Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/233

 THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 221 Franche Comte. On the other hand Flanders and the Low Countries remained to the Duke of Burgundy, and passed to his heiress Mary, who married Maximilian, the son of the Emperor Frederick ill, Charles the Bold was the last duke in direct succession from Philip, son of King John of France, who had been made Duke of Burgundy shortly after the battle of Poictiers. Cnarles the His father, Philip the Good, had consolidated his Bold of dominion, which included the rich trading cities Bur £ und y- of the Low Countries, the Holland and Belgium of our own day. The court of the Duke of Burgundy was wealthier and more splendid than any royal court in Europe. It was the object of Charles to acquire Lorraine, so as to unite the Low Countries with the duchy and county of Burgundy, to get possession of Switzerland and Provence, and to have himself recognised as an independent king. These large designs roused opponents against him on all sides, and it was by stirring up these opponents that Louis of France successfully brought him to ruin. The blows which finally overthrew him were delivered by the Swiss at the battles of Granson, Morat, and Nancy, at the last of which he was killed. By his daughter's marriage the Low Countries and Franche Comte became attached to the house of Hapsburg. Switzerland, at this point, becomes prominent, but Switzer- land did not actually form a state. It consisted of a group of districts within the German Empire, which had 2. Switzer- formed a league for their own protection. At land. the end of the thirteenth century, three of these districts or cantons had first formed a league against the Duke of Austria, whose attempts to crush them were defeated at the battle of Morgarten. More cantons joined the league ; the neighbouring German nobles combined to crush them, and were overthrown at the famous battle of Sempach in 1386. These great victories, ending with that at Nancy, of the mountaineers over the finest feudal forces in Europe, gave the Swiss a tremendous reputation, and made them exceedingly valuable allies from the military point of view.