The battle of Bouvines according to Philippe Mousket

By the mid-thirteenth century accounts of the battle of Bouvines became more exaggerated.  In the following text, Philippe Mousket, a historian from Tournai who wrote his verse chronicle in 1240, gives a stylized version of the fighting.  

Loudly sounded the trumpets
Twice they were heard above all else
So that his battalion feared no more
And the trumpets were wonderful to hear.
As soon as the Flemings saw the Oriflamme
As soon as they heard the trumpets sound
They turned around
As they much feared the King.
Yet they had come
And fought the Champenois
Who soon had the upper hand.
They all fought as champions.
Gauthier, the Castellan of Rasse,
Throws himself in before the others
Followed by Eustache of Malenghin
On a powerful horse;
Then came Baudouin Buridan
Along with brave and loyal knights;
Then came clever Rasse of Wavre
And behind him Sohiers of Wavre,
None of them came in battle order;
They all arrived haphazardly.
They thought the king was in flight
But they found him in fight.

Count Ferrand on a steed
Had climbed on his horse with evil intent
And attacked the most sovereign;
But in spite of his pre-eminence
Was captured by Hugh of Mareuil.
Around him a large crowd gathered;
His people could not attack the French
As the French had put them all in distress.
They had taken Ferrand and his pride;
And the truth I must tell,
The Count of Boulogne, Renaud,
Threw himself upon them with full force just as a member of the falcon species
Goes to the river with the intention
Of a deadly attack on the little birds.
He proved himself a good fighter
To the people of John of Nesle.
Many of their good horses he slew,
Much damage he did with his lance.
But it did not do him a bayberry's worth of good
As Rousseau, one of John of Nesle's knights
Who was very valorous and good,
Attacked Count Renaud;
He slew his horse
And the count was thrown to the ground.
But as a man who has seen much action
He defends himself while down
So well that no one dares take him.
But Rousseau who was strong
Let himself fall on him.
They fought and struggled so much
Till the count was bound and taken away;
None of his people could escape
And Rousseau received great fame.

Messire John of Nesle
Who had taken the niello off many a helmet
Hit them all with great blows
nd bound their bodies with chains.
Our French with great joy
Often yelled "Montjoie"
And several yelled "Boulogne"
As the captured count was taken away;
And others yelled "Hainaut"
As Ferrand and his helping friends
Were dragged to the camp.
Much rather he would have been in Limoges.
Upon a wagon he was disarmed
And left there with a hundred sergeants.
And the king came to the battle
With his well-sharpened sword.
He had his trumpets sound high
So as to startle the Fleming
As their sound alone was enough
To make them lose their courage.
The Avalois yelled "Cologne,"
The duke yelled "Louvain," Conrad yelled "Tremoigne,"
And King Otto behind them
Arrived yelling "Rome."
Bernard and his companions
Rushed in yelling twice "Ostemale,"
While the duke arrived yelling "Limburg."
But all these cries were useless
As the people from Hainaut and Brabant
Had rushed in disunited.
Many a rallying cry could you hear
And many a fragment flew in the air
And many a horse was killed
On both sides of the river.
Many a shining shield and helmet
Could then be seen lying about.
So many of these the champions took
They were filled with happiness and joy.
And they yelled at the top of their lungs
When the trumpets sounded:
"Montjoie, God, and Saint Denis.
Ferrand is chained and dishonored."
The communes and the sergeants
Arrived well equipped for the fight
Killing the Flemings, killing the English,
The people from Hainaut, from Senne, and the Avalois;
And when they yelled "Montjoie"
There was not a Fleming who was not cowed.
When they decided to step in the game
Along with Emperor Otto.
Bouchards and Guy yelled "Oizi"
So loud that they were easily taken.
Furiously, their lances at the side of their saddles,
They all went at each other.

Count William Longsword
Was captured during the melee.
And the Count of Lus [Louvain?] who was behind
Was promptly pursued and divested
Of his rich arms.
There was not a Frenchman who did not
Try to overcome the false crusaders.
Many struck down their best men.
There was not a Champenois
Who did not do damage to the Flemings.
Thus they have come to the meet
To be taught a lesson by the French,
From their horses they tumble down
For the King to judge them for their wrong.
The Castellan of Malenghin
Was captured, this was very good
And several of the Flemish lords
Were taken and their efforts came to naught.
Many a time you could hear
The cry "Montjoie" without break.
This word scared the Flemings,
This word was for them pain and torment,
This word stunned them all,
This word scared them so much
That the strong became weak
And the valorous cowardly.
They turned their heads away
And when the Saint Denis banner
In front of them was raised,
It seemed to them that Saint Denis
Over it had a dragon placed
To devour and slay them.
Then they could not wait to escape
And thus they all took flight
So as out the French to light.
But those who were not fast enough
Could not get away from the French;
Thus they were captured in twos and threes
Like little birds in a trap.
And the bald and the hairy
Were stuck without mercy ....

. . . King Otto with many companions,
Having with him his people from Germany,
Carne riding toward the King
But Gerard La Truie's conroi
Saw him and it came back.
He told the King
That King Otto was riding
And coming nearer.
"Truie," said the King, "Where is he?'
Do you know?" - "Sire, listen,
There's no doubt it's him; he's carrying
The golden shield with the black eagle
And similar banners;
He even seems very formidable
But a very worthy man
Could stop his advance."
"Go do it," said the King.
Gerard La Truie then leaves
As the King gave him leave.
Into God's hands he puts himself.
His lance lowered, his shield tight
In the company of his knights
King Otto he goes to attack.
His lance flies in thirteen broken pieces,
Then he pulp out his knife
And he struck in the brain
With a straight blow in the left eye
The horse on which sat the Emperor
And grabs it by the bridle.
King Otto for his rallying cry
Yelled "Rome" three times as a call
With which prowess is called.
With a very sharp knife
With a long blade of iron
La Truie gave such a great blow
That he barely could hold on
As the horse lifted its head and trumpeted
And made Otto unsteady.

But here, arriving in the nick of time
Comes William des Barres to the rescue.
He attacks King Otto anew
And Peter Mauvoisin as well
Charges him from the other side.
King Otto responds
With more blows and sideswipes
Than they had received all year.
Bernard of Ostemale, all alone,
And Hellin of Wavre, the valorous,
Kick in the spurs
Of their good horses.
Bernard rushes in from the left
Hellin of Wavre from the right,
They make the bridle fly from [Peter's] fists
As if in quintain practice.
King Otto was thus freed
But the other two were trapped.
In partial replacement for Otto
Bernard and Hellin of Wavre were taken.

The Emperor then turned around.
Guy d' Avesne led him
Away from the fighting and got off
His horse without delay.
"Sire," he said to King Otto,
"There is no doubt your horse is dying,
Its brains are on the ground,
And you will soon be captured in war
Unless you climb on mine." "Good Sire Guy, you are right,"
Says Otto, "I thank you greatly."
Right away he got down
And climbed on Guy's horse.
He was very afraid of the King of France.
Gladly he would have gone back to the fight
If he had not been so scared of him
And if Guy d'Avesne had not stopped him.
Thus King Otto turned around
All upset and miserable
Unhappy that he could not stay.

. . . Thus the battle was over
The King had the retreat sound
And spent the night at the Bouvines bridge.
Everyone led their prisoners there;
They were guarded and the next day
They were led toward Douai
On wagons and chariots.
Chained up like a leopard
Was Ferrand well chained
To four posts because he had been
Rebellious for too long.
He was taken to Paris for a long time,
So as to cure him
From bringing Flanders again to this point.
The Count of Boulogne Renaud
And Longsword the vassal
Were guarded and imprisoned
Summarily in several French castles
But they had struggled with their hands and feet
And pleaded not to be hanged.
And all the others as well
Were thus imprisoned.

Arnoul of Audenarde excepted,
He was set free
As he had the melee
Neither exhorted nor inflamed.
And the dead were buried
At Cysoing, and all the wounded
Carried to Douai
And several elsewhere, as we well know.
At Douai the King spent the night
Along with his dejected prisoners.
The next day with all his conrois
The King rode towards Paris.

This translation was originally published in The Legend of Bouvines: War, Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages, by Georges Duby, translated by Catherine Tihanyi (University of California Press, 1990).  We thank Catherine Tihanyi for allowing to republish this material.