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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 63: Jacques de Lalaing and the Tournament

    The Dukes of Brittany and Bourbon fighting on Horseback from King Rene’s Tournament Book illustrated by Barthelemy d’Eyck. King Rene’s Tournament book gives a step-by-step guide on how to hold a Tournament.

    Tournaments were more than an excuse for knights to whack each other with sticks, they were elaborate court events filled with splendor, ritual, and the careful exercise of violence. Perhaps nobody in Burgundy exemplified the Tournament as much as Jacques de Lalaing; through his skill in the lists, Jacques won fame on par with modern star athletes.

    Time Period Covered: 1430-1453

    Notable People: Jacques de Lalaing, Philip the Good, Rene of Anjou, Pierre de Bauffremont Count of Charny, Philippe de Ternant, Jean de Boniface, Juan de Merlo, Galeotto Balthazar

    Notable Events/Developments: Rise of Pas d’Armes, Pas of Charlemagne’s Tree (1443), Tournament of Nancy (1444), Pas of the Fountain of Tears (1449-1450)

    • Jacques de Lalaing arrives at the Tournament at Nancy with the Counts of Maine and Saint-Pol.
    • Jacques de Lalaing jousts with Jean de Boniface in Ghent in 1445.
    • Jacques de Lalaing fights Diego de Guzman during his journey to the Iberian Peninsula.
    • Jacques de Lalaing fights an English Squire in Bruges.
    • The Fountain of Tears.
    • Jacques de Lalaing fights with a Poleaxe during the Pas of the Fountain of Tears.
    • The death of Jacques de Lalaing at the Siege of Poeke in 1453.

    Images from The Book of Deeds of Jacques de Lalaing from the Getty Museum Collection.

    Sources

    A Chivalric Life: The Book of Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing Translation, Notes, and Introduction by Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen

    King Rene’s Tournament Book Translated by Elizabeth Bennett (Link)

    Pas d’Armes and Late Medieval Chivalry: A Casebook Edited by Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen

    The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d’Armes Edited by Alan V. Murray and Karen Watts

    A Knight for the Ages: Jacques de Lalaing and the Art of Chivalry Edited by Elizabeth Moirrison

    Philip the Good by Richard Vaughan

    The Court of Burgundy by Otto Cartellieri

    Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries c.1420-1530 by Andrew Brown and Graeme Small

    Civic Ceremony and Religion in Medieval Bruges c.1300-1520 by Andrew Brown

    Archery and Crossbow Guilds in Medieval Flanders 1300-1500 by Laura Crombie

    Staging the Court of Burgundy: Proceeding of the Conference “The Splendour of Burgundy” Edited by Wim Blockmans, Till-Holger Borchert, Nele Gabriels, Johan Oosterman, Anne van Oosterwijk

    The Good King: Rene of Anjou and Fifteenth Century Europe by Margaret Kekewich

    Les Joutes de Nancy, le Pas de Saumur et le Pas de Tarascon, Fetes de Chevalerie a la Cour du Roi Rene 1445-1449 by Christian de Merindol

    Magnificence and Princely Splendour in the Middle Ages by Richard Barber

    Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne by Jean de Wavrin

    Memoires by Olivier de la Marche

    The Chronicles of Enguerrand De Monstrelet

    Histoire de Gaston IV, Comte de Foix by Guillaume Leseur