The Low Countries saw extensive fighting throughout the whole period of 1477-1493, first due to the French occupation, and as the years went by due to various rebellions against Maximilian’s rule. The territories ruled by the House of Burgundy at the start of 1477 covered the counties of Artois, Hainault, Zeeland, Holland and Namur, and the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, Guelders and Luxemburg, as well as much of the Picardy region of France. The prince-bishoprics of Cambrai, Liège and Utrecht were also under Burgundian influence. In effect the entirety of the Low Countries were Burgundian, though they had a history of rebellion, and their loyalties to Duchess Mary were always going to be suspect.
1477
Within weeks of the death of Charles the Bold, Louis XI had annexed Picardy and his armies were moving into Artois. For the most part this was achieved without bloodshed, as most towns willingly swore allegiance to the king, encouraged where necessary with the promise of gold and privileges or the threat of assault. Likewise many of the Burgundian lords went over to France, either out of necessity or for their own benefit. With them went large numbers of soldiers, tilting the odds further still against Mary.
One such lord was Philippe de Crèvecœur, the Burgundian lord of Esquerdes and governor of Picardy. He delivered the citadel of Arras up to the French, from where they were able to besiege the town itself. Arras held out for over a month. A force of several thousand men, survivors from the Battle of Nancy led by Guillaume de Vergy, set out from Douai to relieve the town. Forced to depart in daylight, they were seen and intercepted by a party from Arras, and almost all were killed or captured. De Vergy himself was imprisoned – after over a year in captivity, he was finally persuaded to swear allegiance to Louis. The walls of Arras were breached by French artillery in May, and the town quickly surrendered.
De Crèvecœur was welcomed into French service by Louis, and was tasked with bringing the rest of Artois under the king’s rule. This he undertook with great success - by summer only the town of St. Omer held out. The neutral city of Tournai had also been occupied. It was then used as a French base from which to raid into Flanders and Hainault, and was itself subjected to many Burgundian attacks.
Whilst the French were overrunning her lands, Duchess Mary had her own discontented subjects to contend with - the duchy of Guelders had already declared its independence, and trouble was brewing elsewhere throughout the Low Countries. To keep the Burgundian Netherlands together, she was forced to grant the Great Privilege in February 1477 – this saw the states of Flanders, Brabant, Hainault and Holland recover much of their rights which had previously been abolished by the Dukes of Burgundy. With individual freedoms restored and centralised government curtailed, they were prepared to recognise Mary as their sovereign and support her financially.
The duchess herself was at the mercy of the people of Ghent, where she was residing. They had dismissed many powerful Burgundians, and executed two of her favourites despite her tearful pleadings. And the question of her marriage still loomed – though she was by now actually betrothed to Maximilian of Austria, the people of Ghent had a different candidate in mind. Adolph of Egmont, the hereditary heir of Guelders, had been imprisoned years before by Charles the Bold to help ease his purchase of the duchy of Guelders from Adolph’s father. He was now released, and offered Mary’s hand in marriage if he could achieve victory over the French. In June he led a Flemish army of 20,000 men to besiege the French at Tournai. Things did not go well for him though, as divisions opened up in his army between the men of Ghent and those of Bruges. The French at Tournai seized the opportunity and sallied forth to rout the besiegers. The duke fought a brave rearguard, but was killed in the fighting. Mary was supposedly very pleased by this result, as she dreaded the idea of having to marry him.
In August the French besieged St. Omer, whose garrison was commanded by the son of the ‘Grand Bastard’ Anthony of Burgundy, half-brother of Charles the Bold. Anthony had been captured at Nancy and subsequently handed over to the French. His son Philip of Beveren defended St. Omer fiercely, refusing to yield even when threatened with his father’s execution. Another Flemish army set out to lift the siege, but again they were soundly defeated. Nevertheless the siege was abandoned after three weeks, and St. Omer remained unconquered. Anthony the Bastard himself did avoid execution by swearing allegiance to Louis XI.
Maximilian had by then arrived in the Netherlands, and was married to Mary on 19 August. He did not bring with him much in the way of military support, but between them they began to raise new ordonnance companies in hope of forming a permanent army that would be a match for the French, financing the project through heavy taxation. Meanwhile a temporary truce was negotiated with France and agreed in September.
1478
Maximilian was the first to break the truce the following February, as he ravaged the lands around Tournai with an army of 10-15,000 Flemings and Germans. That spring Louis XI advanced into Hainault and took the town of Condé after breaching its walls with his artillery, but subsequently abandoned all his gains in the county in the face of Maximilian’s advance. Though Louis had superior numbers, he was extremely reluctant to risk open battle. The Burgundian captain Jacques Galéot led 8,000 men on a raid which took them as far as Quesnoy – here they were overcome by a small number of French troops led by the Count of Dammartin and pursued back to Maximilian’s camp. Meanwhile French troops entered Luxembourg and took the city of Virton, from where they launched raids across the duchy.
The French were not the only problem Mary and Maximilian had to deal with – various states under their authority had taken advantage of the collapse in Burgundian control. The Duchy of Guelders had declared independence after the death of Charles the Bold, and when Adolph of Egmont was killed at Tournai they demanded the return of his son, whom they saw as their legal ruler. In the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, bishop David of Burgundy (another half-brother of Charles the Bold) was forced out of power, and Holland had rapidly fallen into anarchy as the rivalries between the ‘hook’ and ‘cod’ factions flared up into civil war. As Maximilian was occupied with the French conflict, various local pro-Burgundian partisans were tasked with restoring order in these northern provinces, where they met with varying levels of success.
The summer of 1478 found Maximilian at Lens in Hainault and Louis at Arras in Artois. Neither wanting to risk a pitched battle, they signed another one year truce on 11 July.
1479
In the spring of 1479 Maximilian broke the second truce and went on the offensive. He captured the city of Cambrai, which the French had recently abandoned, and used it as a base from which to raid into Artois and Picardy. An army of 10,000 men entered Luxembourg, and succeeded in re-taking Virton from the French. Meanwhile Maximilian himself assembled an army of 27,000 at St. Omer, and led it to besiege Thérouanne.
Philippe de Crèvecœur, now tasked with leading the French effort against Maximilian across the Low Countries, gathered together all the men available to him in the region and marched to meet the Burgundians. The siege and bombardment of Thérouanne had already begun when Maximilian heard of the French advance. The Biscayan captain Jean de Salazar, a veteran soldier whom had served Charles the Bold, led an attack on the French advance guard, routed it and returned with prisoners. From them Maximilian learnt of the French plans, and so he raised the siege and marched out to meet his enemy. The two armies came together near the village of Guinegate on 7 August. Whilst Salazar skirmished with the French vanguard, Maximilian saw to getting his army into order.
The ‘Burgundian’ army at Guinegate consisted mostly of Flemish pikemen, though an indeterminate number of Germans were also present. There was also a company of 500 English archers under the command of Thomas Everingham, who was knighted by Maximilian before the battle. Cavalry of the ordonnance companies protected their flanks, under the command of Philip of Cleves. Maximilian himself dismounted to fight with his infantry alongside a number of other noblemen, including the Count of Romont and the Count of Nassau. The French army was apparently smaller, but was stronger in both cavalry and artillery – their weakness was their infantry, the francs-archers who already had a poor reputation.
De Crèvecœur himself led the French cavalry attack which soon routed their Burgundian counterparts on the wings. The French chased them from the field, eager for ransoms, and pursued them as far as the town of Aire. This proved to be a serious mistake, as the task of holding the field was now in the hands of the unreliable French infantry. They attempted an attack on Maximilian’s position, but were repulsed and thrown into disarray.
It was at this point that the French garrison of Thérouanne seem to have arrived on the battlefield and fallen on the Burgundian baggage train. Many of the francs-archers also broke off and joined in the plunder. The Burgundian artillery was captured, but then re-taken by a counter-attack led by the Count of Romont. The French were subsequently broken up and routed, though whether this was due to the counter-attack or just a break down in discipline is not clear. Nevertheless, when the French cavalry returned, exhausted and with prisoners in tow, they found Maximilian held the field whilst their own infantry were dispersed. De Crèvecœur gathered what troops remained to him and withdrew, leaving the Burgundians to claim victory.
Though Maximilian had fought well and earned the respect of his subjects, his victory was a hollow one. It had cost him dearly, and he was unable to keep his large army together after the battle – his baggage train had been looted and destroyed, and the ravaged countryside couldn’t feed the large number of troops present. Thérouanne remained untaken, and he completely failed to follow up on his success. Ultimately the campaign had achieved little.
Two months later Maximilian had raised a new army, with which he seized a few castles. The commander of Malaunoi led a stubborn defence for three days before finally surrendering, after which Maximilian had him hanged. This seems to have enraged Louis, who ordered fifty of the prisoners taken at Guinegate to be publicly executed in front of the towns of Aire, Douai, Lille, St Omer and Arras. Among the prisoners was Martin of Polheim, a childhood friend of Maximilian’s – he was nearly executed, but a diplomatic crisis was averted when he was spared at the last minute.
Despite the supposed victory of Guinegate, 1479 had not been a good year for the Burgundian cause. At sea the French had waged economic war on the Low Countries, capturing first the Dutch fishing fleet and then a convoy transporting grain from Prussia. In the south, the Franche-Comté had finally submitted to the French crown after nearly three years of fighting. Louis had also negotiated with the Swiss cantons and been able to recruit 6,000 mercenaries – the cantons had previously allowed Swiss adventurers to serve the Burgundians in the Franche-Comté, but after its conquest they abandoned any official support for Maximilian in order to stay on good terms with France.
1480-81
In 1480 a French army was sent to Luxembourg under the command of Charles d’Amboise, who the previous year had successfully subdued the Franche-Comté. Maximilian desperately tried to raise new troops for Luxembourg’s defence, but the Flemish refused to assist him, claiming they were preoccupied with their own borders. D’Amboise took Virton back again, and Yvoi also capitulated. With insufficient forces at their command, the Burgundian leaders attempted a truce, but Louis refused. Subsequently Luxembourg was badly ravaged by raids from both sides as the war ground on. The French weren’t the only problem, as among the nobility of Luxembourg various lords rebelled against Maximilian. His own German mercenaries caused him trouble as well – in September a number of them deserted and planned to join the rebels. They were intercepted and summarily executed, which triggered a violent riot by those Germans still in the city of Luxembourg. The former Burgundian captain Jacques Galéot also now served the French, and led raids into the county of Namur.
Maximilian was struggling to keep things together – as well as fighting the French in Luxembourg and Artois, he still had the rebels in Guelders to deal with, there was anarchy in Holland and Zeeland, and tensions with Flanders were at an all-time high. Another truce with France was agreed in August - negotiations were attempted to try and find an agreement to satisfy both parties, but they were eventually abandoned.
Under the new truce, Maximilian was able to shift his focus towards his rebellious subjects in Holland, Utrecht and Guelders. In January 1481 the ‘hook’ party in Holland had managed to capture the city of Leiden, where they were subsequently besieged by a force assembled from neighbouring ‘cod’ towns. Other towns supported the hooks of Leiden, one such being Dordrecht. On the early morning of 6 April the cods took Dordrecht by surprise, smuggling a small force under John of Egmont and Thomas Everingham into the city hidden in boats. The city of Leiden finally surrendered on 14 April, and Maximilian arrived in person three days later to accept their submission and hand out punishments.
In Utrecht, the hooks had deposed
bishop David of Burgundy and ejected pro-Burgundian
officials from the city government, inevitably leading to military conflict. The
bishop sought to regain his seat, and was supported by Josse de Lalaing, the
Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland. The hooks meanwhile had won the support of
John, Duke of Cleves, who had just recently succeeded his father and hoped to
have his younger brother Engelbert installed as bishop. On 26 December an army
led by de Lalaing approached Utrecht and defeated the rebels at the one-sided
battle of Westbroek. Nevertheless the conflict was set to continue for another two years.
Both Maximilian and Louis XI worked to form beneficial alliances in this period. Maximilian had managed to secure an alliance with both Duke Francis II of Brittany and King Edward IV of England, confirmed by treaty in June, though it didn’t result in much – rather than taking action, the three of them seemed content to wait for Louis to die. Meanwhile Louis found an ally in King Vladislaus of Bohemia, who wished to press his claim to the Duchy of Luxembourg, which Louis was seemingly losing interest in himself. He had actually promised it to Réné, Duke of Lorraine at an earlier date, but now saw Vladislaus as a more useful ally. The king was invited to invade, with Louis promising military support and offering to pay the Bohemian troops if the conquest was not completed within a month. For whatever reason, the invasion never happened.
Despite the supposed truce, sporadic fighting did continue along the Flemish border. At one point Philippe de Crèvecœur used a notably underhand tactic, sending secret overtures to the Burgundians claiming he was considering leaving French service and making peace with Maximilian. The Burgundians were informed of a breach in the walls of Hesdin from which they could enter undetected on a specific night, and Jean de Berghes, Lord of Cohen led four or five hundred men to attempt the enterprise. Once they had climbed a ladder to cross the breach the trap was sprung - they were attacked and killed almost to a man. Cohen only escaped with his life as he had not yet crossed himself.
It was at this time that Louis XI started to overhaul his military. The francs-archers had long been a disappointment, and he had become increasingly enamoured with the Swiss and their way of fighting. Thus the former were disbanded, and taxes were introduced in their place with which he could recruit more Swiss mercenaries, of which he had 8,000 in his pay by 1481. He also started a project to raise his own professional French infantry based on the Swiss model – a camp was set up in Normandy where this new infantry force was trained, its location allowing the army to be dispatched to both Flanders and Brittany as needed. It’s not clear if these newly raised French infantry ‘bands’ actually saw much combat on either the Flemish or Breton fronts, and either way Louis would not live long enough to see them in action.
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| Louis XI |
1482
Disaster struck when following a riding accident Duchess Mary died on the 27 March 1482, aged just 25. Maximilian’s tenuous hold on the Burgundian territories had for the most part been achieved through his marriage, and with Mary dead he found exerting his authority even more difficult. The most troublesome province without a doubt was Flanders, in particular the city of Ghent. With their border ravaged and their economy at a standstill, the Flemish were keen for peace with France. They held a crucial bargaining chip – Maximilian’s children, Philip and Margaret. They were happy to accept the infant Philip as their ruler, but only on their own terms. Negotiations with France began soon after Mary’s death, and Maximilian found himself completely excluded from the process.
Meanwhile he had other quarrelsome subjects to deal with, as both Utrecht and Guelders still defied him. However the most remarkable act of rebellion occurred in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, which had long been under Burgundian influence. Bishop Louis de Bourbon was a nephew of Philip the Good, and his sister had been the second wife of Charles the Bold, making him Duchess Mary’s uncle. In 1477 Mary had been forced to renounce her rights over Liège, and the bishop had attempted to assert his authority by declaring Liège neutral in the conflict between Burgundy and France. However he found his power challenged by William de la Marck, a notorious brigand known as the ‘Wild Boar of the Ardennes’ whom he had inexplicably appointed governor. Despite La Marck having raided French territories, Louis XI favoured him over the bishop, who refused to declare against Maximilian. Eventually La Marck had been banished after murdering the bishop’s secretary, and he sought refuge in France. Louis considered using him as an agent against Maximilian in Liège, but eventually decided he was too dangerous and unpredictable as an ally. However he did allow him to recruit men for his planned return to Liège, and La Marck was able to raise a host of 3,000 mercenaries.
In 1482 Wlliam de la Marck returned, and the region was instantly divided between those who supported him and those who sided with Bourbon. As his army approached the city of Liège itself, the bishop rode out to meet him. Refusing his attempts at reconciliation, La Marck had him brutally murdered in cold blood and his body thrown into the river. He then entered the city and allowed his soldiers to loot the houses of the bishop’s supporters. Having seized power, his plan was to have his own son chosen as bishop. Promising support to the Duke of Cleves and the rebels of Utrecht, threatening Namur and Brabant, and ravaging the countryside of Liège with his brother Everard, the ‘Wild Boar of the Ardennes’ had become a problem that could not be ignored. Maximilian mobilised against him, sending an army from Brabant led by Philip of Cleves, though it would be a while before La Marck could be brought to heel.
The French had not completely ceased military operations since the death of Mary. In June Louis sent his newly trained troops under de Crèvecœur against the town of Aire, whose garrison was commanded by the Lord of Cohen. Secret negotiations were opened with Cohen, and he was persuaded to switch allegiance to France in exchange for a pension and command of a company of 100 lances. However to save appearances Cohen requested that the siege be continued anyway – the town walls were bombarded for eight days, after which Cohen could be seen to have surrendered due to superior force.
By the end of the year terms had been agreed by France and the Flemish who were negotiating in Maximilian’s name, and the Treaty of Arras was signed on 23 December. It saw Maximilian’s daughter Margaret betrothed to the Dauphin of France, with the Franche-Comté, Charolais and Artois as her dowry. Though on the surface this seemed like a great victory for Louis XI, it’s worth noting that he had actually already conquered these territories. It’s a wonder he didn’t demand more, the explanation probably being that he wasn’t as closely involved in the negotiations as he would have been if he wasn’t gravely ill and close to death. A crucial clause was that these three counties would revert to Maximilian if the wedding never took place. The treaty also saw the French depart from Luxembourg, handing back all the places they had occupied, and Louis agreed not to assist the rebels of Liège, Utrecht and Guelders.
Though the Treaty of Arras had supposedly seen an agreement reached, the War of the Burgundian Succession and its associated conflicts were far from over.
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