Kirk - History of Charles the Bold - 3 VOLUME SET - Beautiful Bindings 1863

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Kirk - History of Charles the Bold - 3 VOLUME SET - Beautiful Bindings 1863:
$218.59

This 3 volume three quarter leather set by John Foster Kirkis titled History of Charles the Bold,Duke of Burgundy. It was publishedby John Murray of London in 1863. Thebindings are by J B Lippincott of Philadelphia (per stamp on the firstblank). These beautiful volumes feature:

·Top edges gilt

·Decorative spines

·Marbled boards

·Marbled endpapers

·Ribbon markers

The bindings are sound.There is bright gilt to the spine covers. Volume 1 has 552 pages; volume 2 has 492pages; volume 3 has 502 pages. Theribbon markers are discolored and worn.There is some light edge wear.This set is in \'very good plus\' condition. It will display beautifully on yourbookshelf!

Here is an extract from the Wikipedia article on Charles theBold:

Charles the Bold(French:Charlesle Téméraire,Dutch:Karel de Stoute, 10 November 1433–5 January 1477), baptisedCharles Martin, wasDukeof Burgundyfrom 1467 to 1477. He was the last Duke ofBurgundyfromtheHouse of Valoisand is sometimes also knownasCharles the Rash.

His early death attheBattle of Nancyat the hands ofSwissmercenariesfighting forRené II, Duke of Lorraine, was of greatconsequence in European history. The Burgundian domains, long wedged betweenthe growing powers ofFranceandtheHabsburgEmpire,were divided, but the precise disposition of the vast and disparate territorialpossessions involved was disputed among the European powers for centuries.

Charles the Bold wasborn inDijon,the son ofPhilip the GoodandIsabella of Portugal. Before thedeath of his father in 1467, he bore the title ofCount of Charolais; afterwards, he assumed allof his father\'s titles, including that of \"Grand Duke of the West\". Hewas also made aKnight of the Golden Fleecejusttwenty days after his birth, invested byCharles I, Count of Nevers, and theseigneur deCroÿ.

Charles was brought upunder the direction of Jean d\'Auxy andearly showed great application alike to academic studies and warlike exercises.His father\'s court was the most extravagant in Europe at the time, and a centrefor the arts and commerce. While he was growing up, Charles witnessed hisfather\'s efforts to unite his far-flung and ethnically diverse dominions into asingle state, and his own later efforts centered on continuing and securing hisfather\'s successes in this endeavor.

In 1440, at the age ofseven, Charles was married to Catherine, daughter of KingCharles VII of Franceand sister oftheDauphin(later KingLouis XI). She was five years older than herhusband, and she died in 1446 at the age of 18. They had no children.

In 1454, at the age of21, Charles married a second time. He wanted to marry a daughter of his distantcousinRichard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke ofYork(a sister of KingsEdward IVandRichard III of England), but under terms oftheTreaty of Arrasof 1435, he was required tomarry a French princess. His father choseIsabella of Bourbon, who was three yearsyounger than he was. Isabella was the daughter of Philip the Good\'ssisterAgnesand a very distantcousin of Charles VII of France. Isabella died in 1465. Their daughterMaryof Burgundywas Charles\' only surviving child; she inherited all theBurgundian domains before her marriage toMaximilian of Habsburg, the sonofHoly Roman Emperor Frederick III.

Charles was onfriendly terms with his brother-in-law Louis, the Dauphin of France, who hadbeen a refugee at the court of Burgundy from 1456 until he succeeded his fatheras king of France in 1461. But Louis began to pursue some of the same policiesas his father, for example Louis\'s later repurchase of the towns on theSommeRiverthat Louis\'s father had ceded in 1435 to Charles\'s father in theTreaty of Arras, which Charles viewed with chagrin. When his father\'s failinghealth enabled him to assume the reins of government (which Philip relinquishedto him by an act of 12 April 1465), he initiated a policy of hostility towardLouis XI that led to theBurgundianWars, and he became one of the principal leaders of theLeague of the Public Weal, an alliance ofwest European nobles opposed to policies of Louis XI that sought to centralizethe royal authority within France.

For his third wife,Charles was offered the hand of Louis XI\'s daughterAnne.The wife he ultimately chose, however, was his second cousinMargaretof York(who was also a great-grandchild ofJohnof Gaunt). Upon the death of his father in 1467, Charles was no longerbound by the terms of the Treaty of Arras, and he decided to ally himself withBurgundy\'s old ally England. Louis did his best to prevent or delay themarriage with Margaret (he even sent French ships to waylay her as she sailedto Sluys), but in the summer of 1468, it was celebrated sumptuously atBruges, andCharles was made aKnight of the Garter. The couple had nochildren, but Margaret devoted herself to her stepdaughter Mary. After Mary\'sdeath many years later, she kept Mary\'s two infant children as long as she wasallowed.

On 12 April 1465,Philip relinquished control of the government of his domains to Charles, whospent the next summer prosecuting theWar of the Public Wealagainst LouisXI. Charles was left master of the field at theBattle of Montlhéryon 13 July 1465, butthis neither prevented the king from re-enteringParisnordid it assure Charles of a decisive victory. He succeeded, however, in forcingupon Louis theTreaty of Conflansof 4 October 1465, bywhich the king restored to him certain towns on theSommeRiver, the counties ofBoulogneandGuînes, andvarious other small territories. During the negotiations for the treaty, hiswife Isabella died suddenly at Les Quesnoy on 25 September, making a politicalmarriage suddenly possible. As part of the treaty, Louis promised him the handof his infant daughterAnne,with the territories ofChampagneandPonthieuasadowry, butno marriage ever took place. In the meanwhile, Charles obtained the surrenderofPonthieu.

Charles\' concentrationon the affairs of France was diverted by theRevoltof Liègeagainst his father and the bishop of Liège (Louis of Bourbon) and a desire topunish the town ofDinantin the province ofNamur.During the wars of the summer of 1465, Dinant celebrated a false rumour thatCharles had been defeated at Montlhéry by burning him ineffigyandchanting that he was the bastard child of his mother Isabella of Portugal andJohn of Heinsburg, the previous Bishop of Liège (d. 1455). On 25 August 1466,Charles marched into Dinant, determined to avenge this slur on the honour ofhis mother, and sacked the city, killing every man, woman and child within.After the death of Charles\' father Philip the Good in 1467, the Bishopric ofLiège renewed hostilities, but was defeated by Charles at theBattleof Brustem. Charles made a victorious entry into Liège, dismantled itswalls and stripped the city of some of its privileges.

Alarmed by the earlysuccesses of the new Duke of Burgundy and anxious to settle various questionsrelating to the execution of the Treaty of Conflans, Louis XI requested ameeting with Charles and daringly placed himself in his hands in the townofPéronneinPicardyinOctober 1468. In the course of the negotiations, the duke was informed of afresh revolt of theBishopric of Liègesecretly fomented byLouis as part of theLiègeWars. After deliberating for four days on the best way to deal with hisadversary, who had foolishly placed himself at his mercy, Charles decided torespect the promise he had given to guarantee Louis\'s safety and to negotiatewith him. At the same time, he forced Louis to assist him in quelling therevolt in Liège. The town was captured and many inhabitants were massacred.Louis chose not to intervene on behalf of his former allies.

At the expiry of theone year\'s truce that followed theTreaty of Péronne, the French king accusedCharles oftreason,cited him to appear before theparlement,and seized some of the towns on the Somme in 1471. The duke retaliated byinvading France with a large army; he took possession ofNesleandmassacred its inhabitants. He failed, however, in an attack onBeauvaisandhad to content himself with laying waste to the countryside as far asRouen. He eventuallywithdrew without attaining any useful result.

Charles pursueddomestic policies that assisted the growth of his military establishment. Tothis end, he relinquished at least some of the extravagance that hadcharacterized the court of Burgundy under his father, if not the magnificenceof ceremonial events. Since the beginning of his reign, he employed himself inreorganizing his army and the administration of his territories. Whileretaining the principles offeudal recruiting,he endeavored to establish a system of rigid discipline among his troops thatwas strengthened by the employment of foreign mercenaries, particularlyEnglishmenandItalians, andthe augmentation of hisartillery. The economic power that Charles inherited fromPhilip would lead to an independent judicial system, a sophisticatedadministration, and the establishment of local estates. Charles constantlysought to expand the territories under his control. In 1469,Archduke Sigismund of Austriasoldhim the County ofFerrette, the Landgraviate ofAlsace, and someother towns, reserving to himself the right to repurchase.

In 1472–1473, Charlesbought thereversionof the Duchy ofGuelders(i.e.the right to succeed to it) from its dukeArnold, whom he had supported againstthe rebellion of his son. Not content with being \"the Grand Duke of theWest,\" he conceived the project of forming a kingdom of Burgundy or Arleswith himself as independentsovereignandeven persuaded theHoly Roman EmperorFrederick IIIto assent tocrown him a king atTrier. The ceremony, however, did not take place owing to theemperor\'s precipitate flight by night in September 1473, which was occasionedby his displeasure at the duke\'s ambitions.

At the close of 1473,the duchy of Burgundy was anchored in France and extended to the edges oftheNetherlands. This made Charles the Bold oneof the wealthiest and most powerful nobles in Europe. Indeed, his landholdingsand revenue base rivalled those of many of the royal families.

In the year 1474,Charles began to involve himself in the series of political struggles thatwould ultimately bring about his downfall. He first came into conflict withtheArchduke Sigismund of Austria, towhom he refused to restore his possessions in Alsace for the stipulated sum.Then, he quarreled with theSwiss, who supported the freetowns in the Upper Rhine in theirrevoltagainst the tyranny of the ducalgovernorPeter von Hagenbach(who was condemned bya special international tribunal and executed on 9 May 1474). Finally, heantagonizedRené II, Duke of Lorraine, with whom hedisputed the succession in theDuchyof Lorraine, which bordered many of his territories. All of these enemiesreadily joined forces against their common adversary Charles.

Charles suffered afirst rebuff in endeavouring to protect his kinsmanRuprecht of thePalatinate,Archbishop of Cologne, against his rebelsubjects. He spent ten months (July 1474 – June 1475) besieging the little townofNeussontheRhine(theSiegeof Neuss), but was compelled by the approach of a powerful imperial army toraise the siege. Moreover, the expedition he had persuaded his brother-in-lawEdward IV of England to undertake against Louis XI was stopped by theTreaty of Picquignyof 29 August 1475. Hewas more successful in Lorraine, where he seizedNancyon30 November 1475.

From Nancy he marchedagainst the Swiss. He saw fit to hang or drown the garrison ofGrandsonin spite of its capitulation.Grandson was a possession ofJacques of Savoy, Count of Romont,a close ally of Charles, that had been captured recently by the forces oftheSwiss Confederacy. Some days later, on 2March 1476, Charles was attacked outside the village ofConcisebythe confederate army in theBattle of Grandsonand suffered a shamefuldefeat; he was compelled to flee with a handful of attendants and abandon hisartillery along with an immense booty (including his silver bath).

Charles succeeded inraising a fresh army of 30,000 men that he used to fight theMoraton22 June 1476. He was again defeated by the Swiss army, which was assisted bythe cavalry of the Duke of Lorraine. On this occasion, unlike the debacle atGrandson, little booty was lost, but Charles did lose about one third of hisentire army. The defeated soldiers were pushed into the nearby lake, where theywere drowned or shot at while trying to swim to safety on the opposite shore.On 6 October, Charles lost Nancy, which the Duke of Lorraine was able torecover.

Making a last effort,Charles formed a new army and arrived in the dead of winter before the walls ofNancy. Having lost many of his troops through the severe cold, it was with onlya few thousand men that he met the joint forces of the Lorrainers and theSwiss, who had come to the relief of the town, at theBattleof Nancy(5 January 1477). He himself perished in the fight, his nakedand disfigured body being discovered some days afterward frozen into the nearbyriver. Charles\' head had been cleft in two by ahalberd, lanceswere lodged in his stomach and loins, and his face had been so badly mutilatedby wild animals that only his physician was able to identify him by his longfingernails and the old battle scars on his body.

Charles\' battered bodywas initially buried in the ducal church in Nancy, byRené II, Duke of Lorraine. Later in1550, his great-grandson,Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, orderedit to be moved to theChurch of Our Ladyin Bruges, nextto that of his daughter Mary. In1562, Emperor Charles V\'s son and heir, KingPhilip II of Spain, erected a mausoleum in earlyrenaissance style over his tomb, still extant. Excavationsin 1979 positively identified the remains of Mary, in a lead coffin, but thoseof Charles were never found.

Charles married threetimes:

1. On 19 May 1440, hemarried Catherine of France (1428–1446), daughter ofCharles VII of FranceandMarieof Anjou.At the time of the marriage, she was 12 and he 6. She died at 18.

2. On 30 October 1454,he married Isabelle of Bourbon (1437–1465), daughter of Charles I of Bourbon.He would have preferred to marryAnne of York(the daughterofRichard, Duke of York), but hisfather insisted that he fulfill the conditions of the Treaty of Arras, whichcommitted him to marry a French princess. The marriage was a happy one andproduced his only offspring,Maryof Burgundy13 February 1457.

3. On 3 July 1468,Charles married Anne\'s sister,Margaretof York(1446–1503);[10]hersiblings also includedEdward IV of England,George, Duke of Clarence, andRichard III of England. The marriage wassolemnized atDamme,nearBruges,by the bishop of Salisbury.

The Burgundianpossessions passed into the Habsburg empire on the marriage of his one childand heiress Mary toMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Charles left hisunmarried nineteen-year-old daughter,Mary,as his heir; clearly her marriage would have enormous implications for thepolitical balance of Europe. Both Louis and the Emperor had unmarried eldestsons; Charles had made some movements towards arranging a marriage between Maryand the Emperor\'s son,Maximilian, before his own death.Louis unwisely concentrated on seizing militarily the border territories, inparticular the Duchy of Burgundy (a French fief). This naturally madenegotiations for a marriage difficult. He later admitted to hiscouncillorPhilippe de Commynesthat this was hisgreatest mistake. In the meantime the Habsburg Emperor moved faster and morepurposefully and secured the match for his son Maximilian, with the aid ofMary\'s stepmother, Margaret.

Due to this marriage,much of the Burgundian territories passed to theHolyRoman Empire. Throughout the early modernWars of Religionanddown to 1945, the border between theHoly Roman Empire and thekingdomof France, and later be a matter of dispute.