worth noting, of course, that Robert had acted as the effective regent of
Sicily for more thanfive years, and hence that he had had a great deal to
do with John’s kinsmen in the Mediterranean, as we shall see. For John,
though, the main issue was simply that Robert was the pre-eminent
French commander of his times–and this was, in fact, a very troubled
period. There had been a conflict with the English since 1294, bringing
an end to therapprochementthat had been so beneficial to the Briennes,
and marking the beginning of the slide into the Hundred Years’War.^42
Hence, it is not surprising that John was obliged to contribute to Robert’s
campaign, in far-off Gascony, in 1296.^43 Yet John was far more closely
involved with events in nearby Flanders. As is well-known, the French
king was determined to make his overlordship there an effective reality,
and this led to an even more gruelling struggle.^44 Hence, it seems quite
likely that, in 1297, John was part of the host that Robert led to victory at
the battle of Furnes (August).^45 This, coupled with a truce with England
a couple of months later, was a significant step on the road to the French
conquest of Flanders, which culminated with the installation of John’s
brother-in-law, Jacques of Châtillon, as the new governor there. Yet the
very completeness of the French triumph provoked a violent reaction: the
‘Massacre of the Matins of Bruges’, which took place on 18 May 1302.
Just like the‘Sicilian Vespers’twenty years earlier, as we shall see, the
Matins lit the touchpaper of a much broader revolt.^46
There was no escape from King Philip’s demands for military aid in
the weeks that followed the massacre.^47 John was one of the commanders
of the French host that was assembled, remarkably quickly and effi-
ciently, to avenge the Matins. Yet it was at this point that Robert sud-
denly forfeited both his life and‘his great reputation as the most skilled
French general of his age’, as Dunbabin puts it, when he led the army to
stunning defeat at Courtrai (the ‘Battle of the Golden Spurs’)on
11 July.^48 Although the details remainfittingly murky, we know a little
about John’s role on that fateful day. It seems that he was the commander
(^42) See M. G. A. Vale,The Origins of the Hundred Years War: The Angevin Legacy, 1250– 1340
(Oxford, 1996), 174–226.
(^43) E Compoto thesaurariorum Luparæ de termino sancti Johannis M.CC.XCVI,inRHGF,
xxiii, 787.
(^44) For Philip IV’s attitude towards the Flemish problem, the best account, in English, is
probably still to be found in J. R. Strayer,The Reign of Philip the Fair(Princeton, 1980),
324 – 46.
(^45) See L. Estancelin,Histoire des comtes d’Eu(Dieppe, 1828), 65.
(^46) These events are neatly summarized in Strayer,The Reign of Philip the Fair, 332–4.
(^47) For further signs of John’s contribution towards the war in Flanders, seeLes journaux de
48 Trésor de Philippe IV le Bel, no. 4102.
Dunbabin,The French in the Kingdom of Sicily, 119.
112 The Angevins and Athens (c. 1267–1311)