within the French kingdom after Charles V's death in 1380 that were to divide the higher nobility and play into the hands of the enemies of the house of Valois. The endowment by John the Good of his youngest son Philip with the duchy of Burgundy in 1363 was to create problems unforeseen by that monarch. From its relatively minor beginnings, as an apanage of the French crown, the duchy of Burgundy was to form the kernel of a European power-bloc ultimately hostile to that crown. Once again, marriage alliances, purchases, and conquests combined to create the Burgundian 'state' or, more accurately, the Burgundian lands or dominions. The term 'empire' might be more appropriate for this conglomeration of territories built up between 1363 and 1477. The marriage of Philip of Valois, later called Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, to Margaret, daughter of Louis de Mâle, count of Flanders and Artois in 1369 was to change the fortunes of the house decisively. On the death of his father-in-law in 1384 Philip entered upon the Flemish inheritance which held the key to Burgundian aggrandisement in the fifteenth century. He also became count of Burgundy (an imperial fief) thus amalgamating his southern lands. Burgundian history is a classic example of what German historians have aptly called Hausmachtpolitik in which the dukes outdid their neighbours and rivals in gathering territories and displaying their wealth. In principle there was nothing peculiar about Burgundian methods of territorial and dynastic expansion. What set the Valois dukes apart from their contemporaries was the immense wealth which their Netherlandish lands brought to them. By the reign of Philip the Good, the ducal lands in the Low Countries accounted for well over 70 per cent of his income, while the old Burgundian duchy provided nobles and lawyers to serve the duke rather than financial resources. The tendency among all principalities towards autonomy at this time could only be furthered by Burgundian access to credit facilities, urban wealth, and tolls on trade and merchandise in the Low Countries. Without the textile industries, maritime commerce, river traffic, and banking houses of the Netherlands the house of Burgundy might never have achieved its dominance in north-west Europe.
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