In spite of many attempts during the 11th century to reunite the two duchies, they
remained separate. Lower Lorraine, in the course of the 11th century, was transmogrified
into the duchy of Brabant after being ruled by such noteworthy figures as Godefroi II le
Barbu (d. 1069) and Godefroi IV de Bouillon (d. 1100), the hero of the First Crusade and
the last of his line.
In 1046, Emperor Henry III bestowed Upper Lorraine on Albert (Adalbert) of Alsace,
who founded a line that
ruled in uninterrupted male succession until 1431. Upper Lorraine (henceforth referred to
simply as Lorraine) during this time increased its contacts with the French kingdom, with
Duke Simon I (r. 1115–39) becoming the vassal of the counts of Champagne for at least
part of his lands and with Ferri III (r. 1251–1304) promoting a communal movement by
issuing charters modeled on that of Beaumont-en-Argonne. The disintegration of imperial
power after the death of Emperor Frederick II (1250) made this movement easier.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the dukes of Lorraine found themselves confronted
with the growing power of the Valois dukes of Burgundy, who had united that duchy to
the south of Lorraine with a growing agglomeration of power based on Flanders to their
north. The alliance of the Burgundian dukes with the English in the last phase of the
Hundred Years’ War created in Lorraine the sort of tensions that gave rise to the career of
Jeanne d’Arc. In 1431, the year of her execution, Duke Charles II (or I if one does not
count the 10th-c. Charles) died with no male heir. This marked the beginning of a
disputed succession between the houses of Anjou and Vaudémont. Charles the Bold,
duke of Burgundy, and the last of the great independent feudal figures in France, also
entered the succession dispute. Having failed to get the emperor Frederick III to recreate
a “middle kingdom” in his favor, Charles was killed while attacking Nancy in 1477. The
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