king of France. On no occasion, however, had this reduced but
not degenerate nobility shown more heroic valor. The Flemish
knights, disdaining to mount their horses or form their ranks for
the repulse of the French cavalry, composed of common persons,
contemptuously received their shock on foot and in the disorder
of individual resistance. The brave Buridan of Ypres led his
comrades to the fight, with the chivalric war-cry, "Let each
now think of her he loves!" But the issue of this battle was
ruinous to the Belgians, in consequence of the bad generalship
of the emperor, who had divided his army into small portions,
which were defeated in detail.

While the nobility thus declined, the towns began rapidly to
develop the elements of popular force. In 1120, a Flemish knight
who might descend so far as to marry a woman of the plebeian
ranks incurred the penalty of degradation and servitude. In 1220,
scarcely a serf was to be found in all Flanders. The Countess Jane
had enfranchised all those belonging to her as early as 1222.
In 1300, the chiefs of the gilden, or trades, were more powerful
than the nobles. These dates and these facts must suffice to mark
the epoch at which the great mass of the nation arose from the
wretchedness in which it was plunged by the Norman invasion, and
acquired sufficient strength and freedom to form a real political
force. But it is remarkable that the same results took place in
all the counties or dukedoms of the Lowlands precisely at the
same period. In fact, if we start from the year 1200 on this
interesting inquiry, we shall see the commons attacking, in the
first place, the petty feudal lords, and next the counts and the
dukes themselves, often as justice was denied them. In 1257,
the peasants of Holland and the burghers of Utrecht proclaimed