4th August, 2010

The seal from the Royal Charter

The Royal Seal of the King of England

An archive

Bruge

Writing my last journal for the last day of class, it was fitting that Bruge be the last destination. Bruge is known as probably one of the more beautiful cities of Europe. The first thing we did upon entering the city was visit the city’s archives. I found it very interesting that the city had so many official as well as personal archives. There were archives from as early as the 13^th century. From the archives there was a lot that one could learn. For example, the archives from the 13^th century were written in Latin, while that from the 14th century was in Dutch. The revolt of 1302 made the city more democratic in nature as the archives from the 14^th century were more descriptive than those from the 13^th century. We also learnt that during the revolt it was primarily the Count of Flanders with the working class against the King of France and the upper class. One interesting fact that I learnt about this period was that seals were used as a signature. We were fortunate enough to see a few seals from this period.

After seeing the city’s archives we took a tour of city, and it was fit that Professor Jeroen give us the last tour of the class. He informed us that in 1302 the Flemish cities had won against the King of France. This was the first time in Europe that a royal army was defeated by an irregular army. Moving on, during the tour of the city we visited a church, and then witnessed another attempt by a city to give its 19^th century outlook a more modern outlook. The structure was a terrible idea, and was given the name Governor’s Car Wash. Obviously, the Professor was joking here. The tour continued further wherein we saw the underground remains of an old building below the Crowne Plaza hotel. From there on, we visited the house of Gruuthuize who were very wealthy people. They were so rich that they had their own private entrance into the church right behind their house. I found this to be arbitrary and wrong use of the Church’s power, but such arrangements were very common in those days. Lastly, another interesting fact I learnt about the city was that its inhabitants drank more beer than water, as the water was very polluted.

In the end, we walked back to station and returned to Leuven. After a very long journey, our course finally has come to its end. It has been a very enlightening experience. Now, after the finals on Friday we head home.