Philip the Good may have dreamed of wearing a single crown, but while that was not the case he was just a man wearing many different hats, and if you’ve ever seen someone wearing more than one hat at a time, you’d know how difficult and awkward that can be. Philip brought in administrative and economic changes to try and fuse the many different bureaucracies of his lands into one. This led to early meetings between representatives from all of Philip’s lowland domains which signify the emergence of an early parliamentary body, the Estates General, which will play a major role in the Low Countries in the years to come. However, although Philip was somewhat flexible when it came to handling his various provinces, it cost him a fortune to do so. This was most risky in his wealthiest territory, Flanders and the stability he had sought since the Bruges revolt was shattered when Ghent, his largest city, took its turn to go into open and violent revolt. Once more Philip would have to temporarily abandon his role as loving and fatherly prince, put on his hat of vengeful lord and once more crush thousands of his subjects. He would then make another Joyous Entry, exactly as he had fifteen year prior in Bruges and force the subdued people of Ghent to recognise his headpiece of haughty, honourable homage; the loving, benevolent prince, once more. 

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After the Treaty of Arras in 1435, Philip the Good’s international policies had to overcome several hurdles if he was to achieve his aim of obtaining as much territory and autonomy as he could. Despite his reconciliation with the king of France, the two cousins would continually be at each other’s throats and on the brink of breaking into warfare again. In 1441 Philip became the regent for Luxembourg and this irked the dignity of certain powerbrokers in the Holy Roman Empire who had their own eyes on the domain. Because Philip was a French prince who ruled imperial territories, he had to rely on his usual tactics of over the top extravagance and relationship building to navigate through the political awkwardness that this caused. He successfully made moves designed to maintain his autonomy as a prince of Christendom and from the 1440s harboured the idea of elevation to a kingship. This would come close to materialising several times, however, as has been the way since Charlemagne’s empire was split up between three brothers all those centuries ago, Philip found that being stuck between France and the German Empire left little room for absolute low country autonomy.

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Jan van Eyck, one of the Low Countries' most famous artists, lived through an extraordinary period in history, between the 1390s and the 1440s. Although much about the early Netherlandish painter’s life is completely unknown, the details which do remain provide tantalising glimpses into an artistic and technical talent, who was both socially and politically capable enough to be able to ingratiate himself within the highest ranks of power in his time. Van Eyck’s cultural influence has continued in the five and a half centuries since his death. In Flanders, the year 2020 is being celebrated as the Year of Van Eyck. So to pay homage, in this episode we will explore the life and works of Jan van Eyck and the mystery surrounding the theft of part of his most famous work, the Ghent altarpiece.

Visit www.the-low-countries.com for the high road to Dutch/Flemish culture!

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The court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, became widely known as the most extravagant and luxurious in Europe during the almost 50 years of his reign between 1419 and 1467. Using pomp, ceremony and patronage of the arts, an image was created of Philip as a wise, just and fair ruler; the “grand duke of the west”. During the celebrations of Philip the Good’s marriage to Isabella of Portugal in Bruges, in 1430, he created the Order of the Golden Fleece; a military group that celebrated the chivalric tradition and served to add prestige and honour to the immense power that Philip had acquired in his schemes of territorial expansion. The creation of such an order was part of a greater image of courtly splendour, festivity and spiritual devotion that Philip established in order to validate his rule and create stronger bonds of identity with his subjects. Even when those subjects went into rebellion against him, which Bruges did in 1436, his subjugation of them would include using these elements to reinforce their relationship.

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SHOW NOTES: www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-24-the-lavish-and-the-revolting

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At the beginning of the 15th century, towns in the Oversticht, the region which mostly makes up today’s modern province of Overijssel but at the time was controlled by the prince-bishop of Utrecht, reached their medieval zenith largely because of their involvement and affiliation with the Hanseatic League. Strategically positioned along the IJssel river, which connected the Zuiderzee to the Rhine, towns such as Deventer, Kampen and Zwolle were able to take part in the sprawling trade network of northern German cities which dominated trade over the North and Baltic seas. But although the trading connections brought increased power and wealth to the region, it was also here that a new spiritual movement known as Modern Devotion was founded by a man called Geert Groote, who rejected the materialism and excesses of the Church and its clergy and called for sober, inward, religious reflection. His followers, known as the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life, would spread throughout the low countries and parts of Germany creating schools, copying and producing books, and increasing literacy levels throughout society. But the privileged position that the Overijssel towns enjoyed was to be broken when the rising towns of Holland, particularly Amsterdam, went to war with the Hanseatic League and through piratical actions broke its near monopoly on the trade of fish, lumber and grain from the Baltics. From this, Holland would emerge as an even greater regional power.

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SHOW NOTES: www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-23-overacheiving-overijsselers-and-holland-versus-hansa

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As much as we may like to imagine that those at the top of the social and political ladders - the kings, queens, counts, and dukes, politicians, merchants and bankers - are the people who drive history onwards, it is everyday people that truly live and experience most of what happens in history, whether or not their names go in the record books. In this episode we imagine the extraordinary life of a farm-boy from Kennemerland who, as the youngest, must venture out to find work and a life beyond his parent’s farmstead. He has benefited from the educational system set up by the Brethren of the Common Life, a lay-religious community, and is able to read, giving him an advantage in everyday life. Being the 1400s he is faithful to the church and, from a young age, determined to make a pilgrimage to the holy town of Amstelredam.

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SHOW NOTES: https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-22-escaping-social-isolation-with-a-miraculous-journey-to-the-1420s

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On his death-bed in 1417, William VI, Count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland, named his daughter Jacqueline of Bavaria as his heir. Given the financial, political and military might of these three territories, this elevated Jacqueline to an extremely powerful position within the low countries, and despite being only 15 years old, she seems to have been up to the task. Jacqueline was not afraid to take bold and risky moves to protect her own interests, often in defiance of those who would use her as their own political pawn. Unfortunately for her, however, being born a woman in a male dominated society meant that Jacqueline’s inheritance was instantly challenged by her uncle, John the Pitiless, bishop-elect of Liege. Her marriage to the new Duke of Brabant, John IV, proved to be a disaster and did nothing to help her defend her domains from her avaricious uncle. Despite a spectacular attempt to return to the low countries at the head of an English army, when all was said and done, Jacqueline would be brought undone not by her uncle, but by her cousin, the new Duke of Burgundy; he who despite his arguably obvious non-goodness, would become known as Philip the Good.

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SHOW NOTES: https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-21-jacqueline-of-bavaria

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At the end of the first decade of the 1400s, everything seemed to be going peachy for John the Fearless, the Duke of Burgundy. He had resisted a large rebellion and maintained his centralising influence over most of the low-countries as well as nurtured and made official the alliance his father had created with the other major powerbase in the low countries, the Count of Holland. By the end of the second decade of the 1400s, however, fate, in the forms of an English army with long-bows, a mad dog, and a treacherous bridge, would intervene and John would be dead. With their departure from the scene, the fate of the low countries would once again be thrown into the realms of uncertainty.

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On September 23, 1408, a combined allied army of the duke of Burgundy, the count of Holland, and the bishop-elect of Liège marched against the people of Liege, who had erupted into an all out revolt against their ruler. At the Battle of Othée, the Liégeois were utterly crushed and in the aftermath the citizens of Liège were made to pay dearly by the victorious nobles, with the town stripped of its privileges and draconian punishments placed upon it. The retribution was so harsh that the bishop-elect of Liège earned the name “John the Pitiless”. But the real triumph belonged to another John, “the Fearless”, Duke of Burgundy, and Count of Flanders and Artois, who with this battle capped off a series of power plays which began with the very public assassination of his biggest political rival in France, Louis of Orleans. John the Fearless asserted himself as the dominant power broker in the low countries, showing the ever restless towns what might happen to them should they rebel against his authority.

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Philip the Bold and his wife Margaret ruled Flanders for twenty years from 1384-1404 and during that time would expand their family’s rule into Limburg, as well as set their successors up to rule Brabant, Holland, zeeland, Hainault and other low country territories as well. The manner in which Philip, trod this treacherous path, in particular his giving of lavish gifts and making steady and long term alliances, would set the tone for a dynasty that was going to contribute so much to the emergence of a lowland culture and identity.

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SHOW NOTES: https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/episode-18-to-boldly-go-for-brabant

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