THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN TREE: THE GIFT-GIVING OBJECTIVES OF DUKE PHILIP THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY CAROL M. CHATTAWAY Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History, University College London 2004 UMI Number: U591666 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U591666 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 DECLARATION THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN TREE; THE GIFT-GIVING OBJECTIVES OF DUKE PHILP THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY CAROL M. CHATTAWAY Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History, University College London, 2004 I hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own, and has not been undertaken as part of a wider investigation, or with any other researcher. CAROL M. CHATTAWAY ABSTRACT OF THESIS THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN TREE: THE GIFT-GIVING OBJECTIVES OF DUKE PHILIP THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY This thesis explores the policy objectives underlying the gift of this Order, to sixty men, on jjanuary^T] 1403. Drawing primarily on Philip's household accounts, it undertakes complementary iconographical and prosopographical analyses (of the Order insignia's nature, form, materials, design and motto; and of distinguishing common features in recipients' careers, strengths, relationships with Philip, and activities in 1402-3), refined by reference to his policy concerns around the occasion of its bestowal, rigorously to test seven hypotheses. Three, posited by earlier historians, that the Order was purely decorative; a courtly conceit; or crusade-related, are shown no longer to be tenable. A further three, suggested by contemporary practice, that it was a military chivalric order; a livery badge; or a military alliance, prove to offer insufficient explanation. The evidence from the analyses points strongly to the final hypothesis, that the Order was a specific policy alliance, designed in fashionable form, to obscure its politically sensitive purpose. This was to create an unconventional, but significant, core military force, with an overriding commitment to Philip, loyally to support any action, including civil war, he deemed necessary to protect his dynasty's overall power by securing its control, and even inheritance, of the French Crown. This conclusion revises Philip's role in history, showing that rather than planning an independent Burgundian state, he initiated a co-ordinated propaganda campaign, of slogan, badge, and supporting literature, to legitimise and popularise his plans to control France. The analytical approach adopted also offers insights into the significance of decorative, material gift-giving; the identification of networks and their members; the meaning of Christine de Pisan's earlier political writings; and the origins of the Order of the Golden Fleece. 3. PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has evolved over a number of years. Throughout, I have been fortunate in the patient support and encouragement of my supervisors, David Morgan and David d'Avray, and in the helpfulness of the staff of the Departmental Archives of the C6te d'Or, and of the Bibliotheque Municipale, in Dijon. Thanks are also due to colleagues in the Centre Europeen d 1Etudes Bourguignonnes, and particularly Prof. Marc Boone, for opportunities to participate in wide-ranging discussions around my topic; to Drs. Sally Dormer, Jenny Stratford, and Simona Slanicka, for helpful background discussions; and to Prof. Michael Jones for access to his personal card index. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements Pages Map 7 Introduction: Objectives and Purpose of Study 8- / 8 Chapter 1. Method and Approach n - 44- Chapter 2. The Nature, Form and Materials 4*S- (>8 of the Order of the Golden Tree Chapter 3. The Iconography of the Order 6*- Chapter 4. The Meaning of the Motto 'en loyaute • 97- / 23 Chapter 5. The Recipients of the Order 164 Chapter 6. The Occasion of the Gift of the OrderflO- 201 Conclusions 202.- 2 / k Conventions and Abbreviations adopted in Annexes * n - 2/4 and Appendices Annexes 1. Ducal Authorisation for New Year Gifts 1403 2 . Z 0 - 2 3 3 (Transcript of the main text describing the Order and identifying its recipients) la. Other Manuscript References to the Order 234-" 23S (Transcripts of all relevant passages) 2. General Distribution of Duke Philip's New Year Gifts around 1403 2 . 3 k - 2 3 4 (Comparative table of recipients, numbers and costs of his gifts, drawn from authorisations and accounts for 1398, 1402 and 1403, to show the extent to which the Order departed from his custom at New Year) Glossary z.40 - 24-3 5 Pages Appendices Analysis of Appendices ~'2.4S Rl. Recipients: Biographical Notes Rl-1 to Rl -60 R2. Recipients: Hierarchy 3 6 4 - 3 6 8 R 3 . Recipients: Gifts of Material Objects - Precious (excluding 1403) R4 . Recipients: Gifts of Material Objects - 3 2 0 - 3 8 1 Other (excluding 1403) R 5 . Recipients: Financial Gifts and Rewards 3 8 8 - 4 ® 8 (excluding 1403) R 6 . Recipients: Material Gifts and 4 o e j - 4 / 6 Financial Rewards 1403 R 7 . Recipients: Chivalry 4 - C t - 4 f l X R8. Recipients: Livery 423 -4^-7 R 9 . Recipients: Loyalty 4 3 2 - 4 3 4 RIO. Recipients: Activities 1402-4 4 3 5 ' 4 3 4 Rl 1. Recipients: Military Worth 4 5 ( Bibliography 4 5 2 . - 4 7 1 BURGUNDY AND SURROUNDING TERRITORIES1 1. This map is taken from Mackay,A. and Ditchburn, D. , Atlas of Medieval Europe, p.163, with additions. Although for a later period, it serves to show the relative location of the main areas mentioned in the thesis 7. INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE OF STUDY This thesis is designed to explore, against the pattern of his giving of material objects more generally, the purposes and policy objectives underlying the gift of a particularly elaborate clasp, today called the Order of the Golden Tree, by Duke Philip the Bold, to sixty men on January 1 1403. The purpose of this is to illuminate Philip's role in Burgundian and French history. Historians differ as to the precise nature and significance of that role, but generally agree that, as the first of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, and as an influential French prince, Philip was a major figure in the history of both. He had succeeded to the Duchy of Burgundy after the death of its last Capetian Duke and, by the date of the Order, had held that duchy for fo,j:ty years; had, in addition, been Count of Flanders, Artois, Nevers, Rethel and the Franche-Comt6 for nearly twenty years; held a number of other significant lordships; was effectively co-ruler of the Duchy of Brabant, the succession to which he was negotiating for his second son; and had arranged profitable marriages for his children, designed to increase and consolidate the family's landholdings. These territories not only represented a substantial dynastic ^ower base but, stretching in a broken arc from the^rest coast around the northern and eastern boundaries of France, were strategically important in protecting the latter from attack from neighbouring states. As the son, brother and, by 1403, uncle of successive Valois kings and doyen of its peers, he held a pre-eminent position within France. His territorial strength was bolstered by his wealth. In addition to the significant revenues acquired through his marriage in 1369 to Margaret, only legitimate child of the then Count of Flanders, and the richest heiress in western Europe, he used his position in France to secure substantial sums from the Crown. Unlike some of his relatives, this pre­ eminent social and financial position was matched by his abilities. As a teenager, he had acquired an early reputation for outstanding valour and loyalty, defending his father on the battlefield, and as he grew older, reinforced this by developing one for reliable, considered, and even disinterested support of the Crown as a policy maker, administrator and military leader. Maintaining this pre-eminence had, however, required a constant vigilance and effort which underlay all his policies. The need for positive action was particularly evident by the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries. In France, from 1392 onwards, the repeated periods of incapacity suffered by his nephew, King Charles VI, while providing opportunities for Philip to increase his power and influence as a senior member of the Council which governed France during the king's so- called 'absences', also faced him with growing opposition from the king's younger brother, the Duke of Orleans. Orleans' ambitions represented a particularly serious threat to Philip's control in France, but also affected his plans for the expansion of his own territories. At the same period, he needed to settle the eventual distribution of those territories between, and smooth transition to, his three sons after his and his wife's deaths, to avoid any arguments that might weaken or reduce his dynasty's hold and make it vulnerable to attack. Philip must have been concerned that this partition would inevitably leave his eldest son John, his successor as Duke of Burgundy, in a comparatively weak position, particularly within France. Not only would John's personal territorial holding be smaller than his father's, but he would lack the latter's closeness to the French crown, his seniority, his reputation and experience, and would thus (even with his brothers' support) be less able effectively to limit his cousin Orleans' ambitions to increase his personal landholdings at the expense of Burgundy and to secure overall control in France.