BURGUNDY
69
BURGUNDY
himself perished at the Bridge of Montereau during
his famous interview with the Dauphin, being dis-
patched by the latter's followers (1414). The first
two Dukes of Burgundy who reigned in the Nether-
lands were pre-eminently French princes and bent
upon preserving and augmenting the prestige they
enjoyed in France as princes of the blood royal. On
the other hand, their two successors were essentially
Belgian princes whose chief aim was the extension of
their domains and whose policy was distinctly anti-
French. Of course the assassination at Montereau,
by setting them at variance with the French Crown,
had helped to bring this change about, but it would
have taken place in any event. To avenge his father,
Philip the Good allied himself with the English to
whom he rendered valuable services, especially by
delivering to them Joan of Arc, made prisoner by
his troops at Compiegne. When, in 1435, he at length
became reconciled to the king by the treaty of Arras,
it was on condition of being dispensed from all vassal-
age and of receiving the cities along the River Somme.
At this price he agreed to help the king against his
own former allies and participated in the unsuccessful
siege of Calais (1436).
Effect of Philip's Rule. — The chief work of Philip the Good was to reunite under his authority most of the Netherland provinces. In 1421 he purchased the countship of Namur from John III, its last incumbent. In 1430 he became Duke of Brabant and Limburg as heir of his first cousin, Philip of Saint-Pol, son of Duke Anthony; in 142S he con- strained his cousin Jacqueline of Bavaria, Countess of Hainault, Holland, and Zealand, and Lady of Friesland, to recognize him as her heir, and even dur- ing her lifetime, in 1433, he obliged her to relinquish this inheritance. Finally, in 1114. he purchased the claims of Elizabeth of Gorlitz to the Duchy of Luxem- burg, thus owning all of modern Belgium except the principality of Liege, all the western provinces of the present Kingdom of the Netherlands, and several French provinces. However, this did not suffice and he managed to place his bastards in the episcopal Sir- n[ Cambrai ami Utrecht and his nephew in that of Liege. Victorious over all his enemies, among whom was the King of France, in 1437 he held out against the Emperor Sigismund who tried in vain to re-establish the dependency of the Netherlands upon the empire. On two different occasions in 14 17 and 1463, he importuned the Emperor Frederick III to give him the title of king, but the attempts failed. Nevertheless, under the title of "Grand Duke of the West" he won the admiration of his contemporaries and was the richest and most powerful sovereign in Europe. It was he whom Pope Nicholas V wished to place at the head of the new crusade he was plan- ning, and during a sumptuous feast at which he made the celebrated run tin jnisnn, Philip promised to take the cross. But the crusade did not take, place. Being master of so many provinces, Philip wished to unite 1 1 if in under a central government, but this was not easy of accomplishment. F.aeli of them con- sidered itself a self-governing State, independent of all the others and living its own life; moreover, the large cities of Flanders also claimed to be separate commonwealths and tried to escape centralization, Despite his entreaties, Ghent forsook the duke at the siege of Calais in 143li; in 143S Bruges was the scene of a revolt where he was neatly made prisoner; and in 14.51 Ghent revolted. But the duke overcame all these obstacles to his ambition and, through his victory of Gavre in 1 I.":;, obtained possession of the commune of Ghent, the must intractable of all. The people of Liege were now the only ones who resisted him. but in 1465 he conquered them at Mnnteiiaeken and imposed upon them very severe conditions. A twelvemonth later he destroyed the city of Dinant. During his last years Philip's facul-
ties became impaired and Louis XI of France not
only made trouble between him and his son but even
influenced the duke into giving up the cities of the
Somme. However, in 1465 Philip became reconciled
to his son, Charles, and confided to him the adminis-
tration of affairs, dying 15 June, 1467. A shrewd
man and cunning politician, Philip was likewise
ostentatious, irascible, and licentious. The splendour
of his court was unequalled, and the founding of the
Order of the Golden Fleece at Bruges in 1430, on the
occasion of his third marriage, this time with Isabella
of Portugal; marks, to some extent, the culmination
of the luxury of the time.
Charles the Bold. — Inheriting neither the astute- ness nor the vices of his father, Charles the Bold was industrious, eager for justice, and irreproachable in his private life; but his boldness amounted to rash- ness and his ability was not at all commensurate with his unbounded ambition. In his earlier years all was well. During his father's lifetime he placed him- self at the head of the "League of the Public Weal" which gathered about him the French lords who were unfavourably disposed toward Louis XI. Charles was victorious over Louis at Montlhery, after which triumph the Peace of Conflans (1465) gave him the cities of the Somme. He humbled the cities of Ghent and Mechlin for having dared to oppose him, fought the people of Liege at Brusthem, and deprived them of their freedom. King Louis XI, who strove to combat the duke by dint of intrigue, was destined to become the victim of his own trickery. While he was visiting Charles in PeVonne, the latter sovereign learned that the people of Liege were again in revolt, having been excited thereto by the king's agents. Furious at this intelligence, he kept Louis prisoner and forced him to accompany him to Liege where the wretched monarch witnessed the total destruction of the unfortunate city to which he had promised assistance (1468). Although the conqueror of all his enemies Charles still entertained mighty projects, and in 1469 he obtained possession of the landgravi- ate of Alsace and the county of Ferrette (Pfirt) as security for a loan made to Sigismund. He prevailed upon Duke Arnoul to sell him the Duchy of Guelder- land, the duke being at war with his son Adolphus ( ! 472). He then marched against the King of France, but was stopped before the walls of Beauvais by the heroic resistance of its citizens (1472) and made to sign the truce of Senlis. Nor was he any more suc- cessful in his attempt to obtain a king's crown from the Emperor Frederick III, to whose son, Maximilian, he had promised the hand of his own daughter, Mary. Later, however, the emperor and the duke met at Trier for the approaching coronation, when the emperor, whom the agents of Louis XI had suc- ceeded in alarming, hastily disappeared. At the same time Louis stirred up further hostilities against Charles on the Upper Rhine where a confederacy, including the Alsatian villages and Swiss cantons, was already plotting against, him. .Meanwhile Charles had been wasting his troops on the tedious, fruitless siege of the little city of N'eiiss on the Rhine, and was therefore in no condition to rejoin his ally, Edward IV of England, who had just landed in France. In order to have full sway along the Rhine he signed the truce of Soluvre (1475) with Louis XI and profited by it to take possession of Lorraine, which till then had separated his Burgundian do- mains from those of the Netherlands (provinces de jmr dera). He then advanced upon the Swiss who
defeated him most mercilessly atGranson ami Morat
and fairly annihilated his army. Ren6, the young Duke of Lorraine, recovered his country and when Charles afterwards laid siege to Nancy, its capital city, he lost courage, and betrayed by one of his own hirelings, was defeated and killed in a sortie. The next day his frozen corpse was found in a pond,
