Burgundian Civic and Courtly ‘Spectacles’
By Elizabeth Weinberg
The once-divided Low Countries were initially acquired by the House of Valois-Burgundy, not through the direct inheritance of a male heir, but by marriage, wars, purchases, and inheritance via cousins without direct heirs. The immense wealth of the Low Countries, as a centre of trade and leaders of cloth production and wool trade, made them especially attractive to foreign crowns who would benefit from their taxation and could use trade-related ties to expand their geographic influence (Holdorph, 2022: 74). These commercial hubs also contained especially large populations, with historians estimating that by 1500, ‘twenty-four of the thirty towns in north-west Europe with populations in excess of 10,000’ were located in the Low Counties (Brown & Small, 2008:4). This flourishing urban environment and burgeoning wealth of merchants led to a growing middle class which was both educated and powerful, and who wished to display their wealth by emulating courtly ritual and joining exclusive guilds and fraternities. Numerous civic traditions from the pre-Burgundian rule expanded throughout the 15th century to become more lavish and incorporated scenes from chivalric literature to portray notions of heroism, piety, and spectacle.
The last of the Valois-Burgundian dukes was Charles I, also known as Charles ‘the Bold’ due to his expansionist ambitions and break with France. In the fashion of a true chivalric knight, Charles was frequently on campaign and commanded the Order of the Golden Fleece (Brown & Small, 2008:4) (Jensen, 1966: 189). However, as a foreign Burgundian ruler of the Low Countries, along with regular tensions between commoners and nobility, his authority was not always welcomed by his subjects. In order to reinforce power dynamics, while building important relationships with influential native authorities and creating a state-identity, the Burgundian Dukes attempted to exploit traditional civic spectacles, as can be seen through the lens of Charles the Bold’s reign.
The relationship between the French-speaking Valois dukes and their Dutch-speaking subjects if the Low countries was strained (Brown & Small, 2008:22). During Charles’s joyeux entrée, following his accession after his father’s death, he faced numerous revolts in Ghent, Mechelen, Artois, Antwerp, Brabant, Brussels, and Malines (Vaughan, 1973: 9). In addition to this, Charles was also not their sovereign, as this fell to Louis XI of France. Therefore, Charles was neither a native nor a Flemish king, which proved complicated when attempting to gain independence from France to build his own kingdom (Brown. 1997: 277). While the native peoples shared an interest of independence from the French crown, the Low Countries did not previously share an identity and were separate city-states under their own lords. Their forced unification under foreign rule and increased taxation to pay for ducal demands, namely expansion through war and purchasing counties, was not in the interest of urban elites whose trades were heavily taxed. In the 1470s, Charles reportedly kept almost 40% of the town councils’ municipal treasury for his expansions (Brown & Small, 2008:7). Charles attempted to repress public unrest through engagement with civic traditions, such as processions, jousting tournaments, dramatic performances, and guild events, while affirming authority through Burgundian courtly spectacles.
Prior to the Valois-Burgundian takeover, townships had organized their own civic spectacles, which stimulated urban economies due to their ‘movement of peoples, trade, and commodities’(Arnade, 1997: 312). However, many of these traditions were modelled on the aristocratic chivalry found within the court, made popular by French chivalric romance literature. A series of letters from John Paston in the 15th century famously compared the ducal courts to the legendary and mythologized court of King Arthur, pointing to the level of pageantry and grandeur which was incorporated (Brown. 1997: 277). Many of these festivals were organized by the townships’ local guilds, though they relied on ducal patronage and support, as larger tournaments such as those at Lille and Bruges required safe passage to be issued for participants (Arnade, 1997: 312). Charles’s father, Phillip the Good, had reintroduced the jousting fraternity of the White Bear, the members of which included nobles and other influential members of urban society (Brown. 1997: 290). Due to their courtly subject and nature, the duke’s presence was greatly required for such events, and the cities appear willing to take on financial responsibilities for the festivities (Brown, 1999: 577). The church of St Christopher in Bruges, as the official church of the White Bear fraternity, even erected one of the two golden gates marking the entrance to the tournament celebrating Charles’s wedding to Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England (Brown. 1997: 290). The tournament itself lasted 10 days, all of which saw jousting, and included 6 grand banquets, costing the court 60,000 francs (Brown & Small, 2008:55). The White Bear took part in the ‘Pas d’Armes’ jousts, which re-enacted scenes and motifs from romances, such as a single or group of knights defending a passage (Brown & Small, 2008:55). The interactive relations between the ducal court with local patrician families would have been equally important for the duke in forging relationships and creating links to the cities.
The guild of Mariën Theeren (‘In Honour of Mary’) was an equally upstanding literary fraternity of rhetoricians in Ghent, making them responsible for organizing public performances such as dramas and tableaux vivants for urban festivals (Arnade, 1996: 173). Like the White Bear, the group boasted elite status as its members were both literate and cultured. The Burgundian lords such as Charles understood how theatrical public performances could be used to enhance their own public standing and state power, eventually being used in both civil and courtly spectacles. With support of the dukes, the guild placed Burgundian coat of arms alongside the symbol of the Order of the Golden Fleece next to the Flemish emblems on their register of matriculation’ (Arnade, 1996: 174). At Charles’s marriage to Margaret of York, the thespians stated a tableaux depicting ‘The labours of Hercules’ during the banquets, which was meant to mirror the duke’s ‘princely government’ (Brown & Small, 2008:55).
When Charles was not abroad on expeditions, he occasionally attended urban events. He himself joined the Crossbowmen’s guild in Ghent, whose members included the young men of influential families, and the devotional fraternities of The Dry Tree and Our Lady of the Snow in Bruges in order to integrate himself with the urban centres’ social and political networks (Brown, 1999: 588). While devotional fraternities did not hold the same entertaining elements as tournaments, it was this ‘subtle involvement in civic religious life that provided more continuous opportunities for the theatrical exercise of power’ (Brown, 1999: 587). The Dry Tree in Bruges was an elite and exclusive group whose members were mainly native citizens serving civic offices or wealthy foreign merchants residing in the city, making it crucial for Charles in creating political and economic ties. However, Our Lady of the Snow contained a large and diverse range of both men and women from various social standings. It was here that the meeting of the Golden Fleece took place in June 1468, just before Charles’s marriage to Margaret (Brown & Small, 2008:55). Charles made substantial yearly offerings to these churches, including an usually large sum of 100 franks given for the rebuilding of St James church – but which earned him continual prayers from the church during masses (Brown, 1999: 580). While such deeds appear charitable, the Duke’s free admission to these fraternities allowed him to exercise his rights of collation to the extent that direct taxes from Flanders and Holland provided Charles with more than half of his revenues (Brown, 1999: 574).
Religious processions were another way which the dukes could both receive prayers from the church and use religious spectacle as propaganda. These courtly spectacles were instructed to commemorate victories and military needs, celebrate marriages and births, and notify the city of crusades (Brown. 1997: 289). Burgundian dukes utilized earlier traditions of Flemish counts, displaying relics given by previous counts to the churches, such as that of the Holy Blood. According to Nicolaes Despars, the Holy Blood was used in a general procession for the first time in 1465 to celebrate Charles’s ‘victory’ at Montlhery against the French at Montlhery (Brown. 1997: 292-3).
The Holy Blood was usually used in processions for victory against the French crown, which suited the aims of both the townspeople and the duke, but was only successfully received when their interests aligned (Brown. 1997: 292-3). From 1470 to 1491, similar relics were paraded in over 70% of the 90 processions chronicled, alluding to Charles’s continuing attempts to gain support of his Flemish subjects in times of political threat. This is also supported from the number of processions ringing significantly between 1474-5, with twenty-two processions organized by the duke after the Treaty of Picquigny between England and France threatened Charles’s imperial ambitions. In 1475 Charles ordered his towns to make processions for his success and for peace, during which preachers were instructed to attest to the duke’s peaceful aims in opposition to the slanderous accounts made by processions in France (Brown. 1997: 277).
As a foreign lord, Charles the Bold faced opposition and rebellion from his subjects in the Burgundian Netherlands. His expansionist attitude and intention of becoming independent of France to create his own kingdom was only partially shared by the Low Countries, who wished to be released from French dependence but also viewed Charles as an extension of French power. By evaluating Charles’s relationships and involvement with the guilds and devotional fraternities which organized their cities’ festivals and events, it is clear that Charles attempted to exploit civic and courtly spectacles to sway public opinion and gain support from urban elites. The fact that the number of such spectacles continued to rise throughout his reign, and often paralleled political affairs, implies that Charles continued to feel pressure from his Flemish subjects and felt his power threatened.
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