Battle of the Golden Spurs 1302
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1302 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Franco-Flemish War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 50.8289, 3.2758 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Golden Spurs (Dutch: Guldensporenslag; French: Bataille des éperons d'or) or Battle of Courtrai was a military confrontation between the royal army of France and rebellious forces of the County of Flanders on 11 July 1302 during the 1297–1305 Franco-Flemish War. It took place near the town of Kortrijk in modern-day Belgium and resulted in an unexpected victory for the Flemish.
On 18 May 1302, after two years of French military occupation and several years of unrest, many cities in Flanders revolted against French rule, and the local militia massacred many Frenchmen in the city of Bruges. King Philip IV of France immediately organized an expedition of 8,000 troops, including 2,500 men-at-arms, under Count Robert II of Artois to put down the rebellion. Meanwhile, 9,400 men from the civic militias of several Flemish cities were assembled to counter the expected French attack.
When the two armies met outside the city of Kortrijk on 11 July, the cavalry charges of the mounted French men-at-arms were unable to defeat the mail-armoured and well-trained Flemish militia infantry's pike formation. The result was a rout of the French nobles, who suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Flemish.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Golden Spurs (revision 1377726388), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Courtrai (1918) 1918 · 1 km
- Battle of Courtrai (1794) 1794 · 1 km
- Battle of Courtrai (1814) 1814 · 1 km
- Battle of Mouscron 1794 · 11 km
- Battle of Menin (1793) 1793 · 11 km
- Siege of Menin (1706) · 12 km
Other battles of the Franco-Flemish War
- Battle of Furnes 1297
- Battle of Arques (1303) 1303
- Siege of Tournai (1303) 1303
- Battle of Zierikzee 1304
All 5 battles of the Franco-Flemish War →
Browse more: battles in Belgium · Europe · Medieval battles