CHARLES. 



153 



wished not to dismember the Austrian monarchy, as 

 well as the want of artillery and ammunition, pre- 

 vented him from getting possession of Vienna. On 

 the other hand, he took Prague, where he was 

 crowned and proclaimed king of Bohemia. In 1742, 

 he was unanimously elected king of the Romans : he 

 made a solemn entry into Frankfort, and was crowned 

 by his brother, the elector of Cologne. But fortune 

 soon deserted him. The armies of Maria Theresa 

 reconquered all Upper Austria, and overwhelmed 

 Bavaria. It was necessary to abandon Bohemia. 

 Charles fled to Frankfort, and convoked a diet, when 

 an attack of the king of Prussia on Maria Theresa 

 allowed him to return to Munich in 1744, in which 

 city he died in January, 1745, exhausted by grief 

 and disease. He was succeeded in the electorate by 

 his son Maximilian Joseph, in the imperial dignity 

 oy Francis I., husband of Maria Theresa. 



CHARLES THE BOLD, duke of Burgundy, son 

 of Philip the Good and Isabella of Portugal, born 

 at Dijon, Nov. 10, 1433, at first bore the name of 

 count of Charolais, under which he distinguished 

 himself in the battles of Rupelmonde, in 1452, and 

 of Morbeque, in 1453. He was of a violent, impetu- 

 ous disposition, sometimes breaking out into fury; 

 and early displayed that unhappy ambition, which 

 was the source of his errors and misfortunes. His 

 dislike of the lords of the house of Croy, the favour- 

 ites of his father, was insurmountable ; and, being 

 unable to procure their disgrace, he withdrew from 

 the court, and went to Holland. He was again 

 reconciled, however, with his fether, whom he in- 

 spired with his own hatred of Louis XI., and placed 

 himself at the head of the party then forming against 

 that monarch. Having passed through Flanders and 

 Artois, he crossed the Somme at the head of 26,000 

 men, and appeared before Paris. The king sent the 

 bishop of the city, Alain Chartier, to reproach him 

 for waging war against his sovereign. But the heir 

 of Burgundy answered, "Tell your master, that 

 against a prince who makes use of the dagger and 

 poison, there are always sufficient grounds of war, 

 and that, in marching against him, one is "very sure 

 of finding, on their way, companions enough. More- 

 over, I liave taken up arms solely at the urgent re- 

 quest of the people, nobility, and princes : these are 

 my accomplices!" Louis met him at Montlheri. 

 Charles broke through one wing of the royal army, 

 and allowed himself to be carried on too far in pursuit 

 of the fugitives. Surrounded by fifteen gens d'armes, 

 who had already killed his master of the horse, he 

 received a wound, but refused to surrender; per- 

 formed prodigies of valour, and thus gave his soldiers 

 time to come to his release. From this time, Charles 

 conceived so high an opinion of his talents for war, 

 that the greatest reverses could not cure him of it. 

 He succeeded his fether in 1467, and immediately 

 engaged in a war with the citizens of Liege, whom 

 he conquered and treated with extreme severity. 

 Before this undertaking, he had been obliged to re- 

 store to the citizens of Ghent the privileges which 

 had been taken from them by Philip the Good. He 

 now revoked his forced concessions, caused the 

 leaders of the insurrection to be executed, and im- 

 posed a large fine on the city. In 1468, he married 

 Margaret of York, sister of the king of England, 

 and resolved immediately to renew the civil war in 

 France ; but Louis disarmed him by giving him 

 120,000 crowns of gold. October 3d of the same 

 year, the monarch and the duke had a meeting at 

 Peronne, in order to adjust their differences. There 

 the duke learned that the inhabitants of Liege, insti- 

 gated by the king, had rebelled anew, and made 

 themselves masters of Tongres; Charles was en- 

 raged. In vain did Louis on oath protest his inno- 



cence; he was imprisoned and strictly guarded. 

 After hesitating long between the most violent mea- 

 sures, the duke finally compelled the king to sign a 

 treaty, the most disgraceful condition of which was, 

 that he should march with Charles against the city 

 of Liege, which he had himself excited against the 

 duke. Charles encamped before Liege, in company 

 with the king : the city was taken by storm, and 

 abandoned to the fury of the soldiers. Such success 

 rendered the mind of the duke utterly obdurate, and 

 added the last traits of that inflexible, sanguinary 

 character, which made him the scourge of his neigh 

 bours, and led to his own destruction. Edward IV. 

 conferred on him, in 1470, the order of the garter. 

 Shortly after, he received, in Flanders, Edward him- 

 self, who came to seek an asylum with the duke. 

 Charles gave him money and ships to return to 

 England. 



About the end of the same year, the war between 

 the king of France and the duke of Burgundy was 

 renewed ; and never did Charles show himself more 

 deserving of the name of the Bold, or Rash, than in 

 this war. Forced to sue for a truce, he nevertheless 

 soon took up arms anew, accused the king, publicly, 

 of magic and poisoning, and, at the heaa of 24,000 

 men, crossed the Somme. He took the city of Nesle 

 by storm, caused fire to be set to it, and, as he saw 

 it burning, said, with barbarous coolness, " Such are 

 the fruits of the tree of war." An enemy to tran- 

 quillity, insensible to pleasure, loving nothing but de- 

 struction and bloodshed, and, notwithstandinghis pride, 

 master of the art of procuring allies, Charles, who de- 

 sired to be equal to Louis XI. in dignity and rank, as 

 well as in power, formed the plan of enlarging his 

 dominions on the Rhine, and elevating his states into 

 a kingdom, under the name of Belgic Gaul. He visit- 

 ed the emperor Frederic III., at Treves, to obtain 

 the title of king and vicar-general of the empire, 

 which the emperor had promised him, on condition 

 that he should marry his daughter to the archduke ; 

 but, as neither would enter first into obligations, they 

 separated in dissatisfaction, and the negotiation was 

 broken off. 



Louis, meanwhile, involved Charles in greater 

 embarrassments, by exciting against him Austria and 

 the Swiss; Charles now determined to dethrone him, 

 and, for this purpose, made an alliance with the king 

 of England ; but, being compelled to hasten to the 

 aid or his relative, the oishop of Cologne, he lost ten 

 months before Neuss, which he besieged in vain, and 

 then hastened to Lorraine, to take revenge on the 

 duke Rene, who, at the instigation of France, had de- 

 clared war against him. Having completed the con- 

 quest of Lorraine by the taking of Nancy, in 1475, he 

 turned his arms against the Swiss ; and, notwith- 

 standing the representations of 'these peaceful moun- 

 taineers, who told him that all that he could find 

 among them would not be worth so much as the spurs 

 of his horsemen, he took the city of Granson, and put 

 to the sword 800 men, by whom it was defended. 

 But these cruelties were soon avenged by the signal 

 victory which the Swiss obtained near the same city, 

 March 3, 1476. The loss of this battle plunged Charles 

 into a gloomy dejection, which disturbed his mind 

 and his health. With a new army, he returned to 

 Switzerland, and lost the battle of Murten (Morat), 

 June 22d. The duke of Lorraine, who had fought 

 in the army of the Swiss, led the victors to the walls 

 of Nancy, which surrendered Oct. 6th. At the first 

 information of this siegH Charles marched to Lor. 

 raine, to retake the city of Nancy from the duke 

 Rene. He intrusted to the count of Campo-Basso 

 the charge of the first attack, and, on learning that 

 this officer was a traitor, he regarded the information 

 as a snare. Campo-Basso protracted the siege, and 



