Golden Spurs: Flemish Militia Crushes French Knights

French knights rode into Flanders expecting to crush a peasant rebellion and instead suffered one of medieval Europe's most humiliating military defeats. The Battle of the Golden Spurs on July 11, 1302, saw Flemish militia composed of weavers, butchers, and guild craftsmen destroy the cream of French chivalry outside the city of Kortrijk, upending centuries of aristocratic military dominance. The conflict grew from French King Philip IV's attempt to absorb the wealthy county of Flanders into his kingdom. French forces occupied Bruges in 1301, and the appointed governor, Jacques de Châtillon, imposed heavy taxes while treating Flemish citizens with contempt. On May 18, 1302, Bruges erupted in revolt. Rebels went door to door at dawn, killing every occupant who could not correctly pronounce the Flemish phrase "schild en vriend." The slaughter, known as the Bruges Matins, killed dozens of French soldiers and administrators. Philip IV sent a professional army of 2,500 mounted knights and 6,000 infantry under Robert II of Artois to punish the Flemish. The militia, numbering roughly 9,000 under the command of William of Jülich and Guy of Namur, chose their ground carefully. They positioned behind a network of streams and ditches outside Kortrijk that neutralized the French cavalry advantage. When the knights charged, their horses stumbled into marshland and waterways, and the Flemish infantry moved in with goedendags, heavy clubs tipped with iron spikes designed to pierce armor. The French army was annihilated. Robert of Artois and more than 1,000 knights died. The victors collected 500 pairs of golden spurs from the fallen nobility and hung them in the Church of Our Lady in Kortrijk. The battle proved that disciplined infantry could defeat heavy cavalry, a lesson that would reshape European warfare over the next century.