The Virgin with Chancellor Rolin
by
Jan van Eyck
, (
Louvre
).
Nicolas Rolin
(
French pronunciation:
[nik?la
??l??]
; 1376?1462) was a leading figure in the history of
Burgundy
and
France
, becoming
chancellor
to
Philip the Good
(Philip III,
Duke of Burgundy
).
Born into a bourgeois family in
Autun
, Rolin's first marriage in 1398 was part of a triple marriage of his
widowed
mother to a
bourgeois
of
Beaune
, accompanied by the marriages of her two sons to two daughters of the
bridegroom
, Perrenet Le Mairet.
[1]
However all three of these brides were dead within a few years. He next married Marie des Landes, before 1407, a marriage which paved the way for his entry into the
bourgeoisie of Paris
.
In 1422, Rolin was made chancellor by Philip the Good, a post he held for more than forty years as one of the principal architects of the monarch's success. Rolin is closely linked with
John the Fearless
who was
godfather
to his third son. In 1421, Nicolas Rolin married
Guigone de Salins
(1403?1470) and together they established the
Hospices de Beaune
. Rolin was one of the participants in drafting the 1435
Treaty of Arras
by which
Charles VII
recognised the independence of Burgundy, thus separating it from the English in the
Hundred Years' War
. One of the chancellor's sons,
Jean Rolin
, was made
bishop of Chalon-sur-Saone
in 1431, and
bishop of Autun
in 1436. Jean became a Cardinal in 1448, created by
Pope Nicholas V
, as part of diplomatic engagement between the Duchy of Burgundy and the Papacy.
Miniature by
Rogier van der Weyden
1447-8. Philip the Good of Burgundy and courtiers, with Rolin at his right hand.
The house in which Rolin was born is now the Autun town museum and is known as the
Musee Rolin
. He owned the
Chateau d'Oricourt
and in 1435 he commissioned
Jan van Eyck
the famous
The
Virgin with Child and Chancellor Rolin
, now at the Louvre. One of his sons was
Cardinal Jean Rolin
. Another son, Louis, was killed on the field at the
battle of Grandson
in 1476, while a third, Antoine, held various court offices such as
chamberlain
to
Charles the Bold
.
Having founded the
Hospices de Beaune
with his wife in 1443, in 1452 Rolin established a new religious order, "Les sœurs hospitalieres de Beaune". He ordered the painting of an altarpiece,
The Last Judgement
by the Flemish painter
Rogier van der Weyden
for the hospices.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Charles VII
by Georges Minois
Parts of this article were initially translated from this Wikipedia article ≪
fr:Nicolas Rolin
≫, specifically from
this version
and from this Wikipedia article ≪
fr:Guigone de Salins
≫, specifically from
[1]
.
External links
[
edit
]
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