The English re-enforcements arrived too late, and served no other purpose but that of inducing Philip to grant the Flemings a truce for two years.

A fruitless attempt was made, with the help of Pope Boniface VIII., to change the truce into a lasting peace.

The very day on which it expired, Charles, Count of Valois, and brother of Philip the Handsome, entered Flanders with a powerful army, surprised Douai, passed through Bruges, and, on arriving at Ghent, gave a reception to its magistrates, who came and offered him the keys.

"The burghers of the towns of Flanders," says a chronicler of the age, "were all bribed by gifts or promises from the King of France, who would never have dared to invade their frontiers, had they been faithful to their count." Guy de Dampierre, hopelessly beaten, repaired, with two of his sons, and fifty- one of his faithful knights, to the camp of the Count of Valois, who gave him a kind reception, and urged him to trust himself to the king's generosity, promising at the same time to support his suit.

Guy set out for Paris with all his retinue.