Geoffroi de Charny at War

Yesterday's post introduced Geoffroi de Charny, a third son with no prospects from his family who set out to make a name for himself. He did very well as a soldier, impressing the king of France, Philip VI, and being given at one point the task of getting the town of Calais back from the English during the Hundred Years War.

As mentioned yesterday, he was captured at one point earlier in his career because of an ambush set up by the English. Unfortunately for him, history was about to repeat itself. In 1349, Geoffroi made contact with a Lombard mercenary who had the responsibility of maintaining the gates into Calais. Edward III of England had made this man, Aimery of Pavia, the captain of the city guard.

Aimery said he would sell Calais to Geoffroi for the sum of 20,000 écus, or gold crowns. Someone blabbed, and Edward found out. He summoned Aimery to London and told him to keep the arrangement, take the money, and let Edward's army know when the French forces intended to arrive to take over the town.

On the night of 31 December 1349, Geoffroi arrived with 500 men, paid the money to Aimery, and entered Calais with 12 knights and 100 archers. Edward's forces were waiting, and the attempted takeover of Calais was thwarted. There was some fighting, and Geoffroi was wounded and taken prisoner once again. (The illustration above is of the wounded Geoffroi lying before Edward III is from a 14th century French chronicle.)

Geoffroi spent a year in an English prison. King Philip VI was succeeded by King John II "the Good", who paid Geoffroi's ransom. Once back on the continent, Geoffroi found out where Aimery de Pavia was, caught him in bed with a mistress, dragged him to Geoffroi's home base at Saint-Omer, and had him publicly executed (tortured with hot irons, then quartered with an axe) as an oath-breaker.

In 1356, King John II and Geoffroi met with Edward, the Black Prince, who was raiding towns in southern France. The two sides parlayed. Mindful that a battle between the two armies would likely produce another bloody Crécy, Geoffroi suggested a "Trial by Combat" with hand-picked men instead of full-scale war. According to an account by the English herald John Chandos:

Then said Geoffroi de Charny: 'Lords,' quoth he, 'since so it is that this treaty pleases you no more, I make offer that we fight you, a hundred against a hundred, choosing each one from his own side; and know well, whichever hundred be discomfited, all the others, know for sure, shall quit this field and let the quarrel be. I think that it will be best so, and that God will be gracious to us if the battle be avoided in which so many valiant men will be slain.'

It was French overconfidence that decided against this advice. The result was the Battle of Poitiers, in which the French overconfidence proved misguided. King John was captured. Geoffroi de Charny was killed, an easy target since he upheld the oriflamme. He was given a quick burial at a nearby Franciscan convent, but in 1370 the body was re-interred in a church in Paris.

Although already mentioned a few days ago, I want to return to the subject of the Shroud of Turin that appeared in Geoffroi's possession with a little more detail surrounding the controversy of its origin. That will be tomorrow.

The Flemish Revolt, Part 2

To sum up yesterday's post: France considered Flanders their territory, Flanders under Count Robert III fought a war about that and lost, the treaty demanded an annual tribute. Count Robert and his son both died within two months, leaving Robert's grandson Louis in charge while still in his teens. Louis' father-in-law was the king of France, so his attitude toward France was much more supportive than previously in the Flanders ruling family—and more than the citizens of Flanders would have liked.

Louis was more concerned with being diligent about payments to France than his grandfather was, and so he raised taxes to cover the payments. That move, and his Franco-phile attitude, turned the general population of Flemings against him.

Resentment against the Count of Flanders started manifesting as small rural riots in late 1323—poor harvests that year contributed to the unrest—and ultimately boiled over into an organized rebellion that lasted until 1328. A rich farmer from Lampernisse named Nicolaas Zannekin organized his neighbors and other rebels and captured various towns, including Nieuwpoort, Ypres, and Kortrijk. In Kortrijk, they went so far as to capture Robert, the Count of Flanders. Louis was released on 30 November 1325 after promising amnesty to all the members of the rebellion; Louis fled to Paris the next day.

In April 1326, King Charles IV of France got involved, as their ruler (technically, but not in the eyes of Flanders' citizens). The Peace of Arques he established did not last.

The rebellion expanded, and gained a new leader, the mayor of Bruges, William Deken. Deken had become mayor in February 1328 when Bruges rejected the Count's appointed city magistrate and appointed its own officials. That June, Deken traveled to England to persuade the young King Edward III that he should renew his claim to the throne of France. (Clearly, he wished to distract France, Louis' strongest ally.)

King Charles of France died 21 February 1328, and King Philip VI organized an expedition into Flanders to end the rebellion once and for all. They met at the Battle of Cassel (pictured above), where the rebels were defeated and Nicolaas Zannekin was killed. William Deken fled to Brabant and looked for help from Duke John III, but John wanted nothing to do with the conflict and handed Deken over to France, where he was taken to Paris and convicted of high treason. After cutting off his hands, he was dragged through the streets and then hanged.

Back in Flanders, Count Louis confiscated the property of the conspirators; cities that cooperated were forced to pay heavy fines. The fortifications of Bruges, Ypres, and Kortrijk were destroyed so that they could never again resist an army. 

..and so ended the Flemish revolt. That time. When the Hundred Years War started a decade later, Louis stayed pro-French, even though Flanders' wool trade relied heavily on England. England boycotted Flanders wool, and a new revolt started. This was too much for Louis, who fled Flanders for good and was killed in 1346 at the Battle of Crécy, fighting for the French.

If you spend any amount of time on the economy of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, you will learn that one of the most common and important phrases is "the wool trade." You can guess tomorrow's topic.