Tournai

“ Tournai is one of the cleanest and pleasantest of Belgian industrial towns. The quays on the Scheldt are planted with trees, and the old walls have been turned into promenades.
A civilian who witnessed the fighting at Tournai tells us that the French Territorials, who were only one thousand strong, had barely arrived, after an eleven miles' march, when they were fired on by German guns. The firing began at 8 a.m. on Monday, 24th August, and shortly afterwards the Germans entered the town. ”

“ Tournai was not only the religious capital of Flanders, it was also the artistic capital of a very considerable portion of the Low Country; here was established a school of architects and sculptors, which at this time was among the most famous of the North; when the architects of Tournai adopted the new style it was bound to make headway. Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, without quarries of their own, and without native masons, were constrained to bring from Tournai, the nearest point where stone was to be had, alike their building material and their builders. ”

“ Brabant had quarries of her own, and builders, inferior, indeed, to the builders of Tournai, but for all that well skilled in their craft; and thus what Tournai was doing for the rest of Belgium Brabant was able to do for herself. Though at first her architects seem to have taken as their models the buildings which their rivals of Tournai were constructing in Hainault, in Holland, and in Flanders, even their earliest Gothic work is in no way lacking in originality. Witness, for example, the choir of the Collegiate Church of Saint Gudule at Brussels, one of their first efforts. ”

“ The army then advanced against Tournai.
This city, by its ancient charters, was exempt from the burden of a garrison, and when Louis XII. sent to ask them if they needed troops to defend their city, they made this boastful and silly reply: “Tournai est tourné, et jamais n’a tourné, et encore ne tournera. Si les Anglais viennent, ils trouveront à qui parler”— (Tournay is turned, and never292 has turned, and, still further, never will turn. If the English come, they will find somebody to speak to) . And so the burgesses undertook the defence themselves. ”

“ Tournai, however, has a broader title to the phrase than any of them in that the artistic activities of its gifted sons have not been confined to one medium or two, but have been independently developed along half a score of different lines and during a period covering more than seven centuries. Not only is the city a rich repository of the artistic productions of [Pg 269] past ages, but it is still more notable in having been one of the most prolific producers of beautiful and artistic things. ”

“ Until the twelfth century, German traditions, however, prevailed in architecture, and at no time prior to the beginning of that period can there be said to have been any Lotharingian style.
If the valley of the Meuse was the artistic center of Eastern Belgium, in the western part of the country—in Flanders—it was the city of Tournai which dominated artistic development. The cathedral of Tournai, the only large Romance basilica of Belgium, rivals the cathedrals of the Rhine in majesty and harmony of form. The plan reveals the work of an architect influenced by the German school. ”

“ On the 28th Prince Eugene joined both the Dutch and Marlborough before the town, taking up his headquarters at Froyennes, Marlborough being at Willemeau, and the Dutch, under Tilly, already established on the east of Tournai from Antoing to Constantin, just opposite Eugene, where they threw a bridge across the Scheldt. By the evening of the 28th, therefore, Tournai was invested on every side, and the great allied armies of between 110,000 and 120,000 men had abandoned all hope of carrying Villars’ lines, and had sat down to the capture of the frontier fortress. ”

“ Five years before [Pg 307] this the canons and vicars were still wearing masks and playing comedies in public [1083] . The history of the feast at Tournai is only known to me through certain legal proceedings which took place before the Parlement of Paris in 1499. It appears that the young bourgeois of Tournai were accustomed to require the vicars of Notre-Dame to choose an évesque des sotz from amongst themselves on Innocents’ day. ”

“ The troops should march out with arms and colours, and should have safe escort through the French lines to Douai. They reached that town and camp upon the 4th, and an exchange of prisoners against their numbers was soon effected.
Thus after two months ended the siege of Tournai, a piece of resistance which, as the reader will soon see, determined all that was to follow. Six thousand four hundred men had held the place when it was first invested. ”

“ TOURNAI (Flem. Doornik) , a town of Belgium, capital of an arrondissement in the province of Hainault, 53 miles by rail west-south-west from Brussels, is divided into two parts by the Scheldt, which is here spanned by seven bridges and lined with spacious tree-shaded quays. The older, which is also the busier and more important portion of the town, stands on the left bank; the new town is distinguished by its neat regular streets and modern architecture. The cathedral, which is a fine example of the Romanesque style, is a cruciform basilica, with a series of chapels and five towers. ”

“ An example of the religious spirit is the great “procession” of Tournai, that attracted every year thousands of pilgrims and visitors, Flemish and Walloon together, and that acted as a unifying factor for both races of Belgium.
The Reform of Cluny found the French and German influence in serious conflict. The reform in question, by which it was hoped to reintroduce a very severe discipline in the monastic world, originated in French Burgundy (1004) and soon spread through the northern countries, especially in Flanders and Lotharingia. ”

“ There are several works, however, of the highest rank, and the museum as a whole serves admirably to illustrate the fact that the traditions and inspiration of the first great masters of Flemish painting, whose work has made the name of Tournai illustrious for all time, have never been wholly forgotten in their native city. To be sure, there is nothing to represent Robert Campin or Jacques Daret, nor had the caretaker ever heard of either of them—a fact hardly to be wondered at, since the works of the former have not yet been fully identified by the critics. ”

“ About midday I came to Tournai; and here again I was trusting to luck. I'd stopped there three years ago at a small estaminet near the station kept by the widow Demassiet. Now this old lady was, I knew, thoroughly French in sympathies; and I hoped that, in case of necessity, she would pass me off as her brother from Ghent, who was staying with her for a while. Some retreat of this sort was, of course, essential. A homeless vagabond would be bound to excite suspicion. ”

“ It was said of this princess that she united the skill of a prudent general to the valour of a brave warrior, and, although she was herself badly wounded, she only gave in when three-fourths of her garrison were either dead or unable to fight. You may be interested to learn that Tournai is not far from the famous battlefield of Fontenoy, where English, Dutch, and Austrians were defeated by the French with 250the help of the gallant Irish Brigades which had been raised by, and for, the Stuarts. ”

“ There are no modern sculptors in the list of Tournaisian artists, but the cathedral is a veritable museum of the stone carvings of the past. The men of the chisel, moreover, must be credited with giving some of the inspiration that made the work of the early artists of the brush so notable. Van der Weyden, particularly, shows the influence of sculpture and a marked appreciation of its effects in the framework and backgrounds of many of his pictures. Moreover, for several centuries the sculptors of Tournai enjoyed a renown that extended throughout Flanders and northern France. ”

“ On 17 May 1513 he was directed to provide transports for the king's army, which was bound for France. In the same year he acted as lieutenant of Tournai, and on 20 Jan. 1513–14 he was appointed bailiff of the city in the place of Sir Edward Poynings. ”

“ Hainaut, County of, 130; united to Flanders by marriages of Cambrai, 218-219; Philip the Good becomes Count of, 221; 243; Count of, at siege of Tournai, 249. Hal, baptismal font at, 277. Hanseatic League, 58; at [Pg 502] Bruges, 69; abandons Bruges for Antwerp, 71; 401. Hay, Lord, at Battle of Fontenoy, 254. Hémony, Pierre, 323. Hennebicq, painter of Tournai, 274. Hennequin, painter of Tournai, 274. Henry III, Duke of Brabant, grants privileges to Antwerp, 396. Henry V, King of England, wins Battle of Agincourt, 220. Henry VIII, captures Tournai, 249; tower of, 266-267. ”

“ Swerts, Jean, mural paintings at Ypres, 125; at Courtrai, 152. T Taillebert, Urban, 84. Tancmar, Lord of Straten, 37. Tani, Jacopo, 298. Tapestry, 5; workers organised into a guild, 230; in church of St. Brice at Tournai, 264; weaving at Tournai, 278-280; 376; at Audenaerde, 384-390. [Pg 514] Templars, Tower of, at Nieuport, 95; 99; House of, at Ypres, 140-141. Teniers, David, 7; 386; master of scenes of homely Flemish life, 453-454; 455; 456. Tournai, tapestries, 5; forest of, 134; besieged by Edward III, 202; Guild of St. Luke organised, 229; tapestry workers organised, 230 ”

“ Royalty seems to have had the good taste to [91] spend much time in Touraine during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and small wonder we thought, for this fertile well-watered plain combines the advantages of north and south, and is hospitable to the fruits and flowers of many climates. Louis XI, in his declining years, sought refuge here from the chill winds of Paris, which are tempered in Touraine by the softer breezes of the Midi, and this ancient city of the Turones he wished to make the capital of the France that he had strengthened and unified. ”

“ Of his well-beloved Touraine, Balzac wrote: "Do not ask me why I love Touraine; I love it not merely as one loves the cradle of his birth, nor as one loves an oasis in a desert, but as an artist loves his art."
Blois, with its bloody memories; Chaumont, splendid and retired; Chambord, magnificent, pompous, and bare; Amboise, with its great tower high above the river, follow in turn till the Loire makes its regal entrée into Tours. "What a spectacle it is," wrote Sterne in "Tristram Shandy," "for a traveller who journeys through Touraine at the time of the vintage." ”

“ Let us drink to the new France; for after all," he continued, looking from one to the other, "we are all Frenchmen. The fate of France must be our fate. With her we must stand or fall. A new France has now risen from the ashes of the old. To her we turn with new hope."
"Long live the Republic!" cried Gaillard.
Tournay, St. Hilaire, and Gaillard touched glasses and looked into one another's eyes. They understood one another as brave men do.
"Nations may rise or they may crumble into dust," said Colonel Tournay, "but Justice and Liberty are eternal. They will live always in the hearts of men." ”

“ Gaillard went to the inn stables and Tournay mounted his horse and rode toward the château.
He had not made half the distance between the village and the château when he heard a footstep crunch on the gravel of the road, and reined in his horse just as the figure of a man crept by him.
"Who is there?" cried Tournay, clicking the hammer of his pistol.
"A good citizen," was the reply in a timid voice.
"Father, is it you?" exclaimed Tournay, springing from his horse and approaching the figure. "Is all well at the château?" ”

“ The subtle scent of the willows by the water's edge was mingled with the damp odor of the breeze from the river. The monotonous chant of a goat-herd added a plaintive note to the sound of birds' songs in a chorus which never ends; the cries of the boatmen brought tidings of distant busy life. Here was Touraine in all its glory, and the very height of the splendor of spring. Here was the one peaceful district in France in those troublous days; for it was so unlikely that a foreign army should trouble its quiet that Touraine might be said to defy invasion. ”

“ There is a good deal to be said in favour of the physical and moral characteristics of the inhabitants of Touraine. Just as the descendants of the Phoceans, the original settlers of Marseilles, differ from the natives of other parts of France, so, too, do the Tourangeaux differ from the inhabitants of other provinces. The people of Touraine are a mixture of Romans, Visigoths, Saracens, Alains, Normans and Bretons, Anglais and Gaulois; but all have gradually been influenced by local conditions, so that the native of Touraine has become a distinct variety all by himself. ”

“ The Tourangeaux themselves will tell you, when speaking of Rabelais and Balzac, that it is the land of "haute graisse, féconde et spirituelle." It is all this, and, besides its spirituelle components, it will supply some very real and substantial comforts. It is the Eden of the gourmandiser of such delicacies as truffes, rilettes, and above all, pruneaux, which you get in one form or another at nearly every meal. Most of the good things of life await one here in abundance, with kitchen-gardens and vineyards at every one's back door. Truly Touraine is a land of good living. ”