Douai

Description

In the twentieth canto of the Purgatorio (v. 46) Dante lists Doagio, Lilla, Guanto, and Bruggia, Italianized names according to the usage of the time by which the four principal cities of Flanders (Douai, Lille, Ghent, and Bruges) are indicated, used to represent the entire country. In the passage, reference is made to the betrayal committed by Philip IV the Fair against the Count of Flanders during the second war between the French and the Flemish (1297-1299): the King of France promised the Count, besieged in Ghent, his freedom in exchange for surrender, but, once the city was obtained, he led him as a prisoner to Paris, an act universally judged a grave disloyalty. Three years later, in 1302, the Flemish, having rebelled, inflicted a harsh defeat on the French at Courtrai, presented by Dante as a divine vengeance fallen upon the treacherous king.