The Burgundians - by Bart Van Loo (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The story of the Burgundian elite and its remarkable court and culture, a medieval and early modern epic of dynastic struggle, artistic achievement and eventual extinction.

"A thrilling narrative of the brutal dazzlingly rich wildly ambitious duchy" - Simon Sebag Montefiore

At the end of the fifteenth century, Burgundy was extinguished as an independent state. It had been a fabulously wealthy, turbulent region situated between France and Germany, with close links to the English kingdom. Torn apart by the dynastic struggles of early modern Europe, this extraordinary realm vanished from the map. But it became the cradle of what we now know as the Low Countries, modern Belgium and the Netherlands. This is the story of a thousand years, a compulsively readable narrative history of theatrical aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury and madness. It is about the decline of knightly ideals and the awakening of individualism and cities, the struggle for dominance in the heart of northern Europe, bloody military campaigns and fatally bad marriages. It is also a remarkable cultural history, of great art and architecture and music emerging despite the violence and the chaos of the tension between rival dynasties.

Review Quotes

"Blending dogged research with striking imagery and energetic prose, this is a rewarding introduction to a powerful, yet lesser-known, empire." --Publishers Weekly

"A thrilling narrative of the brutal dazzlingly rich wildly ambitious duchy that was the most advanced and sophisticated economy and the most extravagant flashy court of its time. Filled with flamboyant murderous and debauched dukes, courtesans, courtiers and maniacs, it is a total pleasure to read" --Simon Sebag Montefiore, New York Times bestselling author of THE ROMANOVS and JERUSALEM

"A sumptuous feast of a book . . . Van Loo recreates the world of Ghent and Bruges in loving detail, a bustling, blood-soaked landscape of quays, merchants and money changers." --The Times, "21 best history books of 2021"

"Suitably epic." --BBC

About the Author

Bart Van Loo is the internationally bestselling author of Napoleon: The Shadow of the Revolution, and Chanson: A sung history of France. A renowned performer and author of eleven books, he has been appointed a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, a Commander in the Order of the Crown in Belgium, and, in 2025, he was awarded the Golden Quill in the Netherlands. The Burgundians is the first of his books to be translated into English.

Nancy Forest-Flier grew up in a Dutch-American milieu in the United States and studied English literature and creative writing at Hope College, Michigan before settling in the Netherlands in 1982. She works as a freelance English-language editor and Dutch-English translator.