OF BURGUNDIAN DUKES, COUNTS, SAINTS AND KINGS (14 C.E.- c. 1500)1

Graeme Small

It has seemed axiomatic to some modem historians that the last two Valois dukes of , Philip the Good (t 1467) and (t 1477), should have striven to obtain a single royal title to supplant the many lesser ones they held. After all, the history of the Grenzraum between and was rich in vanished titles which might be resurrected with profit. One such possibility was the kingdom of Frisia. The poorly documented history of the northerly realm in the first and seventh centuries had gained in substance by Philip's time thanks to its presence in epic tradition.2 A second and perhaps more credible forerunner was the post• Carolingian middle kingdom of .3 Henri Pirenne4 noted that the parallels between the Burgundian dominions and the kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 could not have escaped Philip the Good: 'Did his lands not extend over the greater part of the kingdom of Lotharingia,

1 I wish to acknowledge fmancial assistance from the British Academy, the Carne• gie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I am grateful to Marc Boone (RU Gent) and Claude Thiry (UC Louvain-la-Neuve) for making a prolonged research trip to Belgium possible. I have incurred a large number of debts which I acknowlege at the relevant points below. I am grateful too for the encouragement I have received from Ludovic Nys and Jean Richard, and for the patience shown by my editors since this paper was delivered in an abridged version in October 2000. The following abbreviations are used in this article: ACO (Archives departmentales de la Cote d'Or, ); ADD (Archives departementales du Doubs, Besan9on); ADN (Archives departementales du Nord, ); AGR (Archives generales du Royaume, ); BEC (Bibliotheque de rEcole des chartes); BM (Bibliotheque municipale); BnF (Bibliotheque nationale de France, ); PCEEBM(Publications du Centre europeen d'etudes burgundo-mMianes). 2 It is fitting in the context of the present volume to recall the seminal contribution of Prof. Adriaan Jongkees, Het koninkrijk Friesland in de vijftiende eeuw (Gronin• gen, 1946), republished in his Burgundica et varia (Hilversum, 1990), pp. 27-47. 3 A recent overview in R. Stein, 'Recht und Territorium. Die lotharingischen Ambi• tionen Philipps des Guten', in: Zeitschriftfor historische Forschung 24 (1997), pp. 481-508. 4 H. Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, II: du commencement du XIVe siecle a Ia mort de Charles le Temeraire (Brussels, 21908), p. 255 (here and elsewhere, my transla• tion unless otherwise indicated). 152 GRAEME SMALL and did he not appear at an interval of five hundred years as the successor of Lothar II and Zwentibold?' The diplomatic initiatives which considered the erection of a kingdom for the Burgundian dukes, notably in 144 7, seemed to confirm their royal aspirations, as did the presence in their libraries of works which harked back to an heroic Lotharingian past. 5 But the supposed enthusiasm of the Valois dukes for the recreation of these kingdoms has met with scholarly skepticism. Johan Huizinga was among the first to cast doubt on the lure of a troubled and short-lived middle kingdom.6 Paul Bonenfant demonstrated the speculative and incon• clusive quality of the few diplomatic initiatives to consider the prospect of a revival of Lotharingia in any detail. 7 He pointed out that the 144 7 initiative emanated, not from Burgundian circles, but from the imperial chancellor Kaspar Schlick, and formed part of a wider plan to regulate the status of the lands which Philip the Good held in the Empire. While this was a valuable goal for the duke, it did not imply any grander ambitions on his part. Nor was there much evidence that Charles the Bold, 'any more than his subjects, had the slightest Lotharingian sentiment'. 8 Bonenfant concluded his case by arguing that a third royal title was in fact more significant to the Valois court: that of the ancient realm of Bur• gundy, first a kingdom under in the fifth century, conquered by the sons of Clovis, then ruled by Merovingian and Carolingian rulers before several of its constituent parts were reunited under the Rudolfians in 932. Frankish Burgundy west of the Saone moved into the Capetian orbit and developed into the Duchy in the course of the tenth century. The 'second ' - what the French more commonly call 'le royaume d' Aries' - was itself absorbed into the Empire in 1032, its regalia and territories passing to Conrad II and his successors. Bonenfant believed the Burgundian title held a particular fascination for the dukes, and others have since followed his lead: 'neither Philip the Good nor his successor would have peace until they had seen it reborn in all its ancient splendour', claimed Yvon Lacaze, while Yves Cazaux described the idea of Burgundy as 'the bedrock' of Charles the Bold's political action and aspirations. 9

5 Y. Lacaze, 'Le role des traditions dans la genese d'un sentiment national au XVe siecle: la Bourgogne de Philippe le Bon', in: BEC 129 (1971), pp. 303-385. 6 J. Huizinga, 'Eine Krise des romanisch-germanischen Verhaltnisses', in: Histori• sche Zeitschrift 148 (1933), pp. 1-28. 7 A.-M. and P. Bonenfant, 'Le projet d'erection des etats bourguignons en royaume en 1447', in: Le Moyen Age 45 (1935), pp. 10-23; P. Bonenfant, 'Etat bourguignon et Lotharingie', in: Bulletin de l 'Academie royale de Belgique 41 (1955), pp. 266- 282, and reprinted in his Philippe le Bon: sa politique, son action (Brussels, 1996). 8 0 Bonenfant, 'Etat bourguignon' (seen. 7), p. 281. 9 Lacaze, 'Le role des traditions' (see n. 5), p. 305; Y. Cazaux, 'L'idee de Bour• gogne, fondement de 1a politique de Charles 1e Temeraire', in: PCEEBM 10 (1968), pp. 85-91.