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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 4986967, member: 110504&quot;]Just got notice of this one having been sent; an unsold lot from the last Elsen auction.&nbsp; As such, compared to other options, the price was right.&nbsp; (And for collecting purposes, Elsen are My People.&nbsp; ...Looked at their website for years on end before summoning the nerve to actually bid on anything.&nbsp; Since then, I&#039;ve done very well by them.)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1198022[/ATTACH]</p><p>Flanders: Kortrijk (Courtrai), petit denier c. 1250-1300.</p><p>Obv. shield (perhaps an early version of the civic coat of arms?).</p><p>Rev. C / [V] / R / T</p><p>At the Battle of Courtai /&#039;The Golden Spurs&#039; in 1302, a Flemish civic militia, overwhelmingly composed of infantry, roundly stomped a French army of heavy cavalry.&nbsp; This website, from a group of European &#039;recreationists&#039; --who are as obsessive as the American variety --is especially good:</p><p>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.liebaart.org/gulden_e.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.liebaart.org/gulden_e.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.liebaart.org/gulden_e.htm</a></p><p>Despite the website&#039;s claim that this was the first major victory of infantry over knights, the Scots, under William Wallace, did the same thing at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.&nbsp; (Robert the Bruce repeated the feat at Bannockburn in 1314, giving the English some practice for their victories of longbows over French knights in 1346 and 1356 ...and, of course, 1415.)</p><p>To quote the website:</p><p>&#039;The Flemings stand guard that night on the battlefield. A battle is but won when the victorious army can hold the battlefield until the next morning. That next day the booty is collected. From the battlefield, apart of the expensive knightly armours, some five hundred pairs of golden spurs are found. This gives the battle its modern name.&#039;</p><p>As I couldn&#039;t help saying to the representative at Elsen, &quot;in this sort of context, I like to &#039;root for the underdog!&#039;&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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