'Le voeu du faisan' Rijksmuseum SK-A-4212

The Feast of the Pheasant ( French: ''Banquet du Vœu du faisan'', "Banquet of the Oath of the Pheasant") was a banquet given by

Philip the Good Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...

, Duke of

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

on 17 February 1454 in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, now in France. Its purpose was to promote a

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

against the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

, who had taken

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

the year before. The crusade never took place. There are contemporary accounts of the banquet (notably the ''Memoirs'' of

Olivier de la Marche Olivier de la Marche (1425–1502) was a courtier, soldier, chronicler and poet in the last decades of the independent Duchy of Burgundy. He was close to Charles the Bold, and after his death held the important position of maître d'hotel to his ...

, and the ''Chroniques'' of

Mathieu d'Escouchy Mathieu d'Escouchy (Le Quesnoy, Nord (French department), Nord, 1420 – 1482) was a Picardy, Picard chronicler during the last stages of the Hundred Years War. His ''Chronique'' was a continuation of the chronicle of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, with ...

), which name and describe in much detail the lavish entertainments staged during the meal and even the various pieces of music performed, perhaps including Dufay's

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

'' Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae''.Spechtler, Franz Viktor: Lyrik des ausgehenden 14. und des 15. Jahrhunderts. Rodopi, 1984, p. 156 At one point in the entertainment, according to the chronicles, an actor dressed as a woman in white satin clothes, personifying the

Church of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

(according to one hypothesis, played by Olivier de la Marche himself) entered the hall of the banquet riding on an elephant, led by a giant

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...

, to recite a "complaint and lamentation in a piteous and feminine voice" (''"commença sa complainte et lamentacion à voix piteuse et femmenine"''), requesting aid from the

Knights of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece ( es, Insigne Orden del Toisón de Oro, german: Orden vom Goldenen Vlies) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430, to celebrate his marriage ...

. It has been surmised that this was the moment when Dufay's motet would have been performed; other authors have conjectured that it was merely a moment of inspiration and that the motet was actually written later.F. Alberto Gallo, ''Music of the Middle Ages II'', translated by Karen Eales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. p. 104, proposes it was written a year later; Spechtler (''op.cit.'') merely states the time and context of its composition is unknown. We are also told which music by

Gilles Binchois Gilles de Bins dit Binchois (also Binchoys; – 20 September 1460) was a Franco-Flemish composer of early Renaissance music. A central figure of the Burgundian School, Binchois and his colleague Guillaume Du Fay were deeply influenced by the ...

was performed and of 24 musicians playing inside an enormous pie and a trick with a horse riding backwards. The oath taken by the participants, the ''Vœux du faisan'' ("oath of the

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family (biology), family Phasianidae in the order (biology), order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera na ...

") was in the tradition of the "bird oaths" of Late Medieval France as popularized in the 14th century romance of the '' Voeux du paon''.

References

Bibliography

*Agathe Lafortune-Martel, (1984), ''Fête noble en Bourgogne au XVe siecle: Le Banquet du Faisan (1454): Aspects politiques, sociaux et culturels'' Cahiers d'etudes medievales 8 Paris: Vrin. *Marie-Therèse Caron, Le banquet des voeux du Faisan et la fête de cour bourguignonne, Turnhout, 200

*Johan Huizinga, ''

The Autumn of the Middle Ages ''The Autumn of the Middle Ages'', ''The Waning of the Middle Ages'', or ''Autumntide of the Middle Ages'' (published in 1919 as ''Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen'' and translated into English in 1924, German in 1924, and French in 1932), is the best ...

'' (ch. 3). *"Les historiens du "Banquet des voeux du Faisan"," Melanges d'histoire offerts a Charles Moeller, vol. I, Louvain & Paris 1914, pp

Discography

*''Le Banquet du Voeu'', 1454, Music at the Court of Burgundy, Ensemble Gilles Binchois – Dominique Vellard, Virgin Classics 91441, Virgin Veritas 59043. {{Authority control 1454 in Europe 1450s in France History of Lille Society of France 15th-century crusades Oaths European court festivities Arts in the court of Philip the Good Dining events Balls in France

See also

References

Bibliography

Discography