(Redirected from Burgundy Wars)
The 'Burgundian Wars' were a conflict between the
Dukes of Burgundy and the
Kings of France, later involving the
Old Swiss Confederacy, which would play a decisive role. Open war broke out in
1474, and in the following years, the
Duke of Burgundy,
Charles the Bold, was defeated thrice on the battlefield and killed in the
Battle of Nancy. The
Duchy of Burgundy and several other Burgundian lands then became part of
France, while the
Burgundian Netherlands and the
Franche Comté were inherited by Charles's
daughter, and eventually passed to the
House of Habsburg.
The general situation
The
dukes of Burgundy had succeeded, over a period of about 100 years, in establishing their rule as a strong force between the
Holy Roman Empire and
France. Their possessions included, besides their homelands of the
Franche-Comté and the
Duchy of Burgundy, the economically strong regions of
Flanders and
Brabant, and also
Luxembourg.
The dukes of Burgundy generally pursued an aggressive expansionist politics, especially in
Alsace and
Lorraine, seeking to geographically unite their northern and southern possessions. Having already been in conflict with the French king (Burgundy had sided with the
English in the
Hundred Years' War), Charles' advances along the Rhine brought him in conflict with the Habsburgs and especially emperor
Frederick III.
The conflict
Initially in 1469, Duke
Sigismund of Habsburg of Austria assigned his possessions in the
Alsace as a fiefdom to the
Duke of Burgundy,
Charles the Bold, to have them protected better against the expansion of the ''
Eidgenossen''. Charles' involvement west of the Rhine gave him no reason to attack the confederates as Sigismund had wanted, but his embargo politics against the cities of
Basel,
Strasbourg, and
Mulhouse, directed by his reeve Peter von Hagenbach, prompted these to turn to
Berne for help. Charles' expansionist strategy suffered a first setback in his politics when his attack on the
Archbishopric of Cologne failed after the unsuccessful
Siege of Neuss (1473–1474).
In a second phase, Sigismund sought to achieve a peace agreement with the Swiss confederates, which eventually was concluded in
Konstanz in 1474 (later called the ''Ewige Richtung''). He wanted to buy back his Alsace possessions from Charles, which the latter refused. Shortly afterwards, von Hagenbach was captured and executed by decapitation in Alsace, and the Swiss, united with the Alsace cities and Sigismund of Habsburg in an "anti-Burgundian league", conquered part of the Burgundian Jura (
Franche-Comté) when they won the
Battle of Héricourt in November 1474. The next year, Bernese forces conquered and ravaged
Vaud, which belonged to the
Duchy of Savoy, which was allied with Charles the Bold. In the
Valais, the independent republics of the ''Sieben Zenden'', with the help of Bernese and other confederate forces, drove the Savoyards out of the lower Valais after a victory in the
Battle on the Planta in November 1475. In 1476, Charles retaliated and marched to
Grandson, which belonged to Pierre de Romont of Savoy, but which had recently been taken by the Swiss, where he had the garrison hanged or drowned in the lake despite their capitulation. When the Swiss confederate forces arrived a few days later, his army suffered a devastating defeat in the
Battle of Grandson, and he was forced to flee the battlefield, leaving behind his artillery and many provisions and valuables. Having rallied a new army, he was again defeated by the confederates in the
Battle of Morat. Charles the Bold fell in the
Battle of Nancy in 1477, where the Swiss fought alongside an army of
René II,
Duke of Lorraine.
Effects
With the death of Charles the Bold, the dynasty of the
dukes of Burgundy died out. The
Flemish territories of the Dukes of Burgundy subsequently became a possession of the Habsburgs, when
Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who would later become
Holy Roman Emperor, married Charles' only daughter
Mary of Burgundy. The duchy of
Burgundy reverted to the crown of
France under king
Louis XI. The Franche-Comté initially also became French, but was ceded to Maximilian's son
Philip in 1493 by the French king
Charles VIII in the
treaty of Senlis, in an attempt to bribe the Emperor to remain neutral during Charles's planned invasion of
Italy. The victories of the ''Eidgenossen'' (Swiss Confederation) over one of the most powerful military forces in Europe at the time gained them a reputation of near invincibility, and the Burgundian Wars marked the beginning of the rise of
Swiss mercenaries on the battlefields of Europe.
Further reading
★ Richard Vaughan, ''Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy.'' London, Longman Group Ltd., 1973. ISBN
★ Florens Deuchler, ''Die Burgunderbeute: Inventar der Beutestücke aus den Schlachten von Grandson, Murten und Nancy 1476/1477'', Verlag Stämpfli & Cie, Bern 1963.
See also
★
External links
★
★
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
