Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1433–1477)

Duke of Burgundy from 1463 who fought in the French civil war at Montlhéry in 1465, then crushed Liège (1464–68). He reformed his army before engaging in an ambitious campaign for conquest, unsuccessfully besieging the imperial town of Neuss (1474–75), before being defeated in his attack on the Swiss Federation (1476–77). He died in battle near Nancy, in Lorraine.

Charles's ambition was to create a kingdom stretching from the mouth of the Rhine to the mouth of the Rhône. He formed the League of the Public Weal against Louis XI of France, invaded France in 1471, and conquered the country as far as Rouen. The Holy Roman Emperor, the Swiss, and Lorraine united against him; he captured Nancy, but was defeated at Granson and again at Morat in 1476. Nancy was lost, and he was killed while attempting to recapture it. His possessions in the Netherlands passed to the Habsburgs by the marriage of his daughter Mary to Maximilian I of Austria.

Charles's experiences in the civil ‘War of the Public Weal’ and against Liège, including his victory in the Battle of Brustem in 1467, taught him the value of well-coordinated forces. His annual military Ordinances of 1471–73 were intended to create a flexible all-arms force of cavalry, artillery, and foot soldiers combining pikemen and archers, divided into uniformed units under banners. He gathered 12,000 men and an extensive artillery train to beseige Neuss. However, his largely mercenary forces proved fragile in the face of determined opposition and were defeated three times by the Swiss: at Grandson and Mürten in 1476, and at Nancy in 1477.