Les Grands Ducs de Bourgogne (French Edition)

Lists with This Book. As the Duchy of Burgundy has not survived as such, it is easy to forget what a formidable political unit it was. It lasted for about years, but its glorious phase, the one usually identified as the Duchy of Burgundy proper, lasted over a century.

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And yet, had things turned out somewhat differently, it could have become the country that France became. Joseph Calmette was an outstanding French scholar who published his work during the first half of the 20Century. His research began As the Duchy of Burgundy has not survived as such, it is easy to forget what a formidable political unit it was. Unfortunately, most of his works are now out of print, except for this one from , which can be purchased on Kindle. I got my copy second hand, cheaply. And a great investment it has been.

This book has provided me with a very clear introductory overview of the history and significance of this grand Duchy. What I was looking for. The Duchy was composed of a complex geography difficult to map mentally, not only because it had more the structure of a set of crossroads than the shape of an extended land, but also because its borders moved continually during the glorious years. Those territories are now dismembered and annexed by various modern countries.

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Two current kingdoms of somewhat late creation, Belgium and the Netherlands, were just parts of it. Indeed, Calmette identifies its diversity and mosaic-like quality as one of the strengths of Burgundy. If it ceased to exist as such it was by a series of events, which he qualifies as errors, and not by any inherent instability in its composition. Calmette starts with a couple of introductory chapters tracing how a medieval kingdom evolved into a Duchy. During the early Middle Ages Burgundy was a kingdom, and a considerable one since then it had a port in the Mediterranean Marseilles but it was incorporated into the Frank and then the Carolingian world.

During the 14C both the Kingdom of France and the Duchy came to a sort of dead-end in their dynasties. In the Valois succeeded the Capetians in the Crown view spoiler [ Charles IV was the last Capetian and was succeeded by his cousin Philippe VI as the first Valois hide spoiler ] , and a few decades later the Duchy also finished its line. As the result of complex knot of marriages and mixed lineages, the Duchy also passed to the Valois, but to the youngest brother of the then King of France, Charles V.

And so the family saga of the Four Grand Dukes begins and it is to them that Calmette devotes his study. One was the way the relationship of the Duchy to the French crown evolved: The other is that Calmette showed more empathy to the Odd Number Dukes, who both also happened to be the two Philips the Bold and the Good. The most pivotal event in his life was marrying Marguerite of Flanders, whereby the incorporated the wealthy lands of his wife to his Burgundy. That was a major coup de force or coup de marriage. Philip was a good politician, a brave soldier, and an outstanding patron of the arts and literature.

They were both captured and taken prisoners to London, where they stayed four years. When his father died, his eldest brother became King of France. During this phase of the Hundred Years war then, Burgundy was on the side of its related France. As a Duke of the Even Number, he was a troublesome figure. At first he continued the close relationship with France arranging the double betrothal of his daughter to the heir to the French crown and of his son to the sister of the future King.

It became so impossible that Jean, paying honour to his sobriquet, the Fearless, just had to murder Louis in And as blood calls for more blood, this murder brought his own assassination twelve years later by his enemies and to the satisfaction of the future French King, Charles VII. A fierce rift opened between the Duchy and the Kingdom.

Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy

John was succeeded by his son: As an Odd Number, he was a good king. May be not just good, he was the Best. It was during these troubled times that Joan of Arc stood up in her messianic and military stance. But even if it was the Duke who captured her and delivered her to the English, he soon changed his mind and switched sides. In signing the treaty of Arras of , he reconciled himself with the French crown, and helped in recovering Paris, occupied by the English.

And so Calmette reconciled himself with the Duke too. Philip the Good married three times but his first two wives died young without giving him an heir and it was with Isabel de Portugal , who also descended from the House of Lancaster which contributed to his closeness with the English , that he finally begot a heir.

For even if it was with him that the Duchy occupied its greatest territory, at the expense of France, eventually the Spider managed to cast his web around the Duke and defeated and slaughtered him at the battle of Nancy in At his death Charles left a daughter, Marie de Bourgogne , who became the bride that everyone in Europe wanted to marry. After a plethora of suitors, she finally married Maximilian, the son of the Emperor Frederick III, and the Duchy itself lost its separate sovereign status. But that is another story. The Burgundian court has also gone down in history for their outstanding court life, of sublime splendour and for their patronage of the arts and literature.

As said above, the first Duke began this interest but his descendants maintained the activity. Calmette devotes a long chapter to this, but given the more political focus of his book it remains introductory. Nonetheless, he is clearly fascinated by the sculpture by Claus Sluter from Haarlem, and the extraordinary tombs that the Dukes commissioned.

Flanders provided many of their artists, with Van Eyck and Van der Weyden shining brightly, as well as the extraordinary and unrivalled production of tapestries. I wish Calmette had devoted more attention to this often forgotten but supreme art. Finally, it was in the courts of the First and Second Dukes that Christine of Pizan wrote several of her works. At the end Calmette offers a fascinating chapter with a broad evaluation of the geopolitical significance of the Duchy, which almost became a Kingdom, and which could have evolved further as a great country in the detriment of France.

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For if it was the last Duke who almost got the Emperor to elevate the Duchy into a Kingdom, and it had been Philip the Good who played a highly sophisticated and cosmopolitan role in the European politics, pushing for a campaign against the Turks following their conquest of Constantinople in , but also getting involved in the emerging complications between the various Italian domains, as well as with the Aragonese and Castilian intrigues.

When Calmette contemplates how history could have turned otherwise he insists on the inexistence of historical determinism. Instead, character is of all importance to him. And he just see that it was the series of unfortunate errors incurred by the last Duke that offered the direct entrance to posterity of France, even if Burgundy entered through a backdoor in the Empire which commanded large tracts of Europe the following century.

Now I just have to plan a trip to Dijon and its alentours. View all 32 comments. Jan 04, Aubri De baudricourt rated it really liked it. A very decent history of Burgundy prior to and during the time of the Valois Dukes, Calmette's book succeeds in placing the achievements and failures of those dukes in the historical context of the kingdoms around them. He plots the course that each of the dukes took and is not afraid to point out their mistakes, particularly the last Duke.

Charles the Rash certainly made enough mistakes and the picture that Calmette paints of the unravelling of the Burgundian state is quite vivid. Yet, he point A very decent history of Burgundy prior to and during the time of the Valois Dukes, Calmette's book succeeds in placing the achievements and failures of those dukes in the historical context of the kingdoms around them. Yet, he points out that this outcome was not inevitable and that, with wiser and more strategic vision the last Duke might well have survived and began creating a nation rather than ruling a collection of states bound together by little more than sharing the same sovereign.

The author is a little less successful when addressing the cultural and sociological aspects of Burgundy. While the court is described and the noted writers of the era noted the Burgundian School of composers passes without mention. Yet Busnois, Binchois, de la Rue and Dufay are figures of great importance in the evolution of Renaissance music.

Still, all-in-all, this is a solid book and, unlike many, illustrates the continuity of the Burgundian state from the old Burgundian kings of the 6th century through the Hapsburgs. Jul 29, Kat rated it liked it. Interesting information, but in a very dry style. Jan 11, Michael Smith rated it liked it. The duchy of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries was remarkable — and very fortunate — in having a dynasty of four Valois dukes, one after another, who were superior to most of their peers in intelligence, charisma, political perspicacity, and sheer magnificence. Philip "the Bold" was shrewd and a patron of the arts, John "the Fearless" was almost too ambitious for his own good, Philip "the Good" almost took the throne of France, and Charles "the Rash" went toe-to-toe with Louis XI, the firs The duchy of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries was remarkable — and very fortunate — in having a dynasty of four Valois dukes, one after another, who were superior to most of their peers in intelligence, charisma, political perspicacity, and sheer magnificence.

Philip "the Bold" was shrewd and a patron of the arts, John "the Fearless" was almost too ambitious for his own good, Philip "the Good" almost took the throne of France, and Charles "the Rash" went toe-to-toe with Louis XI, the first modern ruler in terms of cold-blooded nationalism. Calmette was a leading authority on this period and here he spends some time specifically on the evolution of Burgundy from a weak kingdom to a more powerful duchy and on the problems of dynastic succession. Both of his sons also became infected. The elder, Louis, Duke of Brittany , the latest in a series of Dauphins, succumbed on 8 March, leaving his brother, the two-year-old Duke of Anjou, who was later to succeed to the throne as Louis XV.

Since, however, it was thought that the chances of survival of this frail child, now heir apparent to his seventy-four-year-old great grandfather, were minimal, a potential succession crisis loomed. Moreover, overnight the broad hopes of the faction de Bourgogne were destroyed and its members would soon die of natural deaths. However, the absenteeism, ineptitude and squabbling of the aristocrats caused this system to fail, and it was soon abandoned in in favour of a return to absolute monarchy.

The Golden Age of Burgundy: The Magnificent Dukes and their Courts by Joseph Calmette

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