Charles the Bald Killed

The Battle of Nancy, fought on January 5, 1477, was the final and fatal defeat of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in his wars against the Swiss Confederation and his rival Louis XI of France. Charles had spent years trying to expand and consolidate his powerful Burgundian state, which stretched across territories in eastern France and the Low Countries, and to gain a royal crown of his own.

Besieging the city of Nancy in the Duchy of Lorraine, Charles was confronted by a relieving army that included Swiss pikemen and forces loyal to Duke René II of Lorraine, who was backed by Louis XI. The Burgundian army was overwhelmed in the snow, and Charles himself was killed in the fighting; his mutilated body was found on the battlefield only days afterward.

Charles the Bold's death without a male heir ended the line of the Valois dukes of Burgundy and threw their vast inheritance into dispute. Louis XI seized the Duchy of Burgundy and other lands for the French crown, while much of the remaining Burgundian inheritance passed through Charles's daughter Mary to the Habsburgs by her marriage to Maximilian of Austria, shaping European rivalries for generations.