The tomb of Philip the Bold

Tomb of Philip the Bold (detail).

As a child I was once handed a history book that had an image of the tomb of Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy. I still vividly remember how deeply impressed I was. Those colours! That realism! Was this really a work from the Middle Ages? My view on the Middle Ages, which could previously be summarised as “a thousand years of darkness and misery”, was instantly changed. I made a vow that I would one day go and see the real tomb. Decades passed, and it was not until the summer of 2023 that my better half and I visited the lively city of Dijon, the former capital of the duchy. We were of course obliged to visit the famous Musée des Beaux Arts, which is housed in the old ducal palace. It is there, in the Hall of the Watch (salle des Gardes), that we find the tomb of Philip himself and that of his son John the Fearless and John’s spouse Margaret of Bavaria. The monument for John and Margaret will be discussed in a separate post. In this post I will exclusively focus on the tomb of Duke Philip.

Philip the Bold

Philip the Bold was born on 17 January 1342 in Pontoise, north of Paris. He was the fourth son of King John II of France. His father ruled from 1350 until 1364 and acquired the nickname “the Good”, but in all honesty he was one of the worst kings ever to have sat on the French throne. Admittedly he was not the only one to blame for this. John had inherited the Hundred Years’ War with England from his father Philip VI (1328-1350). During this war, France had initially suffered defeat upon defeat. In 1356 John tried to turn the tide by confronting the English at Poitiers. The result was a disastrous defeat, which saw the French king himself being captured. Fourteen-year-old Philip fought bravely alongside his father and so acquired the nickname le Hardi (i.e. the Bold). Like his father, Philip was taken prisoner and spent the next couple of years in fairly comfortable captivity in England. On 6 September 1363 King John rewarded his son with a so-called apanage: Philip was granted the duchy of Burgundy in fief. As the previous duke was coincidentally also called Philip – Philip of Rouvres – Philip the Bold automatically became Philip II.

Tomb of Philip the Bold.

The new duke was a clever political powermonger. In 1369 he married Margaret of Male, daughter of the Count of Flanders Louis of Male. In 1371 a son was born from this marriage, who was named John after his grandfather, the future John the Fearless. Flanders was a rich county, with large and prosperous cities such as Bruges and Ghent. However, those cities were often troublesome and rebellious, and as a consequence Philip was often required to render military aid to his father-in-law. Fortunately the duke had considerable influence on his young nephew Charles VI, who had been only eleven years old when he became King of France in 1380 (Charles was the son of Philip’s older brother, also called Charles). On 27 November 1382, King Charles VI, Philip the Bold and Louis of Male cut to pieces a Flemish rebel army, led by Philip van Artevelde. It was this Battle of Westrozebeke that ensured that Flanders remained in the possession of Louis, and so also in that of Philip and his descendants. Philip the Bold ultimately succeeded his father-in-law as Count of Flanders upon the latter’s death at the beginning of 1384.

The tomb seen from the balcony of the Hall of the Guard.

Towards the end of 1388 Philip’s influence on King Charles VI started to wane when Charles decided to collaborate more closely with his brother Louis of Orleans (1372-1407). The seed was now planted for the conflict between the House of Orleans and its allies the Armagnacs on the one hand and Burgundy on the other. It was a conflict that would lead to the murder of Louis of Orleans in 1407 and that of John the Fearless twelve years later. It is a story that need not be told here. In 1392 Philip succeeded in winning back some of his influence when Charles VI suddenly became insane during a campaign. Because of his insanity the poor king went down in history as Charles the Mad. Although Charles still had lucid moments from time to time, he was no longer capable of running the country. For that a council of regents was set up, of which Philip the Bold was also a member. In the end, Charles the Mad passed away as late as 1422. It was widely rumoured that Charles VII, who had been born in 1403 and would ultimately succeed him thanks to the efforts of the famous Joan of Arc, could never have been fathered by the madman.

This too is a story that need not be told here, if only because by 1422 Philip the Bold was long dead and buried. In life Philip had always been in a hurry. As a consequence, he chose the words il me tarde (“I cannot wait”) as his motto. At breakneck pace the duke travelled from Dijon in Burgundy to Flanders and back again. Although the duke did not shun violence, he always preferred diplomacy over the clash of arms. His own marriage had been beneficial diplomatically and the same held true for the marriages of his children. His son John married Margaret, daughter of Albert of Bavaria. Albert was not just Duke of Bavaria, but also Count of Holland, Zealand and Hainault. His son William married Philip’s daughter Margaret of Burgundy (1374-1441). In 1385 the double wedding between the four youngsters took place in Cambrai, accompanied by major festivities. It brought Holland, Zealand and Hainault within the Burgundian sphere of influence. Around 1388 Philip also arranged for the succession of the childless duchess Joanna of Brabant and Limburg, sister-in-law of his father-in-law Louis of Male. It was agreed that upon her death she would be succeeded by Philip’s son Anthony of Burgundy (1384-1415). The Burgundian Empire was clearly beginning to take shape.

The tomb

Philip the Bold passed away on 27 April 1404, aged 62. In accordance with his wishes he was buried in the church of the Carthusian monastery of Champmol, which he had founded himself and for which the foundation stone had been laid in 1383. It had always been Philip’s intention to turn Champmol into a mausoleum for the Burgundian dynasty, and mausoleums require the presence of splendid funerary monuments. Already in 1381 Philip had instructed his court sculptor Jean de Marville to design a monument for him, made of black marble and painted alabaster. The maître imagier and his assistants worked on the tomb until Jean de Marville’s death in 1389. The project was then continued by his principal assistant, a Dutchman from Haarlem called Claus Sluter. When Philip the Bold passed away in 1404, his funerary monument was still far from completed. It was still under construction when Claus Sluter himself died in 1406. The sculptor was succeeded by his nephew Claus van de Werve (died 1439), who was also from Haarlem (or, according to an alternative tradition, Hattem). The tomb was polychromated by Johan Maelwael (ca. 1370-1415), a painter from Guelders. In 1410 it could finally be placed in the choir of the church of Champmol. It should be noted that Philip was not actually buried in the monument; his grave was in the crypt below it.

The tomb seen from the balcony of the Hall of the Guard.

As many people worked on the monument for 29 years, it is difficult to say which sculptor was responsible for what. Nevertheless, it seems like we should give most credit to Claus van de Werve. The Musée des Beaux Arts claims that the famous pleurants (grieving figures) were probably designed by Claus Sluter, but that upon his death only two had been completed. Claus van de Werve and his assistants then sculpted the other pleurants, the gisant or effigy of the deceased, the angels and the lion at the duke’s feet. Regretfully, what we see today is largely a nineteenth-century reconstruction. After the French revolution the monastery of Champmol was vacated and partly demolished. The funerary monuments of Philip the Bold, John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria were moved to the cathedral of Dijon in 1792. A year later they were disassembled and partly destroyed. Many pleurants fell into the hands of antiques dealers. When the monuments were restored in the 1820s, many elements had to be remade from scratch. Of the effigy of Philip the Bold, for instance, only the hands had been preserved. It follows that the current effigy is a replica that is no more than 200 years old.

Pleurants of the tomb.

In 1827 the restored tomb of Philip the Bold was set up in its current spot in the Hall of the Watch. Even though many elements of it are no longer original, it is still a marvellous monument. Philip lies on his back, his – original! – hands folded in prayer. He is wearing a long robe and there is a long sceptre on his chest. One important difference with the medieval effigy is that Philip originally wore armour. For reasons unknown to me this has not been replicated, although between the kneeling angels at the head of the duke we do see the helmet of a knight. The angels are apparently original, although their vulnerable wings have been restored. At the deceased’s feet we see a lion. Do not forget to kneel to admire the three-dimensional pleurants. The figures are extremely lifelike and almost appear to be moving in a solemn procession. And perhaps more importantly: all of them are still original. I do think the absence of Margaret of Male is lamentable. Apparently the thought never occurred to Philip the Bold to turn the tomb into a double monument.