preceding year it was the Wednesday before the closest day of Easter. On the same day in the evening, Iwan and Daniel and Hugo Campus-Avenae returned to us at Bruges. And it was reported that William

of Ypres, that captive, Theoderic of Alsace is elected Count of Flanders, had been given his freedom by Count William the Norman. Immediately after they had dined, both Princes and people assembled at the exit of the castle at the Sands — all of them — and there they elected Theoderic of Alsace as Count of all Flanders: and Iwan and Daniel made homage to him in the presence of all; and a law was given to all who had been proscribed for the betrayal of Count Charles, of returning to the court of this new Count, and if they dared, the proscribed being given liberty to purge themselves; according to the judgments of the Princes and feudatories of the land — if a man was a knight and belonged to the Count's court — they would make their excuse: but if otherwise, according to the judgments of the Aldermen of the land each person marked would purge himself. There was added by the Count, his Princes, and the people of the land the liberty regarding the state of the commonwealth and the honor of the land — of improving all the laws, judgments, customs, and usages of those inhabiting the land.

And it should be noted that in the preceding year, on this same day of the week, the Princes of the siege returned from Arras, who had gone out from us to elect a Count of the land according to the counsel and command of King Louis — Iwan and his brother Baldwin of Aalst, Walter of Frorerdeslo, and the other Peers of the land, a year elapsed after accepting William the Norman. returning to us with cheerful spirit, announced to us that they, together with the King of France, had freely and legitimately elected William, the youth from Normandy, as Count and Lord of our entire land.

And when Count William was sitting at Ypres with his Barons in a certain upper room to receive counsel as to what he should do against the newly elected Theoderic — Count of the men of Ghent and Bruges and their allies only — that very upper room fell to the ground, and those sitting in it collapsed together, so that one of them was nearly suffocated by the very fall.

[154] [March 31, he swears fidelity and receives the oath from the men of Ghent and Bruges.] On the day before the Kalends of April, Saturday. Meanwhile the clergy and people returned to the Sands, and upon the shrine of Saint Donatian the Count swore as we said above, and hostages were given between the Count and the clergy and people — Iwan and Daniel — that the Count would fulfill all things, and would not knowingly defraud what he had sworn. Then the men of Ghent swore fidelity, and then the citizens of Bruges, to the Count, and made homage. On the same day Lambert of Reddenburg came to Bruges to excuse himself from the betrayal. On the Kalends of April, the Sunday "Rejoice, Jerusalem," in the middle of Lent, April 1 Theoderic was received as Count, and with a procession in the church of Saint Donatian at Bruges, he is led into the temple of Saint Donatian and the court of the Counts: and in the manner of his predecessor Counts he ascended and dined in the hall and house of the Counts, and throughout the whole day our citizens of Bruges labored for the introduction of Castellan Gervase, whom they had faithfully loved. There were, however, some of the citizens of Bruges, vassals of that same Gervase, who acted wickedly in opposition — having taken counsel apart with a certain Walter, son-in-law of Castellan Haket, whom they were scheming to place over Gervase.

[155] April 2 On the fourth day before the Nones of April, which day of the week in the preceding year had been Holy Saturday of Easter, but now was Monday, he accepts the vassalage of Castellan Gervase, Castellan Gervase entered the castle of Bruges to Count Theoderic with a multitude of his knights and citizens who had faithfully loved him: and standing before all he said: "Lord Count Theoderic, if God had bestowed this grace upon us and the fatherland — that immediately after the death of our Lord and your kinsman Charles we had had you present — we would have received no one into the County except you. Therefore I make known to all that I have entirely departed from Count William; the homage and faith and security which I had hitherto observed toward him I have rejected, because the Peers of the land and the entire people have condemned him as being without law, without faith, without the justice of God and men, still wandering in the land. And you, the natural heir and rightful Lord of the land, they have received with honor and love. Therefore I wish to make homage and fealty to you as to the natural Lord of the land, and of whose condition we are, and I wish to receive from you the office and fiefs which I have hitherto held from your predecessors. If anyone contests the vicecounty against me, on the part of Haket who was Castellan most recently before me, I shall be ready to make satisfaction in your presence and that of the Peers of the land." and of other nobles. And so, the speech being finished, he became the vassal of Count Theoderic, and then for the rest of the day all who were to be enfeoffed in the County made homage to the Count, and on the following days thereafter. Immediately the Count himself hastened to establish peace throughout his entire County, among those who had hitherto waged against each other discords, quarrels, and grave battles.

[156] April 6 On the eighth day before the Ides of April, Friday, Lambert of Reddenburg purged himself by red-hot iron in the presence of Count Theoderic from the betrayal and death of Lord Count Charles: Daniel and Iwan were not present.

[157] On the fifth day before the Ides of April, Monday, certain men of Ypres came before Count Theoderic in the balcony of his house at Bruges, announcing that the same Count should come to the aid of the citizens of Ypres, [he is present at the purgation of Lambert of Reddenburg: April 9, he receives envoys from Ypres.] on the condition that if the citizens should expel Count William from Ypres, immediately the next day Count Theoderic would enter to the aid of those same citizens.

[158] On the fourth day before the Ides of April, Tuesday, Count Theoderic with his feudatories and the citizens of Bruges made an excursion against their enemies who had established themselves at Oudenburg and Gistel: and because they were strongly fortified on every side for resistance, the Count with the citizens returned midway. April 10, the King of France wants William the Norman to remain Count: On the same day the King of France sent letters of this kind to our citizens: "I wish that on Palm Sunday you send me eight discreet men from among you to Arras; from each of the individual castles of Flanders I will likewise summon an equal number of the wiser: before whom and all my Barons I wish to reasonably reconsider what is the matter of contention and conflict between you and your Count William: and immediately I will labor for the settlement of peace between you and him. If any citizen should not dare to come to me, I will freely provide safe-conduct for coming and returning."

Immediately the citizens entered upon the study of reason and counsel for sending back letters, the reasons for the defection are given, saying: "Because the King had sworn before the reception of Count William that he neither wished nor ought to accept any purchase-price or payment for the election of that same Count; and afterward he openly accepted one thousand marks as a price and purchase — he is perjured. Likewise, whatever he granted to the citizens in the toll, and whatever he swore together with the King that he would inviolably preserve on this matter — he has violently broken. And when he had given hostages, the Count himself for the confirmation of all those things which he had granted and given to the citizens — he deceived those same hostages. Therefore when at last he had fixed a day for us and the Peers of the land at Ypres, that he would settle matters with us — as all the inhabitants of the land know — he anticipated the aforesaid castle with armed force, in order to deal violently with us and constrain us to whatever he wished. And so without reason, without the law of God and men, he has shut us up in this land so that we cannot trade: indeed whatever we have possessed hitherto, we have consumed without profit, without trade, without the acquisition of goods. Whence we have just reason for expelling him from the land.

Now therefore we have elected a more just heir of the land as our Count, the son of the sister of Count Charles, a faithful and prudent man, elevated according to the custom of the land, established by our faith and homage, worthily imitating the nature and character and deeds of his predecessors.

We therefore make known to all, and of the free election of the Flemings. both to the King and his Princes, and likewise to those present and our successors, that it pertains not at all to the King of France concerning the election or installation of the Count of Flanders... when he shall have died without or with an heir, the Peers and citizens of the land have the power of electing the nearest heir of the County, and they possess the liberty of elevating him in that same County. For the right therefore of the lands which he held in fief from the King — when the Count shall have died — for that same fief the successor of the Count shall give only a suit of armor to the King. The Count of the land of Flanders owes nothing further to the King of France, nor does the King have any right to set over us a Count by authority or by purchase or by payment, or to prefer anyone. But because the King and the Counts of Flanders have hitherto stood connected by the nature of kinship, out of that regard the knights and Magnates and citizens of Flanders had given their assent to the King for electing and installing that William as their Count. But it is one thing entirely what is owed by reason of kinship, and another what is examined according to the ancient tradition of the predecessor Counts of Flanders by the standards of justice.

[159] On the third day before the Ides of April, Wednesday, the feast of Pope Leo, the nephews of Thancmar rushed upon the citizens of Bruges at the Sands, April 11, rebels are driven back: drawing out and enticing the citizens — still unfed — and Count Theoderic and his knights to engage in military exercises. Therefore the bell-ringers of the temples and the knights sounding trumpets chased them far from Bruges. Subsequently, however, the more ready of our knights and citizens ascended again against their enemies at Gistel and compelled some, the men of Gistel submit. so that they were glad if they might be allowed to make homage to our Count Theoderic, and to give hostages for this, that they would never commit fraud against him.

[160] On the ninth day before the Kalends of May, Monday, after Easter Sunday, April 23, the people of Lille admit Theoderic. our Count Theoderic rode to Lille, and he obtained those vicinities. Meanwhile Lambert of Wingene with a few knights made an excursion against Bruges, and together with him the nephews of Thancmar burned the house of Fromold the younger, the Count's notary, which house had stood defensibly at Berenhem. But Count William had ascended at the same time to the King of France at Compiègne, which place is in France, in order to receive from the King counsel and aid as to how he might obtain Flanders. To our Bishop Simon of the See of Noyon he freely returned twelve altars which he had received in fief, William the Norman seeks aid from the King of France. so that he might stand as advocate and defender of the Churches of God which are in Flanders — on the condition that the Bishop would condemn by ban and the word of excommunication all who among the citizens of the Flemish land had received Count Theoderic and promoted him to the power of the County, the churches are placed under interdict by the Bishop of Tournai. and that the Bishop had unjustly and without judgment set Count William over them. By this pact therefore the Bishop sent letters to Ghent and suspended the churches there from divine office.

[161] On the day before the Kalends of May, Monday, Lambert of Reddenburg, who had been under the mark of the betrayal, April 29, Lambert of Reddenburg besieges Oostburg, until he had satisfied Count Theoderic through the ordeal of

red-hot iron, had besieged his enemies at Oostburg with a very strong force. For he had summoned to himself from the islands of the sea all around — relatives, friends, and kinsmen — nearly three thousand. But against him, those from Reddenburg had gathered a strong force of both foot soldiers and horsemen. When therefore both sides had approached — those to besiege and these to free the besieged — a messenger of Count Theoderic intervened, namely Castellan Gervase, without the Count's consent, wishing to defer the battle until they could be pacified in the Count's presence. But because Lambert and his men were obstinate to kill the besieged, they were unwilling in any way to defer striking the besieged. Therefore while so many thousands were making their assault and the besieged were defending themselves admirably, unexpectedly those knights from Reddenburg, who had been waiting in another house in aid of the besieged for the outcome of the battle, armed on horseback and on foot — yet few in comparison to the besiegers — leaped forth. And immediately, raising infinite noise and clamors in the air, those who had leaped forth he is killed in the assault. rendered those making the siege utterly terrified and stupefied, to such a degree that they took to flight, and casting aside their shields and arms, girded themselves for running in flight. Then those who had been previously besieged sallied forth in the strength of their arms, and likewise those from Reddenburg pursuing from behind those who had given themselves to flight — they cut down the leaders and chiefs of all those enemies. Moreover, of the foot soldiers they killed as many as they wished. But the number of the wounded was infinite, and the number of the slain freemen was great.

[162] In this battle therefore it should be noted that Lambert, who had recently excused himself by red-hot iron as not having betrayed Count Charles, was now killed. For as long as he acted humbly toward God, God pardoned him for what he had done in the death of his Lord. Therefore, after the liberation of the iron ordeal, when that same Lambert and his men besieged a few with three thousand — without any regard for mercy, obstinately and as much as was in his power sparing them not, neither for God's sake nor for the sake of the oath which he had made to Count Theoderic — that he would raise no sedition in his own person or that of his men — and was unwilling to defer the battle and the slaughter of the besieged: by the just judgment of God. he himself merited to be killed, forgetful of God's mercy and dispensation by which He had preserved him for life when he seemed fit to be killed with all the rest — if nevertheless he had persisted in the worthy fruits of penance, as he had promised to God and the Church.

For when a servant acts humbly with his Lord for his guilt, the Lord pardons the servant acting according to the law of penance. But when a man acting justly acts perversely against another man, and God is invoked as judge between both, God aids the faith of the one acting justly, casting down the unjust man from his case and confounding him in his obstinacy. Whence it happens that in war one who is unjust is struck down; in the ordeal of water or iron the unjust man — if penitent nevertheless — does not fall. It should be noted moreover that those killed at Oostburg had first, by their counsel and deceits, installed Count Theoderic at Ghent and Bruges, and set him over Count William. And although Theoderic is the natural heir of Flanders and a just and pious Count, while Count William of Flanders is dishonorable and a persecutor of the citizens of the land — nevertheless those who now lie miserably slain did not counsel justly, nor can they be called innocent of the betrayal of their Lord, by whose counsel and violent deceits Count William was still in his land of Flanders.

CHAPTER XXI.

Battles and military incursions between William the Norman and Theoderic of Alsace.

[163] May 2 On the sixth day before the Nones of May, during the night of Wednesday, those who at Ghent in the Count's house were still being besieged by those citizens At Ghent a fire is started: — because they persisted on the side of Count William — went out and set fire to the houses of many streets. And while the citizens labored to extinguish the fire, with axes they cut down the catapults — namely the mangonels — with which they would have cast down the stone house and tower in which the besieged were dwelling.

On the same day, namely Wednesday, Castellan Gervase of Bruges with his knights wished to besiege those acting on the side of Count William at Wingene. at Wingene there is fighting: But those valiant knights met Gervase, and wounded him himself, and captured two of his squires, and won horses and palfreys.

[164] On the third day therefore on the Nones of May, Saturday, a year having now revolved, the anniversary day of all those who had been hurled down from the tower for the death of Count Charles was at hand. And it should be noted that in this same week Lambert, son of Ledewif, and with him many others were killed at Oostburg, by whose counsel and betrayal Theoderic had been violently imposed upon Flanders over William the Norman.

In this same week the King of France was striving, on the day before the Nones of May, the Sunday "The Mercy of the Lord," to summon Archbishops, Bishops, and all synodal persons in the clergy and Abbots and the most discreet men, both in the clergy and the people, Counts and Barons and the other Princes, to assemble before him at Arras, on May 6 the King of France summons the Princes of Flanders to Arras: intending to take counsel about these two Counts — which of them he should expel with royal power, or which he should establish. At which time Theoderic was at Lille and William was wandering at Ypres. But the whole land was tossed about in perils, in plundering, fires, betrayals, deceits, so that no prudent man lived in security. Therefore both sides awaited what counsel or what sentence would be given in the court and assembly of so many prudent and discreet men, and what perils they should fear in the future — since they feared all perils would come upon them. And it should be noted that nearly all those to whom the land of Flanders had been forbidden because of the betrayal of Count Charles — and this according to the judgments of the Princes and Barons of the land — had at this time returned to the land with this pretense and deceit: that if anyone should dare to challenge them about the betrayal, they would respond either according to the fact that one was a knight in the Count's court, or according to the fact that one was of inferior condition — before the Aldermen and judges of the land. Therefore still no one had been challenged, and none had responded.

[165] And it should be remembered that when Count Theoderic had first ascended to Lille, Count Theoderic languishes because of a witch's spell: a certain enchantress met him descending into the water which the Count was about to cross by a bridge near the sorceress. And she sprinkled the Count with waters. Therefore, as they say, Count Theoderic languished in his heart and bowels, so that he found food and drink repulsive. And when his knights were grieved on his account, they seized the enchantress, and having bound her hands and feet and placed her upon lit straw and stubble, they burned her.

From that time therefore until the seventh day before the Ides of May, Cono of Frorerdeslo at Wijnendale, and those who bore arms at Wingene with Lambert against Count Theoderic and his men, did not cease to plunder the villages around them and the peasants, and to violently carry off their goods. the citizens of Bruges fortify the city: But the citizens of Bruges surrounded themselves with new ditches, and defended themselves with their watches and ambushes and those of their knights. At that time the village of Orscamp was utterly plundered by the soldiers of Count William.

[166] May 14, they fight at Wingene: On the day before the Ides of May, Monday, the citizens of Bruges attacked those at Wingene, and very many were wounded on both sides, and some killed. Yet the stronghold of those besieged was not destroyed.

[167] On the Ides of May, Tuesday, Count William, having gathered his knights, attacked the herald at Orscamp and chased him into the church of that village, and having shut him within, he besieged him, and having set fires at the doors of the temple, he burned those very doors. Meanwhile our citizens ran to meet him armed at Orscamp, and when they had observed both the Count and his knights and the flames of fire in the temple, and May 15 at Orscamp against Count William: terrified, they fled, and many were captured on the same day. When therefore the Count was running about in chasing and pursuing our citizens, the herald from Orscamp with a few leaped out from the temple and escaped the danger of the fire, and one of the knights was captured who had come out from the temple in that same escape: they flee; but our citizens fled, terrified with fear and terror, and at the same time because they were conscious that they had unjustly expelled and betrayed that same Count William: and some of them hid in country ovens, from which they were dragged out and led away captive.

[168] The King of France retreats from the siege of Lille: On the twelfth day before the Kalends of July, Monday, report told from Lens that the King of France had fled from Lille, where he had besieged our Count Theoderic for four days. At the same time the men of Ghent had eviscerated a certain enchantress and were carrying her stomach around their town.

[169] On the fourth day before the Kalends of June, Tuesday, Count William, having gathered a very great force of knights and foot soldiers, invaded Bruges, and at the very gates and enclosures and within our ditches he impetuously and boldly pressed his assault. May 29, Count William invades Bruges: On both sides some were killed, and very many others wounded. At last in the evening he returned to Jabbeke.

[170] On the third day before the Kalends of June, Wednesday, Count William again seized peasants at Orscamp, and knights with armed men, May 30, he plunders all around; and violently took them to Wijnendale and Oudenburg.

[171] On the day before the Kalends of June, on the day of the Lord's Ascension, from Oudenburg Count William sent a certain monk named Basil, commanding his notary Basil to hasten to him, because in his presence the park-keepers and guardians of his courts and revenues had come to render an account of their debts. That monk therefore was detained at Bruges by Iwan and Castellan Gervase and Arnold, nephew of Count Charles, who the day before had come from Burbourg to Bruges. At the same time Count William ordered Oudenburg to be fenced around and fortified with ditches, May 31, he fortifies Oudenburg. where he had arranged to receive himself and his men. Therefore no farmer around us was secure, but

with all their furnishings, they had either fled to the woods and were hiding, or ascended into Bruges, scarcely secure there of their life or their property.

[172] June 10, Count Theoderic comes to Bruges: On the fourth day before the Ides of June, the holy Sunday of Pentecost, Count Theoderic came to Bruges, having gained the surrounding villages near Ghent, and he was received by our people with the greatest joy.

[173] On the third day before the Ides of June, Monday, certain knights and petty robbers who were on the side of Count William went forth from Jabbeke, and as though bearing an appearance of peace, they exchanged words and greetings with a certain knight from our side. This knight of ours had a defensible and very strong house: June 11, he occupies a nearby fortification into which all the surrounding residents and many of the citizens of Bruges had brought their property, which they would save more safely there. They therefore intercepted that knight in his court as he walked about securely, and having betrayed him, they killed him with wounds, and having expelled that knight, they violently took the house. Immediately Count Theoderic, joyful and with an innumerable multitude rushing up, besieged them and compelled the besieged to surrender. Yet he let them depart with their limbs safe, and well restored the knight and master of that house in his own house — on Tuesday namely, the day before the Ides of June.

[174] On that same day before the Ides of June, the knights of Count William, who had been stationed at Oudenburg and Jabbeke and Straten to lay ambushes for our Count Theoderic and our men — hearing that Theoderic with all his forces had made a siege far away in remote villages from Bruges — [June 12, he abandons the siege of the other place on account of a hostile incursion:] about sixty advance riders rushing up, set fire to a house near the castle of Bruges, wishing to lure our citizens out, whom they might perhaps thus capture. But rather they attacked us in order to recall Count Theoderic from the siege by the smoke and flames of the fire. Therefore Castellan Gervase, running to meet with knights the assault of the ambushers, captured two valiant knights: in this Walter, nephew of Thancmar, is captured. Walter, nephew of Thancmar, through whom the occasion and cause of the entire sedition and battle had its origin between Borsiard, that traitor of Count Charles, and Thancmar; and he captured another knight together with Walter. But that same Walter was fatally wounded in that capture. The citizens of Bruges indeed clapped their hands for joy, not sufficiently showing to each other the exhilaration of their spirit for so good an outcome. For at last, after so many evils, after so many plunderings and burnings of houses, and after so many homicides perpetrated against our men, that Walter was captured by ours — he who was the head and beginning of the entire evil of our land, on account of whose deceits Count Charles was betrayed: not that he himself had betrayed, but he had compelled his enemies Borsiard and his men to betray. I say this also according to the sense of the common people and according to the fury of spirit of those who would now have hanged the aforesaid captive Walter or destroyed him by a new and unheard-of manner of death, if the Count had permitted it. For having seen the fire near Bruges, Count Theoderic, now returning from the siege, rushed up with his whole multitude, but before his arrival those two had been captured, and the remaining ambushers were driven back in flight.

[175] On the same day Walter of Somergem and knights and foot soldiers with him, Various skirmishes occur who were fighting on our side, were captured at Haltras. On the same day Daniel and Iwan captured fifty knights from the Duke of Louvain at Rupelmonde. On the same day the men of Ypres secretly sent letters to the citizens of Bruges, and conspiracies. desiring that privately and in a safe place some of the wiser of ours and theirs should meet, and usefully treat of the honor of the County.

[176] On the fourteenth and thirteenth days before the Kalends of July, Count Theoderic had ascended with Count Frederick into Ghent, and he gathered to himself an infinite army from Axel and Bouchaute and Waas and those border areas: he also brought catapults with which to demolish the defensible houses and strongholds of his enemies. And he advanced with a heavy army to Tielt, and besieged the house of the knight Folket. Near Tielt, besieged by Count Theoderic Therefore on the twelfth day before the Kalends of July, Wednesday, the citizens of Bruges met the Count with their Castellan Gervase and with an infinite multitude of Flemings who had sworn with them. They therefore encamped outside on the following night around the aforesaid house.

Therefore Count William, following up and surveying the army, observed how great the crowd and army were that had besieged his knight. And he was not a little grieved by that insult and the aggressive arrogance of the besiegers. For Count William had chosen to die sooner than endure so great a reproach against himself. Therefore on the eleventh day before the Kalends of July, Thursday, [June 21, Count William, having made confession to the Abbot of Oudenburg and having made vows,] and the fourth day before the feast of Saint John the Baptist, around morning, at Oudenburg from the Abbot of that place — a religious and prudent man — he devoutly received the penance of his sins, and vowed to God that henceforth he would be the advocate of the poor and of the Churches of God. Similarly all his valiant knights made vows, and having cut short their hair and cast aside their common garments, wearing only a shirt and a hauberk and the other arms, they went forth with a humble vow before God and with the strongest zeal, proceeding to battle — and they came to the top of a hill he leads his army: which towered beside the army of Count Theoderic; and there they arranged themselves for battle.

[177] Count William therefore made three squadrons of horsemen, and he commanded the first battle-line of his men, making himself the leader to deliver the first assault. On the opposite side Count Theoderic had likewise arranged his battle-lines: in one of which he himself and Castellan Gervase were the leaders, in another Count Frederick: they fight on both sides with varying fortune: and with shortened lances they gradually assailed each other on both sides in the strength of lance and sword, and infinite numbers fell. They fought at close quarters, in no other way than as if they were offering themselves to death — they rushed into the very midst of the enemy's weapons. For they had beforehand resolved to die in battle rather than be expelled from the County. In the first attack indeed Daniel, who was the head of Count Theoderic's army, wished to throw himself into the wedges of Count William's men — and there Count Frederick was thrown down, and against him Richard of Woldman was bound in the first binding: for many indeed and infinite bindings were made against each other. At last they contended with swords.

[178] But the part and wedge in which Count William was fighting, beginning to fail, turned back in flight, which Daniel pursued with his men. Count William, fleeing, And while they labored on both sides — those in fleeing, those in pursuing — the second part of Count William's wedges, which had been lying in ambush, those who have advanced too rashly, sprang out into the opposing faces of Daniel and his men: and because they had been encouraged and instructed for battle with fresh strength and unanimous consent, hesitating in nothing, they broke apart those pursuers with lances and swords. Then Count William, swiftly springing back from flight, attacks from ambush, received himself with his men, and with one charge and manly spirit and the strength of their bodies he pressed upon the cruelty of arms and the dispersal of his enemies. Therefore all who with Count Theoderic had foreseen the perils of battle threatening them, scattered in diverse directions with their arms cast aside, and turns them to flight. and utterly naked they fled: so much so that with their Count, apart from ten knights, none remained.

Count William indeed and his men, casting off their hauberks and riding lighter on their horses, then at last having achieved the fruit of their victory, killed some enemies and captured others.

[179] Around midnight Count Theoderic returned to Bruges: but where Count William returned, the citizens of Bruges grieve greatly, we did not hear. Then the wives of our place mourned their husbands, sons their fathers, servants and handmaids their lords, lamenting the disaster and misfortune of battle — seeking them — all night and thenceforth they languished with weeping and sighing. At first light therefore when our men went out to their dead, again they were captured by William's knights. So grave a persecution and so manifold a captivity of our men had never been heard of occurring in our parts before this battle. they ransom captives: Infinite indeed was the money given for ransoming our captives to Count William and his men, and so in a way our land was again plundered.

At last, hearing that Count William before entering the battle had humbly subjected himself to God, had taken the remedy of penance, and that both he and all his men had cut short their hair and superfluous garments — they do penance. after their own misfortunes of war, our citizens together with their Count Theoderic cut short their hair and garments, and our priests too, following the example of their enemies, at last preached penance, and after so many losses, spoliations, and captivities inflicted upon our men, they proclaimed a universal fast, and they bore crosses and shrines of Saints into the church of Blessed Mary at Bruges, and there all the priests of Bruges excommunicated by name Count William the Norman: Thancrannus the Dean, Eggard, Sigebod, Herbert, Fromold the elder, Theoderic — the priests — and they made Count Theoderic vow before all that if any of the men of Ypres should turn to him, he would receive them mercifully; and likewise from the whole County, whoever should similarly turn to him, he would not disinherit them.

[180] June 24 On the eighth day before the Kalends of July, Sunday, on the feast of Saint John the Baptist, in the church of Blessed Mary the Crucifix which stood on the pavement for the adoration of the faithful, by itself and by God's power from the place a repeated portent of the Crucifix. where it had been firmly fixed, was lifted up and would have fallen onto the pavement, had not a certain guardian of the church forestalled the fall with his hands. That guardian indeed fixed the Crucifix again in its usual place, and when he had gone away, again, just as at first, it was lifted from its fixing and began to topple — the same Crucifix. Then all who were standing to adore it rushed up and again fixed it, thinking that fall had occurred from the carelessness of the one fixing it. But looking all around, they proved that no carelessness had caused this.

[181] July 4 On the fourth day before the Nones of the month of July, Wednesday, on the Translation of Bishop Martin of the Church of Tours, Count William the Norman besieged with a heavy army the house of the great Herald in the village of Orscamp, bringing catapults — a mangonel and a catapult — The fortification of Orscamp is besieged by Count William: with which to demolish the aforesaid house. But Count Theoderic with the citizens of Bruges and the Flemings around Bruges and within the ditches and hedges of that same house, and likewise Arnold Wineth, opposed them; a river had divided both armies, which fortified the aforesaid house on the eastern side. But on the part where William made his assault, that house was strong with hedges and ditches. Many therefore in the assault of battle and fighting against each other on both sides were killed or wounded, but the house and its ditches and hedges stood firmly.

At last they erected a tower on one side and a tower on the other, from which, having ascended, they fought more fiercely. Then William's army, because the wind blew hard from the west against the enemy host opposite him, ordered hay, grass, roofs of houses, brushwood, and every material that would serve for filling the ditches to be brought from everywhere, so that they might thus enter against the enemies opposite. But those from within threw fire — burning more easily with pitch and old grease and wax — into the mass, and so whatever had been thrown in was consumed by fire. And the smoke of that same burning mass, stirred by the force of the winds, rushed into the eyes of those who had thrown the fire from within: and many were struck down with spears and missiles and arrows. William therefore sat for six days in that siege: during which days the knights of both armies exercised so many military feats and tournaments. For since the river was deep between both sides, the knights of William at all times of the siege sought fords and crossing-places in the river, which they did not delay to cross — eager for fighting and battle, as those who were stronger in arms and more numerous in multitude.

On the sixth day therefore, which was the seventh day before the Ides of July, Monday, July 9, it is abandoned. around evening, seeing that he was accomplishing nothing in the siege of that house, William ordered four hundred knights to cross through the fords of the river, and they burned the house of the knight Ansbold and the houses of his brother and sisters. Then his army withdrew: but our men fled into Bruges, and the neighbors who lived around us, with all their furnishings and cattle fleeing, entered into Bruges, stunned with trembling and fear, and they passed that night sleepless. On the same day the monks of Saint Trudo and their cell situated near Orscamp were utterly plundered, so that neither books nor a chalice for the sacrifice remained there.

[182] It should be noted indeed that no one among the wise of our citizens of Bruges dared to profess the truth about the disaster and misfortune and flight of ours. For whoever professed any truth, The misery of the citizens of Bruges is deplored they reviled him as a traitor of our place and a supporter of Count William, and immediately threatened him with death. Nor was it surprising, because God hardened their hearts so that they did not wish to hear the full truth. Yet following the crosses and processions carried through the churches by the clergy, they provoked God more to anger than to appeasement: because in the obstinacy of their spirit, in evils and in pride and battle, they had risen against the power set over them by God. For every soul ought to be subject to every power, as the Apostle says. Romans 13:1 Therefore, if in that place whence the worst betrayals had emerged, misfortunes should occur — wars, seditions, murders, everlasting reproaches of all Flanders — is not that same place rightly owed all evils? And if the Church of the Brethren suffers, which is at Bruges, is it not deservedly, because the Provost of that same Church brought the cause of the evils? And although no one dared to announce the ban and anathema of our Archbishop and Bishop and the other suffragan Bishops, we heard and knew indeed truly that we too had deservedly been placed under the ban and under the prohibition of the divine office, because we had placed one Count over another Count and inflicted infinite deaths upon all through this. Our priests and the clergy of our place had prepared themselves for battle with the people and the crowd, ill-remembering that they should stand as a wall for the house of Israel.

[183] July 11 On the fourth day before the Ides of July, Wednesday, on the Translation of Abbot Benedict, Christian of Gistel and the brothers of Walter Pennatum-mendacium came to Bruges under the safe-conduct of Daniel. And Christian placed his son as a hostage, and the aforesaid two brothers remained as hostages, hostages left for Walter of Straten. shackled in the Count's house which is at Bruges, for their brother Walter. Christian and his knights therefore bore with them that Walter, until they should see whether he would recover or die — seeing that he languished fatally wounded.

CHAPTER XXII

The death of William the Norman. The peaceful rule of Theoderic.

[184] July 12 On the fourth day before the Ides of July, Thursday, the Duke of Louvain besieged Aalst with a heavy army; and Count William of Flanders came to his aid with four hundred knights. Aalst is besieged by the Duke of Louvain and Count William. Meanwhile among the citizens of Bruges many lies were flying about concerning the business of the aforesaid siege.

[185] It happened meanwhile that at Bruges a mill, submerged in water on all sides, collapsed and was destroyed, and the water which had fortified the castle and suburb of Bruges on the southern side — at the place where the mill had held back the waters — flowed out almost entirely. Thence the citizens, stirred, ran up and blocked the flowing waters with dung, wood, and earth. They therefore attributed the undermining of the mill to having been done furtively by their enemies, because thus, after the draining of the waters, their castle and suburb would lie open to the entry of enemies. Many diviners were present, both laymen and priests, who flattered our citizens, the citizens of Bruges fluctuate in various ways: predicting whatever they knew the citizens wished to hear. But if any wise man professed the truth about the business of the siege or about the perils threatening the place and the citizens, he was assailed with the basest rebuff by them and fell silent. Still indeed our citizens labored at extorting money from one another, they collect money for Theoderic. which they would send to Count Theoderic for the expedition of the aforesaid siege. Similarly those of Ghent labored. And there were besieged at Aalst Iwan and Daniel and Count Theoderic with a strong soldiery, sufficiently proven in war.

[186] On the eighth day before the Kalends of August, Wednesday, on the feast of Saint Christopher, Walter Pennatum-mendacium was brought back into captivity at Bruges; Walter is brought back to captivity: and the hostages who had been given for him and kept up to that time were returned.

[187] On the sixth day before the Kalends of August, Friday, after the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor, July 27, Count William dies of a wound: the Lord deigned to put a certain end to this sedition by His own foreknowledge and our persecution alike, because Count William the Norman, while in the assault of the aforesaid siege he had exposed himself before the enemies near the castle of Aalst, was thrown from his horse; and when he had gotten to his feet and was drawing his right hand down to the edges of his armor, a certain foot soldier from among the enemies, leaping forth, pierced the same right hand of the Count through the palm with a lance, and bored through the middle of the arm which was attached to the hand, inflicting a fatal wound.

His knights gathered him up — their Lord dying by a pitiable fall — and throughout that entire day, concealing the death from the enemy, without lamentation and wailing they suppressed the voices and cries of their grief with an all the more bitter confusion of mind. The Duke of Louvain therefore sought to compose himself and his men with our Count Theoderic, and he commended the causes of all the discord mutually held to the judgment of Iwan and Daniel and the King of England. By the concession therefore of the agreement, praised on both sides, when he asked our Count Theoderic to provide an escort for Count William to return peacefully with his men from the siege; and when Count Theoderic had given his full assent to the Duke on this matter, peace having been established at Aalst, the Duke said: "Behold, the enemy whom your valor so persecutes — Count William has expired from a fatal wound." Thereupon each man on both sides leaped up — one to mourn the fall of so great and distinguished a knight, another to stir up his enemies to exultation, another to announce to those who had remained at home, so that they might take care of their affairs with foresight and prudence and act only watchfully. For on every side the rumor and fame of that Prince's death was flying, and those who had fought in the faith and security of that same Count betook themselves to safer places. he is buried. Then with infinite lamentation and lofty clamor, the body of the valiant knight, placed on a bier, they transferred to Saint-Omer for burial.

[188] Moreover Count Theoderic pursued his enemies everywhere, and devastated them by the conflagration of fire, captured them, destroyed them, unless they had obtained his grace before the conflagration itself, either by money or otherwise. Count Theoderic therefore ascended to Ypres on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, Sunday, amid various commotions of the Flemings, with infinite military aid and obtained Ypres. Our citizens of Bruges and their knights and mercenaries went out and plundered the village of Ridewoorde, and burned the houses. Therefore Lambert of Ridewoorde and Lambert of Wingene, some from Folket and Tielt, and many others from our border regions who had fought in the service of Count William, withdrew to the stronghold of Wijnendale. Those also who among the citizens at Ypres had stood on William's side, with Isaac at Formesele, fortified themselves against Count Theoderic: where the greatest military exercise was carried out.

And it should be noted that when our citizens of Bruges had been in such great perils, so that they believed no counsel could avail them except from God alone, the citizens of Bruges acknowledge God's benefit, and therefore had appeased God with the sacrifice of the heart, God in His accustomed dispensation came to their aid. For He slew Count William with the sword of His judgment, but in this manner: that he should die not in his own cause but in the cause of another's battle — namely of that Duke in whose service he was fighting. Therefore we citizens of Bruges were reckoned innocent of his death; since indeed no one of ours had inflicted death upon him — on the contrary, at the very time when he departed from life, we feared that he would without doubt come to besiege us. Those knights also from Oostkerke, who had depended on the counsel of Count Theoderic and ours, on the very day Count William died reproached us for being traitors and withdrew from us.

Meanwhile at Bruges a messenger came who announced the death of Count William. When this was heard, the citizens and all our people gave thanks to God for so great a deliverance of themselves and their property.

[189] Therefore wonderful is the dispensation of God, which arranged that that Prince should die in this manner — that he should fall in the service of the aforesaid Duke besieging Aalst, outside our County. And although he in part fought against our Count and our people, yet it was not indeed anyone else's cause of that battle and siege

than the Duke's. The cause of the war with the Duke of Louvain is inquired into. And although Count William would gladly attack our people on any occasion, and for that reason had especially ascended in aid of the Duke, his battle or his death there, predetermined by God, was not imputed to anyone but the Duke. For he had been the Duke's soldier in this, and there he died not first for the County but for the safety and honor of the Duke, as any other mercenary might. Some contend that our people, after they had expelled Count William, set Count Theoderic over him, and confirmed that same Theoderic with silver and counsel and every resource both of counsel and money, opposing him in every place where they could forestall William, to resist him. For in that manner they could not be proved innocent of his death.

Others say the Duke attacked Theoderic because he foresaw that if Theoderic should chance to reign and persist in the County of Flanders, he could in the future inflict many evils upon him and perhaps expel him from his Duchy, or at least violently seize that dowry for which Count Theoderic was striving to challenge the Duke before the Emperor. Count William fought for a similar cause in the aforesaid Duke's siege against Count Theoderic, because he knew that Theoderic was scheming by what cunning he could expel him from the County: yet he knew that Theoderic had been unjustly and treacherously imposed upon him: and therefore both could reasonably — both Count William, for the Duke's cause and for his own injury, have rightly fallen there, and Count Theoderic, for the dowry demanded from the Duke and for the County obliquely given, have justly resisted the Duke and Count William there.

[190] Let it therefore be asked: since God wished to restore peace to the fatherland through the death of one, why did He rather ordain that Count William should die, The right to the County of Flanders of William the Norman, who had obtained a more just cause for ruling the land, and why did Count Theoderic not die sooner, who seemed to have been unjustly imposed, or by what justice did God grant him the County, who had violently seized the dignity? If therefore neither of them properly received the County, rightly it was to be taken from both. Yet because by hereditary right the County pertained to Count Theoderic, he justly possesses it. And if he seems to have seized it unjustly, nevertheless because formerly before the election of that William, who is dead, he had requested through letters directed to the Chief Men of Flanders what pertained to him: although he was not heard by them at that time, he was no less obliged to seek and pursue his inheritance, which had been unjustly taken from him and unjustly sold to another by the King of France.

Therefore, after so many controversies, we give precedence to the more just cause of Count Theoderic, and Theoderic of Alsace. who is not unjustly said to have been placed over Count William: indeed that dead Count was most unjustly placed over that same Theoderic, and through purchase from the King's power he was made Count by authority. Therefore God preserved that Theoderic for life by ancient justice and restored him to his inheritance: and removed that one by death from the County, who, however powerfully he might live, would devastate the whole land, provoke all the inhabitants of the land to civil war, and confound the laws of God and men: whom by His strict law God adjudged to go the way of all flesh, not without his own evil deserts. For Count William will not confess that of all things which he possessed in life, anything remained with him after death among the shades — those whom he sent ahead to the places of punishment — except the praise of soldiery: for he was said to be good in warfare. Therefore, because no human power could or would correct so great an injustice, God corrected it according to the line of His strict judgment. And therefore He inflicted upon the men of Flanders the wrath and scourges of His indignation, because it was placed in the choice of all to deliberate beforehand, to foresee and discuss, and to inquire with the greatest diligence; and to appease God with a contrite heart and the sacrifice of a pious mind — as to whom they would appoint as Lord for themselves and the fatherland, and to love and venerate the one elected. Because therefore they neglected this, the one whom they incautiously received as Lord they suffered as a tyrant and devastator and exacter of every evil, and the same one, after the election and reception in the County, the Princes and guardians or counselors of the land taught no road or honorable manners of the predecessor Counts: but instructed him for plunder and cunning and deceitful causes, by which they might acquire infinite moneys from the citizens and townsfolk of the land, and sometimes violently extort them.

[191] Therefore Theoderic, Marquis of Flanders, from that time of William's death reigned, and having traversed the castles — namely Arras, Thérouanne, Saint-Omer, Theoderic's peaceful possession, Lille, Aire — in which places he was reverently received by clergy and people in the manner of his good predecessors, and confirmed by faith and homage, he at last ascended to the Kings of France and England, to receive from them royal fiefs and gifts. Therefore the King of both kingdoms — that is, the King of France and the King of England — was pleased with our Count Theoderic, approved by the Kings of France and England. and they gladly gave the investitures of fiefs and benefices which the most holy and most pious Count Charles had obtained from them.

ANCIENT RHYTHMUS

from the manuscript of Jacques Sirmond, S.J.

Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, Martyr (Blessed)

BHL Number: 1576

Section I: Lamentation on the death of Blessed Count Charles of Flanders.

Section II: Another Lamentation.

Section III: Vengeance for the death of the same Count.

ANCIENT EPITAPHS

published by Jacques Meyer from manuscripts.

Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, Martyr (Blessed)

Here lies the father of orphans, helper of widows, Savior of the fatherland, zealot of the Churches, Peace and life to his own, dread and death to enemies. With his affairs composed in peace on every side, Count of the Flemings, royal offspring of the Danes, Here Charles died, the innocent perished. Prostrate in prayer, slain at the altar of the Lord, For justice he becomes a sacrifice pleasing to God. May he who flourished in the peace of the living rest in peace when dead.

II.

Count Charles departed by the sword and treachery of his men, Vengeance followed — the hard and heavy death of the guilty.

III. Found in a monastery on the Rhine not far from Andernach.

Through you, living, your Flanders shone, O Charles — In fame, in peace, in goods: bright, blessed, powerful. With you dying, peace perishes, fame falls, every good The plunderer holds; violence rages everywhere without law. The office of soldier did not cancel that of judge: You were both a brave soldier and a just judge. Repairing temples, worshiping God, feeding widows, You were Martha, Mary, the merciful Samaritan. With arms, with law, with threats, you tamed both foes and yours, Correcting deeds by punishment, future ones by fear. Gifts to the good, pardon to the wretched, punishment to the wicked — Generous, gentle, you gave them, upholding justice. Because you handled bravely and wisely The affairs of war and peace, you were greater than Caesar. Servant, justice, temple, and the favorable light of Mars — Caesar, cause, place, day of your death they were.