Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

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Images of the battle of Courtrai from the contemporary Courtrai chest, an oak chest displaying Flemish carvings
and discovered in Oxford, England in 1909. The bottom register of the image shows the Flemish militiamen,
including troops with pikes. (Bridgeman Art Library)
and fled. Soon the whole French army was in flight,
pursued by the Flemings for up to 6 miles. Some
1,200 nobles and knights, the cream of French
chivalry, lost their lives and 500 gilded spurs,
symbols of their knighthood, were collected and
displayed as trophies in the church of Our Lady
of Courtrai.
The defeat at Courtrai cut the heart out of the
French nobility and shook its self-confidence. It also
showed that infantry, so long as it stood firm, could
defeat heavy cavalry. When the Scots pikemen did
the same thing to the English at Bannockburn in
1314 the chronicler Thomas Gray compared it with
the Flemish victory.