CHARLES THE BOLD. — Duke of Burgundy, b. at Dijon on 10 Nov. 1433, d. in battle against the Duke of Lorraine beneath the walls of Nancy on 5 Jan. 1477. He succeeded his father Philip the Good in 1467. He opposed Louis XI in every way, supporting the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses against the Lancastrians, who were backed by the King of France; he allied himself with John II of Aragon and successfully resisted French influence in Italy. At the Diet of Trier (1473) he expressed to Emperor Frederick III his intention of assuming the title of King of Burgundy and Frisia. In 1476 he found himself at war with the Swiss, but was defeated at Grandson and Murten; on 6 May of the same year he celebrated the betrothal of his daughter Mary to Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, son of the Emperor. A contemporary (Olivier de la Marche) relates that Charles allegedly confided to him that the ultimate aim of his policy was war against the infidels; in fact, however, Charles paid no heed to the appeal for a Crusade launched by Sixtus IV in 1472.
CARLO IL TEMERARIO
Bibl.: J. F. Kirk, *History of Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy*, London 1864 (French trans., Paris 1866); J. Huizinga, *Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen*, Haarlem 1919 (Italian trans., Florence 1949); id., *Burgund. Eine Krise des romanisch-germanischen Verhältnisses*, in *Historische Zeitschrift*, 148 (1933), pp. 2-29; M. Brion, *Charles le Téméraire*, Paris 1947. Silvio Furlani