The court of Burgundy was both an organ of government and a manifestation of prestige. It was a court governed by a strict awareness of the values of hierarchy. Close to the duke were members of the high nobility, whose most prestigious representatives were members of the ducal family: at the time of Philip the Good these were the duchess, Isabel of Portugal, the heir (who bore the title of count of Charolais), Jean de Bourgogne, count of Etampes, Adolf I, duke of Cleves and, after his death in 1448, his son, Jean I, and Adolf’s brother, the lord of Ravenstein. To this group were added the duke’s illegitimate children, among whom the bastards of Burgundy, Corneille and Antoine, deserve mention. After these ducal relatives came the aristocracy. Under Philip the Good the representatives of certain great families from Picardy, Flanders, and Hainault, notably the families of Croy, Lannoy and Lalaing, played an important role in the ducal entourage. As members of the ducal council, they also took over important administrative and military functions. The first among them, Antoine, lord of Croy, already councillor and ducal chamberlain, acquired further responsibilities, being either in turn or simultaneously governor or captain-general of both Namur and of the duchy of Luxemburg, and governor of the county of Boulogne. Representatives of the high nobility of the two Burgundies also held important positions at court and in administration: for instance, Pierre de Bauffremont, lord of Charny, acted as governor of Burgundy, while Thibault IX, lord of Neufchatel, was marshal of Burgundy from 1443 to 1469.
The cream of this nobility was united in membership of the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip the Good in January 1430 on the occasion of his marriage to Isabel of Portugal. In founding this order of chivalry, the duke had three intentions in mind: to strengthen the links uniting him to the representatives of the aristocracy who formed its membership; to bring together in a single institution members of the nobility from all Burgundian territories; and to enhance the prestige of the founder-prince who acted as the Order’s sovereign. The founding of this order, placed under the double protection of a pagan hero (Jason) and a biblical one (Gideon), may also be seen in the perspective of the crusading ideal and the attraction of the east. Above all, however, it was a political instrument in the hands of the duke of Burgundy. Very soon, indeed, its growing prestige began to give it diplomatic leverage, for if, in 1430, only ducal subjects and vassals had been admitted to membership, it was not long before the order’s collar was bestowed upon princes who were in no sense connected with Burgundy: John V, duke of Brittany, Charles, duke of Orleans, and Alfonso V, king of Aragon.
It must not be thought that the court of Burgundy was constituted only out of members of the aristocracy. An elite representing both legal and financial institutions also asserted itself, forming a strongly coherent group whose members, often united through family ties, were looking for promotion and advancement, largely through marriage, to the ranks of the old nobility. At the centre of this group was Nicolas Rolin. Born into a bourgeois family from Autun, in the duchy of Burgundy, he began his legal career in the parlement in Paris. Having entered the service of John the Fearless, he became, under Philip the Good, first a councillor and then, in 1422, ducal chancellor. Between that date and his disgrace in 1456, he was closely involved in all aspects of government, becoming, after the duke himself, the second most important person in the Burgundian state: in 1444, the mayor of Dijon could write of him: ‘It is he who organises everything, and through whose hands, more than ever before, everything passes.’ The social success experienced by Rolin serves as a pattern. At the height of his career he could count on an annual revenue of 2 5,000 livres tournois, of which 4,000 livres came from a ducal pension. His rise to nobility was achieved by a succession of stages. In 1412 he had married Guigone de Salins, who came from a noble family of the county of Burgundy; by the 1420s he was already ‘living nobly’ (vivant noblement), purchasing a number of lordships; from 1424 he took on the title of knight and deemed himself noble. All his children were regarded as noble, and pursued careers corresponding to that state: Antoine Rolin, lord of Aymeries, became ducal chamberlain and grand bailli and captain-general of the county of Hainault; his brother, Jean, doctor in both laws, entered the Church and became successively ducal councillor, bishop of Chalon-sur-Saone in 1431, bishop of Autun five years later and cardinal in 1449. His career, indeed, underlines the role played by members of the high clergy within the echelons of the court: Jean Chevrot, bishop of Tournai, was president of the ducal council, while Jean Germain, bishop of Chalon, was chancellor of the Golden Fleece, and was succeeded in that post by Guillaume Fillastre, bishop of Tournai.
It has already been noted that the ducal household played a crucial role at the centre of the court. Ever since the second half of the fourteenth century the household of the dukes had been modelled upon that of the king of France. It consisted of six offices whose functions had been domestic in origin. Now its members were organised according to a strict hierarchy. Added to their number were the ducal confessor, the members of the chapel and its clergy, musicians, kings-of-arms (the most prestigious being ‘Toison d’Or’), heralds and pursuivants, falconers, huntsmen and many others. The daily expenses of this household were under the control of a special office, the chambre aux deniers.
For members of the nobility, integration into the household with a title did not necessarily mean the effective exercise of a household function near the duke, but only an honorific position implying a salary and a variety of other benefits. The household fulfilled not only a domestic function; its size (some 700—800 people were in constant attendance upon Philip the Good) and its style of living reflected the duke’s prestige. From early on, too, it served an important military function. The process which would culminate under Charles the Bold had originated at the beginning of the fifteenth century with the creation of a permanent corps of archers and, every so often, the appointment of a marshal of the household.
Under Philip the Good and Charles the Bold the Burgundian court was one of the most brilliant in Europe. The feasts and ceremonies marking both political events, such as diplomatic meetings, treaties, undertakings to go on crusade, as well as important domestic events, provided an opportunity to reflect, in the visual language of the day, the wealth and power of the duke. Such ostentation was intended to impress all who witnessed it, to reassure supporters and intimidate rivals: rather than reflecting a vulgar display of wealth, it was a genuine instrument of political propaganda. In the same order of things can be seen aspects of princely patronage which gave the Burgundian court a cultural brilliance almost without equal. Painters and sculptors worked on a number of princely projects. So the names of certain sculptors (imagiers) such as Jean de Marville, Claus Sluter and Jean de la Huerta, along with painters such as Melchior Broederlam, are closely associated with the artistic embellishment of the Chartreuse de Champmol, near Dijon, where the first three dukes of Burgundy were laid to rest, and where the painter Colart de Laon and the tapestry-worker Nicolas Bataille also worked. Rogier van der Weyden was commissioned to paint portraits of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold (as count of Charolais) and of the ‘Grand Batard’, Antoine, while the services of Jan van Eyck were retained on his appointment as a member of the ducal chamber. Following upon such examples, several high-ranking members of the court patronised these artists and their workshops: thus Nicolas Rolin commissioned from van der Weyden the altarpiece of the Last Judgement for the chapel of the Hotel-Dieu which he founded at Beaune in 1443; he also had van Eyck paint a portrait of him at prayer before the Virgin and Child which he then gave to the cathedral at Autun. Van Eyck also painted Baudouin de Lannoy, governor of Lille and knight of the Golden Fleece, while Jean Chevrot, bishop of Tournai and ducal councillor, commissioned the altarpiece of the seven sacraments from van der Weyden, who also painted portraits of Philippe de Croy, lord of Sempy, and of Jean III Gros, secretary of Charles the Bold.
Music was also given great prominence at the Burgundian court. It should not be forgotten that Philip the Good retained the services of the composer Gilles Binchois (d. 1460), who came from Hainault, and who was responsible for writing not only religious music for the ducal chapel but secular music, too, for performance at the prince’s feasts and entertainments.
However, in the context of this princely culture a special place must be reserved for literature. Philip the Good and Charles the Bold were not alone in their love of books and book collecting. Antoine, bastard of Burgundy, Jean de Bourgogne, count of Etampes, Jean, lord of Crequy, Hugues de Lannoy, Louis de Bruges, lord of Gruuthuse, and Jean, bastard of Wavrin, are all known to have possessed fine libraries stocked with manuscripts of high artistic quality. This cultivated environment encouraged a broad range of literary types. Works of fiction concerned with a historical figure, such as the ‘Livre des conquetes et faits d’Alexandre le Grand’ or ‘Girart de Roussillon’, both the work of Jean Wauquelin, were very popular at the court. The intentions of the authors of this genre were, while telling the story of a notable person, to provide their aristocratic readers with tales exalting the chivalric ethos. Flattery of the prince’s tastes was not forgotten; attracted by the idea of an enterprise in the east, Philip the Good likened himself to Alexander. As for Girart de Roussillon, twelve times conqueror of Charles the Bald, he was to become the symbol of the struggle of the dukes of Burgundy against the Crown of France. The tastes of those at court, however, were not monopolised by epic literature: a collection of stories, such as the ‘Cent nouvelles nouvelles’, much influenced by Boccaccio, reflects a liking for literature of a lighter sort and an attraction towards humour of a more bawdy kind.
Of an altogether different genre, many didactic treatises were to be found in the ducal libraries. These covered, for example, the hunt, medicine and astrology. The art of war had its place: several copies of the ‘De re militari’ of Vegetius, a classic which had already been translated several times, were owned by Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. Other works, recently written with the duke in mind, could also be found in these libraries: the ‘Livre du seigneur de l’Isle-Adam pour Gaige de Bataille’ was the work of a famous Burgundian captain of that name who was also a knight of the Golden Fleece; while the treatise, ‘La toison d’or’, had been written by Guillaume Fillastre, chancellor of the Order. Above all we should note works with a historic character. It should be stressed that, from the early years of the fifteenth century, great emphasis had been placed in all Burgundian historical literature emanating from the court upon the need to convey a clear ideological message. A work such as the ‘Geste des ducs de Bourgogne’, written under the influence of the civil conflict and thus bitterly hostile to the house of Orleans, is one of the earliest examples of the genre. Following this, the Picard chronicler, Enguerrand de Monstrelet, although not formally linked to the Burgundian court, but close to the house of Luxemburg-St-Pol, showed himself to be an admirer of John the Fearless and Philip the Good. The tendency was reinforced by the appointment of the first official ‘historiographer’ in 1455: both Georges Chastellain (d. 1475) and Jean Molinet (d. 1507), who successively fulfilled this function, conveyed a positively Burgundian view of history. Their example was to be followed by Olivier de la Marche, whose ‘Memoires’ were dedicated to Philippe le Beau, son of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Habsburg.
This court culture was naturally but a reflection of the tastes of an elite constituted from the aristocracy which formed the upper echelons of the state, an elite which itself was only a part of those classes which dominated society. In the Burgundian lands, the nobility consisted of only i or 2 per cent of the population, the clergy numbering no more than i per cent. The remaining 97 per cent was characterised by a marked diversity in its structures. At the social level, the great differences which existed between the various territories ruled by the dukes of Burgundy make it difficult to compare the society in the Burgundian Low Countries with that of the duchy and county. In the lands of the north, urban life assumed a great importance since, in the final quarter of the fifteenth century, a third (34 per cent) of their inhabitants were town dwellers, while Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp each had more than 20,000 inhabitants. In Burgundy, by contrast, society was very largely rural; Dijon, the duchy’s biggest town, had only some 13,000 inhabitants in 1474.
Yet, even in the north, one cannot speak of a homogeneous society. In the towns the urban patriciate found itself at different stages of its development. In Flanders, its power had been much eroded by the craft guilds, whilst in Brabant it still preserved a large part of its prerogatives in the economic and political domain. Ducal agents and servants also formed part of the elites within the towns. In a number of them, where they exercised administrative functions, they could be important. Such was the case at Lille, centre of the chambre des comptes, seat of the governor of Lille, Douai and Orchies, of the local judicial organisations, and of two ducal residences. Alongside these representatives of ducal power was a bourgeoisie which dominated all economic activity, merchants trading in wine or cloth, brokers and senior members of the manufacturing guilds which dealt in furs, skins and beer.
The artisan world was itself very diverse. With their internal hierarchies, the guilds were well structured and influential. They accounted for a substantial part of urban activity; in Ghent, for instance, in the second half of the fourteenth century, there were fifty-three guilds, among which were those dealing in wool, leather, metals, food and building. Yet, however large or numerous, such organisations did not include all workers, as those without formal qualification were excluded from their membership. So it was that, in the fifteenth century, some guilds, above all those representing trades in decline, were obliged to close down. This phenomenon, also found outside the Low Countries, reflected a determination to reserve membership of such guilds to a strictly professional group; this was reflected in the rise of charges levied at the time of entry, and by the tendency to reserve access to membership to the sons of the masters of the trade. Of the 264 new masters admitted into the guild of brewers in Ghent between 1450 and 1479, 249 were sons of practising masters. However, it should also be recognised that during the same period artisanal activity, particularly in the production of cloth and beer, greatly increased in those small urban centres and rural areas where the guilds had no influence.
In Burgundy, urban society had another function. In a town such as Dijon (as in Lille) where ducal employees had an important role to play, a bourgeois elite, whose wealth stemmed from trade in wine, cloth and cereals, constituted the dominant political and economic class. Artisans were organised into guilds, but there none the less existed close links between the ducal capital and its rural hinterland, links emphasised by the pressure of a large group of wine growers who lived in the town. In rural Burgundy, where the lordship based on land-ownership of the traditional type continued to exist in order to provide a structure into which rural society could fit, the peasantry was very diversified. Certain communities were ‘free’ (‘franches’), others were not (‘serves’). The Burgundian serf, liable to all forms of taxation (‘taillable haut et bas’), was subject to merchet and mortmain. Attempts had been made since the midfourteenth century to improve the lot of the serf, but in the fifteenth his status had scarcely changed. Yet that status, particularly in a period when the effects of population decline, economic crisis and war were being felt, presented a threat to traditional lordship. The granting of freedom and an improvement in status were to come as society climbed out of the period of crisis. This point was made clear when, in December 1454, Guillaume de Bauffremont and Jeanne de Villersexel, his wife, granted a charter to their tenants at Sombernon to help them in their process of recovery; they were said to have suffered great hardship in the wars and disasters which had struck Burgundy in the past, and, in particular, at the time of the passing of the ecorcheurs, or raiding mercenaries, ten years earlier.
Differences perceptible at a social level reappear at the economic one. Standing astride great trade routes or at places where such routes met, the territories ruled by the dukes assumed a role of vital importance in the international trade of the period. In the northern principalities, Bruges was one such centre; another was Antwerp, whose role increased rapidly during these years. Likewise, the Burgundies were at the cross-roads of two great axes of communication: those of the rivers Saone—Rhone and Yonne—Seine, those of roads towards Paris to the north, Lyons to the south, Lausanne, Geneva and the Alpine passes leading into Italy in the south-east, towards Basle and the Rhine valley to the east.
Such a privileged position in nature greatly helped the export trade. Naturally, the products concerned differed from region to region. Burgundy was renowned for its wines, and that which came from Beaune could be sold at a high price in the great urban markets. The dukes themselves were not afraid to publicise its qualities. In 1395, Philip the Bold announced that his lands produced the very best wines in the kingdom of France ‘for the benefit and good of human kind’, while in 1459 Philip the Good claimed to be lord of the finest wines in Christendom (‘seigneur des meilleurs vins de la Chretiente’). Salt, too, the product of Burgundian salt works (principally at Salins), was sent to the two Burgundies, while large quantities were exported, mainly towards Geneva, Lausanne, Basle, Berne and Freiburg.
The nature of products exported from the north was very different, a reflection of the different economic structures of the two groups of principalities ruled by the dukes of Burgundy. Any evocation of the economy of the Low Countries at this period leads to thoughts of textiles and to the production of cloth in Flanders and Brabant. It must be noted, however, that during the fifteenth century the cloth industry, developed long ago in the great urban centres, went into decline. A Brabantine town such as Louvain which, about 1350, produced 756,000 ells every year, could only produce 26,600 ells in 1476, the size of the population (around 18,000) having scarcely fallen in the meantime. Certain well-established centres felt the effects of such a decline very strongly: in 1311, Ypres had 1, 500 looms functioning in the town; in 1502, the number had sunk to 100, while the population fell from 20,000—30,000 to some 9,500 inhabitants during much the same period. During these years, the production of both woollen and linen cloth moved either into the country or into the small towns, the movement being encouraged by those who sought to avoid the imposition of craft regulations still being applied in the large towns.
The decline in urban cloth manufacture was compensated for by the development of other activities. During this century the Burgundian Low Countries greatly increased the exports of an iron industry created around the mines in the region of Namur and Liege, and in Limburg; salt and herrings from the coasts of Holland, Zeeland and Flanders were also exported in quantity. A traffic in luxury goods also grew up, in particular in tapestries from Arras, Lille and Brussels, the last two centres experiencing a great increase in production in the second half of the century.
In all this activity the role accorded to Bruges proved vital. The town, meeting-place of two major commercial networks (one from the Mediterranean, the other from the Baltic), was a financial centre, a place of trade and a giant storage house. Its activity was truly international; colonies of foreign merchants had their centres and their trading facilities there, enjoying privileges accorded by the dukes. So the Venetians, Florentines and Genoese each had their ‘consulate’ there, while the Castilians, the Portuguese and, above all, the ‘Oosterlingen’, or Hansards, had similar facilities. The German Hansa was, in effect, the principal trading partner of the Burgundian Low Countries, and Bruges, along with London, Bergen and Novgorod, was one of their main trading posts. Most of the products (cereals, wood, furs, wax, honey and amber) which came from the Baltic passed through Bruges, while those products on their way to the Baltic (luxury goods, salt, wine from the Atlantic ports, textiles) did the same. This trade continued to expand until about 1470: it amounted to 212,000 marks (of Lubeck) in 1369, 651,000 marks in 1419 and 1,332,000 marks in 1467. Thereafter came a decline, particularly after the 1480s, as the role of Bruges was gradually taken over by Antwerp.
During the fifteenth century Bruges was also one of Europe’s great financial centres where commercial transactions, credit and the exchange of currencies were developed on a large scale. It was in the house at Bruges belonging to a family of brokers, van der Buerse, that the first exchange in Europe was organised. The development of banking activities attracted financiers from abroad, in particular from Italy. The Rapondi, merchants and bankers from Lucca, had extended their activities to Bruges in the second half of the fourteenth century, putting both their money and their experience at the service of the house of Burgundy. The same was to be true of the Medici, who had one of their principal offices at Bruges.
The dynamism of the Burgundian territories, the place which they occupied at the heart of western Europe and the importance of their economic activities combined to give contemporaries an impression of incomparable prosperity. In a famous passage in his Memoires, Philippe de Commynes, describing the Burgundian principalities at the end of the rule of Philip the Good, could write that his lands came nearer to being the promised land than did any others. For this reason, the dramatic fall of the house of Burgundy, when it happened, was an event all the more worthy of comment.