Nicolas Rolin

Nicolas Rolin (* 1376 in Autun, † 1462 ibid ) was chancellor of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. In his third wife, married to Guigone de Salins, the Hospices de Beaune founded with him, he was one of the richest and most powerful men of his time.

Of his contemporaries, he is sometimes described as a tough and deliberate on the man 's own advantage. He had served since 1408, Duke John the Fearless, then his son, Philip the Good, who beat him for his faithful service in 1424 knighted.

The Burgundian court of his time was a center of art and culture. This flower was made possible by the great wealth that flowed to the Dukes from their ancestral lands in Flanders. The wealth aroused at the same time political ambitions. So it was the goal of Philip the Good - who belonged to the French royal family in the direct line - to create a new kingdom of Burgundy between the Kingdom of France and the German Empire. Rolin was involved in these efforts. They led to the fact that Burgundy struck on the side of England during the Hundred Years War against France. Rolin was instrumental in ending this war in the Treaty of Arras ( 1435 ).

Up to the present day Rolin is famous by some works of art, to which it is mapped. He has had his portrait painted by two of the most famous painters of his time, Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, as the founder of altarpieces. Van der Weyden is placed it on the world court altar, which is located in 1443, founded and funded by Rolin " Hôtel- Dieu " in Beaune, one of the few surviving medieval hospitals. At this hospital he founded in 1452 with the " Sœurs Hospitalières de Beaune " a new order, which took over the nursing in his hospital. The patients were required to pray for him.

Nicolas Rolin died 1462. He left his son Jean Rolin. His birth and residence, the Hôtel Rolin, now houses the city museum of Autun, Musee Rolin.