Pieter de Coninck

Who was Pieter de Coninck?

Pieter de Coninck was a weaver from Bruges well known for his role in the events surrounding the Battle of the Golden Spurs. He was not the head of the weavers' guild as is popularly believed. Together with Jan Breydel, a butcher, he was in the forefront of the popular uprising that led to the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Right before that battle he was knighted together with two of his sons.

Before the Battle of the Golden Spurs began he was seen by the city government of Bruges as a dangerous agitator and was imprisoned in June 1301. He was freed by the people of Bruges. Afterwards, the Leliaarts, a political faction supporting French rule, took over control of the city. Jacques de Châtillon, the then appointed governor of County of Flanders, entered Bruges with a small force and de Coninck was banished.

Urged on by John I of Namur, de Coninck restored his authority in Bruges in December 1301. He tried to align the people of Ghent on the same side but failed. On 1 May 1302 he was one of the leaders of a gang of rebels who took the castle of Sijsele and Male. At Male, the rebels killed the entire French garrison. De Châtillon responded by again marching on Bruges with a force of 800 men, and again expelling de Coninck from the city. De Châtillon marched into the city with his army fully clad and battle-ready The people of Bruges, fearing bloody preprisals, and in order to protect themselves helped de Coninck to enter the city with his followers during the night. On 18 May 1302, during the so-called Bruges Matins or "Brugse Metten", nearly all the French present in Bruges and their Leliaart supporters were killed. De Châtillon barely managed to escape.