page_title: Revolt of Ghent (1539–1540)
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Revolt of Ghent (1539–1540) / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: A contemporary drawing of the humiliation of the leaders of the rebellion that occurred in Ghent during the reign of Charles V.
context_page_description: The Revolt of Ghent was an uprising by the citizens of Ghent against the regime of the Holy Roman Emperor and Spanish king Charles V in 1539. The revolt was a reaction to high taxes, which the Flemish felt were used solely to fight wars abroad. Charles marched his army into the city the following year and the rebels surrendered without a fight. Charles humiliated the rebels by parading their leaders in undershirts with hangman nooses around their necks. Since then Ghent citizens informally call themselves "noose bearers".
context_section_description: The leaders of the revolt were arrested, of whom 25 were executed. The rest were humiliated: on May 3, they were marched through the streets from the town hall towards Charles' palace, the Prinsenhof. The procession consisted of all the city's sheriffs, clerks, officials, and 30 noblemen dressed in black robes and barefoot; 318 guild members and 50 weavers, they too dressed in black robes; and 50 day laborers dressed in white shirts with hangman's nooses around their necks. The hangman's noose symbolized that they deserved the gallows. At the Prinsenhof, they were made to beg Charles and Mary for mercy.
  A fine of 8,000 guilders was imposed on the city. In late April, Charles decreed a new constitution, the Caroline Concession, that stripped Ghent of all its medieval legal and political freedoms, as well as all its weapons. The weavers and 53 other crafts guilds were merged into 21 corporations, and the privileges of all guilds save the shippers and butchers were stripped. The old abbey of Saint Bavo's and its church of the Holy Savior were demolished to make way for a new fortress, the Spanjaardenkasteel ("the Castle of the Spaniards"), which housed a permanent garrison. Eight of the city's gates and parts of its walls were demolished. The city's aldermen would henceforth be selected by magistrates appointed by Charles' representatives. Charles ordered the scaling back of festivals that fostered the city's civic pride. The work clock in the belfry was taken down, because it was a symbol of political defiance as it had been used to summon assemblies of workers to the Vrijdagmarkt (the city's main square).
caption: The humiliated rebel leaders beg Charles for mercy.