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BRUGES 2006
BREIDEL & DE CONINC NOTTINGHAM JOUSTING
The joust, Bruges, 11 June
 Sunday
night, 10 pm. The market square’s turned into a small sand
arena, surrounded by burning torches. You can feel the tension in
the air. The introduction teaches us that we’re about to see
a historical joust, the clash between the Flemish and the French
camp somewhere around 1302.
After this introduction, it all went downhill. This battle for
independence was reduced in a dreadful way to a mix of French and
Flemish history, facts and fiction. If you, like me, dislike this
concept, don’t go.
If you do go, blank out the historical information given to you
by the story tellers (which were more like circus presenters), it’s
annoying and incorrect. One of the two Flemish protagonists, Pieter
De Coninck, was being represented as a drunk, silly goat and King
Filips of France as a mere scoundrel. This presentation of history
is a blasphemy for Flemish people.
Why’s that? Well, the Battle of the Golden Spurs was fought
on July 11, 1302, near Kortrijk in Flanders. Most of the Flemish
soldiers were simple commoners, workmen and handy craftsman. France
annexed Flanders two years before and tried to submit the Flemish
towns. The Flemish people however, conscious of their own valour,
resisted and stood up against the French aggressor. The battle was
named this way because of the large numbers of golden spurs that
were collected from the French knights after their defeat. Making
this ridiculous is like turning ‘Shindlers List’ into
a comedy, it’s just wrong!
The show itself was spectacular but there are more interesting ways
to spend your 30 €. For the historical component you might
want to visit a museum which actually gives you an objective scope
on history. The action scenes, performed by British professionals,
are amusing. In their area of work, these actors are clearly professionals
and for their skills, they deserve respect, but maybe they should
have read a word or two about the background of the joust…
narf`
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