When every part of his dominions had been canvassed for troops, and
Philip was prepared for his first active campaign against Ghent, he
was anxious to leave his heir under the protection of the duchess,
conscious that the imminent contest would be bitter and deadly. A
pretence was made that the young count's accoutrements were not ready,
and that, therefore, he would have to remain in Brussels.

"But he whose ambitions waxed, hastened the completion of his
accoutrements, and swore by St. George, the greatest oath he ever
used, that he would rather go in his shirt than not accompany his
father to punish his impudent rebel subjects."[13]

The approaching hostilities were watched by foreign merchants in dread
of commercial disaster.

"On May 18th, the _nations_[14] of the merchants of Bruges
departed thence to go to Ghent to try to make peace between that
city and the Duke of Burgundy, and there were _nations_ of Spain,
Aragon, Portugal, and Scotland, besides the Venetians, Milanese,
Genoese, and Luccans."[15]

But the men of Ghent were beyond the point where commercial arguments
could stem their course. The very day that this company arrived in the
city, the burghers sallied forth six or seven thousand strong, fully
equipped for offensive warfare.

Both the actual engagements and guerilla skirmishes that raged over
a minute stretch of territory were characterised by an extraordinary
ferocity. Around Oudenarde, which town Philip was determined to