Pieter Bladelin

In 1447 he was named the next treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece and took on the role four years later on the death of its previous holder, Guy de Guilbert.

His sister Margareta (died 1449) was married to Colaard de Fever, who was from a family of wealthy money changers and royal officials and who bought properties and lands belonging to Middelburg Abbey in 1433, in an economically-important area on the road between Bruges and Aardenburg.

He was buried in front of the high altar in the church he had built in Middelburg, joined a few years later by his widow, who had been allowed to continue ruling the lordship by Charles the Bold.

However, the dispute became so desperate that immediately after the death of Margareta the elder they agreed to sell Middelburg to William Hugonet, chancellor of Burgundy.

Nothing remains of the town of Middelburg except the church, which contains a copy of the van der Weiden altarpiece by Jan Ryckx - the original is now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Baron Philippe de Merode later gave the church's relic to Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and his wife Isabella, who thanked him by making him Count of Middelburg.