CHARLES THE BOLD (translation of Fr.
('horb's lc 7',:m12raire) (1433-77). The last Duke of Burgundy. He was the son of Philip the Good, of the House of Valois, and of Isabella of Portugal, and was born in Dijon, November 10, 1433. During his father's life he bore the title of Count of Charolais. Ile was of a fiery, am bitions• and violent disposition. From an early period to the end of his life he was a declared enemy of Louis XI. of France. the nominal feudal superior of Burgundy. and when Louis caused Philip to deliver up some towns on the Somme, Charles lett his father's Court and formed an alliance with the Duke of Brittany and some of the great of France for the maintenance of feudal rights against the Crown. Their forces ravaged Picardy and Ile-de-France, threatened Paris, and defeated the King at (1465). The result was a treaty by which the Count of Charolais obtained the towns on the Somme and the counties of Boulogne,Guines. and Ponthien for himself. In 1467 he succeeded his father a. Duke of Burgundy. The Burgundian t-ali; comprised Flanders. Brabant, and nearly all the rest of the Netherlands, in addition to 'Burgundy and Franche-Comt(.. Richer and more powerful than any other prince of his time, Charles the Bold conceived the design of restoring the old kingdom of Burgmndy, which involved the conquest of Lorraine. Provence, Dauphiny. and
Tart of Switzerland. War raged between him and France afterward, with hut, little intermission till 1475. In September of that year Charles fi.und himself at leisure to attempt the prosecu tion of his favorite scheme of conquest, and soon made himself master of Lorraine. In the 'follow ing year be invaded Switzerland, stormed Cran son. but was soon after terribly defeated by the Swiss near that place, and lost his baggage and much treasure. Three months later he appeared again in with a new army of 60,000 men. and laid siege to Slorat, where he sustained in June, 1476, another and still more overwhelm ing defeat. Nevertheless he refused to listen to terms and laid siege to Nancy in the fall of 1176. llis army was small, and in a battle fought on January 5. 1477, before that town, he was overwhelmed by Reini of Lorraine and his Swiss mercenaries, and lost his life. Ilis daughter and heiress, Alary, married the Emperor Slaximilion I. With Ids life ended the long resistance of the great French vassals to the power it the central ized monarchy. Consult Kirk, History of Chunks the Bold (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1864-68).