' When, therefore, Edward
III. claimed the throne of France, and the Hundred Years' War began,
it was of vital importance to the trade of Flanders and England
that the merchants of the two countries should maintain friendly
relations with each other. But Philip of Valois had persuaded the
Count of Flanders, Louis de Nevers, to order the arrest of all
the English in Flanders, and Edward had retaliated by arresting
all the Flemings who were in England, and forbidding the export of
English wool to Flanders. The result was that the weavers of Bruges
and the other manufacturing towns of Flanders found themselves on
the road to ruin; and, having no interest in the question at issue
between the Kings of France and England, apart from its effect
on their commercial prosperity, the burghers of Bruges, Ghent,
and Ypres, under the leadership of the famous Jacob van Artevelde
(anticipating, as one of the modern historians of Bruges has noticed,
what the Great Powers did for Belgium in 1830[*]), succeeded in
securing, with the assent of Philip, the neutrality of Flanders.
The French King, however, did not keep faith with the Flemings,
but proceeded to acts of aggression against them, and a league
against France was formed between England and Flanders.
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