17. Wars of the Roses
Miracle of the Roses
Knight Swan ancestry was linked very early with the English crown, beginning in 1125 with the marriage of Stephen, King of England, to Matilda, the daughter of Eustace III of Bouillon, the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I of Jerusalem. Matilda’s mother was Mary of Scotland, the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland and Margaret of Wessex, the daughter of Edward the Exile and Agatha of Bulgaria. Like her brother, David I of Scotland, Matilda was a supporter of the Templars. Stephen was the son of Stephen, Count of Blois, leader of the Princes’ Crusade, and Adela, the daughter of William the Conqueror. Stephen’s brother was Henry of Blois, Abbot of Glastonbuy, Bishop of Winchester, the author of Perlesvaus, who also used Geoffrey of Monmouth as a nom de plume to write Historia Regum Britanniae, which was largely responsible for formulating the image of Arthur. Their step-brother was Hugh, Count of Champagne, one of the founding members of the Templars, who was in contact with Rashi.
Early descendants of the Knight Swan included Ferdinand III of Castile and Edward I of England.[1] Edward I of England married Eleanor of Castile, step-sister of Alfonso X of Castile and the daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile, who merged the Order of Calatrava into that of the Order of Monfrague. Their son, Edward II of England, married Isabella of France, the daughter of Philip IV le Bel of France and Joan I of Navarre, the granddaughter of Theobald IV of Champagne. Despite the fact that his grandfather Philip IV le Bel ordered the arrest of the Templars in 1312, Edward II’s son, Edward III of England, founded the neo-Templar Order of the Garter, inspired by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Edward III, who was king of England from 1327 to 1377, led England into the Hundred Years’ War with France, and the descendants of his seven sons and five daughters contested the throne for generations, climaxing in a series of civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–85). The name “Wars of the Roses” refers to the heraldic badges associated with the two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet who fought for control of the English crown: the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster.
It may have been through their intermarriage with the descendants of Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile that the Plantagenets adopted the Sufi symbol of the rose, which according to the Zohar—written in Toledo during the time of Alfonso X of Castile—symbolizes the “Jewish congregation.” The name “rose of Sharon” first appears in English in 1611. In the Song of Solomon, according to King James Version of the Bible, the beloved—speaking for the mystical Shekhinah—says “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” The Zohar opens by stating that the rose and the alternate symbol of the lily symbolize Knesset Yisrael, “the Collective soul roots of Israel… Just as a rose, which is found amidst the thorns, has within it the colors red and white, also Knesset Yisrael has within her both judgment and loving kindness.”[2] The lily came to represent the royal house of France, while the rose became the heraldic symbol of the two competing rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet involved in the War of the Roses: red rose of the House of Lancaster and the white rose of the House of York.
The context of the founding of the Order of the Garter was the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), a series of conflicts waged between the House of Plantagenet and its cadet House of Lancaster, the rulers of the Kingdom of England, and the House of Valois over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. Tensions between the French and English crowns dated back centuries to the origins of the English royal family, which was French, and more specifically Norman, and later, Angevin in origin, since William the Conqueror, became King of England in 1066. English monarchs had therefore historically held titles and lands within France, which made them vassals to the kings of France.
The House of Plantagenet, descendants of the House of Anjou, the House of Luxembourg and French House of Lusignan—all descended, according to medieval folk legends from the dragon spirit Melusine, who was akin to the echidna, the half-woman and half-snake, who was the purported ancestress of the Scythians, from whom the Hungarians traced their descent.[3] These dynastic alliances were founders of the Order of the Dragon and the Order of the Garter, based on the legend of Saint George, founded by Charles I of Hungary. They were all descendants of kings of Hungary and Poland from Boleslav I the Cruel, the conduit for the Schechter Letter of Hasdai ibn Shaprut to King Joseph of the Khazars, and through the Plantagenets through his great-granddaughter Agatha of Bulgaria. Richeza of Poland, the second cousin of Agatha of Bulgaria, married Bela I Arpad, whose daughter Sophia of Hungary married Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony.
The House of Billung, to which belonged the grandmother of Otto the Great, merged into the House of Welf and House of Ascania (also known as House of Anhalt) when Magnus died in 1106 without a male heir. The family’s property was divided between his two daughters. Eilika married Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, the first Ascanian prince to call himself count of Anhalt. His son, Albert the Bear, later conquered Brandenburg and called himself its first margrave. Eilika’s sister Wulfhilde married Henry the Black, whose daughter, Judith of Bavaria, married Frederick II, Duke of Swabia, was the mother of Frederick Barbarossa. Judith’s brother, Henry the Proud, was the father of Henry the Lion, who married Matilda of England, the daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Isabella’s brother, John, King of England, was the father of Henry III of England and his sister, Isabella of England, who married Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, the grandson of Frederick Barbarossa.
The entire family network would have been aware of the significance of their ancestry from Hungary, and their descent from Magog, the claimed ancestor of the Scythians, and the Khazars, as the Gesta Hungarorum was written by Anonymous, the notary of Bela III of Hungary. Bela III was the great-great-grandson of Bela I of Hungary and Richeza of Poland, the second cousin of Agatha of Bulgaria. Bela III married Agnes of Antioch, who was associated with Pontigny Abbey of the Cistercians. Agnes was the ancestress of all subsequent Kings of Hungary, and from her descended the Kings of Bohemia from the Přemyslid, Luxembourg, Jagiellon and Habsburg families. Agnes and Bela III’s children included Emeric of Hungary (1174 – 1204); Margaret (1175 – after 1223), who married Emperor Isaac II Angelos, Boniface I of Thessalonica and thirdly of Nicolas of Saint-Omer; Andrew II of Hungary (c. 1177 – 1235); and Constance (c. 1180 – 1240), the wife of king Ottokar I of Bohemia.
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and the Miracle of the Roses
Genealogy of the Order of the War of the Roses
Richeza of Poland + Béla I of Hungary (great-grandson of Taksony by Geza’s brother Michael. Son of )
Géza I of Hungary + Sophia
Álmos of Hungary + Predslava of Kiev
Béla II of Hungary + Helena of Serbia
Béla III of Hungary (GESTA HUNGARORUM written by his notary, known as Anonymus) + Agnes of Antioch
Andrew II of Hungary + Gertrude of Merania
Béla IV of Hungary + Maria Laskarina
Stephen V of Hungary + Elizabeth the Cuman
Maria of Hungary + Charles II of Naples (son of Charles I of Anjou)
Charles Martel + Clemence of Austria
Charles I of Hungary (founder of the Order of Saint George) + Elizabeth of Poland (great-great-granddaughter of Bolesław III Wrymouth)
Louis I of Hungary (gave Chronicon Pictum or ILLUMINATED CHRONICLE to Charles V of France)
Mary, Queen of Hungary + EMPEROR SIGISMUND (no issue)
Catherine of Hungary + Henry II of Świdnica (son of Bernard of Świdnica and his wife Kunigunde of Poland)
Anna von Schweidnitz + Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (see below)
Margaret, Countess of Anjou + Charles, Count of Valois (see below)
Eleanor of Anjou + Frederick III of Sicily (see below)
John, Duke of Durazzo + Agnes of Périgord
Ladislaus IV of Hungary (GESTA HUNNORUM ET HUNGARORUM, which is dated to 1282–1285, was written mainly by Simon of Kéza, a court cleric)
ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY + Louis IV, Landgrave of Thuringia (son of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia, patron of Grail author Wolfram von Eschenbach)
Sophie of Thuringia + Henry II, Duke of Brabant (son of Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and Mathilde of Flanders, granddaughter of STEPHEN, KING OF ENGLAND snf Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne, niece of GODFREY OF BOULLION and BALDWIN I OF JERUSALEM, purported grandchildren of the KNIGHT SWAN)
Andrew II of Hungary + Yolanda of Courtenay (sister of Baldwin II, Latin Emperor)
Violant of Hungary + JAMES I OF ARAGON (raised by TEMPLARS, and son of PETER II OF ARAGON, killed at the BATTLE OF MURET supporting CATHARS, founder of the ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE OF ALFAMA)
Violant + ALFONSO X OF CASTILE, el Astrologo
Sancho IV of Castile (had affair with Rachel the Beautiful, Jewess of Toledo)
Ferdinand IV of Castile + Constance of Portugal (see below)
Beatrice of Castile + Afonso IV of Portugal (see below)
Beatrice of Castile + Afonso III of Portugal (see below)
Peter III of Aragon + Constance, Queen of Sicily (g-d. of FREDERICK II, Holy Roman Emperor)
JAMES II OF ARAGON (founder of the ORDER OF MONTESA) + Blanche of Anjou
Alfonso IV of Aragon + Teresa d'Entença
Peter IV of Aragon + Eleanor of Sicily (see below)
ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL (also of the MIRACLE OF THE ROSES) + DENIS I OF PORTUGAL (founder of the ORDER OF CHRIST)
Constance of Portugal + Ferdinand IV of Castile (see above)
Alfonso XI of Castile + Maria of Portugal (see below)
Afonso IV of Portugal (Grand Master of the ORDER OF CHRIST) + Beatrice of Castile (see above)
Maria of Portugal + Alfonso XI of Castile (see above)
Peter of Castile + María de Padilla
Isabella of Castile + Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (see below)
Peter I of Portugal + Teresa Lourenço
John I of Portugal + Philippa of Lancaster (see below)
FREDERICK III OF SICILY (hired Templar Roger de Flor) + Eleanor of Anjou (see above)
Peter II of Sicily + Elizabeth of Carinthia (see below)
Constance of Sicily, Queen of Cyprus + HENRY II OF LUSIGNAN (transferred property of Templars to Hospitallers. In contact with Ramon Llull)
Elisabeth of Sicily + Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria
James II of Majorca (student of Raymond Llull) + Esclaramunda of Foix (her grandfather was a cousin of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, identified with Perceval)
Isabella of Aragon + Philip III of France
PHILIP IV “LE BEL” OF FRANCE (ordered arrest of Templars in 1312) + Joan I of Navarre (g-d of Theobald IV of Champagne)
Isabella of France + EDWARD II OF ENGLAND
EDWARD III OF ENGLAND (founder of the ORDER OF THE GARTER)
Edward the Black Prince + Joan of Kent
Richard II of England + Anne of Bohemia (see below)
Isabella, Countess of Bedford + Enguerrand VII de Coucy (possible author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster + Blanche of Lancaster
Philippa of Lancaster + John I of Portugal (see above)
EDWARD I OF PORTUGAL + Eleanor of Aragon (d. of Ferdinand I of Aragon)
PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR (Grand Master of the ORDER OF CHRIST)
Isabella of Portugal + PHILIP THE GOOD (see below)
Henry IV of England + Mary de Bohun
Henry V of England (ORDER OF THE DRAGON) + Catherine of Valois (see below)
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York + Isabella of Castile (d. of Peter of Castile)
Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge + Anne Mortimer
Richard Duke of York + Cecily Neville
Edward IV of England + Elizabeth Woodville (d. of Jacquetta of Luxembourg, fourth cousin twice removed of EMPEROR SIGISMUND)
Elizabeth of York + Henry VII of England
Henry VIII, King of England
Richard III of England + Anne Neville
Constance of Hungary + Ottokar I of Bohemia
Wenceslaus I of Bohemia + Kunigunde of Swabia
Vladislaus III of Moravia
Ottokar II of Bohemia + Kunigunda of Halych
Kunigunde + Boleslaus II of Masovia
Agnes + Rudolf II, Duke of Austria (son of Rudolf I of Germany, first king of Germany from the House of Habsburg)
John Parricida
Wenceslaus II of Bohemia + Judith of Habsburg (daughter of Rudolf I of Germany)
Wenceslaus III of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia + John the Blind (see above)
Bonne of Luxembourg + John II of France (see below)
Charles V of France + Joanna of Bourbon
Charles VI of France + Isabeau of Bavaria
Charles VII of France + Marie of Anjou (see below)
Catherine of Valois + Henry V of England (see above)
Henry VI of England + Margaret of Anjou (see below)
Louis I, Duke of Orléans + Valentina Visconti (see below)
Louis I, Duke of Anjou + Marie of Blois
Louis II of Anjou + Yolande of Aragon (see below)
JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY (requested that Jean d’Arras write the Roman de Mélusine or the Chronique de Melusine part of Le Noble Hystoire de Lusignan) + Joanna of Armagnac
PHILIP THE BOLD + Margaret III, Countess of Flanders
John the Fearless + Margaret of Bavaria (see above)
Mary of Burgundy + Adolph I, Duke of Cleves (see above)
PHILIP THE GOOD (founder of the ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE) + Isabella of Portugal ()
Anne + John, Duke of Bedford
Agnes + Charles I, Duke of Bourbon
Joan, Queen of Navarre + Charles II of Navarre
MARIE OF VALOIS, Duchess of Bar + Robert I, Duke of Bar (see above)
Henry of Bar + Marie de Coucy, Countess of Soissons (d. of Enguerrand VII de Coucy, possible author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
Yolande of Bar + John I of Aragon (see above)
Yolande of Aragon + Louis II of Anjou (see above)
Louis III of Anjou
Marie of Anjou + Charles VII of France (see above)
Louis XI of France + Charlotte of Savoy
Charles VIII of France + Anne of Brittany
RENE OF ANJOU (Grand Master of PRIORY OF SION) + Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine
Margaret of Anjou + Henry VI of England (see above)
Edward, Prince of Wales
YOLANDE OF BAR (Grand Master of the PRIORY OF SION) + Ferri de Vaudemont (Order of the Crescent, with FRANCESO I SFORZA)
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor + Blanche of Valois (see above)
Margaret of Bohemia + Louis I of Hungary
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor + Anne of the Palatinate
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor + Anna von Schweidnitz
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans (no issue)
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor + Elizabeth of Pomerania
SIGISMUND, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (founder of the ORDER OF THE DRAGON) + Barbara of Cilli
Elizabeth of Luxembourg + Albert II of Germany
Anne, Queen of England + King Richard II (son of Edward the Black Prince, founder of the Order of the Garter)
Eilika of Saxony + Otto of Ballenstedt (grandson of Esiko, Count of Ballenstedt, earliest member of House of Ascania)
Albert the Bear + Sophie of Winzenburg (see Genealogy of the House of Anhalt)
Saint Margaret released from the dragon (satan)
In 1216, the newly elected Pope Honorius III once again called upon Andrew II of Hungary to fulfill his father’s vow to lead a crusade. The leaders of what became part of the Fifth Crusades included John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, Leopold of Austria, the Grand Masters of the Hospitallers, the Templars and the Teutonic Knights. In early November, the Crusaders launched a campaign for the Jordan River, forcing Al-Adil I, Sultan of Egypt, to withdraw without fighting; and then pillaged Beisan. After returning to Acre, Andrew did not participate in any other military actions, but instead he collected relics, including a water jug allegedly used at the marriage at Cana, the right hands of the Apostles Thomas and Bartholomew, a part of Aaron’s rod, and the heads of Saint Stephen and Margaret the Virgin.
According to the Golden Legend, Saint Margaret was a native of Antioch and the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. When mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a Christian woman. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, Margaret was disowned by her father, adopted by her nurse. Olybrius, Governor of the Roman Diocese of the East, asked to marry her, but with the demand that she renounced Christianity. Upon her refusal, she was cruelly tortured, during which various miraculous incidents occurred. One of these involved being swallowed by Satan in the shape of a dragon, from which she escaped alive when the cross she carried irritated the dragon’s innards.
In 1211, Andrew II accepted the services of the Teutonic Knights and granted them the district of Burzenland in Transylvania. During the rule of Hermann von Salza (1209 – 1239), the fourth Grand Master, the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. As a friend and councilor of his cousin Emperor Frederick II, Hermann achieved the recognition of the order as of equal status with the older military orders of the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar by Pope Honorius III. Frederick II elevated Hermann to the status of Reichsfürst, or “Prince of the Empire,” enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with other senior princes as an equal. During Frederick II’s coronation as King of Jerusalem in 1225, Teutonic Knights served as his escort in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Andrew II had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth of Hungary with the son of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1217), whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Elizabeth of Hungary is best known for what is known as the “miracle of the roses.” According to the fable, while Elizabeth was taking bread to the poor in secret, she met her husband Ludwig on a hunting party. In order to quell suspicions that she was stealing treasure from the castle, he asked her to reveal what was hidden under her cloak, which at that moment fell open to reveal a vision of white and red roses, which proved to Ludwig that God was protecting her work.[4] From her support of the friars sent to Thuringia, she was made known to the founder, St Francis of Assisi, who sent her a personal message of blessing shortly before his death in 1226. Upon her canonization she was declared the patron saint of the Third Order of St Francis. After her death in 1231, Saint Elizabeth was commonly associated with the Third Order of Saint Francis, the primarily lay branch of the Franciscan Order, which has helped propagate her cult.
At the age of four, Elizabeth of Hungary, also later known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, was sent by her mother to the Wartburg Castle to be raised to become consort of Hermann I’s son, Landgrave Louis IV of Thuringia (1200 – 1227). Wartburg Castle had been one of the most important princes’ courts in the Holy Roman Empire when it belonged to Hermann I, the second son of Louis II, Landgrave of Thuringia (the Iron), and Judith of Hohenstaufen, the sister of Frederick Barbarossa. After the death of his first wife in 1195, Hermann I married Sophia, daughter of Otto of Wittelsbach (1117 – 1183), called the Redhead. By her he had four sons, three of whom was Louis IV, Henry Raspe and Conrad I, who succeeded Hermann von Salza as fifth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.[5]
Hermann I supported poets like Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach who wrote part of his Parzival at Wartburg Castle in 1203. A contemporary poem known as the Wartburgkrieg presented the story of the Knight of the Swan Lohengrin as Wolfram’s entry in a story-telling contest held at Wartburg by Hermann I.[6] Wolfram and Walther von der Vogelweide were to compete against Heinrich von Ofterdingen, who supported the Duke of Austria, in a contest involving comparisons between the sun, daylight and the stars. Ofterdingen was the most eloquent, but earned the envy of the other minstrels, who tricked him into earning a death sentence. Ofterdingen gained the protection of Hermann’s wife Sophia who granted him a year’s grace to bring the magician Klingsor of Hungary, who knew each star by name. In the Rätselspiel (“mystery game”), the subsequent poetic duel between Wolfram and Klingsor, Wolfram proved himself capable and eloquent, and when Klingsor grew weary he summoned a demon to continue the duel. When Wolfram began to sing of the Christian mysteries, the demon was unable to respond. Klingsor predicted the birth of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who would spend two thirds of her short life, from 1211–1228, at the Wartburg. The story was immortalized in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, involving the Minnesingers and the myth of Venus and her subterranean realm of Venusberg.
In Wolfram’s story, Wartburg is the Grail castle Munsalvaesche, where Parzival’s son, the Knight Swan Loherangrin, hears a call of distress from Elsa of Brabant, who is being held prisoner in the castle of Cleves, modern Kleve, Germany. The principal French versions of the romance are Le Chevalier au Cygne and Helyas. The first mention of Helyas is when arrives on the scene when the Emperor Henry IV held court at Neumagen to decide a claim by the Count of Frankfort for the duchy of Bouillon, then held by Ida of Louvain, the widow of the Duke of Bouillon. Helyas of Lorraine won the battle, and married Ida, by whom he begot Geoffrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade. When Ida betrays her promise not to ask his identity, Helyas leaves her, never to return. Helyas then married Elsa of Brabant, producing a son, Elimar, who married Rixa, the heiress of Oldenburg, and became the Count of Oldenburg.[7] Helyas then marries Beatrix of Cleves and becomes king of Francia. They have three sons: Diederik, who succeeded his father in the county of Cleves; Godfrey, who became count of Lohn; and Konrad, who became ancestor of the counts of Hesse.[8]
Families who laid particular claim as the descendants of the Knight Swan were the houses of Brabant, Cleves, and Brandenburg.[9] The Swan line of Cleves was particularly celebrated.[10] The Schwanritter by Konrad von Würzburg (c.1220-1230 – 1287) has the Swan Knight rescuing the Duke of Brabant’s widow, and from them descend the houses of Cleves, Guelders, and Rheinecks. Jacob of Maerlant’s thirteenth-century Spiegel Historiael has the dukes of Brabant as Swan Knight descendants. The Dukes of Cleves claimed descent from the Knight of the Swan, and resided in the Grail castle Schwanenburg, located along the Northern Rhine, where Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote the story of Lohengrin, immortalized in Wagner’s famous opera. Legend has it that after the Swan Knight’s departure, Beatrice of Cleves lived in Schwanenturm (“Swan Tower”) until her death. The Chronicles of the Dukes of Clèves of the fifteenth century depict Beatrice of Cleves in her Swan Tower receiving the Swan Knight.
Elizabeth and Louis IV’s daughter Sophie of Thuringia married Henry II, Duke of Brabant (1207 – 1248), the first duke of Brabant. Henry II was the son of Henry I, Duke of Brabant (c. 1165 – 1235) and Matilda of Boulogne, the granddaughter of King Stephen I of England and Matilda of Boulogne. Matthew, Count of Boulogne, also known as Matthew of Alsace (c. 1137–1173) forcibly abducted the nun Marie de Boulogne, daughter of Stephen, King of England, and constrained her into marriage, claiming the title of Count of Boulogne jure uxoris in 1160. Matthew was the second son of Thierry, Count of Flanders and Sibylla of Anjou, the daughter of Fulk, King of Jerusalem. The forced marriage was opposed by the Church and finally annulled in 1170, but he continued to rule as count until his death. Matthew and Marie had two daughters: Ida, Countess of Boulogne, and Maud of Boulogne. Maud married Henry I, Duke of Brabant.
In 1197, Henry I of Brabant joined as one of the leaders the crusade launched by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. After the death of the King of Jerusalem, Henry II, Count of Champagne, he travelled to Acre where he acted as regent until the arrival of the new king, Amalric II. Back in Germany after the emperor’s death in September 1197, Duke Henry supported the election of the Welf candidate Otto IV, the fiancé of his daughter Maria, who rivalled with the Hohenstaufen scion Philip of Swabia. In 1235 Emperor Frederick II appointed Henry to travel to England to bring him his fiancée Isabella, daughter of King John of England.
In 1234, along with Count Otto II of Guelders, Count Dietrich V of Cleves and Count Otto I of Oldenburg, Henry I of Brabant participated in the Crusade against the heretics of Stedinger. The crusade was being called for by Conrad of Marburg (1180 – 1233), a controversial enemy of heretics who had taken part in the Albigensian Crusade, and who had been Elizabeth of Hungary’s spiritual director. In support, in June 1233, Pope Gregory IX wrote Vox in Roma, condemning the Luciferian sect, to Emperor Frederick II, Henry VII of Germany and Conrad of Marburg, among others. The bull describes the initiation rites of the sect, featuring descriptions common to the Cathars, including the presence of a demon in the form of a black cat, the performance of an obscene kiss, and the extinguishing of lights followed by a sexual orgy. In 1235, Emperor Frederick II appointed Henry I, Duke of Brabant, to travel to England to bring him his fiancée Isabella, daughter of John of England, but he fell ill on his way back and died at Cologne. In 1235, Emperor Frederick II appointed Henry I, Duke of Brabant, to travel to England to bring him his fiancée Isabella, daughter of John of England, but he fell ill on his way back and died at Cologne. Henry II’s first wife was Maria of Swabia, niece of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, the father of Emperor Frederick II. Henry II and Sophie’s son was Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (1244 – 1308), the first of the landgraves of Hesse.
King Edward I (1239 – 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots
Philippe IV le Bel of France, who ordered the arrest of the Templars in 1312, grandfather of Edward III of England who founded the neo-Templar Order of the Garter
Through his marriage to Joan, Countess of Ponthieu, Ferdinand III of Castile was also the father of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I of England. Edward I was the son of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, the sister of Beatrice of Provence who married Charles I of Anjou. Edward I’s brother, Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster (1245 – 1296), married Blanche of Artois, the daughter of Robert I of Artois, the brother of Charles I of Anjou, and whose mother was Matilda of Brabant, the daughter of Henry II of Brabant by his first wife Maria of Swabia. Blanche was the widow of Henri III, Count of Champagne, whose father was Theobald IV of Champagne, the son of Blanche of Navarre, Countess of Champagne, and called the Troubadour.
According to local legends, souvenirs that Theobald IV of Champagne brought back to Europe in 1240 from the Barons’ Crusade included the rose called “Provins” from Damascus, transporting it “in his helmet,” along with a piece of the true cross, and perhaps the Chardonnay grape which in modern times is an important component of champagne. Theobald IV is said to have started growing the rose in the region of Provins where it spread widely. The rose gardens of Provins soon became famous and the use of the rose, also called the “Apothecary’s Rose” (Latin name rosa gallica ‘officinalis’), was extremely frequent in medicine, in religious and secular ceremonies. Edmund Crouchback took the rose as his emblem, becoming known as the red rose of Lancaster.[11] After the forfeiture of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester upon his death in 1265, Edmund received the Earldom of Leicester and later that of Lancaster. In 1271, Edmund accompanied his elder brother Edward I on the Ninth Crusade to Palestine.
Order of Saint George
Charles I of Hungary (1288 – 1342), grandson of Charles II of Naples and founder of the Order of Saint George
In recognition of the relevance of his heritage, Charles I of Hungary gave importance to the cults of the princess Saint Elizabeth.[12] Charles I inherited the throne of Hungary through his grandmother, Maria of Hungary, the daughter of Saint Elizabeth’s nephew, Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman. The Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, which is dated to 1282–1285 and which expanded on the Gesta Hungarorum, was written mainly by Simon of Kéza, a cleric at the court of Maria’s brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1262 – 1290). Ladislaus IV married Elizabeth of Sicily, the daughter of Charles I of Anjou. Ladislaus IV’s sister Mary of Hungary married Elizabeth’s brother, Charles II of Naples. Their grandson, Charles I of Hungary, married Elizabeth of Poland, who was descended from Andrew I of Hungary. The Illuminated Chronicle, which repeated the miraculous birth of the father Arpad, founder of the Hungarian nation, from the Turul hawk, as recounted in Gesta Hungarorum, recorded the history of the Hungarians from Attila the Hun to the reign of Charles I’s son, King Louis the Great of Hungary and Poland (1326 – 1382).
Charles I of Hungary’s mother was Clemence of Austria, the daughter of Rudolf I of Germany (1218 – 1291), first king of Germany from the House of Habsburg, who created the Austrian Order of Saint George in 1290.[13] The Order of Saint George of Hungary, founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1326, flourished during his own reign and achieved greater success under the reign Louis I. There formerly existed regular orders of Saint George. Peter II of Aragon—a defender of the Cathars who was killed in the Battle of Muret, last major battle of the Albigensian Crusade, which he fought alongside his brother-in-law, the Cathar supporter Count Raymond VI of Toulouse—founded the Order of Saint George of Alfama in 1201, in gratitude for the patron saint’s assistance to the armies of Aragon.[14] Charles I Hungary’s great-grandmother, Beatrice of Provence, was the daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, who was raised by the Templars. Charles I of Anjou was the son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile, the daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile, a patron of the Order of Santiago founded by his uncle Ferdinand II of Leon. Ferdinand II was the son of Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile, the founder of the Order of Calatrava, led by his chief advisor, Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, a relative of Abraham Ibn Ezra, one of the leading influences behind the mystical tendencies of the Ashkenazi Hasidim, and a student of Abraham Bar Hiyya, who along with Ibn Gabirol was one of the sources of the Temple mysticism adopted by the Templars.[15]
Louis I of Hungary (1326 – 1382) on the first page of the Illuminated Chronicle, also referred to as Chronica Hungarorum
Ferdinand II’s son, Alfonso IX of León, married Berengaria of Castile, the daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. Their son was Ferdinand III of Castile. Through his marriage to Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, granddaughter of Frederick Barbarossa, Ferdinand III was the father of Alfonso X, known as El Astrologo. Alfonso X married Violant of Aragon, the daughter of James I of Aragon and Violant of Hungary, the step-sister of Elizabeth of Hungary. Peter III of Aragon, the son of James I and Violant of Hungary, married Constance II of Sicily, granddaughter of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. Three of their children were involved in the survival of the Templars. Their daughter Elizabeth married Denis I of Portugal, who founded the Order of Christ, the former Templar order as it was reconstituted in Portugal after the order was abolished 1312 by Pope Clement V under pressure from Philip IV le Bel of France. Elizabeth of Aragon, more commonly known as Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, was a tertiary of the Franciscan Order and is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. Another story of the “miracle of the roses” is told of Elizabeth, who was the great-niece of Elizabeth of Hungary, who likewise was charitable toward the poor, against the wishes of her husband. Caught one day by Denis, while carrying bread in her apron, the food was turned into roses.
After the uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou, the island of Sicily became an independent kingdom under the rule of Peter III of Aragon in 1282. A year later, Charles made his son Charles II regent in the mainland territories of the Regno, known as the Kingdom of Naples. In 1302, the year the War of the Vespers ended, Peter III’s son, Frederick III of Sicily, who hired the services of the famous Templar, Roger de Flor, married Charles II’s daughter Eleanor of Anjou. In 1294, among the escorts of Eleanor’s brother Charles Martel of Anjou (1271 – 1295), while he was in Florence, was the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri, author the Divine Comedy, who speaks warmly of and to Charles’ spirit when they meet in the Heaven of Venus. Charles Martel’s mother had transferred her claim to Hungary to him in 1290, and after his death in 1295, it was inherited by his son Charles I of Hungary.
Charles Martel and Eleanor’s sister Blanche of Anjou—Charles I of Hungary’s aunt—married Frederick III’s brother James II of Aragon, who absorbed the Templar properties into his own neo-Templar Order of Montesa, whose recruits were mainly drawn from the Order of Calatrava, which was led by Alfonso VII of Castile’s chief advisor, Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra.[16] Judah was a relative of Abraham Ibn Ezra, one of the leading influences behind the mystical tendencies of the Ashkenazi Hasidim, and a student of Abraham Bar Hiyya, who along with Ibn Gabirol was one of the sources of the Temple mysticism adopted by the Templars.[17] In 1399, James II’s great-grandson Martin of Aragon (1356 – 1410) decided to merge Order of Saint George of Alfama with the larger Order of Montesa. With the approval of antipope Benedict XIII, the orders were amalgamated the following year, and thereafter known as the Order of Montesa and St. George of Alfama.[18]
House of Luxembourg
The sister of Charles I’s mother Clemence, Judith of Habsburg, married Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and was the mother of Elizabeth of Bohemia, who married John the Blind (1296 – 1346), the brother of Charles I of Hungary’s second wife was Beatrix of Luxembourg. John and Beatrix were the children of Henry VII (c. 1273 – 1313), Holy Roman Emperor, the first emperor of the House of Luxembourg, and Margaret of Brabant, the daughter of Henry III, Duke of Brabant, the sister of Matilda of Brabant. The House of Luxembourg claimed descent from Melusine through their ancestor Siegfried, the father of Saint Cunigunde, who married the grandson of Otto I the Great’s brother, Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor.[19] The ascension of the Counts of Luxembourg culminated when Henry VII became King of the Romans, King of Italy and finally, in 1312, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry VII was the son of Henry V, Count of Luxembourg, who paid homage to Theobald II of Navarre, Count of Champagne. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa decided that Henry V’s mother, Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg, was the heir to the County of Luxembourg. Ermesinde was initially betrothed to Henry II of Champagne, but the engagement was cancelled in 1189. Instead, Ermesinde first husband was Theobald I of Bar (c. 1158 – 1214), also Count of Luxembourg. Their son was Henry II of Bar (1190 – 1239) who was killed in the Barons’ Crusade. His daughter Margaret of Bar was Henry VII’s mother. She was also the aunt of Edward I, Count of Bar, a purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, who married Eleanor of England, the daughter of Edward I of England.
The ascension of the Counts of Luxembourg culminated when Henry VII became King of the Romans, King of Italy and finally, in 1312, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry VII was the son of Henry V, Count of Luxembourg, who paid homage to Theobald II of Navarre, Count of Champagne. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa decided that Henry V’s mother, Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg, was the heir to the County of Luxembourg. Ermesinde was initially betrothed to Henry II of Champagne, but the engagement was cancelled in 1189. Instead, Ermesinde first husband was Theobald I of Bar (c. 1158 – 1214), also Count of Luxembourg. Their son was Henry II of Bar (1190 – 1239) who was killed in the Barons’ Crusade. His daughter Margaret of Bar was Henry VII’s mother. She was also the aunt of Edward I, Count of Bar, a purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, who married Eleanor of England, the daughter of Edward I of England.
With his ascension as Emperor, the new dynasty of the House of Luxembourg not only began to rule the Holy Roman Empire, but rapidly began to exercise growing influence over other parts of Central Europe as well. Henry VII was the first emperor since the death of Frederick II in 1250, ending the Great Interregnum of the Holy Roman Empire. During his brief career, Henry VII reinvigorated the imperial cause in Italy, which was racked by the struggles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and inspired the praise of Dino Compagni and Dante Alighieri. In 1308, Henry VII established the Order of the Old Nobility, also called Order of the Four Emperors, or Ancient Order of Saint George. Henry VII’s son, John the Blind, in addition to being Count of Luxembourg, also became King of Bohemia. He remains a major figure in the history and folklore of Luxembourg, and is considered by many historians the epitome of chivalry in medieval times. He is also known for having founded the Schueberfouer in 1340 and for his heroic death at the Battle of Crécy in 1346, during the Hundred Years’ War. The battle took place in northern France between the French, commanded by Philip VI, who lost to the English led by Edward III.
House of Valois
Page from the calendar of the Très Riches Heures showing the household of John, Duke of Berry (1340 – 1416) exchanging New Year gifts. The Duke is seated at the right, in blue.
Beatrix’s sister Marie of Luxembourg married Charles IV of France, who would become the last king of the direct line of the House of Capet, to be replaced by the House of Valois. The House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty who succeeded to the French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans, Anjou, Burgundy, and Alençon. Tensions between the French and English crowns had gone back centuries to the origins of the English royal family, which descended from Normandy and later Anjou. English monarchs had therefore historically held titles and lands within France, which made them vassals to the kings of France.
The Valois descended from Charles, Count of Valois (1270 – 1325), the second surviving son of King Philip III of France, the son of Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence, the daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, and the sister of Eleanor of Provence, the mother of Edward I of England. Charles married Margaret, Countess of Anjou, the daughter of Charles II of Naples. Their son, Philip, Count of Valois (1293 – 1350), was the closest heir in male line. Because his father was the brother of the late Philip IV le Bel, the Count of Valois was therefore his nephew. The Capetian dynasty seemed secure until the death of Philip IV, who by his wife Joan I of Navarre, had left three surviving sons Louis X, Philip V and Charles IV, who would each become king in turn, and a daughter Isabella who married Edward II of England.
Genealogy of the House of Valois
Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (raised by TEMPLARS) + Beatrice of Savoy (daughter of Thomas I of Savoy)
Margaret of Provence + Louis IX of France
Philip III of France + Isabella of Aragon
Philip IV “le Bel” of France (ordered arrest of TEMPLARS) + Joan I of Navarre (see below)
Louis X of France + Margaret of Burgundy (see below)
Philip V of France + Joan II of Burgundy
Charles IV of France (was last king of the direct line of the House of Capet) + Marie of Luxembourg
Blanche of France + Philip, Duke of Orléans (see below)
Isabella of France + Edward II of England (see below)
Charles, Count of Valois + Catherine
Charles, Count of Valois + Margaret (daughter of Charles II of Naples)
PHILIP VI OF FRANCE (first King of France from the House of Valois) + Joan of Burgundy (see below)
Philip III of France + Marie of Brabant
Margaret of France + Edward I of England (see below)
Agnes of France + Robert II, Duke of Burgundy (see above)
Margaret of Burgundy + Louis X of France
Joan of Burgundy + PHILIP VI OF FRANCE (see above)
Philip, Duke of Orléans + Blanche of France (see above)
John II of France + Bonne of Luxembourg
Charles V of France + Joanna of Bourbon
Charles VI of France + Isabeau of Bavaria
Charles VII of France + Marie of Anjou
Louis I, Duke of Orléans + Valentina Visconti
Louis I, Duke of Anjou + Marie of Blois
JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY (requested that Jean d’Arras write the Roman de Mélusine or the Chronique de Melusine part of Le Noble Hystoire de Lusignan) + Joanna of Armagnac
PHILIP THE BOLD + Margaret III, Countess of Flanders
John the Fearless + Margaret of Bavaria (see above)
Mary of Burgundy + Adolph I, Duke of Cleves
PHILIP THE GOOD (founder of the ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE) + Isabella of Portugal
Joan, Queen of Navarre + Charles II of Navarre
MARIE OF VALOIS, Duchess of Bar + Robert I, Duke of Bar (see above)
Henry of Bar + Marie de Coucy, Countess of Soissons (d. of Enguerrand VII de Coucy, possible author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
Yolande of Bar + John I of Aragon (see above)
Yolande of Aragon + Louis II of Anjou (see above)
Louis III of Anjou
Marie of Anjou + Charles VII of France (see above)
RENE OF ANJOU (Grand Master of PRIORY OF SION) + Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine
Mary of Burgundy + Edward I, Count of Bar (Grand Master of the PRIORY OF SION)
Eleanor of Provence + Henry III of England
Edward I of England + Eleanor of Castile
Eleanor of England + Henry III, Count of Bar (see above)
Edward II of England + Isabella of France (see above)
Edward III of England (founder of the ORDER OF THE GARTER)
Edward the Black Prince + Joan of Kent
Edward I of England + Margaret of France
Edmund of Woodstock + Margaret Wake
Joan of Kent + Edward the Black Prince (see above)
Richard II of England + Anne of Bohemia (sister of Emperor Sigismund)
Beatrice of England + John II, Duke of Brittany
However, when Charles IV died without a male heir in 1328, the French succession became more problematic because of a new principle, attributed to the Merovingian Salic law, which disallowed female succession. Charles IV’s closest male relative was his nephew Edward III of England, whose mother was Charles IV’s sister, Isabella of France. Isabella claimed the throne of France for her son by the rule of Proximity of blood, but the French nobility were opposed, maintaining that she could not transmit a right she did not possess. An assembly of French barons decided that a native Frenchman should receive the crown, rather than Edward. So, the throne passed instead to Charles’s patrilineal cousin, Philip, Count of Valois (1293 – 1350), who became Philip VI. On May 24, 1337, Philip VI declared that Edward III had forfeited Aquitaine through disobedience and for sheltering his enemy, Robert of Artois, formerly one of Philip VI's trusted advisers, and thus precipitated the beginning of the Hundred Years War, exacerbated by Edward III’s renewed claim to the throne of France in retaliation for the loss of Aquitaine.
Philip VI’s first wife was Blanche of Navarre, a granddaughter of Philip IV le Bel and Joan I of Navarre, and a supposed Grand Mistress of the Priory of Sion. Philip VI’s son and successor was John II of France (1319 – 1364) who married Bonne of Luxembourg, the daughter of John the Blind and Elizabeth of Bohemia, and produced several children who featured prominently in the development of the Melusine legend and were also associated with the Priory of Sion. Elizabeth was the daughter of Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, whose father, Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, was the son of Béla III of Hungary and Agnes of Antioch. John the Blind, who in addition to being Count of Luxembourg, was also became King of Bohemia, and remains a major figure in Luxembourg history and folklore and is considered by many historians the epitome of chivalry in medieval times. A copy of the Gesta Hungarorum, was given by Louis I of Hungary to Charles V of France, the son of Bonne and John II, when Louis’ daughter Catherine was engaged to Charles V’s son Louis I, Duke of Orléans (1372 – 1407).
In the early years of the Hundred Years’ War, the English, led by Edward III and his son Edward, Prince of Wales (1330 – 1376), known as the Black Prince, saw resounding successes, notably at Crécy in 1346 and at Poitiers in 1356, where John II was taken prisoner. To liberate his father, Charles concluded the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, by which France lost many territories and paid an enormous ransom. John II was released in an exchange of hostages, which included his second son Duke Louis I of Anjou (1372 – 1407). When John II was informed that Louis had escaped from captivity, he voluntarily returned to England, where he died in 1364, and was succeeded by his son as Charles V. John II had made his other son, John, Duke of Berry (1340 – 1416) a count of Poitou. When Poitiers was ceded to England in 1360, his father granted John the newly raised duchies of Berry and Auvergne. By the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny, John had also become a hostage of the English and remained in England until 1369.
John of Berry is primarily remembered as a collector of the important illuminated manuscripts and other works of art commissioned by him, such as the Très Riches Heures, which is permeated with swan symbolism. As explained by Natalie Jayne Goodison, in Introducing the Medieval Swan, the royals of France were also descendants of the Swan Knight, including John II and his two sons, Charles V and John of Berry, as well as their siblings, Duke Louis I of Anjou, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1342 – 1404) and Marie of Valois, Duchess of Bar (1344 – 1404). John also had a claim to Swan Knight heritage with his wife Jeanne, Countess of Auvergne and Bouillon. Swans became John’s personal emblems. For John, according to Raymond Cazelles and Johannes Rathofer Illuminations of Heaven and Earth: The Glories of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, the swan seems to symbolize courtly love:
The swan, usually with a bloodstained wound on its breast, derives from the period around 1364 when Jean de Berry was held hostage in England. He became […] enamored of a “dame anglaische servant au Dieu d’Amours” (and English lady in service of the god of love”) for whim he placed beneath his shield “le cygnet blanc navré (“the wounded white swan”).[20]
Detail from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, “March: the Château de Lusignan,” showing the dragon Melusine flying over the castle. John of Berry also commissioned Jean d’Arras Roman de Mélusine or the Chronique de Melusine part of Le Noble Hystoire de Lusignan
Although John of Berry had to relinquish the county to the English in the aftermath of the battle of Poitiers, he was able to retake Poitou and the strategically important castle of Lusignan in 1374. It was at John’s request that Jean d’Arras wrote a long prose romance called the Roman de Mélusine or the Chronique de Melusine part of Le Noble Hystoire de Lusignan. As pointed out by Pit Péporté, it is generally accepted that the political purpose of d’Arras’ romance was to legitimize the John’s ownership of Poitou and of Lusignan.[21] The story not only tells how Melusine founded the Lusignan dynasty, and presents John as her descendant and therefore the legitimate successor of the counts of Lusignan.
D’Arras dedicated the work to Marie of Valois, Duchess of Bar, and expressed the hope that it would aid in the political education of her children. Marie herself married Robert I, Duke of Bar, the grandson of Edward I, Count of Bar (1307 – 1336), another purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. Edward I was the son of Henry III, Count of Bar and Eleanor of England, the daughter of Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile. Marie and Robert’s daughter Yolande of Bar married John I of Aragon, the son of Peter IV of Aragon (1319 – 1387) and Eleanor. Eleanor was the daughter of Peter II of Sicily, the brother of Constance of Sicily, the wife of Henry II of Lusignan. Peter II and Constance were the children of Eleanor of Anjou, the daughter of Charles II of Naples, and Frederick III of Sicily.
Order of the Garter
The Black Book of the Garter (detail)
Associated with his father and grandfather, swans were also employed by Edward III of England.[22] Edward I’s son and successor by Eleanor was Edward II of England, who married Isabella of France, the daughter of Philip IV le Bel of France and Joan I of Navarre, the granddaughter of Theobald IV of Champagne. Despite the fact that his grandfather Philip IV ordered the arrest of the Templars in 1312, Edward II’s son and successor, Edward III of England, founded the Order of the Garter in 1348, as “a society, fellowship and college of knights.” The original founders of the Order of the Garter included Edward III’s eldest son Edward, Prince of Wales (1330 – 1376), known as the Black Prince, and Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster (c. 1310 – 1361), the kingdom’s wealthiest and most powerful peer. Henry of Grosmont was the grandson of Edmund Crouchback. William Edington (d. 1366), Bishop of Winchester, was the first Prelate of the Order, and that office has since been held by his successors at Winchester, traditionally a senior bishopric of the Church of England.
The Order of the Garter was inspired by King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table, which contributed to the survival of Templar traditions. Edward III’s grandfather, Edward I, Edward took an active interest in the stories of King Arthur, which were highly popular in Europe during his reign. In 1278, he visited Glastonbury Abbey to open what was then believed to be the tomb of Arthur and Guinevere, recovering “Arthur’s crown” from Llywelyn after the conquest of North Wales. His new castles drew upon the Arthurian myths in their design and location, and he held “Round Table” events in 1284 and 1302, involving tournaments and feasting, and chroniclers compared him and the events at his court to King Arthur.
Mr. Noel Denholm-Young, in “The tournament in the thirteenth century,” connects Edward I’s interest in King Arthur with the legends of the Knight Swan.[23] In order to celebrate his Swan Knight lineage, Edward I prominently featured the swan during his reign.[24] In 1306, a year before his nephew Philip IV le Bel began arresting the Templars in France, Edward I held the Feast of the Swans was a chivalric celebration at Westminster Abbey. The feast followed a called by Edward I that all eligible esquires be knighted and to march with him against the Robert the Bruce, the King of Scotland. Most of the men were housed at the church of the Templars, the New Temple.[25] A total of 266 were knighted, including the king’s own son, Edward II. Two swans were brought in and Edward I swore “before God and the swans.”
The most popular legend of the founding of the order involves the “Countess of Salisbury,” who while dancing her garter is said to have slipped to the floor. When the surrounding courtiers snickered, King Edward supposedly picked it up and tied it to his own leg, exclaiming Honi soit qui mal y pense, meaning “evil upon he who thinks it.” This phrase has since become the motto of the Order. As historian Margaret Murray pointed out, the garter is an emblem of witchcraft. Garters are worn in various rituals and are also used as badges of rank. The garter is considered the ancient emblem of the high priestess. In some traditions, a high priestess who becomes Queen Witch over more than one coven adds a silver buckle to her garter for each coven under her.[26] The motto is inscribed, as hony soyt qui mal pence, at the end of the Middle English Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight of the late fourteenth century.
The badge of the Order shows Saint George on horseback slaying the dragon. According to one legend, King Richard the Lionheart was inspired in the twelfth century by Saint George the Martyr while fighting in the Crusades, to tie garters around the legs of his knights, who subsequently won the battle. Saint George, the patron saint of England, Georgia and Moscow, is also the origin of the knightly tale of rescuing a maiden from a dragon, symbolizing the age-old motif of the dying-god’s struggle with the Dragon of the Sea. The cult of Saint George first reached England when the Templars were introduced to the cult presumably through their contact with the Rubenids of Armenian Cilicia, returned from the Holy Land in 1228. In 1348, Edward III gave Saint George a special position as a patron saint of the Order of the Garter in thanks for his supposed intervention at the Battle of Crécy against by Philip VI of France. In that same year, Edward III founded St George’s College at Windsor. The chapel attached to the college became the church of the Order of the Garter. A special service is still held in the chapel every June and is attended by members of the order. Their heraldic banners hang above the upper stalls of the choir, where they have a seat for life.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340 – 1399)
Scholars have identified a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. One of the best-known Arthurian stories, it describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious “Green Knight” who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Scholars have attempted to connect the Green Knight to other mythical characters, such as Jack in the green of English tradition and to al Khidr of the Sufis.[27] The poem contains the first recorded use of the word “pentangle” (pentagram) in English, and the only representation of the symbol on Gawain’s shield in the Gawain literature.[28] In line 625, the pentangle is described as “a sign by Solomon.”
Two candidates proposed as authors of the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340 – 1399), and Enguerrand VII de Coucy (1340 – 1397). In 1338, Enguerrand’s father, Enguerrand VI de Coucy (c. 1313 – c. 1346), married Catherine of Austria, oldest daughter of Leopold I, Duke of Austria, the third son of King Albert I of Germany, and Catherina of Savoy, and the granddaughter of the powerful Amadeus V, Count of Savoy. The marriage with the House of Habsburg and House of Savoy was arranged by King Philip VI himself, who was seeking foreign allies against England and to secure the loyalty of the barony of Coucy, strategically located in Northern France and fortified with the Château de Coucy.[29] Young Coucy first met Edward III in 1359, as one of forty royal and noble hostages exchanged for the release of John II of France who was captured at Poitiers in 1356. De Coucy was married to Edward III's daughter, Isabella, and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day.[30] De Coucy’s daughter Marie I de Coucy, Countess of Soissons, married Henry of Bar, son of Marie of Valois and Robert I, Duke of Bar, grandson of Priory of Sion Grand Master, Edward I, Count of Bar. Marie had a younger sister, Philippa de Coucy, who married Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, Marquess of Dublin, Duke of Ireland, also a Garter knight.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s – 1400)
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was the third of the five sons of Edward III, and a Knight of the Order of the Garter. John of Gaunt was a close friend of Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s – 1400), widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, best known for The Canterbury Tales, who served under Lancaster’s patronage. Edward III granted Chaucer “a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life” on St George’s Day in 1374. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple, an Inn of Court, which takes its name from the Templars, who originally leased the land until their abolition in 1312, when the land seized by the king and granted to the Hospitallers. Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the Duchess in honor of Blanche of Lancaster, the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369 of the plague.[31] Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law when Chaucer married Philippa de Roet in 1366, and Lancaster married Phillippa’s sister Katherine Swynford in 1396. Philippa was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III’s queen, Philippa of Hainault.
Because of his many trips to mainland Europe, numerous scholars have suggested that Chaucer came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio, who introduced him to the forms and stories of medieval Italian poetry which he would use. Chaucer’s stories imitate, among others, his Italian contemporaries Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. For example, Chaucer imitated many the stories from Boccaccio The Decameron for his The Canterbury Tales.[32] Chaucer referred to astrology in The Canterbury Tales, and he commented explicitly on the subject in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, demonstrating personal knowledge of judicial astrology, with an account of how to find the ascendant or rising sign.[33] Persian Jewish astrologer Mashallah’s treatise on the astrolabe was a source of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Treatise.
The Prioress’s Tale in The Canterbury Tales is introduced with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, then sets the scene in Asia, where a community of Jews live in a Christian city. Satan, “That hath (built) in Jewes’ heart his waspe’s nest,” incites some Jews to murder the child and throw his body into a public cesspit. His mother searches for him and eventually finds his body, which begins miraculously to sing the Alma Redemptoris (“Nurturing Mother of the Redeemer”). The Christians call in the city magistrate, who has some of the guilty Jews drawn by wild horses and then hanged. The boy continues to sing throughout his Requiem Mass until the local abbot of the community asks him how he is able to sing. He replies that although his throat is cut, he has had a visit from Mary who laid a grain on his tongue and told him he could keep singing until it was removed and she would come for him. The abbot removes the grain and he becomes silent and passes away. The story ends with a reference to Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, another child martyr whose death was blamed on Jews. The swan as courtly creature was reinforced by Gerald of Wales in his life of St. Hugh of Lincoln. On the day St Hugh was made Bishop, a swan arrived at his manor. After it was captured and brought to Hugh, the swan became affectionately attached to him.
Chaucer’s The Parlement of Foules contains one of the earliest references to the idea that St. Valentine’s Day is a special day for lovers.[34] Chaucer also translated Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200 – c. 1240). Throughout The Romance of the Rose, the word Rose is used both as the name of the titular lady and as an abstract symbol of female sexuality. Forty-five years later, circa 1275, Jean de Meun wrote additional lines, in which he glorified the victories of Charles of Anjou.
Order of the Dragon
Sigismund of Luxumbourg (1368 –1437), Holy Roman Emperor
Detail of dragon from the Sigismund sword (1416) at Mission House, in the City of York
Edward III was succeeded on the throne by the Black Prince’s only surviving son Richard II (1367 – 1400). In 1399, Richard II was deposed and replaced by Henry IV of England (1367 – 1413), the grandson of John of Gaunt. Henry IV’s son, Henry V of England (1386 – 1422), married Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France, the nephew of Jean of Berry, Philip the Bold and Marie of Valois. Richard II had married Anne of Bohemia, sister of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368 – 1437), a first cousin of John of Berry and his siblings, and founder of the Order of the Dragon.
In the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, three more members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors and Bohemian Kings: John’s descendants Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1316 – 1378), and his sons Sigismund and Wenceslaus IV (1361 – 1419). Luxembourg remained an independent fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and in 1354, Sigismund’s father Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1316 – 1378), the brother of Bonne of Luxembourg, and uncle to John of Berry, elevated it to the status of a duchy. Charles IV’s first marriage was to Blanche of Valois, daughter of Charles, Count of Valois, and a half-sister of Philip VI of France. Their daughter Margaret of Bohemia married Louis I of Hungary, the son of Charles I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Poland. Charles IV’s second wife was Anne of the Palatinate, daughter of Rudolf II, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1306 – 1353), the grandson of Rudolf I of Germany. Anne was the niece of Elizabeth of Carinthia, the wife of Peter II of Sicily, the son of Frederick III of Sicily and Charles I of Hungary’s aunt, Eleanor of Anjou. Charles was widowed for a second time and still had no son. Charles IV, then thirty-seven, married Louis I’s fourteen-year-old niece, Anna von Schweidnitz.
Shrine of the Magi at Cologne Cathedral
In 1357, a few years after the marriage of Charles IV and Anna, her grandmother Elisabeth of Poland departed on a joint pilgrimage with the emperor and his wife to honor the relics of Elizabeth of Hungary in Matburg, the relics of Charlemagne in the Aachen Münster reconstructed by Charles IV, and finally the shrine of the Magi, a reliquary in the Cathedral of Cologne believed to contain the bones of the Biblical Magi.[35] Louis I of Hungary kept good and close relationships with Charles IV, and Sigismund was betrothed to Louis' eldest daughter Mary of Hungary in 1374, when he was six years old. Upon his father’s death in 1378, the young Sigismund became Margrave of Brandenburg and was sent to the Hungarian court, where he soon learned the Hungarian language and became devoted to his adopted country. Louis named him as his heir and appointed him his successor as King of Hungary. Mary died in 1395, leaving Sigismund the sole ruler of Hungary.
The Order of Saint George, founded by Mary’s grandfather Charles I of Hungary and promoted by her father Louis I, served as a model for Sigismund’s own Order of the Dragon. In 1396, Sigismund led the Crusade of Nicopolis, but was decisively defeated by the Ottoman Empire. Afterwards, inspired by Charles I’s Order of Saint George, Sigismund founded the Order of the Dragon, to fight the Turks and secured the thrones of Croatia, Germany and Bohemia.
The Order of the Dragon adopted Saint George as its patron saint, whose legendary defeat of a dragon was used as a symbol for the military and religious ethos of the order. The Order adopted the red cross and the Gnostic symbol of the Ourobouros, or serpent—in this case a dragon—biting its own tail. Alchemically, the Ourobouros symbolizes the union of opposing energies and is one of the primary symbols of the philosopher’s Stone. Dragons are important alchemical symbols representing the properties of mercury and the application of life force or energy. Like lions, the alchemical dragon is black, green or red according to its level of transformation. The Red Dragon is the chaotic energy of the First Matter at the beginning of the work that becomes the Philosopher’s stone. The First Matter is a basic tenet of the Hermetic philosophy. The Emerald Tablet refers to the “First Matter” as the “One Thing,” the primordial chaos of the universe fashioned into material reality by the thoughts or Word of the One Mind. Chemically, the Red Dragon is the pure red oil of lead in its initial state and the red power of projection in its perfected or tamed state.[36]
The close friendship between Sigismund and Henry IV’s son, Henry V of England (1386 – 1422), resulted in Sigismund being inducted into the Order of the Garter in 1416.[37] Sigismund, in turn, inducted Henry V into the Order of the Dragon.[38] The testimony of Sigismund’s induction was his sword, incrusted with dragons biting their own tail, was hung above his seat in chapel of the College of St. George at Windsor Castle. The college held several relics given by Emperor Sigismund which reputed to be from St George, including an arm, two fingers, a piece of his skull, and his heart.[39] The sword was then acquired by Henry Hanslapp, dean of Windsor, who presented it to the City of York, where it is kept at Mansion House. Since 1439, this sword has been carried in front of the Lord Mayor of York and the City of York.
Bal des Ardents
Edward III was succeeded on the throne by the Black Prince’s only surviving son Richard II (1367 – 1400). Richard II’s mother was Joan of Kent, who was the granddaughter of Edward I of England and his second wife Margaret of France. Margaret was the daughter of Philip III of France and Marie of Brabant, the daughter of Henry III, Duke of Brabant, the son of Henry II, Duke of Brabant, by his first wife Maria of Swabia, before he married the daughter of Elizabeth of Hungary. In 1399, Richard II was deposed and replaced by Henry IV of England (1367 – 1413), the grandson of John of Gaunt. Richard II had married Anne of Bohemia, sister of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368 – 1437, a first cousin of John of Berry and his siblings, and founder of the Order of the Dragon.
In the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, three more members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors and Bohemian Kings: John’s descendants Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1316 – 1378), and his sons Sigismund and Wenceslaus IV (1361 – 1419). Luxembourg remained an independent fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and in 1354, Charles IV, the brother of Bonne of Luxembourg, and uncle to John of Berry, elevated it to the status of a duchy. Charles IV’s first marriage was to Blanche of Valois, daughter of Charles, Count of Valois, and a half-sister of Philip VI of France. Their daughter Margaret of Bohemia married Louis I of Hungary, the son of Charles I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Poland. Charles IV’s second wife was Anne of the Palatinate, daughter of Rudolf II, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1306 – 1353), the grandson of Rudolf I of Germany. Anne was the niece of Elizabeth of Carinthia, the wife of Peter II of Sicily, the son of Frederick III of Sicily and Charles I of Hungary’s aunt, Eleanor of Anjou. Charles was widowed for a second time and still had no son. Charles IV, then thirty-seven, married Louis I’s fourteen-year-old niece, Anna von Schweidnitz.
In opposition to Charles V’s son, Charles VI of France (1368 – 1422), Henry V of England also asserted a claim of inheritance as king of France through the female line, by way of his great-grandfather, Edward III of England, through Edward’s mother, Charles IV’s sister, Isabella of France. Already upon death of Charles V in 1380, his brothers Philip the Bold, John of Berry, and Duke Louis I of Anjou, had acted as regent for his minor son Charles VI. Charles was famously involved in the Bal des Ardents (“Ball of the Burning Men”) or Bal des Sauvages (“Ball of the Wild Men”), a masquerade ball held at the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris on January 28, 1393, where Charles VI performed in a dance with five members of the French nobility, four of whom were killed. Charles VI married Isabeau of Bavaria, the daughter of Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria and Taddea Visconti, the eldest child of Bernabò Visconti, of the Visconti of Milan, a noble Italian family. Stephen III was the son of Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria and Elisabeth of Sicily, the daughter of Frederick III of Sicily and Eleanor of Anjou, the daughter of Charles II of Naples.
As explained by Barbara Tuchman, in A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Charles VI suffered bouts of insanity that were seen by some as a sign of divine punishment, and by others as the result of sorcery. And, to shield the king from the demands of governing, members of the court had turned to elaborate spectacles and fashions to distract him with a festive atmosphere. [40] Isabeau held the masquerade to celebrate the third marriage of her lady-in-waiting, Catherine de Fastaverin. According to Tuchman, a widow’s remarriage was traditionally an occasion for mockery and revelry, often celebrated with a charivari characterized by “all sorts of licence, disguises, disorders, and loud blaring of discordant music and clanging of cymbals.”[41] Six young men, including Charles VI, performed a dance disguised from head to foot as hairy “wild men,” mythical beings often associated with demonology, that that appears in the art and literature of medieval Europe and is documented in Tudor England. According to historian Jan Veenstra, author of Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France, as they entertained the audience by scaring them and asking them to guess their real identities, and “howling like wolves,” the dancers “gesticulated wildly and obscenely and danced a Saracen dance in a diabolical manner.”[42]
Most of the audience were unaware that Charles VI was among the dancers. When Charles VI’s brother Louis I, Duke of Orléans (1372 – 1407) and Philippe de Bar arrived late and drunk, entering the hall carrying lit torches, the dancers caught fire and the scene erupted in chaos. Isabeau, knowing that her husband was among the dancers, fainted. However, Charles VI was standing at a distance away, near his fifteen-year-old aunt Joan, Duchess of Berry, John of Berry’s wife, who recognized him and threw her large skirt over him to protect him. Describing the gory details, the Monk of St Denis (c. 1350 – c. 1421) wrote that in the mayhem four men were burned alive, their flaming genitals falling to the floor and releasing a stream of blood.[43]
The Bal des Ardents depicted in a fifteenth-century miniature from Froissart's Chronicles. The Duchess of Berry holds her blue skirts over a barely visible Charles VI of France as the dancers tear at their burning costumes. One dancer has leapt into the wine vat. In the gallery above, musicians continue to play.
The chronicle of Jean Froissart (c. 1337 – c. 1405) placed blame directly on Charles’ brother, Louis I Orléans. Orléans’ reputation, which was severely damaged by the event, was compounded by an episode a few years earlier in which he was accused of sorcery after hiring an apostate monk to impart a ring, dagger and sword with demonic magic. The theologian Jean Petit (c. 1360 − 1411) later testified that Orléans practiced sorcery, and that the fire at the dance was part of a failed assassination attempt against his brother.[44] Greatly concerned at the popular outcry from the citizens of Paris, who were angered by the event, Charles VI’s uncles persuaded the court to do penance at Notre Dame Cathedral, preceded by a royal progress through the city in which the Charles VI rode on horseback with his uncles walking behind in humility. Orléans donated funds in atonement for a chapel to be built at the Celestine monastery.[45]
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans
Henry V of England (1386 – 1422), knight of the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Dragon
Celebrated in Shakespeare’s “Henriad” plays, Henry V is recognized as one of the greatest warrior-kings of medieval England. Henry V inherited a temporary period of peace, and his military success against France in the Hundred Years’ War strengthened his popularity, enabling him to reinforce the Lancastrian claim to the throne. Henry V had seized the opportunity presented by the mental illness of Charles VI of France, and the French civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, to revive the conflict. Philip the Bold was the founder of the Burgundian branch of the House of Valois, known as Valois-Burgundy. Upon the extinction of the Burgundian male line with the death of Philip I of Burgundy in 1361, the duchy reverted to John II of France and the royal House of Valois, who married Philip I’s widow. John II granted his son Philip the Bold, Philip I’s step-brother, the French Duchy of Burgundy in 1363, who ruled as Duke Philip II of Burgundy until 1404.
Charles VI’s attacks of illness increased in frequency, such that by the end of the 1390s his role was merely ceremonial, contributing to the decline and fragmentation of the Valois dynasty.[46] In 1407, Philip the Bold’s son, John the Fearless (1371 – 1419), had his cousin Orléans assassinated because of “vice, corruption, sorcery, and a long list of public and private villainies,” while his wife Isabeau was accused of having been his mistress.[47] As a consequence of Orléans’ assassination, France erupted into a civil war between the Burgundians and the Orléanists, known as the Armagnacs, which lasted several decades.
Resounding victories at Agincourt in 1415 and Verneuil in 1424 as well as an alliance with the Dukes of Burgundy raised the expectations of an ultimate English triumph in France, and persuaded the English to continue to pursue the war. The Battle of Agincourt, which was one of the most important English triumphs in the Hundred Years’ War, forms the centerpiece of Shakespeare’s play Henry V, written in 1599. The growing proliferation of heraldic arms, and the number of disputes arising from competing claims, led Henry V to issue a proclamation in 1419, forbidding all those who had not borne arms at the Battle of Agincourt from assuming arms, except by inheritance or a grant from the crown.[48] Immediately after the battle, Henry V summoned the heralds of the two armies who had watched the battle together with principal French herald Montjoie, and they settled on the name of the battle as Azincourt, after the nearest fortified place.[49] Two of the most frequently cited accounts come from Burgundian sources, one from Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy (c. 1394 – 1468) who was present at the battle, and the other from Enguerrand de Monstrelet (c. 1400 – 1453). Saint-Remy was an arbiter in tournaments and authority on all questions of chivalry, widely respected for his expert knowledge of heraldry.
René of Anjou (1409 – 1480), King of Naples, Duke of Bar, Duke of Lorraine, and purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion
Saint-Remy wrote a chronicle or history of Charles VI of France, known as the Chronique de Jean le Fèvre Seigneur de Saint Rémy, in which he also celebrates the accomplishments of René of Anjou (1409 – 1480), King of Naples. Known in France as Good King René, he was also purported to have been a Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, whose interests also included Arthurian and Grail romances, and devoted a great part of his life to art, and especially to the collection of the poetry of the Provençal troubadours. René was the great-grandson of Marie of Valois. Marie of Valois’ daughter, Yolande de Bar (c. 1365 – 1431), married John I of Aragon, brother of Martin of Aragon, who were both the great-grandsons James II of Aragon, founder of the Order of Montesa, and of Frederick III of Sicily, who both married daughters of Charles II of Naples.
René, who was well-versed in the occult, included at his court a Jewish Kabbalist known as Jean de Saint-Remy, who, according to some accounts, was the grandfather of Nostradamus.[50] According to Nostradamus’ son César, “There was in the city of Saint Maximin a Hebrew, very learned and widely known in medicine, a celebrated philosopher named Abraham Solomon, who, despite the fact that he was a Jew, stood in high favor with the grandees of his day, especially with René of Anjou. As the king desired to keep him in his service, he was excused from paying the taxes usually levied upon the Jews.”[51] It was probably Abraham Solomon and other Jewish physicians who drew René of Anjou’s attention to the condition of the Jews in his kingdom. René’s ancestor Charles I of Anjou accorded numerous concessions to his Jewish but his son and successor Charles II curtailed many of these projections. René issued a decree in 1454, which lessened the hardships brought about by the proclamation of Charles II forcing all Jews to wear the wheel-shaped badge. It also confirmed the right of Jews to practice medicine. René set an example by making Abraham his personal physician and exempting him from all taxes levied on Jews.[52]
"The Vision and Inspiration" by Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel.
René d’Anjou was “Reignier” in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, where he pretends to be the Dauphin to deceive the French heroin Joan of Arc (c. 1412 – 1431), who later claims to be pregnant with his child. Joan of Arc claimed to have received visions of the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War. René’s mother Yolande played a crucial role in the struggles between France and England, influencing events such as the financing of Joan of Arc’s army in 1429 that helped tip the balance in favor of the French. As Charles VI, the French king at the time of Joan's birth, suffered from bouts of mental illness, his brother Louis, Duke of Orléans, and the king’s cousin John the Fearless, quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. The young Charles of Orléans (1394 – 1465), the son of Louis and Valentina Visconti, the daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, succeeded his father as duke and was placed in the custody of his father-in-law, Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac (1360 – 1418). Bernard’s wife was Bonne, the daughter of John, Duke of Berry, and widow of Count Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy. Charles married Bernard’s daughter, also named Bonne.
Bernard d’Armagnac became the nominal head of the faction which opposed John the Fearless in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, and the faction came to be called the “Armagnacs,” and the opposing party led by the Duke of Burgundy was called the “Burgundian faction.” Taking advantage of these internal divisions, Henry V of England he invaded France in 1415, winning a dramatic victory at Agincourt, and subsequently capturing many northern French towns in 1417. In 1418, Paris was taken by when the Burgundians defeated Bernard and his followers. After all four of his older brothers had died in succession The future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin—the heir to the throne—at the age of fourteen. His first significant official act was to conclude a peace treaty with the Duke of Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans assassinated John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection.
Philip the Good (1396 – 1467)
The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good (1396 – 1467), son of John the Fearless, blamed Charles VII for the murder and renewed his father’s alliance with Henry V of England. The allied forces conquered large sections of France. By 1420, Henry V’s armies had captured Paris and had come close to conquering the whole of medieval France. In 1420, the queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria signed the Treaty of Troyes, which granted the succession of the French throne to Henry V of and his heirs instead of her son the Dauphin Charles. Henry V subsequently married to Charles VII’s sister, Catherine of Valois, in accordance with the terms of the treaty. However, the treaty was undermined when Henry V of England and Charles VI of France died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant, Henry VI of England, the nominal monarch of both kingdoms, while the Dauphin Charles also claimed the throne of France.
The deaths of both Henry V and Charles VI, in addition to a variety of factors, the emergence of Joan of Arc boosting French morale, and the final loss of Burgundy as an ally, finally marking the end of the civil war in France, prevented the final triumph of the English. By the time Joan of Arc began to influence events in 1429, nearly all of northern France and some parts of the southwest were under Anglo-Burgundian control. The English controlled Paris and Rouen while the Burgundian faction controlled Reims, which had served as the traditional site for the coronation of French kings. With his court removed to Bourges, one of the few remaining regions left to Charles VII. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a spiritual leader in France, who led French troops to lift the Siege of Orléans in 1429.
Illustration of Gilles de Rais Disposing of the Corpse of a Woman
The Siege of Orléans in 1429 announced the beginning of the end of the Hundred Years’ War. Henry V’s brother, John of Lancaster (1389 – 1435), had led the English forces against Joan of Arc, while he acted as regent of France for his nephew Henry VI. John of Lancaster’s first wife was Anne of Burgundy, the sister of his ally Philip the Good. John’s second wife was Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a fourth cousin twice removed of Emperor Sigismund. Jacquetta’s uncle, John II of Luxembourg (1392 – 1441), an ally of Philip the Good, was the head of the military company that captured Joan of Arc, whom he kept at Beauvoir and later sold her to the English, who burned her at the stake for heresy.
However, the French victory at Orléans led to the reconquest of other strategic cities on the Loire river, and a defeat of the English at the battle of Patay. With the local English troops dispersed, the people of Reims opened their gates, which enabled the coronation of Charles VII in 1429 at Reims Cathedral. A few years later, in 1435, Philip the Good deserted to Charles VII, signing the Treaty of Arras, ending the English-Burgundian alliance, which was followed by the recovery of Paris in 1436 and the steady recapture of Normandy in the 1440s. Following the battle of Castillon in 1453, considered the last battle of the Hundred Years’ War, the French expelled the English from all their continental possessions except for the Pale of Calais.
Jeanne of Arc’s companion and guide was Gilles de Rais (1405 – 1440), became Maréchal of France, but his career ended in a famous trial for Satanism, abduction, and child murder. When his family secured a decree from Charles VII in 1435, restraining him from selling or mortgaging the rest of his lands, he turned to alchemy. He also developed an interest in Satanism, hoping to gain knowledge, power, and riches by invoking the devil. He was later accused of having abducted, tortured, and murdered more than 140 children. The killings came to an end in 1440, when an ecclesiastical investigation that brought Rais’ crimes to light. Rais’ bodyguard Étienne Corrillaut, known as Poitou, testified that his master stripped children naked and hung them with ropes from a hook to prevent him from crying out, and then masturbated upon their belly or thighs. Rais then either killed the child himself or had the child killed. In his own confession, Rais testified that “when the said children were dead, he kissed them and those who had the most handsome limbs and heads he held up to admire them, and had their bodies cruelly cut open and took delight at the sight of their inner organs; and very often when the children were dying he sat on their stomachs and took pleasure in seeing them die and laughed.”[53] Rais was condemned to death and hanged.
Tudor Rose
King Henry VII of England (1457 – 1509), Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Elizabeth of York (1466 – 1503)
Richard Duke of York (1411 – 1460)
The cause of the Wars of the Roses is traced to the question of succession after Edward III’s death in 1377. Because his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince, had died the year before, Edward III was succeeded on the throne by the Black Prince’s only surviving son Richard II, who was only ten years old. According to contemporary sources, “the King of Castille, the King of Navarre and the King of Portugal” were present at his birth in Bordeaux in Aquitaine.[54] Richard’s posthumous reputation has been shaped to a large extent by Shakespeare, whose play Richard II portrayed his misrule and his deposition as responsible for the Wars of the Roses. Richard II’s reign was marked by increasing dissension between the King and several of the most powerful nobles. One of Richard II’s first significant acts was in 1382 to marry Anne of Bohemia, the sister of Emperor Sigismund.
The red rose was first adopted as a heraldic badge by John of Gaunt, a knight of the Order of the Garter, while the white rose of York was adopted by his younger brother Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341 – 1402), and their respective descendants fought for control of the throne of England. When Henry IV returned from exile in 1399, initially to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, he took advantage of the support of most of the nobles to depose Richard II and was crowned king, establishing the House of Lancaster on the throne. The House of Lancaster derive their name from Henry IV’s grandfather John of Gaunt’s primary title of Duke of Lancaster, which he held by right of his spouse, Blanche of Lancaster, the daughter of Garter founder Henry of Grosmont.
With Henry IV’s coronation, the swan become the symbol of the new king.[55] The progeny of the Knight Swan married into the houses of Bohun, Dammartin, Warwick, Tony, Stafford, and the royal house of Lancaster.[56] Henry IV married Marie de Bohun, from the family of Bohun, who employed the Bohun swan was a heraldic badge, derived from the Swan Knight. The Bohun swan was adopted by the House of Lancaster, which continued to use it for over a century.[57] Henry IV’s and Marie’s son was Henry V, who was close to Emperor Sigismund and became knight of the Garter and a member the Order of the Dragon. The swan was incorporated into Henry V’s coat of arms, and was the swan was passed down as a personal emblem of his son Henry VI by Catherine of Valois. According to Goodison, “Although Henry VI was later deposed, his swan symbol became an emblem around which forces rallied in the War of the Roses. The swan developed into an important emblem, not just for Henry IV, but for the House of Lancaster.”[58]
Margaret of Anjou, depicted in the Talbot Shrewsbury Book, 1444–45
Henry VI married René of Anjou’s daughter Margaret of Anjou, who became one of the principal figures in the Wars of the Roses. What became known as the Wars of the Roses erupted in 1455 with the challenge to Henry VI’s authority by Richard Duke of York (1411 – 1460), the grandson of Edmund of Langley and Isabella of Castile, the daughter of Peter of Castile. Richard was the great-grandson of Edward III and also a member of the Order of the Garter. Richard was the first to use the surname Plantagenet since Geoffrey of Anjou, as though it had been a hereditary surname for the whole dynasty, to emphasize that his claim to the throne was stronger than that of Henry VI. With Henry VI’s insanity in 1453, Richard was made Lord Protector, but had to give up this position with the King’s recovery and the birth of his heir, Edward of Westminster. Richard gradually gathered together his forces, however, and the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses eventually broke out in 1455.
The Lancastrians, led by Margaret of Anjou, continued the war, during which Richard was finally killed in 1460. In 1472, Margaret of Anjou was placed in the custody of her former lady-in-waiting Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk, a granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer, where she remained until ransomed by Louis XI in 1475.[59] Married three times, Alice eventually became a Lady of the Order of the Garter, an honor rarely granted to women and marking the friendship between herself and her third husband William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1396 – 1450), with Henry VI and Margaret. Suffolk also appears prominently in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, parts 1 and 2.
Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437 – 1492)
The House of York was victorious over the Lancastrians, but Richard had been unable to seize the throne for himself. Nevertheless, Richard’s eldest son finally succeeded in putting the Yorkist dynasty on the throne in 1461 as Edward IV of England, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Edward IV, however, disappointed his allies when he married Elizabeth Woodville, the daughter of Jacquetta of Luxembourg and her second husband, Richard Woodville (1405 – 1469). Through her short-lived first marriage to John of Lancaster, brother of Henry V, Jacquetta was firmly allied to the House of Lancaster. Elizabeth Woodville was widely believed to have been a witch and Edward’s brother Richard III tried to show there had never been any valid marriage between Edward and Elizabeth, that it was the result of love magic perpetrated by Elizabeth and her mother. With Edward’s sudden death in 1483, Elizabeth briefly became Queen Mother, but in 1483 her marriage was declared void by Parliament, and all her children illegitimate. Richard III accepted the crown.
King Henry VII's Coat of Arms, displaying the red dragon of Cadwaladr, purported descendant of King Arthur
Elizabeth then conspired with Lancastrians, promising to marry her eldest daughter Elizabeth of York to the Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor (1457 – 1509), who brought an end to the Wars of the Roses when, supported by France, Scotland, and Wales, he defeated Edward IV’s brother Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and became King Henry VII of England, founding the Tudor dynasty. Henry VII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet, by which Henry adopted the Red Rose of Lancaster as his symbol. Henry’s father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (c. 1430 – 1456), was a half-brother of Henry VI and descendant of the Welsh Tudors of Penmynydd, through whom Henry claimed descent from King Arthur. Henry VII’s grandfather was Owen Tudor (c. 1400 – 1461), the second husband of Catherine of Valois, claimed direct descent from Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, from around 655 to 682 AD, who was considered a descendant of King Arthur. Cadwaladr is a prominent character in the stories of Geoffrey of Monmouth, where he is portrayed as the last in an ancient line to hold the title King of Britain. In Geoffrey’s account, Cadwaladr renounced his throne and travelled to Rome in 688 to become a pilgrim, in response to a prophecy that his sacrifice of personal power will bring about a future victory of the Britons over the Anglo-Saxons. The myth was used by both the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions to claim that their candidate would fulfil the prophecy by restoring the authentic lineage stemming from Cadwaladr. Henry VII flew the red dragon of Cadwaladr as his banner, overlaid on a green and white field representing the Tudor House, when he marched on his way to Bosworth Field. Henry VII’s coat of arms depicted the red dragon with a phalus to symbolize male fertility. Henry then strengthened his position by marrying Elizabeth of York. Thus, both the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York were merged to a single ten-petal flower, to form the Tudor Rose that symbolized the union of the two houses. King Henry VII also named his eldest son Arthur, but the prince died before he could become king.
Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, firmly identifies Camelot with the Abbey of Winchester, which features the “Winchester Round Table,” built during the reign of Edward I, bearing the names of various knights of Arthur’s court.
Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1415 – 1471), criminal and author of Le Morte d’Arthur
The year of Henry VII’s victory at Bosworth Field, Le Morte d’Arthur, one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature, by Sir Thomas Mallory (c. 1415 – 1471), was published, resulting in a flurry of renewed interest in Arthurian lore. Malory inherited the family estate in 1434, but by 1450 he was fully engaged in a life of crime. He had been accused of theft, the attempted murder of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, at least two rapes, and that he had attacked and robbed Coombe Abbey. Although originally allied to the House of York, after his release from prison, Malory changed his allegiance to the House of Lancaster. This led to him being imprisoned yet again in 1468 when he led an ill-fated plot to overthrow Edward IV. It was during this final stint at Newgate Prison in London that he is believed to have written Le Morte d’Arthur. Malory was released in 1470, when Henry VI returned to the throne, but died only five months later. Le Morte d’Arthur was published in 1485 by William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491), who is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England. The first book Caxton is known to have produced was an edition of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
After Chrétien de Troyes’ Grail story became popular, it was incorporated into Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which created the image of Camelot most familiar today. Malory firmly identifies Camelot with the Abbey of Winchester, an identification that remained popular for centuries. On the west wall of Henry III’s Great Hall, the only significant remains of Winchester Castle, built in 1222, hangs the “Winchester Round Table,” bearing the names of various knights of Arthur’s court. To strengthen his claim, Henry VII had the Red Rose of Lancaster painted in the center of the Round Table at Winchester.
Habsburgs
Emperor Maximilian I (left), Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with his son Philip the Fair, his wife Mary of Burgundy (standing right), his grandsons Ferdinand I (bottom left) and Charles V, and Louis II of Hungary
Investiture of Johann Siebenhirter as the first Grand Master of the Austrian Order of Saint George by Frederick III (1415 –1493), Holy Roman Emperor, blessed by Pope Paul II.
The current paintwork of the Winchester Round Table was done by order of Henry II’s son by Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII of England (1491 – 1547), for the 1522 state visit of Garter knight Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558), head of the rising House of Habsburg, and depicts Henry himself sitting in Arthur’s seat above a Tudor rose. As well as being a knight of the Order of the Garter, Henry VIII, like his father, was also a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which was dominated for centuries by the House of Habsburg, one of the most influential and distinguished royal houses of Europe, continuously occupying the throne of the Holy Roman from 1438 until their extinction in the male line in 1740. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a fortress built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. In the thirteenth century, the Habsburg family began to extend its influence over Austria, then ruled by descendants of the Arpads of Hungary, who governed as Margraves and then Dukes. As the Habsburg continued their policy of acquisition through dynastic marriages with the houses of Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary.
By marrying Elisabeth of Luxembourg, the daughter of Emperor Sigismund, in 1437, Duke Albert V of Austria (1397 – 1439), a knight of the Order of the Garter, and the great-grandson of Rudolf I of Germany, became the ruler of Bohemia and Hungary, and King of the Romans as Albert II. After Albert II became Holy Roman emperor in 1438, the imperial office remained in Habsburg hands for the next four hundred years. In Sopron (Ödenburg) in Austria, on February 16, 1409, less than three months after the foundation of the Order of the Dragon, Emperor Sigismund incorporated twenty-four Austrian and Styrian noblemen into the order, headed by Albert II and his cousin, Ernest the Iron (1377 – 1424), the son of Leopold III, Duke of Austria, and Viridis Visconti.[68] In 1440, Ernest the Iron’s son Frederick III (1415 – 1493) was chosen by the electoral college to succeed him as Holy Roman Emperor. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V crowned Frederick III as the Holy Roman Emperor in a grand ceremony held in Rome.
Emperor Friedrich III continued decorating aristocrats with the Order of the Dragon.[61] It is believed that the Order of St. George of Austria, founded by Friedrich III, was connected to the Austrian Dragon Society founded in 1409. The Austrian Order of St. George was founded in Rome by Friedrich III and Pope Paul II in 1469, for the purpose of defending the Christianity against heretics, specifically, against the invading Ottoman Turks. Frederick III’s order was a revival of the order created by ancestor Rudolf I of Germany, whose daughter Clemence of Austria married Charles I of Hungary. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Order was described as one of the most important of the Holy Roman Empire.[62] The first thirteen Prince Grand Masters of the Order were all from the House of Habsburg and descended from Rudolf I. The Order was succeeded by a secular Confraternity of St. George founded under Frederick III’s son, Emperor Maximilian I (1459 – 1519) with the approbation of Alexander VI in 1494.[63]
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 – 1460), Grand Master of the Order of Christ
Frederick III married Eleanor of Portugal, enabling him to build a network of connections with dynasties in the west and southeast of Europe. Eleanor was the daughter of Edward, King of Portugal (1391 – 1438), who was also a Knight of the Garter. Edward’s father was John I of Portugal (1357 – 1433), also a knight of of the Garter, who was the son of Peter I of Portugal (1320 – 1367), the third but only surviving son of Afonso IV of Portugal, a Grand Master of the Knights of Christ, and his wife, Beatrice of Castile, granddaughter of Alfonso X of Castile.[64] John I married Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, and sister of Henry IV. In 1364, by request of Nuno Freire de Andrade, a Galician Grand Master of the Order of Christ was created Grand Master of the Order of Aviz. Edward’s brother was the famous explorer, Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 – 1460), Grand Master of the Order of Christ.
When Philippa’s mother, Blanche of Lancaster, died in 1368, John remarried in 1371 to Infanta Constance of Castile, daughter of Peter of Castile, the son of Alfonso XI of Castile and Maria of Portugal, the granddaughter of Denis I and Elizabeth of Aragon. Alfonso XI was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal, the eldest child and only daughter of Denis I and his wife Elizabeth of Aragon. Constance’s brother was King Afonso IV of Portugal (1291 – 1357), Grand Master of the Order of Christ.[65] Peter’s rival Henry of Trastámara continuously denounced Peter as “King of the Jews,” and instigated anti-Jewish pogroms beginning a period of riots and forced conversions in Castile that lasted approximately from 1370 to 1390. Peter imposed measures against these actions, including the execution of at least five anti-Jewish plotters. The prominence of Samuel ha-Levi, Peter’s treasurer and founder of the Synagogue of El Transito in Toledo, has often been cited as evidence of Peter’s pro-Jewish sentiment.[66] On Constance’s death in 1394, John of Gaunt married his former mistress, Katherine Swynford, who had been Philippa’s governess. Katherine had close ties with Geoffrey Chaucer, since her sister, Philippa Roet, was Chaucer’s wife.
Wedding of King John I of Portugal (1357 – 1433),and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter John of Gaunt, son of Edward III of England, founder of the Order of the Garter.
Born into the royal family of England, Philippa’s marriage to John I of Portugal secured the Treaty of Windsor and produced several children who became known as the “Illustrious Generation” in Portugal. The members of the illustrious generation are normally considered to be their five legitimate sons: Infante D. Duarte (1391–1438), later king Edward of Portugal (r. 1433 – 1438); Infante D. Pedro (1392 – 1449), the first Duke of Coimbra (f.1416) and regent of Portugal from 1439 to 1448 during the minority of his nephew King Afonso V of Portugal; Infante D. Henrique (1394 – 1460), i.e. Henry the Navigator; Infante D. Joao (1400 – 1442), from 1418 master of the Portuguese Order of Saint James of the Sword and from 1431 Constable of Portugal; Infante D. Fernando (1402 – 1443), from 1434 master of the Order of Aviz, later a popular saintly martyr.
Henry the Navigator would be succeeded in the governorship of the Order of Christ by his nephew Prince Ferdinand (1433 – 1470), son of Henry’s brother Edward and his wife Eleanor of Aragon (1402 – 1445). Eleanor of Aragon was the daughter of Ferdinand I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque (1374 – 1435), daughter of was Sancho Alfonso, 1st Count of Alburquerque. Sancho Alfonso was an illegitimate son of Alfonso XI of Castile and his mistress Eleanor of Guzman, and a brother of King Henry II of Castile. Eleanor of Aragon’s brother was Alfonso V of Aragon (1396 – 1458), a member of the Order of the Dragon. In 1452, Frederick III travelled to Italy to receive his bride Eleanor of Portugal and to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. After Frederick III’s coronation, the Habsburgs were able to hold the imperial throne almost continuously for centuries, until 1806.
Order of the Golden Fleece
Philip the Good (1396 – 1467), brother of Jean de Berry and Marie of Valois, founded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430 to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal, sister of Prince Henry the Navigator, Grand Master of the Order of Christ.
Isabella of Portugal (1397 – 1471)
The House of Luxembourg’s struggle for supremacy with the House of Habsburg within the Holy Roman Empire and Central Europe, all came to end in 1443, when it suffered a succession crisis, precipitated by the lack of a male heir to assume the throne. Since Sigismund and his niece Elizabeth of Görlitz were both without heirs, all possessions of the Luxembourg dynasty were redistributed among the European aristocracy. The Duchy of Luxembourg become a possession of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. During Philip the Good’s reign, the Burgundian State reached the apex of its prosperity and prestige, and became a leading center of the arts. Philip is known in history for his administrative reforms, his patronage of Flemish artists such as van Eyck and Franco-Flemish composers such as Guillaume Du Fay, and, ultimately, the capture of Joan of Arc.
Philip however declined membership in the Order of the Garter in 1422, which would have been considered an act of treason against the then king of France, his ally Henry V, member of the Order of the Dragon. Instead, Philip founded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to Henry the Navigator’s sister Isabella of Portugal. The Order of the Golden Fleece, which was based on the Knights of the Round Table, would surpass the Order of the Garter to become the most prestigious and historic of all knightly orders of chivalry in all of Europe. The first king of arms of the Order of the Golden Fleece was Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy.[67]
The golden fleece figures in the Greek tale of Jason and the Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece by order of King Pelias, in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. Through the help of Medea, the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, they acquire the Golden Fleece. Herodotus in his Histories mentions that Medea ended up leaving Athens and settling in the Iranian plateau among the Arians—the Irani, later identified with “Aryans”—who subsequently changed their name to the Medes. It was among the Medes that the Lost Tribes of Israel were dispersed following their conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in circa 722 BC. Jason’s last task was to overcome the sleepless dragon—who according to Hyginus was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon—which guarded the Golden Fleece. Jason sprayed the dragon with a potion given by Medea from distilled from herbs. When the dragon fell asleep, Jason was able to seize the Golden Fleece.
It was common to associate the Golden Fleece of the Jason legend as an alchemical reference to the Philosopher’s Stone. According to Palaephatus, in fourth century BC, in On the Incredible, the Golden Fleece represents a book on alchemy. The theory that the expedition of the Argonauts symbolized the search for the Philosophers’ Stone is as old as Dionysius of Mitylene, who lived about 50 BC. John of Antioch, a seventh century chronicler, also evoked an alchemical interpretation of the Golden Fleece. Far from being such a mere fleece, as the poets mentioned, John argued that the Golden Fleece was a book written on parchment, teaching the reader how to make gold through alchemy, which was the real motivation for the quest of the Argonauts.[68]
Philip was a close ally of Henry V of England who also claimed Swan Knight ancestry and adopted the swan as a crest.[69] The dukes of Burgundy also claimed descent from the Swan Knight. In Flemish Tapestries from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century, Roger A. D’Hulst writes: “The legendary Swan Knight was a hero loved and venerated at the court, since he was recognized as a forefather of the House of Burgundy.”[70] Philip the Good also inherited the lands of Brabant, which were affiliated with the Swan Knight legend. A patron of the arts, Philip the Good commissioned a tapestry featuring Godfrey of Bouillon, owned Godfrey’s sword of and adorned his clothing in swans. Philip the Good bought the Knight of the Swan tapestry produced by Pasquier Grenier. In 1423, the marriage of Philip’s sister Anne to John, Duke of Bedford, regent for Henry VI of England, strengthened the alliance.
The Feast of the Pheasant was a banquet given by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy in 1454
Philip the Good’s sister Mary married Adolph I, Duke of Cleves (1373 – 1448), who was raised by Emperor Sigismund as duke and a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1417. Their daughter, Marie of Cleves, commissioned an abridged Crusade Cycle, intended in the words of Simon John to “cement the dynastic connection between the Swan Knight and the house of Cleves.”[71] Their son, Adolph of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein (1425 – 1492), who rebuilt castle Schwanenburg, married Beatrice of Portugal, niece of Prince Henry the Navigator. Adolf of Cleves was at Lille in 1454 to attend the Feast of the Pheasant, a banquet given by Philip the Good to promote a crusade against the Turks, who had taken Constantinople the year before. Festivities began with a joust, proclaimed at a banquet given by Adolf of Cleves, announcing that the Knight of the Swan would encounter all contestants, and the winner would win a rich swan of gold, chained with a golden chain, and at the end of the chain a ruby. At one point in the event, a woman dressed in white, personifying the Church of Constantinople, entered the banquet hall riding on an elephant, led by a giant Saracen, to call upon the aid from the Knights of the Golden Fleece.[72] The feast also featured a mechanical depiction of Melusine as a dragon flying around the castle of Lusignan.[73]
Imperial coat of arms of Frederick III (1415 –1493), Holy Roman Emperor, in the Wernigerode Armorial (ca. 1490)
Frederick III’s son Maximilian I married the heiress Mary of Burgundy, the granddaughter of Philip the Good. A few months after the marriage, Maximilian I was knighted in Bruges in 1478 and then appointed Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Their son Philip I of Castile (1478 – 1506), married Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella, and heiress of Spain. Joanna was an elder sister to Catherine of Aragon, who married successively the brothers Arthur, Prince of Wales, and King Henry VIII of England. Joanna’s elder sister Isabella was the wife of Manuel I of Portugal, Grand Master of the Order of Christ.[74] When their son died, the united crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal fell to Joanna. Joanna became Queen of Castile when her mother died in 1504. Philip was proclaimed King in 1506, becoming the first Habsburg monarch in Spain, and is the progenitor of every later monarch of Spain, even up to today.
Philip and Joanna’s son Emperor Charles inherited an empire where “the sun does not set,” eventually uniting the Habsburg, Burgundian, Castilian, and Aragonese inheritances. As Holy Roman Emperor, he was crowned King of Germany and King of Italy. Charles V controlled the Holy Roman Empire stretching from Germany to Northern Italy with direct rule over the Low Countries and Austria, and Spain with its southern Italian kingdoms of Sicily, Sardinia and Naples. As ruler of Castile and Aragon, he has been referred to as King of Spain. Charles V was appointed head of the Order of the Golden Fleece at the age of nine and identified himself strongly with the order throughout his life. Charles V had married his first cousin Isabella of Portugal, the daughter of Manuel I and his mother’s other sister Maria of Aragon. Under Charles V, Pope Adrian VI annexed to the crown of Spain the three great military orders of Alcántara, Calatrava, and Santiago, which were united under one government, though their titles and possessions remained separate. For this purpose, Charles V instituted a Council of Orders, composed of a president named by the king, and six knights comprised of two delegates from each order.[75]
Dominions of the Habsburgs at the time of the abdication of Charles V in 1556
After Charles V’s abdication in 1556, the Habsburgs split into two branches, being the Austrian Habsburgs and the Spanish Habsburgs. The Austrian Habsburgs held the title of Holy Roman Emperors, as well as the Habsburg Hereditary Lands of Austria and Slovenia, as well as the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, while the Spanish Habsburgs ruled over the Spanish kingdoms, the Netherlands, the Habsburgs’ Italian possessions, and, for a time, Portugal. Hungary, nominally under Habsburg kingship from 1526, was mostly under the Turks of the Ottoman Empire for 150 years.
Ultimately, Charles V conceded the Peace of Augsburg in 1556 that divided his imperial domains between the Spanish Habsburgs headed by his son Philip II of Spain (1527 – 1598) and the Austrian Habsburgs headed by his brother Ferdinand I (1503 – 1564), who was Archduke of Austria in Charles’ name since 1521 and the designated successor as emperor since 1531. Philip II (1527 – 1598) became King of Spain and its colonial empire. Philip II was Grand Master of the orders of Santiago, Montesa and Calatrava, and a member of the Order of the Garter, and Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Ferdinand I married Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, daughter of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (1456 – 1516), the great-grandson of Sigismund of Luxembourg. Their son Maximilian II (1527 – 1576) married his cousin Maria of Austria, and fathered Emperor Rudolf II, who like his father, was a member of the Order of the Garter.
The two Habsburg dynasties remained allied until the extinction of the Spanish line in 1700. Although they ruled distinct territories, the two branches of the Habsburgs nevertheless maintained close relations and frequently intermarried. Philip II married his own niece, Rudolf II’s sister Anna of Austria, to father Philip III, who inherited his Spanish empire, and was also a Knight Garter, as well as Grand Master of the orders of Santiago, Calatrava and Montesa. The matrimonial policy conducted by the dynasty to establish political alliances through marriage resulted in presented an extremely high mean kinship in the marriages contracted by the Habsburgs from 1450 to 1750. Health impairments due to inbreeding including epilepsy, insanity and death. Numerous members of the family show specific facial deformities: known as the Habsburg jaw, Habsburg nose, and Habsburg lip. The gene pool eventually became so small that with the death of last of the Spanish line, Philip III’s grandson, Charles II (1661 – 1700), from his disfigurements, led to the War of Spanish Succession. All eight of Charles II’s great-grandparents were descendants of Joanna and Philip I of Castile.[76]
[1] Zohar I, Introduction, p. 1.
[2] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[3] Herodotus. Histories, 4.8–10
[4] Charles Forbes René de Montalembert. Hagiography of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1839).
[5] Jonathan R. Lyon. Princely Brothers and Sisters: The Sibling Bond in German Politics, 1100-1250 (Cornell Press, 2012), p. 243.
[6] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lohengrin.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lohengrin-German-legendary-figure
[7] David Hughes. The British Chronicles, Volume 1 (Heritage Books, 2007), p.379.
[8] "Beatrix van Kleef van Teisterband (c.695 - c.734) - Genealogy". Retrieved from https://www.geni.com/people/Beatrix-van-Kleef-van-Teisterband/6000000002141639343
[9] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[10] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[11] RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants (United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley, 2008), p. 1136; “La Rose de Proving.” Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20110705234127/http://www.provins.net/index.php/artisanat-et-produits-du-terroir/la-rose-de-provins.html
[12] Gabor Klanniczay. “The Great Royal Trio: Charles IV, Louis I of Anjou and Casimir the Great,” in Kaiser Karl IV – Die böhmischen Länder und Europa - Emperor Charles IV, Lands of the Bohemian Crown and Europe, eds. Daniela Břízová, Jiří Kuthan, Jana Peroutková, Stefan Scholz (Prague: Kalsuniversität, 2017), p. 265.
[13] Charles Moeller. “Orders of St. George.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm
[14] C. Moeller. “Orders of St. George.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm
[15] Scholem. Kabbalah, p. 38.
[16] Abraham Ibn Da’ud. Sefer ha-Qabbalah: The Book of Tradition, (ed.) and trans. Gerson D. Cohen. (Oxford: Littman Library, 2005), pp. 259 ff.
[17] Scholem. Kabbalah, p. 38.
[18] Alan V. Murray, (ed.) The Crusades (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006), p. 510.
[19] Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin & Michael Jones. The Women of the Cousins’ War (London: Simon & Schuster, 2011).
[20] Raymond Cazelles & Johannes Rathofer, Illuminations of Heaven and Earth: The Glories of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), p. 72; cited in Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[21] Pit Péporté. Melusine’s Footprint Tracing the Legacy of a Medieval Myth. Explorations in Medieval Culture, Volume: 4 (Brill, 2017), p. 163.
[22] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[23] Cited in Anthony R. Wagner. “IV.—The Swan Badge and the Swan Knight.” Archaeologia, 97 (1959), p. 136.
[24] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[25] Sharon Bennett Connolly. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey (Pen and Sword History, 2021).
[26] Margaret Murray. The God of the Witches. The Priesthood: Chapter III.
[27] Alice E. Lasater. Spain to England: A Comparative Study of Arabic, European, and English Literature of the Middle Ages (University Press of Mississippi, 1974).
[28] Ross G. Arthur. Medieval Sign Theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), pp. 22, 26.
[29] Barbara W. Tuchman. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Random House Publishing Group, 2011), p. 46.
[30] Henry L. Savage. “Sir Gawain and the Order of the Garter.” ELH. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 5, 2, (1938): 146–149.
[31] Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. Holt Literature and Language Arts (2003), p. 113.
[32] Donald R. Howard. Chaucer, his life, his works, his world (New York: Dutton, 1987), p. 191.
[33] Wood, Chauncey. Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetical Uses of Astrological Imagery (Princeton University Press, 1970), pp.12–21.
[34] Jack B. Oruch. “St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February.” Speculum, 56 (1981): 534–65.
[35] Gabor Klanniczay. “The Great Royal Trio: Charles IV, Louis I of Anjou and Casimir the Great,” in Kaiser Karl IV – Die böhmischen Länder und Europa - Emperor Charles IV, Lands of the Bohemian Crown and Europe, eds. Daniela Břízová, Jiří Kuthan, Jana Peroutková, Stefan Scholz (Prague: Kalsuniversität, 2017), p. 265.
[36] Hauck. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy, p. 64.
[37] Hugh E. L. Collins. The Order of the Garter, 1348-1461: Chivalry and Politics in Late Medieval England (Clarendon Press, 2000), p. 176.
[38] Constantin Rezachevici & Elizabeth Miller (ed.). “From the Order of the Dragon to Dracula.” Journal of Dracula Studies. (St John's, NL, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999). 1.
[39] Eleanor Cracknell. “St George and the chapel.” (January 22, 2009). Retrieved from https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/st-george-and-the-chapel/
[40] Barbara Tuchman. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (New York: Ballantine, 1978), pp. 496–49.
[41] Ibid., p. 503
[42] Jan R. Veenstra. Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France (New York: Brill, 1997), p. 91.
[43] Ibid.
[44] Ibid., pp. 60, 91, 95.
[45] Tuchman. A Distant Mirror, pp. 503–505.
[46] Ibid., p. 515–516.
[47] Ibid., p. 516.
[48] Arthur Charles Fox-Davies. A Complete Guide to Heraldry (London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1909), pp. 21–22.
[49] John Keegan. The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme (Penguin Classics Reprint. Viking Adult, 1976), p. 86.
[50] Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln. Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
[51] Richard Gottheil. “Abraham Solomon of Saint Maximin.” Jewish Encyclopedia.
[52] G.B. Depping, Les Juifs dans le Moyen-Age (1839), pp. 206, 335; E. Wickersheimer, Dictionnaire Biographique des Médecins en France au Moyen-Age (1936), pp. 5–6; H. Friedenwald, Jews and Medicine, 2 (1944), p. 689.
[53] Jean Benedetti. Gilles de Rais (New York: Stein and Day, 1971), p. 115.
[54] Anthony Tuck. “Richard II (1367–1400).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
[55] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[56] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[57] John Cherry. “The Dunstable Swan Jewel.” Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XXXII (2003), p. 204.
[58] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[59] Cathy Hartley. A Historical Dictionary of British Women (London: Europa Publications Ltd, 2003), p. 298.
[60] Ivan Mirnik. “The Order of the Dragon as Reflected in Hungarian and Croatian Heradlry.” In Genealogica Et Heraldica Sancta Andreae MMVI S (2008). Retrieved from http://www.princeofmontenegroandmacedonia.eu/Bibliografia/CERNETIC%20CITATI%20ORDINE%20DEL%20DRAGO.pdf
[61] Ivan Mirnik. “The Order of the Dragon as Reflected in Hungarian and Croatian Heradlry.” In Genealogica Et Heraldica Sancta Andreae MMVI S (2008). Retrieved from http://www.princeofmontenegroandmacedonia.eu/Bibliografia/CERNETIC%20CITATI%20ORDINE%20DEL%20DRAGO.pdf
[62] “The Order of Saint George In Carinthia - HRE.” Retrieved from http://www.holyromanempireassociation.com/order-of-saint-george-in-carinthia.html
[63] Charles Moeller. “Orders of St. George.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm
[64] David Hatcher Childress. Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet, (Adventures Unlimied Press, 2003) p. 61.
[65] Ibid., p. 61.
[66] Clara Estow. Pedro the Cruel of Castile, 1350-1369 (Brill, 1995).
[67] Klaus Oschema. Freundschaft und Nähe im spätmittelalterlichen Burgund: Studien zum Spannungsfeld von Emotion und Institution (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, Köln Weimar Wein, 2006), pp. 209–210.
[68] Antoine Favre. The Golden Fleece and Alchemy (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993).
[69] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[70] Roger A. D’Hulst. Flemish Tapestries from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century (Brussels: Editions Arcade, 1967), p. 75; cited in Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[71] Simon John. “Godfrey of Bouillon and the Swan Knight,” in Simon John and Nicholas Morton (eds), Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 2014), p. 140; cited in Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).
[72] Edmund A. Bowles. “Instruments at the Court of Burgundy (1363–1467).” The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 6, (July 1953), pp. 42–43.
[73] Jeffrey Chipps Smith. The Artistic Patronage of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (1419–1467), PhD thesis (Columbia University, 1979), p. 146.
[74] Napier. A to Z of the Knights Templar.
[75] C.Moeller. “Order of Saint James of Compostela.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved February 4, 2021 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13353a.htm
[76] Gonzalo Alvarez, Francisco Ceballos & Quintero Celsa. “The Role of Inbreeding in the Extinction of a European Royal Dynasty.” PLOS ONE. 4, 4 (2009), p. 3.
Volume One
Introduction
Babylon
Ancient Greece
The Hellenistic Age
The Book of Revelation
Gog and Magog
Eastern Mystics
Septimania
Princes' Crusade
The Reconquista
Ashkenazi Hasidim
The Holy Grail
Camelot
Perceval
The Champagne Fairs
Baphomet
The Order of Santiago
Wars of the Roses
The Age of Discovery
Renaissance & Reformation
Kings of Jerusalem
The Mason Word
The Order of the Dragon