One: Flanders was a land of expansion and turmoil during the life of Galbert of Bruges. While we are witness to his insights and feelings about the event surrounding the murder of Charles the Good, and thus those of the common townspeople of Flanders, it is the ancillary world around these events that provides us with a look at the economic revival and growth of the period. The military conquest of land increased the population of Flanders at the same time it promoted agrarian expansion and commercial growth “Growing population and expanding cultivation are reflected in the appearance of new communities, new monastic foundations for both men and women, and new mercantile settlements of merchants and burghers like the town of Bruges” (Ross 25).
We see evidence of the growth of commerce and trade in the writing of Galbert, and we also see that the diverse peoples, technologies, and commerce that were merging in Flanders required the one thing that Charles had been able to provide – the security and calm of peace. As Galbert writes “At this time the merchants from all the kingdoms of Flanders had come together at Ypres…where the market and all the fairs were going on; they were in the habit of carrying on their business safely under the peace and protection of the most pious count” (Ross 123). We see that the enormous pressure put upon the land by all the peasants who sought land for tenures and knights for fifes exacerbated the need for more land and military pursuits.
TWO: There are many in Galbert’s account of the murder of Charles that could be called heroic, villainous, or bystanders. However, almost all of these individuals are exposed through Galbert’s writings as having earthly or material interests as their primary focus. For example, we are treated to the intense and bottomless piety of religious feeling in the very individuals who squabble over the count’s body because of its certain economic valu...