Episode 68: England or France?
In the 1440s, the Burgundian Court began to be rocked by a question: should Burgundy align itself with England or France? Time Period Covered: 1444-1454 Notable People: Philip the Good, Isabella of Portugal, Charles the Bold, King Charles VII, Isabella of Bourbon Countess of Charolais, Charles I Duke of Bourbon, Richard Duke…
Keep readingEpisode 67: A Fox That Will Eat All His Chickens
Charles VII and his son Louis had a strained relationship to say the very least, and the Dauphin was eager to escape his father’s court and head to Dauphine. Distance would not mend things between father and son, and before long, the Prince was fleeing to Burgundian territory, complicating the…
Keep readingEpisode 66: Burgundifying the Bishoprics
Throughout the reigns of all the Burgundian Dukes so far, they have been constantly trying to expand their influence over the Church in the Low Countries. In the mid-1450s, Philip the Good would take that project as far as it had ever gone by placing Burgundians on the Episcopal thrones…
Keep readingEpisode 65: The Almost Crusade
All his life, Philip the Good dreamed of going on Crusade, and all his life other things kept getting in the way. But even though the Duke of Burgundy never made it on Crusade, the Crusading Ideal still played a large part in the Duke’s reign, image, and stature as…
Keep readingEpisode 64: Jan van Eyck and the Northern Renaissance
The Dukes of Burgundy presided over one of the great flowerings of Art and Culture in the Later Middle Ages. While the Northern Renaissance was not a purely Burgundian phenomenon, the Burgundian Court and the Cities of the Burgundian Low Countries were at the Center of advances in Painting, Music,…
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