Louis de Gruuthuse
Louis de Bruges, Lord of Gruuthuse, Prince of Steenhuijs,
1462–77.Early life
Born in 1427 as the legitimate son of Lord Jean IV of Bruges of the
As a courtier Louis followed the Duke around his expanding duchy. Meeting with the highest nobles and princes in Europe, he learned the art of diplomacy and secured his place within the Burgundian court. On 19 April 1450 Louis de Gruuthuse again took part in the Tournament of the White Bear and again he won one of the prizes.
War
This was his last tournament in Bruges, but a real war now came. The crisis with the city of
Councillor
After the war Louis became a trusted Councillor and was sufficiently trusted to arrange the wedding between
In 1461 Loys was made a Knight of the
Between 1463 and 1477 he held the position of
Under Charles the Bold
Charles de Charolais, later to be known as
Grateful for his support in the difficult times after her father's death she appointed him chamberlain to her young son Philip. Maria died at the age of 25 in 1482 after a tragic fall from her horse and her husband, the ambitious
Gruuthuse more than once came into serious conflict with the father of his Protegé, the boy that was to become Duke Philip I of Castile the Handsome (1478–1506) and this has seriously clouded the last years of his life. Louis de Gruuthuse died on 24 November 1492 in his palace at Bruges. It is said that a great thunderstorm raged over the city at the time of his burial.
Patronage of the arts
Louis appears to have been the second largest purchaser in the period, after Philip the Good, of
The
Louis was in fact one of the last people to commission new manuscripts on such a scale; he probably began collecting books in the late 1460s, with many of his major commissions dating from the 1470s. In some cases even from that decade the titles already existed in printed form, and by the end of his life most titles could be bought printed, and Flemish illumination, especially of secular works, was in deep decline. The collapse of the Burgundian state after the death of Charles the Bold further worsened this position, and there is documentation showing Louis allowed Edward IV of England to buy a Josephus commissioned by him from the workshop, and encouraged him to make other purchases of Flemish manuscripts, probably in an attempt to maintain an industry in crisis.[7]
References and sources
- References
- ^ Shown here with 11
- ^ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles, Complete Guide to Heraldry, 1909, fig.236
- ISBN 1-903973-28-7
- ISBN 0-89236-703-2.
- ^ (in Dutch) "KB verwerft het Gruuthuse-handschrift, onbetwist hoogtepunt uit de Nederlandse cultuurgeschiedenis", February 14, 2007
- ^ Arlima
- ISBN 1-903973-28-7
- Sources
- Martens, Maximiliaan P. J., ed. (1992). Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, Maecenas en Europees diplomaat. Bruges. ISBN 90-74377-03-3.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 90-802756-7-0.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
See also
External links
- (in Dutch) Royal Dutch Library web-exhibition of the Gruuthuse-Manuscript
- (in Dutch) Gruuthuse-Manuscript