Philip Van Artevelde Quotes
Gentlemen, you require great things from me; and I should imagine you have not weighed the matter so maturely as it ought to have been, when you offer me the government of Ghent. You say, the affection your ancestors had for my father has been your great inducement: when he had performed for them every service in his power, they murdered him. If I should accept the government in the manner you request, and be afterwards murdered, I should gain but a miserable recompense.
The Flemmish city of Ghent needed a Governor. Peter Du Bois and a delegation of all classes of citizens approached Philip Van Artevelde whose father had been a successful governor to see if he would be interested in assuming the office. Many cities, while not democracies, did elect their ruler as for a time was done on Ancient Rome. He fared much better than his father with the citizens of Ghent, but because of Ghent’s independence and success, it drew the enmity of the Duke of Flanders and King Charles VI of France. They attacked Ghent and Van Artevelde was killed.
Philip Van Artevelde, Governor of Ghent in Flanders, Statement to Citizen’s Delegation, 1386, Quoted in Jean Froissart, Chronicle
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Philip van Artevelde was a Flemish patriot, the son of Jacob van Artevelde. Because of his father's prominence he was godson of English queen Philippa of Hainault, who held him in her arms during his baptism.
