§ 1. Scarcely any city has been moved by seditions so Roman in character as Louvain; for all things are similar—the causes, methods, and effects—because, of course, the vices and passions of men are the same. Justus Lipsius recounts them in Book II, chapters 10, 11, and 13.
“I note,” he says, “that the first disturbances occurred in the year 1340, when most of the nobles—until that time they alone had governed the state—were at the siege of Tournai, rendering this service as a favor to the English king. But while, I say, they were absent, the plebs, judging that its time had come, seized the state; and, while altering other things, above all it recalled certain exiles of its own body who had been driven out by the laws in the preceding year. When the patricians had returned, there were complaints, quarrels, and arms; a fierce battle was fought in the middle of the forum. But the patricians conquered, supported by the band of their clients and superior through long practice with arms. There was, nevertheless, more flight than slaughter, except that cruelty followed the victory: men dragged from their homes, and even from sacred places into which they had fled, paid the penalty by sword, prison, and exile.
“There was then quiet for twenty years, but untrustworthy quiet, since men’s spirits were ulcerated and the murmuring of the plebeians was not concealed. At the beginning of 1360 they burst forth again into movement and the trumpets of war, from a place whence it was not feared. Peter Couterel was mayor, a man who, although noble and one of the patricians, nevertheless, through perversity of character or ambition, already from his first mayoralty—which he had held for nine years—sought every opportunity to provoke or injure the Fathers. One was offered, or he seized it, in the year already named. A certain citizen, bringing fish for sale into the city by cart, when the cart had become stuck in the mud, suddenly brought a horse out from the pastures, harnessed it, and drew out the cart; and immediately—
—returned the horse in good faith and unharmed. Couterel cast the man into prison as guilty of theft. The aldermen were appealed to; they took cognizance of the matter and pronounced him innocent. And when the mayor would not release him, they forbade him the exercise of jurisdiction because he held a citizen in chains contrary to the laws.
“The mayor immediately went to Brussels, to the prince, who was then Wenceslaus, husband of Joanna, a Bohemian by nation and brother of the emperor Charles IV, whom they relate to have come into the light when his mother’s womb was cut open. It is permissible to say that this man was the best neither in peace nor in war, and certainly not the most fortunate; and the people of Louvain have no cause to love him greatly. To the matter: he lent credulous ears to the mayor as he slandered the power of the patricians and asserted that it ought, for the prince’s own good, to be restrained by him. Nor could supporters of such counsels be lacking at court; among them was a certain Schoonvorst, a very powerful man, but little upright in spirit or counsel. He openly said that the horns of the patricians—these are his words—must be diminished, since they were now too insolent. The prince could do this without his own exertion or ill will, if the plebs were permitted to rise. The prince did not state his judgment openly; Couterel nevertheless readily saw that he had been heard with ears and minds not unfavorable.
“And so he returned home in high spirits, reported the matter to his followers, and put torches beneath every most factious person. Sedition was now at the point of breaking out; nor could the Fathers be ignorant of it, but they acted too remissly, whether expecting to mitigate it by kindness or through that fatal indolence which is usual. Gerard Vorselaer happened to be present during these days, a noble man and soldier, with a chosen troop of horsemen. He offered his service to the Fathers of his own accord and advised them to use it; they dismissed him. But Couterel did not dismiss his undertakings. On a certain day appointed for holding the Senate, he commanded his followers gradually to assemble in the forum, and that with arms. They came, and now there was a crowd; and he himself, in the manner of one haranguing an assembly, incited them and impressed upon them both the pride of the Fathers and their harsh commands. These were the men who alone occupied the state, who made its honors and money their own, who commanded so many most valiant men as slaves. Had so many innocent men of their own body, punished a few years before by sword, noose, and exile because of certain freer words and deeds, fallen from their memory? The same things awaited them unless they were men; but they were men, and whom did they fear?
“‘It is in your hand,’ he said, ‘to make an end of your evils. Only dare: many against few, prepared against the unprepared, the injured against their assailants; God and men will favor you. By divine kindness we have the prince himself mild in spirit, and he will bear it calmly if you cause them to suffer anything. Keep your injuries before your eyes and liberty upon your lips; and let this be the watchword: go, assert the latter and repel the former.’
“He had spoken, and, while he was still speaking, there were murmuring, shouting, and threats; and, turned toward the senate-house, they directed hands and voices against it. Let the oppressors of the citizens, the plunderers of the treasury, come forth to pay the penalties for their crimes or injuries. And now each began to encourage the other, and they prepared violence. The senate-house was closed, and the Fathers were terrified and unequal to resisting, when Couterel rushed forth and, as though from kindness, counseled surrender and affirmed that they would suffer no further evil. It was prudent to yield to this storm. They yielded and surrendered themselves. But immediately he rushed in, laid hands and chains upon them, and they were led as captives into the citadel.
“Then they broke or unlocked the cabinets and archives of the Senate, plundered the armory likewise, tore apart what was there or carried away whatever was useful to them. The names and number of the captives survive: a little fewer than two hundred, and among them twenty-five knights; the rest had scattered into the neighboring cities or were hiding on their estates and in their country houses. When the tumult had been settled, and so that there might be some form of state, Couterel chose a new senate mixed from the plebs and patricians; for he also found among the latter certain pliant or indolent men suited to his counsels, who would exchange the common injury for a present honor.
“Then he sent men down to the captives to announce danger from the plebs; he sent certain men of the plebs themselves, who, with turbulent voices around the citadel, demanded them for slaughter. Thus, terrified, they became suppliants to Couterel; and at last, each making a separate compact for a great sum of money, they were released. Wenceslaus was in Luxembourg while these things were being done—distant by chance or counsel—but the exiles immediately approached him, made known what had been done, and demanded a remedy and vengeance. They were received coldly, although most of the nobility favored them, as did those among the counselors who had some care for equity and honor. Couterel himself also came, who had made many men his own through gold; and the matter was deferred until the prince should return. This was done in the following year, and meanwhile Couterel continued his command.
“Wenceslaus had now come to Brussels, and there the nobles approached him in a body, begged and urged him to avenge a matter of the worst example and not to open a field to sedition or licentiousness. Separately the people of Brussels pressed him and strove keenly on behalf of their allied city. At last they impelled him to move toward Louvain after gathering hired troops into one body. He came to the Banck. While he was there, the Couterelians, who had neither strength nor spirit against the prince, immediately came to him and promised that they would do what was commanded. Thus the prince, having been admitted, recalled the exiles, but displayed no anger or vengeance against the disturbers. He created Couterel himself, the head of the evils, an alderman in the new Senate, merely removing him from the mayoralty; and according to his institution he chose the Senate itself indiscriminately from Fathers and plebs—a nursery of later disturbances. Love of peace and concord was put forward as the pretext; but by this deed it became evident to the more prudent that the preceding affairs had been administered with the prince not unaware, and certainly not unwilling.
“Thus quiet, but quiet neither very certain nor long, was restored to the city. For the plebs exulted and insulted the patricians as conquered; Couterel himself exercised and increased his domination, until, from weariness with present conditions and fear also of future ones, most of the patricians voluntarily withdrew from the city. This delighted Couterel. His rivals having been removed, he now acted freely and designated himself consul for the following year together with Geldolph Rogge, a weaver. And because he knew from experience that protection lay in gold, he sought it from every quarter—not only at home, but also among foreigners, borrowing it upon the public faith of the city, for the seal was in his hand. He attained so great wealth and power that he gave his daughter in marriage to Henry, lord of Hoogstraten, with a great dowry, as great as Henry had demanded.
“But envy also accompanied him, and complaints before the prince were frequent; neither his son-in-law nor Schoonvorst could sufficiently excuse or protect him. Matters came to such a point that the prince again moved his camp toward the city. The same things happened again: they admitted the prince; he compelled both parties by oath to make peace and even took hostages—twelve from the patricians and forty from the plebs. Couterel retained the consulship, and nothing was changed in the sharing of honors. Yet he himself, frightened by conscience and because he perceived that the prince was now more alienated from him, voluntarily fled, after gathering his possessions, together with several standard-bearers of the factious, into the territory of Liège.
“There, since he kept the roads dangerous and halted or cast into chains merchants going from Louvain to Germany in order to extort money, he seriously stirred the anger of Wenceslaus, who proscribed him and twenty-five weavers. Not even then—
—did he remain quiet, but he attempted, with the secret aid of conspirators, to break into the city and make it his own. He had no success, and punishment was exacted from the conspirators. Thus, his affairs being desperate, he turned to prayers and, chiefly through the work of the lord of Hoogstraten, obtained pardon from exile and returned to Louvain in the year 1369, where he ended an inglorious life under public execration. You may marvel either that he dared such things with so great a spirit or that he ended so meanly.”
In chapter 11 Lipsius says: “Now the deadly sedition must be narrated which, nine years later, flowed from that fountain. Wenceslaus, as I said, had shared honors with the plebs, and had kept matters so for several years, until in the unfortunate war of Jülich he himself was captured and many of the nobility, including those of Louvain, were slain. In this war, therefore, since the patricians had proved their loyalty and spirit, while the plebs had been slow or refractory and had furnished only sixty archers, the prince, returning from custody to Louvain, restored their former honor and magistracy to the patricians, except that thereafter twelve senators should be from the plebs. The plebs bore it with difficulty, but bore it for six years, down to the elections of the year 1378.
“At those very elections, when the Senate had been created according to the stated formula, but the Fathers were openly acting in discord among themselves, the plebs, having long watched for an opportunity, seized it. On the holy day of Mary Magdalene itself, three or four weavers from each district, running through the whole city with shouting and the din of basins, aroused the rest: ‘To arms, to arms!’ They assembled; the senate-house was immediately seized, and the consuls with the aldermen were put in chains. Walter Leidanus, a weaver, was named prefect of the city. Soon it pleased them, after the example of the people of Ghent, to assume white caps or hoods as the badge of the faction. It was done; and men were then carried so readily into novel and turbulent affairs that not a few patricians did not refuse but placed that same badge upon their heads and the faction in their hearts.
“Meanwhile Wenceslaus, returning from France—for he had gone there—and informed of these things, came to Louvain; and, once again to placate the plebs, he changed the order of the Senate and admitted them to one half. You may marvel at his inconstancy, and more if, believing the writers, you judge these concessions to have been made not only to the circumstances but also to money, of which he assuredly received some considerable sum from the public treasury. Moreover, he compelled the citizens by oath to deal peacefully with one another, as befitted members of one body. Certain patricians nevertheless refused this and chose to lack a fatherland rather than be subjected to the injuries or insults of the plebs.
“Thus most of these, living at Aarschot or Namur, harassed the plebs and carried off any of them caught in the fields or roads, and demanded ransoms. The latter in turn set fire to their estates, likewise seized those whom they could, and subjected some to the sword of the executioner. Finally, in the city itself those patricians who remained conducted themselves suspiciously or were suspicious, especially after the murder of Walter Leidanus, who was among the leaders of the White Caps. He happened to have been sent to Brussels on behalf of the state and, returning at night from dinner, was killed, as is thought, by the ambushes of John Calster and William Wilre, patricians who were then staying in that city.
“When the news was brought, Louvain was thrown into confusion; the plebs threatened and murmured; the optimates feared. And these, in order to show themselves innocent and unaware, sent envoys to Joanna—for her husband was still absent in Gaul—to ask that the authors of the murder be investigated and punished. When she delayed, the plebs, judging that they were being mocked or that the matter was being conducted by agreement, seized arms and came into the forum. The Fathers also were summoned into the senate-house. Some of them came; others, foreboding something sorrowful and deadly, changed their clothing and fled the city. Immediately a guard was placed at the Senate, and the seditious rushed to the doors with furious spirit and stood beside them; a part even entered, with no one preventing them. There voices were heard: ‘Give us that man, and that man—at once, at once!’ And those who had been admitted seized them one by one as their names were called and cast them headlong from the windows—I shudder to say it—while the plebs below received them upon lances and darts and tore them to pieces. About seventeen perished in this madness; and one man of the plebs was added to them because, taking pity on Platuotius, his former patron, he had hidden him beneath benches and covered him with his garment.
“These things were done on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of December, and those of the Fathers who remained and were found at home were put under guard. After the deed came coldness, and soon repentance or fear entered. For how would the prince receive these things? He would return shortly and exact punishments from guilty and innocent alike.
“And so they prepared as intercessors the people of Léau, Tienen, Diest, Lier, and Brussels, and also those of Liège and Tongeren; and behold, sooner than expected, Wenceslaus came to Brussels. He was preparing arms and engines, intent upon vengeance, when envoys from the aforesaid cities came to him and humbly sought pardon, offering whatever expiation of the slaughter he might wish. At last, after long deliberation, it was prescribed that fourteen principal authors from the plebs should be relegated to Cyprus and that a fixed sum of money should be given to the kinsmen of the slain. It seemed to everyone a mild settlement, falling short of the magnitude of the crime; then there was this disgraceful thing, that money for the journey was assigned to the exiles themselves from the state as though they were envoys.
“And so it did not serve to placate their spirits. For the patrician youth murmured that they did not regard the blood of their parents as for sale or as to be redeemed by that modest sum of money. And now, having occupied neighboring places or fortresses, they waged war upon their own citizens and drove off plunder from every quarter. Nor did the plebeians cease to return or augment violence and crimes; at last they went farther and struck secret treaties against the prince with the people of Ghent, who then bore arms against the count and ruled almost all Flanders.
“Finally, after mutual slaughters on both sides, Wenceslaus, at last taught that his indulgence to the plebs had been vain and rash, took up arms and besieged the city. They resisted, raised defensive works, and, being unequal by themselves, awaited aid from the people of Ghent. But when that aid failed, and the people of Ghent were themselves pressed by Count Louis and the French, recourse was once again had to prayers. Arnold of Hornes, bishop of Liège, coming into the camp himself, carried them to the prince and obtained pardon under fixed laws. A few were punished; more, through indignation or fear, changed their fatherland, especially the wool-workers, who went to England.”
Chapter 13 has it thus: “There is not yet an end: from the wool-workers we pass to the butchers; and from this body also there were men who disturbed the state. Paul Loenken, a butcher from the lowest plebs, after the slaughter of Charles the Bold and while deliberation was being held concerning the marriage of Mary with Maximilian, made himself and his plebs a part of the state. He spread rumors that Maximilian was being awaited falsely and that the senators were thus mocking them; it was better and safer for them to possess and exercise command themselves. He then aroused the aforesaid dregs of the people, unexpectedly seized and carried off certain men from the Senate, and was about to subject them to the sword, had not the public executioner withdrawn himself. The leaders of the Academy also now intervened and by their authority quieted the tumult.
“Mary herself came a little later to assume, according to custom, the auspices of the principate; the seditious neither admitted nor acknowledged her unless they had extorted new rights and immunities. Indeed, when she, in order to suppress them, had armed the archers of the city itself—the more honorable portion of the people—they made an assault and captured certain of the archers and four senators who happened to meet them. Only with difficulty could they be restrained even by Paul himself from punishing them in the same manner. Then they rushed into the citadel where Mary was staying, and compelled the maiden, trembling amid so many evils, to pardon what had gone before and to sanction other things according to their judgment.
“Now, so that there might publicly be the appearance also of a new popular government, twenty guards were assigned to Paul for protection, together with a monthly stipend from the treasury. And thereafter they reveled at the expense of the same public money, drank, and held banquets as though to establish association and loyalty. But while they were carrying on these things, Maximilian arrived sooner than expected; as he drew near, Paul’s power began to diminish, and his retainers were taken from him by the Senate. Yet Maximilian himself, although present, resolved to do nothing even as prince, nor to touch this ulcer, unless he became master of the marriage.
“Therefore, after his departure, the Paulians again began to swell up, demand back the retainers, and throw affairs into confusion. But Maximilian, at last informed concerning the whole matter and its danger, sent Engelbert of Nassau, seneschal of Brabant, ahead to Louvain with cavalry, and was himself soon to follow.
“Clouds and scoundrels scatter before the sun. Paul fled into Zeeland, and there, when recognized, paid with his head. Most of these things, and certainly their beginnings, were done in the absence of Louis Pinnoccius the mayor—for he had gone into Germany among the envoys—who, being the man he was, prompt in spirit and vigorous in hand, would have crushed or at least repressed them. God and fate judged otherwise.
“But, that I may finish, this sedition also diminished the city, since many not only of the plebs but also of the optimates scattered into the countryside or their strongholds and established their residence there from weariness with so many disturbances. You see the causes and the times by which a city once most flourishing lost its flower and possesses from its ancient glory and abundance nothing except this shadow.”
The first sedition arose through the absence of the aristocratic nobility, which ruled like the Roman patricians; so too did the Roman seditions, because many nobles had fallen in war, while the rest oppressed the citizens by an inequitable command. This also happened at Louvain; otherwise a just and innocent nobility would not have been hated.
Then the exiles were recalled. Hence came slaughter and flight, and the insolent victory of the nobility, which embittered the citizens. It grew raw again thereafter when the countryman was cast into prison, just as the Roman sedition once grew raw through the crime of Claudius when he gave judgment against freedom in favor of slavery; but here the more just cause was on the side of the nobility. Peace having been made, Couterel ruled; the nobility, after the slaughter of its members, prepared war. At last the seditions were ended by siege and punishment, through which they lost the power to rage.