Jan Breydel

Armorial of the Breydel family in Ghent

Monument to Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck in Bruges

Jan Breydel (* in the 13th century in Bruges ; † in the 14th century), along with Pieter de Coninck, is considered to be the leader of the Bruges morning mass , the bloody uprising against the French King Philip the Fair .

Act

Breydel, a butcher by trade, and de Coninck, a weaver, led the insurgents in the early hours of May 18, 1302, who penetrated the houses where the French garrison was quartered and killed most of the soldiers. Shortly before, on May 1st, he was involved in an attack on Male Castle , which also killed the entire French garrison.

The archives of the city of Bruges show that Jan Breydel was in Kortrijk on July 8-10, 1302 as one of the people who supplied the Flemish troops with meat. On this basis, it is generally believed that he also took part in the Spore Battle on July 11, 1302 .

In 1308 he helped liberate Willem van Saftinghe, who had also fought in Kortrijk, who had holed up in the church of Lissewege during an uprising . In 1309, Breydel and de Coninck led again, along with Jan Heem , another uprising in Bruges, this time directed against the effects of the Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge . In the same year he killed a representative of the Count of Flanders.

Fiction

• Hendrik Conscience : Hendrik Conscience # The Lion of Flanders ( De leeuw van Vlaenderen ) . Period novel, 1838.