Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant, accompanied by her parents King Philippe of Belgium and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, and siblings Prince Emmanuel of Belgium and Princess Eléonore of Belgium, arrives to attend her Oxford University Graduation Ceremony at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford on 23 J

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In a photographic career spanning sixty years Eisenstaedt was the first photographer to consistently practice candid photography, and in his own words, “photographed more people than any other photographer.” His photographs have featured on the front cover of LIFE magazine 92 times and he travelled the world on more than 2500 assignments. Most importantly, his photographs are a testimony to seminal events and key people who in turn shaped the contemporary world. Born in 1898 in West Prussia, Alfred Eisenstaedt was given his first camera at the age of 14 and sold his first photograph in 1927 to the newspaper Der Weltspiegel at a time when photojournalism was at its very infancy. Narrowly escaping the Holocaust in Europe Eisenstaedt emmigrated to the United States. He was soon hired along with three other photographers, Margaret Bourke-White, Thomas McAvoy and Peter Stackpole by Time founder Henry Luce, for a secret start-up known only as “Project X.” After six months of testing the mystery venture, it premiered as LIFE magazine on November 23, 1936. Over his career Eisenstaedt photographed a diverse range of subjects ranging from the first meeting between Hitler and Mussolini, the aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb, and post depression America, to portraits of John F Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Marilyn Monroe, to enduring photographs of ordinary people across America and Europe. As diverse and disparate as Eisenstaedt’s photographs are, all of these images are unified by Eisenstaedt’s continually fresh eye and talent for capturing pivotal moments in the human experience. Up until his death in 1995, Eisenstaedt was still shooting and adding to his inventory of over 100,000 negatives in his personal office at LIFE magazine. Eisenstaedt’s first major retrospective exhibition did not come until the age of 88 when the International Center of Photography in New York presented 125 of his prints. Since then he has been granted many awards – including the Presidential Medal of Arts bestowed by President Bush, and the ICP Master of Photography award in 1988. www.josephbellows.com/artists/alfred-eisenstaedt/bio/

Deborah Devonshire, the legendary Dowager Duchess of Devonshire has just published her fascinating memoir,’ Wait for Me’. The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth. Photo: Andrew Crowley Debo, the youngest and the last of the Mitford sisters and by far my favorite is a superb raconteur and historian. I wrote about the Chatsworth attic sale three weeks ago (check The Style Saloniste archive) Now I’ve got all the juicy details of her sparkling new book, and I’ve selected some of her droll and jaw-droppingly divine quotes. Delicious! Deborah Devonshire. Photo: Christopher Thomond/Guardian Deborah Devonshire, the 90-year-old Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, wrote her newest book, the superb ‘Wait For Me’ by hand over the last four years. I’ve just completed reading it, and I’m tempted to re-read it right now. I can’t recall a more surprising and witty autobiography. Every chapter of the 370-page volume grabs the reader with portraits of her family and witty and wrenching anecdotes of her sisters. Each paragraph bounds forward, and every era of her life is compelling. Debo brings to life dramatic decades of historical encounters, batty governesses, drafty houses she was attached to, her outlandish and rollicking childhood, family tragedies and comedies, and the spoils and sadnesses of a fabulous life. I ordered ‘Wait for Me’ months ago from a London bookshop—and in October I received two signed copies, one inscribed ‘For Diane, Deborah Devonshire’, and the second simply ‘Deborah Devonshire’ in a very firm Italic-style signature, written with pen and ink. The book, with a telling selection of snapshots from her family photo albums, is crammed with vibrant and lively anecdotes. Deborah and her sisters and mother kept lifelong diaries, wrote long letters to each other, so all was documented and recorded. Debo grew up believing that she was the least talented of the sisters. She says Nancy was more sophisticated, Pam more adventurous, Diana more beautiful, Decca funnier, and Unity more ethereal. She says in the book she’s only read two books in her life, and had about two weeks of formal schooling. Her English-style understatement, modesty and dry wit turn outsize events and personalities on their head. “It was a daily pleasure to live among the pictures at Chatsworth. Gazing at Velasquez’ ‘Lady with a Mantilla’ in my sitting room, was a real inspiration when I was trying to do something difficult. There seemed no obvious place to hand Rembrandt’s ‘Portrait of an Old Man’, as it has to be studied close to and it is no good muddling it up with other pictures. Andrew put it on an easel to be examined at leisure. Reynolds’ portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and her baby daughter, and Batoni’s portraits of the Fifth Duke (looking supercilious) and his younger brother Richard Cavendish (looking drab as befits a second son) suited the blue drawing room. Like Chatsworth’s furniture they were slotted in without a thought of dates or nationalities. I loved this mongrel arrangement.” Deborah was the driving force behind the regeneration of Chatsworth) which now greets 600,000 visitors each year. She plays it all down, but she has been a lifelong charity fundraiser, has been a country campaigner, is the author of thirteen books, mother of three and great-great grandmother of many, as well as an award-winning arts and culture philanthropist and voice for the preservation of stately treasure houses and English country life traditions. This is a book to delve into and delight over every unexpected tale of imprisoned sister Diana, fascist brother-in-law the black-shirt Mosley, Paris assignations, and travels to Africa with the Duke, at one time a politician. Everyone who pranced about the twentieth century seems to make a command performance. Deborah did not seek the limelight but nonetheless, a grand parade of notables, revealed as puffed up, tragic, lovely, silly or glamorous or wildly charismatic. Appearing on the Mitford manuscript are Elvis (she visited Graceland three times), John F. Kennedy (at one time his sister Kathleen was the Duke’s eldest brother’s wife, a marriage that ended in two tragedies), kings and queens, emperors and princesses, farmers, equestrians, bores, debs’ delights, prime ministers, the artist Lucian Freud, curators, housekeepers, cooks, ambassadors, art collectors, and names too illustrious and name-droppish to mention. Trust me, everyone who was anyone turns up on one or more pages. The Shah of Persia jump onto the page, as well as Ali Khan, the Queen Mother, coronations, the young Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess of Windsor, Prince Charles and Diana, Cecil Beaton, Farah Diba, even Ian Fleming. Deborah Devonshire. Photo by Andrew Testa/New York Times. Lucian Freud, considered the greatest living painter today, was a lifelong friend. “I had a black Mini which I kept in London and Lucian borrowed it several times. Being driven in London by Lucian Freud was hazardous. Marble Arch was terrifying. Hyde Park Corner even worse. He was Mr. Toad, scarf and all. He weaved in and out of the swirling traffic, avoiding buses and bicycles and angry taxi drivers by inches. When I shouted, “Stop. Slower. Please!” he said, “It’s all right. They’ve all got brakes.” The Mitford Sisters The five other Mitford sisters - Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity and Pamela — in 1935. Photograph: Harpercollins One mystery I had hoped to solve here is Unity, her lost sister, the one who in the thirties notoriously had a crush (or affair?) on Hitler and several of his cronies. There is a hint in the book that Unity was a little unbalanced and ‘eccentric’ early on, as she seemed to be swiftly thrown out of every school she was ever sent to. But Debo clearly felt great affection for her 'misunderstood' blonde Amazon sister. Debo and her mother traveled to Germany as Hitler’s guests in 1934. In her diary she wrote, “Neither Muv nor I could speak German, so Unity interpreted our conversations with Hitler. We all went and sat on some chairs by the window. Soon tea was brought in. Hitler suggested we might want to clean up, and we all went to wash up in the bathroom. He had some brushes there with ‘AH’ on them.” The totally apolitical Debo was not impressed. When Germany and England went to war, Unity shot herself in the head with a gun she carried around. She was nursed lovingly for many years by her mother, and died tragically. Debo’s comment is that Unity, described elsewhere as a dreamy girl, was always misunderstood, and downplays the fact that she was a rabid Nazi sympathizer, and great pals with Goebbels. Debo writes at one point that ‘words cannot describe her’ so regarding the mad Unity, a reader is left mystified. Sometimes Debo just does not want to go there. Other sisters leap off the page. Their every conversation, shriek, gown, joke, banter, visit, and marriage and re-marriage and misadventure are recorded as if these decades-old chats had happened yesterday. Not Unity. The parents were outsize characters, and the whole family followed a very strict diet of wholegrain bread, and no shellfish and only their father was allowed to eat sausages. 'When I was eighteen, I broke from that life, and was free to do what I liked,” said the Duchess, “Going to all the deb dances there were marvelous suppers laid out, with tables of things like pastries and lobster, which were absolutely banned at home.’ The Mitford family (l-r top) Lady Redesdale, Nancy, Tom and Lord Redesdale, (middle) Diana and Pamela, (bottom) Unity, Jessica and Deborah. The sisters were educated at home, because their mother didn't believe in exams, and Deborah spent most of her time hunting and skating. Photo by the BBC. Deborah Devonshire, clearly backed up here by researchers, files, and her niece Charlotte Mosley, who has edited all of her books, is laconic about those she despised, and droll and languid as only a Duchess can be. She never complains, is generally kind (or deftly sly in her comments about concepts, like ‘self-esteem’, which she detests). She deals briefly with the chronic alcoholism and violent rages of the Duke. “Time dims the unpleasant or sad events in life and dates run into each other in a middle way,” she writes. “Had he not written so openly about it in his memoirs, I would not have mentioned my side of the story. Andrew was addicted to alcohol for much of his adult life, a weakness that ran through the Cavendish family.” She writes about his giving up drinking in a thoroughly non-judgmental way, and credits Alcoholics Anonymous and many counselors for her hard-found wisdom. That’s it. To delve in an unseemly manner further into the dark side would be infra dig, simply not done. Bad form, you know. But some personal experiences filter through her reticence. It is touching and rather a shock when she records in Chapter 10 that she lost three of her babies, two of them just hours after they were born. At that time she was expected to carry on as if nothing had happened, and no-one discussed it, including her nurses. Once more she muddled through. It’s a sad passage in a book that rattles along from one grand shooting party and gymkhana and chilly stately house to another. She lost many of her four best friends, her brother and many others in just one month in the Second World War, but her lonely plight with callous neonatal doctors stops the reader as the Duchess reveals her truly tragic, private moments. She had three subsequent children, including two daughters and her son, Stoker, the current Duke of Devonshire, with whom she is clearly very close. Deborah Mitford and Lord Andrew Cavendish on their wedding day, 1941 We are invited to go with her to London balls, JFK’s inauguration and later his funeral (Debo and the Duke were there as ‘family’), and travels to India and Burma and the South of France, Paris and remote islands of Scotland. The Duchess of Devonshire, at Chatsworth, sitting on garden furniture made at the estate workshops in the 1970s. Photograph: Popperfoto Patrick Leigh Fermor Society Women, 1938: the Hon Pamela Herman Hodge (left), the Hon Deborah Mitford (centre) and Lady Margaret Ogilvy at a point-to-point race meeting. Photograph: Hulton Archive Deborah attending at a banquet given by the Royal Society of St George, in 1954. Photograph: Getty Images The Duchess of Devonshire out shooting in 1980. Photograph: Getty Images Chapters about inheriting Chatsworth and taking on the responsibility of restoring the house, living in it, and paying staggering death duties (with interest accruing daily) keep the reader enthralled and grateful. Debo was the driving force behind opening the house to the public, launching retail shops and farm products, and welcoming school children so that they could learn about a vanishing country life. When Andrew became the 11th duke, he inherited Chatsworth, and the estate comprised Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, Compton Place in Sussex, Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire – and their contents. Lismore Castle in Ireland, he already owned. Thousands of acres, rare books, paintings and art works were sold to pay taxes. Hardwick Hall was ceded to the National Trust, and can be visited, like Chatsworth. Calke Abbey (Courtesy of the National Trust). Her enduring appreciation and love for Chatsworth, its collections, the hundreds of people who maintained it, flow through the book. “Waking the first morning in the bed I was to come home to for the next 46 years and one month was a joy and I never tired of the incomparable view west across the park,’ she writes. 'In all those years I never took the place for granted, but marveled at it and the fact that we were surrounded by beauty at every turn.’ She stayed on there for over a year after Andrew’s death, and then handed it over to her son Peregrine, the 12th Duke, and his wife, Amanda. “I was 85, it was high time to go and high time for the others to come.’ She now has eight grandchildren (the model Stella Tennant is one of these) and 17 great-grandchildren, and they all adore her. She lives in the Old Vicarage (she affectionately calls it the ‘Old Vic’) in Edensor (pronounced En-zor), surrounded by friends, family and her chickens. The Duchess of Devonshire at her home since 2004, the Old Vicarage at Edensor. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/Guardian Mitford books take up many shelves in my bookcases. I’ve been feasting on the Mitford sisters' tomes for years, but quickly tired of narcissistic Nancy, and the unknowable beauty Diane, and never cared for Decca (so admired in Berkeley, California, and so doted on by all her literary and communist hangers-on. (“You know she’s the sister of the Duchess of Devonshire, don’t you,” said a simpering literary agent to me one evening, when it has been announced that Decca has raised funds to send pianos to Cuba. ‘Yes,” I responded mildly.) I nibble on ‘Counting my Chickens’, one of the compendiums of essays collated from Deborah’s writings for various publications. I recently worked my way through a cookbook she published a few years ago. In the book’s introduction, Deborah recalls mentioning to one of her Chatsworth staff that she, who had never cooked in her life, was writing a cookbook. “Oh, Madam,” the good woman responded, “You writing a cook book is like a blind man teaching someone to drive.” It’s called the Mitford Industry in England—as the Mitford girls among them have written dozens of books. In 2008 I ordered ‘The Mitfords, Letters between Six Sisters’ (edited, like much of the Mitfordiana, by Debo’s niece Charlotte Mosley. It’s 75 years of letters, all with the upper-class Mitford voice, – relentlessly thirties. To each other, the girls had a particularly imperative (and now hopelessly dated) way of speaking in Noel Coward tones: 'do be sorry’, ‘don’t you think!’ and 'do miss me’, 'do say you’re thrilled’ and rather often, considering their sense of humor, 'you must say it’s very funny’ I especially loved ‘In Tearing Haste’, the 2009 book of fifty years of letters between Deborah Devonshire and the great writer and war hero, Patrick Leigh Fermor, who now likes in the Peloponnesus, in a remote Mani coastal town. My book in signed by Patrick Leigh Fermor and Deborah (they are both in their nineties, I am so honored), along with the firm hand of Charlotte Mosley, who edited the letters. Patrick (‘Paddy’ to Deborah) Leigh Fermor is one of the twentieth-century’s greatest writers (not a mere ‘travel writer’) so his letters, of travels in remote places, Greek history and architecture, and historic events, are the richest feast in this book. Highest recommendation. But Deborah’s new book, getting the last word, is the most charming and captivating. She does not have an axe to grind. She’s grateful for her life, and gracious and witty. The book is also a history of the decline of nobility in England, and a vanished life. Deborah Devonshire with her rare breeds of chickens at Chatsworth, 2009. One of my favorite sections of the book concerns a visit to Chatsworth, in 2000, by Debo’s friends Oscar and Annette de la Renta and their group. I’ve read this report several times, each re-reading offering up more detail. The art collector Jayne Wrightsman and the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta and his wife were making their annual visit to Chatsworth. They’re longtime friends, and Oscar has designed gowns for the duchess. The Duchess was convinced that these New York denizens would be bored by a table centerpiece of flowers or the usual flowering branches from the estate. Chickens are her passion, and she is often photographed feeding her brood. So a Buff Cochin cock was washed and placed on some hay in a tall rectangular glass container and placed along the center of the dining table. 'A couple of hens of uncertain ancestry occupied another glass container,’ she writes, 'and there had been a hatch of Welsummer and White Leghorn chicks that morning so I put them in little china baskets lined with hay to keep them warm… the chicks presumably thought it was all quite normal as they had only been alive for 12 hours.’ The following year, she said, she had to think of something better. Piglets! “The glass containers were pressed into service again, and half a dozen piglets, replete from a long drink of milk from the sow, lay sound asleep in their straw beds in the middle of the dining table. The decoration did not last long. ‘This really is too much,” said Andrew (the Duke of Devonshire) after the first course.” The pigs were removed. Her follow-up to the pig incident: Old Master drawings on miniature easels in front of each place setting. “I do not believe the Raphaels and Rembrandts and Co. were splashed by gravy or ice-cream, and after dinner they were returned to their cold, unwelcoming, air-conditioned, thrice-locked shelves,” she wrote. “I would rather be one of the piglets in a warm barn any day.” Deborah Devonshire photographed at Chatsworth in 1990. Patrick Leigh Fermor in 2005 Another (of many, many) sections I adored is about Debo’s visit for a celebratory dinner to the very grand seventeenth-century Palladian residence, Calke Abbey, in 1961. “The owner, Charles Harpur Crewe was a recluse who lived an intensely private life, in an intensely private house, in his own little kingdom in a vast park in the south of Derbyshire,” she wrote. She drove forty miles through dense fog and got lost several times. Finally they saw a dim light. “The curtains were drawn back on the ground and first floors of Calke Abbey and the rooms were lit only by candles,” she wrote. “It was something I had never seen in a house of that size. Not even oil lamps reinforced the flickering flames. I thought I had arrived in a fairy story.” She goes on to write, “ The dining room table was set with more candles, the only light in that high-ceilinged room, which I imagine had not been used for years. The first course was melon, followed by cold beef, and then melon for pudding.” In 1981, Harpur Crewe died and Calke Abby was ceded to the National Trust. While the truly eccentric family has long since gone, I can’t wait to go and visit. It has been preserved to show a country house ‘in decline’, just as the family left it, with strange and wonderful cabinets of curiosities and no sense of the twenty-first century, let alone the twentieth. Debo notes, “The clutter that filled the house from hall to attic, including natural history objects collected over centuries, are still there. The four-poster bed, a wedding to the Fifth Baronet and Lady Caroline Manners from Princess Anne, daughter of King George II, has been unpacked. It had been in packing cases since it arrived from London in 1734.” She says, “When Harpur Crewe was asked why the great bed, one of the treasures of great houses of Great Britain, had never been unpacked, he responded, “Oh, I don’t know. I suppose they had something else to do.” Perhaps most satisfactorily, the book brings the reader right up to the present. She invites you in to the vicarage, where you meet her assistant and grandchildren and old retainers, including an ancient butler. It’s all very unpretentious and cozy, and you love her for it. “I find twenty roses as interesting as two hundred, and so on down the line,” she writes. “There is lots more to come. I look back on a wonderful life watching other people work.” ‘Wait for Me” by Deborah Devonshire. I recommend that you acquire the American edition, with a glorious black and white portrait of Debo on the cover, shot by Beaton. Biographical notes: Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire DCVO (born 31 March 1920), née The Hon. Deborah Freeman-Mitford is the youngest and last surviving of the six noted Mitford sisters whose political affiliations and marriages were a prominent feature of English culture in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, England. BOOKS BY DEBORAH DEVONSHIRE: Chatsworth: The House (1980; revised edition 2002) The Estate: A View from Chatsworth (1990) The Farmyard at Chatsworth (1991) — for children Treasures of Chatsworth: A Private View (1991) The Garden at Chatsworth (1999) Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts (2002) — essays. The Chatsworth Cookery Book (2003) Round and About Chatsworth (2005) Memories of Andrew Devonshire (2007) In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor (2008), edited by Charlotte Mosley Home to Roost . . . and Other Peckings (2009) Wait for Me!... Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister (2010) For more information on Chatsworth: www.chatsworth.org Photography from a variety of sources, including chatsworth.org press office, the Mitford and Devonshire archive, www.guardian.co.uk, Mitford books, and ‘Wait for Me’ published in the UK by Murray.

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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALBUM III – Deel 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bourgondië – Keizer Karel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margareta van Male en Filips de Stoute In 1369 huwde Margareta van Male met de hertog van Bourgondie Filips de Stoute. Bij de dood van Lodewijk van Male in1384 erfde zij het graafschap Vlaanderen. Voortaan zou het huis van Bourgondië over onze gewesten heersen. Jan Zonder Vrees en Margareta van Beieren De zoon van Filips de Stoute en Margareta van Male werd Jan Zonder Vrees genoemd. Hij huwde met Margareta van Beieren, uit het Henegouwse huis. Zo werd de latere vereniging van alle gewesten van ons land voorbereid. (Afbeelding naar onbekende meesters-Vlaamse School) De moord op Jan zonder Vrees Jan Zonder Vrees, hertog van Bourgondie en graaf van Vlaanderen, werd op de brug van Montereau door de aanhangers van de dauphin van Frankrijk, de latere Karel VII, vermoord, omdat hij het regentschap over dit land had willen uitoefenen. Filips de Goede In 1419 werd Filips de Goede, de zoon van Jan zonder Vrees, hertog van Bourgondie en graaf van Vlaanderen. In de loop van zijn vijftigjarige regering zou hij de eenheid van het latere België verwezenlijken. (Afbeelding naar Rogier van der Weyden) Kaart van Bourgondië Al de vroegere lenen van ons land zal Filips de Goede achtereenvolgens onder zijn gezag brengen: Namen, Brabant - Limburg, Henegouwen - Holland - Zeeland - Friesland, het Bisdom Luik en de steden aan de Somme. Het geheel noemde men toen "Nederlanden", in het frans "Pays de par-deça". Wapenschild van Bourgondië Filips de Goede zou één van de machtigste vorsten van Europa worden. Hij wordt de Grote Hertog van het Westen genoemd, en het blazoen van Bourgondie wordt voortaan met bewondering en ontzag begroet. Bourgondie wordt door de leliebloemen en de azuren baren op gouden veld voorgesteld, Brabant door de gouden leeuw op zwart veld, Limburg door de rode leeuw op zilveren veld en Vlaanderen door de zwarte leeuw op gouden veld. Jan IV van Brabant Joanna, hertogin van Brabant-Limburg, had haar erflanden aan Antoon van Bourgondie, de tweede zoon van Filips de Stoute, nagelaten. De oudste zoon van Antoon werd een zwak mens en een onbekwaam prins. Hij regeerde onder de naam Jan IV en liet geen kinderen achter. (Afbeelding naar onbekende meester-Vlaamse School) De Leuvense Universiteit Jan IV van Brabant hechtte zijn naam aan de stichting van de universiteit te Leuven. Deze opende haar deuren in 1426 en telde weldra verscheiden duizenden studenten die uit allerlei landen afkomstig waren. Jacoba van Beieren De laatste gravin van Henegouwen-Holland-Zeeland-Friesland was Jacoba van Beieren, een nicht van Filips de Goede. Zij leidde een veelbewogen leven, huwde vier maal en stond tenslotte haar erflanden aan de hertog van Bourgondie af. (Afbeelding portrettenverzameling Atrecht) Bourgondische soldaten Filips de Goede had zijn macht te danken aan zijn diplomatieke bekwaamheid en een flink ingericht leger. De Bourgondische kruisboogschutters stonden als dappere soldaten bekend. Het Perron van Luik Het symbool van de Luikse onafhankelijkheid en privilegiën was het beroemde "Perron". Filips de Goede kwam tussenbeide in de zaken van Luik, onder voorwendsel zijn neef, de prinsbisschop Lodewijk van Bourbon, te beschermen, onderdruktte hij de opstand van Raes van Heers bij Montenaken en legde de vrede van Sint-Truiden op, waarbij de hertog van Bourgondie als mamboer van het prinsbisdom erkend werd. De Gelofte op de Fazant Zo groot was het gezag van Filips de Goede in Europa, dat hij beloofde een kruistocht tegen de Turken te ondernemen. Die in 1453 Konstantinopel hadden ingenomen. Deze verbintenis bevestigde hij op een feestmaal te Rijsel door een eed die de Gelofte op de Fazant genoemd werd. Isabella van Portugal Filips de Goede huwde driemaal. Zijn derde vrouw was Isabella van Portugal. Uit dit huwelijk werd een zoon, de toekomstige Karel de Stoute, geboren. (Afbeelding naar onbekende meester -Vlaamse School - Louvre-Parijs) Het Gulden Vlies Bij gelegenheid van zijn huwelijk met Isabella van Portugal stichtte Filips de Goede te Brugge in 1430 de Orde van Gulden Vlies. De Gulden Vliesridders droegen een vuurrood gewaad en een gouden halsketen waaraan een kleinood hing, dat een schaap voorstelde. Seyssens In 1453 kwamen de Gentenaars tegen Filips de Goede in opstand. Zij werden verpletterd in de slag bij Gavere, de laatste grote slad van het tijdvak der gemeenten. De Gentse standaarddrager Seyssens sneuvelde op het slagveld bij Merelbeke, met zijn vaandel recht in de hand. Nicolaas Rolin Om de eenheid van bestuur in zijn gebieden te bevorderen bracht Filips de Goede nieuwe instellingen tot stand. De Grote Raad van Bourgondie was de eerste regering van ons land. Aan het hoofd stond Nikolaas Rolin, Groot Kanselier van Bourgondie. (Afbeelding naar Jan van Eyck – Louvre) Dinant gaat in vlammen op Een geschil met het prinsbisdom Luik bracht Filips de Goede ertoe de stad Dinant te bezetten, die hij liet plunderen en in brand te steken. Filips de Goede was onverbiddelijk voor hen die zich tegen zijn plannen verzetten. Vooral wanneer zij door vreemde mogendheden aangestookt waren. Karel de Stoute In 1467 werd Karel van Charolais, zoon van Filips de Goede, onze vorst. Wij hebben hem Karel de Stoute genoemd. Hij was krachtdadig, rechtschapen, maar opvliegend van aard. (Afbeelding naar een miniatuur uit de 15de eeuw) Lodewijk XI te Péronne gevangengenomen De gevaarlijkste tegenstander van Karel de Stoute was de koning van Frankrijk Lodewijk XI. Deze trachtte hem herhaaldelijk te verraden maar werd eens in zijn eigen strikken gevangen. Tijdens een ontmoeting te Péronne nam Karel de Stoute Lodewijk XI gevangen en dwong hem naar Luik mee te gaan om er de bestraffing van zijn bondgenoten, de Luikenaars, bij te wonen. De 600 Franchimontezen Nadat de Luikenaars met Lodewijk XI een verbond tegen Karel de Stoute gesloten hadden, kwam deze de hoogten rondom de stad bezetten. 600 man uit het land van Franchimont trachtten, onder bevel van Josse de Streel, het kamp van de hertog van Bourgondie te overvallen, maar zij werden allen in de nacht van 29 oktober 1468 afgemaakt. Margareta van York De derde vrouw van Karel de Stoute was een Engelse prinses, Margareta van York. De vorst had toen al een dochter, Maria van Bourgondie, die in Margareta van York een tweede moeder en een trouwe vriendin kreeg. (Afbeelding naar Memlinc - Suresnes) Nancy Nadat hij het oude Lotharingen had hersteld door de Elzas en Lotharingen in te lijven, belegerde Karel de Stoute in 1477 de stad Nancy. Hij vond er de dood in een gevecht waarvan de omstandigheden duister gebleven zijn. Zijn lijk werd, half verslonden door de wolven, onder de sneeuw terug gevonden. Maria van Bourgondie vóór het schavot Karel de Stoute liet als erfegname zijn dochter Maria van Bourgondie achter. Zij verloor Bourgondie, Picardie, de Elzas, Lotharingen en andere gewesten. De Gentenaars kwamen in opstand en lieten haar twee beste ministers Hugenot en Humbercourt onthoofden. Tevergeefs kwam de hertogin om genade voor hen smeken. Maximiliaan Maria van Bourgondie was pas 19 toen zij haar vader opvolgde, en bevond zich in een hachelijke toestand. Gelukkig huwde zij en vond hulp en steun bij haar man, Maximiliaan, aartshertog van Oostenrijk. (Afbeelding naar Ambroise de Prédis - Wenen) Wapenschild van Oostenrijk Het huwelijk van Maria van Bourgondië met Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk had voor ons land gewichtige gevolgen. Voortaan zal het huis van Habsburg over onze provinciën heersen. Onze vorsten zullen niet meer ons land alleen regeren. Al blijven zij onze "natuurlijke vorsten", zij vervreemden steeds meer van ons. De dood van Maria van Bourgondië Maria van Bourgondië en Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk hadden twee kinderen: Filips de Schone en Margareta van Oostenrijk die pas vier en twee jaar oud waren toen de hertogin aan de gevolgen van een val van haar paard tijdens een jachtpartij in het bos van Wijnendale bij Brugge, overleed. Het verzande Zwin Grote veranderingen deden zich in ons land in de eeuw van Bourgondië voor. Terwijl Antwerpen een bloeiende stad werd, geraakten de oude gemeenten in Vlaanderen in verval. Ten gevolge van de verzanding van het Zwin ging Brugge's welvaart ten onder. Ommegang De 15de eeuw was een eeuw van welvaart voor ons land. Het was de tijd der Renaissance. De rederijkerskamers zetten grootse toneelvoorstellingen op touw. Er werden ook weelderige en vermakelijke stoeten, de ommegangen, ingericht. Het stadhuis te Leuven De hoge bloei der kunsten verleende aan de eeuw van Bourgondië haar roem. In de bouwkunst was het de gouden tijd van de vlammende Gotiek. Door bouwmeester Mattheus de Laeyens werd het prachtige stadhuis te Leuven opgetrokken. Het stadhuis te Brussel Eén van de mooiste gebouwen uit de 15de eeuw is het stadhuis te Brussel. Verscheidene bouwmeesters werkten er aan mee, wat het gebrek aan eenheid verklaart. De toren, een echt stenen kantwerk, werd door Jan van Ruysbroeck ontworpen. De Mozesput Onder de grote beeldhouwers uit de 15de eeuw dient Claus Sluter vermeld te worden. Door hem werden de praalgraven van de hertogen van Bourgondië, alsook de prachtige Mozesput te Dijon, gebeeldhouwd. Het Lam Gods van de Gebroeders van Eyck De schilders van de Vlaamse School, Primitieven genaamd, hebben de eeuw van Filips de Goede beroemd gemaakt. Van de Gebroeders Jan en Hubrecht van Eyck bewondert men te Gent het altaarstuk: De Aanbidding van het Lam Gods. De uitvinding van de olieverf wordt hun toegeschreven. Het St. Ursulaschrijn van H. Memlinc Grote kunstenaars zoals van der Weyden en van der Goes behoren ook tot de school van de Vlaamse Primitieven. Eén van de merkwaardigste is Hans Memlinc die het beroemde Sint Ursulaschrijn schilderde dat in het Sint Janshospitaal te Brugge bewaard wordt. Dirk Maertens te Aalst Vóór de 15de eeuw ten einde was werden in ons land drukkerijen opgericht. Eén van de eerste werd door Dirk Maertens te Aalst gesticht. Filips de Schone en Joanna de Waanzinnige Filips deSchone, de zoon van Maria van Bourgondië, huwde met Joanna van Aragon, erfgename van de koninkrijken van Spanje en Beide Siciliën. Het was een schitterend maar ongelukkig huwelijk want Joanna werd in haar verstand gekrenkt. Zij werd Joanna de Waanzinnige genoemd. (Afbeelding naar de meester van St. Jozef, Wenen en Franse School) De zes kinderen Filips de Schone en Joanna de Waanzinnige hadden zes kinderen: Eleonora, die later koningin van Frankrijk werd, Karel V, Maria, die koningin van Hongarije werd, Ferdinand, later keizer van Duitsland, Isabella, die koningin van Zweden - Denemarken – Noorwegen werd, en Katharina, koningin van Portugal . Margareta van Oostenrijk Filips de Schone stierf te Burgos in Spanje in 1506. Zijn zes kinderen waren zeer jong en zijn weduwe krankzinnig. Gelukkig zorgde zijn zuster, de goede Margareta van Oostenrijk, voor de wezen. Zij werd regentes van de Nederlanden en vestigde zich te Mechelen. Ze toonde zich een schrandere vorstin. (Afbeelding naar Bernard van Orley, Brussel) Het “Wilde Zwijn” der Ardennen In het begin van de regering van de Habsburgers, leefde het bisdom Luik onder het schrikbewind van Willem van der Marck, en later van Everard van der Marck het “Wilde Zwijn” der Ardennen. Eén van hun schuilplaatsen was het kasteel te Logne. De jonge Keizer Karel De oudste zoon van Filips de Schone, Karel werd te Gent geboren in 1500. Op zesjarige leeftijd werd hij onze vorst. Toen hij zestien jaar oudwas, werd hij koning van Spanje en Napels en kwam meteen in het bezit van de Amerikaanse koloniën. Toen hij 19 was erfde hij Oostenrijk en werd tot keizer Karel V van Duitsland gekozen. (Afbeelding naar onbekend meester – Vlaamse School) Kaart van de XVII Provinciën Karel V gaf aan onze Nederlandse gewesten een buitengewone macht. Hij maakte ze tot een groot land met XVII provinciën. Bende van Ordonantie Om de XVII provinciën te verdedigen richtte Karel V de bende van ordonnantie op. Het was een keurkorps dat uitsluitend uit Belgische edellieden bestond en in de meeste landen van Europa en tot in Afrika grote roem verwierf. Karel V te Mühlberg De benden van ordonnantie verzekerden aan Keizer Karel de overwinning over de koning van Frankrijk, Frans I bij Pavia alsook over het Verbond van de Protestantse prinsen bij Mühlberg in Duitsland. Op dit slagveld voerde de Keizer zelf het bevel over die keurtroepen. (Afbeelding naar Titian, Prado -Madrid) Maria van Hongarije Toen zijn tante, Margaretha van Oostenrijk, in 1530 overleed, stelde Keizer Karel zijn zuster, Maria van Hongarije, een jonge weduwe, tot landsvoogdes van de XVII provinciën aan. Zij was een verstandige vrouw en bestuurde met veel talent ons land in de plaats van haar broederr die bijna altijd afwezig was. Zij vestigde haar hofhouding te Brussel. (Afbeelding naar Antonio Moro - Edinburg) De ”Gilles” van Binche Tijdens een bezoek dat Karel V aan zijn zuster Maria van Hongarije op het kasteel te Binche bracht, richtten de inwoners van deze stad grote feesten in ter ere van hun "natuurlijke prins". Hun verkleding als Peruviaanse Inca's zou de oorsprong van de "Gilles" geweest zijn. Klokke Roeland uit het Belfort gehaald Keizer Karel was zeer geliefd. De Gentenaars kwamen evenwel tegen hem in opstand ofschoon hij hun stadsgenoot was. Zij werden zwaar gestraft. De keizer liet hun stormklok "Klokke Roeland" wegnemen en verplichtte hun magistraten, met de strop om de hals, om genade te smeken. De Gentenaars hebben nu de bijnaam "Stroppendragers". Hagepreken Het godsdienstige probleem was één van de hoofdzorgen van Karel V. Protestantse predikanten verspreidden de denkbeelden van Luther en Calvijn, vooral op het land, de zogenaamde Hagepreken. Hun invloed was zo groot dat Keizer Karel voor zijn gezag vreesde. Anna Bijns De protestantse theorieën verwekten een reactie bij de katholieken. Een nederige Antwerpse begijn, Anna Bijns, schreef vurige gedichten om de ketterse denkbeelden te bestrijden. De Inquisitie Karel V trachtte de bedrijvigheid van de protestanten tegen te werken. Hij trof tegen hen drastische maatregelen. Hij vaardigde plakkaten uit en deed een beroep op de Inquisitie. Verscheidene ketters werden levend verbrand. Hadrianus VI De vroegere gouverneur van Karel V, Hadriaan Floriszoon uit Utrecht, werd paus onder de naam Hadrianus VI. Met de steun van de Keizer ondernam hij een grote hervormingsbeweging in de kerk. (Afbeelding naar onbekend meester - Vlaamse School - Anderlecht) Van Berken slijpt diamanten De eerste helft van de 16de eeuw was misschien de schitterendste tijd van onze geschiedenis. Het lijkt wel of de Belgen toen in alles de eersten wilden zijn. Zo was de Bruggeling van Berken de uitvinder van de diamantslijperij. Kantwerksters Onder Karel V kenden alle kunsten een hoge opbloei in onze rijke Nederlanden. Onze kantwerksters toverden prachtstukken in Brugse, Brusselse of Mechelse steek, terwijl onze bouwmeesters gebouwen als stenen kantwerken optrokken en onze beiaarden hun frisse wijzen speelden. Wandtapijten De welvaart was groot ten tijde van Keizer Karel. De hogere burgerij bouwde statige herenhuizen waarvan de muren met prachtige wandtapijten versierd werden. Onze tapijtwevers, vooral de Brusselse, waren over heel de wereld befaamd. Het kanaal van Willebroek Om de welvaart van Brussel, de nieuwe hoofdstadvan de XVII Provinciën, te bevorderen, liet Karel V het kanaal van Willebroek graven, dat Brussel, langs de Rupel en Antwerpen, met de zee zou verbinden. (Naar Deel 2 van ALBUM III)

We are always looking for fashionable ways of keeping our hair out of our faces during these unbearable summer days. A look at 17 practical yet stylish ponytails through the years, on everyone from tennis players to royals.