“In his life he accomplished two things to the full.  One was he died as the richest prince of his time, for he left four hundred thousand crowns of gold cash, seventy-two thousand marks of silver plate, without counting rich tapestries, rings, gold dishes garnished with precious stones, a large and well equipped library, and rich furniture.  For the second, he died as the most liberal duke of his time.  He married his nieces at his own expense; he bore the whole cost of great wars several times.  At his own expense, he refitted the church and chapel at Jerusalem.  He gave ten thousand crowns to build the tower of Burgundy at Rhodes; ...  No one went from him who was not well recompensed.  The state he maintained was almost royal.  For five years he supported Monseigneur the Dauphin, and was a prince so renowned that all the world spoke well of him.”

The Bastard of Burgundy took leave of the English court and hastened to Bruges to join his brother, the Count of Charolais, who received him warmly.  “Henceforth,” explains Olivier, “when I mention the said count I will call him the Duke of Burgundy as is reasonable.”

Solemnly was the prince’s body carried into the church of St. Donat in Bruges, there to repose until it could be taken to Burgundy to be buried at Dijon with his ancestors.  La Marche dismisses the funeral with a brief phrase as he was not himself present at Bruges, being busied in Brittany.  There was a memorial service there, the finest he ever saw.  The arms of Burgundy were inserted in the chapel decorations, not merely pinned on,[2] a fact that impressed the chronicler.  No nobles, not even those from Flanders, were permitted to put on mourning.  The Duke of Brittany declared that none but him was worthy of the honour for so high a prince.

“So he alone wore mourning.  At the end of the service I went to thank him for the reverence he had shown the House of Burgundy, and he responded that he had only done his duty.  Then I finished my business as quickly as I could and crossed the sea again and returned to my new master.”

In his treatise on the eminent deeds of the Duke of Burgundy,[4] Chastellain recounts, more at length than La Marche, all that his great master had accomplished.  Then he proceeds to describe the duke as he knew him.

He was medium in height, rather slight but straight as a rush, strong in hip and in arm, his figure well-knit.  His neck was admirably proportioned to his body, his hand and foot were slender, he had more bone than flesh, but his veins were full-blooded.  Like all his ancestors, his face was long, as was his nose, his forehead high.  His complexion was brunette, his hair brownish, soft, and straight, his beard and eye-brows the same colour, but the former curly, the latter were bushy and inclined to stand up like horns when he was angry.  His mouth was well-proportioned, his lips full and high-coloured;