Welcome to Grand Dukes of the West
The story of Valois Burgundy is one of the most exciting of the Late Middle Ages. The four Valois Dukes of Burgundy used political intrigue, calculated splendor, economic power, and good old-fashioned violence to forge a state out of the many Duchies and Counties between France and the Holy Roman Empire. During Burgundy’s height its Dukes were seen by many as the equals of Kings and Emperors and their court was at the center of Western Europe’s cultural and political development. And then it all fell apart. Please join me as I explore the history and legacy of this forgotten kingdom.
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Episode 72: Turning the Page
The Franco-Burgundian Border and the Somme Towns, some of which are pretty far from the Somme. The King is dead, long live the King! With Charles VII no more and Louis XI now on the throne, the troubled Franco-Burgundian relationship has turned a page. Surely things will be all sunshine and roses going forward…
Time Period Covered: 1461-1463
Notable People: Philip the Good, Charles the Bold, Louis XI, Antoine Lord of Croy, Guillaume de Bische, Pierre de Breze, Richard Neville Earl of Warwick, Henry Beaufort Duke of Somerset
Notable Events/Developments: Coronation of Louis XI, Philip the Good returns to Paris, Redemption of the Somme Towns
Left: A Portrait of Louis XI. Right: Louis XI enters Paris after his coronation.
Sources
Philip the Good by Richard Vaughan
Louis XI: The Universal Spider by Paul Murray Kendall
Government and Political Life in England and France, c.1300–c.1500 Edited by Christopher Fletcher, Jean-Philippe Genet, and John Watts
The Illusion of the Burgundian State by Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin
A l’ombre du Pouvoir: Les entourages princiers au Moyen Age Edited By Jean-Louis Kupper and Alain Marchandisse
Les Croy, conseillers des ducs de Bourgogne by Marie-Rose Thielemans
Montee, crise, reorientation. Pour une histoire de la famille de Croy au xve siecle by Werner Paravicini
Royaute Francaise et Etat Bourguinon de 1435 a 1477 by Andre Leguai
The Life and Reign of Edward IV Volume I by Cora Scofield
Sir Richard Roos, c. 1410-1482: Lancastrian Poet by Ethel Seaton
Ouvres of Georges Chastellain Tome IV
Memoires by Jacques du Clerq
Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne, a present nomme Engleterre by Jean de Wavrin
