Political Culture In The Early Northern Renaissance: The Court Of Charles The Bold, Duke Of Burgundy (1467-1477) (Renaissance Studies)

Numerous studies have demonstrated the tremendous and varied influences exercised by the court of the Valois dukes of Burgundy upon Tudor England and the Hapsburg Empire. The Burgundian agglomeration of territories in the Low Countries inherited by the Hapsburgs was in fact the key to that dynasty's rise to power and the foremost source of its wealth. In itself the achievement of Valois Burgundy was enormous, particularly in political and cultural terms. But of the four Valois dukes, only the final one, Charles the Bold can be seen as truly having set out to create an independent state. Justice, order, sovereignty, and the display of magnificence were the essential features of Burgundian political culture. The court of Charles the Bold reveals the widely varying manifestations of these unifying ideals within a context of state formation. This monograph examines the culture of the first great Northern court of the early modern era, within the context of Charles's attempt to create a sovereign polity uniting both his French and Imperial fiefs.