The princely court
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THE
PRINCELY
COURT
Medieval Courts and Culture
in North-West Europe
‒
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Vale, M. G. A. (Malcolm Graham Allan)
The princely court: medieval courts and culture in North-West Europe, – /
Malcolm Vale.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
. Europe, Western—Court and courtiers. . Civilization, Medieval. . Europe,
Northern—Court and courtiers. . Courts and courtiers. . Arts, Medieval. . Chivalry. .
Europe, Northern—Kings and rulers. . Europe, Western—Kings and rulers. . Material
culture—Europe, Western. . Material culture—Europe, Northern. I. Title.
CB .V —dc
ISBN –––
Typeset by Graphicraft Ltd., Hong Kong
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd,
Guildford and King’s Lynn
In the course of a long-term project, one incurs many debts. It is,
however, one of the incidental pleasures of scholarship to acknowledge
the support, encouragement, constructive criticism and generosity of so
many people. Without such informal remaining vestiges of the Republic
of Letters this book would not have been written or, if it had, it would
have been very much the poorer.
First, I owe a great deal to Godfried Croenen, who acted as research
assistant to the project under a generous two-year award from the Leverhulme Trust. His knowledge and deployment of computer techniques
produced results which it would have been both difficult and timeconsuming to obtain by any other means. Secondly, I am indebted to a
number of colleagues and friends for their help in many and various ways:
Gerard Nijsten, Rees Davies, and Janet van der Meulen, all of whom read
and helpfully commented on drafts at various stages; Wim Blockmans,
Dick de Boer, Marc Boone, Jean Dunbabin, John Elliott, Steven Gunn,
Olga Kotková, Frédérique Lachaud, Werner Paravicini, Walter Prevenier,
Gervase Rosser, Iwona Sagan, Arjo Vanderjagt, and Frits van Oostrom,
all offered stimulus and support. Institutions must be thanked for their
enabling roles: above all, the Leverhulme Trust and the Netherlands
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
(NIAS) at Wassenaar. The year (–) which I spent at NIAS as a
Fellow-in-Residence, after election by the Royal Netherlands Academy
of Arts and Sciences, enabled me to draft a substantial part of the book,
and subsequent shorter visits helped to complete the process. I particularly wish to record my thanks to all members of the NIAS staff, and especially to Saskia Lepelaar, who undertook the task of converting many of
the tables into publishable form. St John’s College and the Faculty of
Modern History in the University of Oxford have been generous in
granting me leave and funding for research visits to Belgium, France, and
the Netherlands. The Wiener-Anspach Foundation offered me a threemonths’ visiting Research Fellowship in , at a relatively early stage
in the project, held at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and I owe much
to Alain Dierkens of the ULB for helping to make that visit profitable.
It will be apparent that this book has drawn upon a large volume
and wide range of archival and manuscript material, conserved in
vi
Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The staff of many
libraries and archives have proved unfailingly helpful, and it is a great
pleasure to record the assistance received from the Public Record Office,
the British Library, the Westminster Abbey Muniments, the Bodleian
Library, the Taylor Institution Library, and St John’s College Library,
Oxford; the Archives de l’État at Mons, the Rijksarchief at Ghent, the
Bibliothèque Royale and Archives Générales du Royaume at Brussels; the
Archives Nationales, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Archives Départementales de Pas-de-Calais at Arras, and the Archives Départementales
du Nord at Lille; the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and Algemeen Rijksarchief
at The Hague, the NIAS Library at Wassenaar, and the Leiden University Library.
Among publications which came to my notice too late to be included
in this book, mention should especially be made of C. Allmand (ed.) War,
Government and Power in Late Medieval France (Liverpool, ) and
W. Blockmans, M. Boone, and T. de Hemptinne (eds.), Secretum Scriptorium: Liber alumnorum Walter Prevenier (Leuven/Apeldoorn, ).
This book has benefited immeasurably from the unfailingly constructive and supportive contributions of my wife, Juliet, and it is dedicated to
our two sons, Timothy and Patrick.
M.V.
Oxford
October
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Appendices
List of Maps
List of Plates
List of Abbreviations
ix
xi
xii
xiv
xv
xviii
Introduction
PA RT O N E
The Material Foundations of Court Life
. Court and Household
. Organization and Structures
. The household and its structures
. Household ordinances
. Hall, chamber, and household
. Consumption and Expenditure
. Economics and accountancy
. Daily needs and expenditure
. Liveries: status, function, and expenditure
. The Travelling Court
. Transport and logistics
. Residences and lodgings
viii
PA RT T WO
Culture
. Court Life and Court Culture
. Luxury, display, and the arts
. Courtly pursuits
. Ritual and ceremony
. Art at Court: Investment in Culture?
. Court art and court style
. The structures of court patronage
. A francophone culture?
Conclusion
Tables and figures
Appendices
Maps
Bibliography
Index
Table
Household expenditure of Jeanne, countess of Hainault,
–
Table
Flanders: Budget of household expenditure,
Table
Flanders: Household expenditure, –
Table
England: Livery Roll,
Table
England: Total annual expenditure on the departments
of Edward I’s household, –
Table
England: Total expenditure on Edward II’s household,
–
Table
England: Expenditure on Edward II’s household,
–
Table
England: Household expenditure on major feast days,
–
Table
England: Household expenditure on major feast days,
–
Table
England: Household expenditure on major feast days,
–
Table
England: Itinerary and expenses of the household
of Eleanor, sister of Edward III of England, on her
marriage to Reinhoud, count of Guelders,
Apr.–June
Table
England: Horses received and distributed by the treasurer
of Eleanor, countess of Guelders, at the time of her
marriage, Apr.–June
Table
England: Gifts given by Eleanor, countess of Guelders,
on her marriage, May
Table
England: Alms given and masses celebrated by the
English court, –
Table (a) England: Liveries of money for robes paid to Edward I’s
household, –
Table (b) England: Liveries for English knighting ceremonies
. –
. –
Table (c) Colours of cloth and types of fur worn by members of
princely households
. Flanders: count’s household,
. England: king’s household, –
. Hainault: countess’s household,
x
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Table
Flanders: Itinerary of Guy de Dampierre, June –June
Flanders: List of nobles and knights in service of Guy de
Dampierre and payment for household residence,
c.–
Flanders: Testamentary legacies by Guy de Dampierre to
his household, May
Flanders: Members of the company conducting Anne of
Bohemia, queen of England, through Flanders, and their
expenses, Nov.
Artois: Monthly wages of count’s household, Feb.–June
Artois: Members of the count’s household receiving
compensation for their services, July–Oct.
Hainault-Holland: Itinerary of Jeanne, countess of
Hainault and Holland, Dec. –Jan.
Hainault-Holland: Monthly household expenses of
Jeanne, countess of Hainault and Holland, Aug. –
Aug.
Hainault-Holland: Total annual expenditure of the
countess’s household, –
Hainault-Holland: Wages paid to the household of
William III, count of Hainault and Holland,
Dec. –June
Hainault-Holland: Wages paid to the countess’s
household, Dec. –June
Fig.
Fig.
England: Total household expenditure, Nov. –Nov.
England: Monthly totals for household expenditure,
–
Fig.
England: Monthly household kitchen expenditure,
–
Fig. England: Household expenditure, –
Fig.
England: Total expenditure on the household of the future
Edward III, – (running averages)
Fig. England: Distribution of daily expenses for the future
Edward III, –
Fig. England: Distribution of daily expenses for the future
Edward III, –
Fig. Flanders: Count’s household expenses, May–June
Fig. Flanders: Count’s household expenses, May–June
Fig. Flanders: Count’s household account, –
Fig. Flanders: Account for count’s household, –
Fig. Flanders: Count’s household expenditure, –
Fig. Flanders: Count’s daily expenses, –
Fig. Flanders: Count’s monthly household expenses, –
Fig. Artois: Count’s household expenditure,
Fig. Artois: Count’s household expenditure,
Fig. Artois: Count’s household expenditure,
Fig. Artois: Count’s household expenditure,
I. Ordinances for dependent households subsidiary to the English
royal household, c.–
(a) Ordinance for the household of John of Brabant
( b) Household roll of John of Brabant
(c) Ordinance for the household of ‘Madame la Nyete’
(d) Ordinance for the household of John de Warenne,
c.–
Page
II. Plate and jewels provided for the marriage celebrations of
Edward I and Margaret of France, September
(a) Plate and jewels bought by Adam the Goldsmith in Paris,
some of which were given as gifts to those attending the
wedding, September
( b) Account with Adam the Goldsmith for jewels and plate for
the queen,
III. Indenture recording the delivery of chapel furniture and
liturgical equipment for Thomas of Brotherton, Edward I’s son,
January
IV. Indenture recording delivery of plate, jewels, and relics for
Queen Margaret, March
V. Gifts of plate by Edward I to John, count of Holland,
and Elizabeth, countess of Holland, on their marriage,
January–August
(a) Indenture recording plate given by Edward I to John,
count of Holland, January
( b) Plate given by Edward I to his daughter Elizabeth, countess
of Holland, August
VI. Draft letter of Guy de Dampierre, count of Flanders, concerning
the services and rights of his huntsman, c.
VII. Festivities and textiles at the court of Artois, c. –
(a) Provisions and purchases for court festivities ordered by
Mahaut, countess of Artois (? –)
( b) Inventory of textiles and furnishings of Mahaut, countess of
Artois (?c.–)
xiii
VIII. Hainault-Holland: inventories
(a) Inventory of books in French (li romanch), with valuations,
for William III, count of Hainault (?)
( b) Inventory of cutlery, with valuations, for the countess of
Hainault,
IX. Letter (in French) of Floris V, count of Holland, to Edward I of
England (?), sending him the gift of a falcon
X. Livery Roll of Robert de Béthune, count of Flanders,
November
XI. Hainault-Holland: chapel inventories
(a) Inventory of the count of Hainault-Holland’s chapel at
The Hague, probably June–July
( b) Inventory of the count of Hainault-Holland’s chapel at
Binche, May
. North-West Europe, c.
. The Low Countries, c.
. Schematic plan of main Westminster Palace buildings
Frontispiece: Feast at the court of Alexander the Great, from The
Romance of Alexander, c.–. Bodleian Library, Oxford,
MS. Bodl. , fo. v.
between pp. –
. Palace and abbey of Westminster, engraving by Wenceslas Hollar, .
V&A Picture Library.
. The Knights’ Hall of the counts of Holland in the Binnenhof, The
Hague, late thirteenth century.
. The Painted Chamber in the Palace of Westminster, looking east,
William Capon, . Society of Antiquaries of London.
. Register of privileges of Flanders, submission of Bruges. Koninklijke
Bibliotheek, The Hague, MS D , fo. v.
. Distribution of liveries by a ruler, Pseudo-Aristotle, Secreta Secretorum,
c.–. British Library, Add. MS , fo. v.
a–f. Clasps and pewter pendants. Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen,
Rotterdam. Collective van Beuningen, Cohen, Inv. , –, Inv. ,
Inv. , Inv. , Inv. , and Inv. .
. The count’s castle (Gravensteen), Ghent. Copyright: Uitg. Thill, N.V.,
Brussel.
. The count’s palace (Prinsenhof ), Ghent, engraving from Flandria
Illustrata by A. Sanders, . Bodleian Library, Oxford, Meerman .
a. Westminster Abbey, nave and choir, looking east. A. F. Kersting,
Architectural Photographer.
b. Amiens Cathedral, nave and choir, looking east. A. F. Kersting,
Architectural Photographer.
a. Ivory chessman. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, A.
b. Ivory chessman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
...
c. Ivory chessman. Musée Antoine Vivenel, Compiègne, V.
a. Pewter pendant depicting a chessboard. Museum Boijmans-van
Beuningen, Rotterdam. Collection van Beuningen, Cohen, Inv. .
b. Casket decorated with a scene of wildmen and a lady playing chess,
c.. Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln.
. Lid of an ivory casket decorated with scenes of a tournament, the siege of
the Castle of Love, and themes from romance, Paris, c.–. Wawel
Cathedral Museum, Krakow.
. Ivory box depicting lovers with sword, France, c.–. Musées
royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Inv. .
xvi
. Chess-playing scene from the Voeux et Restor du Paon, c.. The
Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York, MS Glazier , fo. v.
a. Monumental Brass to Robert Braunche, burgess of Lynn, and two wives,
. V&A Picture Library.
b. The peacock feast (detail from Monumental Brass to Robert Braunche),
showing damoiselles bringing the meat, accompanied by minstrels. V&A
Picture Library.
. Wildmen at a feast from a Monumental Brass to Gottfried and Friedrich
von Bülow. Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden.
between pp. –
. The Newport chest, late thirteenth century. St Mary’s, Newport, Essex.
. Portable psalter. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, MS G ,
fo. r.
a&b. Portable diurnal. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, MS G ,
fos. v–r and v–r.
. Cartulary of the college and chapel of St Nicholas, Wallingford Castle.
St John’s College, Oxford, fo. r.
. Sainte Chapelle, Paris, c.–. Lauros-Giraudon.
a. Wall painting in St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster. Society of
Antiquaries of London.
b. St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, by Adam Lee, c.–. Museum
of London.
. Tomb of William de Valence (d.), Westminster Abbey. Copyright:
English Heritage.
. ‘Curial’ tombs on the north side of the Sanctuary, Westminster Abbey.
A. F. Kersting, Architectural Photographer.
. Detail of praying knight from the tomb of Edmund of Lancaster,
Westminster Abbey. Copyright: Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
. Sketch by John Carter (dated July ) of armed figures painted on the
base of Edmund of Lancaster’s tomb, Westminster Abbey. Copyright:
Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
. Tomb of John of Eltham (d.), Westminster Abbey. Copyright: Dean
and Chapter of Westminster.
. Wall painting of the counts and countesses of Flanders, Kortrijk,
Notre-Dame, .
a. Simone Martini, Musicians, from the chapel of St Martin, c.–,
Assisi, S. Francesco. Fratelli Alinari.
b. Simone Martini, St Martin’s renunciation of arms in the imperial camp,
from the chapel of St Martin, Assisi, S. Francesco. Fratelli Alinari.
. The Westminster retable: central section with the Virgin, Christ, and
St John, c.–. Copyright: English Heritage.
. Psalter of Guy de Dampierre, count of Flanders, c.. Bibliothèque
royale, Brussels, MS , fo. v.
xvii
. Missal of Louis de Male, count of Flanders, c.. Bibliothèque royale,
Brussels, MS , fo. v.
. Rock crystal and silver-gilt ewer, Paris, c.. Louvre, Paris. Copyright:
Photo RMN—Arnaudet.
. Silver-gilt casket with arms of England and France, c.–. The
British Museum.
. Silver-gilt enamel ewer with scenes of games, Paris, c.–.
National Museum of Denmark.
. Statue of St James, silver gilt, given by Geoffroi Coquatrix, c.. Museo
de la Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela.
. Alms-purse (Aumônière), mid-fourteenth century. Cathedral treasury,
Troyes. Copyright: CNMHS.
. Froissart reciting his poems to a courtly audience, . Bibliothèque
nationale, Paris, MS fr. , fo. v.
ADN
ADPC
AEM
AGR
ARA
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BCRH
BEC
BHPCTHS
BIHR
BL
BN
Bod. Lib.
BR
CCR
CPR
CR
EcHR
EHR
GBA
JWCI
KB
MA
MGH
P&P
PRO
PRS
RAG
RBPH
RCHM
RHF
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TRG
WMA
Lille, Archives Départementales du Nord
Arras, Archives Départementales de Pas-de-Calais
Mons, Archives de l’État
Brussels, Archives Générales du Royaume
The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief
Paris, Archives Nationales
Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire
Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes
Bulletin Historique et Philologique du Comité des Travaux
Historiques et Scientifiques
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
London, British Library
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale
Calendar of Close Rolls
Calendar of Patent Rolls
Comptes Royaux
Economic History Review
English Historical Review
Gazette des Beaux Arts
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Le Moyen Age
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Past and Present
London, Public Record Office
Pipe Roll Society
Ghent, Rijksarchief
Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire
Royal Commission on Historic Monuments
Recueil des Historiens français
Revue du Nord
Rolls Series
Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis
Westminster Abbey Muniments
INTRODUCTION
This book departs from conventional approaches to its subject-matter
on at least two counts: first, it includes, rather than isolates, England;
secondly, it attempts to treat both the material and non-material aspects
of later medieval princely courts within the framework of a single study.
It has been a common practice of historians to treat the unambiguously concrete and tangible aspects of the subject quite separately from
the manifestations of court culture which they perceive in the visual, plastic and applied arts, and in music and literature. The court at this time
was intimately and inextricably enmeshed with the ruler’s household,
but studies of the household, its structure, organization, and personnel,
tend—necessarily—to confine themselves to matter rather than mind.
My aim has been to adopt a much broader definition of culture, which
takes into account the material infrastructures upon which the arts
rested and which, in part, could determine their nature and function.
The memorable definition of culture formulated in by the anthropologist E. B. Tylor is still worthy of consideration: ‘culture . . . is that
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.’1 Tylor’s emphasis upon the acquisition of cultural
characteristics is significant: they are not innate, but have to be learned
and acquired. Courts provided a context in which such habits and modes
of behaviour were both acquired and perpetuated. Thus court culture is
here seen from a broad viewpoint, in which, for example, habits of consumption, religious beliefs, devotional practices, modes of dress, and
other markers or tokens of status and function, as well as patronage of the
arts, are integral to its nature.
1
E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (London, ), i. . The anthropological literature
on culture is vast and controversial, but useful discussions of the concept are to be found
in A. L. Kroeber and C. Kluckhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions
(Cambridge, Mass., ), and C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, );
see also G. W. Stocking (ed.), Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and Others: Essays in Culture and
Personality (Madison, ).
My adoption in the title of the book of the term ‘culture’, rather than
‘cultures’, stems from a concern to identify what was common to the various court societies of the period studied. The anthropological definition
of culture, or culture(s), stressing their pluralistic and relativistic nature,
is less applicable in this context than humanistic interpretations which
emphasize, among other facets, the common values and expectations
shared by high-status groups across territorial, linguistic, and ethnic
boundaries.2 This is not to argue that the culture, however broadly defined,
of court societies constituted a discrete, self-contained, bounded system.
There was little, if any, sense of ethnic or national exclusiveness in this
milieu. Court culture was open to external forces: it was essentially
permeable and absorptive of a wide range of influences. Although the
members of these elites possessed indigenous cultural characteristics,
based upon language, tradition, and perceptions of their own past, they
formed part of a single social system.
The initial idea of investigating the history of princely courts in northwest Europe, from this point of view, during the century or so between
and , originated in my earlier work on Burgundian chivalry and
culture. The spectacular nature of the court of Burgundy, and the artistic
efflorescence of the fifteenth-century Netherlands, had apparently overshadowed—if not entirely eclipsed—the preceding period, and this was
reflected in the relative paucity of literature on the pre-Burgundian courts
of the Low Countries. We knew much more about the Burgundian court
than about its precursors, and it was in an attempt to redress this balance
that the present study was born. It therefore began as a Netherlandsbased project. Yet the evidence from both the southern and northern Low
Countries could not be treated in isolation: material from both royal
France and royal England—as primary formative influences on lesser
rulers and key players in the court societies of the age—had to be introduced. However, it has not been part of any tradition of historical writing,
with the exception of a few ground-breaking studies,3 to consider English
evidence beside that stemming from its nearest continental neighbours.
2
For cultures as ways of living, emphasizing their holistic but diverse nature, see
R. Benedict, Race and Racism (London, ), –; also G. Stocking, Race, Culture, and
Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology (New York, ), –.
3
For some important exceptions, see P. Binski, The Painted Chamber at Westminster
(Society of Antiquaries Occasional paper, n.s. , London, ), and Westminster Abbey
and the Plantagenets: Kingship and the Representation of Power, – (New Haven and
London, ); and J. Vale, Edward III and Chivalry: Chivalric Society and its Context,
– (Woodbridge, ).
The later medieval English kingdom has invariably been considered by
historians separately from continental Europe, often for the soundest of
reasons. Political and institutional developments, such as its relatively
precocious centralization, distinguished medieval England from many of
its continental European neighbours. The extent and density of urbanization in England also differed markedly from that found in northern
France and the Low Countries. English towns were not equivalent in size,
power, and cultural influence to the great cities of Ghent, Bruges, Ypres,
Arras, Douai, and their like. But, in terms of household organization,
styles of court life, and cultural patronage, the English court shared many
affinities with its continental counterparts in northern France and the
Low Countries. It remained part of a francophone world in which
French—and its variants, such as Anglo-Norman—was a lingua franca.
Although there were differences of detail, the material foundations and
infrastructures upon which the court of the Plantagenets was built, as
well as the artistic and cultural products which its members patronized
and purchased, were readily comparable with those found elsewhere in
north-west Europe. Cultural isolationism was not to be found at this level.
The geographical area encompassed within the scope of this book
coincided with no natural physical boundaries, no clearly defined linguistic frontiers, nor with any union of territories during the later Middle Ages (Map ). This part of ‘north-west Europe’ was not an entity in
any formal sense—except, perhaps, in terms of its economic contacts
and cultural identity. The littoral regions on both sides of the English
Channel and North Sea were studded with ports and trading centres
which did not deal only in raw materials and commodities. There was a
human traffic, of people and ideas, for which the sea served as a highway
rather than a barrier. The island kingdom of England was thus closely
and inextricably bound up with the kingdom of France and the principalities of the Low Countries. Tenure of continental possessions—the
duchy of Aquitaine and the comté of Ponthieu—by the English crown
further strengthened these bonds. Diplomatic intercourse between the
kingdoms of England and France was constant, as it was with the principalities of the Low Countries, while the ebb and flow of alliance and
antagonism between both major and minor secular powers lent an evershifting character to relationships of many kinds. It is therefore with contrasts and comparisons between these major—and minor—players in
the dynastic politics of the region in the later thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries that we are concerned. All were princes; all maintained ‘princely’
establishments around them, although there were important differences
of rank among and between them. There were three sovereign powers:
the kings of England and France, and the German emperor; and a group
of non-sovereign princes: the counts of Flanders, the dukes of Brabant,
the counts of Hainault, the counts of Artois, and the counts of Holland
and Zeeland (Maps , ). To set the political scene, as it were, each of
these will be briefly considered in turn.
The dominant role often accorded to Anglo-French rivalry during this
period has tended to subordinate the political behaviour of the northern
French and Netherlandish princes to the power-struggle which was to
culminate in with the outbreak of the Hundred Years War. The
diverse principalities are seen as conducting their own essentially reactive
and defensive policies against external threats from greater powers. It
has, however, been observed that, in socio-economic and cultural terms
‘the mutual ties’ binding the principalities of the Low Countries ‘were
stronger than those with the outside world’.4 But the various principalities lacked any sense of common political or institutional unity, and
power-relationships were determined more by attempts to reduce the
capacity of greater powers to intervene than by the ambitions of any
single house to dominate the region. This was to change somewhat in
the second half of the fourteenth century, as ‘foreign’ rulers, often with
territorial ambitions of their own, came to replace dynasties that had died
out in the direct male line—Hainault-Holland in , Brabant in ,
and Flanders in . Similarly, the gradual emergence of sporadic combinations of territories under one ruler in the Low Countries was not
merely a response to Anglo-French, or franco-imperial, conflict. The
expansion of the duchy of Brabant to absorb the pays d’Outremeuse
in Limburg () (Map ), or the union of Hainault, Holland, and
Zeeland under the Avesnes dynasty ( –), were symptoms of a
tendency among princely houses to render themselves more independent
of sovereign powers and other higher authorities—above all, of the
German Empire. Imperial influence over non-German vassals, such as
the dukes of Brabant and counts of Hainault and Holland, for instance,
declined with the collapse of the Hohenstaufen after and the interregnum in the Empire which lasted until . The subsequent rise of the
Valois dukes of Burgundy to hegemony in the Low Countries after
was to some extent prefigured and anticipated, on a much smaller scale,
W. Prevenier, ‘The Low Countries, –’, in M. Jones (ed.), The New Cambridge
Medieval History, vi. c.-c. (Cambridge, ), . This survey offers the most
recent overview of the history of the Low Countries during this period.
4
by these earlier unions. Yet the fact remains, as H. S. Lucas pointed out,
that the principalities of the Low Countries, ‘situated where the boundaries of the Empire marched with those of the kingdom of France and
opposite the island of England, were by reason of their varied economic,
social and political life bound to be vitally affected by the greater political factors in the life of the states of Europe’.5 They were also bound to
be vitally affected by the cultural movements and tendencies of the
age, often—although not always—emanating from the courts of greater
powers such as the Papacy or the kings of France and England. There
was, however, little or no discernible correlation between political stability, administrative centralization, and cultural significance at this time.
Political fragmentation and the decentralized, peripatetic nature of
princely rule proved to be no obstacle to artistic and literary patronage,
innovation and creativity. The allegedly more centralized Burgundian
‘state’ of the fifteenth century is sometimes perceived as a more stable
entity than it really was, and credited with responsibility for much of the
artistic and cultural flowering of the Low Countries. But the more fluid
and shifting political constructs of the preceding period were by no
means inimical to cultural developments.
The associations and affinities between the main players on the stage
of politics at this time were thus diverse and, in many cases, complex.
Each power had its own particular character and allegiances. Although
technically vassals of the French crown, until , for their residual
continental lands—the remnant of the former Angevin Empire after the
losses of –—the Plantagenet kings of England were regarded by
their Netherlandish neighbours as sovereigns in their own right. Alliances
were made with them as monarchs of England, not as dukes of Aquitaine
or counts of Ponthieu. The dissident rebels within the comté of Flanders
in the s, moreover, endorsed Edward III’s claim to the French throne
against that of Philip VI of Valois, who was supported by their own count,
Louis de Nevers. A heightening of tension between England and France
from the s onwards led to a series of betrothals and marriage
alliances, some durable and some short-lived, between the Plantagenets
and the Netherlandish princes during the period from to .
Brabant, Holland, Flanders, Hainault, and Guelders were actively sought
as allies through dynastic marriages. England’s wealth and military prestige drew clients and allies, but the unexpected succession crises in three
5
H. S. Lucas, The Low Countries and the Hundred Years War, – (Ann Arbor,
, repr. Philadelphia, ), –.
