Burgundian Netherlands

Belgium, 1384–1482. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Burgundian Netherlands were parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by the House of Valois-Burgundy between 1384 and 1482. The Valois Dukes of Burgundy gradually acquired and united those lowlands into a political union that went beyond a personal union establishing central institutions for the first time (such as the States General). The period began with Duke Philip the Bold taking office as count and lord of Antwerp, Artois, Flanders, Mechelen, and Rethel in 1384, and lasted until the death of Duchess Mary of Burgundy in 1482. The Valois era would last until 1477, when Duke Charles the Bold died at the Battle of Nancy leaving no male heir.

Seat of power: Brussels

Rulers

Culture

• Philip was a great patron of illuminated manuscripts and court painting reached new highs: Robert Campin, the Van Eyck brothers, and Rogier van der Weyden.
• The Ghent Altarpiece was begun around the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and it is attributed to the Early Netherlandish painters and brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck.
• From 1441, Philip based his ducal court in Brussels, but Bruges was the world center of commerce, though by the 1480s the inevitable silting of its harbor was bringing its economic hegemony to a close.
• An increasingly modernized central government, with a bureaucracy of clerks, allowed the dukes to become celebrated art patrons and establish a glamorous court life that gave rise to conventions of behavior that lasted for centuries.

Picture

The Ghent Altarpiece is a very large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium.

Image: Jan van Eyck / Presumably Hubert van Eyck, Public domain, file

Sources

• Burgundian Netherlands (Wikipedia)
• Burgundian Netherlands (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.