nsettled if only for the sake of furnishing a subject of happy
controversy between the champions of the two opinions. But certain it
is that with fewer distractions to disturb her craftsmen, and under
the stimulus of certain ducal and royal patrons, Arras succeeded in
advancing the art more than did her celebrated neighbour. It was
Arras, too, that gave the name to the fabric, a name which appears in
England as arras and in Italy as arazzo, as though there was no other
parent-region for the much-needed and much-prized stuffs than the busy
Flemish town.

Among the early records is found proof that in 1311, a countess of the
province of Artois, of which Arras was the capital, bought a figured
cloth in that city, and two years later ordered various works in high
warp.[7] It is she who became ruler of the province. To patronise the
busy town of her own domains, Arras, she ordered from there the
hangings that were its specialty. Paris also shared her patronage. She
took as husband Otho, Count of Burgundy, and set his great family the
fashion in the way of patronising the tapestry looms.

It was in the time of Charles V of France, that the Burgundian duke
Philip, called the Hardy, began to patronise conspicuously the Arras
factories. In 1393, as de Barante delightfully chronicles, the
gorgeous equipments of this duke were more than amazing when he went
to arrange peace with the English at Lelingien.[8]

The town chosen for the pourparlers, wherein assembled the English
dukes, Lancaster and Gloucester and their attendants, as well as the
cortege attending the Duke of Burgundy, was a poor little village
ruined by wars. The conferences were held by these superb old fighters
and statesmen in an ancient thatched chapel. To make it presentable
and worthy of the nobles, it was covered with tapestries which
entirely hid the ruined walls. The subject of the superb pieces was a
series of battles, which made the Duke of Lancaster whimsically
critical of a subject ill-chosen for a peace conference, he suggesting
that it were better to have represented "_la Passion de notre
Seigneur_."

Not satisfied with having the meeting place a gorgeous and luxurious
temple, this Philip, Duke of Burgundy, demonstrated his magnificence
in his own tent, which was made of wooden planks entirely covered with
"toiles peintes" (authorities state that tapestries with personages
were thus described), and was in form of a chateau flanked with
towers. As a