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Willem van Saeftinghe ("William of Saeftinghe"; d. 1309?) was a lay brother in the Cistercian abbey of Ter Doest in Lissewege, West Flanders, Belgium. He fought at the Battle of the Golden Spurs, and became a Flemish folk hero.
Willem was a lay brother in the Cistercian abbey of Ter Doest in Lissewege. During the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 he unhorsed the French leader, Count Robert of Artois, who was then killed by other Flemish fighters. This episode in the battle was represented in a painting by Nicaise de Keyser, displayed in Kortrijk, which was destroyed in the bombing of 1944. A preliminary study can still be seen in the Stedelijk Museum in Kortrijk. During the battle he killed many French knights. Contemporary chroniclers[ citation needed ] stress that he was a very large and extraordinarily strong man. He rode to the battlefield and then exchanged his mount for a goedendag and a spear or sword.
During a revolt of the lay brothers of Ter Doest Abbey in November 1308 he killed the elderly cellarer and severely injured the abbot, Willem van Cordewaeghen. Willem van Saeftinghe sought sanctuary in the church of Lissewege. When the news reached Bruges, Jan Breydel and a son of Pieter de Coninck with 80 inhabitants of the city marched to free him, and carried him back in triumph to Bruges, to the great displeasure of the count, the burghers and the nobility of Flanders.
The judicial vicar of Tournai excommunicated him. Pope Clement V forgave him his misdeeds on 19 November 1309 and granted him absolution but bound him to join the Knights Hospitaller. He was sent on crusade and is believed to have been killed during the conquest of Rhodes.
A bronze statue of him by Jef Claerhout has stood since 1988 in the marketplace in Lissewege.
Joan, often called Joan of Constantinople, ruled as Countess of Flanders and Hainaut from 1205 until her death. She was the elder daughter of Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and Marie of Champagne.
The Battle of the Golden Spurs was a military confrontation between the royal army of France and rebellious forces of the County of Flanders on 11 July 1302 during the Franco-Flemish War (1297–1305). It took place near the town of Kortrijk (Courtrai) in modern-day Belgium and resulted in an unexpected victory for the Flemish. It is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Courtrai.
Guy of Dampierre was the Count of Flanders (1251–1305) and Marquis of Namur (1264–1305). He was a prisoner of the French when his Flemings defeated the latter at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302.
The Flemish peasant revolt of 1323–1328, sometimes referred to as the Flemish Coast uprising in historical writing, was a popular revolt in late medieval Europe. Beginning as a series of scattered rural riots in late 1323, peasant insurrection escalated into a full-scale rebellion that dominated public affairs in Flanders for nearly five years until 1328. The uprising in Flanders was caused by excessive taxations levied by the Count of Flanders Louis I and by his pro-French policies. The insurrection had urban leaders and rural factions, which took over most of Flanders by 1325.
Saeftinghe or Saaftinge was a town in the southwest Netherlands, located in eastern Zeelandic Flanders, near Nieuw-Namen. It existed until 1584. It is now a swamp known as the Drowned Land of Saeftinghe and an official nature reserve area. The land is a crosspoint where the river Scheldt meets the salty waters of the North Sea in the estuary Western Scheldt. It is a treacherous place where the tides easily consume large stretches of land in a matter of seconds and must not be explored without an experienced guide.
Robert II was the Count of Artois, the posthumous son and heir of Robert I and Matilda of Brabant. He was a nephew of Louis IX of France. He died at the Battle of the Golden Spurs.
Pieter de Coninck was a weaver from Bruges well known for his role in the events surrounding the Battle of the Golden Spurs. He was not the head of the weavers' guild as is popularly believed. Together with Jan Breydel, a butcher, he was in the forefront of the popular uprising that led to the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Right before that battle he was knighted together with two of his sons.
Jan Breydel is credited with leading the Bruges Matins, a violent uprising against Philip the Fair. He is said to have played a major role in the Franco-Flemish War, even though his authenticity has since been questioned.
Thorfinn of Hamar was the Bishop of the Ancient Diocese of Hamar in medieval Norway.
The Day of the Flemish Community of Belgium is an annual commemoration in the Flemish Community in Belgium on 11 July which marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag) in 1302.
Nicaise de Keyser was a Belgian painter of mainly history paintings and portraits who was one of the key figures in the Belgian Romantic-historical school of painting.
Kortrijk, sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray, is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders.
On 23 August 1328, the Battle of Cassel took place near the city of Cassel, 30 km south of Dunkirk in present-day France. Philip VI fought Nicolaas Zannekin, a wealthy farmer from Lampernisse. Zannekin was the leader of a band of Flemish rebels. The fighting erupted over taxation and punitive edicts of the French over the Flemish. The battle was won decisively by the French. Zannekin and about 3,200 Flemish rebels were killed in the battle.
The Lion of Flanders, or the Battle of the Golden Spurs is a major novel first published in 1838 by the Belgian writer Hendrik Conscience (1812–1883) and is an early example of historical fiction. The book focuses on the medieval Franco-Flemish War and the Battle of the Golden Spurs of 1302 in particular. It is written in Conscience's typical stylistic romanticism and has been described as the "Flemish national epic".
The Franco-Flemish War was a conflict between the Kingdom of France and the County of Flanders between 1297 and 1305.
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
Ter Doest Abbey was a Cistercian abbey in Belgium, in the present Lissewege, a district of Bruges, West Flanders.
Ten Duinen Abbey or the Abbey of the Dunes was a Cistercian monastery at Koksijde in what is now Belgium. It was one of the richest and most influential religious institutions in the medieval County of Flanders. It later relocated to the city of Bruges.
The Bruges Public Library is a public library in Bruges, Belgium.