Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/589

 LOUIS XL] FRANCE 553 -77. of the crown to alienate Normandy, the step insisted on by the duke of Burgundy. Their reply was to the effect that the nation forbids the crown to dismember the realm; they supported their opinion by liberal promises of help. Thus fortified by the sympathy of his people, Louis began to break up the coalition. He made terms with the duke of Bourbon and the house of Anjou; his brother Charles was a cipher; the king of England was paralysed by the antagonism of Warwick; he attacked and reduced Brittany; Burgundy, the most formidable, alone remained to be dealb with. How should he meet him? by war or by negotia tion? His court was divided in opinion; the king decided for himself in favour of the way of negotiation, and came to the astonishing conclusion that he would go and meet the duke and win him over to friendship. He miscalculated both his own powers of persuasion and the force of his antagonist s temper. The interview of Peronne followed; Charles held his visitor as a captive, and in the end com pelled him to sign a treaty of peace, on the basis of that of Conflans, which had closed the War of the Public Weal. And as if this were not sufficient humiliation, Charles made the king accompany him on his expedition to punish the men of Liege, who, trusting to the help of Louis, had again revolted (1469). This done, he allowed the degraded monarch to return home to Paris. An assembly of notables at Tours speedily declared the treaty of Peronue null, and the king made some small frontier war on the duke, which was ended by a truce at Amiens in 1471. The truce was spent in preparation for a fresh struggle, which Louis, to whom time was everything, succeeded in deferring from point to point, till the death of his brother Charles, now duke of Guienne, in 1472 broke up the formidable combina tion. Charles the Bold at once broke truce and made war on the king, marching into northern France, sacking towns and ravaging the country, till he reached Beauvais. There the despair of the citizens and the bravery of the women saved the town. Charles raised the siege and marched on Bouen, hoping to meet the duke of Brittany; but that prince had his hands full, for Louis had overrun his terri tories, and had reduced him to terms. The duke of Bur gundy saw that the coalition had completely failed; he too made fresh truce with Louis at Senlis (1472), and only deferred, he no doubt thought, the direct attack on his dangerous rival. Henceforth Charles the Bold turned his attention mainly to the east, and Louis gladly saw him go forth to spend his strength on distant ventures; saw the interview at Treves with the emperor Frederick III., at which the duke s plans were foiled by the suspicions of the Germans and the king s intrigues; saw the long siege of Neusz wearing out his power; bought off the hostility of Edward IV. of England, who had undertaken to march on Paris; saw Charles embark on his Swiss enterprise; saw the subjugation of Lorraine and capture of Nanci (1475), the battle of Granson, the still more fatal defeat of Morat (1476), and lastly the final struggle of Nanci, and the duke s death on the field (January 1477). While Duke Charles had thus been running on his fate, Louis XI. had actively attacked the larger nobles of France, and had either reduced them to submission or had destroyed them. By the time of the fall of the house of Burgundy scarcely one great prince was left who could be formidable; even the power of the duke of Brittany was much strait ened. The king had, therefore, free hand to make the best profit he could out of the disasters of his Burgundian rival, and the weakness of his heiress, the young Duchess Mary. As Duke Charles had left no male heir, the king at once re sumed the duchy of Burgundy, as a male fief of the king dom ; lie also took possession of Tranche Comic* at the same time ; the king s armies recovered all Picardy, aud even entered Flanders. Then Mary of Burgundy, hoping to raise up a barrier against this dangerous neighbour, 1477-83. offered her hand with all her great territories to young Maximilian of Austria, and married him within six months after her father s death. To this wedding is due the rise to real greatness of the house of Austria; it begins the era of the larger politics of modern times. After a little hesitation Louis determined to continue the struggle against the Burgundian power. He secured Franche Comtc, and on his northern frontier retook Arras, that troublesome border city, the &quot;bonny Carlisle&quot; of those days ; and advancing to relieve Therouenne, then besieged by Maximilian, fought and lost the battle of Guinegate (1479). The war was languid after this; a truce followed in 1480, and a time of quiet for France. The misconduct of the French cavalry, which had lost the battle of Guinegate, was followed by the abolition of the free-archer army ; the cities were ordered to provide money in place of men, and the age of mercenary foreign armies began. In 1480 also, on the death of the old poet-king Rene, the two important districts of Anjou and Provence fell in to the crown, Margaret of Anjou, Ilene s daughter and heiress, having ceded them to Louis in return for help ; and in the end of 1482 the third peace of Arras closed awhile the rivalry between France and Burgundy. Charles the dauphin was engaged to marry the little Margaret, Maxi milian s daughter, and as her dower she was to bring Franche Comte and sundry places on the border line disputed between the two princes. In these last days Louis XL shut himself up in gloomy seclusion in his castle of Plessis near Tours, and there he died in 1483. A great Char- king and a terrible, he has left an indelible mark on theacterand history of France, for he was the founder of France in its aim ? of later form, as an absolute monarchy ruled with little regard to its own true welfare. He had crushed the older feu dalism, and substituted autocracy for anarchy ; in all ways he did what he could to centralize the administration ; he imposed heavy taxes, and enabled his people to bear them ; he employed men of middle condition, and cared for commerce and industry ; he treated his towns fairly well, travelled much up and down the realm, acted judiciously in retaining the local estates and parliaments. To his rule is due the rise of that official spirit, which marks the practical progress of the life of France ; there is no lack of intelligence and vigour in his numerous ordinances, which show that his despotism was not unen lightened or selfish. Though not himself a man of learn ing, he favoured the universities, and set up a printing press in the Sorbonne. We may believe that Louis was perfectly sincere when on his deathbed lie longed for a few more years to have set the state in order. He had crushed all resistance ; he had enlarged the borders of France, till the kingdom took nearly its modern dimensions ; he had organized its army and administration. The danger was lest in the bands of a feeble boy these great results should be squandered away, aud the old anarchy once more raise its head. For Charles VIII., who now succeeded, was but thirteen Cliarles years old, a weak boy whom his father had entirely VIII. neglected, the training of his son not appearing to be an essential part of his work in life. The young prince had amused himself with romances, but had learnt nothing useful. A head, however, was found for him in the person of his elder sister Anne, whom Louis XL had married to Anne of Peter II., lord of Beaujeu and duke of Bourbon. To her France as the dying king entrusted the guardianship of his son ; and re for more than nine years Anne of France was virtual king. For those years all went well. Her prudence and high intelligence overcame her brother s ill-will, and defeated the plots of the nobles, and, almost in spite of Charles, won for him a complete triumph over feudalism. She was, in IX. 70