Hence the gradual decay and disappearance of communes. Charles the Fair abolished that of Laon, one of the oldest and most celebrated. Mayors and sheriff's either disappeared from the other towns or sank into mere king's officers. The insignificant franchises granted about this time to Macon offer a fair specimen of the benefits which the French kings conferred on their towns in lieu of municipal freedom.* There were cities in Flanders which would have preferred the same servitude. The rich citizens of Ghent, for example, would have been gladly protected from their own democracy by the sovereignty of France. If such was the case at Ghent, the same motive, we may be sure, had stronger influence in French towns. The inhabitants might not have felt themselves aggrieved or deteriorated by this decline of their local liberties; but it deprived them of all energy for local exertions. It facilitated the reaction of the noblesse, which, when it returned to power and privilege under the Valois, threw the middle class aside, and whilst it levied money of them, no longer admitted the townsfolk to the military defence of the country, nor to any participation in political influence.

This effacement of the middle class must not be altogether attributed either to the tyranny of the Crown or to the arrogance of the noblesse. The supineness of the citizens themselves must bear, no small portion of the blame. It is, indeed, characteristic of the French peasant and the French townsman, in all ages of their history, that they readily and cheerfully abdicated power and privilege, and abandoned high and political influence to the wealthy and the nobly born. It was only at intervals, when those higher classes proved unequal to the task and unworthy of the trust, that the lower ranks of French life arose, took policy and war into their own hands, unfortunately displaying fury along with vigour,

* The ordonnance conferring franchises on Macon was issued in the first years of John.

CHAP.

X.

X.

CHAP. making a contemptuous disrespect for birth, rank, and experience succeed to a far too servile respect for them, and thus rendering the history of France a record of centuries of tyranny, interrupted by intervals of licence and revolution.

One of the causes of the decay of importance and of influence in the French towns of this period was their backwardness in taking the field. This was no doubt in some measure owing to their want of freedom. When Flanders was threatened, the Flemish towns poured forth their whole male population in arms, repelling and exterminating the armies of France. The French townsfolks felt by no means so deeply interested in the wars which it pleased the king to wage; and when recommended to send their militia, it was no longer the citizens who marched, but the poorer persons of the towns, the refuse of them, in fact,-whom the wealthier sent to the field.* It was upon seeing the citizens themselves thus shrink from military service that the king asked them no longer for contingents of men, but supplies of money; and, as the knight's military service in England was paid in scutage, so was the townsman's military service in France converted into a pecuniary contribution.

Although France was so little prepared for a great national war, a king mounted its throne who was almost certain to provoke one. The princes of the family of Valois had always represented the ideas and the interests of the noblesse during the preceding reigns, when reasons of state, maxims of law, and necessities of finance had led the Government to look to other councillors and undergo other influence. With the accession of Philip of Valois, the noblesse recovered

Philip the Fair was obliged to issue an ordonnance to the authorities at Amiens not to send to the Flemish war any soldier who had

less than 100 livres value in moveables. Philip,in other words, wanted men of substance, not beggars, such as they sent him.

X.

that ascendancy of which they had been so long de- CHAP. prived. And this influence they displayed with a petulance and a pride which could not but provoke what they most loved, a war. Flanders first offered itself, but its resistance at that period was not of long duration. A crusade was meditated against the Moors of Spain, and against the Saracens of Palestine. In the meantime a series of provocations was stirring up Edward of England to avenge the wrongs of his country and his ancestors. If he long hesitated, it was the magnitude of the enterprise rather than the want of cause or right that stopped him. But event after event came to increase his resentment as well as his confidence, and both countries were precipitated into the deadly struggle.

"Charles the Fair having expired, the barons assembled to take into consideration the government of the kingdom. The queen was pregnant, and until the sex of her issue was known, the title of king could not be assumed. The only question was to whom, as nearest in blood, the government of the kingdom should be committed, especially as in France a female could not succeed to the crown. The English said that their king, the son of Philip the Fair's daughter, and consequently nephew of the late monarch, was, as nearest of kin, more entitled to the regency and to the throne, if the queen did not bring forth a prince, than Philip of Valois, who was but the cousin of the deceased monarch. Many learned in the civil and canon law were of this opinion. Isabella, the daughter of Philip the Fair, might, they alleged, be set aside on account of her sex; but a prince of the right sex, and of the nearest affinity, ought to succeed. The men of France, incapable of suffering the idea of becoming subjects of an English prince, replied, that Edward could only succeed by the right of his mother; and when the mother had no right, the son could have none. This opinion being accepted as the most sensible, was ap

X.

CHAP. proved of by the barons, and the government delivered to Philip of Valois. He accordingly received the homage due to the crown of France, but not that due to the crown of Navarre, which the Count of Evreux, claimed by right of his wife, daughter of Louis Hutin."

This narrative, by the continuator of Nangis, is sufficiently correct. Navarre was given to the Count of Evreux, he consenting to receive pecuniary compensation for the counties of Champagne and Brie. In April the queen was confined of a daughter; Philip instantly assumed the title of King, and gave orders for his coronation at Rheims. At the same time, by a letter dated Northampton, the 16th day of May, Edward appointed two bishops as procurators to make good his claim to the kingdom of France. At the close of the same month Philip was solemnly crowned at Rheims.

The first act of the new king as Regent seems to have been to order the treasurer of the late monarch, Pierre Remi, to be tortured-thus compelled to confess treason and finally hanged. He also summoned his barons to support him in a military expedition into Flanders. Count Louis was obstructed in his government, and especially in his levy of taxes, by the people of Bruges, Ypres, and other cities; those of Ghent alone remaining true to him and to France. Louis demanded aid of Philip. The greater part of the barons were of opinion that the season was too far advanced to admit of an expedition that year; but Philip, anxious to signalise his reign, turned to the constable, Gautier de Chatillon, and asked his advice. "The brave heart finds all times opportune for fighting," replied the constable. The king accordingly summoned his lieges to meet him at the feast of the Madeleine in July, at Arras. "But the good towns," says the chronicler of St. Denis, "did not attend, giving their money instead, and staying at home to mind their cities."

The king's army was most numerous, divided into

X.

ten divisions or battles, the nobles from every quarter CHAP. hastening to evince their loyalty by attending the first summons of a new and chivalrous king. The citizens of West Flanders alone mustered to oppose the French, and not more than twelve thousand of them, according to Froissart, took post under Colas Zannequin on the hill of Cassel. They were confident, however, and hung out a flag with a cock painted on it, and an inscription saying, that this cock would crow, ere the upstart king, the roi trouvé, would find his way into Cassel. The Flemings remained tranquil for several days, with the French encamped before them. At last at the hour of vespers when the latter were preparing supper, the Flemings marched out in three bodies, fell upon them, and penetrated into their camp. Philip, like his namesake at Mons en Puelle, was obliged to withdraw, and it was his chaplains who helped him to put on his armour. When the king showed himself with the oriflamme, the knights rallied round him from all quarters, the foot, who were more numerous, continuing their flight. The Flemings had failed in mastering as well as surprising Philip's camp, and now assailed by the French cavalry (having none of their own), they stood firm and fought for a long time a defensive battle. At last a charge made a breach in their solid phalanx, the French knights poured in, and the Flemings were routed and slaughtered. One of the divisions regained the hill of Cassel, but all alike perished. The king estimated the loss of his enemies at twenty thousand. He entered the several towns one after the other in triumph, took a thousand citizens of Bruges as hostages, tore down the bells, levelled the walls, and proscribed municipal liberties. When Philip delivered the county of Flanders, thus humbled and mutilated, to its lord, he addressed him, as the continuator of Nangis records, in the following words: "Count, I came hither at your request, and in all probability because you were