Philip the Good 1396-1467, duke of Burgundy (1419-67); son of Duke John the Fearless. After his father was murdered (1419) at a meeting with the dauphin (later King Charles VII of France), Philip formed an alliance with King Henry V of England. Under the Treaty of Troyes (1420; see Troyes, Treaty of ) Philip recognized Henry V as heir to the French throne; the dauphin was disinherited. Philip aided the efforts of Henry and his successor to establish English rule in France. Finally, in return for important concessions, Philip ended the English alliance and made peace with Charles VII in the Treaty of Arras (1435; see Arras, Treaty of ). Despite the truce, Philip's relations with Charles were not always amicable. He temporarily supported (1440) the rebellious nobles in the Praguerie and gave asylum to the dauphin (later King Louis XI), who was constantly in revolt against his father. During Philip's reign the territory of his duchy was more than doubled. Through inheritance, treaty, conquest, and purchase he acquired Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Brabant, Limburg, Namur, Luxembourg, Liège, Cambrai, and numerous other cities and feudal dependencies. Uprisings in Bruges (1436) and in Ghent (1450-53) were suppressed. In 1463, Philip was forced to return some of his holdings to Louis XI. His vow (1454) to go on crusade was never fulfilled. Philip's court was the most splendid in the Western Europe of his time. He was succeeded by his ambitious son, Charles the Bold , who took control of the government from Philip in 1465.

Bibliography: See biography by R. Vaughan (1970); J. L. A. Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy (1949, tr. 1962).

Philip the Good

Philip the Good (1396-1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 to 1467. His brilliant and sumptuous court was the most celebrated in Europe, and Burgundian power and cultural life flowered under his patronage.

Born at Dijon on July 31, 1396, Philip the Good was the son of Duke John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria. At first created Count of Charolais—the traditional title of the heir apparent of Burgundy—he became the third Valois Duke of Burgundy upon the assassination of his father in 1419.

Contemporary portraits and descriptions depict Philip as tall, with broad shoulders and keen eyes. He was brave, intelligent, and fond of the ostentation that characterized the life of the high aristocracy of the 15th century. "His appearance alone proclaimed him Emperor, and his natural graces made him worthy of a Crown, " a contemporary wrote at a point in Philip's career when he may have been thinking of acquiring both an empire and a crown. Philip's rule coincided with the great flowering of Burgundian art, music, and literature, of which he was the most spectacular patron, and his reign is recorded in several lively contemporary chronicles, some expressly commissioned by Philip.

Early 15th-century Burgundy was a collection of territories assembled by Philip's predecessors, Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, based upon the duchy of Burgundy in southeastern France. The first two Valois dukes had added to this core, however, and constructed a series of territories to the north and west of France, and Philip the Good completed the process of acquisition by gaining Alsace, Holland, Hainaut, Friesland, and Brabant. The Duke of Burgundy was thus the most powerful subject of the king of France, and Philip's influence was of the greatest importance in determining the outcome of the Hundred Years War between France and England.

At the time of his accession, Philip's personal and political sympathies lay with the English, as had his father's, and they were intensified by his (and others') suspicions that Charles VI's son (later, Charles VII) had had a hand in the assassination of John the Fearless. After signing the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, Philip entered Paris in triumph with Henry V of England, witnessed Charles VI's designation of Henry as his legal successor to the throne of France, and completed the formal condemnation of those guilty of his father's murder.

Upon the sudden deaths of both Henry V and Charles VI in 1422, Philip stood aside, and the Duke of Bedford was named regent for the young Henry VI, now ruler of both England and France. In 1423 the alliance between England and Burgundy was cemented by Bedford's marriage to Philip's sister Anne. For the next decade Philip concentrated upon the policy of acquiring lands to round out his extensive holdings in the north of France. The great French successes under Joan of Arc in 1429-1430 may have begun to turn Philip toward an alliance with Charles VII of France. Between 1431 and 1435 Philip was undecided, finally settling his differences with the king of France in the Treaty of Arras in 1435, although he lent the King little real support. From 1435 on, Philip turned his attention to the Low Countries, remaining apart from the French offensive of 1450-1453, which drove the English out of France.

Philip's interests, however, were not confined to the Low Countries and the Anglo-French conflict. He had been born a few months before his father had led the disastrous Crusade of Nicopolis in 1396, and the memory of his father's endeavor coupled with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 spurred Philip to take the crusaders' vow himself. At a famous banquet held at Lille in 1454, he took the "Vow of the Pheasant, " an elaborate crusading pledge that he never fulfilled.

Never entirely welcome or entirely trusted in France, Philip offered asylum to the Dauphin Louis (later Louis XI) from 1456 until the death of Charles VII in 1461. In that year he entered Paris in triumph with Louis XI. Trusted no more by his former protoégé than by Charles VII, Philip soon returned to Burgundy, and his domains fell into the hands of the Croy family.

At the height of his power, Philip was the most influential man in Europe. His control extended into France, the Low Countries, Germany, and Italy. He was regarded as the most noble prince of his day, and he may have considered accepting from the Emperor a royal crown, which would thus have turned Burgundy into a kingdom. Philip died at Bruges on June 15, 1467, leaving his son Charles the Bold to inherit the Great Duchy of the West.

Further Reading

The standard work is now Richard Vaughan, Philip the Good (1970), a clearly written and scholarly study; it is the third volume of a projected four-volume study of the rise and fall of Valois Burgundy. Philip's reign is well treated in Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy (1963). A picture of the rich court life of Burgundy is drawn in Otto Cartellieri, The Court of Burgundy (1926; trans. 1929); and the range of Burgundian culture is described in the brilliant work of J. H. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (1924). □

Philip the Good (or Philip III) (1396–1467) Duke of Burgundy (1419–67). His first act as Duke of Burgundy was to forge an alliance with HENRY V of England, signing the Treaty of Troyes, in which Queen Isabella of France named Henry V as successor to the French throne. Philip was a powerful ally: by the early decades of the 15th century his territories included Namur (acquired 1421), Holland and Zeeland (1428), Brabant (1430), Luxembourg (1435) and the bishoprics of Liège, Cambrai, and Utrecht were under Burgundian control. Some were his by inheritance, others had come through marriage, purchase, or conquest and they combined to constitute a formidable ‘state’. The Treaty of Arras (1435) released Philip from the duty of doing homage to the French king and rendered him virtually independent of royal control. However, the king of France succeeded in breaking the alliance between France and England and from 1435 France and Burgundy joined forces to wage war on England. The imposition of taxes on the Burgundians provoked a rebellion, led by Ghent, but the rebels (of whom 20,000 were killed) were defeated (1454). Philip's court in Burgundy was the most prosperous and civilized in Europe. He founded an order of CHIVALRY, the Order of the Golden Fleece, and patronized Flemish painters.