The Count, having to contend both against
his own subjects and against the ambitions of the King of France,
fell from power, and in the end Flanders was annexed to France.
Soon after this rich province had been added to his domains, Philip
came with his wife, Joanna of Navarre, on a visit to Bruges. Already
there were two factions in the town--the Leliarts, or French party,
consisting chiefly of the upper classes, and the Clauwerts, or
Flemish party, to which the mass of the people belonged. By the
former Philip was received in royal fashion, and so magnificent
were the dresses and jewels worn by the wives and daughters of the
nobles and rich burgesses, who sat in the windows and balconies
as the royal procession passed along, that the Queen was moved
to jealousy. 'I thought,' she said, 'that I alone was Queen; but
here in this place I have six hundred rivals.' But in the streets
below there were sullen looks and murmurs of discontent, which
grew louder and louder every day, when, after the departure of the
Court, the magistrates, who belonged to the French party, proposed
that the merchant guilds should find money to defray some of the
expenses which had been incurred on this occasion.
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