Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/336

 300 Readings in European History lords, commonly over matters of feudal dues and feudal dependence. In this year [1203] the burghers of Huy rose against their bishop [of Liege] on account of a certain due which he had claimed in an unjust manner. They took possession of the apparatus for carrying on a siege, which was coming by ship from Namur. The vessel they dragged overland to the market place ; they barricaded the entrance and exit to the burg. But soon they repented and all betook themselves to Liege, where they rendered satisfaction barefooted to the bishop in the presence of the clergy and people. A bitter feud broke out between Duke Henry of Louvain and Count Louis of Los over a certain due paid by the town of St. Trond. This town belonged to the bishop of Metz ; he had taken it from the count of Los and given it to the duke. But the people of St. Trond rose in opposition and would not yield to the duke. Now Count Louis of Los proceeded to grant all his towns, namely, Montenaken, Brusthem, Hallut, and all the land he controlled, to [the church of] St. Lambert. He offered all these at the altar of the church as a legal gift before clergy and people, and in the presence of the bishop, Duke Henry of Ardennerland and Count Henry of Moha. He then received the lands again from the hand of the bishop as a fief. The bishop took possession on St. John's day of the aforementioned towns and the lands. As the harvest approached the duke [of Louvain] sum- moned his forces and proposed to lay siege to the town of St. Trond. He set up his tent in the village of Landen and remained a week there, destroyed the crops in the region in a manner hard to believe, and assembled a great number of soldiers. The count of Los, however, went to the bishop, whose man he had lately become, and asked his help. He also got together from his own lands and elsewhere heavy reen- forcements. The bishop ordered his dependents knights, burghers, and those of his household to defend him, and ordered the count to be at a village called Waremme on a