Product Description

Charles the Bold (1467-1477) was the last of the great Dukes of Burgundy. This historical and biographical work assesses his personality and his role as a ruler, and discusses his relationship with his subjects and his neighbours. It describes and analyses his policies, giving particular attention to his imperial plans and projects and his clash with the Swiss. The armies, the court and Burgundian clients and partisans are given separate treatment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #441960 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 507 pages

Review
This reissue of Vaughan's seminal series is welcome indeed. Nothing ofthis scale has been written before or since...on the Burgundianstate.... Erudite but highly readable.... An attractive and timelyrepackaging of an unrivalled classic of Burgundian studies. MEDIUM AEVUM

Customer Reviews

A fine series of the great Dukes of Burgundy - part four: the glory lost - Charles the Bold
This is part 4 of the reissue in a condensed manner of Richard Vaughan's seminal 1962-73 Dukes of Burgundy the most complete study of the Valois Duchy of Burgundy.


Charles the Bold or better Charles the Rash (French: Charles le Téméraire)- 1433 - 1477- was the fourth and more or less last independent Duke of Burgundy from 1467 to 1477, but was effective ruler of Burgundy since 1465 when his father Philip relinquished the government to him.


He inherited Burgundy at its height of prosperity and magnificence. He was indeed "the Grand Duke of the West". However, not being content to be the greatest magnate of all and not sovereign himself he conceived the project of forming a kingdom of Burgundy or Arles with himself as independent sovereign. So he had bent all his efforts towards the development of his military and political power to reach this goal. He came very, very close, but it all ended in the battle of Nancy on Jaunary 5th, 1477.

After his death, his domains began an inevitable slide towards division between France and the Habsburgs. His only daughter and heiress Mary of married Maximilian of Austria, later to be Holy Roman Emperor. Her grandchild was Charles V and with him the domains passed to the Spanish Habsburgs.

Charles the Bold has often been regarded as the last representative of the feudal spirit--a man who possessed no other quality than a blind bravery. He cannot however be said to have embodied chivalric notions, as did his father, for even by the standards of the time, he displayed wanton cruelty. In view of Charles' irrational behaviour in the last year or so of his life, it has even been suggested that he became mentally unstable.

This is a great study of a powerful prince who had it all but could not be content. A cruel person, egocentric in the extreme, a "golden child" who was his worse enemy. One does not feel pity about his end, but sadness. Maybe someone should have told him: Count your blessings!!

All in all, the whole series is a magnificient study of the 4 Great Dukes of the West.

Very thorough, but good
Like the other books in this series, this is not meant to be 'popular history'. This book deals in great detail with all aspects of Charles the Bold's reign, the witer often apologising that he cannot enter into a given matter in even greater detail. Nevertheless it is a quite readable book, because Charles the Bold is vividly brought to life as a colourful person and his policies and many wars come to life as a logical consequence of his personality, his ambitions and his fears. It also helps that the 15th-century writers of the oft-quoted source material come across as lively and informative writers (or that the translator has made an excellent job of making them come across as such). I deduct one star for the complete lack of illustrations and because the small and amateurish maps do little or nothing to elucidate the narrative. But all in all an interesting read for the seriously interested.

Charles the Bold
I have read many books in my long life and "Charles the Bold" is one of the dullest of all! First of all the title should be "The Reign of Charles the Bold" as it opens with the death of his father and we are not given a clue as to the first 34 years of his life- and we are given almost nothing on his family life once his reign begins. I did finish the book by speed reading as I am very interested in the life of Charles the Bold. The few times the author gets into a narrative flow on the life of Charles, he distracts us by writing ad nauseum about, for example, the armies of Charles. We are left time and time again not being able to see the forest for the trees. The author quotes time and time again from documents of the era- many of these are of little interest. The author seems to be showing off his knowledge of the documents of the time. There are no illustrations except for the book cover. The current exhibition at the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna on Charles the Bold show how many there could have been. The maps that we are given are puerile and simply a joke. The book ends the day Charles the Bold died at the Battle of Nancy. If ever a book called for an epilogue it was this one. After all his descendants ruled in Flanders until the days of Napoleon. Potential buyers of this book, you have been forewarned.