Bruges morning mass
The Bruges morning mass (Fr. Matines de Bruges , nl. Brugse Metten ) was a massacre in the early morning hours of May 18, 1302 , perpetrated by insurgents in the Flemish city of Bruges at the French garrison .
Bruges had the exclusive rights to trade wool with England . When the English King Edward I began to sell the wool directly to the weavers , the citizens of the city turned to their liege lord , the French King Philip the Fair , so that he could secure their monopoly .
Philip put a French garrison in the city, and Jacques de Châtillon became governor, who subsequently emerged as helpless and brutal and thus turned the inhabitants of the city against himself and the French garrison. In the early morning hours of May 18, 1302, insurgents led by Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck broke into the houses in which the French were quartered and killed everyone they could get hold of. Only the governor Jacques de Châtillon and a few other soldiers escaped the attack.
After the massacre, Breydel and de Coninck were celebrated as folk heroes. Within a few days, the other Flemish cities, with the exception of Ghent, joined the uprising. The Bruges early mass led directly to the Spore Battle on July 11, 1302, in which the French lost, and indirectly to the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle on August 18, 1304, after which both parties claimed victory for themselves.
literature
- Jean Favier , Dictionnaire de la France médiévale , Paris: Fayard 1993, ISBN 2-213-03139-8 . - Keyword "Bruges (Matines de)"
