A Thailand blog greets all Flemish people
This time nothing about Thailand but just a greeting to our very best neighbours; the Belgians and in particular the Flemings.
After all, today, July 11, is the Public Holiday of the Flemish Community. Because I have the impression that very few 'Ollanders' know anything about it. a short explanation.
We go back to July 11, 1302, so exactly 713 years ago today. On that day in question, the soldiers of the Flemish cities and municipalities, consisting of craftsmen and farmers on foot, defeated an army of French knights on horseback at the Groeningekouter near Kortrijk.
The Golden Spurs Battle
The Dutch who paid close attention in their national history lesson in their younger years may still remember the name 'Guldenspoorslag'.
To refresh your memory, as you may know, the French and the English have never really been good friends and France and England have been at war since 1294. War may be a very strong word, but at least they could drink each other's blood. “Buveurs de sang”, blood drinkers, my old history teacher called them, making a face that spoke volumes.
Flanders sided with England, prompted by the eternal struggle between the Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons. France invaded Flanders and one by one the Flemish cities fell into the hands of the French. The small Flemish army was obviously no match. Do not want to describe the whole history because this does not fit within the scope of Thailandblog. To this day, for many in the Flemish community, the Battle of the Golden Spurs is regarded as a symbol of the language battle between Flemish and French speakers.
If you want to know a little more, read the interesting story wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden Spurs.
Speaking of beer
My good Flemish friend Michel, who lives in Bruges, is a beer connoisseur. I regularly meet this flamboyant Fleming with his lovely wife, the Baroness van Haecke, not only in Belgium or the Netherlands, but also in Thailand. He himself calls himself the submissive servant of his noble wife.
He sometimes tries to piss me off by stating that a certain world-famous beer brand of Dutch origin cannot stand in the shadow of the many beautiful, tasteful Belgian beers. Unfortunately for him, I agree with him wholeheartedly. But then bounce back with the question why we 'Ollanders' are able to sell such tasteless barley liquor all over the world in his eyes and why those undeniably delicious Belgian beers remain so in the shadow in terms of turnover. Was yesterday in the 'Heerenkeet', a tavern near Zierikzee, and made a toast to the salvation of all Flemings.
No Singha, no Chang, nor a Heineken or Bavaria, but with a delicious Brugse Zot I -sitting in the sun- made a toast to the wonderful Flemish country and to my Belgian friends whom I wish today a very nice holiday of the Flemish community wish.
I also have many Dutch friends, even family who live there. About that beer I always say, if it's too early to drink beer, have a Heineken, Hi Hi Hi
It gives me pleasure to read something in Thailandblog.nl about our Flemish national holiday, namely 11 July, on which we commemorate that in 1302 a Flemish army, mainly consisting of burghers and craftsmen, succeeded in defeating the largest army of knights at that time. defeat. If we had not conquered the French then Flanders would probably have been part of France. The French have never digested that defeat, because I was told at school at the time that you will not find anything about that battle in the French history books.
Thanks for the holiday wishes!
Although most Belgians are not very proud of this, what we are very proud of are our beers, I would say drink one or more!
Yes, we are proud of our beer namesake! Something that reflects our qualities, the Dutch support us and have followed the same beer path, they are currently also focusing on special beers, the future for beer is said! Bavaria, a strong Dutch beer brewer, has already taken over one of our prides, the Palm brewery with the associated Rodenbach beer and Brugse tripel, Dutch people recognize quality from afar and trade is very much their own! Yet we help them with top positions in their breweries like we do at Heineken, not a small one, since then you have noticed a difference in taste or is that a bit too chauvinistic?
Thank you Netherlands and the blog!
Thanks for this post Joseph. If you ever come out of Mahasarakham, I'd be happy to buy you a pint...
What happened on July 11, 1303?
First ball of the veterans…..
Sorry Dirkphan but it was July 10, 1303. One day before the actual feast.
A great achievement that the Flemish people can still be proud of. A justified holiday in Flanders!
Nice and informative article Joseph, but with the sentence, “Flanders chose the side of England, prompted by the eternal battle between Flemish people and the French-speaking Walloons”, you miss the mark very much.
I have to leave it at that, because the moderator will not allow a history discussion about a country other than Thailand.
young Joseph,
I have always paid close attention in national history lessons. For example, I remember the song Waterloo by that famous Norwegian pop group the Beetels.
Please make a small correction
The song "Waterloo" was sung by the Swedish pop group ABBA and won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, and not by the Beatles
Thijs,
You are absolutely right. I was confused with 'Dancing Queer' and 'Boney, Boney' by the Flemish pop group 'De Bretels' from Bruges. These guys are also very well known in Tilburg, where my brother Florent has a bar that only serves Belgian beer (for a fee, of course).
I think it was from WC experience
Many thanks to Joseph for exuberantly explaining our holiday of the Flemish community. My Flemish lion proudly waved on our flagpole today.
As for the Battle of the Golden Spurs, you're almost right. Admittedly not a real language battle, but rather an economic struggle for survival between the haughty French and the hard-working Flemings .
By the way, don't forget that the “Bruges matins” took place on the same day, during which Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck and their entourage visited all the mansions of the French speakers and kept a great cleanse.
They asked all residents to repeat the Flemish sentence: "SCHild en de VRIend". As soon as the French speakers muttered “SKILD and FRINT”, they were unceremoniously sent to the eternal hunting grounds. Club Brugge's football stadium is also called the “Jan Breydel stadium”.
Oh dear Dutch people, who pronounce “SEVENTIG already SEVENTIG” and “lots of WIND today” as “FEEL FIND FENDAAG” And then they claim that they speak civilized Dutch, and we only speak a dialect.
Well, the Thai language also has its 5 intonations, so one day those many expat-Ollanders will learn to speak Dutch properly.
Unfortunately, Joseph will never finish you the BIG DICTEE of the Dutch language (which, by the way, must be read by a Flemish journalist Martine Tanghe, because we Flemings cannot understand the Northern Dutch accent of the reader), with less than 30 mistakes, last
Dear Michel,
I largely agree with your extensive response, but with a few caveats:
The “Brugse Metten” did not take place on the same day as the Battle of the Golden Spurs, but before. indeed, it was in response to this humiliating massacre that France sent an army to Flanders to teach these "unhinged" rebels a lesson;
The slogan at the Bruges Matins is incorrectly referred to by many as “Shield and Friend”. The phrase was: “'s Gilden Vriend”… which meant: friend or supporter of the guilds, the trade associations of the craftsmen at the time. For a French speaker, “'sg” is unpronounceable… they will clearly pronounce it as SK.
The Dutch have a different accent than the Flemish. However, the expression “ABN” General Civilized Dutch may no longer be used. It would mean that people who do speak AN, General Dutch, would not be civilized ha ha ha ….
My Flemish Lion hangs proudly here in Thailand all year round, obediently next to the Thai flag.
LS Lung addie
My best thanks for all the sympathy.
My language is, as far as possible, General Understandable Dutch.
So understandable for both Flemish people and Dutch people.
I also do my best to be both Flemish and Belgian and as a citizen of the world.
Usually this works.
Let alone triumph.
Because in Flanders there are:
You have KortrijkZAMEN; BlankenbergeNERS; EekloZERS; BeernemMERS; and BruggeLINGEN.
So I am not a BruggeNAAR. But you are forgiven.
Just drink a nice Bruges madness to my health, and enjoy it.
Someday I will tell the story about the history of the Heiniken beer on the Thai blog.
Thank you Joseph for the nice contribution about the Flemish holiday. After all, as a true Flemish person, July 11 appeals more to me than July 21.
As far as Belgian beers are concerned: West Vleteren has already been voted the best beer in the world several times. There are so many tasty beers in Belgium that it is practically impossible to taste them all.
Why Heineken is for sale almost everywhere in the world: they have a large global distribution chain. But if a horse drinks Belgian beer, it pisses Heineken (LOL)!
Lung addie
Gentlemen, (unfortunately no ladies) thank you for your comments and additions to my short incomplete piece of history. The Flemings are our best neighbours, and I hope that this is somewhat mutual. And... good neighbors don't appreciate each other and cats about any mutual mischief. There are differences within each country. An Amsterdammer is different from a Rotterdammer and a person from Bruges cannot be compared to a person from Brussels, not to mention the supporters of the various football associations. It's wonderful those differences in pronunciation of a language, eating habits, culture and so on. Why do I love going to Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp or Brussels?
Correct; because of the differences with other equally beautiful cities in the Netherlands. Why do we like to go to Thailand? You can fill in that answer yourself. Thailandblog may have been set up by a Dutchman, but the particularly large number of readers is due to the many Dutch AND Belgian authors and reactions from both nations. Keep it like that!
Indeed Joseph.
That no Flemish person has actually thought of writing something about July 11 on the blog.
As for “the question of why 'Ollanders' are able to sell that tasteless barley beer all over the world and why those undeniably delicious Belgian beers are so overshadowed in terms of turnover.”
We Belgians opt for quality instead of quantity. We prefer to keep the best for ourselves.
We leave conquering the world to AB Inbev. 😉
Seems logical to me on a Thailand related blog.
Flemings are perhaps a little too modest to unpack that successful battle of July 11, 3002 at the Groeningenbeek in Kortrijk on a worldwide “Ollants” forum? Or are they more foreseeable and wary so as not to face the harsh repression of feudal lords in their response over the ensuing decades.
At school and in the popular media we received and still receive a romanticized, flowery and heroically colored story about that battle. The historical novel “De Leeuw van Vlaenderen”, written by the Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience in 1838, romanticizes that battle of 500 years earlier and places it in the 19th century time frame, completely outside the original medieval context. This beautiful 19th century version strongly colors later ideas.
Conscience's book was inspired by the painting “The Battle of the Golden Spurs”. Painter Nicaise De Keyser painted that one battle equally heroic and romanticized. The “historical” source research that preceded the painting and the book was undoubtedly lapidary.
For example, it is swept under the rug that shortly afterwards the French king set up very successful "punitive expeditions", which left deep traces for decades. Everything except “Golden Spurs” by the way. That the Southern Netherlands suffered for hundreds of years afterwards under the yoke of (French and other) occupiers, that they remained a "fiscal" winning area, that trade, economy and prosperity were thwarted, that foreign occupiers ruled with a heavy hand ... we forget that please on July 11th.
There is one similarity between the “Ollants” beer and “July 11”. The marketing of both is particularly strong ... although it undoubtedly makes the cash register ring better in the Netherlands than in Flanders. Different priorities as Ronny already wrote 🙂
Dear Joseph,
For years we have been visiting the Hapje Tapje event in Leuven (Belgium) with friends from Ravenstein. For lovers of specialty beer the proverbial heaven on earth. But also for the barley liquor, there is no arguing about taste. People who like specialty beers also like a 'simple' beer, but that is not always the case the other way around. The "A sparrow is a bird, but a bird is not always a sparrow" story I will say. In addition, beer with less alcohol is also slightly easier to drink, and it also takes a little longer for the effect of gravity to take its toll.
Cheers!
Thomas
I hope that Joseph also writes a similar message when the Cambodians, Laotians, Burmese and Malays celebrate their national holiday. Because they are also neighbors of Thailandblog.
This is not a national holiday but a Flemish holiday.
By the way, the above mentioned are neighbors of Thailand, not of Thailandblog….
Or the whole world is a neighbor of Thailandblog. Of course you can also view it….
Which holiday joker? I just have to go to work today, lol.
A “holiday” does not always mean a “day off”. Your birthday can also be a holiday for yourself, but even then you can also go to work. The Flemish Holiday, July 11, is a free, paid day for the Flemish civil service. The Walloons also have this on their Walloon Holiday. Since my place of employment, as a Flemish civil servant, was in Walonia, prov. Namur, there was always a pleasant discussion about it with my colleagues, who were all Walloons by the way. And no, I didn't get two. We solved this easily by, as a Flemish civil servant, shifting my day off to the Walloon public holiday as otherwise I would have been the only one in the office, which was in fact closed that day.
For example, it is seen that Walloons and Flemish people can come to a good agreement.
Yes! Totally agree; dear neighbours, those Flemings, even though we lost a war to them when they wanted to continue without 'Orange'……….
But when I read how Thailandblog starts on the internet, there may now be a reason for the editors to adjust the text:
“…Read useful tips and advice from Dutch people living in Thailand: news – tourism – travel tips – backgrounds and more. ”
Because the Flemish people participate nicely here, this could perhaps be adjusted, editors?
Small explanation. In 1302 we Flemings naturally won. What few people know is that shortly after the defeat of the French, their King sent a new army, resulting in the famous battle of Zierikzee. Since this part of the country and also the north of France belonged to Flanders.
Then we got into serious trouble.
The sea admiral who led the French fleet
was a certain Rainier Grimaldi ancestor of Prince Rainier of Monaco. To thank him for his victory, the French King recognized his independence. And under Louis XIII, the princely title was awarded to the Grimaldis.
It is a beautiful memory that July 11, 1302, but history goes further than that day. After that battle in which the golden spurs of the French knights were captured, the French retreated. Shortly afterwards they turned back and set fire to several Flemish cities and villages.
A real victory was limited to that single July 11.
It should also be said that many Walloons fought on the Flemish side to throw the French out.
Happy holiday.
Joseph, you can reply to your Flemish friend by pointing out to him that the Dutch Trappist beer 'La Trappe' from the De Koningshoeven brewery has Belgium as its largest export country !!
The Belgians certainly appreciate a good (Dutch) beer!
They even come en masse for a tour of the brewery (and of course also to taste!).
The fact that the largest sales are not in the Netherlands itself says something... but fortunately not about the quality of “La Trappe”. 😉
Just continue together as De Lage Landen. With beer, 2 world ports and fries.
Dear people,
If there are Flemish or Dutch people living in or near Phrae, I will settle there within the foreseeable future (1 to 2 years at the latest) together with my Thai girlfriend.
Happy holiday to the Flemings who read this.
For those who like. A little quiz.
https://m.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/quiz-wat-weet-jij-over-de-vlaamse-feestdag~aa4802a1/?utm_campaign=apester&utm_source=facebook
5 out of 10.
Nice variant on the golden spurs battle. But the politics were already quite complex at that time, and the cause was much more nuanced. The battles shortly afterwards were no reason to celebrate today. The day off is nice.