This book explores the policy objectives underlying the gift of
this Order, to sixty men, on January 1 1403. Drawing primarily on
Philip’s household accounts, it undertakes complementary
iconographical and prosopographical analyses (of the Order
insignia’s form, materials, design and motto; and of
distinguishing common features among its recipients), refined by
reference to his policy concerns around the occasion of its
bestowal, to test seven hypotheses. The evidence from the analyses
enables six of these (that it was purely decorative; a courtly
conceit; crusade-related; a military chivalric order; a livery
badge; or a military alliance) progressively to be discarded,
pointing strongly to the seventh, that the Order was a specific
policy alliance, designed in fashionable form, to obscure its
politically sensitive purpose. The nature of that purpose then
permits a revision of Philip’s role in history, particularly
in relation to the creation of an independent Burgundian state, and
the use of a co-ordinated propaganda campaign of slogan, badge, and
supporting literature, to legitimise and popularise his plans. The
analytical approach also offers insights into the significance of
decorative, material gift-giving; the identification of networks;
Christine de Pisan’s earlier political writings, and the
origins of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Carol Chattaway is Honorary Research Assistant at the Royal
College of Art and University College, London University. She
researches on the political significance of material objects at the
Burgundian Court, in the later middle ages.
"Chattaway's study is a profound one and solidly grounded in archival research, which is why it has earned a place in the prestigious Burgundica series". (Bas Jongenelen in Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXIX/1, 2008, pp. 326-327)
"It is a serious and constructive contribution with important conclusions for study of a period when chivalric princely orders were both burgeoning and rapidly evolving." (M. Jones, in:
French History, Vol. 24, No. 2, June 2010, p. 283-284) <_doi3a_10.1093>
"(...) Carol M. Chattaway hat mit ihrer soliden quellennahen Untersuchung einen wichtigen Beitrag sowohl zur Burgundforschung als auch zur Erforschung des höfischen Geschenkverkehrs im allgemeinen und im besonderen geleistet, der zu Recht in die renommierte "Burgundica"-Reihe aufgenommen worden ist." (J. Hirschbiegel, in: Francia Online, 2009/2)