The Pas du Perron Fée (Pas of the Enchanted Column), Bruges, 1463

Extracts from both urban and ducal financial accounts have been edited and translated here in order to show how a pas d’armes and its related festivities were financed in the case of the Pas du Perron Fée, which was organised by Philippe de Lalaing in Bruges in April/May 1463.¹ Apart from outlining the financial details of a pas, these accounts show that the Perron Fée was embedded in a range of other events during these months which were not only chivalric but also civic and religious in character. Financial accounts in the later Middle Ages were produced in order to provide oversight of the financial management of an officer in the service of a prince, a town, a nobleman or any institution that needed to control its receipts and expenditure.