Chapter 1. Summer 1468
Chapter 1. A joyous Entry in summer of 1468
Portrait of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York by Hans Memling, 1470-72. The duchess is wearing her necklace of white and red roses, as a symbol of her english heritage.
The marriage of Margaret of York and Charles, Duke of Burgundy got off to a grand start. After a short, but hard crossing over the English Channel, the sister of Edward IV of England arrived with her retinue at Sluis on the evening of Saturday on the 25th of June in 1468. There they were greeted by the Bishop of Utrecht and the Countess of Charny, her bridegroom’s illegitimate half-siblings by the late Duke Philip the Good. The english princess received a magnificent welcome with burning torches held by the people lit in the already darkened port.
The chief burghers of the city gave their new duchess a purse with twelve gold marks upon her arrival and escorted her to the residence of the wealthy merchant, Guy van Baenst, who had lent his town house to her for the stay. Margaret would enjoy the pageantry at Sluis for a week until she moved onwards to Damme by a barge up the river where the celebrations continued with great magnificence.
In Sluis, three days after her arrival Charles the Bold himself met his bride for the first time. The meeting was formal, and Margaret was acclaimed as duchess of Burgundy with him besides her. Charles and Margaret were married in Damme in a private ceremony, whereupon Charles left for Bruges, to give his new wife the full honours of a Joyeuse Entrée into the city on her own.
The full celebrations of Margaret’s entrée would be the immortalised in the memory of history with great progressions from attending merchants from all over Europe. Writers identified Florentines, Genoese, Spanish and Scots among very many others in the large crowds. All were finely attired in silk, brocade and embroidered velvets and the bishops and abbots from all over Charles’s realm lead large entourage with papal crosses soaring above. The city magistrates and musicians clad in black damask completed the picture.
The ducal household, which consisted of chamberlains, councillors and servants, attended as well, wearing the Burgundian colours in purple, crimson and black. Bruges itself had put on a festival outfit, tapestries and flowers decked the houses and spectators crammed for the best view of their new duchess as well as the spectacular pageants, many which displayed biblical themes as well as those grounded in classical mythology. Esther and Ahasuerus, the Song of Solomon and the marriage at Cana mixed with the deeds of Heracles and Cleopatra and Alexander the Great.
Oliver de la Marche and Jacques de Villiers were the geniuses behind the decorations and had a whole army of craftsmen from the whole of the duchy and artists to make the pageants for this marriage. Their work certainly paid off, as the arrival of Margaret in Bruges would be immortalised in the Burgundian lore and even re-enacted for tourists today. The rain would however put a damper on the whole thing, but Margaret charmed her subjects by waving at them from her carriage.
The new duchess reached the ducal palace, brightly decorated with sculptured fountains flowing with wine and ippocras (mead and honey) for a private mass and rest before the dinner later. The banquet that followed was even more festive than the entrée into Bruges.
Nine days of feasting on gilded swans, peacocks and oranges, luxuries from the ducal court at that time, while by mimes enacted the deeds of Heracles and danced. The nine days seemed to have exhausted the Englishman John Paston, as evident by his letter home:
As for the Duke’s Court of ladies and gentlewomen, knights, squires and gentlemen I heard never on none like it save King Arthur’s court…for of such gear and gold and pearl and stones they of the Duke’s Court, neither gentlemen or gentlewomen they want non; for without that they have it by wishes, by my thoth, I have never of so great plenty as there is.
Later came the tournament of The Golden Tree, arranged by Anthony, Count of La Roche, in an epic display of both chivalry and brutality. Margaret was the centre of attention, as the valiant knights would honour their new duchess. The participants were richly dressed with their horses clothed in gold and silver fabric and harness. The fighting itself were brutal, La Roche broke a leg and other knights were wounded in the joust, to the point of alarming Margaret who signalled her husband, himself in the thick of it, to put a stop before it got even more out of hand. The victors were Sir Edward Woodville, brother to the queen of England and Lord d’Argueil, brother to the Prince of Orange.
The celebrations ended on 13 July when Charles the Bold left for Holland and Zeeland. The english guests returned home and the Burgundian went back to work. All of them with a wonderous memory of the greatest marriage of the century.
Margaret herself set off to journey into her new homeland to get to know her people and the realms that would define her life from here on out.
Source: Christine Weightman, Madam La Grande – The life of Margaret of York
Portrait of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York by Hans Memling, 1470-72. The duchess is wearing her necklace of white and red roses, as a symbol of her english heritage.
The marriage of Margaret of York and Charles, Duke of Burgundy got off to a grand start. After a short, but hard crossing over the English Channel, the sister of Edward IV of England arrived with her retinue at Sluis on the evening of Saturday on the 25th of June in 1468. There they were greeted by the Bishop of Utrecht and the Countess of Charny, her bridegroom’s illegitimate half-siblings by the late Duke Philip the Good. The english princess received a magnificent welcome with burning torches held by the people lit in the already darkened port.
The chief burghers of the city gave their new duchess a purse with twelve gold marks upon her arrival and escorted her to the residence of the wealthy merchant, Guy van Baenst, who had lent his town house to her for the stay. Margaret would enjoy the pageantry at Sluis for a week until she moved onwards to Damme by a barge up the river where the celebrations continued with great magnificence.
In Sluis, three days after her arrival Charles the Bold himself met his bride for the first time. The meeting was formal, and Margaret was acclaimed as duchess of Burgundy with him besides her. Charles and Margaret were married in Damme in a private ceremony, whereupon Charles left for Bruges, to give his new wife the full honours of a Joyeuse Entrée into the city on her own.
The full celebrations of Margaret’s entrée would be the immortalised in the memory of history with great progressions from attending merchants from all over Europe. Writers identified Florentines, Genoese, Spanish and Scots among very many others in the large crowds. All were finely attired in silk, brocade and embroidered velvets and the bishops and abbots from all over Charles’s realm lead large entourage with papal crosses soaring above. The city magistrates and musicians clad in black damask completed the picture.
The ducal household, which consisted of chamberlains, councillors and servants, attended as well, wearing the Burgundian colours in purple, crimson and black. Bruges itself had put on a festival outfit, tapestries and flowers decked the houses and spectators crammed for the best view of their new duchess as well as the spectacular pageants, many which displayed biblical themes as well as those grounded in classical mythology. Esther and Ahasuerus, the Song of Solomon and the marriage at Cana mixed with the deeds of Heracles and Cleopatra and Alexander the Great.
Oliver de la Marche and Jacques de Villiers were the geniuses behind the decorations and had a whole army of craftsmen from the whole of the duchy and artists to make the pageants for this marriage. Their work certainly paid off, as the arrival of Margaret in Bruges would be immortalised in the Burgundian lore and even re-enacted for tourists today. The rain would however put a damper on the whole thing, but Margaret charmed her subjects by waving at them from her carriage.
The new duchess reached the ducal palace, brightly decorated with sculptured fountains flowing with wine and ippocras (mead and honey) for a private mass and rest before the dinner later. The banquet that followed was even more festive than the entrée into Bruges.
Nine days of feasting on gilded swans, peacocks and oranges, luxuries from the ducal court at that time, while by mimes enacted the deeds of Heracles and danced. The nine days seemed to have exhausted the Englishman John Paston, as evident by his letter home:
As for the Duke’s Court of ladies and gentlewomen, knights, squires and gentlemen I heard never on none like it save King Arthur’s court…for of such gear and gold and pearl and stones they of the Duke’s Court, neither gentlemen or gentlewomen they want non; for without that they have it by wishes, by my thoth, I have never of so great plenty as there is.
Later came the tournament of The Golden Tree, arranged by Anthony, Count of La Roche, in an epic display of both chivalry and brutality. Margaret was the centre of attention, as the valiant knights would honour their new duchess. The participants were richly dressed with their horses clothed in gold and silver fabric and harness. The fighting itself were brutal, La Roche broke a leg and other knights were wounded in the joust, to the point of alarming Margaret who signalled her husband, himself in the thick of it, to put a stop before it got even more out of hand. The victors were Sir Edward Woodville, brother to the queen of England and Lord d’Argueil, brother to the Prince of Orange.
The celebrations ended on 13 July when Charles the Bold left for Holland and Zeeland. The english guests returned home and the Burgundian went back to work. All of them with a wonderous memory of the greatest marriage of the century.
Margaret herself set off to journey into her new homeland to get to know her people and the realms that would define her life from here on out.
Source: Christine Weightman, Madam La Grande – The life of Margaret of York
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