[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":109},["ShallowReactive",2],{"chapter:p7ch1:en":3,"chapters:p7:en":57},{"period":4,"chapter":26},{"id":5,"title":6,"titleEn":6,"titleEs":7,"range":8,"rangeEn":8,"rangeEs":8,"covers":9,"coverArtworkId":22,"cover":23},"p7","Renaissance","Renacimiento","1461 → 1610",[10,13,16,19],{"filename":11,"url":12},"British_-_Field_of_the_Cloth_of_Gold_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg","https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/British_-_Field_of_the_Cloth_of_Gold_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg?width=1600",{"filename":14,"url":15},"Marignan-1515-francois1er.jpg","https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Marignan-1515-francois1er.jpg?width=1600",{"filename":17,"url":18},"ChateauDeChambord.jpg","https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/ChateauDeChambord.jpg?width=1600",{"filename":20,"url":21},"Henri_IV_Toschi_(format_original).jpg","https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Henri_IV_Toschi_(format_original).jpg?width=1600","",{"fileName":20,"imageUrl":21,"filePageUrl":24,"sourceLabel":25},"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henri_IV_Toschi_(format_original).jpg","Wikimedia Commons",{"id":27,"title":28,"periodId":5,"html":29,"zooms":30,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":52,"isFallback":53,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":54,"realm":22,"seoDescription":55,"thumbnailUrl":56},"p7ch1","Louis XI: the spider and the construction of the modern state (1461-1483)","\u003Cp>The accession of \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong>, in \u003Cstrong>1461\u003C/strong>, opened a decisive phase in the history of the French monarchy. Son of \u003Cstrong>Charles VII\u003C/strong>, from whom he inherited a kingdom already restored after the worst decades of the \u003Cstrong>Hundred Years’ War\u003C/strong>, he came to the throne with a reputation for skill, suspicion, and political flexibility that very early earned him the nickname “the spider.” His reign clearly belongs within dynastic continuity, but it also marks a change of method: where his father had above all rebuilt the crown, Louis XI set out to make it more present, more active, and harder to evade.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The new king nevertheless received an unstable inheritance. The high nobility resented being kept at a distance from government, the princely appanages remained powerful centers of opposition, \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong> remained uneasy, and \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong> stood as a first-rank rival on the borders of the kingdom. To these feudal tensions were added increasingly entangled European issues: relations with \u003Cstrong>England\u003C/strong>, the affairs of \u003Cstrong>Aragon\u003C/strong>, the politics of the Flemish cities, and the ambitions of the dukes of Burgundy between \u003Cstrong>France\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Empire\u003C/strong>, and the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong>. From that point on, governing did not simply mean commanding; it meant dividing, negotiating, buying, threatening, delaying, and striking at the opportune moment.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The dominant trait of the reign lies precisely in this combination of diplomacy, calculation, and action. \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> governed through information, through the choice of men, through control of ecclesiastical benefices, through the use of assemblies, treaties, pensions, and exemplary punishments. He faced the great princes, resisted the \u003Cstrong>League of the Public Weal\u003C/strong>, recovered what he had had to concede, exploited the divisions of his enemies, and made the struggle against \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> the central axis of the second half of his reign. This policy excluded neither setbacks nor humiliations, as the episode of \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong> shows, but it reveals a remarkable continuity of purpose.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Under this reign, the monarchy did not act only in the military or diplomatic sphere. It also intervened in the economy, promoted \u003Cstrong>Lyon\u003C/strong>, reorganized the fairs, brought the nobility more firmly under control with the \u003Cstrong>Order of Saint Michael\u003C/strong>, reformed the instruments of government, and continued the concrete expansion of the royal domain. From the \u003Cstrong>towns of the Somme\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>Roussillon\u003C/strong>, from the Burgundian crisis to the annexation of \u003Cstrong>Anjou\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Maine\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Provence\u003C/strong>, the kingdom expanded and grew more structured. Yet the destruction of the personal power of \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> did not lead to a simple victory: it also opened the era of rivalry with the \u003Cstrong>Habsburgs\u003C/strong>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The reign of \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> thus occupies a pivotal place between the still feudal France of the mid-fifteenth century and the more centralized monarchy that asserted itself on the eve of the modern era. Between \u003Cstrong>1461\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>1483\u003C/strong>, this chapter follows both the king’s establishment in power, the revolt of the princes, the duel with \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong>, and then the reforms and territorial enlargements that marked the end of the reign. It shows how, through crises, treaties, wars, and territorial recoveries, Louis XI left \u003Cstrong>Charles VIII\u003C/strong> a state broader in scope, politically better armed, and more firmly controlled than it had been at the time of his own accession.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>I. 1461-1463: accession, governmental ruptures, and first conquests\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>On \u003Cstrong>14 August 1461\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> was crowned at \u003Cstrong>Reims\u003C/strong> according to the traditional rite that conferred full dynastic legitimacy upon his accession to the throne. Yet the new king’s accession took place in a tense social climate: the days following the coronation were marked by urban disturbances, the \u003Cem>tricoteries\u003C/em> of \u003Cstrong>Angers\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>29 and 31 August\u003C/strong> and the \u003Cem>miquemaque\u003C/em> of \u003Cstrong>Reims\u003C/strong>, popular manifestations of unrest at the time of the change of reign that revealed the fragility of social balances in the kingdom’s great cities. Louis XI paid them little attention. On the road back to \u003Cstrong>Paris\u003C/strong>, he stopped at \u003Cstrong>Saint-Denis\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>30 August\u003C/strong> to have a solemn service celebrated in memory of his father \u003Cstrong>Charles VII\u003C/strong>; on that occasion, the papal legate lifted the excommunications incurred by the late king for having promulgated the \u003Cstrong>Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges\u003C/strong>, the founding text of \u003Cem>Gallican\u003C/em> liberties that the dauphin himself, during his exile at the Burgundian court, had promised to abolish. This first gesture says much about the method that would characterize the reign: honoring his father while quietly preparing the abandonment of a principle dear to the crown, in other words making symbolic continuity coexist with political rupture.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>From \u003Cstrong>September 1461\u003C/strong>, this rupture took a concrete form. Louis XI dismissed the advisers who had formed the government of \u003Cstrong>Charles VII\u003C/strong> and replaced them with men of his own confidence. Among the new favorites, \u003Cstrong>Tristan l’Hermite\u003C/strong>, \u003Cem>provost of the marshals\u003C/em>, and \u003Cstrong>Olivier Le Daim\u003C/strong>, a barber of Flemish origin who had become an intimate adviser, embodied a new type of government: low-born executors devoted solely to the person of the king precisely because they possessed no feudal base that might allow them to resist him. This structural distrust of the high nobility was a constant of Louis XI and was expressed from the very first weeks of the reign.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>To this renewal of the entourage were added carefully calculated acts of grace. From the moment of his accession, Louis XI had several prisoners released, among them the poet \u003Cstrong>Francois Villon\u003C/strong>, condemned for brawls and misdeeds, a picturesque figure of those urban margins that royal justice kept under control.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/villon-libere-louis-xi\" data-art-id=\"villon-libere-louis-xi\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Job_%26_Montorgueil_-_Louis_XI_-_Fran%C3%A7ois_Villon.jpg/500px-Job_%26_Montorgueil_-_Louis_XI_-_Fran%C3%A7ois_Villon.jpg\" alt=\"Francois Villon and Louis XI\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Francois Villon and Louis XI: Job (Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Breville) and Georges Montorgueil, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>In the same spirit, on \u003Cstrong>11 October\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>John II of Alencon\u003C/strong>, a great lord sentenced to death under Charles VII for complicity with the English, was rehabilitated by letters patent and recovered his lands. These measures were not matters of royal generosity alone: by erasing the sentences of the previous reign, Louis XI signaled to the nobility that a new era was beginning, one in which loyalty to his own person would take precedence over the legacies of the past.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The religious dimension of this reconfiguration became clearer on \u003Cstrong>27 November 1461\u003C/strong>, when Louis XI formally notified the pope of the abolition of the \u003Cstrong>Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges\u003C/strong>. By renouncing this text, which had guaranteed the relative independence of the Church of France from Rome, the king yielded on a \u003Cem>Gallican\u003C/em> principle defended by his predecessors since \u003Cstrong>1438\u003C/strong>. But the exchange was profitable: in return he obtained papal goodwill and, above all, greater control over benefice appointments, in other words the power to distribute ecclesiastical offices to his followers. This was a political resource that Louis XI would use consistently. In \u003Cstrong>November\u003C/strong> of the same year, he also granted the county of \u003Cstrong>Berry\u003C/strong> to his younger brother, designated at court under the name of \u003Cstrong>Monsieur Charles\u003C/strong>. The concession seemed harmless; it was not: by endowing a prince of the blood with a substantial territorial base, the king created, perhaps unknowingly, the conditions for a future noble coalition that would cost him dearly.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>After this intense phase of establishment, the year \u003Cstrong>1462\u003C/strong> shifted toward foreign affairs, and it was there that Louis XI’s particular talent appeared most clearly. \u003Cstrong>John II of Aragon\u003C/strong>, grappling with the revolt of \u003Cstrong>Catalonia\u003C/strong>, desperately sought outside military support. The opportunity was too good to miss. Preliminary alliance terms were negotiated at \u003Cstrong>Olite\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>12 April\u003C/strong> with \u003Cstrong>Gaston IV of Foix-Bearn\u003C/strong>, acting on behalf of France; the direct meeting at \u003Cstrong>Salvatierra\u003C/strong> in Bearn on \u003Cstrong>3 May\u003C/strong> prepared the ground for the final agreement, concluded on \u003Cstrong>9 May\u003C/strong> in the form of the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Bayonne\u003C/strong>, ratified on \u003Cstrong>21 May\u003C/strong> at \u003Cstrong>Saragossa\u003C/strong> and then on \u003Cstrong>15 June\u003C/strong> at \u003Cstrong>Chinon\u003C/strong>. The result speaks for itself: John II of Aragon obtained French military support, but had to hand over the county of \u003Cstrong>Roussillon\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Cerdagne\u003C/strong> as a pledge. For Louis XI, it was the perfect demonstration of his method: inserting himself as an arbiter into a foreign conflict in order to obtain substantial territorial gains by contractual means without exposing a single one of his armies. On the economic front, on \u003Cstrong>20 October 1462\u003C/strong>, an ordinance forbade French merchants from attending the fairs of \u003Cstrong>Geneva\u003C/strong>, with the deliberate aim of concentrating commercial flows on the \u003Cstrong>fairs of Lyon\u003C/strong>, the first act of a coherent policy meant to make the Rhone city the crossroads of major European trade.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>These gains quickly took concrete form in \u003Cstrong>1463\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>8 January\u003C/strong>, the royal army commanded by \u003Cstrong>Jacques d’Armagnac\u003C/strong> took \u003Cstrong>Perpignan\u003C/strong> and occupied the main strongholds of \u003Cstrong>Roussillon\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Cerdagne\u003C/strong>, giving substance to the Bayonne agreement. This southern success was followed, in \u003Cstrong>September\u003C/strong>, by a similar success in the north: Louis XI bought back from the dukes of \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong> the \u003Cstrong>towns of the Somme\u003C/strong> - \u003Cstrong>Amiens\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Corbie\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Saint-Quentin\u003C/strong>, and several other places - that had been ceded by the Treaty of \u003Cstrong>Arras\u003C/strong> in \u003Cstrong>1435\u003C/strong>. In a few months, without fighting a single decisive battle, the kingdom had extended its hold over two strategic fronts at once. At the same time, on \u003Cstrong>15 February\u003C/strong>, Louis XI purchased for his personal use the lordship of \u003Cstrong>Montils-les-Tours\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>Hardouin de Maille\u003C/strong>: this estate, which he would enlarge and fortify, would become the castle of \u003Cstrong>Plessis-les-Tours\u003C/strong>, his favorite residence and the place of his death in \u003Cstrong>1483\u003C/strong>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The king’s energy was not exhausted, however, by these territorial operations. In commercial matters, on \u003Cstrong>8 March\u003C/strong>, a fourth annual fair was granted to \u003Cstrong>Lyon\u003C/strong> - each lasting fifteen days - completing the eclipse of the old \u003Cstrong>Champagne fairs\u003C/strong> and establishing Lyon as the true economic capital of the kingdom.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/foire-de-champagne-xiiie-siecle\" data-art-id=\"foire-de-champagne-xiiie-siecle\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Foire_de_Champagne_XIIIe.jpg\" alt=\"A fair in Champagne in the 13th century\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>A fair in Champagne in the 13th century: Unidentified engraver, in Album historique dir. Ernest Lavisse, Paris, Armand Colin (1898), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>That same year saw Louis XI multiply interventions on other fronts. On \u003Cstrong>28 April\u003C/strong>, he met \u003Cstrong>Henry IV of Castile\u003C/strong> at \u003Cstrong>Urtubie\u003C/strong>, on the \u003Cstrong>Bidasoa\u003C/strong>, consolidating the peninsular diplomatic axis. On \u003Cstrong>7 May\u003C/strong>, a \u003Cstrong>great fire\u003C/strong> devastated \u003Cstrong>Toulouse\u003C/strong>: three quarters of the medieval city went up in smoke - timber-framed houses, convents, churches, and the town hall - spread by a violent wind through narrow streets; the king made his solemn entry there on \u003Cstrong>26 May\u003C/strong>, returning from agreements concluded in \u003Cstrong>Guyenne\u003C/strong>. On the administrative level, on \u003Cstrong>20 July\u003C/strong>, an ordinance ordered ecclesiastics to declare all of their property, revealing the royal will to extend fiscal transparency to the clergy. In \u003Cstrong>November\u003C/strong>, a directive forbade the importation of spices except through the ports of \u003Cstrong>Languedoc\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Roussillon\u003C/strong>, orienting Mediterranean commercial routes toward French centers. In \u003Cstrong>December\u003C/strong>, letters patent founded the \u003Cstrong>University of Bourges\u003C/strong>, showing a parallel concern for the kingdom’s intellectual prestige. Finally, on the diplomatic plane, on \u003Cstrong>22 December\u003C/strong>, the ambassador of the Duke of Milan \u003Cstrong>Francesco Sforza\u003C/strong> received from Louis XI the feudal investiture of \u003Cstrong>Genoa\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Savona\u003C/strong>, an agreement ratified in Milan on \u003Cstrong>25 January 1464\u003C/strong>, which cemented the Franco-Milanese alliance into a lasting axis of royal foreign policy.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Francois Villon\u003C/strong>, for his part, offered that same year a striking counterpoint to this royal success. Freed at the accession, he was banished from \u003Cstrong>Paris\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>5 January 1463\u003C/strong> following new convictions and thereafter disappeared entirely from the documentary record. He left behind the \u003Cem>Ballade des pendus\u003C/em> and a body of work that would make him one of the recognized fathers of modern French poetry, the final paradox of a man whom royal grace had for a time saved, and whom royal justice ultimately erased.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/ballade-des-pendus-villon-levet-1489\" data-art-id=\"ballade-des-pendus-villon-levet-1489\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Villon_-_Ballade_des_pendus.jpg\" alt=\"The Ballade des pendus - facsimile of the Pierre Levet edition (1489)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>The Ballade des pendus - facsimile of the Pierre Levet edition (1489): Pierre Levet (printer), Oeuvres de Francois Villon, Paris, 1489, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>II. 1464-1465: royal reforms and the first major crisis - the League of the Public Weal\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1464\u003C/strong> began under the sign of institutional construction. On \u003Cstrong>19 June\u003C/strong>, by the \u003Cstrong>Edict of Luxies\u003C/strong>, Louis XI established the “\u003Cstrong>letter post\u003C/strong>”: a network of relay stations spread along the kingdom’s main roads, intended to ensure the rapid transmission of royal correspondence. The exact date is still debated among historians, but the intention is clear: a king who governs in the shadows and through information needs his messages to travel quickly. The institution directly foreshadowed the organization of the modern French postal system. In a similar spirit of rationalization, Louis XI also abolished that same year the \u003Cstrong>right of hunting in France\u003C/strong>, directly attacking one of the oldest symbols of noble prestige. On the diplomatic front, on \u003Cstrong>5 October\u003C/strong> at \u003Cstrong>Abbeville\u003C/strong>, he signed a suspension in favor of \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, Count of Charolais, halting all lawsuits and disputes concerning the borders between France and \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong>: a way of calming a potentially dangerous adversary without settling the substance of the conflict. On \u003Cstrong>18 December\u003C/strong>, he assembled at \u003Cstrong>Tours\u003C/strong> an assembly of princes to deal with the affairs of \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong>, whose chronic unrest continued to concern the crown.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>These diplomatic precautions were not enough to contain the crisis that had been maturing since the beginning of the reign. The great lords of the kingdom had accumulated grievances: they found themselves excluded from government, replaced by low-born men devoted solely to the king’s person; fiscal reforms weighed on the towns and the clergy; the repurchase of the \u003Cstrong>towns of the Somme\u003C/strong> in \u003Cstrong>1463\u003C/strong> had particularly irritated \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, who saw it as a direct affront to the house of Burgundy. This scattered discontent was only waiting for a catalyst.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>It appeared at the beginning of \u003Cstrong>1465\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>4 March\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong>, the king’s younger brother - that \u003Cstrong>Monsieur Charles\u003C/strong> to whom Louis XI had imprudently granted the county of \u003Cstrong>Berry\u003C/strong> as early as \u003Cstrong>1461\u003C/strong> - fled from \u003Cstrong>Poitiers\u003C/strong> and joined \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong>, thereby giving the rebellion its nominal leader.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/diner-etampes-ligue-bien-public-1465\" data-art-id=\"diner-etampes-ligue-bien-public-1465\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Janin_-_La_Bretagne%2C_1844_-_p381.jpg/960px-Janin_-_La_Bretagne%2C_1844_-_p381.jpg\" alt=\"The dinner at Etampes - meeting of the League of the Public Weal against Louis XI (1465)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>The dinner at Etampes - meeting of the League of the Public Weal against Louis XI (1465): Unidentified illustrator, in Jules Janin, La Bretagne, Paris, Ernest Bourdin (1844), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>On \u003Cstrong>10 March\u003C/strong>, at \u003Cstrong>Nantes\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>League of the Public Weal\u003C/strong> was officially formed around a manifesto claiming to defend the kingdom against royal “tyranny.” The coalition was formidable: \u003Cstrong>John II of Bourbon\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Rene of Anjou\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>John II of Alencon\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Francis II of Brittany\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>John V of Armagnac\u003C/strong>, the Duke of \u003Cstrong>Albret\u003C/strong>, and above all \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, the true organizing force of the whole. Beneath the rhetorical wrapping of the “public weal” lay very concrete ambitions: to regain control over royal finances, offices, and the army, and to place the person of the king under princely tutelage.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>🔍 \u003Cstrong>\u003Ca href=\"/en/zoom/p7ch1z2\">Zoom - 1465: the War of the Public Weal\u003C/a>\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Louis XI did not allow himself to be destabilized. As early as \u003Cstrong>16 March\u003C/strong>, he published a counter-manifesto in his own hand, rejecting the accusations of tyranny and affirming the legitimacy of his government. At the same time, he acted on the ground: on \u003Cstrong>26 March\u003C/strong>, he quickly occupied strategic points in \u003Cstrong>Berry\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Bourbonnais\u003C/strong> to cut off the route to insurgents from central France, before being compelled to move back north under Burgundian pressure on \u003Cstrong>Paris\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>17 June\u003C/strong>, his envoys concluded at \u003Cstrong>Liege\u003C/strong> an alliance with the \u003Cstrong>Liegeois\u003C/strong> in revolt against their prince-bishop, thereby opening a front in the rear of \u003Cstrong>Philip III of Burgundy\u003C/strong>, a diversionary tactic characteristic of Louis XI’s diplomacy.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/bataille-montlhery-1465-enluminure\" data-art-id=\"bataille-montlhery-1465-enluminure\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Bataille_de_Montlh%C3%A9ry.jpg/500px-Bataille_de_Montlh%C3%A9ry.jpg\" alt=\"The Battle of Montlhery - illumination from the Memoirs of Commynes (c. 1518-1524)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>The Battle of Montlhery - illumination from the Memoirs of Commynes (c. 1518-1524): Circle of Etienne Colaud (miniaturist), Memoirs of Philippe de Commynes, Musee Dobree, Nantes, Ms. XVIII, fol. 7v (c. 1518-1524), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Military confrontation broke out in summer. On \u003Cstrong>5 July\u003C/strong>, the Burgundian army, after crossing \u003Cstrong>Picardy\u003C/strong>, occupied \u003Cstrong>Saint-Denis\u003C/strong>, the rallying point of the coalition at the gates of \u003Cstrong>Paris\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>16 July\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Battle of Montlhery\u003C/strong> pitted Louis XI against the league’s troops commanded by \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>. The outcome was indecisive: the king held the field but had to withdraw to \u003Cstrong>Paris\u003C/strong>, where he returned only after negotiation, on \u003Cstrong>28 August\u003C/strong>. The battle proved two things at once: Louis XI was not militarily unbeatable, but the coalition was also unable to crush him in open battle.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/traite-conflans-louis-xi-charles-temeraire-1465\" data-art-id=\"traite-conflans-louis-xi-charles-temeraire-1465\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Trait%C3%A9_de_Conflans_entre_Louis_XI_et_Charles_le_T%C3%A9m%C3%A9raire.jpg/960px-Trait%C3%A9_de_Conflans_entre_Louis_XI_et_Charles_le_T%C3%A9m%C3%A9raire.jpg\" alt=\"The Treaty of Conflans between Louis XI and Charles the Bold (1465)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>The Treaty of Conflans between Louis XI and Charles the Bold (1465): Henri Felix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (composition), engraving by Lacoste jeune, in Paul Lehugeur, Histoire de France en cent tableaux, Paris, A. Lahude (c. 1883), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Forced to negotiate, the king signed the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Conflans\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>5 October\u003C/strong>, then that of \u003Cstrong>Saint-Maur-des-Fosses\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>29 October\u003C/strong>. The concessions were severe and painful. The \u003Cstrong>towns of the Somme\u003C/strong>, patiently repurchased two years earlier, were restored to \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, a bitter loss that erased one of the clearest successes of the beginning of the reign. \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong> received \u003Cstrong>Normandy\u003C/strong> as an appanage and entered \u003Cstrong>Rouen\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>25 November\u003C/strong>, to be installed there as duke on \u003Cstrong>1 December\u003C/strong>. For Louis XI, it was the most humiliating retreat since his accession.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>But this retreat was temporary, and the king did not accept it as final. From \u003Cstrong>December 1465\u003C/strong> through \u003Cstrong>January 1466\u003C/strong>, he reconquered \u003Cstrong>Normandy\u003C/strong>, erasing the most symbolically costly concession of the treaties. Meanwhile, the coalition fell apart through its own contradictions: the \u003Cstrong>Liegeois\u003C/strong> were cut to pieces by the Burgundian army on \u003Cstrong>20 October\u003C/strong> at the \u003Cstrong>Battle of Montenaken\u003C/strong>, ruining the alliance Louis XI had woven on that flank. On \u003Cstrong>22 December\u003C/strong>, by the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Saint-Trond\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> imposed his conditions on the defeated people of Liege. On the Breton front, on \u003Cstrong>23 December\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Caen\u003C/strong> restored peace with \u003Cstrong>Francis II of Brittany\u003C/strong> - but at a price: the duke required recognition of the Breton dukes’ right to collect the \u003Cem>regale\u003C/em>, a concession that weakened royal authority in the duchy. On the governmental side, Louis XI made revealing strategic adjustments: \u003Cstrong>Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins\u003C/strong>, dismissed as early as \u003Cstrong>1461\u003C/strong>, resumed his functions as \u003Cstrong>Chancellor of France\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>9 November\u003C/strong>, a welcome sign of political normalization; on \u003Cstrong>19 November\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>John II of Bourbon\u003C/strong>, now rallied to the king, received a vast general lieutenancy over a territory stretching from \u003Cstrong>Orleanais\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>Perigord\u003C/strong>, a reward that durably anchored his loyalty.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The crisis of \u003Cstrong>1465\u003C/strong> ultimately revealed the two faces of the reign: remarkable tenacity in the face of collective adversity, but also the limits of what even a skillful king can impose on a coalition of determined princes. Louis XI drew from it a lesson he would never lose sight of: it is better to divide one’s enemies than to confront them as a single bloc.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>III. 1466-1468: the reconquest of Normandy, the accession of Charles the Bold, and the humiliation of Peronne\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Barely had the Treaties of Conflans and Saint-Maur been signed than Louis XI undertook to recover what he had just ceded. \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong>, duke of Normandy for only a few weeks, left \u003Cstrong>Rouen\u003C/strong> for \u003Cstrong>Honfleur\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>17 January 1466\u003C/strong>, tried in vain to embark for Flanders, and ended up retreating to \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong>. His departure was a sign that the Norman appanage was already weakened. Louis XI immediately took advantage: on \u003Cstrong>23 January\u003C/strong>, he retook \u003Cstrong>Normandy\u003C/strong> and reincorporated it into the royal domain. The most symbolically costly concession of the autumn treaties had thus lasted less than two months. This swift reversal had consequences: it fueled the hostility of \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Francis II of Brittany\u003C/strong> and prepared, from \u003Cstrong>1467\u003C/strong> onward, a new wave of feudal opposition.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1466\u003C/strong> was also marked by events that reshaped the external political landscape. On \u003Cstrong>8 March\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Francesco Sforza\u003C/strong>, Duke of \u003Cstrong>Milan\u003C/strong> and loyal ally of the French crown, died; his son \u003Cstrong>Galeazzo Maria Sforza\u003C/strong> succeeded him. The continuity of the Franco-Milanese alliance was not called into question, but Francesco’s disappearance - that of a long-standing partner - introduced an element of uncertainty. On the internal front, Louis XI continued to establish his loyalists in the provinces: on \u003Cstrong>5 June\u003C/strong>, the constable \u003Cstrong>John II of Bourbon\u003C/strong> received the general lieutenancy of \u003Cstrong>Languedoc\u003C/strong>, further enlarging the territory entrusted to this lord now won over to the crown. In \u003Cstrong>November\u003C/strong>, letters patent allowing the installation of the first \u003Cstrong>silk looms in Lyon\u003C/strong> confirmed the coherence of royal economic policy, which made the Rhone city the center of luxury textile production in France.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/atelier-canut-lyon\" data-art-id=\"atelier-canut-lyon\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Atelier_canut.jpg/960px-Atelier_canut.jpg\" alt=\"Canut workshop in Lyon\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Canut workshop in Lyon: Jules Ferat / Frederick William Moller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>That same year saw \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> harden his methods in the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>25 August\u003C/strong>, he took and razed \u003Cstrong>Dinant\u003C/strong>, a city of Liege that had resisted his authority, making this sack a demonstration of force meant to intimidate all future resistance. On \u003Cstrong>23 October\u003C/strong>, he concluded an alliance with \u003Cstrong>Edward IV of England\u003C/strong>, increasing the pressure on France from a potential coalition on two fronts. A \u003Cstrong>plague epidemic\u003C/strong> reported as early as \u003Cstrong>9 September\u003C/strong> in \u003Cstrong>Chalons-sur-Marne\u003C/strong> further aggravated the kingdom’s internal difficulties: it caused at least \u003Cstrong>40,000 victims\u003C/strong> in the \u003Cstrong>Ile-de-France\u003C/strong>, disrupting the economic and administrative life of the towns.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1467\u003C/strong> was above all one of major dynastic turning point. On \u003Cstrong>15 June\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Philip the Good\u003C/strong>, Duke of Burgundy, died: \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> succeeded him and now became sovereign of \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Franche-Comte\u003C/strong>, and the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong>. The change was considerable. Philip the Good had been a formidable adversary but endowed with a certain prudence; his son combined unrestrained military energy, a desire for personal revenge, and territorial resources unmatched in the West of the time. The rivalry between Louis XI and Charles the Bold entered its decisive phase. In the months that followed, the coalition re-formed: on \u003Cstrong>1 October\u003C/strong>, a new league united the dukes of \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Alencon\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Berry\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong> against Louis XI. On \u003Cstrong>13 October\u003C/strong>, the men of \u003Cstrong>Charles of Berry\u003C/strong> took \u003Cstrong>Caen\u003C/strong>, reopening the Norman front. Louis XI replied methodically: on \u003Cstrong>15 October\u003C/strong>, he rewarded the loyalty of \u003Cstrong>Gaston IV of Foix\u003C/strong> by granting him the treasure of Villandraut, confiscated from a lord who had supported the League of the Public Weal in \u003Cstrong>1465\u003C/strong>. On the Liege flank, on \u003Cstrong>28 October\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Battle of Brustem\u003C/strong> saw Charles the Bold crush the \u003Cstrong>rebellious Liegeois\u003C/strong> near \u003Cstrong>Saint-Trond\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>11 November\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Liege\u003C/strong> surrendered, and the duke stripped it of its privileges.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Etat_bourguignon_Philippe_le_Bon_Fr.png/500px-Etat_bourguignon_Philippe_le_Bon_Fr.png\" alt=\"The Burgundian state under Philip the Good\" class=\"kb-img-contain\">\n\u003Cem>The Burgundian state under Philip the Good: G CHP, after Marco Zanoli, CC BY-SA 4.0 / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1468\u003C/strong> opened with an attempt at stabilization. On \u003Cstrong>2 February\u003C/strong>, a truce was concluded between Louis XI and the league of dukes; peace talks began in \u003Cstrong>April\u003C/strong> at \u003Cstrong>Cambrai\u003C/strong>. But Louis XI did not passively await negotiations: he convened the \u003Cstrong>Estates General\u003C/strong> at \u003Cstrong>Tours\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>6 to 14 April\u003C/strong>, obtaining a solemn condemnation of the League of the Public Weal and, above all, the affirmation of the principle of the \u003Cstrong>inalienability of Normandy\u003C/strong>, a skillful political gesture that made the defense of the royal domain a national cause rather than a dynastic quarrel. On the Breton front, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Ancenis\u003C/strong> of \u003Cstrong>10 September\u003C/strong> extracted from \u003Cstrong>Francis II of Brittany\u003C/strong> a commitment to break his alliances with Burgundy and England, in exchange for a pension and the promise of an appanage to be defined for \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong> - a way of neutralizing one member of the coalition without fighting a battle.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>These diplomatic successes made the catastrophe that followed all the more brutal. On \u003Cstrong>3 July\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> had married \u003Cstrong>Margaret of York\u003C/strong>, sister of \u003Cstrong>Edward IV of England\u003C/strong>, at \u003Cstrong>Bruges\u003C/strong>: the Burgundian-English dynastic union was thus sealed, constituting for Louis XI a threat of encirclement that he sought to neutralize through direct negotiation. It was in this context that he went, with a small escort and perhaps excessive confidence in his powers of persuasion, to the meeting at \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>10 and 14 October\u003C/strong>. The trap closed: Charles learned that Louis was secretly encouraging the revolts of \u003Cstrong>Liege\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Ghent\u003C/strong>, and held the king of France prisoner in his own castle. To obtain his freedom, Louis XI had to cede \u003Cstrong>Champagne\u003C/strong> to his brother \u003Cstrong>Charles of Berry\u003C/strong> and, in the supreme humiliation, personally attend the repression of the \u003Cstrong>revolt of Liege\u003C/strong> by Burgundian troops. From \u003Cstrong>30 October\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>3 November\u003C/strong>, the city was sacked and razed.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>🔍 \u003Cstrong>\u003Ca href=\"/en/zoom/p7ch1z6\">Zoom - 1468-1475: the duel with Charles the Bold\u003C/a>\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The episode of \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong> was one of the darkest moments of the reign. Louis XI, a prisoner of his own diplomatic game, emerged physically free but politically diminished, forced publicly to endorse Burgundian violence against the allies he himself had armed in secret. The \u003Cstrong>Parliament of Toulouse\u003C/strong>, suspended since \u003Cstrong>April 1467\u003C/strong> and transferred to Montpellier, did not recover its seat until \u003Cstrong>23 December 1468\u003C/strong> - one sign among others that the king was struggling to maintain the thread of normal administration in a France wracked by wars, epidemics, and repeated political crises. But Louis XI knew better than anyone that treaties imposed by force last only until the moment one turns back against them. The revenge for Peronne was already being prepared.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>IV. 1469-1471: royal recovery, economic confrontation, and return to war against Burgundy\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>In the aftermath of \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> first set about regaining the initiative without immediately provoking a frontal rupture. The year \u003Cstrong>1469\u003C/strong> nevertheless opened with a Burgundian show of strength. On \u003Cstrong>15 January\u003C/strong>, at \u003Cstrong>Brussels\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> solemnly received reparations from the deputies of \u003Cstrong>Ghent\u003C/strong>, whose city lost its privileges. The scene illustrated the duke’s growing authority over the former Low Countries and reminded the king of France that he now faced a prince capable of ruling his states with a harshness comparable to that of a sovereign. Louis XI responded less with spectacle than with political demolition. On \u003Cstrong>23 April 1469\u003C/strong>, his adviser \u003Cstrong>Jean de La Balue\u003C/strong> and Bishop \u003Cstrong>Guillaume de Haraucourt\u003C/strong> were arrested for treason. Their downfall revealed the scale of the intrigues surrounding the crown since the crisis of Peronne; La Balue’s confinement at night in a cage soon became one of the most famous symbols of the pitiless justice attributed to the reign.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/louis-xi-visitant-le-cardinal-la-balue-gerome\" data-art-id=\"louis-xi-visitant-le-cardinal-la-balue-gerome\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Jean-Leon_Gerome_-_Louis_XI_of_France_visiting_Cardinal_Balue_in_his_iron_cage.jpg/960px-Jean-Leon_Gerome_-_Louis_XI_of_France_visiting_Cardinal_Balue_in_his_iron_cage.jpg\" alt=\"Louis XI visiting Cardinal La Balue in his iron cage\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Louis XI visiting Cardinal La Balue in his iron cage: Jean-Leon Gerome, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The question of the king’s brother remained at the same time at the heart of domestic politics. On \u003Cstrong>29 April\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong> became Duke of \u003Cstrong>Guyenne\u003C/strong>. This transfer of appanage followed the logic already begun before the meeting at \u003Cstrong>Le Braud\u003C/strong>: Louis XI sought to move him away from \u003Cstrong>Champagne\u003C/strong>, too close to Burgundian lands, and thus loosen the bond between the two Charleses. The maneuver fully took shape on \u003Cstrong>7 September\u003C/strong>, when the king traveled to \u003Cstrong>Lower Poitou\u003C/strong> to meet his brother at the crossing of \u003Cstrong>Le Braud\u003C/strong>, on the \u003Cstrong>Sevre Niortaise\u003C/strong>. The two princes then seemed to reconcile: Charles renounced \u003Cstrong>Normandy\u003C/strong> as well as \u003Cstrong>Berry\u003C/strong>, while Louis XI substituted \u003Cstrong>Guyenne\u003C/strong> for them and granted him \u003Cstrong>Poitou\u003C/strong> as an appanage to compensate for the loss of the former concessions. Behind this apparent family pacification lay a very clear strategic operation: separating \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> and preventing the immediate reconstitution of a princely bloc similar to that of \u003Cstrong>1465\u003C/strong>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, the Franco-Burgundian conflict changed scale through the play of alliances. On \u003Cstrong>9 May 1469\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Saint-Omer\u003C/strong> concluded between \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> and Archduke \u003Cstrong>Sigismund of Tyrol\u003C/strong> pledged \u003Cstrong>Alsace\u003C/strong> and the \u003Cstrong>Breisgau\u003C/strong> as security against a loan of \u003Cstrong>50,000 florins\u003C/strong>. Without directly involving France, the agreement considerably increased the political reach of the Duke of Burgundy and fed Louis XI’s fear of a real intermediary state stretching from the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong> to the margins of the \u003Cstrong>Empire\u003C/strong>. The king therefore sought in return to strengthen the loyalty of his own servants. On \u003Cstrong>1 August 1469\u003C/strong>, he created the \u003Cstrong>Order of Saint Michael\u003C/strong>, intended to reward nobles attached to the crown. The institution was not a mere chivalric ornament: it allowed the monarchy to frame the high nobility, offer it a mark of honor competing with the Burgundian Order of the \u003Cstrong>Golden Fleece\u003C/strong>, and bring aristocratic loyalties back into the orbit of central power.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/louis-xi-portant-le-collier-de-l-ordre-de-saint-michel\" data-art-id=\"louis-xi-portant-le-collier-de-l-ordre-de-saint-michel\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Louis_XI_ordre_de_saint-michel.jpg\" alt=\"Louis XI wearing the collar of the Order of Saint Michael\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Louis XI wearing the collar of the Order of Saint Michael: Georges Alexandre Lucien Boisselier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1470\u003C/strong> saw this duel move more openly onto the diplomatic and economic ground. On \u003Cstrong>1 March\u003C/strong>, the powerful \u003Cstrong>Warwick\u003C/strong>, now estranged from \u003Cstrong>Edward IV of England\u003C/strong>, landed in \u003Cstrong>Normandy\u003C/strong> with an English fleet and placed himself under the protection of the king of France. Louis XI thus regained room for maneuver in English affairs and could hope to loosen the grip of an ever-threatening Anglo-Burgundian rapprochement. On the domestic plane, he also continued a policy of economic construction. On \u003Cstrong>12 March\u003C/strong>, he ordered that \u003Cstrong>Mace Picot\u003C/strong>, treasurer of \u003Cstrong>Nimes\u003C/strong>, be provided with the funds necessary to transport to \u003Cstrong>Tours\u003C/strong> the silk workers recently established in \u003Cstrong>Lyon\u003C/strong>, along with their working instruments. This administrative detail, modest in appearance, revealed the continuity of a voluntarist policy: attracting techniques, controlling skilled men, and making the monarchy one of the direct actors of manufacturing growth.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>In the autumn, tension with Burgundy became frontal. \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> assembled at \u003Cstrong>Tours\u003C/strong>, on \u003Cstrong>20 October 1470\u003C/strong>, an assembly of representatives from the kingdom’s principal towns. On \u003Cstrong>25 October\u003C/strong>, he published an ordinance forbidding exports to the Burgundian states; \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> replied on \u003Cstrong>8 November\u003C/strong> by prohibiting trade with France. This customs war was not a mere circumstantial episode. It marked the monarchy’s entry into a confrontation in which the economic weapon complemented diplomacy and prepared the resumption of armed hostilities. That same month, the founding of two fairs at \u003Cstrong>Caen\u003C/strong> followed this logic of redirecting commercial circuits for the benefit of the kingdom. Finally, on \u003Cstrong>3 December\u003C/strong>, at \u003Cstrong>Amboise\u003C/strong>, Louis XI crossed a decisive threshold: he declared the Duke of Burgundy guilty of \u003Cem>lese-majeste\u003C/em> and felony; at the same time, an assembly of princes of the blood, prelates, lords, and counselors gathered at \u003Cstrong>Tours\u003C/strong> annulled the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Peronne\u003C/strong>. The coercion suffered in \u003Cstrong>1468\u003C/strong> was thus juridically erased, and war again became possible without the king appearing to break his word.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>This policy logically led to the resumption of operations in \u003Cstrong>1471\u003C/strong>. From \u003Cstrong>January\u003C/strong>, Louis XI campaigned in \u003Cstrong>Picardy\u003C/strong>. The men of the constable of \u003Cstrong>Saint-Pol\u003C/strong> invested \u003Cstrong>Saint-Quentin\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>6 January\u003C/strong>, then \u003Cstrong>Antoine de Chabannes\u003C/strong> entered \u003Cstrong>Amiens\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>2 February\u003C/strong>. The reconquest of the \u003Cstrong>towns of the Somme\u003C/strong>, already at the heart of the struggles since the Treaty of \u003Cstrong>Conflans\u003C/strong>, once again became one of the monarchy’s major objectives. At the same time, the king still spared England: on \u003Cstrong>16 February\u003C/strong>, a trade treaty was signed at \u003Cstrong>London\u003C/strong> between the two kingdoms, proof that Louis XI intended to isolate Burgundy rather than reopen all fronts simultaneously. When \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> besieged \u003Cstrong>Amiens\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>10 March\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>10 April\u003C/strong> without success, the Burgundian failure confirmed the solidity of the French offensive return; the city remained loyal to the crown.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The king accompanied this reconquest with a series of initiatives showing how deeply war, for him, fitted into a general policy of government. On \u003Cstrong>10 April 1471\u003C/strong>, from \u003Cstrong>Beauvais\u003C/strong>, he forbade the importation of “spices and groceries” that did not travel on a French ship, reserving that trade to the kingdom’s galleys. On \u003Cstrong>27 June\u003C/strong>, the marriage of \u003Cstrong>Francis II of Brittany\u003C/strong> with \u003Cstrong>Margaret of Foix\u003C/strong> reminded observers that the Breton front was never completely extinguished. Still more worrying were the alliances concluded by the Duke of Burgundy: on \u003Cstrong>10 August\u003C/strong>, an offensive and defensive treaty united him with \u003Cstrong>Ferdinand of Aragon\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>1 November\u003C/strong>, another \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Saint-Omer\u003C/strong> joined \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>John II of Aragon\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Ferdinand of Sicily\u003C/strong> against the king of France. In the meantime, on \u003Cstrong>3 October\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Le Crotoy\u003C/strong> had indeed been signed between Louis XI and Charles the Bold: there the king promised to restore \u003Cstrong>Amiens\u003C/strong> and the \u003Cstrong>towns of the Somme\u003C/strong>, apparently confirming the old agreements of \u003Cstrong>Arras\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Conflans\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong>. But he took care not to ratify its clauses, faithful to a proven method: gain time by treaty, keep the ground through facts. Thus, between \u003Cstrong>1469\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>1471\u003C/strong>, the reign recovered its own rhythm, made of provisional negotiations, displays of authority, noble supervision, and limited war, all in the service of one end: preventing the formation of a Burgundian state capable of enduringly rivaling the French monarchy.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>🔍 \u003Cstrong>\u003Ca href=\"/en/zoom/p7ch1z6\">Zoom - 1468-1475: the duel with Charles the Bold\u003C/a>\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>V. 1472-1475: the war in Picardy, the diplomatic encirclement of Burgundy, and the triumph of Picquigny\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1472\u003C/strong> marked a new escalation in the confrontation between \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>24 May\u003C/strong>, the death of \u003Cstrong>Charles of France\u003C/strong>, Duke of \u003Cstrong>Guyenne\u003C/strong> and the king’s brother - whose disappearance immediately gave rise to suspicions of poisoning without decisive proof - allowed Louis XI to occupy the duchy promptly. The Duke of Burgundy seized on this circumstance to resume war. From \u003Cstrong>11 June\u003C/strong>, he besieged \u003Cstrong>Nesle\u003C/strong>; the town, taken on \u003Cstrong>12 June\u003C/strong>, was sacked, burned, and its population massacred. On \u003Cstrong>16 June\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Roye\u003C/strong> surrendered without a fight, while Charles accused the king of having had his brother assassinated and declared war on him. The Burgundian campaign at first appeared irresistible. Yet this advance broke against the kingdom’s great cities: on \u003Cstrong>27 June\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>siege of Beauvais\u003C/strong> began, and the town resisted with a vigor that became legendary, associated with the figure of \u003Cstrong>Jeanne Hachette\u003C/strong> during the assault of \u003Cstrong>22 July\u003C/strong>. After this failure, the Bold moved into \u003Cstrong>Normandy\u003C/strong> and vainly besieged \u003Cstrong>Rouen\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>30 August\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>3 September\u003C/strong>. Meanwhile, \u003Cstrong>Pierre Doriole\u003C/strong> had been appointed \u003Cstrong>Chancellor of France\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>26 June\u003C/strong>, and Louis XI, while supporting the defense of the north, led a campaign in \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong> in \u003Cstrong>July\u003C/strong>, before a truce on \u003Cstrong>15 October\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>3 November\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Truce of Compiegne\u003C/strong> suspended hostilities for five months: the war of \u003Cstrong>1472\u003C/strong> had not destroyed the monarchy, but it had shown that despite the ravages of \u003Cstrong>Nesle\u003C/strong>, the kingdom’s defensive system could break the Burgundian momentum.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/H._Grobet_-_Jeanne_Hachette_au_si%C3%A8ge_de_Beauvais_%281472%29.jpg/960px-H._Grobet_-_Jeanne_Hachette_au_si%C3%A8ge_de_Beauvais_%281472%29.jpg\" alt=\"Jeanne Hachette at the siege of Beauvais (1472)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\">\n\u003Cem>Jeanne Hachette at the siege of Beauvais (1472): E. Crete after H. Grobet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The king did not content himself with resisting militarily; he exploited the crisis to strengthen his political apparatus. On \u003Cstrong>7 and 8 August 1472\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Philippe de Commynes\u003C/strong>, chamberlain of \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, left his master to enter the service of \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong>, who made him one of his trusted men. This defection was a major success: the king gained both a privileged observer of the Burgundian court and a future architect of his diplomacy. At the same time, Louis XI continued his grip over ecclesiastical affairs. The \u003Cstrong>Concordat of Amboise\u003C/strong>, concluded from \u003Cstrong>13 August\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>31 October 1472\u003C/strong> with \u003Cstrong>Sixtus IV\u003C/strong>, recognized the pope’s share in the collation of benefices, but maintained royal consultation for the granting of bishoprics. On the southern front, the war against the great feudal lords remained intense: the lord of \u003Cstrong>Beaujeu\u003C/strong> took \u003Cstrong>Lectoure\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>John V of Armagnac\u003C/strong>, before the latter retook the town on \u003Cstrong>19 October\u003C/strong> and made Beaujeu prisoner. In \u003Cstrong>November\u003C/strong>, Louis XI then sent an army commanded by the cardinal of \u003Cstrong>Albi\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Jean Jouffroy\u003C/strong>, which besieged \u003Cstrong>Lectoure\u003C/strong> from the end of \u003Cstrong>December 1472\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>4 March 1473\u003C/strong>. Finally, on \u003Cstrong>7 December 1472\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> bought the \u003Cstrong>Duchy of Guelders\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>Arnold of Egmont\u003C/strong>, further proof that he had by no means renounced building a continuous territorial whole between the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong> and the marches of the \u003Cstrong>Empire\u003C/strong>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1473\u003C/strong> confirmed that the struggle now extended beyond the Picard frontier alone. In the south, \u003Cstrong>John II of Aragon\u003C/strong> entered \u003Cstrong>Perpignan\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>1 February\u003C/strong>, while \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> had the Duke of \u003Cstrong>Alencon\u003C/strong> arrested in \u003Cstrong>February\u003C/strong> and shut up in the castle of \u003Cstrong>Rochecorbon\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>5 March\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>John V of Armagnac\u003C/strong> was assassinated during the capture of \u003Cstrong>Lectoure\u003C/strong> by royal troops, which completed the destruction of one of the oldest turbulent houses of the Midi. On the Roussillon theater, on \u003Cstrong>15 April\u003C/strong>, the king sent an army led by \u003Cstrong>Philip of Savoy\u003C/strong> to besiege the king of Aragon in \u003Cstrong>Perpignan\u003C/strong>, without lasting success; a truce was concluded on \u003Cstrong>24 June\u003C/strong>. According to several sources, Louis XI was also struck in \u003Cstrong>May 1473\u003C/strong> by a first stroke [To be verified], an episode that nonetheless did not interrupt his political activity. In the northeast, Burgundian expansion continued: the campaign in \u003Cstrong>Guelders\u003C/strong>, begun at \u003Cstrong>Maastricht\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>10 June\u003C/strong>, led to the capitulation of \u003Cstrong>Venlo\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>21 June\u003C/strong>, then to the capture of \u003Cstrong>Nijmegen\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>19 July\u003C/strong>. The \u003Cstrong>truce\u003C/strong> was renewed at the \u003Cstrong>conference of Senlis\u003C/strong> in \u003Cstrong>July-August\u003C/strong>, but without resolving the substance of the conflict. The high point came at the \u003Cstrong>meeting of Trier\u003C/strong>, from \u003Cstrong>30 September\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>25 November 1473\u003C/strong>, between \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> and Emperor \u003Cstrong>Frederick III\u003C/strong>. The duke hoped to have his kingship recognized and to raise his state to the rank of a sovereign power; the failure of this ambition ruined his immediate grand design, even if the proposed marriage between \u003Cstrong>Mary of Burgundy\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Maximilian of Habsburg\u003C/strong> already opened the prospect of a dynastic recomposition unfavorable to France. At the same moment, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Nancy\u003C/strong> of \u003Cstrong>15 October\u003C/strong> secured garrisons for the duke in \u003Cstrong>Lorraine\u003C/strong>, while at the French court the marriage contract between \u003Cstrong>Louis of Orleans\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Jeanne of France\u003C/strong> was signed on \u003Cstrong>28 October\u003C/strong>, and the betrothal of \u003Cstrong>Pierre de Beaujeu\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Anne of France\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>3 November\u003C/strong>, preparing the succession balances of the reign.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>In \u003Cstrong>1474\u003C/strong>, Louis XI turned more clearly to a strategy of diplomatic encirclement. In \u003Cstrong>February\u003C/strong>, he granted privileges to foreign merchants established in \u003Cstrong>Bordeaux\u003C/strong>, a sign of his continuing attention to economic balances. But the essential issue was played out against \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong>. Between \u003Cstrong>29 March\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>4 April\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>League of Constance\u003C/strong> united \u003Cstrong>Sigismund of Tyrol\u003C/strong>, several cities of Alsace, and the \u003Cstrong>Swiss cantons\u003C/strong> against \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>; the king of France encouraged this convergence, which diverted Burgundian military energy eastward. Internally, however, the monarchy still faced social and princely tensions: the “detestable commotion” of \u003Cstrong>Bourges\u003C/strong>, on \u003Cstrong>23 April\u003C/strong>, was harshly repressed; on \u003Cstrong>14 May\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> reconciled himself at \u003Cstrong>Fargniers\u003C/strong> with the constable of \u003Cstrong>Saint-Pol\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>18 July\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Parliament\u003C/strong> condemned the Duke of \u003Cstrong>Alencon\u003C/strong> to death for \u003Cem>lese-majeste\u003C/em>, a sentence immediately commuted by the king to life imprisonment. At the same time, the Bold still sought English support: on \u003Cstrong>25 July 1474\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Edward IV\u003C/strong>, by a treaty concluded in \u003Cstrong>London\u003C/strong>, undertook to land in France with \u003Cstrong>ten thousand men\u003C/strong> before \u003Cstrong>1 June 1475\u003C/strong>. But Charles soon became bogged down in the \u003Cstrong>siege of Neuss\u003C/strong>, begun on \u003Cstrong>31 July 1474\u003C/strong> and prolonged until \u003Cstrong>26 June 1475\u003C/strong>. His immobilization favored the outbreak of the \u003Cstrong>Burgundian Wars\u003C/strong>: the \u003Cstrong>Swiss\u003C/strong> declared war on \u003Cstrong>25 October\u003C/strong>, the treaty with France was ratified on \u003Cstrong>26 October\u003C/strong>, and the \u003Cstrong>Battle of Hericourt\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>13 November\u003C/strong> saw the allies of the Alsatians and the Swiss inflict an important setback on the Burgundians. Finally, on \u003Cstrong>31 December 1474\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Andernach\u003C/strong> sealed an alliance between \u003Cstrong>France\u003C/strong> and the \u003Cstrong>Empire\u003C/strong> against Burgundy: the coalition policy desired by Louis XI was now fully bearing fruit.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1475\u003C/strong> crowned this strategy. On \u003Cstrong>2 January\u003C/strong>, Louis XI ratified the treaty concluded with the \u003Cstrong>Swiss cantons\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>10 March\u003C/strong>, after the capitulation of \u003Cstrong>Perpignan\u003C/strong>, he occupied \u003Cstrong>Cerdagne\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Roussillon\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>21 April\u003C/strong>, he further encouraged the establishment of German printers by exempting \u003Cstrong>Conrart Hanequis\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Pierre Scheffre\u003C/strong> from the droit d’aubaine. Above all, at the expiration of the truce, he led from \u003Cstrong>1 to 18 May\u003C/strong> a vigorous \u003Cstrong>campaign in Picardy\u003C/strong>, retaking notably \u003Cstrong>Montdidier\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Roye\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Corbie\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Doullens\u003C/strong>. When \u003Cstrong>Edward IV\u003C/strong> landed at \u003Cstrong>Calais\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>4 July\u003C/strong> with a large army, the danger of an Anglo-Burgundian coalition appeared imminent. But \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, still held back by the end of the siege of \u003Cstrong>Neuss\u003C/strong>, joined the English only belatedly on \u003Cstrong>14 July\u003C/strong>, then treated them with a mistrust that ruined their cooperation. At \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong>, in \u003Cstrong>August\u003C/strong>, he even refused to open his city to them; before \u003Cstrong>Saint-Quentin\u003C/strong>, the hostility of Constable \u003Cstrong>Saint-Pol\u003C/strong> further shook Edward IV’s confidence. Louis XI seized this opportunity with all the skill that characterized him. On \u003Cstrong>29 August 1475\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Picquigny\u003C/strong> bought the English withdrawal, ended the war begun in the fourteenth century between the two crowns, and freed \u003Cstrong>Margaret of Anjou\u003C/strong> for a ransom.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>🔍 \u003Cstrong>\u003Ca href=\"/en/zoom/p7ch1z3\">Zoom - 1475: the Treaty of Picquigny and the neutralization of England\u003C/a>\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/rencontre-edouard-iv-louis-xi-picquigny-doyle\" data-art-id=\"rencontre-edouard-iv-louis-xi-picquigny-doyle\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/A_Chronicle_of_England_-_Page_428_-_Meeting_of_Edward_IV_and_Louis_XI_at_Pecquigny.jpg/960px-A_Chronicle_of_England_-_Page_428_-_Meeting_of_Edward_IV_and_Louis_XI_at_Pecquigny.jpg\" alt=\"Meeting of Edward IV and Louis XI at Picquigny\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Meeting of Edward IV and Louis XI at Picquigny: James William Edmund Doyle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>A few weeks later, on \u003Cstrong>13 September\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Truce of Soleuvre\u003C/strong>, concluded for nine years with \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>, provisionally removed the Burgundian threat, while the peace of \u003Cstrong>Senlis\u003C/strong>, ratified in \u003Cstrong>October\u003C/strong>, stabilized relations with \u003Cstrong>Brittany\u003C/strong>. The rest of the year nevertheless confirmed that the balance remained unstable: the \u003Cstrong>Swiss\u003C/strong> again defeated Burgundy’s allies, \u003Cstrong>Rene II of Lorraine\u003C/strong> was driven from \u003Cstrong>Nancy\u003C/strong> on \u003Cstrong>29 November\u003C/strong>, and sanitary or social pressure remained high even in the kingdom’s margins, as shown by the Breton order of \u003Cstrong>5 December\u003C/strong> concerning lepers and the \u003Cem>caqueux\u003C/em>. The most spectacular event finally came on \u003Cstrong>19 December 1475\u003C/strong>, when \u003Cstrong>Louis of Luxembourg\u003C/strong>, Count of \u003Cstrong>Saint-Pol\u003C/strong> and Constable of France, was beheaded on the Place de \u003Cstrong>Greve\u003C/strong> in \u003Cstrong>Paris\u003C/strong> for treason. By striking down one of the greatest lords of the kingdom in this way, Louis XI brought a decisive sequence to completion: between \u003Cstrong>1472\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>1475\u003C/strong>, he had resisted the Burgundian invasion, isolated his principal adversary, neutralized England, and reaffirmed, through the exemplary punishment of unfaithful princes, the superiority of royal authority.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>🔍 \u003Cstrong>\u003Ca href=\"/en/zoom/p7ch1z6\">Zoom - 1468-1475: the duel with Charles the Bold\u003C/a>\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>VI. 1476-1479: the fall of the Bold, the dismantling of Burgundy, and the emergence of the Habsburg threat\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1476\u003C/strong> opened a new phase in the reign of \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong>, in which the policy of encirclement directed for several years against \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> began to produce its most spectacular effects. On \u003Cstrong>2 March 1476\u003C/strong>, the Duke of Burgundy was defeated at \u003Cstrong>Grandson\u003C/strong> by the \u003Cstrong>Swiss\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>22 June\u003C/strong>, he suffered another defeat at \u003Cstrong>Morat\u003C/strong>. Without being present on the battlefield, the king of France reaped the fruits of a patient strategy based on the duke’s diplomatic isolation, discreet support for his adversaries, and exploitation of every fracture in the Burgundian space. In \u003Cstrong>autumn 1476\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Rene II of Lorraine\u003C/strong> retook \u003Cstrong>Nancy\u003C/strong>, before Charles returned to try to restore his authority. These successive reverses did not yet destroy the Burgundian state, but they ruined the Bold’s military prestige and weakened a territorial whole already difficult to hold together, stretched from the former \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong> to the margins of \u003Cstrong>Lorraine\u003C/strong>. For \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong>, the hour was no longer merely to contain the adversary: it was approaching when one could claim to gather his inheritance.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/bataille-de-nancy-delacroix\" data-art-id=\"bataille-de-nancy-delacroix\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Delacroix-Bataille-de-Nancy_cropped.jpg/960px-Delacroix-Bataille-de-Nancy_cropped.jpg\" alt=\"Battle of Nancy (1477)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Battle of Nancy (1477): Eugène Delacroix, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>That break came at the beginning of \u003Cstrong>1477\u003C/strong>. On \u003Cstrong>5 January\u003C/strong>, at the \u003Cstrong>Battle of Nancy\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> was defeated and killed. The event overturned the political balance of western Europe. With the duke’s disappearance, the question of his succession immediately opened, and \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> acted with extreme speed. As early as \u003Cstrong>12 January 1477\u003C/strong>, royal troops entered \u003Cstrong>Dijon\u003C/strong>. The king then advanced an argument of feudal law: the \u003Cstrong>Duchy of Burgundy\u003C/strong>, held as a fief of the crown, had to revert to the royal domain for lack of a direct male heir. This recovery was not merely juridical; it was accompanied by a military and administrative offensive aimed at dismantling the structure patiently built by the dukes of Burgundy. Yet the game was not won. On \u003Cstrong>11 February 1477\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Mary of Burgundy\u003C/strong>, daughter of the Bold, had to concede the \u003Cstrong>Great Privilege\u003C/strong> to the towns and estates of her northern possessions, a sign of her political weakness. But that fragility also opened the way to a dynastic recomposition capable of thwarting French ambitions.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Map_Burgundian_Netherlands_1477-fr.svg/960px-Map_Burgundian_Netherlands_1477-fr.svg.png\" alt=\"Map of the Burgundian Low Countries in 1477\" class=\"kb-img-contain\">\n\u003Cem>Map of the Burgundian Low Countries in 1477: Denis Jacquerye, CC BY-SA 2.5 \u003Ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en\">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en\u003C/a>, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The danger became clearer in \u003Cstrong>August 1477\u003C/strong>, when \u003Cstrong>Mary of Burgundy\u003C/strong> married \u003Cstrong>Maximilian of Habsburg\u003C/strong>. This marriage profoundly changed the nature of the conflict. Until then, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> had faced a great territorial prince whom he sought to overthrow and despoil; from then on, he had to reckon with the house of \u003Cstrong>Austria\u003C/strong>, called upon to defend Mary’s rights and to transform the Burgundian inheritance into a lasting European issue. The French monarchy nonetheless continued its offensive. From the end of \u003Cstrong>July\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>7 October 1477\u003C/strong>, the French failed before \u003Cstrong>Dole\u003C/strong>, showing that the disappearance of the Bold did not bring about either the automatic collapse of \u003Cstrong>Franche-Comte\u003C/strong> or the submission of all Burgundian lands. The year \u003Cstrong>1478\u003C/strong> confirmed this shift: the struggle ceased to be a simple liquidation of a succession and became a longer war, combining dynastic rights, provincial resistance, and confrontation between the crown of France and the Burgundian-Habsburg bloc in formation.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/bataille-de-guinegatte-wolf-traut\" data-art-id=\"bataille-de-guinegatte-wolf-traut\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Die_Schlacht_von_Therouanne_-_Guinegate_1479.jpg\" alt=\"Battle of Guinegatte (1479)\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>Battle of Guinegatte (1479): Wolf Traut, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>In \u003Cstrong>1479\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> tried to regain the advantage by force of arms. In \u003Cstrong>April-May\u003C/strong>, the French seized \u003Cstrong>Dole\u003C/strong>; in \u003Cstrong>June\u003C/strong>, the siege of \u003Cstrong>Vesoul\u003C/strong> ended in a royal success. These operations showed that the monarchy retained a real offensive capacity in \u003Cstrong>Franche-Comte\u003C/strong> and that it intended to draw the fullest benefit possible from the Burgundian crisis. But French progress soon encountered a decisive limit. On \u003Cstrong>7 August 1479\u003C/strong>, at the \u003Cstrong>Battle of Guinegatte\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Maximilian of Habsburg\u003C/strong> won an important success. This victory did not entirely overturn Louis XI’s gains, but it prevented any rapid triumph and signaled that a new first-rank adversary had imposed himself on the northeastern frontier. In just a few years, the king had thus moved from a personal confrontation with \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> to a broader problem, destined for a long European duration. Between \u003Cstrong>1476\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>1479\u003C/strong>, the French monarchy had helped to bring down the Burgundian state as it had existed under the Valois dukes, but at the same time it had seen the birth of the power that would soon dominate the continent’s dynastic competition: that of the \u003Cstrong>Habsburgs\u003C/strong>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>🔍 \u003Cstrong>\u003Ca href=\"/en/zoom/p7ch1z6\">Zoom - 1468-1475: the duel with Charles the Bold\u003C/a>\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>VII. 1480-1483: final reforms, the Angevin inheritance, and the close of the reign\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>From \u003Cstrong>1480\u003C/strong> onward, the reign of \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> entered its final phase, in which the effort of internal consolidation became inseparable from preparation for the succession. On \u003Cstrong>10 July 1480\u003C/strong>, the death of King \u003Cstrong>Rene of Anjou\u003C/strong> allowed \u003Cstrong>Charles V of Anjou\u003C/strong> to inherit \u003Cstrong>Anjou\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Provence\u003C/strong>, a transitional stage that already prepared the future attachment of this whole to the royal domain. A month later, on \u003Cstrong>10 August\u003C/strong>, Louis XI transferred the \u003Cstrong>Parliament of Burgundy\u003C/strong> from \u003Cstrong>Beaune\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>Dijon\u003C/strong>, giving a more stable institutional framework to a province recently recovered and still marked by the aftershocks of the Burgundian crisis. On \u003Cstrong>11 October 1480\u003C/strong>, he abolished the \u003Cstrong>franc-archers\u003C/strong>, judged insufficiently effective, and replaced them with a more permanent infantry. This reform, which accompanied a broader evolution in military practices, shows that at the close of his reign the king abandoned neither organizational questions nor the ambition of a more regular monarchical apparatus.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1481\u003C/strong>, however, revealed a power now weakened by the sovereign’s state of health. In \u003Cstrong>March\u003C/strong>, Louis XI suffered a stroke, a sign of physical decline that did not prevent him from continuing to govern. In the \u003Cstrong>month of June\u003C/strong>, he had the camp of \u003Cstrong>Pont-de-l’Arche\u003C/strong> created to train the \u003Cstrong>bands of Picardy\u003C/strong> on the Swiss model, proof that military reflection continued despite illness. On \u003Cstrong>27 July\u003C/strong>, he renounced the monopoly established in favor of French galleys and restored freedom of trade, while the \u003Cstrong>dearth\u003C/strong> of the summer forced him to intervene against famine. These decisions recall that the end of the reign cannot be reduced to waiting for the king’s death: it remained a time of administrative, military, and economic adjustments, in which the monarchy continued to exercise direct action upon the kingdom.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The major territorial turning point came on \u003Cstrong>11 December 1481\u003C/strong>. At the death of \u003Cstrong>Charles V of Anjou\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Anjou\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Maine\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Provence\u003C/strong> entered the royal domain; \u003Cstrong>Marseille\u003C/strong> was attached to the kingdom, and Louis XI also inherited the Angevin rights over \u003Cstrong>Naples\u003C/strong>. This enlargement was considerable. It completed the crown’s southern extension, strengthened the kingdom’s Mediterranean footing, and transmitted to the French monarchy an Italian question destined to take on growing importance under the following reigns. Louis XI’s policy was therefore not merely a policy of defense or recovery against the great feudal lords: it concretely enlarged the space subject to royal authority and prepared the new horizons of the French monarchy at the end of the fifteenth century.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca class=\"kb-art-link\" href=\"/en/art/depart-marie-de-bourgogne-chasse-aux-faucons-tilmont\" data-art-id=\"depart-marie-de-bourgogne-chasse-aux-faucons-tilmont\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Charles_Tilmont_-_Le_depart_de_Marie_de_Bourgogne_pour_la_chasse_aux_faucons%2C_1839.jpg/960px-Charles_Tilmont_-_Le_depart_de_Marie_de_Bourgogne_pour_la_chasse_aux_faucons%2C_1839.jpg\" alt=\"The Departure of Mary of Burgundy for the falcon hunt\" class=\"kb-img-contain\" >\u003Cspan class=\"kb-art-badge\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003Ci class=\"pi pi-image\">\u003C/i>\u003C/span>\u003C/a>\n\u003Cem>The Departure of Mary of Burgundy for the falcon hunt: Charles Tilmont, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The year \u003Cstrong>1482\u003C/strong> at the same time brought a provisional settlement of the Burgundian question. On \u003Cstrong>27 March\u003C/strong>, the death of \u003Cstrong>Mary of Burgundy\u003C/strong>, following a fall from a horse, left the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>Philip the Fair\u003C/strong> under the regency of \u003Cstrong>Maximilian of Austria\u003C/strong>. This disappearance altered the balance of the conflict opened by the death of \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong>. Louis XI took advantage of it to seek a favorable compromise, while preparing the transfer of power to his son. On \u003Cstrong>21 September 1482\u003C/strong>, he had political instructions read to the dauphin \u003Cstrong>Charles\u003C/strong> that organized his education in government and expressed an explicit will to control the succession. Finally, on \u003Cstrong>23 December 1482\u003C/strong>, the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Arras\u003C/strong> restored to France the \u003Cstrong>Duchy of Burgundy\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Picardy\u003C/strong>, while \u003Cstrong>Maximilian\u003C/strong> retained \u003Cstrong>Franche-Comte\u003C/strong> and the \u003Cstrong>Low Countries\u003C/strong>. The marriage project between the dauphin Charles and \u003Cstrong>Margaret of Austria\u003C/strong> inscribed this compromise within a dynastic logic. Without definitively eliminating the Franco-Habsburg rivalry, the agreement allowed the king to close his reign with a substantial restoration of the French position.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>In \u003Cstrong>1483\u003C/strong>, the last months of the reign still combined acts of administration with organization of the future. In \u003Cstrong>March\u003C/strong>, Louis XI restored the \u003Cstrong>Saint-Germain-des-Pres fair\u003C/strong>; on \u003Cstrong>23 June\u003C/strong>, the betrothal of the dauphin \u003Cstrong>Charles\u003C/strong> to \u003Cstrong>Margaret of Austria\u003C/strong> extended the Arras agreements onto the matrimonial plane. But the decisive question was no longer that of a new conquest: it was that of transmission. On \u003Cstrong>30 August 1483\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> died at \u003Cstrong>Plessis-les-Tours\u003C/strong>. On that same day, the reign of \u003Cstrong>Charles VIII\u003C/strong> began, the new king still an adolescent, under the political guidance of \u003Cstrong>Anne de Beaujeu\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>Pierre de Beaujeu\u003C/strong>. Thus ended a reign of twenty-two years that profoundly transformed the French monarchy. Between \u003Cstrong>1461\u003C/strong> and \u003Cstrong>1483\u003C/strong>, Louis XI had contained the great princes, weakened and then dismantled Burgundian power, enlarged the royal domain, strengthened the instruments of government, and prepared, amid difficulties, dynastic continuity. His death did not close all the conflicts he had bequeathed; yet it left his successors a state broader, stronger, and more centralized than it had been at the time of his accession.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>🧠 Key Takeaways\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1461-1465\u003C/strong>: \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> very early imposed a personal government, pushed aside part of the great lords, and in return provoked the crisis of the \u003Cstrong>League of the Public Weal\u003C/strong>.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1465-1468\u003C/strong>: despite humiliating treaties and the ordeal of \u003Cstrong>Peronne\u003C/strong>, the king retained the political initiative and methodically prepared his revenge.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1469-1475\u003C/strong>: the conflict with \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> became the center of the reign; \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> combined war, economic pressure, alliances, and diplomacy to isolate \u003Cstrong>Burgundy\u003C/strong>.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1475\u003C/strong>: the \u003Cstrong>Treaty of Picquigny\u003C/strong> neutralized \u003Cstrong>England\u003C/strong> and marked one of the great diplomatic successes of the reign.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1476-1479\u003C/strong>: the fall of \u003Cstrong>Charles the Bold\u003C/strong> allowed the crown to recover part of the Burgundian inheritance, but at the same time gave rise to the lasting threat of the \u003Cstrong>Habsburgs\u003C/strong>.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Throughout the reign\u003C/strong>: the monarchy strengthened its instruments of government, brought the nobility more tightly under control, supported certain economic centers, and exercised a more continuous authority over the kingdom.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1481-1483\u003C/strong>: the attachment of \u003Cstrong>Anjou\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Maine\u003C/strong>, and \u003Cstrong>Provence\u003C/strong> greatly enlarged the royal domain and opened new Mediterranean and Italian horizons.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>1483\u003C/strong>: at his death, \u003Cstrong>Louis XI\u003C/strong> left \u003Cstrong>Charles VIII\u003C/strong> a monarchy more centralized, more extensive, and politically stronger than it had been at his accession.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n",[31,34,37,40,43,46,49],{"id":32,"title":33},"p7ch1z1","1423–1461 : jeunesse et conflit avec Charles VII",{"id":35,"title":36},"p7ch1z2","1465 : la guerre du Bien public",{"id":38,"title":39},"p7ch1z3","1475 : traité de Picquigny et neutralisation de l'Angleterre",{"id":41,"title":42},"p7ch1z4","1477 : mort de Charles le Téméraire et annexion de la Bourgogne",{"id":44,"title":45},"p7ch1z5","1480–1483 : dernières années et succession",{"id":47,"title":48},"p7ch1z6","1468–1475 : le duel avec Charles le Téméraire",{"id":50,"title":51},"p7ch1z7","1477–1483 : modernisation du royaume et dernières années",true,false,"1461 à 1483","The accession of Louis XI , in 1461 , opened a decisive phase in the history of the French monarchy. Son of Charles VII , from whom he inherited a kingdom","/assets/covers/cover-p7ch1.png",{"period":58,"chapters":65},{"id":5,"title":6,"titleEn":6,"titleEs":7,"range":8,"rangeEn":8,"rangeEs":8,"covers":59,"coverArtworkId":22,"cover":64},[60,61,62,63],{"filename":11,"url":12},{"filename":14,"url":15},{"filename":17,"url":18},{"filename":20,"url":21},{"fileName":20,"imageUrl":21,"filePageUrl":24,"sourceLabel":25},[66,68,74,79,84,89,94,99,104],{"id":27,"title":28,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":56,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":52,"isFallback":53,"teaser":67,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":54,"realm":22,"ready":52},"The accession of Louis XI , in 1461 , opened a decisive phase in the history of the French monarchy. Son of Charles VII , from whom he inherited a kingdom alrea",{"id":69,"title":70,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":71,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":72,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":73,"realm":22,"ready":52},"p7ch2","Charles VIII : l'aventure italienne et la fin de la dynastie directe (1483–1498)","/assets/covers/cover-p7ch2.png","Le règne de Charles VIII s’ouvrit dans des conditions paradoxales. À la mort de Louis XI , le 30 août 1483 , la couronne passait à un souverain encore mineur, m","1483 à 1498",{"id":75,"title":76,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":77,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":78,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch3","Louis XII : le Père du peuple et les guerres d'Italie (1498–1515)","Louis XII, dit « le Père du peuple », est roi de France de 1498 à 1515 . Né le 27 juin 1462 au château de Blois, il meurt le 1er janvier 1515 à l’hôtel des Tour","1498 à 1515",{"id":80,"title":81,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":82,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":83,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch4","François Ier : le roi chevalier et la Renaissance française (1515–1547)","François Ier, né le 12 septembre 1494 à Cognac et mort le 31 mars 1547 au château de Rambouillet, est roi de France de 1515 à 1547 . Fils de Charles d’Angoulême","1515 à 1547",{"id":85,"title":86,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":87,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":88,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch5","Henri II : le roi chevaleresque et les guerres de Religion (1547-1559)","Henri II, né le 31 mars 1519 à Saint-Germain-en-Laye et mort le 10 juillet 1559 à Paris, est roi de France de 1547 à 1559. Fils de François Ier et de Claude de ","1547 à 1559",{"id":90,"title":91,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":92,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":93,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch6","François II : le roi éphémère et les débuts des guerres de Religion (1559-1560)","François II, né le 19 janvier 1544 à Fontainebleau et mort le 5 décembre 1560 à Orléans, est roi de France de 1559 à 1560. Fils aîné d’Henri II et de Catherine ","1559 à 1560",{"id":95,"title":96,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":97,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":98,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch7","Charles IX : la régence de Catherine de Médicis et les premières guerres de Religion (1560-1574)","Charles IX, né le 27 juin 1550 au château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye et mort le 30 mai 1574 au château de Vincennes, est roi de France de 1560 à 1574. Fils d’Henr","1560 à 1574",{"id":100,"title":101,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":102,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":103,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch8","Henri III : la crise finale des Valois et les guerres de la Ligue (1574-1589)","Henri III, né le 19 septembre 1551 à Fontainebleau et mort assassiné le 2 août 1589 à Saint-Cloud, est roi de France de 1574 à 1589. Dernier roi de la dynastie ","1574 à 1589",{"id":105,"title":106,"periodId":5,"thumbnailUrl":22,"thumbnailArtworkId":22,"hasEn":53,"isFallback":52,"teaser":107,"coverFit":22,"coverPosition":22,"chronicle":108,"realm":22,"ready":53},"p7ch9","Henri IV, roi de France et de Navarre : la pacification du royaume et l'édit de Nantes (1589-1610)","Henri IV, né le 13 décembre 1553 à Pau et mort assassiné le 14 mai 1610 à Paris, est roi de Navarre (1572-1610) puis roi de France (1589-1610). Premier roi de l","1589 à 1610",1783809853321]