Jürgen sent over a question:

What’s the correct color to wear when mourning a dead duke in later period Burgundy? Black seems to be popular, but there I found a reference to purple, and red as well…. How do I de-conflict my various sources to a best of breed answer?

This is two questions, but I’ll combine the answer as best as possible.

First of all — we’d have to determine what’s meant by “later period Burgundy.” (Jürgen’s one of my SCA friends, so “later period” can mean the later Middle Ages through the end of the 16th century, depending on who you’re talking to.) Fashions change fairly drastically during this time — not to mention the ruling family (the Valois in the 15th century, then the Hapsburgs, after the marriage and death of Mary of Burgundy). The last Duke of Burgundy who wasn’t also a king or an emperor was Charles the Bold, so I’ll assume that the question is really about the 15th century, around the reigns of Charles and his father, Philip the Good.

So, as to the final question — “How do I de-conflict my various sources to a best of breed answer?” — that, I think, needs to be assessed on its own, but I’ll address it in the context of this question. One must, I think, consider the sources, and consider which is the best possible source. While I loathe the whole “primary/secondary/tertiary” source argument, this is one of the areas where it’s useful. If one of your sources is a contemporary description, then that’s a pretty darned good answer. If all you have is tertiary sources, see which (if any) are supported by what sorts of facts — that author X writes Y because he found it in source Z.

Material culture can be iffy on this sort of point. A preserved garment may have been made in the 15th century, beyond the shadow of a doubt; but that it was a mourning garment may be a “fact” handed down by tradition. Even an illustration is on shaky ground here — illustrations are not photographs, and are generally completed many years after the event in question by someone who wasn’t even there. Some examples:

• Funeral of Charlemagne (d. 814) in an illustration c. 1500-1515
• Funeral of William the Conqueror (d. 1087) in an illustration from the second half of the 15th century
• Funeral of Peter I, Duke of Brittany (d. 1251) and Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1458) in an illustration from 1484
• The funeral of King Philip IV (d. 1350) in illustrations from c. 1400-1424 (at right), c. 1420 (at left), and the second half of the 15th century
• The funeral procession of Queen Jeanne of Bourbon (d. 1378) in illustrations from c. 1375-1380 and the end of the 14th century
• The funeral procession of King Richard II (d. 1400) in illustrations from c. 1460-1480 and the second half of the 15th century
• Funeral procession of Louis, Duke of Orléans (d. 1407) in an illustration from 1484
• Funeral procession of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1419) in an illustration from 1484
• Funeral procession of King Charles VI (d. 1422) in illustrations c. 1450-1474 and 1484
• The funeral procession of Francis I, Duke of Brittany (d. 1450) in an illustration from 1484
• Funeral procession of King Charles VII (d. 1461) in illustration from 1484

Edward A. Tabri’s essay on the funeral of Duke Philip the Good mentions:

Charles’s next concern was to properly outfit the mourners in Philips funeral procession. Although the men of Bruges and the men of the Franc of Bruges who marched in the procession outfitted themselves at their own expense, Charles had to provide mourning clothes for his fathers household and officers, as well as for his own.¹⁶ These gowns were strictly regulated in cut and quality to reflect the status of the wearer. All nobles wore long robes that touched the ground, whereas the minor officers and all others of common extraction wore knee-length robes with short hoods.¹⁷

The hierarchy of the household and other officers was defined by the price of the mourning cloth prescribed for each class of retainer. Chaplains wore cloth worth fifty sous per measure; judiciary officers, forty sous; squires of the household, thirty sous; other military officers, twenty sous; and petty officers donned robes worth only twelve sous per measure.¹⁸

…

16. The Franc was Bruges’s rural hinterland.

17. Georges Chastellain, Oeuvres, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, (Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique, 1863-66), 5: 232. Lory, Les obsèques, 24.

18. Ibid.

Here in the footnotes, I would say, is where you find your best sources. Georges Chastellain was writing chronicles about things he would have actually experienced, witnessed, seen, etc., during his lifetime; the Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain are available through Google Books. (The other book referenced, Les Obsèques de Philippe le Bon, duc de Bourgogne, by Ernest-Léon Lory, does not seem to be online. Perhaps that would be a good one to track down via InterLibrary Loan, along with The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renaissance France by Ralph E. Giesey. It seems to me that I’ve seen an essay on the subject of late medieval mourning clothing recently, possibly in an anthology; The Performance of Self, or Medieval Fabrications, I’d thought … but maybe not, now that I’m looking at them. If someone reading this blog posting can remember what it might have been, please feel free to reply to this post!)

In a related note, here’s a description of the funeral of the Earl of Flanders in 1384.