The Battle of Othée (1408)
When the citizens of Liege go into revolt, they believe that they can fend off the armies of the nobles. Then they go up against John the Fearless and his professionally-trained Burgundian forces.
The Battle of Murten: The Invasion of Charles the Bold and the Survival of the Swiss States
In two stunning victories, Granson (Grandson in German), and, most importantly, Murten (Morat in French), the Swiss assured the survival of the Confederation, and these impressive feats of arms also propelled the Swiss states to the status of major players in international affairs for a short time.
Fifteenth-Century Burgundy and the Islamic East
What was the nature and scope of Burgundian contact with the Islamic world? How did Burgundians conceptualise the Islamic East? What were their frames of reference and how were they shaped by contemporaneous events, including further Ottoman penetration into eastern Europe and the fall of Constantinople?
The Persistence of the Warrior Tradition in the Last Years of the Middle Ages: The Example of the Pas d’Armes in Burgundy under Duke Charles the Bold
Appearing in the last century of Middle Ages, the Pas d’Armes are a real example of the undeniable interest held by the nobility of the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance in the arts of warfare and in literature.
Flandria Illustrata: Flemish Identities in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
This chapter discusses identity formation in early modern Flanders. It argues that policy makers and their intellectual agents transformed the perception of a province that had been divided by urban rivalries, civil war and conflicts with the Burgundian and Habsburg overlords, into a bastion of the Catholic Counter Reformation with strong ties to the Spanish King and his representatives.
Medieval Perspectives: Jean de Waurin and His Perception of the Turks in Anatolia in the Late Middle Ages
This paper discusses the reasons Wavrin wrote his account of the crusade of Varna and Walerin de Wavrin’s expedition into the Balkans, which was later published within his history of Britain and how he perceived and accordingly presented the Turks to the renaissance readers.
Northern Renaissance? Burgundy And Netherlandish Art In Fifteenth-Century Europe
Everyone who has studied medieval or modern history knows that the periodisation of the eras on either side of the Renaissance provides much food for thought. This contribution aims irst to address the usefulness of the widespread concept of the ‘Northern Renaissance’.
The Image of the City in Peace and War in a Burgundian manuscript of Jean Froissart’s Chronicles
The present essay, which complements a study scheduled for publication in 2000 in a volume arising from a colloquium on the theme Regions and Landscapes held in July 1997 at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, attempts to build on this work.
Could Duke Phillip the Good of Burgundy have owned the Bayeux tapestry in 1430?
An entry in the Inventory of the Bayeux cathedral treasury records that in 1476 the church owned the following: Item une tente tres longue et estroicte de telle a broderie d’ymages et escripteaulx, faisans representation du Conquest d’Angleterre, laquelle est tendu environ la nefde l’église le jour et par l’octave des reliques (l). Not until the 1720 ‘s did scholars first find and appreciate the potential importance of this brief entry.
Isabella of Bourbon, Countess of Charolais
She was the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes, daughter of Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy and sister of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
Castle for Sale in France: Château de La Rochepot
Perched on a cliff-side above a medieval village, Château de La Rochepot dates back to the 13th century.
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy was a man born with huge potential.
Mary, Duchess of Burgundy
As the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Mary was the heir of a far-ranging, wealthy and diverse realm and she was sometimes called Mary the Rich.
The Reputation of the Queen and Public Opinion: The Case of Isabeau of Bavaria
This essay takes issue with a still common tendency to read contemporary criticisms of powerful women as straightforward evidence of their “unpopularity,” using as a cast study Isabeau of Bavaria (1371-1435), who was generally imagined to have suffered the scorn of her contemporaries.
Isabel of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy
There was not another offer for Isabel’s hand until December 18, 1428 when she was thirty years old. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy had already been married and widowed twice by 1428.
Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy
Margaret of York, sister to two kings of England, made one of the most brilliant marriages of her century.
Construction and Conception Techniques of Residential Buildings and Urbanism in Medieval Europe around 1100 AD: The Example of Cluny, France
Everybody knows that the Burgundian abbey of Cluny was one of the intellectual and spiritual centres of Europe during the High Middle Ages. But also the surrounding little town is of scientific interest.
A Burgundian Death: The tournament in Le Chevalier Délibéré
Le Chevalier Délibéré (1483) by Olivier de la Marche (c. 1425-1502) is a poem of great literary value. But it was also conceived and received in a historical context. Its central theme, the tournament of Atropos (Death), reflects the spectacle of choice for the Burgundian Nobility of the fifteenth century: the tournament, specifically the Pas d’Armes.
“We Have Met Devils!”: The Almogavars of James I and Peter III of Catalonia-Aragon
Who were these Almogavars, who were able to defeat these heavily-armed and highly-trained knights? Why were they consistently effective against all who came before them? How were they utilized by James I the Conqueror (1213-1276) and his son Peter III the Great (1276-1285), count-kings of Catalonia-Aragon, to further the interests of their realm? These are the questions that this paper will attempt to answer.
Juana “The Mad”: Queen of a World Empire
It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that scholars discovered new material about Juana in the Spanish and Austrian archives that gave another side to the person of the woman who had been con- sidered “la loca.”
The Naples L’homme arme masses, Burgundy and the Order of the Golden Fleece: The origins of the L’homme arme tradition
The six anonymous L’Homme arme masses in naples MS VI E 40, of the Biblioteca Nazionale, have prompted heated debate concerning their genesis since Dragan Plamenac discovered them in 1925.
Good Morals for a Couple at the Burgundian Court: Contents and Context of Harley 1310, Le Livre des bonnes meurs of Jacques Legrand
London, British Library, Harley MS. 1310 is one of the gems unearthed during the multi-year project to describe the illuminated manuscripts of the Harley Collection and to digitize its images.
The Elusive Netherlands. The question of national identity in the Early Modern Low Countries on the Eve of the Revolt
The identity of the Low Countries was also muddied by contemporary debates about the correspondence between ‘Gallia’ and France and between ‘Germania’ and ‘Deutschland’.
Looking a medieval gift horse in the mouth. The role of the giving of gift objects in the definition and maintenance of the power networks of Philip the Bold
Guenée dubbed the late fourteenth century le temps des alliances’, pointing to the effect on politics and administration in France of visible, recognised networks. These might be based on kinship, marriage and godparenting, where the obligations were well understood, but not necessarily written down
For a Long Century of Burgundy. The Court, Female Power and Ideology
The field of Burgundian studies has witnessed a shift in emphasis over the past generation from overviews which were biographical and dynastic in emphasis, such as Richard Vaughan’s volumes on the four Valois dukes, to studies of the Burgundian ‘state’ and the regions it ruled over, exemplified in the work of Walter Prevenier, Wim Blockmans and, more recently, Bertrand Schnerb.1