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A Tidbit from History
"In 1389 Duke Phillip of Burgundy, being then in Flanders, sent the King of France a New Year's gift of a purse of gold, with a lady in a lily on it, holding in her hand a diamond worth six hundred livres.
He sent the Queen a golden picture of the Burial of our Lord, with Our Lady near Him, and the Duke of Berry a St. Catherine of gold. "All these were undoubtedly the work of Flemish artists and craftsmen, working in little shops in the narrow, winding streets of Ghent or Louvain or Bruges, under the strict rules of the medieval guilds and for prices fixed by the wardens of the guild to which the artists belonged."
From The Last Flowering of the Middle Ages by Baron Joseph Van Der Elst, first edition. page 15.
Note that the house of Burgundy was founded by a younger son of a French king, and that by the 14th Century, the dukes of Burgundy were wealthier and controlled more land than the King of France.
Keep in mind that at that time gifts were exchanged' at New Years or Twelfth night, not at Christmas.
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