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Flemish

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Battle of Westrozebeke

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fol. 140r: Battle of Rosebecque (1382). On 27 November 1382, Flemish militiamen commanded by Philip Van Artevelde were routed by a royal French army. Charles VI of France had come in person to support his vassal the count of Flanders. Confronting the Flemish militiamen grouped together in a single block without flanking wings or reserves, the constable of France, Olivier de Clisson, resorted to the more effective tactic of setting out his troops in three battalions. When Van Artevelde’s men charged the French, the flanking wings of the French army closed in upon the rebels... No less than 25,000 Flemings were killed that day, including Van Artevelde. The Giac Master portrays the Flemings in a strategic position which should have given them an advantage: high on a hillside, they appear to dominate their adversaries.

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