Chivalry and Politics in Fifteenth-Century Orders of Knighthood

Abstract

My thesis examines the relationship between politics and idealistic chivalric notions in the functioning of lay orders of knighthood. The thesis focuses specifically on two orders: the Order of the Golden Fleece under the Burgundian dukes from 1430 to 1477, and the Order of the Crescent, from it's foundation by René of Anjou in 1448 until in ceased to exist in 1480.