Alexandres de leurs temps

Thanks to his great historical reputation, Alexander the Great remains one of the most ambivalent, controversial, yet unrivalled role models among European rulers to this day. But no other dynasty has received Alexander’s person, virtues and achievements on as large a scale as the dukes of the late medieval Duchy of Burgundy. This book discusses, on the one hand, the representation of Alexander the Great in Burgundian literature. On the other, it analyses to which extent the Burgundian Dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold used this representation for their political instrumentalisation of Alexander. Finally, it stands to be examined if a profound break in the representation of Alexander – concerning courtly literature as well as the political communication between the two dukes – can be constituted with regards to the interplay of medieval tradition and the beginning Renaissance.