Wars of the French Succession

The Wars of the French Succession was a series of wars in Western Europe between 1471 and 1503 fought between the League of Brabant, led by England, the Holy Roman Empire, and Burgundy, and the Holy Alliance, which was led by France and Spain. The wars were some of the most destructive in European history, leaving an estimated 3 million dead and devastating much of Western Europe.

Triggered by the aggressive expansionist policies of French King Charles VII, the wars began as a regional conflict between Valois France and the Duchy of Burgundy. English intervention in 1473 under the leadership of King Edward IV caused the conflict to expand until it included most of the Great Powers of Europe. The war had several distinct phases: the first phase, which saw initial French success be reversed by English intervention; the second phase, which included Spanish intervention and the establishment of the League of Brabant; and the third and final phase, which saw the war come to an inconclusive end as England withdrew.

The wars had several direct and indirect consequences: the devastation of France, which was ravaged by the campaigning armies and mercenary bands, and the ascendence of Spain and England as the two rival European superpowers. Imperial German military failures and forced concessions were a major cause of the eventual collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, as its influence was seriously reduced by the conflict.

First Phase (1471-1479)
The opening French campaigns against Burgundy were relatively successful, with Burgundian fortresses being stormed and the countryside being ravaged, culminating in the siege and fall of Nancy in 1471. Fighting continued into 1472, until a decisive French victory at Toul saw Charles the Bold be captured, though he was released soon after. The brief ceasefire that followed was broken in 1474 with the resumption of hostilities as French armies swept through Flanders. French armies were soon on the doorstep of Antwerpt and the Burgundian cause seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

King Edward IV had hoped to restore English influence on the continent since his decisive victory over the Lancastrians at Towton. Although England had been thoroughly exhausted by Wars of the Roses, a series of bloody civil wars, Edward IV believed that intervention on the continent would both inspire a surge of patriotism within England and expand his own authority. Another motive for the English intervention could have been to eliminate any remaining contestants to his throne, specifically Henry Tudor, although this theory is disputed by many historians.

England's population and government were also prepared for war as a strong, central government had begun to emerge out of the ashes of the War of the Roses. Edwards reforms had limited the influence of the nobles, creating a more absolute and resolute government. Similarly, the wars had shaped the English army, formerly a standard part-time feudal army, into a quasi-professional standing army with a strong core of disciplined men-at-arms and infantry.

King Edward IV landed in the English enclave of Calais in January of 1475 and began arbitrary negotiations with a French delegation before issuing a declaration of war against King Charles. The English army in Calais was then gradually swelled by reinforcements, and King Edward IV led his army on a campaign along the Somme that summer. After several weeks of maneuvering and counter-maneuvering, the English armies were confronted by a large French Royal Army in the Battle of Amiens. The battle was a decisive English victory, mostly due to the application of the 'English Bull' a combined-arms strategy which was infantry, missile, and cavalry contingents all operate as a single unified battlefield entity. The French army was annihilated in the battle and King Charles XI was captured, with the severing of French supply lines forcing a withdrawal from the besieged Burgundian frontier.

A second de facto ceasefire took hold following the Battle of Amiens as the French attempted to recover their military strength and the offensive initiative. Despite sharply defeating a French army at Dieppe and taking Rouen in 1476, an English invasion of Normandy failed due to a lack of available reinforcements and local support, sputtering out by the end of the year.

Hostilities resumed in full in 1478 when the captured King Louis XI died in English captivity and his son King Charles VII was soon crowned in Paris. The impressionable King Charles VIII, only eight at the time of his coronation, soon came under the influence of a party of expansionist French nobles known as the Angerists, who intended to reform France's government and army. Threatened by the ascension of the Angerists as the supreme French political faction, Anglo-Burgundian forces reinvaded France in December of 1478, destroying the gathering French army in the Battle of Vernon and taking Paris itself. Underpaid Anglo-Burgundian levies and mercenaries commenced to sack the city, murdering some 25,000 Parisians and destroying most of the city in perhaps the most controversial act of the war.

Anglo-Burgundian successes continued into 1479 as French Royal armies were expelled from Normandy and pushed back below the Loire. Orleans was besieged that April, resulting in a seven-month siege that ended with the capitulation and capture of King Charles VIII and some 8,000 French Royal troops. With the capture of Charles VII came a significant lose of influence and legitimacy, and the desperate Angerists retreated to their strongholds in the Loire River Valley, where they were soon besieged.

Second Phase (1479-1485)
With the capture of King Charles VIII and the destruction of the French armies, the war would have now ended if not for Spanish intervention.

Even with the English invasion, the war had been viewed by the international community as a fairly regional, albeit bloody one. The fall and Sack of Paris by victorious Anglo-Burgundian troops in 1478 changed that perception. While the Moors still held a strong enclave on the Iberian Peninsula, the joint crowns of Castile-Aragon, had several incentives for intervening in the conflict: an armed counter-invasion would remove the possible English threat to Spain's northern frontier while extending Spain's influence above the Pryreens. After several months of secret negotiation with the Angerists besieged on the Loire, a large Spanish army crossed the Pryreens under Anton de Peña under the pretext of suppressing a Cathar heretical revolt in Languendoc. The revolt had broken out under the leadership of Count Jean-Damme of Toulouse in 1478 following the English capture of Paris and by the time the Spanish expedition completed their crossing of the Pryreens some 80,000 peasant insurgents were entrenched throughout Languendoc.

The Franco-Spanish response was swift and unmerciless. Intent on further dividing France and possibly establishing an English satellite state in Languendoc, a small English army was sent south to link up with the Cathar rebels. The English troops and their Cathar allies were badly mauled in the Battle of Clermont-Ferrand, following which the Spanish army began a campaign of terror and destruction throughout Languendoc virtually unopposed, culminating in the Sack of Toulouse.

With Languendoc pacified, the Spanish army marched north to expel Anglo-Burgundian forces from the Loire region, resulting in eleven-months of bloody and inconclusive fighting which saw Anglo-Burgundian victories at Chatellerault and Tours and a Franco-Spanish victory at Angers, where the English besieging army was scattered by a Spanish surprise attack.

This bloody but inconclusive war of attrition continued for two years and saw devastation on a massive scale as raids and counter-raids dominated the fighting, rather then definitive battles. Two more Spanish expeditions were staged before 1485, though each was eventually forced to withdraw due to heavy casualties. While France had managed to recover some territory, with virtually all of France below the Loire under Angerist control by 1485, the English grip on Paris remained. King Charles VIII escape from English captivity in 1484 was a serious English setback, as it added legitimacy to the Angerist cause.

While fighting continued to roil France, delegations from England, Burgundy, and the Holy Roman Empire met twice in 1484 to discuss possible responses to the Spanish invasion. Although German Emperor Fredrick III intended to remain officially neutral, the threat that an expansionist Spain posed to Imperial ambitions in Italy led to the gradual development of a secretive policy of financial and limited military aid to Anglo-Burgundian forces. By 1488, however, due to internal pressure from the German princes and a succession crisis in the Southern Italian state of Naples, Emperor Fredrick III signed the Brabant Accord, which bind him to immediate military intervention in support of the Anglo-Burgundians.

The failure of Charles the Bold to recognize limited French suzerainty and his blatant disregard of King Charles VII authority all contributed to the tense atmosphere that culminated in the spring of 1471 with a formal declaration of war by King Charles VII.

Initial French campaigns in 1471 was mildly successful, with the large French army under King Charles storming the Burgundian fortresses of Autun and Chalon before withdrawing to winter quarters on the Saône. The next year, King Charles chose to shift his focus on Burgundian-held territories in Lorraine, and French armies concentrated there throughout the spring before taking Verdun. After two abortive crossings of the Meuse, King Charles was able to lead his army on a march around Duke Charles southern flank before besieging Toul. A Burgundian relief attempt led by Duke Charles himself resulted in a decisive French victory which saw the Burgundian army shattered and Duke Charles captured. King Charles VI followed this victory by taking Nancy and Metz and then negotiating a year-long ceasefire with Charles the Bold. The French army withdrew soon after, with French holdings in Lorraine secure.

The quick and seemingly decisive French victory was quickly overshadowed by a resumption of tensions as negotiations in Arras for an extension of the ceasefire failed. Both sides gradually remobilized until the ceasefire expired in July of 1473.

Hostilities soon resumed in September with a French campaign along the Schelt. A French mercenary army led by Roger de Clements launched a brief raiding campaign, ravaging the Flemish countryside and sacking Tournai before being trapped in the city by two Burgundian armies, one of which advanced down from Antwerp and another which forced marched from positions on the Meuse. The arrival of a French relief column scattered the Burgundian armies and French forces were able to seize Ypres and St. Omer before the campaign season came to an end.

Burgundy was now on the verge of total collapse: Charles the Bold's finances were exhausted