Jacob van Artevelde

Jacob van Artevelde (c. 1290–1345), called the Wise Man, was a wealthy Ghent cloth merchant who became the leader of Flanders when the Hundred Years' War threatened the wool trade on which the Flemish towns depended. Fearing war would ruin Ghent, he entered politics in 1337 and bound the chief towns into an alliance for neutrality.

He took control of the revolt against Count Louis I, who fled to France, and ruled Ghent as captain general until his death. In 1340 he persuaded the towns to recognize Edward III as king of France and overlord of Flanders, and trade flourished under his near-dictatorial rule.

In 1345 rumours that he meant to make the Black Prince count, suspicion of embezzlement and his excommunication provoked an uprising in Ghent, and a mob killed him in July.