Walking on the Silver Line: A Valois-Bourgogne TL

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Burgundy's main interest despite the last phase of the war of the roses and regency of Charles VIII would still be firmly rooted in expansion eastward in the Holy Roman Empire. In the previous 8 years under Charles and Philip, a pursuit of expansion towards and across the Rhine was pursued and with the majority of this expansion complete in 1485 with the reconquest of Frisia and Guelders. The brutal campaign against Frisia would circle sharks around Burgundy as primarily Saxony would begin to fight tooth and nail to influence the Rhine electors. Burgundy who had firmly influenced only Trier at this point would lose Cologne due to a new Hesse-Saxony alliance. Mainz would elect a Nassau branch bishop as their new elector in 1484. Nassau was a soft Burgundian ally with ties to Brabant as John V who was appointed into the Staadholder of Guelders and Zutphen. Yet, Mainz would be the strongest anti-Burgundian elector out of the 7 electors.

The archbishop of Mainz, Berthold von Henneberg would pursue a reformist agenda that would rival against the Burgundians as the proposals of eternal peace, an imperial Supreme Court and a new elector based imperial government. Both the Habsburgs and Burgundians would be firmly opposed to this, Philip even more so as the eternal peace would force him to give up reluctantly his invasion or more accurately conquest of Frisia and Guelders, the appointment of a new imperial Supreme Court would bring a new Paris Parlament but instead from Paris it would be from Frankfurt. The elector based government while taking away power from the emperor would give power to the electors and Philip would not give further strength to his future vassals. The Habsburgs would be slightly more open to the idea, Maximilian who acknowledged the reality of the necessity of imperial reform would begin negotiations with the elector of Mainz agreeing to the imperial eternal peace and the new Supreme Court of the Holy Roman Empire.

The election of 1486 was only between two candidates, the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Rich and the Archduke of Austria, Maximilian the Last Knight. Ironically it would be the first elector, the archbishop of Trier would vote for Philip the Rich, the betrothal of Charles II of Charolais and Elizabeth of the Palatine would get Philip the Upright of the Palatine to vote for, Philip would achieve two votes for emperor, while Maximilian now firmly backed by Saxony, Cologne, Brandenburg, Mainz and Bohemia would win the majority but importantly for Philip during the rounds of negotiation and trying to appeal to the two dissenters. While Maximilian would pressure the Burgundians with the marriage of himself to Isabella of Burgundy, Philip's masterful politic got him to extend the privilegium Burgundiae to expand to all of Philip's current holdings, and he would be crowned Duke of Frisia and count of Alsace at this time. The Burgundian's stranglehold on the electoral palatine and Trier would further concern the emperor but ironically the Burgundians would never be able to seize the imperial crown.

The election of Maximilian, the last knight as King of the Romans, would call the reichstag in 1488 nearing the end of the Austro-Hungarian war to form a Swabian league, and this would ostensibly be used to support Maximilian against the Swiss confederation but Philip who rightfully feared that this league would be used against Burgundy would firmly oppose this conciliar way of governance fearing more opposition to Burgundian expansion. His inclusion as Count of Alsace however, would weaken any attempt to deal with Burgundy as Philip rightfully claimed that his county of Alsace was part of the stem duchy of Swabia in which the Swabian league was formed around. What would be even worse was during the diet of 1487 and 1488, were the discussions regarding both roman law implementation and the improvements of sounder administration by imperial circles.

The Austro-Hungarian war of 1477 - 1491 would be the key to Habsburg domination, ironically funding Burgundy's greatest rival. The battle of Leitzerdorf in 1484 would be a decisive victory against the black army of Hungary and it would cement Maximilian as a brilliant general and warrior. The campaign into Moravia joined by Vladislaus II the new king of Bohemia would lead to the reclamation of Moravia, Lusatia and Silesia against Hungary. The assistance of Poland now led by Vladislaus II's father Casimir IV would put Matthias Corvinus on the back foot for the remaining years of his life. His death however would spark a succession crisis between Bohemia, Poland, Austria and Hungary. John Corvinus, illegitimate son of Matthias would claim the crown through his father and would be backed by the remaining loyalists of Matthias, Vladislaus would claim the crown by blood relation, and finally Maximilian who had the lion's share of the kingdom would claim it both on his father's claim to the crown and the treaty of Wiener Neustadt. This war was brief as was referred to the war of Hungarian succession, as John Corvinus would be defeated within months while Vladislaus would fight for another year but finally agreeing to the peace of Pressburg in which Vladislaus would renounce all rights to the crown of Hungary, agree to Maximilian becoming his heir if he did not have any legitimate sons. Importantly for the Bohemian king was he would not have to pay the 300 thousand florins that was owed to Maximilian over his reconquest of the lands of the Bohemian Crown. Maximilian would be crowned king of Hungary within a month of the treaty.

The victory of the Habsburgs was funded through a mixture of Burgundian, and Fugger Loans. Maximilian would be able to pay off the Fugger loans by giving them various estates around the Nitra copper mines but for the Burgundians he was hard pressed into signing the Privilegium Lotharingia. The inheritance of Tyrol by Maximilian in 1490 due to a pointless war in Venice would be of greater concern to Burgundy as Philip noted, "It is not completely out of question the Habsburgs would claim Alsace through this inheritance, they fought over inheritance against relatives after all." Fortunately Maximilian was more warm to Burgundy whether it was a personal enjoyment of Burgundy itself as his tales of the lavish Burgundian court were quite flattering or just his realpolitik in believing the Habsburgs could inherit Burgundy through luck is debated. What was more pressing for the twice crowned king was the Burgundian loans which were quite substantial and the only way Burgundy would agree to a forgiveness of the loans was the expansion of the privilegium Burgundiae, into the privilegium Lotharingia. Arguably, Maximilian realized the expansion of the empire under his rule would grant him immense prestige especially if it was directed westward considering his predecessors only lost lands in the Kingdom of Burgundy under their imperial reign, perhaps importantly a strengthened alliance with Burgundy would be necessary for his ambitions north to Bohemia. Key to this reform however was the ambition of the archbishop of Mainz who wanted a court independent of the emperor and yet above him in determining the law, and the already in place reforms of the previous two Burgundian dukes, Philip the Good and Charles the Absolute which made signing this privilege remarkably more like an acceptance of the status quo.

The signing of the privilegium Lotharingia which was forced into imperial law in 1491 would fundamentally reshape the Holy Roman Empire, and would act as a precursor to the formation of the fourth Kingdom of Burgundy. This privilegium would give all of Philip's current domains four main things, it would be inseparable from inheritance and automatically inherited through male-preference primogeniture. A fully independent jurisdiction with no possibility of appealing to any higher court backed by the emperor or empire.The strengthening of the vicarate of the Kingdom of Burgundy which now governed all the lands of the defunct Kingdom of Burgundy/Arles and all imperial lands west of the Rhine River excluding the elector states. A fully independent legislature which would take the form of the Estates General of Burgundy, and importantly to Burgundian historians who emphasis nationalism permission to display certain symbols of rule. This privilegium would coincide with the treaty of Dijon recognizing all independent Burgundian fiefs in the treaty of Beaune and any other domains of Philip the Rich to join the Holy Roman Empire.

Burgundy would not wait patiently before pulling off this masterpiece of imperial politics as Philip who had consolidated his control the left bank of the Rhine by influencing an election for the free city of Aachen and Cologne through bribes. The war of Lotharingia would drag Cleves who under the leadership of the nascent John II and his brother Englebert disputed count of Nevers would fight a desperate war for their independence ending with John II giving up his county to Philip who was anointed by their estates in late 1491 as count of Cleves and Englebert himself, dying in battle. This final major expansion by Burgundy under Philip the Rich in the Holy Roman Empire would be followed an era of internal golden peace for Burgundy, arguably the first Burgundian Golden age but this is not the end of the story of Philip the Rich's meddling in geopolitics as Italy would become the focus of Europe and Burgundy.

 

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Burgundy under Philip's reign was solely focus on one thing, the improvement of the Burgundian state and to implement the first Burgundian Golden Age. Philip and more accurately Anne would finish Charles the Absolute's project of forming a proper Burgundian state and while by the end of 1492, Burgundy would complete it under the privilegium Lotharingia, it would not magically come to existence from a single privilege alone. The half-completed works of Philip the Good, and Charles the Absolute would finally be completed under Philip the Rich. The foreign policy of Philip the Rich would reflect this as the annexation of Champagne, Cleves, Nevers, and Alsace would fundamentally show a goal of connecting Burgundy and strengthening that connection geographically.

This connection geographically was already displayed during the final years of Charles the Absolute but it would be Philip the Rich that would permanently bind the two parts of Burgundy together. The establishment of the capital of Nancy as the new permanent residence of the Burgundian dukes would restart the centralization efforts of Charles the Absolute. The general estates of Burgundy, which were established by Charles the Absolute in 1475, which themselves were a successor to the general estates of the Burgundian Netherlands under Philip the Good would begin efforts to move Brussels to Nancy during the years of 1480 to 1482. Charles would refuse to move the estates to Nancy believing the power centre of Burgundy was in Brabant not in Lorraine but when Philip the Rich took over the Burgundian state he believed in equal centralization and began the process of moving the estates to Nancy. The Coudenberg which was were the estates took place began to revert back into a royal palace while a new building, the Palace of Colchis which would become the permanent residence of both the estates and the dukes of Burgundy.

Philip the Rich would begin to pursue estate reform as he wanted this new advisory body to be representing his various domains, he would conduct a census which while used mostly for tax purposes allowed Philip to reorganize his domains' representatives based on class and on population allocating specific amounts of people per domain of specific class. This proto-democratic approach would allow Philip and his heirs to use this body incredibly efficiently in strengthening their own power. This purely advisory body would allow Philip to pursue broad popular reforms within his domains, mainly the lessening of tolls going in between his various domains in order to gain popular support within the people. Philip would also aggrandize the individual estates as well, expanding the amount of delegates per individual estate but also weakening it as a whole due to the increase in amounts of people. This absolutist estate reform would most reminisce his father in law, Louis XI and his conduct with the general estates of France.

The parlament of Mechelen, while unpopular would be further strengthened under the reign of Philip the Rich, while the parlament was still stacked with loyalists to the duke, Philip would believe in competence for this parlament and due to the privilegium Burgundiae, he would gain a stronger jurisidiction over his imperial lands. This careful tightrope walking in dealing with the new judicial system that is the parlament of Malines would succeed under Philip as the crown's lawyers would appeal unpopular laws that were implemented during the times in which these domains were independent. This usage of the parlament and the usage of crown lawyers would be incredibly effective in slowly taking away privileges from these urbanized centres. Arguably the only mistake, Philip would make in the parlament was not also moving it to Nancy as it any judgements in Southern Burgundy would take precious time, fortunately it would be his successor, Henri the Fortunate that would fix this issue.

The Chambres des Coptes of Mechelen would be moved to Nancy under Philip the Rich, who would begin to reorganize the various chambres established by his predecessors, reassigning them into various cities such as Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, Beaune, and Arras and having them essentially act as chapters or extensions of the one in Nancy. This selectively decentralized approach to taxation would eventually lead to the implementation of direct taxes by Philip in 1483, this would be as a result of Philip forgiving various fines and special taxes or aides to his domains. Another key factor to the realization of a direct tax was the slow removal of various tolls to cross into other Burgundian domains which were already declining under Charles but under Philip they were completely removed. It would be this direct tax implementation which would contribute greatly to the Burgundian golden age and the reason why Burgundy remained throughout history incredibly rich.

The establishment of a proto-executive branch for the Burgundian state was already quite established by the time of Philip the Good but it was institutionalized by Philip the Rich. The formal ducal council of Burgundy was now firmly established led by the duke and his right hand the chancellor. Philip would assign various positions to each member of the ducal council such as councilman of defence, finance, trade, diplomacy etc. These positions while having overlapping responsibilities and overlapping subordinates would be useful to Philip as they were essentially memory aids and assistants in bringing the duke up to speed. It would be this ducal council that would also assist immensely in Burgundian legislation. The two most important domestic Burgundian achievements during this decade was the implementation and reinforcement of Burgundian roads also the construction of the Palace of Colchis.

The establishment of a permanent Burgundian capital would be the final nail to this Burgundian centralization as an already full treasury from Charles the Absolute would begin to fund the luxurious palace of Colchis. Both a mixture of French and Burgundian finance was used in order to build this magnificent palace, as Philip and Anne sneakily diverted funds away from France into Burgundy to build this palace, throughout the regency of Charles VIII almost the entirety of Burgundian-stolen French money was dedicated to building this palace and the road system that connected this palace to the rest of Burgundy. The incredible usage of late Gothic and early renaissance architecture would allow this palace to eclipse the palace of Coudenberg by the time of its completion. This palace would host the estates general, Chambre des Cortes and later the parlament. More importantly to the Burgundian state was the establishment of the massive road network that connected Burgundy together, this would be useful in the war of Lotharingia as Philip would fight on two fronts but more importantly it would allow safe and free passage through Burgundian lands which increased inter and intra trade within Burgundy itself. This increased prosperity would pay off tremendously in a massive windfall from the direct tax implemented in 1483.

The expansion of Burgundy would not slow down or even strain the Burgundian bureaucracy as Champagne, Cleves, Frisia, and Alsace were easily integrated into the absolutist capital that is Nancy. Burgundy by 1491, began to invest in maritime trading and began to build a merchant fleet rivalling the English and the Hanseatic League. The integration of the new lands would be incredibly quick as Burgundy began to invest and improve the already existing roads in Champagne and Frisia connecting them to the prosperous lands of Lorraine, Burgundy, and Artois and Brabant respectively. This new merchant fleet which was funded entirely by the Burgundian duke would be run by a royalist company: Burgundian Maritime Company which would eventually reform into the Burgundian Indies Company. The inclusion of the new estates into the general estates of Burgundy would allow Philip to make some adjustments into his domains, uniting the fractured domains of Ponthieu and Vermandois into the County of Picardy, absorbing Saint-Pol into Artois, and Burgundy would absorb Charolais and Macon. This would also make the heir defunct and only in 1489 with the birth of Henri would a new title be formed for the heir of Burgundy: Prince of Namur. Philip would grant this title to his new heir as technically all imperial rulers were princes of the empire but clearly the usage of the term prince would refer to the current duke as a king.

Interestingly, it would be Savoy who would be most affected by these administrative reforms as the future Philip II of Savoy was a practical vassal of the Burgundians and the new Savoyard ruler, Charles I was a firm Burgundian ally due to Philip's de facto regency over the young child. Philip would invest Burgundian crowns into Savoy, improving mainly infrastructure in Savoy and throughout the era of regencies of Savoy, 1472 - 1504. Philip the Rich would turn Savoy into a complete vassal as Savoy would be transformed into the duchy of Piedmont as Philip would skillfully manipulate his way into conquering parts of Savoy proper, and the Vaud region from Savoy turning it into a duchy firmly focused on Italian affairs. It would be in Philip's reign that Burgundy would claim itself to be the successor of Middle Francia, any merchant in theory could travel from the city of Nice to the city of Amsterdam without ever leaving Burgundian influence as contemporaries boasted.

These internal and administrative reforms would be in high gear throughout the years of 1492 - 1493 especially after the privilegium Lotharingia was issued. Philip the Rich would pursue a growth and centralization policy throughout the 1480s and the early 1490s. These efforts would succeed not because Philip was particularly special but because circumstances allowed a period of peace and the projects he was working on were merely finishing the ideas of his father and his predecessors. By the end of these reforms Burgundy would become the most powerful state in the Holy Roman Empire besides the emperor and even this was disputed to the amount of debt Maximilian would struggle throughout his wars and yet these achievements would be overshadowed by the Philip's foreign policy, in the war of the roses, war of Hungarian Succession, Bohemian Succession, French regency or Italian wars. At the end of the day though, there was a reason why his epithet was the Rich.

 

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The expansionist tendencies of Charles VIII toward Italy, especially Naples could be linked to his childhood seeing his father inherit the rich duchies of Anjou and Provence after Charles IV's death, more likely to Charles VIII it was the ambitious Burgundians that drove his ambitions southward. The loss of such a rich county as Champagne would pressure Charles to march south and claim a far richer and more prosperous land, the Kingdom of Naples. In 1481, the death of Charles IV of Anjou, passed the claim to the kingdom of Naples as the disputed heir of Joanna II of Naples. However due to Louis XI's passing and the fact that Charles IV never actually invaded Naples in his lifetime, this claim was quite weak, unfortunately an ace in the hole in the form of a death and a pope would occur.

Ferrante I of Naples was by all extents an incredible monarch, being able to establish a firm independent Naples away from Aragon and away from the ever powerful pope. This careful foreign and domestic policy would be standard of Italy throughout the 1470s and 1480s while alliances were formed increasingly with outside powers, they would never directly intervene in Italian affairs, this centralized style of foreign policy would be further displayed in the war of Ferrara between Venice and the various Italian powers wishing to limit Venetian growth in Italy, while various Italian powers were involved in the war such as Naples, the Papacy and Venice. Importantly no foreign powers were intervening, Burgundy's alliance with Naples was not triggered nor did this war trigger the ire of Aragon, or the Emperor. This fragile idea of an Italian centric foreign policy ironically shown by Ferrante I of Naples would immediately break upon his death.

The succession of Ferrante I of Naples would leave Naples in an incredibly strong position militarily and diplomatically but cash strapped. The papacy who still had great power over Naples demanded the traditional papal fief tax for the succession for Alfonso II who was his heir. However, Alfonso would refuse the fief tax due to the crown being cash strapped and the papacy would invite once again Charles VIII to take the throne. Already in 1489, Pope Innocent VIII excommunicated the old King Ferrante I of Naples over the feudal relation with Naples and invited Charles VIII to take the throne of Naples however the turbulent and yet balanced regency of France would forbid any attempt at invading Naples as Philip the Rich would continue his alliance with the Neapolitans that was formed at the time of Charles the Absolute who wanted Naples as a counterbalance against Milan, France's strongest ally in Italy at the time.

The death of Louis XI would not fundamentally change Burgundian policy towards Italy during this time, already under Charles the Absolute, Burgundy had practically all of Italy under their thumb, with Savoy a practical vassal, Milan a new Burgundian ally, Venice seeking to not alter the balance a reluctant Burgundian ally, the papacy favouring the Burgundians over the French ever since the pragmatic sanction of Bourges. Importantly for Burgundy was the alliance with Naples, which formed the basis of Ferrante's policy as Burgundy was far away from Naples and had no interest in the kingdom of Naples and willing to stop any strong power controlling Italy such as France and the newly formed Spain. The drift of Milan towards France rather than Burgundy would begin under the reign of Ludovico Sforza as regent. Ludovico would reverse the policy of alignment towards Burgundy as he saw Savoy fall into de facto vassalage and seeing France regather its strength. Ludovico would invite Charles VIII to help secure his regency against the Neapolitans.

Isabella who was the daughter of the king Alfonso II of Naples and was the one woman who opposed Ludovico's regency and perhaps her strongest ally and could counter France was Burgundy, unfortunately circumstances would befall upon the Burgundians as the peace of 1491 in the treaty of Dijon signed away a truce that would last until 1496, which forbid Burgundy from directly intervening in Neapolitan interests while the double crowned king, Maximilian would side with Ludovico seeking to bring a new imperial ally into Italy and strengthen imperial presence in the "shadow kingdom" that is Italy. This usurpation of Milan by Ludovico with both imperial and French backing would spell the end of the short reign that was Alfonso II of Naples.

The grand Burgundian-Italian alliance was co-opted by Charles VIII as he would march south to Naples with the full support of Milan and Venice, both Burgundian allies. The papacy who hoped to weaken the powerful kingdom opened Rome to Charles with open arms and he would march south to Italy. The extended war of the roses would lead John II to pursue neutrality as the reluctant withdrawal support of Charles VIII to a pretender would force him to declare neutrality, Burgundy already tied up with the peace at Dijon would reluctantly watch in horror as French forces under Charles VIII would stomp all over Italy. Aragon who was perhaps a permanent rival of France was bought with peace by reselling the lands Louis XI seized from Aragon due to a loan that was never paid by the Aragonese. Florence who was a French ally at the time would rise up against Charles VIII only to be crushed immediately by the French army.

Charles VIII's army was possibly the strongest army of France since the time of Charles VII, the defeat of the Swiss in Grandson by Charles the Absolute would shift Louis' military tactics as he observed the Burgundians co-opt the Swiss pike tactics and improved them significantly to absolutely annihilate the Swiss. These reforms under Louis XI would be accelerated by Charles VIII who lead this incredibly powerful French army to demolish Italian armies and fortresses. This string of victories in Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples would end with Charles VIII who was proclaimed King of Naples in February 1495. This rapid conquest would create the formation of the league of Venice and while Burgundy would not join it immediately Aragon and the Holy Roman Empire would. Burgundy at this point was itching to join the conflict and a consequence of this readiness would be the renewal of the Burgundian-Napoli alliance that was signed in 1475, granting the new king Ferdinand II of Naples the knighthood of the Golden Fleece along with a new loan of 300,000 crowns for Naples to use against France.

The battle of Rappollo would signal to Charles VIII that he had to cut his losses while he can. The new League of Venice which consisted of Aragon, Florence, Papal States, Naples, and the Holy Roman Emperor would decisively defeat the French Navy at sea which would scare Charles in terms of being able to supply his lines and began to retreat back into Milan which already betrayed the cause of Charles VIII who now lead by Louis of Orleans who was in charge of the French prescence in Milan would fight a fatal battle for Milan. The threat of excommunication would hang over Charles VIII but fortunately his army was unbeatable in the field with the victory at Seminara, Charles could pursue an orderly withdrawal. This withdrawal would be further solidified by the victory at Fornovo in which Charles decisively crushed the league and continued to march back into Milan with his army and baggage train. The siege of Novara would also further France's position in Milan as Louis of Orleans with now the full French army behind his back drove Ludovico, Duke of Milan out of Milan entirely into the arms of the Holy Roman Emperor. Maximilian at this point still quite strapped with cash from his wars in Hungary and the Fugger Family owning a portion of the income of the twice crowned king would invest Ludovico as Duke of Milan in exchange for a huge amount of cash an a full alliance with Milan.

Burgundy's joining of the war in the last phases of the Italian wars under Charles VIII was merely negotiating forcing the recognition of Ludovico as Duke of Milan and the safe passage back to France. The signing of the peace of Vercelli between Burgundy, Milan and France would conclude the Italian wars de facto and France who at this point under the watchful eye of Peter II of Bourbon would rebuild the navy hastily and continue the withdrawal of French forces in Naples with Gilbert, Count of Montpensier safely returning to France to Charles' delight. The results of the first phase of the Italian wars were clear as Italy essentially was plunder and loot for Charles VIII who used a superior army against various Italian mercenary forces. Burgundy's policy towards Italy was not as shaken compared to the Italian situation as Ludovico now realizing the power of the French, would return to the Burgundian orbit as another ally. The turbulent relation with the Italian states should not be ignored as while the marriage of Margaret of Burgundy to Ferdinand now prince of Calabria was proposed during Charles' Italian wars it would be rejected as Philip rightfully believed an independent Naples would not last, the fact Burgundy did not join the war against France until late 1496 would also push Milan to seek another backer in the form of the Habsburgs under Maximilian which those consequences would be felt in the final Swiss wars. Importantly for Burgundy, France would be forced back but quite pleased with a huge loot chest and a capable army under Charles VIII who would swear to reclaim Champagne and Naples soon after the peace.

 

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There would be two wars continuously fought that would allow the ambitious reform-minded archbishop of Mainz to make good on Maximilian's promises of reform in 1495, Maximilian did not want to pursue reform that struck down his imperial perogatives but did believe in sounder administration reforms and the eternal peace proposal. The event that would strike Maximilian and force him to pursue reform was the terrible finances of the Kingdom of Hungary and Archduchy of Austria, already the attempts at maintaining the royal authority of the crown of Hungary was quite costly as various rebellions by the magnates would rise up only to be put down by Maximilian. The Fugger Family which was a double-edged sword would provide finance to Maximilian but squeezing out every profitable estate within the realms of the twice crowned king. It would be this state of near bankruptcy that the diet of Worms in 1495 would occur.

The imperial diet of Worms would be the first attempt at imperial reform and these reforms while ambitious would be practically undone within a decade. The concept of eternal peace that was proposed by the archbishop with imperial and interestingly Burgundian support it would pass through quiet easily within the Reichstag, the institution of a penny tax was agreed to in principle much to Burgundy's anger as they sought a far weaker emperor, but various reforms such as a imperial government with the emperor as a figurehead was also rejected soundly by both Burgundy and the Habsburgs, the reasons for the Habsburgs were obvious but why was such a reform rejected by the Burgundians? This council would consist of a majority elector vote and would thereby strengthen the electoral dignity. Philip the Rich would play it safe and not risk dealing with a new devil that would be an imperial government run by electors and instead stick with the bankrupt Habsburgs. The installation of Roman Law throughout the empire was implemented with Burgundian and Habsburg support as Philip believed in Roman Law being far better in terms of governance rather than old germanic or Frankish law. Finally something that was irrelevant was the establishment of the imperial Supreme Court (Reichskammergericht) which Burgundy supported, this establishment was controlled independently and would be not directly or indirectly controlled by the emperor. Both the Habsburgs and Burgundians would not oppose this development as due to their respective privileges, this court was essentially a court of last appeal. Maximilian though as King of the Romans and de facto emperor would personally oppose this seeing it as attacking his authority as emperor but interestingly enough he approved the measure whether it was out of desperation for the common penny or his belief that the court would rightfully fall to infighting, concessions and sheer incompetence.

The most important development of the diet was the establishment of the formal imperial estates which would be Burgundy's ticket to imperial power. This under the joint development of Maximilian and Philip would divide the empire into three colleges, the electoral college, the princely college, and the free cities college. Philip would masterfully fuse both Austrian and Burgundian interests together placing the Duchy of Brabant as head of the secular princely bench, while the Archduchy of Austria would be given the title of head of the ecclesiastical princely bench. Maximilian would also favour the Kingdom of Bohemia against the archbishopric of Mainz arguably due to Maximilian's desire and hope to inherit the kingdom himself. The Kingdom of Bohemia who wasn't even present in the diet would be given the title of head of the electoral bench. The college of free cities while incredibly weak would be split up into two, the Swabian free cities and the Rhenish free cities. Philip's influence over the Rhenish Free cities would ensure that this college would be dominated by Burgundian partisans. The elevation of the archbishop of Bescanon which was a firm Burgundian partisan to second highest bishop within the empire just short of the bishopric of Salzburg would also prove to be a sticking point of Burgundian influence.

The composition of the diet was incredibly important to Burgundy, the most powerful state within the empire was Burgundy and this was firmly represented within the empire holding the most votes in both the secular and ecclesiastical benches. Burgundy with their vassals, would hold an impressive 381 votes within the princely college, with 23 votes in the ecclesiastical bench and 358 votes from the secular bench. This dwarfed the archduchy of Austria who only had a meagre 214 votes combined in the princely college. None of these princes would have a complete majority and the plurality of the Burgundians was quite tiny as the overall delegates was roughly 1500 votes and well over 2000 delegates. This cementation of the diet or the reichstag would cement Burgundy as the half of the empire with the emperor himself holding the other half in fact, the arrival of Philip the Rich to participate as Duke palatine of Burgundy was written by contemporaries as incredibly luxurious although critics would describe the arrival as vain and prideful.

The decisions of the diet would not affect Burgundy as much but it would affect its age old rival the Swiss. The Swiss confederation was already fiercely independent ever since Sigismund of Habsburg's continious defeats over his estates in the fledging confederation. The implementation of an imperial court in the form of the Reichskammergericht and the implementation of the common penny which was essentially a tax against the Swiss would already set them as rivals to the Habsburgs. The Swabian league formed in 1488 which included Sigismund was used in order to crush Swiss ambitions northward and the inclusion of Burgundy and the twice crowned king Maximilian would augment the strength of the Swabian League although to much debate and discussion as the inclusion of the Count of Alsace and the new Count of Tyrol would be backed by their respective partisans but only through an agreement with the Habsburgs and Burgundians did this league form. The Swabian wars which were a direct result of this league and the diet at Worms would occur. Sigismund of Habsburg would under his final years as count begin to increase his influence over the Ten Jurisdictions to the point of concern for the Swiss confederacy's eastward ally, the three leagues. Throughout Maximilian's reign as count this policy of slow expansion westward would force the two to sign a complete alliance in 1497.

This slow expansion would finally trigger all out war with Maximilian's conquest of Umbrail Pass which would allow Maximilian to directly intervene in Italy if successful lead to war between the Swiss and the Empire. This war would be the end of the Swiss confederation as while Maximilian was not eager to join the war directly a joint Burgundian-Savoyard attack from the Vaud region threatened Habsburg interest in the region so Maximilian now forced to move, marched towards the Three Leagues in arms. However, struggles between the Swabians, Austrians and some Swiss miracles throughout the frontline led to an impasse or a stalemate, finally in the summer of 1499, Maximilian would deal a decisive victory against the Swiss in Dornach. The now veteran armies of Austria would lead a sweeping attack finally knocking out the Swiss with the peace of Basel in 1499. To Philip the Rich, however more importantly was his steady and calm campaign into Switzerland that landed him even more favour and prestige throughout Europe.

The peace of Basel would cement Burgundian control over another remnant of the Kingdom of Arles, the Duchy of Transjurania. Philip would buy out Vaud, Bresse, and parts of Savoy and Aosta, this process took nearly two decades starting with Charles the Absolute and ending with Philip the Rich. While Basel would still be independent, the city itself would be further linked with the Prince-Bishopric of Basel who at this point thanks to Burgundian trade, bribes and finances was a new Burgundian partisan. Bern was then restored to a free city but Burgundy would annex the lands west of the Aare and turn Bern into another trophy of Burgundian subject free cities. An equally stern treaty would be sent from the Habsburg delegation, giving the entirety of the 10 Jurisdictions to Maximilian as a subject and would confirm Habsburg control over various passes into both Switzerland and Italy. The peace of Basel would be the first instance of the diarchy of the empire that would last until the protestant reformation, in which Burgundy and the Habsburgs would play a Cold War to strengthen their influence over the empire.

 

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The sudden death of Charles VIII would spark a chain of events that would end in Burgundy's detriment. The treaty of Dijon which signalled peace between France and Burgundy was further extended after the Italian wars and the peace of Vercelli which only lengthened the truce between France and Burgundy until 1501. Philip the Rich at the time was more focused on German and imperial affairs such as the diet of Worms and the Hanseatic Dilemma. Philip the Rich's position in Italy would slowly deteriorate throughout the length of the Italian wars, as it went from a carefully woven Burgundian-aligned balance of power to a French and later Spanish-Imperial dominated peninsula. The focal point was Louis de Orleans now Louis XII due to Salic Law since Charles was without any male heirs would begin the process to divorce his wife in order to marry Charles' widow. Anne widowed Queen of France and Duchess of Brittany was now eager to keep her duchies independence but her treaties with France would force them to approve any marriage. Louis would not have Anne marry anyone else other than her. The only one who could try to stop this from happening was the pope, and Burgundy.

Anne of Champagne would not need much convincing of herself nor her husband to forbid the ending of her sister's marriage to Louis XII, as Philip wished to weaken France with an independent Brittany, while Anne had a bit more of a personal reason, her sister asked her to and the siblings were always quite close. The following trial would be one which would display the influence of France on the Papal States. Pope Alexander VI was once again keen on bringing France into Italy. The reasons were fairly simple, Alexander VI wanted to expand his papal domains for his family, and the new tentative restored balance of power could be easily ruined by reinviting France. The trial would argued primarily with Burgundian lawyers and funds while the details of the trial were incredibly damming towards Louis XII the result did not change and the annulment was granted thereby allowing Louis to remarry Anne of Brittany and tying the duchy permanently to the crown of France. This loss in the trial would only slightly benefit Burgundy and Joan was granted the duchy of Berry as an appanage and the alignment of Joan with Burgundy would bring back a bit of the pro-Burgundian faction within France. This trial while humiliating to France, would not stop the inevitable for France's rapid conquest of both Brittany and Italy.

The remarriage of Anne of Brittany to Louis XII would further strengthen the bonds forged by Charles VIII practically turning Brittany into an inseparable piece of the French crown although this would be achieved by his cousin Francis I of France legally later on. The treaty of Blois would see a former Burgundian ally move to the French side, Venice. This treaty would divide Milan between the two countries with Louis XII being recognized due to his grandmother being a Visconti, Duke of Milan. However, Louis would employ both his predecessors' tactics and the signature Burgundian diplomacy to ensure neutrality during his conquest of Naples. The peace of Etaples was negotiated which ensured peace between France and England. A further peace was sent out to both the emperor and Aragon now led by the fearsome catholic monarchs, would resigned the peace of Barcelona, which ensured imperial and Spanish neutrality for only cash and agreements to weaken Burgundy for the emperor while for Spain, it would be the recognition of the resale of the counties given to Aragon under Charles VIII. Louis XII would now have the strength and diplomacy to dive into Italy and conquer the lands that he believed were taken from him. The inheritance of Milan and Naples into the French Crown was now at hand.

France had spent the last two years under Charles VIII to refine the army and improve the naval capacity of France, with the dockyards of Arles, and Marseille at hand. Charles VIII and Louis XII would reconstruct the French fleet after the disaster at Rapollo. His brother in law, Peter II of Bourbon would begin to assist in greater administrative capabilities as they began to fully implement the French Estates diet of 1484 which Louis and Peter which to implement but was blocked by Anne, Countess of Champagne and wife of Philip the Rich. Louis XII, now armed to the teeth with his state of the art army and navy would march to Milan immediately. Burgundy who practically controlled Savoy was quite easily bribed and threatened to allow Louis' forces to pass through much to Philip's anger as he focused in Landshut during the war of Landshut Succession. He would also gain the support of the vengeful Swiss who were eager to conquer lands in Milan in order to secure their southern border and an alliance with the French King against the Burgundian dukes and Austrian archdukes would be a much needed relief for the Swiss. The appointment of Philip of Cleves, an anti-Burgundian who believed his inheritance of Cleves was taken away from him as Cleves was conquered by the Burgundians in 1491 to the governor of Genoa would further secure his southern flank and by late 1499, all of Milan had fallen under Louis XII's control with Ludovico escaping once again to imperial court in Innsbruck under the Habsburgs.

This rapid conquest of practically all of northwestern Italy would frighten the Venetians who now realized that the treaty of Blois favoured the French to an unreasonable degree began to formulate plans to detach themselves from France and form an anti-French alliance just like the league of Venice of 1495. These plans would accelerate with the fall of Pisa from the French in 1500 would further strengthen the French position by gaining the now practically vassalized Florence as another ally. The reemergence of Ludovico under the lead of a Swiss-Imperial army in 1500 would only slightly strain Louis' position who decisively defeated Ludovico and had him imprisoned for the remainder of his life. The entirety of northern Italy was now firmly in his grasp and he would march south to Naples to seize what Charles had failed, the Kingdom of Naples. This conquest would be as easy as the conquest of Milan, with reluctant papal support, due to promises of fiefs granted to Alexander VI's children Louis would seize Capua force Frederick to abdicate and hand over the throne to him and would be crowned as King of Naples in 1501. This decisive lightning fast victory would now trigger a grand coalition of Burgundy, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire against France.

Burgundy would play a limited role in the league of Cambrai, an anti French league formed between the three powers, limited sporadic fighting would occur all over Burgundy and Savoy, no victories of substantial note would be achieved by the Burgundians as the reforms of both Charles VIII and Louis XII ensured that the French army was not the army that Charles the Absolute or Philip the Rich would defeat in the war of Lotharingia, or the Burgundian war of 1472. It would be Joan of Berry, sister of Anne of Champagne that would ensure peace between Burgundy and France, paying a large indemnity to Burgundy and minor territorial concessions in Nemours. In Spain, Louis XII, at the helm of his army and navy would launch an invasion of Sicily while Peter II would lead raids in Catalonia finally driving out the Spanish with the treaty of Syracuse, agreeing to Ferdinand recognizing Louis' ascension as King of Naples. The empire would fare no better in this as Venice refused to abandon their French ally out of fear of the return of imperial control of Venetian territories would lead Maximilian into a fruitless campaign against Venice. The losses against the Swiss in 1499 would not do Maximilian any better as Philip of Cleves would lead a reinforcing army that would drive out Maximilian in the battle of Padua decisively crushing the imperials in a two-pronged attack. The Treaty of Blois in 1502 would confirm Louis XII's status as Duke of Milan per his inheritance from his grandmother Valentina Visconti. The second Italian war would see the complete dismantling and co-opt of the grand Burgundian alliance of Italy into a French sphere of influence. Burgundy would only gain small lands east of the Seine ruled by the Duke of Nemours who was also now viceroy of Naples. The annexation of Milan and Naples, two of Burgundy's wealthiest allies by their main rival of France would horrify Philip who would seek any opportunity to drive out France from Italy while the solidification of Florence and Venice as practical French vassals would not help the situation and finally the death of Alexander VI and the election of Pope Julius II who was a French partisan would now complete the gauntlet of French dominance over Italy. The only states that was major enough to oppose French dominance over Italy was the Duchy of Savoy, a Burgundian vassal and enabler of French dominance and the ravaged kingdom of Sicily ruled by the Spanish.

 

[Liminia1]

Burgundy while the premier prince of the empire would slowly watch their position in the empire weaken with the strengthening of the emperor. However, Burgundy would not be idle in both the colonization game nor would Burgundy let the western powers of Spain, Portugal and England seize the riches of both the far east and of the New World. This divergence of focus would be heavily criticized by contemporaries and scrutinized heavily by modern historians. The hiring of an explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore what is now known as the modern east coast of Lotharingia. This discovery and mapping of the east coast in 1501 would be the precursor of Burgundian expansion outwards of Europe, throughout the remainder of Philip's reign, Burgundian merchants now reorganized under the Burgundian Indies Company would head south towards Africa and west towards North America in the hopes of discovering and circumventing both the Portugese and Spanish dominance over the Atlantic. It would be the richness of Burgundy due to the heavily urbanized centres of Flanders that would give Burgundy quite the strong edge, buying out rights to various ports in the Canaries and Morocco from Spain and Portugal, respectively and establishing new ports all across Africa in the hopes of reaching India. This expedition was barely profitable for Philip who would not even receive any profit until after his death from this attempt at empire building and yet it would pose a huge question for the empire in the reichstag of Augsburg in 1500. Do these new ports count as part of the Holy Roman Empire as Burgundy was a subject of the empire?

The imperial diet of 1500 would be crucial for Burgundian interests as the matter of African colonization would be the final argument over rulers with other domains. Another important thing would be the imperial circles, something keenly noted by Philip as if manipulated properly could further his control over the vast Burgundian domain. The issue first at hand in the imperial diet was the creation of imperial circles, already agreed upon in the diet of Worms in 1495. Maximilian would strike first by creating broader circles that encompassed various electorates thereby uniting them in terms of imperial administration and common defence, something Philip agreed on principle but while Philip wished to expand the circle into including his influenced states such as the electoral palatine or the archbishopric of Trier. Maximilian would refuse outright not wishing to strengthen the Burgundian hand but giving further influence to Burgundy instead he solidified the borders of Philip's current domains to include the other ecclesiastical princes that were completely surrounded in his domain.

The final seven imperial circles were created, Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Rhine, Electoral Rhine, Burgundy, and Saxony would be created. This would isolate but solidify Burgundy's control over its own domains and its ecclesiastical vassals such as Utrecht and Liege but importantly for the emperor it would allow the emperor to influence Bavaria as his own Austrian domains were part of the Bavarian circle. The electors themselves were satisfied with the changes as it further pushed away Burgundy from the Rhine electors and in particular the eastern electors of Brandenburg and Saxony now could influence their neighbours in the Saxon circle while the crown of Bohemia, not part of the imperial circles themselves solidified their crown under their nobility to push for further independence from the empire. The agreement over imperial rights over colonies would be settled, as Philip would persuade the diet that the new colonies since they were owned independently by the Burgundian Indies Company they could not be subject to imperial law or taxes unless his duchy palatine would be elevated to a kingdom, whether this argument genuinely worked or if politics merely favoured Philip is still unclear but the diet would agree, arguably reinforcing the point of foreign princes within the empire as this agreement that you could rule from both within the empire and outside the empire by a mixture of conquest and inheritance would allow Louis XII to take Milan, an imperial fief in 1502 without any objections from imperial law.

Philip would spend his time dedicated to maintaining the Kalmar Union while also fighting against the Hanseatic League. Maximilian however would focus primarily on the disaster that unfolded in Bohemia but both of their interests would converge back into Bavaria and the electoral palatine. The marriage between future Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden with Margaret of Burgundy was on paper, one of the strongest alliances possible and ironically in the year between Charles' death and Henri's birth Christian II could have inherited all of Burgundy and become the most powerful ruler of Europe again on paper but fortunately for Philip, the birth of his second heir Henri of Burgundy would save Burgundy from the chaos of the Kalmar Union. The reality on the ground with the marriage between Christian and Margaret was that John was holding onto for dear life, his crown of Sweden and Norway fighting over noble rebellions left, right and centre. This marriage firstly for Philip meant two things, the conquest of Frisia and the replacement of the Hanseatic League with a Burgundian dominated commerce in the Baltic Sea and English Channel. The conquest of Frisia in 1485 would secure these goals as with the introduction of new ports along Friesland and East Frisia. Burgundy had a near dominant control over the North Sea only rivalled by the English who were ruled by the brother of Philip himself. This diarchy of trade would soon extend into the Baltic Sea as the Lubeck dominated Hanseatic League would face a fierce opposition of Burgundian-Danish trading that would result in wars against Lubeck and Sweden in 1517.

However, that is too far into the future Sweden would declare independence from John of Denmark in 1500 leading Burgundy into a war against the Swedes who managed to win in Hemmingstadt, but John could not seem to secure the crown of Sweden forever as the regent, Sten Sture lead guerrilla campaigns against the combined Burgundian-Danish army, finally in 1502 a peace was agreed in which Sten Sture would remain as regent but John would return as King of Sweden and be allowed to enter Sweden and take on the role as king. This slight alteration of the status quo would just overstretch the Kalmar Union but to Philip he would achieve a victory in his books and gain a new imperial ally albeit a small one, the Count of Oldenburg, Schleswig and Holstein while they were ruled by the Danish king himself that influence northward would be a trend for Burgundian power projection. His new son-in law Christian II would rule Norway with his new wife Margaret and began to strip the titles and powers of the Norwegian nobility much to their dissatisfaction and would be appointed Viceroy over Norway.

Maximilian would have far better luck, the marriage between Vladislaus II and Beatrice of Naples turned out to be an illegal one as the annulment of his previous marriage to Barbara of Brandenburg was never properly given and now Vladislaus was considered bigamous. This would work out brilliantly for the emperor who with his influence over the Hohenzollerns along with papacy would practically excommunicate him and render him isolated and weak. Finally in 1500, a full dissolvement over both marriages occurred was granted by Pope Alexander VI but with the treaty of Brno stating Maximilian as his heir if he had no male heirs would leave Vladislaus marrying Germaine of Foix daughter of Louis XII's sister Anne of Orleans. This final marriage now tied by the emperor and the papacy would result in no heirs for the Bohemians with Maximilian inheriting Bohemia by 1516 however this was getting ahead of Maximilian's ambitions as he would turn to Bavaria and watch as the fractured duchy would finally unite under Albert IV.

The war of Landshut Succession would be the first genuine conflict between the diarchy of the empire. Burgundy who supported the elector palatine was trying to claim the inheritance of Landshut for Philip's third son, Ruprecht while Albert IV who united the majority of Bavaria would defeat the electoral palatine in the war while Burgundy would do its best to save the elector palatine. This war was a disaster for Burgundy as the losses would allow an imperial rather than Burgundian arbitration in 1505 which granted the Palatine only a fraction of territory from Bavaria-Landshut going to the Palatine while Maximilian would expand his own territories of Tyrol, expanded the free city of Nuremberg and Bavaria would be finally united through sole male-preference primogeniture and not division. The reasons for the loss of Landshut were due to a couple of major things, first was Maximilian's military genius throughout the campaign fighting smartly and fiercely but more importantly was the death of Rupercht, the claimant to Landshut with his death the entire campaign and momentum collapsed. Burgundy however would gain something from this battle, the finalization of the marriage between Henri I, Prince of Namur, to Maria, heiress of Julich-Berg. This victory in negotiations which saw a straining of imperial-saxon relations as previously the emperor was pressuring the marriage to go to the future Henry IV of Saxony but now as a precursor for Austrian interests in Bavaria that scheme was given up. This would be summarize Philip's foreign policy throughout the later years of his reign, a failure in his position due to bad luck but yet expanding his core position and territory.

 

[Liminia1]

The League of Cambrai would be the beginning of the destruction of the French position as French dominance over Italy would be slowly whittled away. The complete victory of Blois would lead to one particular ally eager to remove themselves off the French yolk: The most serene republic of Venice. Venice had gotten the short straw with division of Milan not expecting all of Italy to bow down to France with this treaty and began to seek allies. Burgundy already quite maddened by the victory of France would join this new alliance along with Spain now led by the aging Ferdinand II of Aragon. Spain was already in quite the dire situation with the sudden death of Juan the Sickly of Castille and Isabella of Castille as well, the regency of Castille was jointly held by Catherine of Navarre and Ferdinand to eventually pass on all three kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon and Castille to their son Charles along with his twin sister Eleanor. Ferdinand wanted to pacify any French attempts at expansion as France and Aragon always fought over the lands near the county of Barcelona, the Portuguese claim to both their crowns laid heavily over Ferdinand's head as it had not been only decades since Portugal had claimed the crown of Castille through the illegitimate Joanna and Ferdinand would not allow Aragon to fall under Portugal.

This league of Cambrai would be formed by England, Burgundy, Venice and Spain in the hopes of crushing France once and for all. Venice desired a removal of French lands in Milan and their influence in general, while Burgundy not necessarily having a claim to Milan itself wished for it to return back into another Burgundian client state as it had under Charles the Absolute but English and Spanish ambitions were far larger, Spain under both Catherine and Ferdinand wished to push their claims to Naples and Upper Navarre respectively as Catherine's French inheritance was seized and given to a relative in the house of Foix by order of Louis XI and Ferdinand bought the claim of his relative Frederick of Naples and wished to pursue his claim to Naples. England on the other hand, who had peace for the entirety of John II's reign wished to reclaim their former French lands in particular Normandy as they still claimed by the Channel Islands, which were part of the duchy of Normandy. The death of Margaret of York would further these plans as Margaret fostered connections between Burgundy and England as dowager for both nations while doing her best to keep England at peace but now John had solidified his reign completely and ran the nation perhaps not completely as smoothly as his half-brother Philip but far better than Richard III, or Henry VI, he now sought glory and wished to restart the age old rivalry with France. This would be further increased with an alliance with Aragon by his eldest son, Arthur marrying Catherine of Aragon youngest child of Isabella of Castille.

This circle of enemies around France would be further increased when Maximilian finally announced his intention of taking the actual title of Holy Roman Emperor. Maximilian had spent so much time campaigning in Switzerland, Hungary, Bohemia, and Bavaria he did not undertake the usual Italienzug until 1508 and joined up with the League of Cambrai. This complete anti-French alliance would be the epitome of Louis' great diplomacy and strength however and he would soundly defeat them all in pitched battle. Immediately he began negotiations with the emperor over partitioning Venice with him and bringing back the long dead margarvate of Verona. The empire itself only provided 15000 men and with Louis in Milan at the head of an army, the emperor reluctantly agreed, determining it would be better to march south through Venice to arrive at Rome. Other reasons was the argument over Milan which Burgundy wished for one of their own partisans to take it over or to decide by right of conquest instead of returning the lands to Sforza who at this point was an imperial puppet. Importantly for Maximilian was the lack of trust given to him by the Venetians who obviously didn't rightfully believe in the emperor not leaving Venice after the Italienzug. This betrayal by the emperor would shake Burgundy especially considering the pope was a newly anointed French partisan. The French would strike first into Venice attacking the League of Cambrai much to their horror and shock. Things would go downhill immediately, as Venice would decisively defeat Maximilian throughout the campaign using ostensibly Burgundian mercenaries and Philip's army would engage Louis' in Milan.

This offensive led by France and the Holy Roman Emperor would come to an end as a three year truce signed between the emperor and Venice would be signed as Burgundian mercenaries raided Carniola, Carinthia and as far as Styria. This betrayal of the emperor wouldn't shake Louis' resolve as he would decisively defeat Philip near Geneva signing a humiliating peace with Burgundy and England giving up Picardy, Boulogne Calais and importantly Champagne back to France. These defeats were masterminded by the Bourbons lead by Charles who led a brutal joint naval-army campaign against the English and Burgundians raiding London and Amsterdam. Ferdinand who already lost brutally in the second Italian war would not make the same mistake however, learning and updating his armies conquering Naples outright and leading raids that devastated all of Aquitaine and as far as Toulouse. These decisive victories would see Charles of Savoy flee to Burgundy as his lands were conquered, Genoa crushed brutally in a revolt and Florence expanded conquering Siena and Lucca in wars and practically establishing the Medici as dukes of Florence or Tuscany de facto although it would still be called a republic.

A new alliance was formed between Venice and the Pope in the hopes of decisively driving the French out of Italy once and for all backed by the Spanish and the imperials lead a brutal war against France and Ferrara. This would give France the change to retake Naples however, decisively conquering almost all of the papacy except Latium itself while Venice would be driven into a corner giving up huge lands west to the duchy of Milan as Louis would conquer the lands that were once held by his ancestors the Visconti of Milan. Importantly with the peace would also allow himself to invade Naples and begin to fight the Spanish fiercely driving them out of Naples proper and preparing an invasion of Sicily itself. Charles of Bourbon would also led a two pronged attack into Navarre and Barcelona. The peace of Capua would merely confirm the territorial gains of 1504 seizing Sicily itself finally reuniting the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily uniting them into a full kingdom of Sicily.

The changing of the pope from a French partisan into a warrior pope against French interests in 1511 however would doom the incredible win of Louis XII who saw the emperor finally join the Burgundians in the Holy League which was a remake of League of Cambrai in which Venice, Burgundy, Spain, England, and the Habsburgs would finally join together in a war against France this would be shown clearly with the double marriage of Charles and Eleanor of Spain with Albert and Anne of Austria. This final alliance would not even drive out France out of Milan as a series of successful pitched battles by Louis would keep his domain of Milan completely secure but the loss of Naples, Champagne, Picardy could not be understated as John would finally lead his dream chevauchee in Normandy while Philip would finally complete his reforms of his armies and decisively defeat Charles at Beauvais and lay his siege of Paris. The peace of Brussels however would set in the reality of France's power. Catherine of Navarre would renounce all of her claims to Foix lands, Ferdinand would gain Calabria, Bari and Otranto, Milan would be expanded much to Venice's expense. Genoa would remain a French Vassal, the Expansion of the pope and Florence would also be recognized, Savoy was annexed by France, Burgundy and England would regain their lost lands in the peace of Nancy of 1509, and Austria would gain minor territorial concessions from Venice.

The death of Louis XII, the father of the people and the scrouge of Italy would come as a shock as well, since Louis did not have any male heirs, his cousin Francis assumed the throne by also marrying Louis' daughter Renee legally binding Brittany to France he would also assume the lands of Milan and Naples. His fiscal administration and improvements in military strained France ever so slightly but made him incredibly popular with both the nobility and people. The conquest of Milan and Naples would further the Italian renaissance in spreading into France. His military brilliance in fighting practically all of Europe would be spoken of for generations but arguably it would be these conquests that would be slowly undone becoming the lasting legacy of Italy as a new equilibrium would set between Burgundy, Habsburgs, and Spain in Italy. Arguably he bested Philip the Rich and Maximilian the Last Knight in both military and diplomacy. France would be set by Louis XII as the most powerful christian state in Europe and it would remain so until the Valois succession crisis.

 

[Liminia1]

Philip the Rich's final years were completely dedicated to two things, Italy and the Empire. His Italian policy was practically speaking a complete failure but his imperial policy was far more complicated and arguably more successful. His failures in Italy was evident as the loss of Milan, temporary loss of Savoy and just the complete dominance of France in Italy but his policy towards England, the Kalmar Union and the Holy Roman Empire was more disputed and far more complex. The death of Arthur, prince of Wales would devastate John and Elizabeth. Burgundy under Philip the Rich was unable to capitalize on the death to further improve Burgundian relations with England as Margaret of Burgundy was already betrothed to Christian II of Denmark. England would begin to orient themselves to slowly detach themselves from Burgundy and began to reinforce their alliance with Spain by having Richard IV marry his brother's widow Catherine. The double marriage of Cecily of York to James IV of Scotland and Catherine of England to James of Ross would strengthen ties considerably with Scotland.

In the Kalmar Union, Burgundy would arguably see the greatest success as John of Denmark died and Christian II took the three crowns, importantly to Philip was his daughter Margaret ascending as queen of the Kalmar Union. Arguably the investment of Burgundian funds into securing Sweden for both John and Christian would pay off as Burgundy would completely overtake the Hanseatic League in terms of relevance and naval power basically taking over their respective trade routes and expanding it beyond the Baltic Sea, heading into the British Isles, France, Iberia and Italy. However, the death of John would spark another war of succession over Sweden which Christian much to Philip's anger would play incredibly recklessly. The Stockholm Bloodbath of 1517 with Philip at his deathbed, chroniclers reported Philip's annoyance over what transpired stating, "He has made far too many enemies." However, historians generally agree that Philip's policy in the Kalmar Union was an overwhelming success in terms of financial and naval power.

The following imperial diets after the war of Landshut Succession were focused on one thing in particular for Burgundy: the marriage between Maria of Julich-Berg and Henri, Prince of Namur. Maximilian who did not wish to see further expansion for Burgundy was quite against the marriage proposal but circumstances forced him on the back foot for the entire affair. Maria who was raised in the luxurious Burgundian court of Nancy starting in 1496 was quite keen on marrying the young son of Philip who chroniclers describe their relationship as incredibly fond of each other. This marriage would be further solidified by the agreement of 1496 which saw Maria to be raised in Burgundy and Philip taking joint control of the territories of Julich-Berg with Sibylle of Brandenburg due to William IV's mismanagement of the estates. This agreement was recognized by both the general estates of Burgundy and estates of Julich-Berg who were sent lofty promises of Burgundian wealth, proper management and general improvement of their state by Philip. The two parties that opposed this outright was the Electorate of Saxony and importantly the emperor who pushed for a marriage between Maria and Henry IV of Saxony. This interest in not seeing Julich-Berg handed over to the Burgundy would place a lot of strain on the relationship between the emperor and Burgundy. Isabella, Holy Roman Empress was originally sent to Austria in order to improve relations between Burgundy and the empire but this succession issue would be what drove the Habsburgs away from Burgundy, arguably it would be one of the reasons why Isabella's own journals describe the struggle between her homeland and her husband.

The diet of 1505 and 1507 would finally settle the matter, reconciling the two and fully implementing the diet's resolution of the Landshut Succession would return Imperial-Burgundian relations to pre-1491 at face value for a brief period but this would have drastic consequences for Burgundy. Arguably this spat over Julich-Berg would cause the disaster that was Louis XII's war for Italy due to a lack of unity between especially Burgundy and the Habsburgs. Some historians would dispute this as they would argue the diet of 1512 would firmly set the empire against Burgundy as a redrawing of the imperial circles began. The imperial circles of 1500 were quite large but would cause friction within the imperial princes and this popular revolt against the imperial circles would be spearheaded by the reformist electors who were backed by Burgundy. By 1512, Burgundy at this point was by far the richest and most powerful prince in the empire rivalling the likes of England and France as a prince and they were not even the emperor. Maximilian on the other hand continued what can be described as centralizing reforms, merging the two chancellery positions in the empire into one and basing it in Tyrol. He also dissolved the Reichsregiment an imperial government that gave incredible power to the electors and had it dissolved through factionalism and an agreement with Burgundy. The expansion and reorganization of the imperial circles would give Philip even further control and centralization. The creation of the Austrian Circle and the splitting of the Saxon circle into a lower and upper Saxon circle would not be of any note to Burgundy but the inclusion of Aachen and Julich into the Burgundian circle was of particular note to Philip.

The free city of Aachen was a city eagerly desired by the Burgundian dukes, while Philip the Good did not influence Aachen at all during his reign due to his focus primarily on the lowlands. Charles the Absolute and Philip the Rich would absolutely influence it. Charles started the process through economic warfare and pure Burgundian wealth politics, having turning the Rhine into a Burgundian vessel of economic dominance, Aachen was a victim of this economic prosperity and dominance as under Philip more and more merchants and people in Aachen became Burgundian partisans in order to share into this wealth. Aachen while incredibly large as a free city under both Philip and Charles would fall completely under Philip's influence when the city agreed to install Philip as its protector in 1511. The city of Cologne would also fall under this sway although much less successfully throughout Philip's reign only the election of a new Burgundian partisan as archbishop did this process complete although it was officially more of an Cologne dominance disguised as Burgundian dominance. It would be these reasons in which Maximilian would move the coronation site was moved to Frankfurt, far easier to influence for the emperor rather than Aachen.

The death of Vladislaus II of Bohemia would be the last opportunity for Maximilian to expand his realm. The bohemian nobility who at this point ran rampant and practically stripped the king of his power would elect a Brandenburger to the throne, George IV of Bradenburg-Ansbach. George was sent by the Habsburgs to secure Maximilian's eventual ascension to the throne and would build up quite a large pro-Habsburg faction within the crown of Bohemia and yet when he was elected, he would try to turn this faction into his own. Maximilian on the other hand, was quite experienced with elective monarchies, having himself dealt with the Hungarian magnates throughout various noble uprisings would raise a massive army and coup d'etat George from the throne. Maximilian within a couple of months conquered the entirety of the kingdom and with the justification of the treaty of Pressburg forced the Bohemian nobility to accept him as king. Brandenburg was not pleased with the news however, considering one of their own was about to hold the coveted crown of Bohemia but through forceful negotiation both George and Brandenburg accepted Maximilian as the new king of Bohemia. Burgundian presence in this event was little to none. Arguably this would be Philip's greatest foreign policy failure allowing the Habsburgs to secure an electoral vote that was not seen since Albert II of Germany, and Ladislaus V of Austria. Historians still debate on the exact reasoning for Philip's failure to intervene but generally they agreed it was a mixture of bribery, goodwill against the French, and facade diplomacy on the Habsburg side.

In 1517, Philip the Rich arguably the most powerful prince of the empire passed away. His son Henri would assume the title Duke Palatine of Burgundy within the month through another total agreement by the estates of Burgundy which now was joined by Julich-Berg. His reign had fundamentally shifted Burgundy from a weird Franco-imperial state into a centralized de facto kingdom within the empire. His foreign policy achievements gave rise to the House of Calais, a Burgundian queen of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, a complete vassalage of Savoy, the privilegium Lotharingia, a solidification of imperial electoral votes until the religious wars of the empire, and importantly the start of the Burgundian golden age. Yet his failures were completely shown in the war of Bohemian succession, Italian wars of Charles and Louis and the war of Landshut Succession. Ironically the day after he passed away, Martin Luther a Saxon priest would nail his 95 theses to a church door beginning the protestant reformation which would shake Burgundy fundamentally until the counter-reformation. It is undisputed however that Philip turned Burgundy from the premier peer of France into the premier and first prince of the Holy Roman Empire.

 

[Liminia1]

So I'm not really good at this whole family tree thingy but here we go:

Charles I the Absolute of Burgundy 1433 - 1480 [1467 - 1480] m. Catherine of France 1428 - 1446 {1440 - 1446} m. Isabella of Bourbon 1434 - 1465 {1454 - 1465} m. Margaret of York 1446 - 1503 {1469 - 1480}

Philip IV the Rich of Burgundy 1457 - 1517 {1480 - 1517} m. Anne of Champagne 1461 - 1522 {1475 - 1517}​

Charles II, count of Charolais 1480 - 1488 betrothed to: Elizabeth of the Palatine 1483 - 1522 {1485 - 1488}​

Margaret of Burgundy 1487 - 1526 m. Christian II of Denmark 1481 - 1559 [1513 - 1523] {1502 - 1526}​

Henri I the Fortunate of Burgundy 1489 - 1557 {1517 - 1557} m. Maria of Julich-Berg 1491 - 1543 {1509 - 1543 }​

John II the Fair of England 1469 - 1522 [1486 - 1522] m. Elizabeth of York 1465 - 1519 {1486 - 1519}​

Arthur, Prince of Wales 1488 - 1502 betrothed to: Katherine of Aragon 1486 - 1540 {1501 - 1502}​

Margaret of England 1489 - 1541 m. Francis de Bourbon, stadholder of Boulogne, Artois and Picardy 1491 - 1545 {1506 - 1541}​

Richard IV of England 1491 - 1455 [1522 - 1555] m. Katherine of Aragon 1486 - 1540 {1503 - 1540}​

Isabella of Burgundy 1472 - 1534 betrothed to: Charles VIII of France 1470 - 1498 {1475} m. Maximilian of Austria, King of Bohemia and Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor 1459 - 1519 {b. 1473 - 1475} {1489 - 1519}​

Albert III of Austria, Duke of Milan, King of Bohemia and Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor (disp. w John Zapolya for Hungary from 1526 - 1540) 1491 - 1541 [1519 - 1541] m. Eleanor of Spain 1498 - 1553 {1508 - 1541}​

Anne of Austria 1492 - 1535 {1508 - 1535} m. Charles I of Spain 1498 - 1555 [1498 - 1555] {1508 - 1535}​

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Eleanor of Austria 1495 - 1553 {1520 - 1550} m. William IV of Bavaria 1493 - 1550 [1508 - 1550]​

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Frederick of Austria, count of Chur, 1496 - 1549 [1521 - 1549] m. Elizabeth Corvinus 1496 - 1537 {1511 - 1537}​

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Elizabeth of Austria, 1500 - 1546 {1520 - 1535} m. Francesco II Sforza of Milan 1495 - 1535 [1521 - 1535]​

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[Liminia1]

Philip the Rich could be described as one of the most important dukes of Burgundy's history, some people would argue that Philip was one of the prime examples of the great man theory of history yet that could not be ever more false as Burgundy while constantly centralized under Philip, it would be lead by a variety of forces guiding it both domestically and internationally. An interesting way to display Philip's reign would be through the women in his life as various important decisions he made was by the guidance of his mother, sister, wife or daughter. It would be reciprocal as well with the argument that Philip drastically affected all of these people more than they affected him. His mother, Isabella of Bourbon who did not portray as strong of an influence especially compared to Margaret of York or Anne of Champagne would start the young duke's journey, learning Dutch and French throughout the boy's time in Holland. This would be one of the many reasons why he would visit Holland frequently and why he was so popular amongst the people there.

His stepmother on the other hand, had a far larger impact on Philip. Margaret of York would arguably be the person who imprinted Philip the most in terms of court, personality, and knowledge. Margaret who at this point was raised in the court of England and of Richard of York, who was the most powerful noble of the English realm was sent into the extravagant court of Burgundy that was maintained by Charles the Absolute. Arguably, Margaret shaped her stepson into a better version of her husband, teaching him English, German, Italian and Latin. The thrust into governance and administrative work would shape the young duke who strengthened the ducal council throughout his reign in terms of advice and scope much to Margaret's delight. Perhaps the most important thing Margaret fostered in Philip was the enjoyment of courtly ritual, life and of the arts. Philip was unlike his father in the sense that he was not an avid hunter, or swordsman. Instead, Philip could be seen as a true renaissance prince, enjoying the arts of falconry, manuscript creation, paintings in the style of Antwerp Mannerism and importantly architecture in particular renaissance-style architecture and late gothic architecture.

Charles the Absolute however would further the development of this renaissance prince but add a far more militaristic attachment to it. Philip would be leading armies with his bastard uncle Anthony in Charles' wars against France and the Swiss in which Anthony was not impressed with Philip's overall performance stating, "This heir would only arrive at the battlefield in the war was already won." Philip's military skill was more dedicated towards belief in his captain's skills and his logistics constantly leading an army that would be far larger than what his opponent expected or would constantly take them by surprise with usually extra reinforcements. He would not take to the sword, or fighting in general. Some records of the time showed that Philip did indeed have some proficiency in combat but Philip distasted personal combat which was unlike both his father and grandfather. The mutual adoration of Italy that Philip and Charles shared would be greatly expressed in the form of sponsorships and requests by the Burgundians. Charles believed in Italian mercenaries and with the side effect of spreading renaissance ideas in the Burgundian court. Philip focused entirely on these side effects granting generous commissions, buying various manuscripts and importantly sponsoring crafts to further improve the Burgundian court.

The extravagance of a permanent court was tested at Reims with Philip and Anne being the ones to truly generate this glittering and golden court for France. This rough draft of a court of the likes of King Arthur or of the Eastern Romans would finally see fruit in the massive construction and completion of the Palace of Colchis. This palace was just outside of the capital of Nancy for Burgundy and would show in full display the experience, and extravagance of the Burgundian court that was flourishing since the days of Philip the Good. Chroniclers would detail in great wealth and pride, the elaborate procedures for every minute detail in Colchis while describing in mouth-watering detail the amount of luxury the Burgundian dukes had in Nancy. The palace would not only be designed for the ducal lifestyle, it would also serve as the place where the majority of Burgundian governance took place and it is due to this richness and investment that the entire palace including the current Burgundian parliament was declared a UNESCO world heritage site due to the vast amounts of art, culture and wealth poured into this palace. Philip the Rich implemented drawing rooms, glittering hallways, libraries, and galleries decorating the entire palace. Other important royalist palace sites were in Malines, Brussels, Dijon, Amsterdam and Bruges. These palaces were officially residences of the various governors or stadholders of Burgundy held and the royal family would move around these palaces in order to better connect their realm and their people.
Philip the Rich was arguably the last ruler to deal with feudalism and would use feudal contracts as a means of expansion but with his centralizing authority, he got rid of any feudal contract he had with his subjects as soon as possible.

The general estates of Burgundy which were already quite established and entrenched in the Burgundian government was almost completely nullified with the agreement of the estates in 1483 with the implementation of regular taxes amongst the nobility and merchants in exchange for various forgivements of fines and special aides. Philip would still levy special aides in order to further Burgundian domination however, due to the now steady and permanent tax revenue those times were few and far in between. Philip dealt with feudal contracts with malevolent force, using the court of Malines, threats and bribes the urban resistance that troubled Charles and Philip the Good would barely exist for Philip the Rich. The stadholder positions were firmly established and made it near impossible for any stadholder to rebel against Burgundy. Some people would argue that Philip was the first "capitalist" monarch with his increasing expenditure to the Burgundian navy and in particular the Burgundian Indies Company. Historians however disagree with the notion that Philip was capitalist as under Philip the Hanseatic strangle hold over trade in the Baltic or North Sea was completely shattered and gave Philip the lion's share of wealth. This could be further proven with the rapid investment in the Burgundian populace and infrastructure for Burgundy allowing greater quantities of goods such as Burgundian wine or glasses of Champagne. Arguably these measures were geopolitical and mercantilistic in nature as Philip saw the devastating economic blockade done by Louis XI against Burgundy and Philip looked to divest his sources of grain.

Philip's marriage to Anne of Champagne was a very happy one between the two, while it was not as openly romantic as the one between Isabella and Maximilian, many chroniclers agree that their marriage was very warm compared to the other arranged marriages of Europe at the time. Anne's enjoyment of court life, patronage and of the arts certainly would have given the couple plenty to bond over while Anne arguably was more Burgundian than French having been born during Louis' exile. Philip would take on the same devoutness towards his wife as his father Charles had but Philip's relationship was well documented with grief and sadness. Philip and Anne would have three children, and a stillborn child that nearly took Anne's life in 1485. It would be for this reason that Anne would not be pregnant until it was absolutely necessary such as 1488 with the sudden death of Charles II of Charolais. His relationship with his children was quite strong as well, Margaret of Burgundy would be the most well documented as Anne and Philip taught her the strict Burgundian etiquette and turned her into a renaissance princess in order to make any man fall for her which would work well in her marriage with Christian II of Denmark. Anne's raising of Maria of Julich-Berg would also be just as well documented as the two women bonded over being heiresses and Maria would grow to be a darling in the Burgundian court.

It would not only be personal and courtly matters that Anne would intervene in Philip's life. The regency of France would be a well documented episode over Anne's influence over her husband. Philip who understood that he would not be seen well in France allowed his wife Anne to take the spotlight which paid off in spades. Her persuasion over marrying Charles II of Charolais to Elizabeth of the Palatine would not be as successful as the French regency. Philip was hesitant on going to war against the emperor and the Bavarians believing rightfully Burgundy would gain nothing from it but Anne convinced him otherwise. Her negotiations at the various peaces signed between Burgundy and France can not be overstated as it would be mostly her that got her brother to sign the treaty of Dijon. The fruitful truces of the Italian wars along with the Treaty of Brussels, Anne had some impact over, however importantly both Philip and Anne's goals aligned near completely the total creation of a Burgundian Kingdom.

If there was a person to summarize Burgundian-Imperial relations, it would be Isabella of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empress. Her strategic marriage with Maximilian of Austria was a golden opportunity for Philip's complete relation with the empire, turning them into a complete ally in the war of Lotharingia and the subsequent privileges of Burgundiae and Lotharingia. Isabella would also finally end the conflict over Further Austria, when Maximilian inherited Tyrol and Isabella's dowry which was a massive cash injection of the war-torn and money strapped Austria, again these negotiations allowed Burgundy to further their ambitions in the Swabian region. Isabella would also be the lynchpin of the great alliance against France in the Italian wars for both Charles' invasion and Louis' great conquest. Yet, her relationship with Philip would slowly deteriorate over the Italianzug, war of Landshut Succession, Bohemia and the imperial diets. Arguably it would be her that pushed Philip to not intervene in the short Bohemian Succession war.

His brother, John II the Fair of England, would dictate Burgundian-English policy as the chaotic process of getting John on the throne would pay off in spades in terms of Burgundian dominance as the Burgundian navy that was built up by Philip and Charles decisively defeated the divided English navy in Dover and Calais respectively which would set the Burgundian Indies Company to a trade war against Iberia and the Hanseatic League. The fruit of this relationship would be the runaway marriage of Francis of Bourbon and Margaret of England. The negotiations with a Burgundian proxy and English princess were quite humiliating in terms of English prestige but for Burgundy it would give further the Burgundian advantage as already with John's ascension, Flemish cloth makers were quite privileged in the trade for English wool, with John's ascension and the marriage of Margaret to Francis would allow Philip to directly monopolize the trade for some time. It would be this new house of Calais that would pull England into an incredibly tight bond with Burgundy until the English Civil War.

Philip's later years of foreign policy would be baffling to contemporaries but praised universally by Philip's successors who argued that his foresight was just beyond what others understood at the time. Philip would reorient Burgundian power and influence northwards which was especially shown with the rejection of the marriage between Margaret of Burgundy to Frederick of Naples, and marrying her off to Christian II of Denmark. This effort would be solely decidated to supplanting the Hanseatic league in terms of naval dominance, chroniclers state that Philip desired a removal from instead France supplying Burgundy with grain and food, instead looking to Poland in particular for food supplies. It would be the start of Burgundian naval dominance and would be used to dominate a war of Portuguese succession to take over the monopolies of the East Indies in particular along with the various colonial wars fought between Burgundy, England, France, Spain and Portugal. To Philip and his contemporaries, they saw this endeavour as necessary but expensive and not worth the cost to maintain mercantilism for Burgundy.

The most controversial decisions with Philip was undoubtedly his relationship with the church. The favouritism the popes displayed upon Burgundy was still present but to a much lesser degree. Philip would spend the majority of his clerical affairs to pardon and remove renaissance artists, and scientists from charges of heresy from the pope. Ironically it would be this heavy level of pressure and funding that would spark the early efforts of mediatisation of the Burgundian state, along with various reformist clerics and scholars. Philip just like his predecessors placed an enormous emphasis on learning, funding universities already in the urbanized areas and implementing various clerical reforms importantly would be the formation of the Burgundian crown-cardinal under pope Leo X in 1516. Erasmus who was a very famous Catholic humanist, was appointed and reluctantly accepted the position of crown-cardinal of Flanders. The reasons for Philip's appointment of Erasmus were vast and complex, arguably it was his belief in the fifth council of the Lateran which Philip looked at quite closely and eagerly would be the main reasons as Erasmus was quite famous amongst the Burgundian universities for his expertise and vast knowledge of theology and science. However, importantly for Philip the goals of strengthening clerical education and cracking down on church extravagances were something they both agreed, Erasmus believing that the church should be more focused on education rather than power and wealth, Philip seeing it as a way to gain even more power. This strengthening of the crown in opposition against the church would be furthered by his successor of Henri I of Burgundy, and his appointment of the leader of the counter-reformation to the position of crown cardinal during the council of Trent: John Calvin. Philip would arguably pursue a balance between Catholicism and religious tolerance which was something that was taught interesting by himself, as he would write in his manuscripts: "The failure of the crusades makes me believe that wars over religion are not what God intended, neither has our saviour called for the killing of people who sinned but merely told us to forgive and let god make that judgement." He would remain an adamant catholic personally however, seeing to a revival of catholic oriented painting and churches although whether there was any political motive behind it was heavily debated.

Philip the Rich could very easily be described as the penultimate Duke of Burgundy. Finishing the centralizing reforms of administration and judicial powers of his father, Charles the Absolute. His complete expansion of the Burgundian court that would be far more extravagant and elaborate than his grandfather, Philip the Good. Importantly his expansion efforts into Vaud, Alsace and Frisia would be considered the end goals of the Burgundian state as they would truly restore the ancient kingdom of Lotharingia. Unlike his father however, Philip was not the diplomatic genius or military genius compared to him. The indecisive wars fought against France would only be won due to internal strife within France, the Italian wars that Philip fought were disastrous for the Burgundian state. Interestingly it would be Philip's overconfidence in the Burgundian military that would cause this loss as Burgundy arguably was the leader in pike warfare and the wars that Philip lost were either the loss of cavalry that was placed in effect by Matthias Corvinus and Maximilian or the replication and expansion shown by Charles VIII and Louis XII. Henri I would however turn the tables by exploiting the usage of German mercenaries Landsknecht that Maximilian revolutionized and the incredible wealth generation from Philip would allow Burgundy to seamlessly transition into the Gunpowder age. His diplomatic skills would be far more complicated, arguably Charles' later foreign policy was in large part due to Philip's advice but his failure to maintain that imperial alliance would doom his imperial policy, his exploitation of France while successful would cost them dearly in the vengeance of 1509 but his diplomacy would secure Burgundy peace internally arguably throughout his entire reign. Perhaps Richard Vaughan described him the best, "He threw a lot more luck into the equation of Burgundian policy than his father, giving him greater success and greater failure."

 

[Liminia1]

Good day fellow historians, I am [Insert Self-OC] and welcome to the History 206: Gateway to the Renaissance. Please settle down and take a seat. So thank you for choosing this course as part of your undergraduate degree in history. I do hope all of you will learn various things, importantly the ability to question and look through things from a critical perspective and today we will be discussing Philip the Rich of Burgundy. I'm sure all of you remember him from your high school history classes where there is a small paragraph describing the events portrayed throughout his life and reign. Certainly if you people were fascinated by him, you would have done your research and read through a couple of novels before joining this class. I don't expect all of you to have read about him beforehand by the way, but I'm fairly certain all of you agree the man is popular amongst the general public and historians right?

classroom nods heads

Great let's begin, let's recap Philip's life and reign throughout Burgundy. He was born a prince, raised in Holland, moved to Lorraine, became duke, shifted Burgundy into the empire, expanded it slightly and left it in an incredibly good spot for his heir. That's the general 60 second version right? Or at least what other people know if they haven't studied Burgundy like anyone not in this classroom right?

silence follows

Let us start first, his childhood shall we? People keep having this misinterpretation of Philip being a people's king and one who truly was with the people at the time. Unlike his predecessors who exclusively spoke French and used dutch translators in order to communicate with their subjects or learned dutch later throughout their lives. Philip the Rich didn't necessarily push to learn Dutch out of his own free will or out of his parent's belief in the Dutch language. It was just pure politics, the stadholder position of Holland was one of the most prestigious, wealthy and important ranks in government. Charles' appointment there would push the family into Holland. Arguably Charles and Isabella's raising of Philip to the Dutch language was because the local elite within Holland spoke exclusively dutch. Yes Charles realized that Dutch was going to be dominant throughout Burgundy but this was not to further reach out to the people but merely to solidify ties with the elites. This isn't some nationalist or ideal ruler of the people's moment for Philip. It was just common sense and smart rulership.

The marriage of Anne and Philip would be more likely of Louis' failure and not some forbidden romance as some romanticists like to depict. A lot of historians call this match a match made in heaven, let's discuss the implications of the marriage and how it came to be. 1461, is when Anne of Champagne was born and when the betrothal discussions already persisted. She was born in modern day Burgundy, and some romanticists/revisionists would like to say she was Burgundian by birth, let's be honest she was a French princess. Her marriage and dowry is certainly confusing, why would Louis the Spider give up Champagne to Burgundy. I think the main reason was that he believed with his death Burgundy would inherit France. That's literally it, Burgundy I will note is the most powerful state beside France and if Philip inherited France well you just have a supercharged France no? What about the birth of his son Charles VIII? Arguably the independence of Burgundian independence declaration would be key thing keeping Louis away from paying that dowry. Louis arguably spent his money on other endeavours which was the expansion of French Centralization. bureaucracy and army. The plan was that with the poison gift of Champagne it would finally reel Burgundy back into France. Did this work? Not really the death of Louis who died at the age of 60 would hamper these plans probably because he expected to live slightly longer so that his son would be more firmly shaped by him.

The death of Louis didn't magically undo his centralizing reforms that is something that is a genuine myth amongst the general public. Philip weakened France to the point where he could just outright steal champagne. That's just a complete lie, Philip despite a regency that would have greatly benefited with the dismantling of French absolutism, arguably Burgundy needed to dismantle French centralization, absolutely failed in this regard as the instruments of French strength such as the parlament, royalist officer corps, and the rights of the nobility. Philip didn't do any of that in fact he absolutely failed in this regard. Honestly the French regency was practically completely self interested, you could tell with the separate courts of Reims, Clermont, and Orleans. All parties were only interested in themselves and this would balance it out, yes Orleans, Champagne and Bourbon would gain de facto independence but as soon as Charles ascended the majority, all of these measures were revoked by him. Importantly even in the sole regency, Philip and Anne could do or did do nothing to assist their position in France or to weaken the crown itself.

Student asks: What about the priviliegium lotharingia? Wasn't that just Philip and Anne's genius move?

Looks at student with surprise and a smile

Well let's discuss that shall we? We all have heard of the privilegium Lotharingia. Our "founding document" that truly set Burgundy as a nation rather than an amalgamation of French and imperial vassals. Obviously the lesser version of this was the privilegium burgundiae which bound Brabant, Limburg, Zeeland, Holland and Luxembourg together. This was forged by Charles the Absolute in the marriage of Isabella and Maximilian. Arguably it was an advantageous move made in the greatest moment of Habsburg weakness until the religious wars. It was pretty simple as Burgundy at this point wanted more independence and the Holy Roman Empire was as decentralized and as weak as it can get. So why on earth did Philip and to a lesser degree Charles try to strengthen the Habsburgs to the point of equals without the emperor? We have to discuss the geopolitical situation at the time don't we. Let's examine the Hungarians led by the warrior King Matthias Corvinus. Hungary was a monster in terms of military strength, throughout the early life of Philip the Rich and throughout the reign of Charles the Absolute. The dominance asserted by Matthias could not be understated, he nearly ruined the entire Kingdom of Bohemia and honestly fought a brutal sack of Austria as well. Ironically it would be his policies that would stand the test of time, adopted by the Habsburgs against the Ottomans. Let's not open that jar of worms though. Important to this story was that Matthias desired the title of King of the Romans which is essentially a successor position to the holy roman emperor. Let's double check this, if Matthias is elected as Holy Roman Emperor, this would be disastrous for the Burgundians, a super charged Hungary that also ruled the emperor would bring back a better Sigismund. Both Philip and Charles would not allow this to happen.

The marriage would make common sense right? Back the underdogs in order to secure your own position. That's how the privilegium Lotharingia would be created. This was basically forged by Isabella and Philip to benefit their homeland. Now you may be asking by the time of 1491, why would Maximilian give the privilegium Lotharingia. He basically is Matthias now right? laughs No, Maximilian is not Philip in terms of finance honestly it is a surprise that both Albert and Maximilian didn't bankrupt Burgundy with the amount of loans they had. Matthias had a full fighting force and a war chest to fight it. Maximilian did not, and a good portion of that debt was from the Burgundians so by forgiving this debt for greater privileges it was possible. Honestly this would be the reason why even though Maximilian had plenty of casus belli and reasons to invade Burgundy he never did because Burgundy was his bank basically. So why did Philip fund Maximilian then? He just probably didn't believe him, while he had great military victories, the loss of the Swiss and the failure of diplomacy throughout the 1490s was probably why Philip was very comfortable with Austria. Austria had no allies other than Burgundy and maybe Bavaria. All of the "allies" were all weak and loose at best in not non existent in reality at worse. I will also note, Maximilian only got the crown by surrendering privileges to the nobility to be elected and would spent the rest of his reign trying to recover that authority. So yes, Philip made the smart move in allying the Habsburgs, so what about 1516? The bohemian succession? Honestly this one was probably Isabella's fault. Isabella and Maximilian were a very passionate couple despite the age difference, importantly Isabella was ambitious. I guess this was due to both the Burgundian pride of their own duchy and the fact within two years of her marriage she would be proclaimed queen of Hungary. That's bound to inflate one's ego, a mixture of persuasion and Burgundy just being incredibly busy and not risking imperial support in the Italian wars was probably why by the end of Philip's reign his imperial policy was a disaster no? He lost the war of Landshut Succession and made the Austrians an equal on their own footing to Burgundy.

His Italian wars, oh boi where do we begin. Is the failure of the Italian wars a complete failure on Philip or on Charles? Charles' Italian policy was by all extents a masterpiece aligning Savoy, Milan, Venice, Rome and Naples to either be a firm Burgundian ally or pro-Burgundian/anti-French. This status quo formed by Charles is probably unrealistic to last but Philip's way of maneuvering probably screwed over Italy completely. First of all, Philip did not renew the Burgundy-Naples alliance that was formed back in the 1470s. Arguably this was Philip's biggest mistake with the death of Valois-Anjou this gave France very strong claims to Naples. If Burgundy remained allied with Naples it might possibly be the end of the Italian wars. The maneuvering of Milan away from Burgundy into the empire was avoidable as well, honestly this was down due to lack of attention in the Italian peninsula other than Savoy. Philip could very easily fix this, the betrothal of Philibert to Bianca Sforza. Burgundy had a very clean shot to influence the Milanese through her but didn't do anything at all instead focusing on the north and Vaud. Venice on the other hand was practically abandoned and left to the wolves by Philip. I could go on about the failures of Italy including the attempted marriage of Margaret with Frederick but we can discuss that at a later date.

Finally let's discuss his "proudest" foreign policy achievement. The Scandinavian or anti-Hanseatic foreign policy. It was a confusing and wild storm of lucky policies. The expansion of the Burgundian navy began during the war of the roses and Charles' failure in stopping Margaret of Anjou in invading England so Burgundy already had a decent navy staffed by newly minted captains. Philip would expand these naval achievements by putting them into experience with the placement of his brother John onto the throne, so we have an incredibly powerful navy but instead of sending it out westwards towards the new world or even south towards the med or Africa in order to gain a better foothold on the lucrative Silk Road, he decides to bank on the Hanseatic league by placing all of his money onto the Kalmar Union. I can not state how bad of an idea this was, Philip was already keenly aware that the Kalmar Union was a nightmare in terms of dealing with the nobility, heck he had to intervene two separate times against the Swedes with the marriage of Margaret and Christian II. Honestly, Philip probably should have expected the war of Danish succession to occur and for Burgundy to just bounced around between Denmark-Norway and Hansa-Sweden.

Oh my look at the time and the fact all of you students are packing up. sigh

This class isn't here to just diss on Philip the Rich. In fact I think he is worthy of the epithet the Rich but this is just a taste on what we are doing in this university course. We will be expanding on what we know throughout history and looking at it through multiple lenses. We were given sort of a golden vision in which Philip did absolutely everything right but I'm here to offer you a perspective where he did nothing original or right. He screwed over the legacy of his father and only succeeded in the main goals such as Frisia, the privilegium Lotharingia and Vaud. This is an interesting take on Philip the Rich, that he screwed his father's long term goals of dominating Italy, ruining France and being elected emperor by strengthening the Habsburgs, not trying to destroy France and just abandoning Italy to the wolves. We'll be back tomorrow to look at other perspectives in history I want to open your eyes and to think of other ways to interpret history. Now go to your next classes and thank you for listening to this lecture.

 

[Liminia1]

Philip's death would provide no peace in fact the troubles of Philip's time such as the Habsburgs, and the Italian wars would be cranked up to 11. A new rise of a great threat which was the rise of Protestantism would prove to be an incredibly difficult challenge for any ruler but Philip's heir would prove to be incredibly adept at dealing with all of these threats, if Philip was the one who founded the golden age of Burgundy then Henri was the one who led it to its peak. The instruments that laid the groundwork for Burgundian court and centralization would be not be touched at all by Henri. His innovation of religious policies, and importantly the beginning of Burgundian intervention and colonialism would lead Burgundy into a genuine world power.

The last moments of Philip's rule allowed Henri to take on the greatest challenge of Philip's reign: The Italian Wars and the treaty of London. John II of England who at this point wished for peace in order to return to dealing with internal affairs began to advocate for a peace which began negotiations over the Treaty of London which Henri attended personally greeting his uncle quite warmly as the duke and showering him with gifts. This negotiation led by Cardinal Wolsey advocated for a pact of non-aggression between Spain, France, Habsburg Austria/Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy and the papacy. Henri smartly realized that this non-aggression pact would be broken and the collective defence agreement would be invalidated due to their own rivalling interests decided to make the treaty a show of Burgundian generosity and would explore London and meet with the English people himself. This meeting would also put him into contact with the Spanish and Portuguese who spread rumours of great wealth in the new world which piqued his interest, already Burgundy was the dominant naval power throughout Europe rivalling the Spanish and was very open to exploration efforts just like his father.

Maximilian's death in 1519 would be a thunderstorm that would shake the empire, Henri was already quite prepared with the election at hand securing the palatine, Cologne and Trier to his side. Albert III who only strongly had Bohemia began to fight for control for the remaining electoral votes, the papacy began to back Albert's candidacy wary of Philip's and Henri's push of Leo's predecessor's goals of the fifth council of lateran. Francis I of France formed an uneasy alliance with Burgundy, in order to secure Milan they backed the Burgundian bid for the throne along with English led by John II. It would be this French backing that would doom the imperial bid for the Burgundians as Mainz, Brandenburg and Saxony were already wary of an incredibly powerful Burgundy and believing this French backing would doom the empire to French expansionism took on the promises of Albert III to host a diet to solve the heresy of Martin Luther along with a crusade against the Turks. Burgundy's attempts at diplomacy and bribery would fail but to Henri and according to his chroniclers, he never genuinely desired the imperial crown only seeking to ruin the French treasury as it was France who backed the bribes and to strengthen the connections Henri had over his electors.

The coronation of Albert III, Archduke of Austria and King of Bohemia and Hungary would be wrought with controversy as instead of Aachen, where the Burgundians were completely present, he convinced both Burgundy and Aachen itself to move it to Frankfurt. Henri sacrificed the coronation place for something that would be considered minute for Albert but actually consequential for Burgundy. Henri who had studied history and importantly the investiture controversy saw something somewhat exploitable, while the papacy had spiritual authority over prince-bishoprics it would be the emperor that would invest that bishop with the imperial prince title. He strengthened the priviliegium lotharingia with the authority to purchase the secular authority which was the domain of a prince bishopric of specific bishoprics: Tournai, Cambrai, Verdun, Metz, Toul, Liege, Utrecht, Basel, and Strasbourg. This small concession was quite easily granted due to the fact it was frankly obvious, those bishoprics could not leave the Burgundian sphere of influence. Henri however would face great opposition from the papacy. Albert III however would face further problems in Hungary and in the diet of worms.

The election of Leo X as papal controller would tie Florence to the Papal States and would further his own interests against the most powerful ruler in Italy, the Duke of Milan and the King of Naples and France: Francis I. Pope Leo X who at this point realized with the French treasury exhausted from the imperial bid for the election began to formulate a genius plan to kick out France from Italy for good, allying with the great Spanish king: Charles I promising him the crown of Naples and recognizing the transfer of the Trastamara claim of Naples from Frederick to Ferdinand. Albert III who wanted a win after the disastrous anti-king election of John Zapolya of Hungary joined in this alliance allying with Francesco II of Milan his brother in law in hopes of inheriting Milan joined this alliance. John II who at this point was prepared for the succession of his son Richard IV decided with Cardinal Wolsey to ensure internal peace and a full treasury for his son sat out. Henri already thinking it was long overdue to kick France out of Italy for good joined in this new Holy League.

The overstretched French forces in Italy were no match for the combined Burgundian-Imperial-Spanish triumvirate and drove out France completely within the year. Henri in particular leading his armies in person after watching his father's armies suffer defeat after defeat began to place his hand and mind over the Burgundian army turning it into a professional fighting force rivalling the French in terms of power. Francis would further doom his efforts by breaking the Bourbon powerbase in order to gain more funds and armies to fight in Italy. This betrayal would lead Charles III of Bourbon to pledge his allegiance to the Burgundians who led a devastating campaign into Provence from Savoy against Francis proclaiming himself Count of Provence and declaring that it would leave the French crown and rejoin the empire. Importantly to Henri, the crown of Arles or of Burgundy was transferred from the city of Arles to the city of Aachen, securely but not completely in Burgundian hands.

This short lived conquest of Provence would end with a new invasion led by Francis I, his armies fought a pitched battle against Henri in the battle of Marseille. Henri would retreat due to the size of the army but from his organized defence and retreat, neither side could properly claim victory. Francis returned marching into Milan and trying to remove Francesco II of Milan from his seat in Milan. His advance would be halted in Milan, the pope ironically would switch sides with the death of Pope Leo X now seeing this triumvirate began to eye the papacy and hoping to weaken it too in terms of strength such as the feudal contract of Naples, the imperial-papal relation and importantly for Burgundy the idea of purchasing the prince part of a prince-bishopric. Francis would lead his armies with papal blessing and his own forces against the Milanese in Pavia. The resulting battle would be humiliating for France.

The capture of Francis by the Burgundians would begin to negotiation processes of the treaty of Madrid in 1526. This would firmly end the French dominance of Italy. Francesco II would be restored as Duke of Milan and Charles I would ascend as Charles IV of Naples. Henri's great gain here would be the agreement that the archbishop of Sens to be part of the Burgundian sphere instead of the weird dual rival bishops that France and Burgundy would fight for, while not as large of a concession as Milan or Naples it once again ensured Burgundian internal control and importantly would not risk the ire of France should another war occur in Italy at least not on France's terms. Henri had displayed a return of the a legendary Burgundian diplomacy not seen since the Privilegium Lotharingia. These concessions would be major to Burgundy as Henri rightfully realized the new field of politics would be in religion and he would focus the most on the protestant reformation and the war of Danish succession.

 

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Henri I was raised in an anti-clerical and humanist ideals. The Burgundian court in Nancy was the epitome of the Burgundian renaissance and Henri was raised in this vibrant court studying at length various classics and debating at length with various artists and scholars over various pieces of work. Erasmus would be a key figure in raising the boy, pushing him into renaissance humanism and anti-clericalism. It would be no surprise that with his ascension that Henri would be incredibly receptive and willing to read the 95 theses published by Martin Luther. The protestant reformation ironically would be the epitome of clericalism for Henri and yet the overall goal of this clericalism would be fundamentally to support his own belief in anti-clericalism.

The sale of indulgences by the papacy was a long standing doctrinal allowance which was supposed to be a tool to assist in the path of repentance. However, the late medieval papacy and in particular due to corruption and financial aid began in practice changing the doctrine to forgive sins for money to fund the papal treasury. This combined with the invention of the printing press would explode a lot of various religious viewpoints. This was nothing new as these heresies were very local and minor. Martin Luther would publish his 95 theses against the church and in particular (unironically) to the archbishop of Mainz, the only archbishopric that wasn't funded or indirectly controlled by the Burgundians. The archbishop was backed by Brandenburg and the papacy in order to gain funds to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica which was damaged after the two Italian wars of Charles and Louis. It would be this heresy that would spark major religious debates in Saxony, importantly the Leipzig Debate of 1519.

The excommunication of Martin Luther would further accelerate these efforts, as this excommunication would push Henri into reading the 95 theses himself. It would be his interpretation that would prove Burgundy's position in the reformation. Henri would write extensively to Martin Luther inviting him to Burgundy in front of the duke with safe conduct and had an incredibly long discussion of Catholic Church doctrine, theology and anti-clericalism. Martin would leave Burgundy, only further entrenching Henri in his belief that the state should be above the papacy, however he would not approve of many of the changes of church doctrine or interpretations of the bible: in particular the belief that there is no papacy at all. Martin Luther would write about Henri as: "He reminds me of my younger self before I was excommunicated by the pope." It would be the diet of worms in which Henri would display his full brilliance in dealing with the matter of religion in his state.

Albert III when he ascended to the throne, was immediately struck down low when the remaining old guard magnates of Hungary, that were not replaced by Maximilian elected one of their own, John Zapolya to the throne, seizing all of Hungary for themselves, starting the second war of Hungarian Succession. It would be the Ottoman turks that would end this conflict with the battle of Pest ending with a decisive Hungarian-Ottoman Victory. This victory would cause the kingdom of Hungary to split into two. Loyalist/Royal Hungary which consisted mostly of the western marches of Hungary and the Duchy of Nitra was filled with people loyal to the Habsburg cause, meanwhile the actual Kingdom of Hungary now a new Ottoman tributary would be proclaimed with John seizing the throne. A mixture of Ottoman threats and ottoman support would give John Zápolya, the most powerful magnate of Hungary to take the throne himself with unanimous support.

It is this environment that Albert III would arrive at Worms, the complete loss of Hungary within two years. The loss of the kingdom would also put a lot of pressure in a friendly relationship with the papacy. Albert was recognized by the pope as king of Hungary meanwhile the Italian wars were already aligning the emperor with the pope. Importantly for both Burgundy and Saxony was the election of Albert III as Holy Roman Emperor, this granted Martin Luther an audience in the diet of worms, and granted Burgundy an opportunity to present itself as the true power behind the empire. It would be this great city in which great political reform occurred under Philip the Rich. Henri the Fortunate however, would be present in order to witness great religious upheaval. Both the duke and emperor watched as Johann Eck began to rip apart Luther in theology and scripture constantly pressuring him constantly trying to get him to recant anything. This was unsuccessful and eventually Johann charged Martin Luther with heresy. The edict of Worms which Albert believed would eventually allow him to seize Saxony due to Frederick the Wise's support of Martin Luther charged with the imperial ban, declared him a heretic and an enemy of the state. Henri would be far more conciliatory, promising with his word and his guard that the safe conduct Martin was promised would be enforced. Martin would gratefully return to Saxony, this receptiveness of Burgundy would also be further increased when Martin Luther was invited by Henri to visit Burgundy itself and he would later meet the reformist minister: John Calvin.

Henri would be thrust into two separate wars in order to further his own interests: The German Peasant's war, and the war of Danish succession. The German Peasant's war would see the creation of the county of Chur run by the brother of Albert III: Frederick of Austria. His contributions in Italy, Hungary and now in Swabia granted him the lands that were formerly called the three leagues. Henri himself would focus on one of the smaller peasant wars, the Palatine Peasant Wars in which his armies decisively crushed the protestant peasants. Interestingly enough, they were all condemned by Martin Luther himself. This war would mostly wreak havoc in Swabia and in Tyrol, both of these were in the Habsburg influence but Burgundy could not exploit this weakness as the war of Danish succession would hamper if not doom Burgundy's complete dominance over the empire, if the protestant reformation ruined Austria, the war of Danish succession ruined Burgundy.

Christian II of the Kalmar Union was an absolutist at heart, it would be this absolutism that would cause such a large headache for Henri. Henri was very fond of his sister Margaret as she was the only member of his family left alive, his mother Anne died a year ago. The Stockholm Bloodbath in which Christian had a majority of the nobility killed for treason would spark a large revolt against Christian for Sweden. Henri would send his armies to assist Christian II secure that crown but the Swedish had incredible popular support which Burgundy could not crush, finally Christian would make an enemy of his uncle Frederick and a joint Hanseatic, Holstein, and Swedish effort drove out Christian and his loyalists out of Scandinavia. Burgundy would fight to the last man in order to save Margaret and her husband allowing them to flee and arrive in exile. This war of Danish succession would see Henri grow more and more frustrated with Christian as he would fail in his campaigns in Norway and Denmark. Henri's armies however would find success in Oldenburg once again restoring Christian as Count of Oldenburg.

The death of Margaret of Burgundy who stayed the entire time in Burgundy once again treated as a proper Burgundian duchess would finally rip apart the relationship between Christian and Henri. Henri who was already receptive of Frederick I the new ruler of Denmark and Norway agreed to a peace that would betray Christian by having him imprisoned in Denmark, Henri would gain guardianship over all of Christian's children as he was now their closest blood relative, and importantly Burgundy would gain more trade privileges and a huge indemnity to pay off the debt incurred throughout the war. This complete failure of the war of Danish Succession would weak the diarchy enough to split it into a triarchy with the protestants, Burgundy and Austria all competing against each other for control over the empire.

Burgundy within the year would also buy out all the prince bishoprics, Basel, Verdun, Toul, Metz, Cambrai, Tournai, Utercht, Liege, and Strasbourg. This relatively quick sale of all of these prince-bishoprics would eliminate all of Burgundy's influence over the eecelesiatical bench of the Holy Roman Empire, however they would gain an equal amount of influence in the secular bench which they headed and importantly for Henri, he would gain further control over religion in his own lands by appointing his own bishops who had no secular or political authority and led a mini counter reformation as the implementation and funding of Catholic education dictated by the fifth council of Latheran would be a precursor of the Catholic reformation or as it is called, the Burgundian counter-reformation.

 

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The Italian question was not settled with the complete defeat of the French at Pavia. The most powerful of the states, the papacy still stood between the imperial-spanish alliance. The battle of Pavia didn't immediately doom the papacy as Pope Clement VII who overstretched his forces in alliance with the French. The Colonna faction of the papacy forced a mediation with the newly coronated emperor: Albert III and would mediate the difference giving the emperor incredible power forcing down a compromise between the two factions. This would weaken the papacy considerably and Charles I would take advantage of this situation to finally remove the papacy from his new kingdom.

In 1526, the Kingdom of Naples, a de jure vassal of the Papacy was dissolved along with the Aragonese kingdom of Sicily due to Charles I of Spain wishing to completely remove any other ties to the papacy. Charles would begin to reorganize them as duchies which were under the Aragonese Crown. Through a usage of various of interesting legal wording and importantly through political will he had both kingdoms of Sicily dissolved triggering the papacy. Both of these kingdoms were technically a papal fief and the dissolvement of these kingdoms and assumption into the Crown of Aragon was practically a Declaration of Independence. Charles asserted that he was merely exercising the powers of the treaty of Madrid signed in 1526, however since the papacy was not actually participating in that treaty. Pope Clement VII saw it as treasonous, even worse was the execution of the treaty of Madrid for the Milanese who within the month agreed to the terms and recognized Albert III as heir if Francesco II had no male heirs. Francesco already was not entirely pleased with the imperial presence there along with the forced agreement of recognition and began to seek further allies.

Burgundy who had completely lost the war of danish succession and seeing the chaos that unfolded with the diet of worms and the Swabian Peasant's war saw Italy as an opportunity to further weaken the imperial line and reestablish the ancient Burgundian sphere of Italy that was not seen since the treaty of Moncelari in 1475. France under Henri's attempt at reconciliation with the French through the relatively light terms of the Treaty of Madrid would pay off as Francis, Richard and Henri would meet in Cambrai to sign a new peace and a triple alliance against the Imperial-Spanish alliance coalescing around Italy. This alliance however, would prove to be quite weak as all three parties were only putting aside their conflicts over Artois, Champagne and Calais in order to deny the Habsburgs-Trastamara alliance further power in Italy. This alliance would be further complicated due to the backroom negotiations between the three and the Habsburg-Trastamara. Burgundy was not entirely opposed to Spain seizing Naples as they saw it as impossible to maintain. They were very much steadfast in refusing Habsburg control of Milan however, as they wished to appoint their second son William as Duke of Milan which Francesco was not opposed to as gaining Burgundy as an ally had led Milan to prosper and his people were quite fond of the Burgundians seeing them as the last protectors of peace. France was opposed completely to the Spanish acquisition of Naples from them and wished to retake it especially considering Francis was the former king of Naples himself, he still had ambitions over Milan but he waited patiently to execute those plans. England would be the most unwilling to do so seeing the remarriage of Richard IV with Katherine of Aragon in particular kicking in doubt for the king. Importantly to England, the majority of these talks were under the impression to further boost English prestige and they had no reasons or qualms to war against the Spanish.

The nail in the coffin of this doomed alliance would be the inclusion of Venice joining in this league. Albert III was now quite eager to win glory for himself, and assembled his imperial army with the imperial diet of 1526 in Nuremberg he repealed the edict of worms, giving the protestants more room to breathe and declared a new Italienzug to be coronated as emperor. This direct threat would pit the empire against the League of Cognac. England would leave the war immediately, officially due to a small pretension over the honours given to their king but in reality realizing the situation was hopeless. Henri for his part launched an attack on the protestants who at this point also were in Cologne, his elector and Munster a reformist bishop who betrayed the Burgundian cause. This war between the protestants and Burgundy would keep Henri busy as the various princes of the empire saw this as an attack and breaking of the diet of Worms in 1495. They would back the two bishoprics as Henri would lead his armies devastating Cologne and Munster. Albert III, played his cards close to his chest and launched an all out assault into Italy with the armies of Charles I of Spain heading to Rome from Naples.

The betrayal of Charles III of Bourbon who fled to Vienna to pledge his allegiance to Albert III in exchange for recognition for his title of Duke of Provence and the incorporation of the Bourbon lands into the Holy Roman Empire would set off Albert's Italienzug led by Charles who marched south defeated Venice and Milan in short succession which Francesco would flee to Burgundy to which the Burgundians would welcome him warmly and begin to rebuild a new army to invade Italy and liberate the duchy of Milan. Albert however, would continue gaining the allegiance and alliance of the duchy of Ferrara keen on dismantling the papacy. The devastating sack of Rome would forever taint the reputation of Albert III, who while saving the library of the Vatican after taking the city with a quick siege would imprison the pope and force him to negotiate a new peace that would further strengthen the imperial presence in Italy. Pope Clement VII for his genius would flee to Provence and later arrive at Burgundy disguised and arriving at the court of Nancy. Henri who at this point returned to Nancy after signing an insignificant peace with Cologne and Munster in which they agreed to principle to respect the fifth council of the latheran and to restore/revive catholic education would be shocked with the papacy arriving. The pope would finally give his approval to the annexation of various prince-bishoprics and the surrender of papal authority there, while Clement VII offered Henri a crown, instead Henri realizing this would ruin his position with the electors decided against it and pushed for various reformist ideals including an ecumenical council importantly he would gain a new privilege which would define Burgundy, the pragmatic sanction of Nancy. This was a new version of the pragmatic sanction of Bourges but for Burgundy, recognizing the current lands of Henri I the fortunate of Burgundy's clergy to answer to a crown cardinal that was directly subordinate to the pope, appeals would be subject first to a council in Nancy before being sent to the Roman curia with a minimum of 1/3 members of the roman curia and Burgundian council approving the appeal of the case, along with importantly the Duke of Burgundy being granted the right to appoint all candidates of the church to any position within Henri's holdings however, only with papal approval should those candidates gain their position. This pragmatic sanction was a heavy but recoverable blow to the papacy as similar deals were signed with France in 1516.

Burgundy would become a new centre of renaissance after the sack and most if not all historians agree that this sack either triggered or was the last possible start date for the Burgundian renaissance as Italian artists, and thinkers fled to Burgundy where the pope was and where Henri would freely sponsor this type of renaissance. The imprisonment and later escape of Clement would also produce some various consequences, the papacy was now ordered to produce a new general council to deal with the issues of Lutheran thought, Albert would be crowned emperor as well, forcefully and quickly with the imprisoned Clement and marched back north to deal with the French. The complete collapse to the Medici in Florence would further strengthen the position of the Trastamara as well, with Charles I of Spain eagerly during the imprisonment of Clement force him to recognize the collapse of the two kingdoms of Sicily, and agreed to the recognition of the local nobility who reformed a now Second Kingdom of Sicily for Charles I of Spain who was now crowned by himself Charles IV of Sicily.

Richard IV who at this point was furious over the sack of Rome immediately pledged his forces with France and went to war against the Spanish-Habsburg alliance. The combined armies of Burgundy, England and France would arrive shortly afterwards in Milan to face off against Albert himself who led his combined Imperial-Spanish armies. This decisive victory for the League of Cognac would lead to two separate wars, Burgundy marched east head towards Austria in the hopes of crushing and driving out imperial influence once and for all. Francis I of France marched south to Naples to face off against Charles I of Spain and Sicily to finally reconquer the dissolved kingdom of Naples. England however would march to Rome to liberate and restore the papacy back to Rome. Unfortunately the betrayal of Genoa, who was always a reluctant ally of the League would doom this triple effort of bringing back the status quo. The shattering of the French armies in Naples would force Francis to retreat, Clement who just recently returned to Rome surrendered to Charles and Albert while Burgundy would fight a slow retreat back into Vaud and Aosta. This decisive defeat would force a new treaty this time in Cambrai in which the treaty of Madrid was recognized but with only minor changes, the recognition of the pragmatic sanction of Nancy, and importantly for Milan and Burgundy the recognition of Francesco II as Duke of Milan instead of the outright conquest that Albert tried to do, delaying the annexation of Milan by the Habsburgs for another couple of years.

This abandonment of England, France and Burgundy would leave the papacy to surrender recoronating Albert III as emperor this time with a proper ceremony and proof that this wasn't forced as some princes believed. Clement would be forced to absolve the participants of the sack of Rome and would gain minor territories from Venice as compensation. The real losers in this war was Venice and Florence who were stripped of their territories in Naples, and Austria would annex various parts of Venice as well. Florence would fall and be restored as the duchy of Florence with Alessandro d'Medici as duke. The complete abandonment by the pope would force him to be subservient to both the Spanish and the Habsburgs trying to push for a stricter policy against the protestants but once again avoiding both Burgundian and Imperial pressure for another general council against the Lutherans. Importantly for Burgundy and secretly, the papacy agreed to dissolve the Kingdom of Burgundy/Arles from a papal viewpoint as it was officially defunct and agreed if the emperor would approve the dissolvement of the kingdom they would approve and pressure the imperial to elevate Henri as King of Burgundy, this would set the nearly two century long struggle for the creation of the fourth kingdom of Burgundy. What was genuinely real however, was the proclamation of the pragmatic sanction of Nancy which consolidated the church in Burgundy under the crown cardinal: Erasmus, which would inevitably allow greater effort exerted for the Burgundian counter-reformation and also importantly proved a point in anti-clericalism which while would not be used by the princes for nearly two centuries would be the keystone to the German mediatisation.

 

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The Burgundian state while the largest state within the empire would have multiple families running underneath it managing the incredibly large kingdom under the title of Stadholder or governor of various positions. A lot of these families would have other centres of wealth and power to draw from ironically and yet only one house would genuinely overcome the shadow of Valois-Bourgogne. Perhaps this is why both Philip the Rich and Henri the Fortunate were so acclaimed by historians. In other modern kingdoms, you had other great nobles of the realm such as Anjou, and Bourbon for France, and Wittelsbach and Wettin for the Holy Roman Empire but in Burgundy these nobles are not mentioned at all throughout and would only be described for their loyalty and individual persons who helped their Burgundian duke.

Bourbon-Vendome, this family would be primarily based in Artois and Saint-Pol which were originally lands owned by the Luxembourgs who passed it on to Bourbon-Vendome. Francis de Bourbon would be the key figure of Bourbon-Vendome in Burgundy as he served faithfully in many positions such as governor of Artois, Boulogne and Picardy. Philip the Rich spent decades trying to cultivate this family's loyalty in order to further his own network in France with the hope of turning Bourbon-Vendome into his eyes and ears in France. Henri would brilliantly maneuver Bourbon-Vendome towards England having an Burgundian agent of Bourbon-Vendome marry an English princess, Margaret of England who brought an incredibly rich dowry and would give Bourbon-Vendome even further power and connection. These Burgundian-French connections would divide the family's loyalties as many members of the house were also princes of the blood in France or prince du sang. Antoine de Bourbon-Vendome would be the epitome of this as with the death of Charles III of Bourbon he inherited the large and extensive claims of the house of Bourbon. Burgundy would back these efforts to no avail, and yet it would be this house that would tear Burgundy and steal the Burgundian inheritance of France itself.

The house of Baden would prove to be the most influential in Transjurania owing to its control over the margraviate of Baden. Valois-Bourgogne would always use this house to control Strasbourg, Basel and Trier as many bishops were of this house, importantly however was its influence in Burgundy itself and it's dictation of Swabian and later Swiss policy. Baden was instrumental to the invitation of Burgundy into the Swabian league while the Burgundian-Swiss wars while minor would be mostly led and fought by the house of Baden. It would also be this house that would divide that would later turn to Protestantism weakening the fortunes of this house as the protestant branch was ruthlessly removed by the Burgundians and the catholic side would slowly fade to irrelevance as Burgundy openly allowed the weakening of the Baden house's influence in Burgundy and instead increase its influence in Baden and Württemberg.

The de Croy family or the house of Croy would perhaps be the most Burgundian house of the family as their place and power laid firmly in Burgundy itself, all three of its branches were appointed as stadholders of various positions and would be shuffled around quite frequently with many of its members being appointed to church positions within Burgundy. The rise of this family would date back to Philip the Good but with its enormous power Charles the Absolute would crush and shatter this family only forcing it to kneel and have a fraction of its influence in 1477. This family would see the first Burgundian cardinal in the roman curia elected, with Pope Clement VII approving the Croy bishop of Cambrai to be moved to the Roman Curia when his return arrived, and it would be through this connection in which allowed Burgundy to continuously pursue its policy of Burgundian Catholic reformation.

The house of Wittelsbach especially its palatine branch would dictate a lot of the Burgundian policy in expansionist efforts across the Rhine river. The inheritance of Bavaria-Straubing under Philip the Good would be the epitome of this expansionist effort as later on Burgundy would utilize the Wittelsbachs as electors and backers for their attempts at the imperial crown. Importantly, was Rupercht of Cologne, and the entirety of Philip the Upright's descendants until the protestant elector: Otto Henry of the Palatine. Arguably another important figure was Henry of the Palatine who convinced or agreed with Henri I of Burgundy to use anti-clericalism to buy out all the secular powers of a prince-bishop.

The house of Savoy would be linked almost completely with the house of Valois-Bourgogne, ever since the death of Yolande of Valois the house of Valois-Bourgogne has took on a practical guardianship of the house of Savoy especially under the years of regency, and this would be a mutually beneficial relationship with the Savoyards, as Burgundy would constantly fight to restore Savoy back to the house from France especially throughout the Italian wars which would succeed in 1559. It would be this policy that would grant Burgundy the lands of Transjurania and would further assist in their claims as the true heirs of the defunct kingdom of Arles. The joint vicariates both houses had would prove especially useful in imperial policy towards the Kingdom of Italy.

The house of Oldenburg or more importantly its collapse after the imprisonment of Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden would prove to be a slight bargaining chip for the Burgundians as the marriage of this house and it's subsequent revival under Frederick I of Denmark would allow Burgundy to develop connections across Europe, in particular in Poland which had not been in the Burgundian eyes since its feeble attempt at pushing a Polish prince to the throne under Philip the Bold. This house of Oldenburg would also prove to be one of its protestant connections which would prove to be incredibly useful in the religious wars that would soon to follow. Another house that wasn't as important to Burgundy was the House of Calais or officially the house of Valois-Bourgogne-York which would allow a firm Burgundian partisan throughout the reign only resulting into what can be called the war of English succession.

The house of Nassau and later Orange-Nassau would be the key commercial pillars of Burgundy as they gained prominence as stadholders and landowners owning various minor estates in Brabant and Holland. Importantly it was the house of Orange who had roots in Provence moved east and northwards towards Burgundy merging with the house of Nassau to gain further wealth and prominence in Burgundy, with René of Châlon in particular sponsoring various exploration and colonization issues in fact it would be this house under William the Explorer in which they would gain the position as head of the Burgundian Indies Company.

 

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Henri I of Burgundy would be the most captivated and would be very fierce in the expansion of the Burgundian trade network and in particular the Burgundian global trade. The Burgundian Indies Company would be the most powerful company the world had seen since the Knights Templar and would last for a solid century well until 1623, when the company was forcibly nationalized by the electorate of Burgundy. The start of this Burgundian corporation and company would have its roots under Philip the Rich. The Burgundian Maritime Company was a short lived company which joined with the various other commerce and trading guilds within Burgundy and centralized and formed under Philip the Rich's watchful eye. This Burgundian Indies Company would slowly began to sail eastwards for spices after the treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Spain, Portugal and the papacy.

The roots of this company were fairly simple it was to rival and outcompete the Hanseatic League, a league that was slowly dying. Philip the Rich arguably would accelerate this process three times over with his alliance with the Kalmar Union and with his placement of his brother as King of England. By the time of Christian II's ascension as king and Philip's death, the Burgundian Maritime Company would be trading as far as Novgorod to Lisbon, making quite the incredibly large fortune for this company, and this company would generate loads of goodwill amongst the other rulers in the Baltic Sea, which would be a key reason to engaging Christina of Denmark with Sigismund II of Poland. It would be this wealth and generosity that would allow the company to sponsor various Italian explorers and bankers in order to further Burgundian wealth. However, the fall of Christian II and the resurgence of the Hanseatic for a brief period would force the company to accelerate their efforts to global trade, ironically it would be this change that would fall in line with the renaming of the company into the Burgundian Indies Company.

The discovery of the new world by Columbus would not immediately stir Burgundy into action in the new world, as Spain was still a key vital ally to Henri and his ambitions in Italy but it did not limit exploration by the Company who would send various explorers and scouts before finally settling in Tobago and establishing the first Burgundian outpost there. This would be the policy of Burgundian colonialism in the Americas until the foundation of Arcadia or New Lotharingia. This would take over various decades with Burgundy slowing building up outposts and colonies in specifically the Caribbean and later on in Arcadia founding New Amsterdam. These outposts were relatively small and profitable as the Burgundian Indies Company for the new world had no real appetite for conquest and merely focused on trade and profit perhaps the sole reason why the colonies were stable and would not be conquered by the Spanish despite the treaty saying it was their land.

The key focus of the Burgundian Indies Company would be towards the east funding and creating a duopoly of the Indies trade from the Indian Ocean. This process would take several years as Burgundian outposts would first be created in 1517 buying the Portuguese outpost of Aguz. This would be further exemplified with the marriage of Philip, Prince of Namur and Isabella of Portugal who's dowry was particularly small granting Burgundy the right to ignore the treaty of Tordesillas and perhaps a couple more ports along Africa but it would kickstart the beginnings of various expeditions towards the spice islands and India finally arriving in Surat and Batavia respectively. It would be however, Burgundian monetary wealth from the crown itself that would allow this company to set their footing on this lucrative trade.

The key rivalry between Burgundy and Portugal would not be forgotten as while Portugal seeked to monopolize its presence especially in the Gold Coast, India and the Indies. Burgundy was just as keen to gain its hand in the lands itself and that goodwill that was generated with the marriage would quickly dry up as Burgundy would immediately create a permanent outpost in the Gold Coast and later the Cape Colony which while other Europeans didn't see as much of a particular value to, the Burgundian Indies Company saw immense value as a trading hub and began to significantly invest in the lands, expanding it and creating the Cape Colony by 1532. These expansion efforts would continuously work as Burgundy would land in China and later Japan beating out the Portuguese for control over the trade there and allowing Burgundy to set up a outpost or port in Japan to conduct trade with. Other examples of this great rivalry would take place in Ceylon, Mauritius, and Formosa as Burgundy with the incredible patronage of their renaissance had access to greater tools of navigation and would strategically place outposts, ports and colonies at various islands and towns in order to maximize efficiency travelling from India to Burgundy.

Burgundy's explorations especially in New Holland are the most well known as while Burgundy was not famous amongst the exploratory nations such as Spain and Portugal, they played their cards exceptionally well, treating the whole world not as some divine or christian mission to explore and conquer the world but as how the company treated the other europeans: the key to trade and making loads of profit that would find their ways back into the royal coffers. It would be this wealth and investment which would see the rise of a Burgundian or Catholic Renaissance. While Italy experienced a renaissance that was already quite catholic in its nature, Burgundy would be quite explicit in where it got its inspiration from. While Burgundy would remain stably and steadily catholic it can not be said for the other princes of the empire. An incredible example of this renaissance prosperity and stability would be the flood of St. Felix in 1530 in which would devastate Flanders and Zeeland. A combined royalist and Burgundian company operation would be able to evacuate as much of the people there quickly relocating them inland towards Guelders and Julich however it would still be a tragedy for Burgundy with the loss of nearly 70000 people due to the flood however, such a flood barely put any pressure onto the Burgundian apparatus.

The Schmalkdic league would begin to form to rival primarily Burgundian influence and their pursuit of crushing and neutering the reformation with both a carrot and a stick as protestant historians argued. Hesse in particular was the founder of this league and would lead his various princes to join him, of particular note was Cologne and Munster who already were not pleased with the interference and destruction inflicted on them in the war of the League of Cognac. Albert III who already was quite favourable with the protestants continued his approach of reconciliation towards them which would not necessarily succeed as his brother, Frederick was not entirely approving of the idea as the remaining Swiss cantons converted to oppose his rule in Chur. Events would occur as the three sides were obvious, the protestants now united under this newly formed league would proclaim the confession of Augsburg which would run directly in contrast with the Burgundians who declared them all traitors and had the edict of Worms reenacted with an incredible amount of pressure. Albert III would be stuck in the middle trying his best not to give the Burgundians the power to imperial ban the protestants and but also unwilling to allow Protestantism to grow unchecked. Albert would be hamstrung by this and it would be clear especially in the diet of Regensburg which finally pushed a criminal code that was promised to the estates in 1495 but did nothing else of value.

It was now abundantly clear that the three pillars were set in stone with the emperor on one side, the league on the other and Burgundy all fighting for dominance and security against the other two. Burgundy had lost practically its wall of buffers and suffered a humiliating defeat from Denmark and was already too eager to crush the protestants. The protestants much in the same way wished to deny Burgundy the chance to do so and expand their religion to a point where it would be independent of the papacy, the emperor at this point was on pins and needles trying precariously to balancing the two and praying that the general council of the church would be called so that this heresy would finally come to an end. However, the emperor would never rest as just after the diet, his brother in law died and the war of Milanese succession would begin.

 

[Liminia1]

The sudden death of Francesco II of Milan would spark a rivalry between two candidates, Albert III, Holy Roman Emperor and William of Burgundy as both claimed to be Francesco's heir. Albert III had the legitimate claim compared to William but William had both noble and popular support compared to the emperor. Henri who supported his youngest son raised an army to march in allying with the remaining Swiss cantons and would arrive in Milan itself within two months proclaiming his son as Duke of Milan much to their popular support with a fabricated treaty claiming Francesco made William his heir and some secondhand accounts that suggested Francesco wanted William to succeed him, unfortunately Albert III who already secured his alpine route thanks to his brother Frederick, Count of Chur marched south and swiftly defeated Henri's forces near Verona forcing the Burgundian party to flee northwards towards Vaud.

This brief stint would leave the populace unhappy with the emperor now seizing the prosperous duchy for himself. This would be capitalized with the devilish Franco-Burgundian alliance. The decisive victories of Frederick in Switzerland now convinced Henri to seize the apparent weakness of the Swiss cantons and to create a new duchy for his son, William. Henri would force his younger son to surrender his claims of Milan to Francis I of France in exchange for money and support for his idea of a new Swiss duchy. This devilish alliance would attack Milan in the following year as Burgundian partisans began to rally support behind Francis I for the French claim to the throne. Albert III seeing this evil alliance would call out for any assistance and it would be the heretics that would heed the call. The Schmalkaldic League, a league whose original intent was to protect protestant prince's and their rights and privileges against the emperor was far more scared of the Burgundians and their strict Catholic Renaissance and counter reformation. The appointment of Pope Adrian VI, a Burgundian for only a year did great harm to the protestant cause, sending John Calvin, the most prominent Burgundian crown-cardinal who pressed forward relentlessly against the Lutherans with the edict of Worms and also promoting the various reforms initiated by the fifth and sixth council of the Lateran.

The expansion of the Schmalkaldic League to include anyone who agreed the Augsburg Confession, turned this league into an incredibly powerful force under Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. It would also be Henri's attempt at conquest over Munster and subjugation of Cologne that would force the league and emperor into one goal: the complete dismantling of the Burgundian state. The attempt of electing a Burgundian pope again after Clement's death would further inspire fear into the protestants. Philip, Prince of Namur would lead the Burgundians north in a defensive campaign barely holding onto Frisia, with the protestants devastating lands as far Guelders and Utrecht. Francis however would be much more successful conquering Milan in 1536 and seizing Genoa once again. Albert III would back to Austria to raise a new army joined by both his brother and the Swiss. Henri himself would lead an army into Switzerland engaging in fierce mountain pike warfare in which victory and defeat meant little change overall on the strategic battlefield.

The devastating raid into Switzerland would ironically mirror the protestant raids into Burgundy. Henri would lead a force of 10000 men at arms but with an equally powerful defending force led by Frederick count of Chur. Henri would storm any castle with his artillery and treasure train to seize the material goods and ship them back to Burgundy. Frederick however would continue to harass the Burgundians on the march there forcing the Burgundians to move incredibly slowly throughout the Alps. This would be key to allowing Albert to return to Austria and assemble a new army to crush France. Philip, Prince of Namur would deal with the protestants in a similar manner watching the protestants led by the Landgrave of Hesse raid and devastate the sparse Burgundian countryside. Philip would fortify and see various positions along Guelders and importantly Frisia only engaging the Protestants in pitched and chosen battles to decisively crush them and force them to flee after the battle of Emden. This fabian style strategy would be used throughout the remainder of Henri's reign and later Philip's reign.

The betrayal of France in 1537, would doom Burgundy and would bring back the dreaded memory of 1469, when Burgundy was surrounded by enemies however quick peaces signed by Austria, and Switzerland would relieve significant pressure. William would finally acknowledge Albert as legitimate Duke of Milan and a white peace was signed with the Swiss cantons. The protestants would wage only a solo war against the Burgundians with peace only occurring by 1538 negotiated by Christian III of Denmark. A return of the combined Burgundian-Imperial alliance against France would do little by 1537 with only seeing the liberation of Milan to Albert III and all out war and destruction throughout the Franco-Imperial border which would ruin the 7 years of Burgundian prosperity. Importantly was the loss of Savoy completely to France, whether this was due to realpolitik, insults to the French King or just genius maneuvering. France would annex all of Saxoy outright and turned Genoa into a de facto vassal of France. Burgundy would gain nothing in this war against France or in Italy but ironically Burgundy would reclaim the county of Ravensburg from the protestants who gained it in 1528.

The sixth council of the Lateran hosted by Pope Paul III would be set in Dijon, Burgundy. The ancient capital of the first Duke of Burgundy: Philip the Bold. This council would set even further seeds for the counter-reformation or the Burgundian reformation as various abuses of the church were laid out in detail, church administration, and public worship. This entire council would be guided firmly by the hands of the Burgundians who under the leadership of the young and bold, John Calvin, began to heavily pressure the Catholic Church to implement these reforms proposed. France and the emperor would refuse to seek these reforms, for both France and the emperor saw these flaws and corruption as useful tools for crushing the church under the crown. Burgundy however, already seeing to it that its privileges couldn't be superseded advocated and implemented them fiercely in their own lands. It would be this hypocrisy and the fact there were no doctrinal changes made in the council, would only strengthen the protestant cause claiming this council did not go far enough.

It would be this backdrop of religious fanaticism and military failure that would see the great revolt of Burgundy as soon as the truce of Nice was signed as various stadholders, nobles and peasants would rise up. This simmering tension against the centralized state of Burgundy dated back to Philip the Bold however, both Charles and Philip were able to keep this threat in check due to their military victories and foresight. Henri did not have either and would spend the year pursuing these rebels and forcing them to flee either on the field or at the city. These rebellions would first revolt in more protestant friendly areas such as Frisia, Utrecht and Guelders. Originally, Henri called them Lutheran traitors and called upon the estates and his allies to crush this revolt but revolts would spring up in Picardy, Lorraine, Champagne, and Burgundy itself in the following months which would further hamper Burgundian efforts to expand outwards. The southern rebellion which began to centre around Vaud and the county of Burgundy would be further augmented by indirect French and Swiss support but would be defeated easily by Philip, Prince of Namur. Philip would use not a fabian strategy but used a proto scorched shadow tactic, splitting his army into multiple contingents and pushing the rebellion north into Bescanon where it would be surrounded and crushed.

Henri would struggle however against the northern rebels, whether it was due to the northern rebels being better equipped, more motivated or Henri's incompetence in dealing with this rebellion. This rebellion would spread as the various dissatisfied groups would rally behind a charismatic leader, Francis I claimant to Nevers and Guelder. He would lead his rebellion into Holland, Utrecht and northern Brabant striking as far south as Namur. Henri himself could do little to stop this advance due to the speed of the rebellion and his forces being defeated at Antwerp. Henri and Philip would hastily assemble a new army in Luxembourg shortly after this defeat.The battle of Liege would be the turning point to this revolt as the new professional Burgundian army would crush the revolt killing Francis. In the following couple of months, the tiny pockets of resistance that remained either were captured or killed. Ironically, Henri would make a brilliant move with this rebellion: He loaned all of the money seized from the rebellious nobles to the Burgundian Indies Company.

 

[Liminia1]

Draft of the next generation of Burgundy: (Please help with marriages here )
Margaret of Burgundy 1487 - 1526 m. Christian II of Denmark 1481 - 1559 [1513 - 1523] {1502 - 1526}

Dorothea of Denmark 1518 - 1580 m. Otto Henry, Elector Palatine 1502 - 1559 [1556 - 1559] {1536 - 1559}​

Christina of Denmark 1520 - 1588 m. Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and Lithuania 1520 - 1572 [1548 - 1572] {1538 - 1572}​

Henri I the Fortunate of Burgundy 1489 - 1540 [1517 - 1540] m. Maria of Julich-Berg 1491 - 1543 {1509 - 1540}

Philip V the Wise of Burgundy 1506 - 1556 [1540 - 1556] m. Isabella the Kind of Portugal 1503 - 1571 {1518 - 1556}​

Maria of Burgundy 1521 - 1600 needs marriage​

Beatriz of Burgundy 1535 - 1605 needs marriage​

Sibylle of Burgundy 1512 - 1554 m. John Frederick of Saxony 1503 - 1554 {1527 - 1554} (questionable)​

William I the Old of Burgundy, Duke of Milan 1516 - 1592 [1535] [1556 - 15572] m. Margaret of Valois 1523 - 1574 {1555 - 1572} (questionable)​

Saint Charles the Reformer II of Burgundy 1556 - 1631 needs marriage​

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Amelia of Burgundy 1560 - 1645 needs marriage​

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Emma of Burgundy 1563 - 1649 needs marriage​

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Anne of Burgundy 1515 - 1557 m. Emmanuel Philibert the Ironhead of Savoy 1528 - 1580 [1553 - 1580] {1539 - 1557} (questionable)​

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Emma the Fair of Burgundy 1517 - 1586 [1556]​

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Arthur, Prince of Wales 1488 - 1502 betrothed to: Katherine of Aragon 1486 - 1540 {1501 - 1502}​

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Margaret of England 1489 - 1541 m. Francis de Bourbon, stadholder of Boulogne, Artois and Picardy 1491 - 1545 {1506 - 1541}​

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Richard IV of England 1491 - 1555 [1522 - 1555] m. Katherine of Aragon 1486 - 1540 {1503 - 1540}​

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Anne of England 1516 - 1557 needs marriage​

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Elizabeth I of England 1533 - 1603 needs marriage or not who knows​

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Edward VI of England 1537 - 1600 needs marriage​

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Albert III of Austria, Duke of Milan, King of Bohemia and Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor (disp. w John Zapolya for Hungary from 1526 - 1540) 1491 - 1541 [1519 - 1541] m. Eleanor of Spain 1498 - 1553 {1508 - 1541}

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Maximilian II of Austria, Duke of Milan, King of Bohemia and Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor (Hungary was majority occupied by the ottomans) 1520 - 1591 [1541 - 1596] m. Barbara of Brandenburg 1527 - 1595 {1537 - 1595}​

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Isabella of Austria 1521 - 1595 needs marriage​

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Anne of Austria 1535 - 1573 needs marriage​

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Anne of Austria 1492 - 1535 {1508 - 1535} m. Charles I of Spain 1498 - 1555 [1498 - 1555]

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John I of Spain 1519 - 1598 [1555 - 1598] m. Maria Manuela of Portugal 1525 - 1603 {1535 - 1598}​

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Can convince to add more sons and daughters maybe​

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Eleanor of Austria 1495 - 1553 {1520 - 1550} m. William IV of Bavaria 1493 - 1550 [1508 - 1550]

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Albert V of Bavaria 1528 - 1579 needs marriage​

Mechthild of Bavaria 1532 - 1565 {1557 - 1565} m. Philibert of Baden 1536 - 1569​

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Frederick of Austria, count of Chur, 1496 - 1549 [1521 - 1549] m. Elizabeth Corvinus 1496 - 1537 {1511 - 1537}

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Charles of Chur 1515 - 1565 [1549 - 1565] need marriage​

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Maybe extra daughters or sons I can be convinced​

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Elizabeth of Austria, 1500 - 1546 {1520 - 1535} m. Francesco II Sforza of Milan 1495 - 1535 [1521 - 1535]