Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/109

 v.] THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 85 maining ally was Savoy, through its duchess, the sister of Lewis, who was regent for her young son Philrbert. The war never reached the Confederate territory, but began within the Savoyard dominions, which then, it must be remembered, stretched far to the north of the Lake of Geneva. The castle of Gransott on the Lake of Neuf- chatel was held by a Confederate garrison ; it was surprised by James of Savoy, uncle of the young duke, and the whole garrison of eight hundred men, on being brought before Charles, were hanged in hopes of striking fear into their countrymen. It did but enrage the whole body of the Confederates, and in the battle of Granson which followed in March 1476, the splendid chivalry of Burgundy and the Low Countries was utterly broken and routed. In the following year Charles suffered another defeat from the Confederates at Morat or Miirten. He there in his rage imprisoned the Duchess of Savoy, lest she should go over to France. But she and her son were so ill guarded that they were easily carried off to France, on which Savoy joined his enemies. Duke Rene was now received in his own capital at Nancy, and Charles a third time raised an army to besiege the city. Rene left Nancy to defend itself, while he sought reinforcements among the Confede- rates and elsewhere in Germany ; and returning with them early in the morning of the 6th of January, 1477, he made an attack on the camp, broke up and dispersed the whole of the Burgundian army, and entered Nancy in triumph. For three days no one knew what had become of Charles the Bold, till at last a corpse was found lying in a pool of half-frozen water, stripped, and only identified by its old scars. So piteous was the fate of the mighty Duke, that when young Rene, the man he had most unjustly injured, beheld the body, he said, with tears in his eyes, " Fair cousin, God receive thy soul ; thou hast done us many wrongs and griefs." The shattered helmet was sent to Lewis at his castle of Plessis les Toicrs. He at once claimed all that Charles held of the French crown as re- turning to the crown for the lack of male heirs. He knew indeed that he could only make good his claim to a part but he hoped to frighten the helpless girl, Mary of Bur- gundy, into a marriage with his infant son Charles. 45. Mary of Burgundy, 1477. — Lewis now seized on both the duchy and the county of Burgundy. To the county, as a fief of the empire, he had no claim whatever. The duchy he claimed on the plea that it had been granted to the first