This date was chosen by the Flemish Community of Belgium to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Golden Spurs (Dutch: Guldensporenslag) in 1302.

[1] In 1302, the French king Philip IV sent an army to punish the Flemish citizens of Bruges, who earlier that year rebelled against the king and attacked the French governor of Flanders (the so-called Good Friday of Bruges).

The Flemish, in contrast, fielded a town militia force of 9,000 consisting mostly of infantrymen.

The commander of the French army, Robert II of Artois, was surrounded and killed on the battlefield.

The battle was romanticised in 1838 by Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience in his book De Leeuw van Vlaanderen (English: The Lion of Flanders).