A. C. 1476. arrived juft as they were going to embark, and

Charles
duke of
Burgundy
is routed

gave fuch directions to the people who attended him, that while he amused the ambassadors, the earl of Richmond, and his uncle Pembroke, found means to escape, and take fanctuary in a church, from whence Landais would not fuffer them to be taken. The ambaffadors loudly complained of this artifice; and he made fome frivolous apologies, which they would by no means admit: then he frankly told them, that the duke his master having reflected on the fubject, thought he could not deliver up his guests without trefpaffing against the laws of honour and hofpitality; but, he affured them the two earls fhould be guarded in fuch a manner as would effectually prevent them from interrupting the peace of England.

Immediately after the duke of Burgundy had figned the truce with Lewis, he marched against the duke of Lorrain, and fubdued his whole country, and flain at without having met with any confiderable refiftance:

Nanci in

Lorrain.

then he proposed a scheme for humbling the Swifs, who had declared against him while he was employed in the siege of Nuys; and the pretext he ufed for denouncing war against them, was, the injury they had done to Jaques de Savoy, count de Romont, whom they had expelled from his territories. The Swifs, terrified at the impending ftorm, folicited peace with great fubmiffion but he remained inexorable; and marching from Lorrain through Burgundy, entered the country of Vaux, in which he took three or four places without difficulty. Then he invefted Granfon, which was garrifoned by eight hundred Swifs, who made a very gallant defence. At length they were obliged to fubmit, and the duke ordered them to be put to the fword,, in contempt of the capitulation. Hearing that another body was on the march to their relief, he advanced against them with his whole

army,

army, and detached an hundred archers on horfe- A. C. 1476 back, to take poffeffion of a defile in the mountains, through which the Swifs were obliged to pafs, in their route to the open country. Thefe archers, being encountered by the enemy, retreated with precipitation towards the army, which, on the fuppofition of their being pursued by the Swifs, was feized with fuch a pannic that it fled in the utmost confufion, in spite of all the efforts of the duke; who though he loft but seven men at arms on this occafion, was obliged to leave all his baggage in the hands of the enemy. Yet far from being difcouraged by this accident, he re-affembled his troops; and in fifteen days invested Morat, a small town in the neighbourhood of Berne. Mean while the Swiss, having received reinforcements from feveral princes, began their march to the number of thirty thoufand men; and, giving the duke battle, he was entirely defeated with great flaughter. He was fo shocked at this overthrow, that he fell fick of grief and mortification, and kept himself concealed in a village called La Riviere, for fix weeks, during which, he refused all confolation: and now divers princes, who had been formerly his friends, renounced his alliance, and joined his enemies. The duke of Lorrain feized this opportunity of investing Nanci, and gained the place by compofition, before the duke of Burgundy took any ftep towards its relief; but after it had furrendered, that prince approached with his army, and, the enemy retiring, he undertook the fiege, which was the cause of his ruin. The duke of Lorrain, having received reinforcements from different quarters, and affembled a ftrong army, by means of a confiderable fum of money, with which he was furnished by the French king, advanced towards Nanci, and encamped at St. Nicholas, in order to fee the effect of a correfpondence which he maintained with a Neapolitan officer,

K 3

A. C. 1477. officer, called Campo Baffo, who enjoyed the confidence of the duke of Burgundy. The town was already reduced to extremity, when that prince drew up his army in order of battle; and then Campo Baffo deferted to the enemy with two hundred men at arms, leaving fourteen accomplices, whom he had inftructed to infect the Burgundians with a pannic; and to flay the duke during the engagement, fhould they find an opportunity. The battle was fought on the fifth day of January, when the duke of Burgundy was routed and flain, in the fortyfixth year of his age, after having reigned nine years and a half, in continual agitation, endeavouring to execute plans which were projected by the moft extravagant and prefumptuous ambition.

Comines.

His daugh-
ter Mary
is married

duke Maxi

milian,

The death of this imperious prince produced great changes not only in the affairs of the Low to the arch Countries, but even in those of all the neighbouring princes. He left but one daughter, called Mary, heiress of his entenfive dominions, whom he intended to match with Maximilian of Auftria, fon of Frederic emperor of Germany. The princess, who was nineteen years of age, fucceeded to her father at a time when her family was deferted by all its antient friends; fo that fhe was expofed in a peculiar manner to the avarice of Lewis XI. who forthwith feized Burgundy, and the towns fituated upon the Somme; and formed a fcheme for depriving her of all the reft of her dominions. In this diftrefs the implored the affiftance of England, whose interest it was to oppofe the projects of the French king; but that prince had corrupted the whole council of Edward, who could afford nothing in behalf of Mary but unavailing compliments; and what completed the misfortune of this orphan princefs, was the rebellion of the inhabitants of Ghent, who feized and confined her perfon, beheaded two of her counfellors, and forced upon her

a new

Seve- A. C: 1477.

Mezerai,

a new council compofed of their creatures.
ral princes, allured by this noble inheritance, re-
folved to demand Mary in marriage. The dauphin
of France hankered after this match; but Lewis
had already entered into engagements with Edward,
whom he did not choose to disoblige at such a junc-
ture. The duke of Guelderland and divers Ger-
man princes afpired at this alliance; and in the
month of May the emperor fent ambaffadors to
Ghent, to renew the negotiation for a match be-
tween the princefs and his fon Maximilian. The
dutchefs dowager defired her brother the king of
England, to fend envoys to Flanders, to affift her in
negotiating this affair, and so far he complied with
her requeft; but he could not be perfuaded to affift
Mary against the French king, who still continued
extending his conqueft at her expence; on the con-
trary, Edward prolonged the truce of Amiens,
from the term of seven years till one year after the
death of either party, acting diametrically oppofite
to the intereft of England, in conniving at the ruin
of the house of Burgundy, to aggrandize the power
of Lewis. But by this time Edward was grown Rymer.
corpulent, and unfit for carrying on a war in per-
fon he was diffuaded from engaging in behalf of
Mary by his counsellors, who were penfioners of
France; and he was extremely unwilling to take
any step which might obftruct the marriage between
the dauphin and his daughter Elizabeth; befides,
Lewis was very punctual in the payment of the
fifty thousand crowns; a gratuity which he was very
loth to forego. Mary of Burgundy, being thus
abandoned by all those from whom she had reason
to expect effectual affiftance, confented to wed Maxi-
milian, though fhe knew he was in no condition to
defend her territories. The marriage was celebrated
in July; and Lewis, in token of his regard for the
emperor, not only granted a truce of one year to the
K 4

:

new

i

A. C. 1477, new duke of Burgundy, but also restored some places Mezerai. which he had reduced in Hainault.

Edward be. Edward, now being at peace with all his neighcomes indo- bours, and his kingdom enjoying the most profound avaritious. tranquillity, applied himfelf to the adminiftration of

lent and

between the

rence and

juftice, and made a circuit through his dominions to clear the roads of robbers, by which they had been grievously infefted fince he disbanded his army. He exerted himself on this occafion with equal vigilance and impartiality, punishing the offenders without refpect of perfons, and even facrificing his own fervants to the good of the public, when they were convicted of delinquency. This expedition was neceffary to hush the clamours of the people, who had begun to complain loudly of the expence to which they were exposed by the last fruitlefs armament: and Edward was fo alarmed at their murmurs, that he would not venture to ask further fupplies from his parliament. He therefore had recourse to other methods for filling his exhausted exchequer he engaged in commerce, which he carried on to a great extent, as a private adventurer; he fold the profits of vacant prelacies; exacted fines for the reftitution of temporalities: he searched into offices of record to find out defective titles to lands, and compelled the proprietors by irregular profecutions to pay large fums for their confirmation. He likewile laid frequent impofitions on the clergy, and became totally infected with the vice of avarice: though yet still part of his time was expended in the most effeminate amufements,

A. C. 1478. The adminiftration was wholly engroffed by the Animofity queen and her relations, who rendered themfelves duke of Cla- odious to the nation not only by their infatiable thirft of power, but also by their infolent demeanour, kindred. and the pride they feemed to take in flighting and Habington. thwarting the fchemes of the king's brothers. Richard duke of Gloucefter, who was naturally

the queen's

Biondi.

close,