The Order of the Golden Tree: The Gift-Giving Objectives of Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy

296 Pages·2006·1.292 MB·English

by  Carol Chattaway

KATERN 1
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THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN TREE
THE GIFT-GIVING OBJECTIVES
OF DUKE PHILIPTHE BOLD OF BURGUNDY
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B
URGUNDICA
XII
Publié sous la direction de
Jean-Marie CAUCHIES
Secrétaire général du Centre européen
d’études bourguignonnes
(XIVe-XVIe s.)
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THE ORDER
OF THE GOLDEN TREE
THE GIFT-GIVING OBJECTIVES
OF DUKE PHILIP THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY
C M. C
AROL HATTAWAY
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Collection
BURGUNDICA
Peu de périodes, de tranches d'histoire ont suscité et continuent à susciter
auprès d'un large public autant d'intérêt voire d'engouement que le "siècle
de Bourgogne". Il est vrai qu'à la charnière de ce que l'on dénomme aussi
vaguement que commodément "bas moyen âge" et "Renaissance", les
douze décennies qui séparent l'avènement de Philippe le Hardi en Flandre
(1384) de la mort de Philippe le Beau (1506) forment un réceptacle d'idées
et de pratiques contrastées. Et ce constat s'applique à toutes les facettes de
la société.
La collection "Burgundica" se donne pour objectif de présenter toutes ces
facettes, de les reconstruire - nous n'oserions écrire, ce serait utopique, de
les ressusciter - à travers un choix d'études de haut niveau scientifique
mais dont tout "honnête homme" pourra faire son miel. Elle mettra mieux
ainsi en lumière les jalons que le temps des ducs Valois de Bourgogne et
de leurs successeurs immédiats, Maximilien et Philippe de Habsbourg,
fournit à l'historien dans la découverte d'une Europe moderne alors en
pleine croissance.
Caver illustration: Portrait of Philippe the Bold, XVIIth c. (Copy from an original by
Malouel), ©Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, inv. 3977.
ISBN 2-503-52297-1
D/2006/0095/128
© 2006, BREPOLS PUBLISHERS nv, TURNHOUT, BELGIUM
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper
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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is presented in loving memory of my late husband, Richard, with-
out whose encouragement it would never have been undertaken. The study un-
derpinning it has evolved over a number of years. Throughout, I have been for-
tunate in the support of my supervisors, David Morgan and David d’Avray, and
in the helpfulness of the staff of the Departmental Archives of the Côte d’Or, and
of the Bibliothèque Municipale, in Dijon. Thanks are also due to colleagues in
the Centre Européen d’Etudes Bourguignonnes, and particularly Prof. Marc
Boone, for opportunities to participate in wide-ranging discussions around my
topic; to Drs. Sally Dormer, Jenny Stratford, and Simona Slanicka, for helpful
background discussions; and to Prof. Michael Jones for access to his personal
card index.
V
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................V
Introduction Objectives and Purpose of Study .............................................................................1
Chapter 1 Method and Approach ...................................................................................................7
Chapter 2 The Nature, Form and Materials of the Order of the Golden Tree ........21
Chapter 3 The Iconography of the Order ................................................................................33
Chapter 4 The Meaning of the Motto ‘en loyaute’ .............................................................49
Chapter 5 The Recipients of the Order .....................................................................................63
Chapter 6 The Occasion of the Gift of the Order ................................................................87
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................105
Conventions and Abbreviations adopted in Annexes and Appendices ...............................115
Annexe 1 Ducal Authorisation for New Year Gifts 1403
(Transcript of the main text describing the Order
and identifying its recipients) ...............................................................................119
Annexe 1a Other Manuscript References to the Order
(Transcripts of all relevant passages) ................................................................127
Annexe 2 General Distribution of Duke Philip’s New Year Gifts around 1403
(Comparative table of recipients, numbers and costs of his gifts,
drawn from authorisations and accounts for 1398, 1402 and 1403,
to show the extent to which the Order departed
from his custom at New Year) ..............................................................................129
Glossary ............................................................................................................................................133
Appendices
Analysis of Appendices ...........................................................................................................................137
R 1 Recipients: Biographical Notes R1-1 to R1-60 ............................................139
R 2 Recipients: Hierarchy ...............................................................................................211
R 3 Recipients: Gifts of Material Objects – Precious (excluding 1403) ....215
R 4 Recipients: Gifts of Material Objects – Other (excluding 1403) ..........223
R 5 Recipients: Financial Gifts and Rewards (excluding 1403) ....................229
R 6 Recipients: Material Gifts and Financial Rewards 1403 ..........................243
R 7 Recipients: Chivalry .................................................................................................249
R 8 Recipients: Livery ......................................................................................................253
R 9 Recipients: Loyalty ...................................................................................................257
R10 Recipients: Activities 1402-4 ................................................................................261
R11 Recipients: Military Worth .....................................................................................265
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................273
Index ............................................................................................................................................283
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INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE OF STUDY
This study is designed to explore, against the pattern of his giving of material
objects more generally, the purposes and policy objectives underlying the gift of
a particularly elaborate clasp, today called the Order of the Golden Tree, by
Duke Philip the Bold, to sixty men on 1 January 1403. The purpose of this is to
illuminate Philip’s role in Burgundian and French history.
Historians differ as to the precise nature and significance of that role, but gen-
erally agree that, as the first of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, and as an influ-
ential French prince, Philip was a major figure in the history of both. He had suc-
ceeded to the Duchy of Burgundy after the death of its last Capetian Duke and,
by the date of the Order, had held that duchy for forty years; had, in addition,
been Count of Flanders, Artois, Nevers, Rethel and the Franche-Comté for
nearly twenty years; held a number of other significant lordships; was effectively
co-ruler of the Duchy of Brabant, the succession to which he was negotiating for
his second son; and had arranged profitable marriages for his children, designed
to increase and consolidate the family’s landholdings. These territories not only
represented a substantial dynastic power base but, stretching in a broken arc
from the north-west coast around the northern and eastern boundaries of France,
were strategically important in protecting the latter from attack from neighbour-
ing states. As the son, brother and, by 1403, uncle of successive Valois kings and
doyen of its peers, he held a pre-eminent position within France. His territorial
strength was bolstered by his wealth. In addition to the significant revenues ac-
quired through his marriage in 1369 to Margaret, only legitimate child of the
then Count of Flanders, and the richest heiress in western Europe, he used his
position in France to secure substantial sums from the Crown. Unlike some of
his relatives, this pre-eminent social and financial position was matched by his
abilities. As a teenager, he had acquired a reputation for outstanding valour and
loyalty, defending his father on the battlefield: as he grew older, he reinforced
this by developing one for reliable, considered, and even disinterested support of
the Crown as a policy maker, administrator and military leader.
Maintaining this pre-eminence had, however, required a constant vigilance
and effort which underlay all his policies. The need for positive action was par-
ticularly evident by the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth cen-
turies. In France, from 1392 onwards, the repeated periods of incapacity suffered
by his nephew, King Charles VI, while providing opportunities for Philip to in-
crease his power and influence as a senior member of the Council which gov-
erned France during the king’s so-called ‘absences’, also faced him with grow-
ing opposition from the king’s younger brother, the Duke of Orleans. Orleans’
ambitions represented a particularly serious threat to Philip’s control in France,
but also affected his plans for the expansion of his own territories. At the same
period, he needed to settle the eventual distribution of those territories between,
and smooth transition to, his three sons after his and his wife’s deaths, to avoid
any arguments that might weaken or reduce his dynasty’s hold and make it vul-
nerable to attack. Philip must have been concerned that this partition would in-
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THEORDEROFTHEGOLDENTREE
evitably leave his eldest son John, his successor as Duke of Burgundy, in a com-
paratively weak position, particularly within France. Not only would John’s per-
sonal territorial holding be smaller than his father’s, but he would lack the lat-
ter’s closeness to the French crown, his seniority, his reputation and experience,
and would thus (even with his brothers’support) be less able effectively to limit
his cousin Orleans’ambitions to increase his personal landholdings at the ex-
pense of Burgundy and to secure overall control in France. This study therefore
considers what the gift of the Order of the Golden Tree reveals about the policy
means Philip adopted to ward off or destroy this threat.
The extent, nature and purposes of the gifts of cash, revenues, lands, positions
and general patronage which Duke Philip, like many of his contemporaries,
made both regularly and occasionally, have been explored elsewhere.1 It is in-
creasingly recognised that such gifts were not random, but were designed to se-
cure political objectives. Opinion differs, however, both as to Philip’s immedi-
ate objectives in such gift-giving and as to any overriding or ultimate purpose he
might have had in mind. Philip created and bolstered various networks of peo-
ple, in France, in his own territories, and in territories which he hoped to inherit
or planned to acquire.2Some historians see his primary purpose in doing this as
to protect his position as a leading, and loyal, prince of the royal blood, in pur-
suit of the French crown’s policies. Others see it as designed more to support a
policy of purely self and dynastic interest; and yet others as a means of devel-
oping a distinctive Burgundian polity, separate (and perhaps, ultimately, inde-
pendent) from France.3
1 For Duke Philip’s financial gifts see, for instance, Jean Rauzier, Finances et gestion d’une prin-
cipauté au xive siécle, (hereafter Finances) pp. 477-500, for the period 1364-1384; Michel
Mollat, ‘Recherches sur les finances des ducs Valois de Bourgogne’, in Revue Historique,
(1958) tome CCXIX, pp. 285-321, especially pp. 302 and 309; Pocquet du Haut-Jussé, B., ‘Les
pensionnaires fieffés des ducs de Bourgogne 1352-1419’, in Mémoires de la Société pour l’his-
toire du droit et des institutions des anciens pays bourguignons, (hereafter MSHDB) 8, (1942-
3) pp. 127-150; Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold, pp. 32-35; Thérèse de Hamptinne, ‘Princes
et courtisans’, pp. 32-33, Marie-Thérèse Caron, ‘Réseaux nobiliaires’, pp. 263-267, and espe-
cially Walter Prevenier, ‘Les réseaux en action’, pp. 294-308, all in Le prince et le people: la
société du temps des ducs de Bourgogne, ed. Walter Prevenier; and Marchal-Verdoodt, M.,
Table des noms de personnes et de lieux mentionnés dans les plus anciens comptes de la recette
génerale de Philippe le Hardi duc de Bourgogne, (hereafter ‘M-V’) generally.
2 For political uses of networks created by gift-giving see, for instance, internal social and ad-
ministrative control, and territorial expansion in Armstrong, C.A.J., ‘Had the Burgundian
Government a Policy for Nobility’, pp. 123-216, and diplomatic negotiations and alliances, ter-
ritorial expansion and security in his ‘La politique matrimoniale des ducs de Bourgogne de la
maison de Valois’, pp. 237-342, both in his England, France and Burgundy in the Fifteenth
Century. For ducal tapping into the wider gift-giving networks, which the Dukes encouraged in
their territories, between townsmen and people of influence within their Court, and which cre-
ated a stabilising interdependency, with the added advantage of helping to defray the Dukes’
costs in paying their servants, see Alain Derville, ‘Pots-de-vin, cadeaux, racket, patronage’, in
Revue du Nord, LVI (1974), p. 363; and Marc Boone, ‘Dons et pots-de-vin, aspects de la so-
ciabilité urbaine au bas Moyen Âge. Le cas Gantois pendant la période bourguignonne’, Revue
du Nord, LXX (1988), pp. 231-247. Those exercising influence did so on receipt of regular
gifts, favours, services and sometimes cash from their clients. Philip’s gift-giving to the same
administrators allowed him to tap into these networks. For the gift-giving networks to which
Order receipients belonged, see Chapter 5.
3 For a summary of historians’perceptions of Philip’s ultimate policy aims, see Richard Vaughan,
Philip the Bold, pp. 237-240.
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