Ambition can be a terrible thing. Among many of the nobles of the middle ages it was so strong that it seemed to be all that mattered to them. The value of a human life was zero, unless it was the noble's own life that we are referring to and that was guarded with every means available. Jealousy was also a large factor in the lives of the nobles and many of them were just not satisfied with their lots in life and wanted more. Some even aspired to dethrone the king himself and take over his powers.

Charles the Bold or Charles the Rash as he was known lived from 1433 to 1477. He was also known as Charles the Terrible. I am sorry, but it is hard to take anyone seriously that has all these titles, today we find them almost laughable, but I guess that this wasn't the case back when he ruled. Charles was the last Duke of Burgundy from the House of Valois. This family spawned the kings of France from 1328 to 1589. A branch of the family reigned as dukes of Burgundy from 1361 to 1482. This branch had descended from the fourth son of King Philip III, but on with the story.

Charles the Bold was not a happy guy. He had been raised under a tutor that also taught him the art of war. Charles had been influenced by his father. As he was growing up he watched his father trying to unite more and more lands into a single state. An interesting side note is that Charles was married at the age of seven years old to the daughter of the King of France, Charles VII. His wife was 12 years old. She died at 18 and he remarried at 21. He had been a widower for 8 years by that time. Charles wanted to marry his cousin's daughter, but had to marry a royal princess of France. All this makes you wonder what the heck was wrong with these people?

He began to struggle against the King after his father began to experience failing health. Was Charles defying the king because he felt he wanted to be king himself? One thing is for sure, he certainly wanted more power and a bigger domain. His second wife died in 1465. For his third wife Charles decided to marry his second cousin. Why doesn't this surprise me? She was Margaret of York. Charles now allied himself with England to the dismay of the French King.

Charles set out to make war against Louis XI, the king of France. He won the battle of Monthery in 1465, but was wounded. The battle did not give him a decisive win over the king however and the king returned to Paris. He did regain two counties and a town which the king was forced to cede to him by treaty. Ponthieu surrendered to him and Liege revolted against him and along the way he decided to punish the people of Dinant. He was infuriated at the people of Dinant because they had spread a rumor that he had lost the battle of Montlhery and burned him in effigy. They had also called him the bastard of Duchess Isabel and John of Heinsburg. Charles marched into the city and killed every man, woman and child. He later defeated the Bishopric of Liege and his army at Sint-Truiden. He then dismantled the walls of the city and took some of the rights of the people away.

Now the king was really mad and accused Charles of treason and ordered him to appear before the Parliament. He then seized the towns of Somme. Charles was not going to take this laying down and invaded France with a large army. He conquered Nesle and massacred everyone. He was not able to conquer Beauvais however and was left to roam the countryside. Over the years Charles had become one of the most powerful and wealthy nobles in Europe. His duchy of Burgundy now extended to the border of the Netherlands.

Charles was now getting too arrogant and too big for his britches, as they say. He was angering many different powerful nobles. He quarreled with Sigismund of Austria, with the Swiss who had been his allies and with Rene II, Duke of Lorraine. He was making enemies faster than you could count. Nobles were beginning to rebuff him and his ideas. Everything began to go down hill. He attacked a town that was rebelling against his kinsman, the Archbishop of Cologne only to have to quit the siege when a large imperial army approached. His brother-in-law, Edward IV of England, signed a peace treaty with King Louis and was not supporting his battles anymore. He did manage to capture Nancy and from there marched against the Swiss and hanged and drowned the garrison there, even though they had surrendered. He was then attacked and suffered a defeat at the Battle of Grandson. He was forced to flee with only a handful of men. He raised another army of about 30,000 men and attacked Morat but was defeated again. The Swiss had beaten him along with the cavalry of the Duke of Lorraine. Things were not going good for Charles the Terrible.

Again Charles decided to raise a new army and again arrived at the town of Nancy. The weather had been very severe and he lost a lot of troops just getting to the town. He had only a few thousand men and was met by the Swiss and the army from Lorraine. His last battle was the Battle of Nancy in 1477. He died in this fight and his naked body was discovered several days after the battle was over. Wild animals had begun to eat him. The only way that he was able to be identified was by the scars on his body because his face was eaten away.