understandably stayed away from the five ensuing Champagne fairs of 1297, the
French crown confiscated all the wares Flemish merchants had contracted to buy at
those fairs, all letters of credit payable to Flemish merchants, and even the halls and
hostels owned by Flemish merchants in the fair-towns. The resulting losses of the
Flemish town of Ypres in that year alone were estimated at over 26,000 livres.
Flemish merchants who were unable to make promised payments at the fairs because
their goods had been confiscated were then penalized with a fair-ban, prohibiting them
from visiting the fairs until they paid their debts. Flemish merchandise was also seized
in other parts of France.97 Laurent describes 1297 as ‘the black year of Franco-Flemish
commercial relations ... [which] announced all the vicissitudes of the ensuing
century’.98 This is strikingly consistent with the figures in Table 1, which show the
fair-revenues declining precipitously after 1296.
France invaded Flanders in 1297, and in October 1297 a truce was arranged, which
permitted normal commercial relations to resume, but only very briefly. Philip IV of
France wished to assert his rights as sovereign lord of Flanders, so when the truce
expired in January 1300, a French army overran the part of Flanders that had remained
under the control of the count of Flanders. This occupation led to the Flemish revolt of
1302 and the Franco-Flemish war of 1302-5, which again severely interrupted Franco-
Flemish trade.99 This war was ended by the Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge in which, among
other provisions, Flanders was returned to the count of Flanders in exchange for
Béthune, Douai, Lille and Orchies being held by Philip IV until the count paid a large
annual rent for the county of Rethel. But the terms of this treaty could not be enforced,
and by the Treaty of Pontoise in 1312 the towns held by France were ceded to it
altogether, in exchange for cancellation of the rent owed by the count of Flanders for
Rethel. France thus acquired two great Flemish towns and most of French-speaking
Flanders. Grievances remained, however, and fighting broke out again in 1314. In
1315 the new King of France, Louis X, again expelled all Flemings from France and
assembled an army against Flanders. The consequence of the various Franco-Flemish
conflicts from 1297 to 1315 for Flemish trade at the Champagne fairs is described by
Laurent as follows: ‘by 1315 Flanders was cut into two . instead of being the avenue
97 Laurent (1935), 121-3; Bautier (1953), 61.
98 Laurent (1935), 122.
99 Strayer (1980), 331-6.
20