When the great city revolted under Charles V., who tried to suppress its privileges, the head of the Claes family was so deeply compromised in the rebellion that, foreseeing a catastrophe and bound to share the fate of his associates, he secretly sent wife, children, and property to France before the Emperor invested the town.

The syndic's forebodings were justified.

Together with other burghers who were excluded from the capitulation, he was hanged as a rebel, though he was, in reality, the defender of the liberties of Ghent.
The death of Claes and his associates bore fruit.

Their needless execution cost the King of Spain the greater part of his possessions in the Netherlands.

Of all the seed sown in the earth, the blood of martyrs gives the quickest harvest.