III. Jacob de Cleerc (1435/'40 - 1505/'13) x Aechte de Vriese
Son of Pieter de Clerc and Katheline Rommels
Jacob de Cleerc, * ca. 1435/40, † 1505/13, x before 28 July 1457 Aechte de Vriese, * ca. 1435/40, † 1512/13, dr. of Lieven and Cathelijne Sneevoet.
Jacob de Cleerc was still very young when his father died. Like two of his brothers, he was brought up to become a textile dyer, too. Once of age, he bought a workshop at a stones throw distance of his maternal home, on what's now called the 'St. Jansvest' in Ghent.
Jacob was then already married to Aechte de Vriese, daughter of Jan de Vriese, also a textile dyer, who had died a few years before. Jan de Vriese had been a influential man in Ghent, for a short period. The city of Ghent was in a long lasting conflict with the Dukes of Burgundy, who were also counts of Flanders. The dukes wanted control over the Flemish cities, but Ghent was rich and powerful and wanted to remain autonomous. In the years 1449-1453 this resulted in the Revolt of Ghent. A political faction, opponents of the duke, seized power in the city government and remained in control for a few years. Key figures in this faction were Aechtes father Jan de Vriese, as well as her grandfather Gillis Sneevoet and two of her uncles!
However, things ended badly for this faction. In 1453 an army of the Duke of Burgundy destroyed the Ghent militia, in the Battle of Gavere. Afterwards, the city had to accept the humiliating peace of Gavere.
Looking at this background, it is not clear if our Jacob de Cleerc is identical with his namesake Jacob de Clerc who in the years 1464-65 participated in one of the last crusades ever. This expedition, organized by the Burgundian Duke Philips the Good, was highly adventurous but a complete disaster. After the troops left Flanders and set sail for Italy to meet the Pope with his troops, and then continue the crusade together, to fight the Muslims in Palestina, they were haunted by misfortune. First the troops had to fight a battle at Ceuta, Maroc, where they lost men and a lot of time and money. Then, when they sailed to Marseille, they were caught in a terrible storm and when they finally arrived there, they heard that the Pope had died in the meantime, after which it was pointless to continue the expedition. To make things even worse, plague broke out in Marseille and decimated the Burgundian army. Nevertheless, it is said that some of the soldiers from Ghent decided to go on. Yet when they finally returned to Ghent, months later, only five of the initial 330 participating inhabitants of Ghent had survived the crusade. Among them was a Jacob de Clerc. Our ancestor?
We do know that our Jacob de Cleerc must have been very successful in his business. In the area of his workshop he acquired a number of houses. Jacob and Aechte lived in a stone house (then almost all houses were made of wood) on the border of the river Schelde. Also he owned quite some land outside the city walls.
This tax register shows that Jacob had to pay an annual fee (ground lease) to the city, for a drain pit, which he used for his dyeing workshop. He owned the pit together with his neighbor Jan van den Bosche, brewer in De Vispane. He also had to pay ground lease for his house along the water, which was a stone house, opposite his workshop.
Interestingly enough, Jacob was ‘schepen van gedeele’ (member of the city government) in 1477. In January of that year the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold, son and successor of Philips the Good, died at the Battle of Nancy. Soon afterwards, the political faction of opponents of the Dukes, again seized power in Ghent. Clearly, Jacob belonged to that faction.
Jacob died after August 1505; he will have become at least 70 years old, a highly respectable age for that time. His wife Aechte died a few years later.
One of the seven children of Jacob and Aechte was Gillis de Cleerc.
