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104-397: It is the most significant, and almost the only, survival from the first decades of the great period of tapestry, when the industry developed large workshops and represented the most effective art form for exhibiting the magnificence of royal patrons, not least because large tapestries were hugely expensive. The period began in about 1350, and lasted until at least the 17th century, as tapestry

208-490: A tournament . The most famous and earliest of the many manuscript copies is kept in the French National Library . This is—unusually for a deluxe manuscript—on paper and painted in watercolor . It may represent drawings by Barthélemy d'Eyck , intended as preparatory only, which were later illuminated by him or another artist. There are twenty-six full and double page miniatures. The description given in

312-407: A horse in 1346; Countess Joan III followed him to the grave a year later, and the death of Odo IV in 1349 left the survival of the duchy dependent upon the survival of the young duke, a young child of two-and-a-half, and the last of the direct line of descent from Duke Robert I. By inheritance, Philip of Rouvres was Duke of Burgundy from 1349. He had already been Count of Burgundy and Artois since

416-621: A king is satirised. He pretends to be the Dauphin to deceive Joan of Arc, but she sees through him. She later claims to be pregnant with his child. René's honeymoon, devoted with his bride to the arts, is imagined in Walter Scott 's novel Anne of Geierstein (1829). The imaginary scene of his honeymoon was later depicted by the Pre-Raphaelite painters Ford Madox Brown , Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti . In 1845

520-629: A legal issue, the King of Navarre would certainly have had as good a chance of inheritance as the King of France, and perhaps better: proximity of blood was beginning to lose force in Europe, and, as events would subsequently prove, Burgundy had no intention of being absorbed into the French royal domain. But there was more in play than a simple legal issue: the Hundred Years' War was in full flow, and

624-577: A less active part in public affairs, devoting himself to composing poetry and painting miniatures, gardening and raising animals. The fortunes of his house declined in his old age: in 1466, the rebellious Catalans offered the crown of Aragon to René. His son John, unsuccessful in Italy, was sent to take up the conquest of that kingdom but died —apparently by poison— at Barcelona on 16 December 1470. John's eldest son Nicholas perished in 1473, also under suspicion of poisoning. In 1471, René's daughter Margaret

728-526: A new gallery designed by French architect Bernard Vitry. Between 1990 and 2000 the castle gallery was itself improved, with additional light and ventilation controls installed to protect the tapestry. The tapestry was made in six sections, each 78-foot (24 m) wide by 20-foot (6.1 m) high, comprising 90 different scenes. Each scene had a red or blue background, alternating between the sections. They would have taken considerable effort to produce, with between 50 and 84 person-years of effort required by

832-671: A patron, René commissioned translations and retranslations of classical works into French prose. These include Strabo , which Guarino da Verona completed in 1458; and Ovid 's Metamorphoses by an unknown translator, completed in 1467. Rene also kept a theater troupe at his court, led by a jester and playwright Triboulet . The duke rewarded Triboulet generously for his talents. René married: His legitimate children by Isabelle were: He also had three illegitimate children: He appears as "Reignier" in William Shakespeare 's play Henry VI, part 1 . His alleged poverty for

936-620: A purely geographical term, referring only to the area of the counties of the former Burgundy. Both the Duchy of Burgundy and the County of Burgundy emerged from these counties, aided by the collapse of Carolingian centralism and the division of the Frankish domains brought about by the Partition of Verdun in 843. In the midst of this confusion, Guerin of Provence attached himself to Charles

1040-561: A school of the fine arts in sculpture, painting, goldsmith's work and tapestry. He employed Barthélemy d'Eyck as both painter and varlet de chambre for most of his career. Two of the most famous works formerly attributed to René are the triptych of the Burning Bush of Nicolas Froment of Avignon in Aix Cathedral , showing portraits of René and his second wife, Jeanne de Laval , and two illuminated Book of Hours in

1144-561: A six-month siege to Naples. René returned to France in the same year, and though he retained the title of king of Naples his effective rule was never recovered. Later efforts to recover his rights in Italy failed. His mother Yolande, who had governed Anjou in his absence, died in 1442. René took part in the negotiations with the English at Tours in 1444, and peace was consolidated by the marriage of his younger daughter, Margaret , with Henry VI of England at Nancy . René now made over

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1248-592: Is known in France as the Good King René ( Occitan : Rei Rainièr lo Bòn ; French : Le bon roi René ). René was a member of the House of Valois-Anjou , a cadet branch of the French royal house, and the great-grandson of John II of France . He was a prince of the blood , and for most of his adult life also the brother-in-law of the reigning king Charles VII of France . Other than the aforementioned titles, he

1352-429: Is lost, the extant manuscripts include copies of his miniatures by Jean le Tavernier, Jean Colombe, and others. René is sometimes credited with the pastoral poem "Regnault and Jeanneton", but this was more likely a gift to the king honoring his marriage to Jeanne de Laval. King René's Tournament Book ( Le Livre des tournois or Traicte de la Forme de Devis d'un Tournoi ; c.  1460 ) describes rules of

1456-447: Is simply untrue; the duchy had been granted to the heirs of Robert I, and were it not for the manner in which the descendants of Duke Robert II married and the circumstances under which Philip of Rouvres died, John II, who made his claim to the duchy as the son of Joan of Burgundy and the grandson of Robert II, rather than as the feudal overlord of all France, would never have inherited it. The claim, however, that upon his inheritance of

1560-629: The Ordre du Croissant , which preceded the royal foundation of St Michael but did not survive René. The King of Sicily's fame as an amateur painter formerly led to the optimistic attribution to him of many paintings in Anjou and Provence, in many cases simply because they bore his arms. These works are generally in the Early Netherlandish style, and were probably executed under his patronage and direction, so that he may be said to have formed

1664-700: The Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library . Among the men of letters attached to his court was Antoine de la Sale , whom he made tutor to his son John. He encouraged the performance of mystery plays ; on the performance of a mystery of the Passion at Saumur in 1462 he remitted four years of taxes to the town, and the representations of the Passion at Angers were carried out under his auspices. He exchanged verses with his kinsman,

1768-667: The Bourbonnais – had failed; Odo IV's wife Joan , however, was sovereign Countess of Burgundy and Artois , and the marriage reunited the Burgundys again. They were not, however, reunited for long. The marriage of Duke Odo and Countess Joan in 1318 produced only one surviving child, Philip; he married another Joan, the heiress of Auvergne and Boulogne , but they again only produced a single surviving child, Philip I, Duke of Burgundy , also known as Philip of Rouvres. The elder Philip predeceased both of his parents in an accident with

1872-528: The Burgundian party, but he retained the right to bear the arms of Anjou. He was far from sympathizing with the Burgundians. Joining the French army at Reims in 1429, he was present at the consecration of Charles VII. When Louis of Bar died in 1430, René inherited the duchy of Bar . The next year, on his father-in-law's death, he succeeded to the duchy of Lorraine . The inheritance was contested by

1976-675: The Burgundian Netherlands . Upon further acquisitions of the County of Burgundy, Holland , and Luxemburg , the House of Valois-Burgundy came into possession of numerous French and imperial fiefs stretching from the western Alps to the North Sea, in some ways reminiscent of the Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia . The Burgundian State, in its own right, was one of the largest ducal territories that existed at

2080-601: The Capetians . As time passed, the state was built up and stabilised; a miniature court in imitation of the royal court at Paris grew around the dukes; the Jours Generaux, a replica of the Parlement of Paris sat at Beaune ; bailiffs were imposed over the provosts and lords of the manor responsible for local government, while the duchy was divided into five bailiwicks . The duchy became increasingly involved in

2184-665: The French Revolution the Apocalypse Tapestry was looted and cut up into pieces. The pieces of the tapestry were used for various purposes: as floor mats, to protect local orange trees from frost, to shore up holes in buildings, and to insulate horse stables. During the Revolution many medieval tapestries were destroyed, both through neglect and through being melted down to recover the gold and silver used in their designs. That did not apply in this case, as

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2288-577: The Holy Land , and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy died during the Crusade of 1101 . Under the competent leadership of Robert II (r. 1271–1306), one of the more notable dukes of the Capetian period, Burgundy reached new levels of political and economic prominence. Previously, the development of the duchy had been impeded by the bestowal of minor lands and titles on younger sons and daughters, diminishing

2392-597: The Normans , and served as a haven for persecuted monks. Under Rudolph of France (also Raoul or Ralph), the son of Richard, Burgundy was briefly catapulted to a position of prominence in France, since he became King of France in 923 after acceding to the Burgundian territories in 921. It was from his territories in Burgundy that he drew the resources needed to fight those who challenged his right to rule. Under Hugh

2496-641: The Reconquista in Spain at the end of the eleventh century, campaigning against Muslim taifas and forming marriage alliances with the Spanish royalty. Robert's daughter Constance married King Alfonso VI of León and Castile , and his grandson Henry married Theresa of León to found the Portuguese House of Burgundy . With the advent of First Crusade , the attention of Burgundian dukes shifted to

2600-498: The Treaty of Arras (1482) . Maximilian recognised the annexation of the Duchy and County of Burgundy and several other territories. France thus retained most of its Burgundian fiefdoms except for the affluent County of Flanders , which passed to Maximilian and Mary's descendants (but soon rebelled ). With the 1493 Treaty of Senlis , Maximilian regained for his and Mary's descendants the County of Burgundy , Artois and Charolais , but

2704-589: The 9th century as one of the successors of the ancient Kingdom of the Burgundians , which after its conquest in 532 had formed a constituent part of the Frankish Empire . Upon the 9th-century partitions, the French remnants of the Burgundian kingdom were reduced to a ducal rank by King Robert II of France in 1004. Robert II's son and heir, King Henry I of France , inherited the duchy but ceded it to his younger brother Robert in 1032. The other portions of

2808-616: The Apocalypse had first been recorded in Metz and then later adapted by English artists; Charles' manuscript had been produced in England around 1250. Louis may also have been influenced by a particularly grand tapestry given to Charles by the magistrates of Lille in 1367. After a century in the ownership of the dukes of Anjou, René of Anjou bequeathed the tapestry to Angers Cathedral in 1480 where it remained for many years. During

2912-765: The Bald , youngest son of King Louis the Pious of the Franks, and aided him in the Battle of Fontenay against Charles's eldest brother, the Emperor Lothar . When the Frankish kingdom in the west was divided along the boundary of the Saône and Meuse (dividing geographical Burgundy in the process), Guerin was rewarded for his services by the king by being granted the administration of the counties of Chalon and Nevers , in which he

3016-595: The Black (d. 952) came the beginning of what would be a long and troubled saga for Burgundy. His neighbours were the Robertian family, who held the title of Duke of Francia . This family, wanting to improve their standing in France and against the Carolingian kings, attempted to subject the duchy to the suzerainty of their own duchy. They failed; eventually, when they appeared close to success, they were forced to scrap

3120-473: The Bold , Duke of Burgundy . Their respective inventories reveal they owned several hundred tapestries between them. The Apocalypse Tapestry is almost the only clear survival from these collections, and the most famous tapestry from the 14th century. Its survival was helped by being given by a later Duke of Anjou in 1480 to Angers Cathedral , where it was kept until the French Revolution , during which it

3224-430: The Bold , was also his favourite most renowned. Philip had distinguished himself in 1356 at the Battle of Poitiers , when at the age of fourteen he bravely fought alongside his father to the bitter end. It occurred to him to both honour his son and soothe the ruffled feelings of the Burgundians by investing him as Duke of Burgundy. Accordingly, the king appointed Philip governor of Burgundy in late June 1363, following which

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3328-635: The Burgundians maintaining their own law code, the Loi Gombette . However, southern Burgundy was pillaged by the Saracen invasion of the 8th century. When Charles Martel drove the invaders out, he divided Burgundy into four commands: Arles-Burgundy, Vienne-Burgundy, Alamanic Burgundy and Frankish Burgundy. He appointed his brother Childebrand governor of Frankish Burgundy. Under the Carolingians , Burgundian separatism lessened and Burgundy became

3432-666: The Danish poet Henrik Hertz wrote the play King René's Daughter about René and his daughter Yolande de Bar ; this was later adapted into the opera Iolanta by Tchaikovsky. René and his Order of the Crescent were adopted as "historical founders" by the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in 1912, as exemplars of Christian chivalry and charity. Ceremonies of the Order of the Crescent were referenced in formulating ceremonies for

3536-597: The Duchy of Burgundy and Picardy were lost definitively to France. In 1526, Mary's grandson Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor was restored to the title and territory by the French King Francis I , under duress as part of the Treaty of Madrid . But Francis I repudiated the Treaty as soon as he was able, and Charles V never managed to secure control of the duchy. Further, with the abdication of Charles V as Holy Roman emperor, Henry II of France argued that since

3640-487: The Franco-Flemish school of tapestry design, with rich, realist, fluid images placed into a simple, clear structure through the course of the tapestry. As a result, the angels and monsters are depicted with considerable energy and colour, the impact reinforced by the sheer size of the tapestry, which allows them to be portrayed slightly larger than life-size. Various approaches are taken in the tapestry to interpreting

3744-617: The French crown. The endeavour failed; when Charles the Bold died in battle leaving no sons, Louis XI of France declared the duchy escheated and absorbed the territory into the French crown. Charles's daughter, Mary , inherited the rest of his domain and claimed the Duchy of Burgundy. Her heirs called themselves dukes of Burgundy, refusing to accept the loss of the duchy. The War of the Burgundian Succession took place from 1477 to 1482. Eventually, King Louis XI of France and Archduke Maximilian of Austria , Mary's widower, signed

3848-473: The Good of France. Richer promises were made to the young duke. He could expect to inherit Auvergne and Boulogne on his mother's death, and a marriage was arranged between himself and the young heiress of Flanders , Margaret of Dampierre , who could promise to bring Flanders and Brabant to her husband eventually. By 1361, aged 17, he appeared to be on track to continue the duchy's steady rise to greatness. It

3952-530: The King of Navarre, as an ally of England and an enemy of France, was distasteful to the Burgundians, who in meetings of the Estates during John II's English captivity had been consistently loyal to John and his son the Dauphin , and opposed to the King of Navarre. Furthermore, John II had the support of John of Boulogne and Margaret of France. The former was a staunch ally of the king, an alliance strengthened by

4056-550: The Kingdom of the Burgundians had passed to the Imperial Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles , including the County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté). Robert became the ancestor of the ducal House of Burgundy , a cadet branch of the royal Capet dynasty , ruling over a territory that roughly conformed to the borders and territories of the modern region of Burgundy (Bourgogne). Upon the extinction of the Burgundian male line with

4160-598: The Low Countries passed to Charles' daughter, Mary , and her Habsburg descendants. The Duchy of Burgundy was a successor of the earlier Kingdom of the Burgundians , which evolved out of territories ruled by the Burgundians , an East Germanic tribe that arrived in Gaul in the 5th century. The Burgundians settled in the area around Dijon , Chalon-sur-Saône , Mâcon , Autun and Châtillon-sur-Seine , and gave

4264-408: The Pious , King of France, and his stepson, Otto-William , count of Mâcon (kingdom of France) and count of Burgundy (kingdom of Burgundy), whom Henry had adopted. Robert claimed the duchy by his dual rights as feudal overlord and nearest blood-relative of the deceased. Otto-William disputed his claim as a potential heir, starting a war with the help of his son-in-law, Landry count of Nevers . Had

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4368-481: The Pious gave the territory to his younger son and namesake, Robert I, Duke of Burgundy . When King Henry I of France , acceding in difficult circumstances (1031), found it necessary to secure the loyalty of Robert, his brother, he further enhanced the rights given to his brother (1032). Robert was to be Duke of Burgundy; as ruler of the duchy, he would "enjoy the freehold thereof", and have the right "to pass it on to his heirs". Future dukes were to owe allegiance only to

4472-698: The allegorical language used by St John in his original text; in particular, the tapestry takes an unusual approach to portraying the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, Death . The depiction of Death in this tapestry follows the style then becoming popular in England: he is represented as a decaying corpse, rather than the more common 14th century portrayal of Death as a conventional, living person. 47°28′12″N 0°33′36″W  /  47.4700°N 0.5600°W  / 47.4700; -0.5600 Duchy of Burgundy The Duchy of Burgundy emerged in

4576-429: The anger of the Burgundian duke, Philip the Good , who required him early in the next year to return to his prison, from which he was released two years later on payment of a heavy ransom. At the death of his brother Louis III in 1435, he succeeded to the Duchy of Anjou and County of Maine. The marriage of Marie of Bourbon, niece of Philip of Burgundy, with John, Duke of Calabria , René's eldest son, cemented peace between

4680-480: The book is different from that of the pas d'armes held at Razilly and Saumur ; conspicuously absent are the allegorical and chivalresque ornamentations that were in vogue at the time. René instead emphasizes he is reporting on ancient tournament customs of France, Germany and the Low Countries, combining them in a new suggestion on how to hold a tournament. The tournament described is a melee fought by two sides. Individual jousts are only briefly mentioned. As

4784-514: The crown of France and be overlords of the duchy, beneath the ultimate authority of the kings of France. Robert gladly agreed to this arrangement, and the era of the Capetian dukes began. Robert found that it was largely a theoretical power that he had been granted. Between the reign of Richard the Justiciar and Henry the Venerable , the duchy had fallen into anarchy, a condition heightened by

4888-450: The customs of the territories, they were required to pass to the next in line to inherit in each respective territory. The counties of Auvergne and Boulogne – inherited by Philip upon his mother's death a year earlier – passed to the next heir, Jean de Boulogne, the brother of Philip's grandfather William XII of Auvergne. The counties of Burgundy and Artois passed to the sister of Philip's grandmother Countess Joan, Margaret of France, herself

4992-502: The death of Duke Philip I in 1361, the duchy reverted to King John II of France and the royal House of Valois . The Burgundian duchy was absorbed in a larger territorial complex after 1363, when King John II ceded the duchy to his younger son Philip . With his marriage with Countess Margaret III of Flanders , he laid the foundation for a Burgundian State which expanded further north in the Low Countries collectively known as

5096-456: The death of King John, King Charles V issued a letters patent to publicly establish the fact of Philip's title. Under the Valois dukes of Burgundy, the duchy flourished. A match between Philip the Bold and Margaret of Dampierre – the widow of Philip of Rouvres – not only reunited the duchy with the County of Burgundy once more, as well as with the County of Artois , but also served to bring

5200-513: The death of his grandmother, the Countess Joan of Burgundy and Artois, in 1347. In practice, though, the duke his grandfather had continued to rule over these counties as he had done since his marriage to Countess Joan, Philip of Rouvres being only a baby. With the old duke's death, the duchy and its associated territories were governed by the young duke's mother, Joan I , Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne, and by her second husband, King John

5304-485: The ducal fisc . Robert firmly ended this practice, stating in his will that he left to his eldest son and heir, Hugh , and after Hugh to his heir, "all the fiefs, former fiefs, seigneuries and revenue... belonging to the duchy". The younger children of Robert would receive only annuities; since these derived from property held by Hugh, these younger children would need to owe liege homage to ensure their income. Hugh V died in 1315; his brother Odo IV succeeded. Himself

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5408-410: The ducal demesne and the number of vassals dependent upon the dukes. They made an income for themselves by demanding cash payments in exchange for recognition of a lord's feudal rights within the duchy, by skillful management of loans from Jewish and Lombard bankers, by the careful administration of feudal dues and by the ready sale of immunities and justice. The duchy itself benefited from the rule of

5512-430: The duchy for the French crown by gaining control of all the Burgundian counties west of the Saône, including Dijon; prospects of a united Burgundy evaporated, and the duchy became irreversibly French in outlook. For a time, the duchy formed part of the royal domain ; but the French crown could not hope at this time to administer such a volatile territory. The realities of power combined with Capetian family feuding: Robert

5616-415: The duchy it was merged with the crown is more difficult to refute: for while this in itself certainly was not the case, he immediately attempted to merge the duchy into the crown by means of letters patent . He proclaimed in the relevant document that he was taking possession by virtue of his descent from the dukes and continued that as the duke, he immediately gave the duchy to the French crown, with which it

5720-416: The duke had stated that he directed and appointed as heirs to his "county, and to our possessions whatever they may be, those, male and female, who by law or local custom ought or may inherit". Since his domains all practiced succession by primogeniture, there was no question of his dominions passing en bloc to any one man or woman – they had come to Philip of Rouvres by different paths of inheritance, and so by

5824-408: The elder daughter, and the wife of Louis X of France, had died in 1315, leaving only a daughter, Joan II of Navarre. Joan of Burgundy, the younger daughter, and the wife of Philip VI of France, had died in 1348, leaving two sons, John II of France and Philip of Orléans. Out of these three, Joan of Burgundy's sons were still alive; Joan II, however, had died in 1349, leaving three sons, the eldest of whom

5928-399: The eldest son of his deceased eldest son Edward , rather than by his son John of Gaunt , the eldest of Edward III's sons still living. A case of proximity of blood was that of Artois in 1302, which had on the death of Count Robert II been inherited by Mahaut , his eldest living daughter, rather than by his grandson Robert , the eldest son of the count's already deceased son. In some cases,

6032-427: The estates of Burgundy – who had consistently opposed the previous governor, Tancarville – loyally granted him subsidies. Finally, in the final months of John the Good's reign, Philip the Bold was established as Duke of Burgundy. The king secretly created him duke on 6 September 1363 (in his dual role as duke giving his own title to his child and as king sanctioning this change in leadership) and, on 2 June 1364, following

6136-700: The fraternity. In conspiracy theories , such as the one promoted in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , René has been alleged to be the ninth Grand Master of the Priory of Sion . La Cheminée du roi René ( The Fireplace of King René ), op. 205, is a suite for wind quintet , composed in 1941 by Darius Milhaud . Chant du Roi René ( Song of King René ) is a piece for organ (or harmonium ) by Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) from his collection of Noels (Op.60) . The theme used throughout this piece

6240-572: The government of Lorraine to his son John, who was, however, only formally installed as Duke of Lorraine on the death of Queen Isabella in 1453. René had the confidence of Charles VII, and is said to have initiated the reduction of the men-at-arms set on foot by the king, with whose military operations against the English he was closely associated. He entered Rouen with him in November 1449. After his second marriage with Jeanne de Laval , daughter of Guy of Laval and Isabella of Brittany , René took

6344-436: The grandmother of Philip's young bride Margaret of Dampierre. The Duchy of Burgundy, however, proved a greater challenge to jurists. In the duchy, as in much of Europe at this time, two principles of inheritance were held valid: that of primogeniture and that of proximity of blood. A case of primogeniture was the succession of the English crown in 1377, which at the death of Edward III was inherited by his grandson Richard ,

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6448-509: The grandson of King Louis IX of France by his mother, Agnes of France , he would also be the brother-in-law of two French kings – Louis X , married to his sister Marguerite, and Philip VI , married to his sister Joan – and the son-in-law of a third, Philip V , whose daughter Joan III, Countess of Burgundy , he married. Previous attempts to gain territory through marriage – Hugh III and the Dauphiné , Odo III and Nivernais , Hugh IV and

6552-487: The guardianship of their mother. The elder son, Louis III , succeeded to the crown of Sicily and the Duchy of Anjou; René then became Count of Guise . In 1419, when René was only ten, he was legally married to Isabella , elder daughter of Charles II, Duke of Lorraine . René, then only ten, was to be brought up in Lorraine under the guardianship of Charles II and Louis, cardinal of Bar , both of whom were attached to

6656-528: The heir-male, Antoine de Vaudemont , who with Burgundian help defeated René at Bulgneville in July 1431. The Duchess Isabella effected a truce with Antoine, but the duke remained a prisoner of the Burgundians until April 1432, when he recovered his liberty on parole on yielding up as hostages his two sons, John and Louis . René's title as duke of Lorraine was confirmed by his suzerain , Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund , at Basel in 1434. This proceeding roused

6760-443: The homage of the Burgundian nobility before he returned to France, leaving the Count of Tancarville as his deputy, but the Burgundian estates had, in their meeting around the time of the homage-swearing of 28 December, firmly given several pronouncements. They declared that the duchy intended to remain a duchy, that it had no intention of becoming a province of the royal domain, that there would be no administrative changes, and that it

6864-477: The main family line of the House of Habsburg had ceased ruling the Holy Roman Empire or Austria , the claim of the title by the Spanish Habsburgs was null and void. The territory of Burgundy remained part of France from then onwards. The title was occasionally resurrected for French princes, for example the grandson of Louis XIV ( Louis, Duke of Burgundy ) and the grandson of Louis XV , the short-lived Louis Joseph . The current king of Spain, Felipe , claims

6968-574: The marriage between the king and Joan of Boulogne, John of Boulogne's niece. As the daughter of a former King of France and one of the last living members of the senior branch of the House of Capet, the latter was staunchly French in her sympathies; besides which, Charles II had offended her by laying claim to lands in Champagne that had formed part of her sister Joan of France's dowry in marrying Odo IV and which were deemed now to pass to Joan's sister. These lands had derived from Joan I of Navarre, Countess of Champagne , grandmother of Margaret and Joan, and as

7072-408: The name to the region. The Kingdom of the Burgundians was annexed by the Merovingian King of the Franks , Childebert I , in 534, following their defeat by the Franks. It was recreated, however, on several occasions when Frankish territories were redivided between the sons on the death of a Frankish king. As part of the Kingdom of the Franks , Burgundy maintained a semi-autonomous existence, with

7176-416: The nobility willingly swore homage to him as their new duke, and the duchy saw only a few isolated and half-hearted acts of rebellion in favour of Charles II. The legal implications of the accession of John the Good are frequently misunderstood. It is not uncommon to read that, upon the death of Philip of Rouvres, "the Duchy of Burgundy, lying within France, therefore escheated to the French crown." This claim

7280-578: The poet Charles of Orléans . René was also the author of two allegorical works: a devotional dialogue, Le Mortifiement de vaine plaisance ( The Mortification of Vain Pleasure, 1455), and a love quest, Le Livre du Cuer d'amours espris ( The Book of the Love-Smitten Heart, 1457). The latter fuses the conventions of Arthurian romance with an allegory of love based on the Romance of the Rose. Both works were exquisitely illustrated by his court painter, Barthélémy d'Eyck. Le Mortifiement survives in eight illuminated manuscripts. Although Barthélémy's original

7384-412: The scenes in the story included destruction and death, the account ended with the triumphant success of good, forming an uplifting story. Various versions of the Apocalypse story, or cycle, were circulating in Europe at the time and Louis chose to use an Anglo-French Gothic style of the cycle, partially derived from a manuscript he borrowed from his brother, Charles V of France , in 1373. This version of

7488-429: The scheme and instead maintain Burgundy as a separate duchy. Two brothers of Hugh Capet , the first Capetian King of France, took up the rule of Burgundy as duke. First Otto and then Henry the Venerable maintained the duchy's independence, but the death of the latter without children proved a defining moment in the history of the duchy. Henry the Venerable died in 1002 leaving two potential heirs: his nephew, Robert

7592-571: The senior heir by primogeniture of Joan I, Charles was now laying claim to them. With this triple compact between the three heirs, Charles II was shut out: the support of a co-heir carried weight in deciding inheritance, and John II had the support of both, while Charles II had the support of neither. The nobility of the duchy, in the face of this, decided in favour of John II, who took immediate possession. He had already mobilised soldiers in Nivernais to do so by force if it proved necessary, but in fact,

7696-513: The status of Louis's Valois dynasty , then involved in the Hundred Years' War with England. The tapestry shows the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation by Saint John the Divine. In the 14th century, the Apocalypse was a popular story, focusing on the heroic aspects of the last confrontation between good and evil and featuring battle scenes between angels and beasts. Although many of

7800-495: The tapestries were in wool only. The surviving fragments were rediscovered in 1848 and preserved, being returned to the cathedral in 1870. The cathedral was not ideal for displaying and preserving the tapestry. The neighbouring Château d'Angers had been used as a French military base for many years, but transferred to civilian use after the Second World War . In 1954, the tapestry was moved there, to be displayed in

7904-616: The task of restoring the ducal demesne and strengthening ducal power. In this, it would be seen, the dukes were well-suited to the task: none were remarkable or outstanding men who swept all opposition away before them; rather, they were persevering, methodical, realistic, able and willing to seize any opportunity presented to them. They used the Law of Escheat to their advantage: Auxois and Duesmois fell into ducal hands through reversion, these feudatories having no heir able to administer them. They purchased both land and vassalage, which built up both

8008-466: The time of the emergence of Early Modern Europe . After just over one hundred years of Valois-Burgundy rule, however, the last duke, Charles the Bold , rushed to the Burgundian Wars and was killed in the 1477 Battle of Nancy . The extinction of the dynasty led to the absorption of the duchy itself into the French crown lands by King Louis XI , while the bulk of the Burgundian possessions in

8112-637: The title "Duke of Burgundy", and his predecessor 's coat of arms included the cross of Burgundy as a supporter. The cross of Burgundy was the flag of the Spanish Empire at its height. Ren%C3%A9 of Anjou René of Anjou ( Italian : Renato ; Occitan : Rainièr ; 16 January 1409 – 10 July 1480) was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples from 1435 to 1442 (then deposed ). Having spent his last years in Aix-en-Provence , he

8216-603: The two Burgundys been united, history would undoubtedly have taken a different course; a Burgundy united under the German Otto-William would have been within the sphere of influence of the Holy Roman Empire and would have affected the balance of power between the French and the Germans. However, it was not to be; although it took him thirteen years of bitter and prolonged battle, Robert eventually secured

8320-537: The two duchies for a pension. The offer was rejected, but further negotiations assured the lapse to the crown of the duchy of Anjou and the annexation of Provence was only postponed until the death of the Count of Le Maine. René died on 10 July 1480 at Aix , but was buried in the Angers Cathedral , Angers. In the 19th century, historians bestowed on him the epithet "the good". He founded an order of chivalry,

8424-453: The two families. Joanna II , queen of Naples, had chosen Louis III as her presumptive heir and upon Louis' death offered it to René to inherit her kingdom after her death. After appointing a regency in Bar and Lorraine, he set sail for Naples in 1438. Naples, however, was also claimed by Alfonso V of Aragon , who had been first adopted and then repudiated by Joanna II. In 1441 Alfonso laid

8528-430: The two principles were able to mesh together: in the case of Boulogne and Auvergne, for example, John was the second son of Robert of Auvergne, Philip's great-grandfather, and the nearest ancestor to Philip to have surviving lines of descent following Philip's death. John was therefore both the most senior heir to Robert following Philip's death and also the closest to Robert by descent. In the same manner, Margaret of France

8632-538: The war of succession between Robert the Pious and Count Otto-William . The dukes had given away most of their lands to secure the loyalty of their vassals ; consequently, they lacked power in the duchy without the support and obedience of their vassals. In addition, the Abbot of Cluny claimed immunity from secular overlords, while the Bishop of Langres was a duke and peer of France . Robert and his heirs were faced with

8736-515: The wealthy counties of Flanders , Nevers and Rethel under the control of the dukes. By 1405, following the deaths of Philip and Margaret, and the inheritance of the duchy and most of their other possessions by their son John the Fearless , Burgundy stood less as a French fief and more as an independent state. As such, it was a major political player in European politics. The Burgundian State

8840-417: The weaving teams. Only 71 of the original 90 scenes survive. The tapestry is dominated by blue, red and ivory coloured threads, supported by orange and green colours, with gilt and silver woven into the wool and silk. These colours are now considerably faded on the front of the tapestry but were originally similar to the deep and vibrant hues seen on the back of the tapestry panels. Jean Bondol's design follows

8944-470: Was Charles II of Navarre . To the jurists of the duchy, these facts presented something of a difficult legal problem, for the two claims stood more or less equally in terms of justification: Charles II, as the great-grandson of Robert II by his elder daughter, had a superior claim to John II in terms of primogeniture; John II, as the grandson of Robert II by his younger daughter, had a superior claim to Charles II in terms of proximity of blood. Were it simply

9048-488: Was absorbed into the French crown. The latter proved to no avail. The Burgundians refused to countenance the terms of the letters patent. The king proved unequal to the task of enforcing his policy, which was far beyond his political capabilities. In the face of a non-violent but firm refusal by the Burgundians to allow the independence of their duchy to be threatened, the king quietly scrapped the letters patent, and instead turned to other means. The king's youngest son, Philip

9152-410: Was alleged to have been written by René (Guilmant's source was Alphonse Pellet, organist at Nîmes Cathedral ). René frequently changed his coat of arms, which represented his numerous and fluctuating claims to titles, both actual and nominal. The Coat of arms of René in 1420; Composing the arms of the House of Valois-Anjou (top left and bottom right), Duchy of Bar (top right and bottom left), and of

9256-484: Was an increase of Burgundy's power, but the Burgundian State came to be regarded as an enemy of the French crown. From John's death, the dukes were treated with caution or outright hostility by Charles VII and his successor, Louis XI . The last two dukes to directly rule the duchy, Philip the Good (r. 1419–1467) and Charles the Bold (r. 1467–1477), attempted to secure the independence of their state from

9360-454: Was arranged through the Paris merchant Nicholas Bataille, who in the past was often regarded as the head weaver, but is now thought of as only the middleman and perhaps the financier of the Paris workshop run by Robert Poinçon. It cost 6,000 francs. At this point Paris was still the leading tapestry-weaving centre, and Bataille supplied Louis with many tapestries from 1363 until the 1380s. The set

9464-538: Was by custom expected to appoint viscounts to rule as his deputies. As a vital military defender of the West Frankish border, Guerin was sometimes known by the Latin term for "leader" – dux or "duke". By the time of Richard the Justiciar (d. 921), the Duchy of Burgundy was beginning to emerge. Richard was officially recognised by the king as a duke; he also stood as individual count of each county he held (if it

9568-467: Was commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou around 1373. Jean Bondol , a Flemish artist who was a court artist of Anjou's brother Charles V of France, made designs or modellos for the set; these were probably rather small and later worked up into full-size cartoons for the weavers to follow. Bondol used an illuminated manuscript Apocalypse from the royal library as a partial model. The commission

9672-481: Was dispersed and large parts of it destroyed. Most of the tapestry was recovered and restored in the 19th century and is now on display at the Château d'Angers . It is the largest set of medieval tapestries to have survived, and historian Jean Mesqui considers it "one of the great artistic interpretations of the revelation of Saint John, and one of the masterpieces of French cultural heritage". The Apocalypse Tapestry

9776-558: Was finally defeated in the Wars of the Roses . Her husband and her son were killed and she herself became a prisoner who had to be ransomed by Louis XI in 1476. René retired to Aix-en-Provence and in 1474 made a will by which he left Bar to his grandson René II, Duke of Lorraine; and Anjou and Provence to his nephew Charles, count of Le Maine . King Louis XI seized Anjou and Bar, and two years later sought to compel René to exchange

9880-449: Was for several years also Duke of Bar and Duke of Lorraine . René was born on 16 January 1409 in the castle of Angers . He was the second son of Duke Louis II of Anjou , King of Naples , by Yolanda of Aragon . René was the brother of Marie of Anjou , who married the future Charles VII and became Queen of France. Louis II died in 1417 and his sons, together with their brother-in-law Charles, were brought up under

9984-485: Was gradually overtaken in importance by paintings. At this early point relatively few tapestries were made to designs specified by the patron, which seems clearly to have been the case here. The main weaving centres were ruled by the French and Burgundian branches of the House of Valois , who were extremely important patrons in the period. This began with the four sons of John II of France (d. 1362): Charles V of France , Louis of Anjou, John, Duke of Berry and Philip

10088-497: Was his great-grandfather, Duke Robert II, the father of Odo IV. Unlike Joan of Châlons and Robert of Auvergne, however, both of whom had left only two lines of descent (allowing the cadet line to inherit without controversy following the termination of the main branch with Philip), Robert II had left three lines of descent: the main line, through Odo IV, which had ended with Philip, and two cadet lines through his daughters, Margaret and Joan. Both women were long dead. Margaret of Burgundy,

10192-400: Was joined to France by virtue of one man's rights and would never be absorbed into it. Most importantly, it was firmly stated that there had not been, and never would be, an annexation of Burgundy by France, merely juxtaposition – the king was also the duke, but there would be no deeper link than that. Set against these declarations of Burgundian autonomy was the decree of John II that Burgundy

10296-556: Was not held on his behalf by a viscount). As Duke of Burgundy, he was able to wield an increasing amount of power over his territory. The term that came to be applied to the collective body of a duke's territory was ducatus . Included in the Richard's ducatus were the regions of Autunais, Beaunois, Avalois, Lassois, Dijonais, Memontois, Attuyer, Oscheret , Auxois, Duesmois, Auxerrois , Nivernais , Chaunois and Massois. Under Richard, these territories were given law and order, protected from

10400-417: Was not to be, however. Philip became ill with the plague , a disease that all but inevitably promised a swift and agonising death. Fully expecting to die, the young duke made his last will and testament on 11 November 1361; ten days later, he was dead, and with him, his dynasty. Even before Philip's death, France and Burgundy had begun considering the knotty problem of the succession. By the terms of his will,

10504-459: Was probably finally complete by 1380, or 1382. It was still unusual for a tapestry to be commissioned by a buyer to a specific design in this way. It is uncertain how Louis used the tapestry; it was probably intended to be displayed outside, supported by six wooden structures, possibly arranged so as to position the viewer near to the centre of the display, imitating a jousting field. The tapestry and its theme would have also helped to bolster

10608-423: Was reckoned to include not only the original territories of the duchy of Burgundy in what is now eastern France, but also the northern territories that came to the dukes through the marriage of Philip and Margaret. Philip the Bold had been a cautious man in politics. His son, John the Fearless (r. 1404–1419), however, was not, and under him Burgundy and Orléans clashed as the two sides squabbled for power. The result

10712-432: Was the closest heir by both primogeniture and proximity to her mother, Joan of Châlons, Countess of Burgundy and Artois, Philip's great-grandmother and, again, the nearest ancestor of Philip to have lines of descent surviving the Duke's death. The situation for the Duchy of Burgundy, however, was not so simple. In terms of inheritance, the nearest ancestor to Philip of Rouvres to have lines of descent surviving Philip's death

10816-479: Was to be inseparably united (much the same as would be followed in the case of Brittany in 1532). Had this come into effect, Burgundy as an independent duchy would have ceased to exist, and John would no longer have been the duke. As a result, a definitive break in the duchy's history would have occurred. John, however, failed to grasp the realities of the political situation within the duchy. He had already been smoothly accepted as duke. On 28 December 1361, he received

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