Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

CHARLES VII. AND THE NOBLES.—The result of the hundred-years' war was the acquisition of Aquitaine by the French crown. Aquitaine was incorporated in France. Southern Gaul and Northern Gaul were now one. During the last years of Charles VII., his kingdom was comparatively peaceful. Its prosperity revived. A new sort of feudalism had sprung up in the room of the old noblesse, whose power had been crushed. The new nobility was made up of relatives of the royal family, as the Dukes of Burgundy, Berry, Bourbon, and the house of Anjou. On the east of France was Burgundy, which had expanded into a great European power. "The duchy of Burgundy, with the county of Charolois, and the counties of Flanders and Artois, were joined under a common ruler with endless imperial fiefs in the Low Countries, and with the imperial county of Burgundy." The Burgundian boundary was on the south of the Somme, and little more than fifty miles north of Paris. The Burgundian dukes were constantly striving to bring it still nearer. On the east and south, the house of Anjou held the duchy of Bar and Provence, besides other possessions. On the south, too, was the province of Dauphiny; and on the west the strong, half-independent duchy of Brétagne, or Brittany. Charles had a standing quarrel with his son Louis, who early showed his power to inspire dread, but gave no signs of the policy which he triumphantly pursued, after he became king, of putting down feudal insubordination. His young wife Margaret, daughter of James I. of Scotland, was twelve years old when he, a boy of thirteen, was married to her. He aroused such terror and aversion in her mind that she died at twenty-one of a broken heart. Louis—to whom, much to his disgust, Dauphiny instead of Normandy was given to rule—abetted the great lords in their resistance to his father's authority; and, when threatened with coercion, fled to Brussels, to the court of his father's cousin, Philip of Burgundy, where he was kindly entertained. Charles VII., who knew the traits of his son, said, "As for my cousin of Burgundy, he harbors a fox that will one day eat up his chickens." Even then the relations of Louis and Charles, Count of Charolois, the heir of Burgundy, were cool and unsympathetic. The king occupied Dauphiny, and in 1457 it was fully incorporated in France. The rulers of France and Burgundy, taken up with their own schemes of territorial gain, turned a deaf ear to the calls of Pope Pius II. for a crusade against the Turks. It has been said that most of the kings of the house of Valois were either bad or mad. The indolent and heartless Charles VII. would seem to have been both. In his last days he suspected that the Dauphin's plots were aided by persons about himself, and that his food was poisoned. He refused to eat, and died in 1461.

CHARACTER OF LOUIS XI.—Louis XI. (1461-1483) showed himself a master of "statecraft," or the cunning, diplomatic management which pursued its ends stealthily, held no engagements sacred, and was deterred by no scruples of conscience from whatever perfidy was thought requisite to attain the objects in view. Louis was one of the earliest examples of the kingcraft which in the succeeding age was deemed a gift to be coveted by princes. It was an art in which the Italians were masters; and its secrets were set forth, somewhat later than the time of Louis, in "The Prince" of Machiavelli, a work in which that eminent statesman and historian describes the means by which despots may entrap and crush their enemies. Whether he meant to afford aid to tyrants, or aid to their subjects through an exposure of the tricks of their rulers, the "Machiavellian" spirit designates the policy of intrigue that prevailed all through the sixteenth century, and infected even some of the best of the public men of that age. Louis was mean-looking, shabby in his dress, with a cunning aspect; in his whole deportment and character, in sharp contrast with the chivalrous princes, Philip and Charles of Burgundy. If he was vindictive, he was perhaps not more cruel than others; but he was ungenial, regarding men as his tools. He took pleasure in the society of his provosts or hangmen,—Tristan l'Hermite and Olivier le Daim. He often ordered men to execution without so much as the form of a trial. There was in him a vein of superstition. He was punctilious in his devotions. He would not swear a false oath over the cross of St. Loup of Angers, because he thought that death would be the penalty. He did not quail before an enemy in battle; yet such was his alarm at the prospect of death, that he collected about him relics and charms, magicians and hermits, to help him prolong his days.

STRIFE WITH THE NOBLES.—The first years of Louis's reign (1461-1467) were passed in a struggle with the great lords whom he was determined to subdue. At the beginning his measures for this end were imprudent. They combined against him in the League of the Public Weal in 1464. Their force was so great that he stood in imminent peril. He counted on the support of Paris, and was trying to reach that city when the hostile armies encountered one another at Montlhéry (1465). It was an absurd battle, where at night both parties thought themselves beaten. The king secured his place of refuge. He deemed it prudent to make peace on the terms demanded by the Count of Charolois, and the other nobles. This treaty of Conflans (1465) he caused the Parliament of Paris to refuse to ratify or register. He had trusted to his ability to regain what he might surrender. The strife between the Duke of Brittany and the king's brother Charles, now made Duke of Normandy, enabled Louis soon to recover Normandy.

CHARLES THE BOLD, AND LOUIS.—The death of Philip made his son, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Charles was in the prime of life, of a chivalrous temper, courteous and polished, fond of reading and music, as well as of knightly sports, and with his head full of dreams of ambition. With certain noble qualities, his pride was excessive, his temper not only hot but obstinate, and, as he grew older, he became more overbearing and cruel. He was the most powerful prince in Europe. The most of his lands were German. In the early part of his reign he pursued the same scheme as that which was at the root of the League of the Public Weal. He aimed to hem in Louis, and to build up his own power in the direction of France. He allied himself, in 1466, with the House of York, then uppermost in England. An English force was sent to Calais in 1467. Threatened by this coalition of adversaries, Louis hastened to attack Brittany, and forced its duke to conclude a separate peace. Trusting too much to his powers of negotiation, and yielding to the treacherous advice of Cardinal Balue, one of his chief counselors, the king determined to go in person to confer with Charles of Burgundy. He soon learned that his safe-conduct was of little value. At Peronne, he found himself in the midst of enemies, and in reality a prisoner. While there, Liège was in revolt, as Charles ascertained, at the king's instigation. The wrathful duke could be appeased only by agreeing to every thing that he required. Louis had to undergo the humiliation of attending Charles and his army, and of basely taking part in the vengeance inflicted on the city which he had himself stirred up to revolt. He was glad to escape with his life. After his return, he ordered Balue to be put in an iron cage, where he was kept for ten years,—a mode of punishment of Balue's own invention. Louis repudiated the treaty of Peronne, under the advice of a body of Notables, all of whom he had nominated and summoned. A new league was organized against him; but the king by his wariness, and by his promptitude in attacking Brittany, gained advantages, so that a truce was concluded with the Burgundian duke in 1472. Philip de Commines, at that time a companion and counselor of Charles, left his service for that of Louis. To his Memoirs we owe most instructive and interesting details respecting these princes, and the manners and occurrences of the time.

CHARLES THE BOLD, AND THE SWISS.—From this time Charles turned his attention eastward, and devoted himself to building up a great principality on the Rhine, which might open the way for his succession to the empire. It seemed to be his plan to bring together the old kingdom of Lotharingia and that of the Burgundies. He found no sympathy in his schemes from the emperor Frederick III. The great barrier in Charles's way was the freedom-loving spirit of the inhabitants of the Swiss mountains. Availing himself of a plausible pretext, he endeavored to get possession of Cologne by first laying siege to Neuss, which lies below it. Wasting his strength in the unsuccessful attempt to capture this place, he failed to make a junction of his forces with the English troops who landed in France under his ally, King Edward IV. The English king was persuaded to make a truce with France by the wily Louis, who was constantly on the watch for any mistakes or mishaps of his impetuous Burgundian adversary. The cruelty of Charles to the Swiss inhabitants of Granson, who had surrendered, brought upon him an attack of their exasperated countrymen near that place (1476). The Burgundians were routed; and the duke's camp, with all its treasures, including his sword, the plate of his chapel, and precious stones of inestimable value, fell into the hands of the hardy mountaineers, who knew nothing of the worth of these things. The next year the Duke once more flung his reckless valor against the strength of the Swiss infantry, and barely escaped from an utter defeat at Morat. Made desperate by misfortune, he risked another battle near Nanci, in 1477, at the head of an inferior force, composed partly of treacherous mercenaries, and was vanquished and slain. He had intended to make Nanci his capital; but his body was found near by in a swamp, stripped of its clothing, frozen, and covered with wounds.

EXTENSION OF FRANCE.—Louis XI could hardly stifle expressions of joy at the news of the death of his hated and formidable rival. While Charles had been busy in Germany, Louis had taken the opportunity to put down, one by one, the great nobles who had shown themselves ill-affected. He secured to France Roussillon and the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. It was now his purpose to lay hold of as many as possible of the possessions of the late duke. Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold, the heiress of Burgundy, gave her hand in marriage to Maximilian of Austria, an event which carried after it the most important consequences. The result of the conflicts of Louis and Maximilian was the Peace of Arras (1482), which left in the hands of France the towns on the Somme, and the great Burgundian duchy. For a time Maximilian, as holder of the French fiefs of Flanders and Artois, was a vassal of the French king. On the death of King René, in 1480, and the extinction of the house of Anjou, Louis annexed the three great districts of Anjou, Maine, and Provence, the last of which was a fief of the empire.

LAST DAYS OF LOUIS XI.—In his last days, old King Louis, in wretched health, tortured with the fear of death, and in constant dread of plots to destroy him, shut himself up in the castle of Plessis-les-Tours, which he strongly fortified, and manned with guards who were instructed to shoot all who approached without leave. He kept up his activity in management, and in truth devised schemes for the advantage of his realm. His selfish and malignant temper brought to him one unexpected joy from the sudden death of Mary of Burgundy (1482), from which, however, France did not reap the advantages which he expected. He died in 1483, at the age of sixty-one. He, more than any other, was the founder of the French monarchy in the later form. He centralized the administration of the government. He fought against feudalism, old and new. He strengthened, however, local authority where it did not interfere with the power of the king. In matters of internal government he was often just and wise.

CHARLES VIII. (1483-1496): ANNE OF BEAUJEU.—Charles VIII. at the death of his father was only fourteen years old. But in his older sister, Anne of Beaujeu, the wife of Peter of Bourbon, he had an energetic guide who for ten years virtually managed public affairs. She proved too strong for the opposition of the royal princes, of the nobility, and of the States General. The nobles turned for support to Richard III. of England. Anne strengthened with men and money Henry of Richmond, the rival and conqueror of Richard. The Duke of Brittany, with his allies, the Duke of Orleans, the Prince of Orange, and others, was defeated in a hardly contested battle in 1488, which was followed by a treaty advantageous to France. The crowning achievement of Anne of Beaujeu was the marriage of Anne of Brittany to Charles VIII. This was accomplished although she had already been married by proxy to Maximilian, while Charles was pledged to marry Margaret, the emperor's daughter. If Anne of Brittany should outlive Charles, she engaged to marry his successor. This second marriage actually took place: she became the wife of Louis XII. Brittany was thus incorporated in France. The Italian expeditions, the great events in the reign of Charles VIII., will be related hereafter.

II. ENGLAND.

WAR OF THE ROSES: THE HOUSE OF YORK.—The crown in England had come to be considered as the property of a family, to which the legitimate heir had a sacred claim. The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) grew out of family rivalries. It was a fight among nobles. But other reasons were not without influence. The party of York (whose badge was the white rose) was the popular party, which had its strength in Kent and in the trading cities. It went for reform of government. The party of Lancaster (whose badge was the red rose) was the more conservative party, having its strength among the barons of the North. Richard, Duke of York, thought that he had a better claim to the English crown than Henry VI., because his ancestor, Lionel, was an older son of Edward III. than John of Gaunt, the ancestor of Henry. The king was insane at times, and Richard was made Protector or Regent of Parliament. But Henry, becoming better, drove him from his presence. He organized an insurrection, but was defeated in a battle at Wakefield by the troops of the strong-hearted queen. He was crowned with a wreath of grass, and then beheaded. His brave son, Rutland, was killed as he fled. But Richard's eldest son, Edward—Edward IV. (1461-1483)—supported by the powerful Earl of Warwick, "the king-maker," defeated the queen at Towton, took possession of the throne, and imprisoned Henry VI., who had fallen into imbecility. Edward was popular because he kept order. But the favors which he lavished on the Woodvilles, relatives of his Lancastrian wife Elizabeth, enabled the opposing party, to which Warwick deserted, to get the upper hand (1470); and Edward fled to Holland. But he soon returned, and won the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury (1471). Henry VI. was secretly murdered in the Tower. The house of York was now in the ascendant. A quarrel between the king and his ambitious brother Clarence, who had married Warwick's daughter, led to the trial and condemnation of Clarence, who was put to death in the Tower. It was during the reign of Edward IV. that Caxton set up the first printing-press in England. After Edward his brother reigned, Richard III. (1483-1485), a brave but merciless man, who made his way to the throne by the death of the two young princes Edward and Richard, whose murder in the Tower he is with good reason supposed to have procured. He had pretended that Edward IV. had never been lawfully married to their mother. Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, descended by his mother from John of Gaunt, aided by France, landed in Wales, and won a victory at Bosworth over the adherents of the white rose,—a victory which gave him a kingdom and a crown. Thus the house of Lancaster in the person of Henry VII. (1485-1509), gained the throne. He married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV., and so the two hostile houses were united. He was the first of the TUDOR kings.