CHARLES, called THE BOLD (1433-1477), duke of Burgundy, son of Philip the Good of Burgundy and Isabella of Portugal, was born at Dijon on Nov. io, 1433. In his father's lifetime he bore the title of count of Charolais. He was brought up under the direction of the seigneur d'Auxy. Although he was on familiar terms with the dauphin (afterwards Louis XI.), when the latter was a refugee at the court of Burgundy, he was annoyed by the repurchase by the king of France of the towns on the Somme, which had been temporarily ceded to Philip the Good by the treaty of Arras; and when he took over the government (which his father abandoned to him completely by an act of April 12, 1465), he entered upon his lifelong struggle against Louis XI., and became one of the principal leaders of the League of the Public Weal. His brilliant bravery at the battle of Montlhery (July 16, 2465), did not assure a diplomatic victory. He succeeded, however, in forcing upon Louis the treaty of Conflans (1466), by which the king restored to him the towns on the Somme, and promised him the hand of his infant daughter Catherine, with Champagne as dowry. In the meanwhile the count of Charolais obtained the sur render of Ponthieu. The revolt of Liege and Dinant intervened to divert his attention from the affairs of France. On Aug. 25, 1466 Charles took Dinant, which he pillaged and sacked, and then treated with the Liegeois. After the death of Philip the Good (June 15, 1467), the Liegeois renewed hostilities, but Charles de feated them at St. Trond, and made a victorious entry into Liege.
Louis then requested a meeting with Charles and placed himself in his hands at Peronne. In the course of the negotiations the duke was informed of a fresh revolt of the Liegeois secretly f o mented by Louis, but Charles decided to respect the parole he had given and to treat with Louis (Oct. 1468), at the same time forcing him to assist in quelling the revolt. The town was carried by assault, and the inhabitants were massacred, Louis not having the courage to intervene on behalf of his ancient allies. At the expiry of the one year's truce which followed the treaty of Peronne, the king accused Charles of treason, cited him to appear before the parlement, and seized some of the towns on the Somme (1471). The duke retaliated by invading France with a large army, taking possession of Nesle and massacring its inhabitants. He failed in an attack on Beauvais, but ravaged the country as far as Rouen.
Since the beginning of his reign Charles had employed himself in reorganizing his army and the administration of his territories. He lost no opportunity to extend his power. In 1469 the archduke of Austria, Sigismund, had sold him the county of Ferrette, and the landgraviate of Alsace and some other towns, reserving to him self the right to repurchase. In 1472-1473 Charles bought the reversion of the duchy of Gelderland from its old duke, Arnold. He conceived the project of forming a kingdom of Burgundy or Arles with himself as independent sovereign, and even persuaded the emperor Frederick to assent to crown him king at Trier. The ceremony, however, did not take place owing to the emperor's precipitate flight by night (Sept. 1473), occasioned by his dis pleasure at the duke's attitude. In the following year Charles involved himself in a series of quarrels which ultimately brought about his downfall. He embroiled himself successively with Sigis mund of Austria, to whom he refused to restore his possessions in Alsace for the stipulated sum ; with the Swiss, who supported the free towns of Alsace in their revolt against the tyranny of the ducal governor, Peter von Hagenbach (who was condemned and executed by the rebels in May 1474) ; and finally, with Rene of Lorraine, with whom he disputed the succession of Lorraine, the possession of which had united the two principal portions of Charles's territories—Flanders and the duchy and county of Bur gundy. All these enemies, incited and supported as they were by Louis, were not long in joining forces against their common adver sary. Charles suffered a first rebuff in endeavouring to protect his kinsman, the archbishop of Cologne, against his rebel subjects. He spent ten months (July 1474–June 1475) in besieging the little town of Neuss on the Rhine, but was compelled by the approach of a powerful imperial army to raise the siege. Moreover, the expedi tion he had persuaded his brother-in-law, Edward IV. of England, to undertake against Louis was stopped by the treaty of Picquigny (Aug. . He was more successful in Lorraine, where he seized Nancy (Nov. 30, 1475). From Nancy he marched against the Swiss, hanging and drowning the garrison of Granson in spite of the capitulation. Some days later, however, he was attacked before Granson by the confederate army and was compelled to fly with a handful of attendants, leaving his artillery and an im mense booty in the hands of the allies (Feb. 1476). He succeeded in raising a fresh army of 30,00o men, with which he attacked Morat, but he was again defeated by the Swiss army, assisted by the cavalry of Rene of Lorraine (June 22, 1476). On Oct. 6th Charles lost Nancy, which was re-entered by Rene. Making a last effort, Charles formed a new army and arrived in the depth of winter before the walls of Nancy. Having lost many of his troops through the severe cold, it was with only a few thousand men that he met the joint forces of the Lorrainers and the Swiss, who had come to the relief of the town ( Jan. 6, 1477) . He himself perished in the fight, his mutilated body being discovered some days after wards.
Charles the Bold has often been regarded as the last repre sentative of the feudal spirit, and accordingly has often been contrasted with his rival Louis XI. as representing modern politics. In reality, he was a prince of wide knowledge and culture and austere morals ; and although he cannot be acquitted of occasional harshness, he had the secret of winning the hearts of his subjects, who never refused him their support in times of difficulty. He was thrice married—to Catherine (d. 1446), daughter of Charles VII. of France; to Isabella (d. 1465), daughter of Charles I., duke of Bourbon, by whom he had one daughter, Mary, afterwards the wife of the Emperor Maximilian I. ; and to Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. of England, whom he married in 1468. See Memoires of Philippe de Comines, and of Olivier de la Marche. See also A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, tome iv. (1904), and the compendious bibliography in U. Chevalier's Repertoire des sources historiques, part iii. (19o4) ; J. F. Kirk, Charles the Bold (5863-68) ; L. M. J. Chaumont, Charles-le-Hardi (1904) ; and R. Putnam, Charles the Bold (1908).