Charles the Bold by Ruth Putnam

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[Illustration: CHARLES THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY (1433-1477) (FROM MS.
STATUTE BOOK OF THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE, VIENNA) PAINTED
BETWEEN 1518-1531]

CHARLES THE BOLD

LAST DUKE OF BURGUNDY

1433-1477

BY

RUTH PUTNAM

AUTHOR OF "WILLIAM THE SILENT," "A MEDIAEVAL PRINCESS," ETC.

* * * * *

G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1908

* * * * *

COPYRIGHT 1908,

BY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

* * * * *

PREFACE

The admission of Charles, Duke of Burgundy into the series of Heroes
of the Nations, is justified by his relation to events rather than by
his national or his heroic qualities. _"Il n'avait pas assez de sens
ni de malice pour conduire ses entreprises,"_ is one phrase of Philip
de Commines in regard to the master he had once served. Render _sens_
by _genius_ and _malice_ by _diplomacy_ and the words are not far
wrong. Yet in spite of the failure to obtain either a kingly or an
imperial crown, the story of those same unaccomplished enterprises
contains the germs of much that has happened later in the borderlands
of France and Germany where the projected "middle kingdom" might have
been erected. A sketch of the duke's character with its traits of
ambition and shortcomings may therefore be placed, not unfitly, among
the pen portraits of individuals who have attempted to change the map
of Europe.

The materials for an exhaustive study of the times, and of the
participants in the scenes thereof, are almost overwhelming
in quantity. Into this narrative, I have woven the words of
contemporaries when these related what they saw and thought, or at
least what they said they saw or thought, about events passing within
their sight or their ken. The veracity attained is only that of a
mosaic of bits, each with its morsel of truth. And the rim in which
these bits are set is too slender to contain all the illumination
necessary. The narrative is, of necessity, partial and fragmentary,
for a complete story would require a series of biographies presented
in parallel columns. My own preliminary chapter to this book--a
mere explanation of the presence of the dukes of Burgundy in the
Netherlands--grew into an account of a sovereign whom they deposed and
was published under the title of _A Mediaeval Princess._

John Foster Kirk gave 1713 pages to his record of Charles the Bold,
Duke of Burgundy. Forty years have elapsed since that publication
appeared and a mass of interesting material pertinent to the subject
has been given out to the public, while separate phases of it have
been minutely discussed by competent critics, so that at every point
there is new temptation for the biographer to expand the theme where
the scope of his work demands brevity.

In using the later fruit of historical investigation, it is delightful
for an American to find that scholars of all nations do justice to
Mr. Kirk's accuracy and industry even when they may differ from his
conclusions. It has been my privilege to be permitted free access to
this scholar's collection of books, and I would here express my deep
gratitude to the Kirk family for their generosity and courtesy towards
me.

After some preliminary reading at Brussels and Paris and in England,
the work for this volume has been completed in America, where the
opportunity of securing the latest results of research and criticism
is constantly increasing, although these results are still lodged
under many roofs. I have had many reasons to thank the librarians of
New York, Boston, and Washington, and also those of Harvard, Columbia,
and Cornell universities for courtesies and for serviceable aid; and
just as many reasons to regret the meagreness of what can be put
between two covers as the gleanings from so rich a harvest.

One word further in explanation of the use of _Bold_. The adjective
has been retained simply because it has been so long identified with
Charles in English usage. I should have preferred the word _Rash_ as
a better equivalent for the contemporary term, applied to the duke in
his lifetime,--_le temeraire_.

R.P.

WASHINGTON, D.C., 1908.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

* * *

CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD

CHAPTER II
YOUTH

CHAPTER III
THE FEAST OF THE PHEASANT

CHAPTER IV
BURGUNDY AND FRANCE

CHAPTER V
THE COUNT AND THE DAUPHIN

CHAPTER VI
THE WAR OF PUBLIC WEAL

CHAPTER VII
LIEGE AND ITS FATE

CHAPTER VIII
THE NEW DUKE

CHAPTER IX
THE UNJOYOUS ENTRY

CHAPTER X
THE DUKE'S MARRIAGE

CHAPTER XI
THE MEETING AT PERONNE

CHAPTER XII
AN EASY VICTORY

CHAPTER XIII
A NEW ACQUISITION

CHAPTER XIV
ENGLISH AFFAIRS

CHAPTER XV
NEGOTIATIONS AND TREACHERY

CHAPTER XVI
GUELDERS

CHAPTER XVII
THE MEETING AT TREVES

CHAPTER XVIII
COLOGNE, LORRAINE, AND ALSACE

CHAPTER XIX
THE FIRST REVERSES

CHAPTER XX
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1475 AND 1476

CHAPTER XXI
THE BATTLE OF NANCY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

[Illustration]

ILLUSTRATIONS

* * *

CHARLES THE BOLD, DUKE OF BURGUNDY _Frontispiece_
From MS. statute book of the Order of the Golden
Fleece at Vienna. The artist is unknown. Date
of the codex is between 1518 and 1565. This
portrait is possibly redrawn from that attributed
to Roger van der Weyden. That, however,
shows a much stronger face.

PHILIP THE GOOD AS FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF
THE GOLDEN FLEECE
From a reproduction of a miniature in MS. at Brussels.

A DUKE OF BURGUNDY AND THE POPE AT AVIGNON
From a contemporary miniature reproduced in
Petit's _Hist. de Bourgogne_.

PHILIP THE GOOD, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, AS PATRON
OF LETTERS
From a reproduction of part of a miniature in a
beautiful MS. copy in Brussels Library of Jacques
de Guise's _Annales_. The author is depicted
presenting his book to the duke, who is attended
by his son and his courtiers. The miniature is
attributed by turns to Roger van der Weyden, to
Guillaume Wijelant or Vrelant, and to Hans
Memling.

A CASTLE IN BURGUNDY
From Petit's _Hist. de Bourgogne_.

FRONTISPIECE OF A XVTH CENTURY ACCOUNT BOOK

COUNT OF ST. POL AND HIS JESTER
From reproduction of a miniature in Barante, _Les
ducs de Bourgogne_,

THE STATUE OF CHARLES OF BURGUNDY AT INNSBRUeCK

LOUIS XI
From an engraving by A. Boilly after a drawing by
G. Boilly.

PHILIP AND CHARLES OF BURGUNDY
From a drawing in a MS. at Arras.

BATTLE OF MONTL'HERY (JULY 16, 1465)
From a contemporary miniature reproduced in
Comines-Lenglet.

LOUIS XI, WITH THE PRINCES AND SEIGNEURS OF THE
WAR OF THE PUBLIC WEAL
From a contemporary miniature reproduced in
Comines-Lenglet.

ANTHONY OF BURGUNDY
After Hans Memling, Dresden Gallery.

CHARLES, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, PRESIDING OVER A
CHAPTER OF THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE
From reproduction of a miniature in MS. at
Brussels.

PHILIP DE COMMINES

OLIVIER DE LA MARCHE
From sketch in MS. at Arras reproduced in
_Memoires couronnes de l'acad. royale de Belgique,_
xlix.

MARY OF BURGUNDY
From a contemporary miniature reproduced in
Barante, _Les ducs de Bourgogne_.

MAP OF ALSACE AND ADJACENT TERRITORIES
From Toutey, _Charles le temeraire_.

MEDAL OF CHARLES, DUKE OF BURGUNDY

BURGUNDIAN STANDARD CAPTURED AT BEAUVAIS

ARNOLD, DUKE OF GUELDERS
From engraving by G. Robert in Comines-Lenglet.

MARY OF BURGUNDY
After design by C. Laplante.

CHARLES THE BOLD
Idealised by P. P. Rubens, Vienna Gallery. (By
permission of J. J. Loewy, Vienna.)

MAXIMILIAN OF AUSTRIA
Medal.

A FORTIFIED CHURCH IN BURGUNDY
From Petit's _Hist. de Bourgogne_,

KING RUHMREICH AND HIS DAUGHTER EHRENREICH
(These characters in Maximilian's poem of _Theuerdank_
represent Charles and Mary of Burgundy.)
From a reproduction of a wood engraving by
Schaeufelein in edition of 1517.

A PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF MORAT
Used by kind permission of Miss Sophia Kirk and
J. B. Lippincott Company.

PHILIBERT, DUKE OF SAVOY
After a design by Matthey reproduced in
Comines-Lenglet.

PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF NANCY
Used by kind permission of Miss Sophia Kirk and
the J. B. Lippincott Company.

PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF NANCY
From contemporary miniature reproduced in
Comines-Lenglet.

A MONUMENT ON THE BATTLEFIELD AT NANCY
From Barante, _Let ducs de Bourgogne_.

THE TOMB OF CHARLES OF BURGUNDY
Church of Notre Dame, Bruges

CHARLES THE BOLD

* * * * *

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD

1433-1440

On St. Andrew's Eve, in the year 1433, the good people of Dijon were
abroad, eager to catch what glimpses they might of certain stately
functions to be formally celebrated by the Duke of Burgundy. The mere
presence of the sovereign in the capital of his duchy was in itself
a gala event from its rarity. Various cities of the dominions
agglomerated under his sway claimed his attentions successively. His
residence was now here and now there, without long tarrying anywhere.
His coming was usually very welcome. In times of peaceful submission
to his behest, the city of his sojourn reaped many advantages besides
the amusement of seeing her streets alive beyond their wont. In the
outlay for the necessities and the luxuries of the peripatetic ducal
court, the expenditures were lavish, and in the temporary commercial
activity enjoyed by the merchants, the fact that the burghers' own
contributions to this luxury were heavy, passed into temporary
oblivion.[1]

This autumn visit of Philip the Good to Dijon was more significant
than usual. It had lasted several weeks, and among its notable
occasions was an assembly of the Knights of the Golden Fleece for the
third anniversary of their Order. On this November 30th, Burgundy was
to witness for the first time the pompous ceremonials inaugurated at
Bruges in January, 1430. Three years had sufficed to render the new
institution almost as well known as its senior English rival, the
Order of the Garter, which it was destined to outshine for a brief
period at least. Its foundation had formed part of the elaborate
festivities accompanying the celebration of the marriage of Philip,
Duke of Burgundy, to Isabella of Portugal. As a signal honour to his
bride, Philip published his intention of creating a new order of
knighthood which would evince "his great and perfect love for the
noble state of chivalry."

Rumour, indeed, told various tales about the duke's real motives. It
was whispered that a certain lady of Bruges, whom he had distinguished
by his attentions, was ridiculed for her red hair by a few merry
courtiers, whereupon Philip declared that her tresses should be
immortally honoured in the golden emblem of a new society.[2] But that
may be set down as gossip. Philip's own assertion, when he instituted
the Order of the Golden Fleece, was that he intended to create a
bulwark

"for the reverence of God and the sustenance of our Christian
faith, and to honour and enhance the noble order of chivalry, and
also for three reasons hereafter declared; first, to honour the
ancient knights ...; second, to the end that these present.... may
exercise the deeds of chivalry and constantly improve; third, that
all gentlemen marking the honour paid to the knights will exert
themselves to attain the dignity." [2]

The special homage to the new duchess was expressed in the device

_Aultre n'aray
Dame Isabeau tant que vivray[4]_

This pledge of absolute fidelity to Dame Isabella was, indeed, utterly
disregarded by the bridegroom, but in outward and formal honour to her
he never failed.

The new institution was, from the beginning, pre-eminently significant
of the duke's magnificent state existence, wherein his Portuguese
consort proved herself an efficient and able helpmeet. Again and again
during a period of thirty years, rich in diplomatic parleying, did
Isabella act as confidential ambassador for her husband, and many were
the negotiations conducted by her to his satisfaction.[5]

But it must be noted that whatever lay at the exact root of Philip's
motives when he conceived the plan of his Order, the actual result of
his foundation was not affected. He failed, indeed, to bring back into
the world the ancient system of knighthood in its ideal purity and
strength. Rather did he make a notable contribution to its decadence
and speed its parting. What was brought into existence was a house
of peers for the head of the Burgundian family, a body of faithful
satellites who did not hamper their chief overmuch with the criticism
permitted by the rules of their society, while their own glory added
shining rays to the brilliant centre of the Burgundian court.

Twenty-five, inclusive of the duke, was the original number appointed
to form the chosen circle of knights. This was speedily increased to
thirty-one, and a duty to be performed in the session of 1433, was
the election of new members to fill vacancies and to round out the
allotted tale.

[Illustration: PHILIP THE GOOD AS FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN
FLEECE]

In their manner of accomplishing the appointed task, the new
chevaliers had, from the outset, evinced a readiness to cast their
votes to the satisfaction of their chief, even if his pleasure
directly conflicted with the regulations they had sworn to obey. No
candidate was to be eligible whose birth was not legitimate,[6] a
regulation quite ignored when the duke proposed the names of his sons
Cornelius and Anthony. For his obedient knights did not refuse to open
their ranks to these great bastards of Burgundy, who carried a bar
sinister proudly on their escutcheon. So, too, others of Philip's many
illegitimate descendants were not rejected when their father proposed
their names.

Again, it was plainly stipulated that the new member should have
proven himself a knight of renown. Yet, in this session of 1433, one
of the candidates proposed for election, though nominally a knight,
had assuredly had no time to show his mettle. The dignity was his only
because his spurs had been thrown right royally into his cradle before
his tiny hands had sufficient baby strength to grasp a rattle, and
before he was even old enough to use the pleasant gold to cut his
teeth upon.[7]

Among the eight elected at Dijon in 1433, was Charles of Burgundy,
Count of Charolais, son of the sovereign duke, born at Dijon on the
previous St. Martin's Eve, November 10th.[8]

"The new chevaliers, with the exception of the Count of
Virnenbourg who was absent, took the accustomed oath at the hands
of the sovereign in a room of his palace."

So runs the record. Jean le Fevre, Seigneur de St. Remy, present on
the occasion in his capacity of king-at-arms of the Order, is a trifle
more communicative.[9] According to him, all the gentlemen were very
joyous at their election as they received their collars and made their
vows as stated. He excepted no member in the phrase about the joy
displayed, though, as a matter of inference, the pleasure experienced
by the Count of Charolais may be reckoned as somewhat problematical.

The heir of Burgundy had attained the ripe age of just twenty days
when thus officially listed among the chevaliers present at the
festival. Born on November 10th of this same year, 1433,[10] he had
been knighted on the very day of his baptism, when Charles, Count of
Nevers, and the Seigneur of Croy were his sponsors. The former gave
his name to the infant while the latter's name was destined to be
identified with many unpleasant incidents in the career of the future
man. This brief span of life is sufficient reason for the further item
in the archives of the Golden Fleece:

"As to the Count of Charolais, he was carried into the same room.
There the sovereign, his father, and the duchess, his mother, took
the oath on his behalf. Afterwards the duke put the collars upon
all." [11]

Thus was emphasised at birth the parental conviction that Charles of
Burgundy was of different metal than the rest of the world. The great
duke of the Occident made a distinct epoch in the history of chivalry
when he conferred its dignities upon a speechless, unconscious infant.
The theory that knighthood was a personal acquisition had been
maintained up to this period, the Children of France[12] alone being
excepted from the rule, though in his _Lay de Vaillance_ Eustache
Deschamps complains that the degree of knighthood is actually
conferred on those who are only ten or twelve years old, and who do
not know what to do with the honour.[13] That plaint was written not
later than the first years of the fifteenth century, and the poet's
prediction that ruin of the institution was imminent when affected by
such disorders seemed justified if, in 1433, even the years of the
eligible age had shrunk to days. Philip himself had not received the
accolade until he was twenty-five.

How his predecessor in Holland, Count William VI., had acquitted
himself valiantly the moment that he was dubbed knight is told by
Froissart, and the tales of other accolades of the period are too well
known to need reference.

It is said that the baby cavalier was nourished by his own mother.
Having lost her first two infants, Isabella was solicitous for the
welfare of this third child, who also proved her last. He was,
moreover, Philip's sole legal heir, as Michelle of France and Bonne of
Artois, his first wives, had left no offspring. The care and devotion
expended on the boy were repaid. Charles became a sturdy child who
developed into youthful vigour. In person, he strangely resembled
his mother and her Portuguese ancestors, rather than the English
Lancastrians, from whom she was equally descended.

His dark hair and his features were very different from the fair type
of his paternal ancestors, the vigorous branch of the Valois family.
Possibly other characteristics suggesting his Portuguese origin were
intensified by close association with his mother, who supervised the
education directed by the Seigneur d' Auxy. They often lived at The
Hague, where Isabella acted as chief and official adviser to the
duke's stadtholder in the administration. [14]

Charles was a diligent pupil, if we may believe his contemporaries,
surprisingly so, considering his early taste for all martial pursuits
and his intense interest in military operations.

At two years of age he received his first lesson in horsemanship, on
a wooden steed constructed for his especial use by Jean Rampart, a
saddler of Brussels.

His biographers repeat from each other statements of his proficiency
in Latin. This must be balanced by noting that the only texts which
he could have read were probably not classic. In the inventory of the
various Burgundian libraries of the period, there are not six Greek
and Latin classical texts all told, and excepting Sallust, not a
single Roman historian in the original.[15] There was a translation
of Livy by the Prior of St. Eloi and late abridgments of Sallust,
Suetonius, Lucan, and Caesar,[16] with a French version of Valerius
Maximus, but nothing of Tacitus. Doubtless these versions and a volume
called _Les faits des Romains_ were used as text-books to teach the
young count about the world's conquerors. The last mentioned book
shows what travesties of Roman history were gravely read in the
fifteenth century.

There are stories[17] that the bit of history most enjoyed by the
pupil was the narrative of Alexander. Books about that hero were easy
to come by long before the invention of printing, though Alexander
would have had difficulty in recognising his identity under the
strange mediaeval motley in which his namesake wandered over the land.
No single man, with the possible exception of Charlemagne, was so
much written about or played so brilliantly the part of a hero to
the Middle Ages and after.[18] The simplicity and universality of his
success were of a type to appeal to the boy Charles, himself built on
simple lines. The fact, too, that Alexander was the son of a Philip
stimulated his imagination and instilled in his breast hopes of
conquering, not the whole world perhaps, but a good slice of territory
which should enable him to hold his own between the emperor and the
French king. Tales of definite schemes of early ambition are often
fabricated in the later life of a conqueror, but in this case they may
be believed, as all threads of testimony lead to the same conclusion.

The air breathed by the boy when he first became conscious of his
own individuality was certainly heavy with the aroma of satisfied
ambition. The period of his childhood was a time when his father stood
at the very zenith of his power. In 1435, was signed the Treaty of
Arras, the death-blow to the long coalition existing between Burgundy
and England to the continual detriment of France. Philip was
reconciled with great solemnity to the king, responsible in his
dauphin days for the murder of the late Duke of Burgundy. After
ostentatiously parading his filial resentment sixteen long years,
Philip forgave Charles VII. his share in the death of John the
Fearless, on the bridge at Montereau, and swore to lend his support to
keep the French monarch on the throne whither the efforts of Joan of
Arc had carried him from Bourges, the forlorn court of his exile.

England's pretensions were repudiated. To be sure, the recent
coronation of Henry VI. at Paris was not immediately forgotten, but
while the Duke of Bedford had actually administered the government as
regent, in behalf of his infant nephew, it was a mere shadow of his
office that passed to his successor. Bedford's death, in 1435, was
almost coincident with the compact at Arras when the English Henry's
realms across the Channel shrank to Normandy and the outlying
fortresses of Picardy and Maine. Later events on English soil were to
prove how little fitted was the son of Henry V. for sovereignty of any
kind.

Out of the negotiations at Arras, Philip of Burgundy rose triumphant
with a seal set upon his personal importance.[19] His recognition of
Charles VII. as lawful sovereign of France, and his reconciliation did
not pass without signal gain to himself.

The king declared his own hands unstained by the blood of John of
Burgundy, agreed to punish all those designated by Philip as actually
responsible for that treacherous murder, and pledged himself to erect
a cross on the bridge at Montereau, the scene of the crime. Further,
he relinquished various revenues in Burgundy, hitherto retained by the
crown from the moment when the junior branch of the Valois had been
invested with the duchy (1364); and he ceded the counties of Boulogne,
Artois, and all the seigniories belonging to the French sovereign on
both banks of the Somme. To this last cession, however, was appended
the condition that the towns included in this clause could be redeemed
at the king's pleasure, for the sum of four hundred thousand gold
crowns. Further, Charles exempted Philip from acts of homage to
himself, promised to demand no _aides_ from the duke's subjects
in case of war, and to assist his cousin if he were attacked from
England. Lastly, he renounced an alliance lately contracted with the
emperor to Philip's disadvantage.[20]

One clause in the treaty crowned the royal submissiveness towards the
powerful vassal. It provided that in case of Charles's failure to
observe all the stipulated conditions, his own subjects would be
justified in taking arms against him at the duke's orders. A similar
clause occurs in certain treaties between an earlier French king and
his Flemish vassals, but always to the advantage of the suzerain, not
to that of the lesser lords.

The duke was left in a position infinitely superior to that of the
king, whose realm was terribly exhausted by the long contest with
England, a contest wherein one nation alone had felt the invader's
foot. French prosperity had been nibbled off like green foliage before
a swarm of locusts, and the whole north-eastern portion of France
was in a sorry state of desolation by 1435. On the other hand, the
territories covered by Burgundy as an overlord had greatly increased
during the sixteen years that Philip had worn the title. An
aggregation of duchies, counties, and lordships formed his domain,
loosely hung together by reason of their several titles being vested
in one person--titles which the bearer had inherited or assumed under
various pretexts.

Flanders and Artois, together with the duchy and county of Burgundy,
came to him from his father, John the Fearless, in 1419. In 1421, he
bought Namur. In 1430, he declared himself heir to his cousins in
Brabant and Limbourg when Duke Anthony's second son followed his
equally childless brother into a premature grave, and the claims were
made good in spite of all opposition. Holland, Zealand, and Hainaut
became his through the unwilling abdication of his other cousin,
Jacqueline, in 1433. To save the life of her husband, Frank van
Borselen, the last representative of the Bavarian House then
formally resigned her titles, which she had already divested of all
significance five years previously, when Philip of Burgundy had become
her _ruward_, to relieve a "poor feminine person" of a weight of
responsibility too heavy for her shoulders.[21]

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