determined to justify his actions: he singled out one friar, but intended to punish the Dominicans.
In a flurry of royal ordinances issued at about the same time as his heated missive, Philip stipulated that henceforth his agents would proceed with no arrests on suspicion of heresy until the inquisitor had cleared his request with the local hierarchyâthe bishop and senior secular officials. In case of dispute, the matter would then be referred to the leaders of the Dominican convent in Carcassonne and their Franciscan counterparts. The leadership of the Friars Minor could include, of course, Brother Bernard Délicieux. This was a stinging slap in the face of the inquisitors. Overseen by its greatest foe, the inquisition at Carcassonne was now hamstrung.
That did not mean that the office of inquisitor had been abolished, as Délicieux was only too aware. Philip would not go that farâeven if Guillaume de Nogaret could willingly have found his master some flimsy pretext for stepping on the popeâs toes so egregiously. The king wanted a harmless inquisition, at least for the moment, so that the sulfur of revolt hanging over his southernmost province would dissipate. His interlocutor at Senlis had impressed on him the dangers of unrest. Civic peace became the kingâs goal.
* In the type of palimpsest at which France excels, the Berbie now houses a gallery of similar ladies painted by Albiâs most famous son, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE WEAVER OF BRUGES
P IETER DE CONINCK, A WEAVER , lived in Bruges, an immensely wealthy town reliant on a steady supply of English wool to transform into Flemish cloth. Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres were the foremost weaving centers of Flanders, their blue dyes provided by the woad merchants of Languedoc, their bolts sold to the Italians in the fairs of Champagne.
Philip the Fair had laid his heavy hand on Flanders in 1297, after its count had had the temerity to plump for the English forces in the French kingâs struggle against them. The countâs decision seemed reasonable enough, given the firm economic ties binding England and Flanders together, but for Philip and his court, English political influence had to be diminished, as rich Flanders was a milch cow that could do wonders for the Capetian treasury. The barrier of language mattered littleâPhilipâs expanding kingdom encompassed a babel of peoples, as the remarks of Bernard Saisset about the Parisian bishop of Toulouse made clear. As well, a large contingent of speakers of the langue dâoïl (French) in Flanders welcomed the protection of Paris and, not incidentally, formed the wealthiest class of merchant burghers in the towns. They also wanted to curb direct English trade with the weavers, preferring to keep their privileged and lucrative positions as middlemen.
Philip had annexed the region outright in the Jubilee year of 1300. When he took Queen Joan for a state visit to Flanders the following year, so sumptuously attired were the merchant wives and maidens watching the royal procession from the balconies of their magnificent gabled houses that Joan is said to have complained, âI thought that I alone was Queen, but here in this place I have six hundred rivals.â As it was the first visit of a monarch to his new province, medieval etiquette held it as a Joyeuse Entréeâbut here the joy was to be remarkably short-lived.
The atmosphere in the cities of Flanders was so explosive that the royal visit sparked off acrimony over who was going to get stuck with the costs of the festivities. The Flemings resented the traders and patricians not just for fawning over a foreign potentate but also for keeping their stranglehold on the communal governments of the towns. In the closing decades of the thirteenth century, the guildsmen of Flanders had risen regularly in revolt against the upper classes. The men ruling the towns, the men whose womenfolk caused the queen of
In a flurry of royal ordinances issued at about the same time as his heated missive, Philip stipulated that henceforth his agents would proceed with no arrests on suspicion of heresy until the inquisitor had cleared his request with the local hierarchyâthe bishop and senior secular officials. In case of dispute, the matter would then be referred to the leaders of the Dominican convent in Carcassonne and their Franciscan counterparts. The leadership of the Friars Minor could include, of course, Brother Bernard Délicieux. This was a stinging slap in the face of the inquisitors. Overseen by its greatest foe, the inquisition at Carcassonne was now hamstrung.
That did not mean that the office of inquisitor had been abolished, as Délicieux was only too aware. Philip would not go that farâeven if Guillaume de Nogaret could willingly have found his master some flimsy pretext for stepping on the popeâs toes so egregiously. The king wanted a harmless inquisition, at least for the moment, so that the sulfur of revolt hanging over his southernmost province would dissipate. His interlocutor at Senlis had impressed on him the dangers of unrest. Civic peace became the kingâs goal.
* In the type of palimpsest at which France excels, the Berbie now houses a gallery of similar ladies painted by Albiâs most famous son, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE WEAVER OF BRUGES
P IETER DE CONINCK, A WEAVER , lived in Bruges, an immensely wealthy town reliant on a steady supply of English wool to transform into Flemish cloth. Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres were the foremost weaving centers of Flanders, their blue dyes provided by the woad merchants of Languedoc, their bolts sold to the Italians in the fairs of Champagne.
Philip the Fair had laid his heavy hand on Flanders in 1297, after its count had had the temerity to plump for the English forces in the French kingâs struggle against them. The countâs decision seemed reasonable enough, given the firm economic ties binding England and Flanders together, but for Philip and his court, English political influence had to be diminished, as rich Flanders was a milch cow that could do wonders for the Capetian treasury. The barrier of language mattered littleâPhilipâs expanding kingdom encompassed a babel of peoples, as the remarks of Bernard Saisset about the Parisian bishop of Toulouse made clear. As well, a large contingent of speakers of the langue dâoïl (French) in Flanders welcomed the protection of Paris and, not incidentally, formed the wealthiest class of merchant burghers in the towns. They also wanted to curb direct English trade with the weavers, preferring to keep their privileged and lucrative positions as middlemen.
Philip had annexed the region outright in the Jubilee year of 1300. When he took Queen Joan for a state visit to Flanders the following year, so sumptuously attired were the merchant wives and maidens watching the royal procession from the balconies of their magnificent gabled houses that Joan is said to have complained, âI thought that I alone was Queen, but here in this place I have six hundred rivals.â As it was the first visit of a monarch to his new province, medieval etiquette held it as a Joyeuse Entréeâbut here the joy was to be remarkably short-lived.
The atmosphere in the cities of Flanders was so explosive that the royal visit sparked off acrimony over who was going to get stuck with the costs of the festivities. The Flemings resented the traders and patricians not just for fawning over a foreign potentate but also for keeping their stranglehold on the communal governments of the towns. In the closing decades of the thirteenth century, the guildsmen of Flanders had risen regularly in revolt against the upper classes. The men ruling the towns, the men whose womenfolk caused the queen of
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