Rating: 4 out of 5
I liked this throughout but with some big caveats. It’s generally not sufficient for the author to assume that the reader knows anything, so they decided that the only way to describe a principality in the 14th century is to go back to the 5th. This is cardinals different from my approach which assumes that what is necessary prior to the founding of a specific state can be summarised succinctly with no issues. There’s are always other topics that can be expounded upon which makes this approach so very difficult to justify.
Mr van Loo’s look into Burgundy therefore it’s something that really gets into its own when we get to the medieval Burgundians. In the Germanic part, we’re not really that sure with what’s going on and the author didn’t have the space to describe those times and places properly. However, when dressing the feuds of the dukes of Burgundy and the people of Ghent we’re well and truly in an interesting and well written history. The constant turn arounds in fortune and the different aspects that each dukes focussed on make for a captivating introduction into medieval Burgundy as it was.
The author also likes to bring in numerous references to painting—and culture more broadly too. In a work that’s broadly focussed on the politics, these create interesting digressions which allow the reader to better understand what was important in that period. Some of these overviews of painters became too comprehensive for me, but it is understandable why they get mentioned and in a book with relatively few graphics, the only way to describe a painting is a by a verbose description.
Overall, I enjoyed this and I found myself wanting to know more about this time and period.