Fall Guy

In February 1298 the envoys of England and France met at Tournai, now a city in western Belgium, to hammer out peace talks. This was the final round of negotiations after a series of short truces between the rival kingdoms, first struck on 9 October the previous year.

The talks were encouraged by two papal legates, the generals of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, who had come to enforce Pope Boniface VIII's request that both Edward I and Philip the Fair lay their grievances before the Curia. It suited neither king to continue open hostilities, so they agreed to papal arbitration.

From an English perspective, the Tournai agreement was really a means of disengaging from the futile war on the continent. Not that Edward simply abandoned his allies, principally Count Guy of Flanders. As per the previous truces, Guy and the other members of the so-called Grand Alliance against France were included in the armistice.

In the short term, the Tournai agreement preserved what remained of independent Flanders until the expiry of the truce in January 1300. Philip kept his territorial gains, including Lille and Bruges, while Guy was left with Douai, Ypres, Damme, Ghent, the Waas country between Antwerp and Ghent, and the region of Quatre-Métier. Guy only retained this much because German troops in English pay had defended Ypres against the French, while Damme was recaptured by a combined force of English, Welsh and Flemings.

Philip, for his part, was content to wait until the expiry of the truce before resuming his conquest of Flanders. He knew that Edward was too preoccupied elsewhere to send Guy further material assistance, and so it proved. When Guy sent desperate letters to Edward in the following months, complaining of breaches of the truce, the English king's responses were lukewarm. This was now a matter for the pope, Edward explained politely, though he was happy to send a letter to Rome if Guy thought that would help.

Guy needed troops and money, not words. Edward was embroiled in his wars in Gascony and Scotland, and the Count of Flanders found little support elsewhere. When his sons complained to the pope, Boniface threatened to cut Guy adrift completely. The harsh reality was that England and France were greater powers than Flanders, and peace between kings came first.

Spurned by Edward and the pope, Guy looked desperately for support elsewhere. All he found was the cold shoulder. The King of Germany, Albert of Hapsburg, rejected his advances, as did the young Count of Holland. Guy was no longer of any use to anybody, and there are no true friends in politics.

When the French resumed their offensive in 1300, Guy and his supporters were hopelessly outnumbered. Philip's armies quickly overran Flanders and took Guy prisoner. In 1302 he was briefly released to negotiate terms with his former subjects, but then returned to captivity. Now in his sixties, the defeated old man died in custody on 7 March 1305.