The Renaissance: Political Renewal and Intellectual Change 239Empire or from France. To enhance his independence,
Philip had supported the English and some discon-
tented elements of the French nobility against Louis in
the League of the Common Weal, which Louis de-
feated in 1465. Philip’s son, Charles (known to some as
“the Bold” and to others as “the Rash”), hoped to weld
his holdings into a single territorial state stretching
from the Alps to the North Sea. His ambitions brought
him into conflict with the duke of Lorraine and with
the Swiss, whose independence he seemed to threaten.
These formidable opponents, richly subsidized by
Louis, defeated and killed Charles at the battle of
Nancy in 1477.
Charles died without male heirs. His daughter
Mary was the wife of the Hapsburg archduke, Maximil-
ian, who would become emperor in 1486. Under
Louis’s interpretation of the Salic law, she could not, as
a woman, inherit her father’s French fiefs. Maximilian
was unable to defend his wife’s claims, and in 1482 Bur-
gundy, Picardy, and the Boulonnais reverted to the
French crown.
The dismemberment of the Burgundian state was
the capstone of Louis’s career. It was accompanied by
acquisitions of equal value. Louis may have been clever
and ruthless, but he was also lucky. In 1480 René of An-
jou died without heirs, leaving Anjou and the French
segment of Bar to the crown. Maine and the kingdom
of Provence were incorporated in the following year af-
ter the death of Duke Charles II, and the rights of suc-
cession to Brittany were purchased when it became
apparent that its duke, too, would die without produc-
ing male heirs. When Louis died in 1483, he left a
France whose borders were recognizably similar to
those of today. Luck and a consistently antifemale in-
terpretation of the laws of inheritance played their part,
but he could not have done it without a superior army,
fiscal independence, and great diplomatic skill. His im-
mense resources permitted him to take advantage of the
dynastic misfortunes of others.
England: The Yorkists and Tudors
England was far smaller in land area and in population
than either France or Spain. Its population was also
more homogeneous, though regional differences were
still important until well into the sixteenth century. Per-
haps because it dominated an island whose integrity
was rarely threatened by foreign enemies, it failed to
develop perpetual taxes and its Parliament never lost
“the power of the purse.” England’s development was
therefore unlike that of the great continental powers,
and it remained a relatively minor player in interna-
tional politics until late in the early modern period.
Henry VI (reigned 1422–61, 1470–71) came to the
throne as an infant and suffered from protracted bouts
of mental illness as an adult. He was never competent
to rule in his own right. For the first thirty years of the
reign, his regency council fought bitterly among them-
selves, brought the kingdom to the edge of bankruptcy,
and lost the remaining English possessions in France
with the exception of Calais. Eventually, Richard, duke
of York claimed the throne with the support of a pow-
erful segment of the nobility. Richard was descended
from Edmund of Langley, the fourth surviving son of
Edward III, while the king was the great grandson of
Edward’s third son, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster.
The civil war that followed is called the War of the
Roses because the heraldic symbol of the Yorkists was a
white rose; that of the Lancastrians, a red.
In the first phase of the war (1455–61), the Lancas-
trians were led by Henry’s formidable queen, Margaret
of Anjou. She defeated the Yorkists at Wakefield and at
St. Albans but failed to take London. Richard was killed
at Wakefield. His son, an able commander, took advan-
tage of her hesitation. He entered London and had
himself proclaimed king as Edward IV. The struggle
continued, but Edward retained the throne with one
brief interruption until 1483. The last half of his reign
was characterized by imaginative and energetic reforms
in the administration of the royal domain. As customs
duties were an important part of crown revenues, Ed-
ward used his extensive personal contacts in the Lon-
don merchant community to encourage the growth of
trade. He eventually became a major investor himself.
The proceeds from these efforts, together with a pen-
sion extorted from Louis XI to prevent Edward from in-
vading France, left him largely independent of
Parliament. Some thought his methods unkingly, but
when he died in 1483, he left behind an improved ad-
ministration and an immense fortune.
He also left two young sons under the guardianship
of his brother. The brother quickly had himself pro-
claimed king as Richard III, and the two little princes
disappeared from the Tower of London, never to be
seen again. This usurpation caused several of the lead-
ing Yorkists to make common cause with the Lancastri-
ans, and in 1485, Henry Tudor, the last remaining
Lancastrian claimant to the throne, defeated and killed
Richard at the battle of Bosworth.
As Henry VII (reigned 1485–1509), Tudor fol-
lowed the policies of Edward IV (see illustration 13.1).
A subtle diplomat, he avoided war, intensified the