Everyone knows Jan van Eyck the painter.

Almost nobody knows Jan van Eyck the spy.

In 1428 the richest prince in Europe, Philip the Good, called his court painter to the palace and handed him a secret mission.

Philip had no heir. Two wives, two failures. His duchy was slipping away.

A marriage with Portugal could save it. But the duke had never laid eyes on the princess.

So he sent his painter as his eyes.

Paint her, he said. Show me the woman who could be duchess.

On 19 October 1428, twelve galleys left port. Ten nobles, one translator, and a single artist who was also a secret agent.

Sixty days at sea. Storms. Plague waiting in Lisbon.

Van Eyck was not only carrying brushes. He was carrying the future of a dynasty inside one small portrait.

What that painting set in motion would redraw the map of Europe.

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