This is a petition sent to Philippa of Hainault by Jacques de Artevelde, burgess [townsman] of Ghent. 16 January [1343] Catalogue ref: SC 1/56/57
Transcript
To the very excellent princess. I have heard that many cloths and other goods, entrusted [sent by ship] to the sea, belonging to my dear friend Gille Hoeft, burgess [townsman] of Bruges, have been seized [taken by force] in your kingdom of England, namely sixteen fardels [bundles] in which are sixteen cloths sent from Ypres and twenty-five covers of half-cloths and two escairlates [scarlets, a type of fine cloth] and two cloths of Filford and thirty-four cloths of Louvain and of Mechelen and a part of the pieces of cloth. These goods and cloths were taken on the ship belonging to Baldwin Goliaes and Laurens Just, of which Arnoul Piic is master, and in the said ship are sixteen cloths from Ypres, and five blue cloths of Ypres and thirty-five sets of half-cloths and twelve cloths of Valenciennes, belonging to my dear friend Conraerd Coene, merchant, in sixteen fardels, entrusted to the sea. Most excellent and most dear princess, I implore [beg] Your Royal Majesty humbly and with my whole heart, if it pleases you to have the said goods delivered [returned] to Gille and Coeraerd… because they are my friends and good and true [honest] merchants of Bruges. And may it please you to do this by your generosity and grace …
Most excellent princess, may the saints keep you in their holy keeping and may you have a good and long life. 16 January [1343] Your most humble servant, Jacques de Artevelde, burgess of Ghent.
Task 3 – Foreign women
Queen Philippa of Hainault was married to Edward III (born c. 1310, married 1328, died 1369). She came from Hainault, which is an area on the border between Belgium and France. She was considered a model queen, and the chronicler Jean Froissart said she was ‘the most courteous, noble and liberal queen that ever reigned’.
- What does this source tell you about Philippa’s role as queen?
- What is Jacques expecting her to do?
- Do you think Queen Philippa’s role was different to that of today’s monarch?
The England’s immigrants database (https://www.englandsimmigrants.com/) lists all the people who are known to have immigrated to England in the later middle ages. Try searching for the Netherlands and then choosing ‘women’. It should give you the 58 women who were originally from Belgium. If you click ‘summary’ for any woman listed, it will tell you what more we know about them.
- What kind of information can we find about these women using this database?
- What information do we not learn about them?
- What more would you like to know?