Duchy Of Burgundy -

But the Duchy itself—the independent state bridging France and Germany—was gone.

But behind the velvet and gold was a steel fist. The Burgundian army was one of the first in Europe to fully embrace gunpowder. Their early cannons were terror weapons, capable of smashing medieval walls that had stood for centuries. They were modern, mobile, and mercenary—a stark contrast to the feudal levies of their rivals. duchy of burgundy

Look at a map of Europe in the mid-15th century, and you will see a peculiar anomaly. Smack in the middle of what we now call France and Germany, straddling the Rhine, sits a massive, cohesive bloc of territory. It isn’t France, though it speaks French. It isn’t the Holy Roman Empire, though it holds imperial lands. But the Duchy itself—the independent state bridging France

How would you like to narrow this down—are you more interested in the with France or the Renaissance art of the Burgundian court? Their early cannons were terror weapons, capable of

The story begins not with conquest, but with a political pacifier. In 1363, the King of France, John the Good, sought to reward his youngest son, Philip the Bold, for bravery in battle. He granted him the Duchy of Burgundy, a fertile, forested region in eastern France. It was meant to be a princely consolation prize, a junior branch of the Valois family. No one expected it to become the serpent in the French garden.