The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

typed chronology.
    “Look. It seems he’s decided not to come, but he’s sent us this.”
    “As rude as ever,” mumbled Cesar, scornfully. “He could have phoned to make his excuses, the rat.” He shrugged. “Mind you, deep down, I’m glad. What’s the rotter sent us?”
    “Don’t be nasty about him,” Julia said. “It took a lot of work to put this information together.”
    And she started reading out loud.
    Pieter Van Huys and the Characters Portrayed in “The Game of Chess”:
    A BIOGRAPHICAL CHRONOLOGY
    1415: Pieter Van Huys born in Bruges, Flanders, present-day Belgium.
    1431: Roger de Arras born in the castle of Bellesang, in Ostenburg. His father, Fulk de Arras, is a vassal of the King of France and is related to the reigning dynasty of the Valois. His mother, whose name is not known, belonged to the ducal family of Ostenburg, the Altenhoffens.
    1435: Burgundy and Ostenburg break their vassalage to France. Ferdinand Altenhoffen is born, future Duke of Ostenburg.
    1437: Roger de Arras brought up at the Ostenburg court as companion in play and studies to the future Duke Ferdinand. When he turns seventeen, he accompanies his father, Fulk de Arras, to the war that Charles VII of France is waging against England.
    1441: Beatrice, niece of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, is born.
    1442: Around this time Pieter Van Huys painted his first works after having been apprenticed to the Van Eyck brothers in Bruges and Robert Campin in Tournai. No work by him from this period remains extant until…
    1448: Van Huys paints
Portrait of the Goldsmith Guillermo Walhuus.
    1449: Roger de Arras distinguishes himself in battle against the English during the conquest of Normandy and Guyenne.
    1450: Roger de Arras fights in the battle of Formigny.
    1452: Van Huys paints
The Family of Lucas Bremer.
(His finest surviving work.)
    1453: Roger de Arras fights in the battle of Castillon. The same year he publishes his
Poem of the Rose and the Knight
in Nuremberg. (A copy can be found in the Bibliotheque National in Paris.)
    1455: Van Huys paints
Virgin of the Chapel.
(Undated, but experts place it at around this period.)
    1457: Wilhelmus Altenhoffen, Duke of Ostenburg, dies. He is succeeded by his son Ferdinand, who has just turned twenty-two. One of his first acts would have been to call Roger de Arras to his side. The latter is probably still at the court of France, bound to King Charles VII by an oath of fealty.
    1457: Van Huys paints
The Money Changer of Louvain.
    1458: Van Huys paints
Portrait of the Merchant Matteo Conzini and His Wife.
    1461: Death of Charles VII of France.
    Presumably freed from his oath to the French monarch, Roger de Arras returns to Ostenburg. Around the same time, Pieter Van Huys finishes the Antwerp retable and settles in the Ostenburg court.
    1462: Van Huys paints
The Knight and the Devil.
Photographs of the original (in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) suggest that the knight who posed for this portrait could have been Roger de Arras, although the resemblance between the character in this painting and that in
The Game of Chess
is not particularly marked.
    1463: Official engagement of Ferdinand of Ostenburg to Beatrice of Burgundy. Amongst the embassy sent to the Burgundy court are Roger de Arras and Pieter Van Huys, the latter sent to paint Beatrice’s portrait, which he does this year. (The portrait, mentioned in the chronicle of the nuptials and in an inventory of 1474, has not survived.)
    1464: The Duke’s wedding. Roger de Arras leads the party bringing the bride from Burgundy to Ostenburg.
    1467: Philip the Good dies and his son, Charles the Bold, Beatrice’s cousin, takes over the duchy of Burgundy. French and Burgundian pressure intensifies the intrigues within the Ostenburg court. Ferdinand Altenhoffen tries to keep a difficult balance. The pro-French party back Roger de Arras, who has great influence over Duke Ferdinand. The Burgundian party relies on the influence of Duchess Beatrice.
    1469: