Olivier de la Marche and the Court of Burgundy, c.1425-1502
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Date
06/1996Author
Millar, Alistair
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Abstract
The principal aim of the thesis is to give a detailed analysis of the career and literary
output of the Burgundian courtier and chronicler, Olivier de la Marche, within the
context of the political and cultural milieu of the Burgundian court in the second half
of the fifteenth century. There is a full and comprehensive survey of the progression
of la Marche’s career under the last two Valois Dukes of Burgundy and their Habsburg
successors, and this simultaneously attempts to shed some light on the world of the
princely court in the late medieval period. Consideration of la Marche’s major
achievements as a diplomat, bureaucrat, counsellor, and military captain is given, as
well as a detailed survey of his role as the stage-manager responsible for some of the
magnificent fetes which characterised the Burgundian court during this period.
Consideration is also given to the ways in which la Marche’s career was shaped by the
changing political circumstances of his times, particularly in the years that followed the
death of the last of the Valois dukes and the accession of the Habsburgs to their
inheritance. There is also a detailed examination of la Marche’s literary output.
Attention is devoted to analysing the nature of his works, the manner in which they
came to be written, the personal and professional experiences as well as the literary
influences that acted upon him, and the objectives behind their composition. Some
comment is made about the identity of both the perceived and actual audience of these
works. The thesis also endeavours to demonstrate the ways in which some of this
literature can be interpreted as both a response to and an attempt to shape the political
and cultural milieu in which it was circulating, and how an understanding of it can
enhance our knowledge of some of the wider historical developments of the later part
of the fifteenth century.