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History comes alive

The Burgundians

Bart Van Loo
A masterful work.
Le Figaro

‘The Burgundians’ takes the reader on a journey through a thousand years of European history, calling at cities such as Dijon, Paris, Lille, Ghent, Bruges and Delft, up to the time when the Seventeen Provinces arose and the Burgundian Empire came to an end. It tells a scintillating account of pyres and banquets, plagues and jousts, Joan of Arc, Jan van Eyck, Philip the Good and the Golden Fleece. Bart Van Loo is unmatched in his ability to bring the powerfully evocative middle ages to life. His quest takes him to the emergence of the Dutch nation in the fifteenth century, and we learn that the Low Countries were a Burgundian invention.

A born storyteller
De Standaard

‘The Burgundians’ is an astonishing account of emerging cities, awakening individualism and dying knightly ideals, of schizophrenic kings, bold dukes and brilliant artists. While the Burgundian dukes forged the fragmented Low Countries into a unified whole through battles, marriages and reforms, they spurred artists like Klaas Sluter, Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden to produce unforgettable works. Along the way, Bart Van Loo’s equally thrilling and educational exploration of the middle ages develops into an impressive cultural history. 

If there’s any justice, a blockbuster TV series awaits.
Sunday Times