Gilles Joye

Gilles Joye was a singer at St. Donation, the largest church in Bruges, in 1449, (long before it was destroyed in the Revolution) . . . already in his mid-20s. He became a priest and was named a Canon at Cleves in 1453. Then in 1462 he joined the Chapel of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. at least until Philip died in 1467. In the mean time Gilles had been elected a Canon of St. Donation, Bruges, and remained in that position until he died in 1483.
The 5 secular songs that have survived do not detract from an opinion that Gilles Joye was primarily a priest, and it is far more likely that the 1472 portrait is due to his position of Canon of the largest church in Bruges than a chaplain in the Burgundian Chapel. Yet in the 1497 ‘Deploration’ on the death of Ockeghem, Gilles Joye is identified as one of the musicians welcoming Ockeghem into heaven. Perhaps there is a trove of lost manuscripts devoted to the works of Gilles Joye! The text of the rondeaux included here is hardly priest-like.