Charles the Bold, Last Duke of Burgundy, 1433-1477. Ruth Putnam
as he could make it. (Collection des voyages des souverains des Pays Bas, i., 71.) Unfortunately, owing to the destruction of papers, only a few years are complete. Between 1428–1441, there is nothing. But the itinerary for 1441 and for other years shows how often the duke changed his residences. Sometimes he is accompanied by Madame de Bourgogne, sometimes by M. and Madame de Charolais.]
[Footnote 2: It was also said that the woollen manufactures of Flanders were denoted by the emblem of the golden fleece.]
[Footnote 3: Reiffenberg, Histoire de l'Ordre de la Toison d'Or, p. xxi.]
[Footnote 4: Hist. de I'Ordre, etc., p. i.]
[Footnote 5: All the Burgundian embassies were not as patent to the public as were Isabella's. An item like the following from the accounts of 1448–49 whets the reader's curiosity: "To Jehan Lanternier, barber and varlet of the chamber, for delivering to a certain person for certain causes and for secret matters of which Monseigneur does not wish further declaration to be made, 53 pounds 17 sous." (Laborde Les Ducs de Bourgogne, etc., "Preuves," i. xiii.)]
[Footnote 6: "Vingt-quatre chevaliers gentilshommes de nom et d'armes et sans reproches nés et procrées en léal mariage" (see description of the first list).—Hist. de l'Ordre, p. xxi.]
[Footnote 7: Jacquemin Dauxonne, a merchant of Lombardy living at Dijon, received twenty-two francs and a half for a rich cloth of black silk draped about the baptismal font. Why mourning was used on this joyful occasion does not appear. (Laborde, i., 321.)]
[Footnote 8: Summary of a register containing the acts of the Order of the Golden Fleece quoted in Histoire de l'Ordre, pp. 12, 13.]
[Footnote 9: St. Remy, Chronique, ii., 284. St. Remy is usually called Toison d'Or.]
[Footnote 10: His full name was Charles Martin. One tower alone remains of the palace where he was born.]
[Footnote 11: Hist, de l'Ordre, p. 13.]
[Footnote 12: Selden (Titles of Honor, p. 457), however, says he knows not by what authority this statement is made and that he knows nothing of it. Seven is the earliest age mentioned by Gautier for receiving knighthood.]
[Footnote 13: Deschamps, Œuvres Complètes, ii., 214.]
[Footnote 14: The ancient quarrel between the old Holland parties of Hooks and Cods continually blazed out anew. On one notable occasion, to show her impartiality, the duchess appeared in public accompanied by the stadtholder, Lelaing, a partisan of the Hooks, and by Frank van Borselen, himself a Cod, the widower of Jacqueline, the late Countess of Holland.]
[Footnote 15: Barante, Histoire des Dues de Bourgogne, vi., 2, note by Reiffenberg.]
[Footnote 16: See Catalogue des manuscrits des Ducs de Bourgogne, "Résumé historique," i., lxxix.]
[Footnote 17: Barante, vi., 2, note.]
[Footnote 18: Loomis, Medieval Hellenism.]
[Footnote 19: Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, ii., 231.]
[Footnote 20: It was in June, 1434, that this alliance had been made. Sigismund claimed that Philip had no right in Brabant, Holland, Zealand, and Hainaut, which in his opinion were lapsed fiefs, of the empire.]
[Footnote 21: Putnam, A Medieval Princess.]
[Footnote 22: Monstrelet, La Chronique, v., 344.]
[Footnote 23: La Marche, Mémoires, ii., 50.]
[Footnote 24: Reiffenberg, Essai sur les enfants naturels de Philippe de Bourgogne.]
[Footnote 25: Meyer, Commentarii sive Annales rerum Flandricarum, p. 296.]
CHAPTER II
YOUTH
1440–1453
The heir of Burgundy was still in very tender years when he began to take official part in public affairs, sometimes associated with one parent, sometimes with the other.
There was a practical advantage in bringing the boy to the fore by which the duke was glad to profit. With his own manifold interests, it was impossible for him to be present in his various capitals as often as was demanded by the usage of the diverse individual seigniories. It was politic, therefore, to magnify the representative capacity of his son and of his consort in order to obtain the grants and aides which certain of his subjects declared could be given only when requested orally by their sovereign lord. Thus, in 1444, it was Count Charles and the duchess who appeared in Holland to ask an aide.1 In the following year, Charles accompanied his father when Philip made one of his rare visits—there were only three between 1428 and 1466—to Holland and Zealand.
[plate 5]
Olivier de la Marche was among the attendants on this occasion, and he describes with great detail how rejoiced were the inhabitants to have their absentee count in their land.2 Many matters could only be set aright by his authority. Among the complaints brought to him at Middelburg were accusations against a certain knight of high birth, Jehan de Dombourc. Philip ordered that the man be arrested at once and brought before him for trial. This was