Philip, who ruled from 1419 to 1467, was one of the most powerful and
influential rulers of the fifteenth century. Forced into an alliance
with the English, he soon found that he held the balance of power
between England and France - reflected in the final crucial phase of the
Hundred Years War.
Under Philip the Good, grandson of the founder of the duchy's power,
Burgundy reached its apogee. Professor Vaughan portrays not only Philip
the Good himself, perhaps the most attractive personality among the four
great dukes, butthe workings of the court and of one of the most
efficent - if not necessarily the most popular - administrations in
fifteenth-century Europe. The complex diplomatic history of Philip the
Good's long ducal reign (1419-1467) occupies much of the book, in
particular Burgundy's relations with England and France. The central
theme is Philip the Good's policy of territorial and personal
aggrandisement, which culminated in his negotiations with the Holy Roman
Emperor for a crown. And due attention is given to the great flowering
of artistic life in Burgundy which made Philip's court at Dijon an
important cultural centre in the period immediately preceding the
Renaissance. All this is based on the close study of the considerable
surviving archives of Philip's civil service, and on the chronicles and
letters of the period.
Philip the Good provides a definitive study of the life and times of the
rulerwhose position and achievements made him the greatest magnate in
Europe during what has been called "the Burgundian century".
