"De Leeuw van Vlaanderen" by Hendrik Conscience is a historical novel published in 1838. Set during the medieval Franco-Flemish War, it follows the romance between Machteld, daughter of the Count of Flanders, and the knight Adolf van Nieuwlandt against the backdrop of the legendary Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302. Written in Dutch when French dominated Belgian literature, this passionate epic became a founding text of Flemish literature and inspired a cultural movement that revived interest in Flemish medieval history.