In this coming crisis, he would learn much indeed.Īlongside his brother, the king of France, Philip worked on negotiating peace terms between the English and the French in the 1370s, in an attempt to bring to an end the Hundred Years War. Philip would have considered the options his father-in-law, Louis de Male, had open to him in decisive matters, and also seen what kind of consequences these might have led him to. In the years between 1369-79 Philip spent his time moving between his home province of Burgundy, the French court and Flanders, carefully observing the dynamics of power and learning about the area which he would rule in the future, courtesy of his wife’s inheritance. In ruling such a relative backwater, Philip would not gain the experience necessary to deal with the kinds of social, economic and political matters which had torn Flanders asunder so frequently. As the ruler of Burgundy, Philip presided over a magnificent grape region, but it was mainly agricultural, and its largest city Dijon could not compare to the scope and complexities of the big Flemish cities. After the previous Duke of Burgundy, Philip of Rouvres, died without an heir in a horse/pneumonia related accident, John II gave the title to Philip, in order to keep it all in the family. Philip the Bold was a younger son of the King of France, John II. By coupling this with a more respectful approach to the commercial interests of towns, and of the people who ran them, by the time of his daughter’s wedding in Ghent to Philip the Bold in 1369, Louis largely managed to pacify the influential power-brokers in those towns, and to temper the immense instability that had been so common across Flanders. His long term tactics were to get key people into key positions in the big Flemish towns and to set the foundations for a more centralised administrative structure. It took over twenty years for Louis to bring Flanders to heel. Louis did a better job than his father had, in finding a balance between his natural proclivity towards the French throne with the urban demands in Flemish cities for open trade with England. Philip would create what would go down in history as the Burgundian Netherlands.ĭuring the rule of Louis of Male as the count of Flanders, Nevers and Rethel, he managed to wrest some control back from the big Flemish cities after the immense upheavals of the early 14th century.

By showing magnanimity in victory after quelling an uprising in Ghent in the 1380s, by the end of the 14th century Philip the Bold was able to bring a modicum of stability to rebellious Flanders and begin the process of centralising power in the low countries under a single ruler: himself and his successors, the Dukes of Burgundy.

Despite his adventurous and super trendy epithet suggesting otherwise, he was more willing to boldly give lavish gifts of wine and expensive ornaments, in order to charm the pants off anyone he was trying to manipulate, than to raise an army and go marching boldly forth. He generally did this by using diplomacy instead of the sword. After his marriage to Margaret of Flanders in 1369, Philip would prove himself to be a formidable opponent to anyone playing the game of politics and power in western Europe. Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, kicked off a dynasty that would forever change the Low Countries.

Harry the looter