Court of Burgundy

When Holland and Zeeland were integrated in the Burgundian personal union, the court of the count disappeared in these counties . Instead. a regional administrative machinery was set up. in which the govemor,later called stadholder; was the most important officer.In the first years of Burgundian rule in Holland and Zeeland, the office of stadholder took shape. The office was based on predecessors in both the two counties as well as being modelled after French-Burgundian examples. In Holland and Zeeland the office developed out of a situation of crisis and war and found its final form after an unsuccessful experiment with a non-noble president. The stadholder replaced the count of Holland, that is the Burgundian duke, in allrespects. He was his lieutenant general and the subjects of Holland and
Zeeland regarded him as such. With the court at a distance, the stadholder was the most important link between the duke and his counties . He spoke the language of both the duke and his subjects in Holland and Zeeland. Moreover, he was a trustee of the duke and an expert in matters of justice, war and diplomacy. But he was not only formally the most important link between the regional and the supra-regional administrative level. Through
relationships based on patronage and kinship, nearly all stadholders had strong ties with one or more persons at the court . Fundamentally, the regional administration, and especially the stadholder, was the link between the duke and his subjects. They were the perfect mediators between the Burgundian dukes with their ambitious plans on the one hand and the towns that wanted to keep their independence and privileges without paying too many subsidies, on the other. In a sense they were brokers who could provide their clients access to the patron (the duke). Through their formal and informal relations, they connected the central powers with regional and local interest groups.

Serving the state. The regional officers of Holland and Zeeland in the Burgundian period (1425-1482).

This is a summary of my phd-thesis, a prosopographical study into the officers of the Council and Chambre des Comptes of Holland and Zeeland in the Burgundian period (1425-1482)

In de jaren 1425-1433 kreeg de Bourgondische hertog Filips de Goede via een diplomatiek en militair offensief de graafschappen Holland en Zeeland in handen. In dit boek beschrijf ik op welke manier de ambtenaren van de hoogste bestuurlijk-juridische en financiële instellingen van Holland en Zeeland, de Raad en de Rekenkamer, hebben bijgedragen aan de integratie van deze gewesten in de Bourgondische personele unie. In het eerste deel wordt onderzocht welke institutionele vernieuwingen het gewestelijk staatsapparaat onderging in de vijftiende eeuw en passeren alle ambtenaren de revue. In het tweede deel bekijk ik welke strategie de vorst volgde bij de recrutering van zijn ambtenaren en met welke middelen hij trachtte hun dienstbaarheid en loyaliteit te bevorderen. De intermediaire positie van de ambtenaren - ingeklemd tussen de belangen van de hertog en die van de onderdanen - is het onderwerp van het derde deel. In een bijlage zijn biografische notities van 170 ambtenaren opgenomen met gegevens over hun herkomst, familie, carrière en netwerk.

This article aims to analyse how the Burgundian dukes managed to control the political process in Holland and Zeeland and get a grip on the noble elites of the counties in the period 1425-1477. During the fourteenth and fifteenth century, noble networks in Holland competed continuously for princely favours and official positions. In the Burgundian period, from 1425 onwards, some fundamental changes in this competition took place. In the Bavarian period princes normally favoured especially one of the competing networks. Moreover, the ruler was nearby and could be approached relatively easily. The Burgundian duke, however, hardly ever visited his northernmost territories. The rivalling noble networks were not integrated into the central institutions but were given material compensations and influence at a regional level in exchange for allegiance. Subsequently, in Holland and Zeeland the Burgundian court did not have a stabilising and integrating function.

A critical and performance edition of Alexander Agricola's chanson "De tous biens plaine" for three voices. The cantus firmus of the tenor is extracted from Hayne Van Ghizeghem's (c. 1445 – 1476 to 1497) eponymous chanson.

The text of the first verse is underlaid in this edition, though only the first few words actually appear in the manuscript. The complete text as found in a number of Ghizeghem's sources with a complete translation is given at the end.

It seems unlikely that the outer voices should be sung, given their continual motion, frequent awkward leaps, and extreme ambitus.  However, the inner voice certainly could be sung.

A non-barred critical transcription of Alexander Agricola's motet-chanson "Belles sur toutes - Tota pulchra es" from Florence, Bibliotea del Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini,  MS 2439 ff. 63v-64r.

For a recording of the music with a score-video see link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2N_Ru9xjuA

Whereas tournaments of the late thirteenth century were infused with cross-channel contact, whether in reciprocity of form or in the international composition of the participants involved, by the early fifteenth century, tournament forms in England and the Netherlands had significantly diverged. As has been thoroughly explored by recent historians, English tournaments became increasingly socially exclusive, whilst retaining an international dimension in the interests of diplomacy. However, this essay demonstrates that this development was by no means typical of all late medieval tournaments. The case of the Low Countries demonstrates that the more socially inclusive style tournaments did continue into the fifteenth century, and provided an opportunity for the ducal household and noblemen to come into contact with patrician townspeople and even more diverse urban audiences.

A non-barred critical transcription of Alexander Agricola's contrafacta motet, "Virgo sub ethereis" (Source: Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, MS 40021 ff. 131v-132r) as derived from his "Comme femme desconfortée".

For a video of the score with a performance recording see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_nnTzNXeUY

This article explores the significance of writing history for a late medieval Antwerp patrician family. In recent historiography, these families (in this case Van Halmale)  have not received the attention they deserve, in part because their social status is difficult to pin down. Although members of the family Van Halmale had knightly titles and performed deeds of arms on the battlefield and during tournaments, their noble status was not undisputed. Both a chronicle and a tournament diary written by different members of the Van Halmale family reflect the aspirations of a dominant social category in the late medieval towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Holland. Their writings reflect how these men perceived themselves and how they wanted their contemporaries and peers to perceive them. In that sense the writing of history was indeed a means for nobles (and would-be-nobles) to justify (or to claim) their privileged position. Their works helped them to express their identity as powerful aldermen, firmly rooted in an urban environment but with open minds for the world of princes and (inter)national politics.

The Burgundian duke Charles the Bold (1433-1477) was not particularly well known for his liberality. According to De Barante, the nineteenth century historian of the Burgundian dukes, he was seen by his officers and the nobles as ‘bien avare et peu liberal pour un prince si jeune et si nouveau’. One of this article’s purposes is to investigate this claim, but my larger concern is to make sense of the patterns of gift-giving evidenced by the available sources. Although we do not have complete records of all Charles’s gift giving, the account of the highest financial officer, the argentier, combined with the household ordinances and a few narrative sources, provide a good overview of the importance and nature of gift-giving in Charles’s court. These texts reveal a charged and unstable culture of gift-giving, one in which the category of ‘gift’ itself is in some disarray and where bureaucratic pressures both distort the gift and ntensify Charles’s need to deploy gifts in order to secure his power.

From 4 to 7 May 1439 a massive tournament (235 participants) was organized at the Grote Markt in Brussels, in which the Burgundian duke Philip the Good himself participated. This tournament was maybe one of the last in the massive (urban) melee-style in the fifteenth century. This article demonstrates that both the town and the duke had an interest in the organization of this tournament. The duke and his household officers were happy to exhibit the splendor of the court to the citizens of Brussels, the nobility of Brabant and the international community. The town considered the tournament as a stimulus for the local economy. At the same time the chivalric event would position Brussels as an attractive residence for the Burgundian duke.

A performance and critical edition of Agricola's two voiced polyphonic setting of "Gaudeamus omnes", Introit for the Feast of the Assumption. For two different recordings and video-scores of the piece see the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnRmQ-B2Zc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxK8zd2hLEM

Only the incipit "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" appears with Agricola's music. The Introit text set to the chant cantus firmus used in this transcription is the text for the Introit for the Feast of the Assumption (also Gaudeamus omnes in domino).

Furthermore, Agricola only set down as semibreves each of the first 38 notes of the "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" chant. This transcription, following the example of Edward Learner's edition, reconstructs the remaining tenor notes. This edition differs from Learner's in that it uses the Introit chant for Assumption from Cambrai, Bibliotheque Municipale [F-CA], MS B-12, fol. 49r-v (c. 1500), rather than a British version from the Sarum rite.

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Gaudeamus omnes in domino,
diem festum celebrantes sub honore Mariae Virginis:
de cujus assumptione gaudent angeli,
et collaudant filium dei.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord
celebrating this day the feast in honor of the Virgin Mary,
in whose solemnity the angels rejoice,
and praising the Son of God.

This paper analyses two late sixteenth-century armorials with the coats of arms of the 235 participants of a tournament organized in May 1439 on the central market square, the Grote Markt, of Brussels. The armorials, trustworthy copies of a now lost original, record the performance of an exclusive social category in public space, and express in a distinctive visual way the internal hierarchy of the tourneying society: team leaders, leaders of large companies, leaders of of small companies, and 'ordinary' participants. The heraldic elements that were essential to this hierarchic arrangement - banners, pennons, shields – were actually used during the tournament, as well as the depicted helmets and crests.
It goes without saying that these occasional rolls were important for the nobility of the Low Countries, both at the time of the tournament and at the time of their creation in the last decades of the sixteenth century. Inclusion of their coats of arms in the armorials ensured the participants of a place in the collective memory. The compilers of the armorials played an essential role in defining the nobility as a social category since participating in a tournament meant that you lived nobly and that your peers considered you as a nobleman. The two copies of the original armorial in the last decades of the sixteenth century reproduced the social classification within the nobility in the second quarter of the fifteenth century. It shows that the same mechanisms of social distinction still played a role at that time.

This article treats the first entry of a new prince as the start of a series of exchanges between the prince and his subjects. On the occasion of an entry, gifts in all kind of forms, subsistence, luxury and symbolic goods, were exchanged with the intention of establishing a bond between the new ruler and the subjects. These gifts were not standardized in the Burgundian Low Countries. There was a wide range of gifts, from wine to silverware and from money to horses. Some gifts can be linked to the princely right of lodging in places he passed on his itinerary, whereas others refer to marks of honour offered by the host. However, not all gifts were given spontaneously, but were the result of a negotiating process between the town and the prince’s officials on the one hand and between the different towns of a principality on the other. Those officials benefited as well from entry gifts that trickled down to lower levels in the official hierarchy. Therefore, the gifts can be considered as personalized items in a bigger process of exchange and as a confirmation of the outcome of political negotiations.

A study and critical edition of Agricola's two voiced polyphonic setting of "Gaudeamus omnes", Introit for the Feast of the Assumption. This is intended for teaching various 14th and 15th century mensuration signs and their modern translations and persisting problems.

For two recordings and video-scores of the piece see the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnRmQ-B2Zc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxK8zd2hLEM

Only the incipit "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" appears with Agricola's music. The Introit text set to the chant cantus firmus used in this transcription is the text for the Introit for the Feast of the Assumption (also Gaudeamus omnes in domino).

Furthermore, Agricola only set down as semibreves each of the first 38 notes of the "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" chant. This transcription, following the example of Edward Learner's edition, reconstructs the remaining tenor notes. This edition differs from Learner's in that it uses the Introit chant for Assumption from Cambrai, Bibliotheque Municipale [F-CA], MS B-12, fol. 49r-v (c. 1500), rather than a British version from the Sarum rite.

______________________________

Gaudeamus omnes in domino,
diem festum celebrantes sub honore Mariae Virginis:
de cujus assumptione gaudent angeli,
et collaudant filium dei.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord
celebrating this day the feast in honor of the Virgin Mary,
in whose solemnity the angels rejoice,
and praising the Son of God.

O presente trabalho trata dos usos públicos da técnica romano-canônica do mandato no ducado da Borgonha durante o século XIII e princípios do século XIV. O artigo tem como objetivo mostrar a centralidade desta técnica na prática de delegação de faculdades e de representação, ambas essenciais para o exercício do governo laico no Ocidente Medieval. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Procuração. Delegação de Poderes. Mandato. Ducado da Borgonha. Governo Capeto.

RESUMEN: El presente trabajo trata sobre los usos públicos dados a la técnica romano-canónica del mandato en el ducado de Borgoña durante el siglo XIII y principios del XIV. El artículo tiene como objetivo mostrar la centralidad de esta técnica en las prácticas de delegación de facultades y de representación, esenciales para el ejercicio del gobierno laico en el Occidente medieval. PALABRAS-LLAVES: Procuración. Delegación de Poderes. Mandato. Ducado de Borgoña. Gobierno capeto.

ABSTRACT: This paper addresses the public uses of the roman-canonical legal technique known as mandatum, as it was effected in the duchy of Burgundy during the 13th and early 14th centuries. The main objective is to show how important this technique was for the delegation of powers and for political and judicial representation, both of which are essential to lay governance in the medieval West.

In this article I give a comprehensive view of the relationship between Margaret of York (1446-1503), the wife of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold, and Voorne, from 1477 onwards her dower lands in the south of the county of Holland. I will concentrate on three different aspects of this relationship. First, I will demonstrate the economic importance of the isle for the duchess. At the same time I will show the interests of the inhabitants of Voorne and explain how they benefited from the patronage of their new lady. Finally, I will treat Margaret’s charitable and devotional works on the isle. I will demonstrate how these fit into a pious tradition of the lords of Voorne on the one hand and into the devotional practises of Margaret and other members of the Burgundian-Habsburg dynasty on the other.

A transcription of Alexander Agricola's office hymn to the Virgin Mary, "Ave maris stella." Note the canonic inner tenor voices. This is one of Agricola's unicum.

For a recording and score video see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hE0rMPcBvo

This volume was born from a desire to leave a tangible trace of the scholarly encounters that have taken place in the past two years at the Center for Early Medieval Studies of the Department of Art History at Masaryk University in Brno. Speaking in various forums Xavier Barral i Altet, Nicolas Bock, Valentina Cantone, Herbert Kessler, Serena Romano and Elisabetta Scirocco have sparked exciting discussions of what continues to be known as a Middle Age.
The common denominator that unites all of the scholarly work presented was the dialogue between the medieval “present” and the antique world: from Venice to Campania to Milan, from Constantinople to Burgundy, there emerged an intellectual and visual experience that suggests the medieval period was a uniquely fertile moment for engagement with the heritage of antiquity, filtered and mediated in different ways, but ever present.
The purpose of this volume is to understand why and how patterns, images and ideas from the mythical (but visible) ancient past were received throughout the medieval millennium. We seek, that is, to understand why, hic et nunc, clients and workshops deliberately chose to speak in a “classicizing” aesthetic language, or to appropriate concepts belonging to the antique tradition wholesale.

This motet is the second "Salve Regina" motet composed by Alexander Agricola.
For a recording and score-video of Salve Regina II see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoQLA3BXvQs

For a transcription of his first Salve Regina see here:
https://www.academia.edu/21795600/Alexander_Agricola_Salve_Regina_I_Brussels_Bibliotheque_Royale_MS_9126_fol._138v-143r_
For a recording and score-video of Salve Regina I see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3B-j3fUbqc

"Salve Regina II" is not only based off the classical "Salve Regina" (solemn tone) chant. The tenor of this piece is derived from Walter Frye's (d. 1474?) Marian motet, "Ave Regina".

For information and a video-score on Frye's motet see the link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH43f-yd9oA
For a transcription see here:
https://www.academia.edu/31933857/Walter_Frye_-_Ave_Regina_tenor_for_Agricola_Salve_Regina_II_-_Full_Score.pdf

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Ave Regina (Latin text):

Ave Regina coelorum mater Regis angelorum.
O Maria flos virginum velut rosa, velut lilium.
Funde preces ad filium pro salute fidelium.
O Maria flos virginum velut rosa, velut lilium.


Hail Queen (English translation):

Hail, Queen of heaven, Mother of the King of angels.
O Mary, flower of virgins, like the rose, like the lily.
Pour out prayers to the Son for the salvation of the faithful.
O Mary, flower of virgins, like the rose, like the lily.

________________________


Salve Regina (Latin text):

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.


Hail, holy Queen (English translation):

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To you do we cry,
Poor banished children of Eve;
To you do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
Your eyes of mercy toward us;
And after this our exile,
Show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.

This article discusses the material and spatial features of the tournaments on the Grote Markt, the central market square in Brussels, in the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century. It investigates how the tournament acquired meaning in the urban space where it was organized, and how the chivalric event in its turn altered that urban space. These Brussels tournaments, for which both archival, iconographical and narrative sources are available, show us the dynamics of an inherently courtly festival within an urban setting. Recent historiography has stressed that these tournaments, just like other urban festivals, for example joyous entries, demonstrate the submission of the town to the ruler. Indeed, the prince and his household used the public space of the GroteMarkt and the facilities of the town hall to organize tournaments and festivities. However, they could not do this on their own. They needed the town government for the organization and logistics of the tournament and for its hospitality. Moreover, the town managed to put its own stamp on the architecture, both permanent and ephemeral, emphasizing the responsibilities that the duke had towards his town, as well as the long tradition of subservience and loyalty of the town to the duke.

Perhaps Walter Frye's most famous piece, "Ave Regina" was a significant work during the early Renaissance. Its idiomatic english style (called Contenance Angloise) helped ignite the transition to tertian polyphony in Burgundy during the first half of the 15th century.

Frye's "Ave Regina" appears in 13 difference sources, (only one of which is English), demonstrating its staggering popularity on the continent. Surpassing his two other widely popular shorter works, "Tout a par moy and "So ys emprentid", Ave regina also appears with notation in three paintings from the period. Frye's "Ave Regina" is quoted by musical theorists and rearranged and plagiarized by later composers. Its tenor was borrowed by Obrecht for a motet and mass of the same title; Alexander Agricola in turn borrowed Obrecht’s borrowed tenor as the basis for his Salve Regina II.

It is in ballade form and may have originated with an English text. Whatever its original form however, Frye’s "Ave regina" played an important part in establishing the taste for the song-motet in Burgundy during the 15th century.

For a recording and score-video of Frye's "Ave Regina" see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH43f-yd9oA
____________________

Ave Regina (Latin text):
Ave Regina coelorum mater Regis angelorum.
O Maria flos virginum velut rosa, velut lilium.
Funde preces ad filium pro salute fidelium.
O Maria flos virginum velut rosa, velut lilium.

Hail Queen (English translation)
Hail, Queen of heaven, Mother of the King of angels.
O Mary, flower of virgins, like the rose, like the lily.
Pour out prayers to the Son for the salvation of the faithful.
O Mary, flower of virgins, like the rose, like the lily.

In this article (in French) I compare two "favoris du prince", two high-ranking courtiers, and their conflictual relationships with the prince's heir. They are Jean d' Arkel, in the years 1400, a favourite of the count of Holland, Albert of Bavaria, and Antoine de Croy, lord chamberlain and favourite of the duke of Burgundy, Philippe le Bon. The idea is to analyze the different phases of the conflict (mobilization of suppurt, peace violation, reconciliation and return to peace) along the lines of an anthropological model. The two favourites, because of their important land possessions, their matrimonial alliances and their political activity, ranked far higher than all the other noblemen. Through their formal and informal networks they tried to control the structures of the State and part of its revenues. This is the reason why they were considered by the heirs as a danger for the dynasties and territorial unity. In both cases, the heirs built themselves a clientage of their own made up of newcomers or of people who had been excluded fium power. The heirs, who benefited fr'om more political, ideological and financial resources than the favourites, eventually won. They still needed all the same the support of the favourites, or at least the support of their landed possessions as they bordered other entities.

Pierre Cockshaw (1938-2008), a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium (Class of Letters), was a romanist and a historian who specialized in the Duchy of Burgundy both as a numismatist and a codicologist. Along with a full bibliography of his writings (including 84 papers), one gives the main turns of his rich career entirely spent at the Royal Libray of Belgium (starting at the Coin Cabinet [1967-1972] before to join the cabinet of the manuscripts [1972-1986] and to become later chief curator [1992-2002]). He teached different matters at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and was president of the Société royale de Numismatique de Belgique.

Die mit dieser Publikation erstmals in Text und Bild vorgestellte Tafelwäsche des Ordens vom Goldenen Vlies ist in ihrer Bedeutung für die textilhistorische Forschung kaum zu überschätzen. Es handelt sich dabei um die frühesten dokumentierten Leinendamaste, die erhalten sind. Schriftquellen belegen die Herstellung der Tafelwäsche im Auftrag von Kaiser Karl V. durch den Weber Jacob van Hoochboosch in Mecheln in den 1520er Jahren. Die Tischtücher und Servietten sind von aussergewöhnlich hoher Qualität und bisher nie gesehenen Dimensionen. Der Autor schildert die Geschichte der Tafelwäsche von ihrer Entstehungszeit bis zur ihrer jüngsten Wiederentdeckung in Wien.

Rezensionen:
• Kunstchronik 71/9–10 (2018), p. 537 (Redaktion; „Buch des Monats“).
• Francia recensio 2019/2 (Jacques Paviot).
• Frühneuzeit-Info 31 (2020), pp. 182–184 (Dagmar Eichberger).
• Renaissance Quarterly 73/3 (2020), pp. 1025–1026 (Sara van Dijk).
• Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 128/2 (2020), pp. 506–508 (Stefan Seitschek).