I did miss this one, Sorry Ron!I will take a look and see what I can find. They were organised along the lines of the guilds themselves - there is a detailed illumination of the surrender of Ghent to Phillip the Good in 1453, where the citizens are displayed in their shirtsleeves and naught else, proffering the Duke the keys of the city, their 'liberties', and their millitia banners. The arms of the Counts of Flanders is paired with the arms of Ghent, in chief over the symbol of the individual guild, a pair of fishes for the fishmongers, and a hammer for the smiths are amongst them, I recall.
There is a lot of information concerning the shooting fraternites, which were largely based around guilds, and held competitions with neighboring towns, and fielded as companies of crossbowmen during war, this information can be found in English in a recent title called "Realms of Ritual", which gives a good deal of insight into the relation of the towns of Flanders with their Count, who happened to be also the Duke of Burgundy.
In the 1440's-1470's the Towns of Flanders fielded units of pikemen, backed by units of crossbows, which can be deduced from Vaughns "Philip the Good", and "Charles the Bold", in the sections discussing the Burgundian Armies and Burgundian foriegn entanglements (Phillip was forced to raise the blockade of Calais when the militia of Ghent decamped in the middle of the night, taking most of the other towns with them when they discovered the absence of the men of Gand in the morning.
They seemed to have fought stubbornly and well whenever defending their towns or their 'liberties', and in outright rebellion against the Duke, and half-heartedly whenever called on to support the Dukes political ambitions.
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Bob R.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
posted 03-03-2005 08:54 PM
