ABSTRACT
La Marcke was a chronicler and poet of the court of Burgundy. His prose writings, including the Memoires and several treatises and letters on the house of Burgundy, celebrate the splendor of late-medieval chivalric ceremony. La Marche helped supervise court festivities, and he describes them at length, especially the 1454 Pheasant Banquet and celebrations in honor of the Order of the Golden Fleece recorded in an epistle from 1500. Born into a good family in Pavia, Lanfranc was educated in that city and more generally in northern Italy. Lanfranc's leadership of the school at Bee made it into one of the most famous of its day, and pupils included Anselm of Bee, Ivo of Chartres, and Guitmund of Aversa (later Pope Alexander II). He was a valued counselor to Duke William of Normandy (the Conqueror) despite having declared William's marriage invalid. The little church at Lavilleterte (Oise) is an almost perfectly preserved country church of the mid-12th century.
