The quarrel between the democratic weavers and their exiled counts was still carried on by Philip van Artevelde, the son of Jacques, and godson of Queen Philippa of England, herself a Hainaulter.  Under his rule, the town continued to increase in wealth and population.  But the general tendency of later medieval Europe toward centralized despotisms as against urban republics was too strong in the end for free Ghent.  In 1381, Philip was appointed dictator by the democratic party, in the war against the Count, son of his father’s opponent, whom he repelled with great slaughter in a battle near Bruges.

He then made himself Regent of Flanders.  But Count Louis obtained the aid of Charles VI. of France, and defeated and killed Philip van Artevelde at the disastrous battle of Roosebeke in 1382.  That was practically the end of local freedom in Flanders.  Tho the cities continued to revolt against their sovereigns from time to time, they were obliged to submit for the most part to their Count and to the Burgundian princes who inherited from him by marriage.

The subsequent history of Ghent is that of the capital of the Burgundian Dukes, and of the House of Austria.  Here the German king, Maximilian, afterward Emperor, married Mary of Burgundy, the heiress of the Netherlands; and here Charles V. was born in the palace of the Counts.  It was his principal residence, and he was essentially a Fleming....

The real interest of the Cathedral centers, not in St. Bavon, nor in his picture by Rubens, but in the great polyptych of the Adoration of the Lamb, the masterpiece of Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert, which forms in a certain sense the point of departure for the native art of the Netherlands....

Stand before the west front at a little distance, to examine the simple but massive architecture of the tower and facade.  The great portal has been robbed of the statues which once adorned its niches.  Three have been “restored”; they represent, center, the Savior; at the left, the patron, St. Bavon, recognizable by his falcon, his sword as duke, and his book as monk; he wears armor, with a ducal robe and cap above it; at the right, St. John the Baptist, the earlier patron.

Then, walk to the right, round the south side, to observe the external architecture of the nave, aisles and choir.  The latter has the characteristic rounded or apsidal termination of Continental Gothic, whereas English Gothic usually has a square end.  Enter by the south portal.

The interior, with single aisles and short transepts (Early Gothic) is striking for its simple dignity, its massive pillars, and its high arches, tho the undeniably noble effect of the whole is somewhat marred to English eyes by the unusual appearance of the unadorned brick walls and vaulting.  The pulpit, by Delvaux (1745), partly in oak, partly in marble, represents Truth revealing the Christian Faith to astonished Paganism, figured as an old and outworn man.  It is a model of all that should be avoided in plastic or religious art.  The screen which separates the choir from the transepts is equally unfortunate.  The apsidal end of the Choir, however, with its fine modern stained glass, forms a very pleasing feature in the general coup d’oeil....