he employed the
good offices and councils of that prince in drawing into his alliance
the other sovereigns of that neighborhood. The duke of Brabant was
induced, by his mediation, and by large remittances of money from
England, to promise his concurrence;[*] the archbishop of Cologne, the
duke of Gueldres, the marquis of Juliers, the count of Namur, the lords
of Fauquemont and Baquen, were engaged by like motives to embrace the
English alliance.[**] These sovereign princes could supply, either
from their own states or from the bordering countries, great numbers of
warlike troops; and nought was wanting to make the force on that quarter
very formidable but the accession of Flanders; which Edward procured by
means somewhat extraordinary and unusual.

As the Flemings were the first people in the northern parts of Europe
that cultivated arts and manufactures, the lower ranks of men among them
had risen to a degree of opulence unknown elsewhere to those of their
station in that barbarous age; had acquired privileges and independence,
and began to emerge from that state of vassalage, or rather of slavery,
into which the common people had been universally thrown by the
feudal institutions. It was probably difficult for them to bring their
sovereign and their nobility to conform themselves to the principles of
law and civil government, so much neglected in every other country: it
was impossible for them to confine themselves within the proper bounds
in their opposition and resentment against any instance of tyranny: they
had risen in tumults: had insulted the nobles: had chased their earl
into France; and delivering themselves over to the guidance of a
seditious leader, had been guilty of all that insolence and disorder
to which the thoughtless and enraged populace are so much inclined,
wherever they are unfortunate enough to be their own masters.[***]

* Rymer, vol. iv. p. 777.

** Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 29, 33, 36.

*** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 30. Meyerus.

Their present leader was James d'Arteville, a brewer in Ghent, who
governed them with a more absolute sway than had ever been assumed by
any of their lawful sovereigns: he placed and displaced the magistrates
at pleasure: he was accompanied by a guard, who, on the least signal
from him, instantly assassinated any man that happened to fall under his
displeasure: all the cities of Flanders were full of his spies: and it
was immediate death to give hi