Chapter VII - War! Huh! What Is It Good For?
It is Christmas, 1445, and Duke Philippe decided to do something very special to mark the occasion by announcing the creation of a new knightly order of chivalry, the Order of the Golden Fleece, to be awarded only to the best and brightest in Burgundy. He pledges to award it to his son (now almost ten years old) upon the boy's official introduction to the Dijon court.
A protracted period of bloodshed and uncertainty began in western Europe as a series of wars wrack the Holy Roman Empire and of course Burgundy became involved, as if a moth drawn to a flame. The first of these is the war between Sweden and Pommerania.
1466 was marked by multiple naval successes against the Swedish fleet, if with occasional assistance from Burgundy's partners in the war.
The war with Sweden ended after two years, with their key concession being the loss of the strategic port of Riga, giving Burgundy a port (albeit an isolated one) on the Baltic Sea.
Nineteen months later, Philippe was encouraged by the Reichstag to reclaim lost land for the Empire and on 2nd October, 1449, he declared war on Nikifor Koninsky, current leader of the merchant rulers of Novogorod, with the stated aim to regain the province of Livland. In un-related but no less significant news, a month later, a Burgundian merchant visited the ancient city of Kyoto in the mist-shrouded lands of Japan. Maps of the Far East were not yet forthcoming however.
A year later, as Novgorod conceded Livland to the Empire and released other territories under the control of a pretender to the old Muscovite throne, Louis XI, the new King of France after the death of his brother Charles VII, declared war on Burgundy to reclaim the county of Cambray. Two weeks later, Alfred de Montbéliard, the Duke of Bar, also declared war in support of the French throne.
Bar's contribution to France's war efforts was short-lived, as the Duke was forced to pay homage to Philippe as a Burgundian vassal a mere five months later. Nine weeks later, Alfred died of shame over the abrupt loss of his family's honour and his brother Nicolas, a year younger, came to Dijon to renew Bar's new oath of fealty.
France's war ended almost as badly, as King Louis was forced to cede his remaining claims on his cousin's lands and exclude the Champagne region from the French throne. Etienne de Dreux, a scion of the Breton royal family, was crowned as Etienne III, Count of Champagne and Nemours.
Philippe's military prowess was beginning to make waves in Europe and over the years, many army and navy officers came to prominence within the Burgundian military. Breda and Calais were two such locations of military excellence.
During Easter 1452, Philippe's plans for a grand new palace were at last completed, the new edifice befitting his positions as a rich and powerful duke, a successful general and a popular emperor. The Palais de Ducs de Bourgogne in Dijon was greatly extended and filled with the most exquisite and fashionable expressions of high art in late mediaeval Europe. A new training ground, tilting field and archery range were also all added to his seat of power to keep himself, his family and his household knights in the best physical condition possible.
That summer, overawed by the explosion of wealth, culture and military dominance of his Imperial neighbour, Etienne de Dreux swore fealty to the Duke of Burgundy in return for protection from future French reprisal. With Bar and Champagne envassalled and Lorraine controlled outright, Burgundy was no longer split into two halves and could present a cohesive whole to its neighbours in Europe.
Internal matters were not nearly as rosy as Burgundian propaganda would have one believe, as by that autumn, only the people of Dijon itself could be said to be happy with the Duke's administration at present.
The next summer, in July 1453, whilst Philippe was touring Lüneburg as part of his duties as Emperor, a new diet was held at Bremervörde reforming the often-ineffectual Hofgericht and investing the Emperor as the supreme arbitrator and ultimate legal authority within the Empire. Philippe duly accepted this august privilege and promptly delegated these powers to a new Imperial chancellor to act as chairman and leader of the Reichstag.
Philippe's successful tour of the northern Empire concluded in Utrecht on 7th Aug 1453, with Prince-Bishop Rudolf the Wise surrendering the keys of the city and his temporal authority over the province to the Duke in perpetuity.
Philippe's power and prestige reach their height with the Burgundian court recruiting a new magistrate every month!
Just prior to his son's eighteenth birthday, Philippe kept his promise and in a grand ceremony before all the nobles of Burgundy, Philippe the Lesser (as he is known) was formally invested as fourth Count of Charolais and made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
In the spring of 1454, Duchess Jacqueline became gravely ill and Philippe's increasingly erratic behaviour in private (later attributed to grief and stress) soon became public knowledge as he attempted to stage a live game of chess in the palace gardens, with men-at-arms for pawns, cavalrymen (and their horses) for knights etc. General Henri-Jules de Châlon-Arlay and Admiral Denis Pot de la Roche acted swiftly to forestall any further embarrassment to the Duke by taking supreme control of the Burgundian armed forces and insisting that all administrative and diplomatic activity be brought to Count Philippe instead.
Unfortunately, Jacqueline did not get recover and later died of consumption at the respectable age of fifty. As the Duke was not informed until much later for fear of upsetting his fragile mental state, she had only a modest funeral, though mourners and grateful peasantfolk lined the roads during the procession of her coffin from Dijon to Le Quesnoy in Hainault, the town of her birth.
After a few weeks of complete isolation from all the stresses of Ducal and Imperial life, Philippe's mental balance re-stabilised and he took back control of his duchy and its affairs. In penance for his lack of mourning over his wife's death, Philippe commissioned a series of memorial crosses, later known as the Jacoban Crosses, in every town her funeral cortège passed through to commemorate her life and allow her people to remember her fondly. This project was completed over a five-year period and its conclusion was marked by the passing of the Suffragan Bishop Act to improve religious administration and allow royal religious ceremonies without needing explicit royal permission. This five-year period also marked the longest protracted period of peace in Burgundy since the regency council.
Philippe the Good
Anno Domini 1459
III Duke of Burgundy, II Duke of Brabant & Lothier, II Duke of Limburg
I Duke of Lorraine, V Count Palatine of Burgundy, V Count of Artois
III Count of Flanders, II Count of Charolais, Lord of Utrecht
I Count of Hainaut, I Count of Holland and Zeeland
Jure bellum: I Duke of Luxembourg
Jure suffragium: Philipp I, Holy Roman Emperor