The Archives of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Music

Abstract

Even though no medieval chivalric order was known to have patronized musicians, there was reason to believe that music had played a prominent role in the ceremonies of the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece in the fifteenth century. The first two sovereigns of the Order, Dukes Philip and Charles of Burgundy, were enthusiastic patrons of skilled composers and performers. And the meetings of the Order were unusually splendid, to judge from contemporary accounts, chronicles and paintings. Chronicles describing the Feast of the Pheasant organized by the Order in Lille in 1454 to launch a crusade are especially full of details about the performance of polyphonic music.