Rulers and Rhetoricians

Abstract

During the fifteenth century radical changes took place in the political situation of the Low Countries. The foundation for these changes was laid in the second half of the fourteenth century when the daughter of the Count of Flanders married a French prince, Philip, Duke of Burgundy. This marriage brought the House of Burgundy into the Low Countries and with it a force of such energy that one might be justified in calling the fifteenth century after them. By means of a cleverly worked-out marital policy, and helped considerably by deaths occurring at the right times and places, the Burgundians in an incredibly short time brought the whole of the Low Countries under their rule. In 1383 the Duke of Burgundy succeeded to the county of Flanders, and in 1430, less than two generations later, Holland, Zealand, Brabant, Limburg and Hainault were Burgundian, while the dioceses of Utrecht and Liege were also governed by members of the Burgundian clan.