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Louis, Louis, Oh, Yeah: Lawrence Bryant on Fifteenth-Century France

It's been a year and a half since I've had the pleasure of a formal interview with Lawrence Bryant, Department of History, and the next speaker at the Friends of History Lecture Series. When I first met Bryant, he was chair of his department and soon to be named Outstanding Professor at CSU, Chico for 1999-00. He gave me an enthusiastic overview of the lecture series now in its fourth year.

This winter when I asked him about his upcoming talk,

"The Collapse of Burgundy in 1477 and the Formation of French Court Culture under Louis XI," which will be given on Sunday, March 4, at 4 pm in PAC 134, he first reminded me about the purpose of the series.

"Friends of History was envisioned," he explained, "to help satisfy the university's strategic plan. It takes history from the classroom to the community, to reveal what historians are doing, what their recent ideas and research are."

I can't help but be impressed with Bryant's carefully articulated passion for his field. Bryant is a phenomenally easy interview -- his answers arrive in nearly perfect lecture form.

"My lecture will be a monograph," he started apologetically. "But good history comes from good research on a narrow topic -- which becomes a building block for a larger issue -- this year's theme for the series being the nation-state."

"Why study the duchy of Burgundy in the Middle Ages?" Bryant asked -- and immediately answered. "What people don't know is it was the most rich, powerful entity in the mid-fifteenth century. The dukes, courts, and artistic styles of the duchy set the cultural direction for Europe."

"For complex reasons, the duchy fell, the duke was defeated in battle, and unity was dissolved. The break-up left a cultural vacuum. The French rushed in to make France and its monarchy of Louis XI (1460-83) the model for successful government rather than stay with the medieval model. Up through Louis XIV -- if not the French Revolution -- the French were the most self-conscious builders of a nation-state. They were the most tied to building powerful states not only based on political goals but as a cultural mission."

Bryant will show how Europe would have taken a far different path without Louis XI. He will argue that France's appropriation of Burgundy was as significant in determining early modern Europe as the Italian Renaissance. He said, "In an age of warlords, enormous violence, and political assassinations, Louis XI -- later named the 'universal spider' so bleak is his reputation with historians -- consistently developed policy, one which helped France be the dominant European power."

A reception will follow the March 4 public lecture.

Thomasin Saxe, College of Humanities and Fine Arts