The Burgundians

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Battles, murders, and forgotten treasures - the Burgundians lived life like an episode of Game of Thrones. Once one of the most powerful kingdoms in Western Europe, they are now known as a vanished empire. This week Matt is joined by historian and author Bart van Loos to discuss who exactly were the Burgundians, their contribution to history and culture, and together they examine how a kingdom once the epicentre of trade and art, could fall through the gaps of our knowledge.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever wondered why one of Ruan Cathedral's towers is called the Tower of Butter, or what
0:08.4	animals have faced trials in courts for, or even how the Black Country got its name?
0:14.7	Well, you can find the answers to questions like these and hundreds more in our new book,
0:20.7	The History Hit Misscellanie. It's the perfect present for any history fan. It's available
0:26.2	to buy now from your favourite bookshop, or by visiting historyhit.com forward slash book.
0:39.6	Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval from History Hit, I'm Matt Lewis. I'm excited to
0:44.4	date a talk about one of the most fascinating and not quite fleeting but certainly long-gone states
0:50.8	of medieval Europe. Burgundy was nominally a vassal state of the crown of France,
0:56.2	but successive juke's had very different ideas. An opulent centre of trade, art and culture
1:03.2	that many look to enviously as a template, its grand schemes ultimately came to nothing.
1:10.0	Bart Van Loh is the author of the incredible new book The Burgundians A Vanished Empire,
1:15.4	a history of 111 years and one day. I'm delighted to be joined by Bart to get his expert insights
1:23.3	into this ambitious jukedom. Thanks for joining us Bart. Thanks for having me.
1:34.5	So, why do you feel that the Burgundians was an important book to write? Can you tell us a
1:39.8	little bit about who they were and how the Burgundian state came to be and why it grew to be important?
1:46.2	I have to talk about myself in the first place because I wrote several books about French history
1:53.6	music, literature. I became who I am by immersing myself in French culture, by looking southbound
2:02.2	across the border. But one day I just asked myself a simple question, what about here?
2:08.5	How could I have been so neglectful of my roots over all these years and I wanted to unearth
2:14.6	my roots? And then if you want to do so, our national historiography is full of book length
2:22.5	works explaining how the low countries broke up at the end of the 16th century, dividing the
2:27.6	northern Netherlands from the southern Netherlands. And that's what became ultimately the Netherlands
	...

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