tnote 15: Barante, _Histoire des Dues de Bourgogne_, vi., 2, note
by Reiffenberg.]

[Footnote 16: See _Catalogue des manuscrits des Ducs de Bourgogne,_
"Resume historique," i., lxxix.]

[Footnote 17: Barante, vi., 2, note.]

[Footnote 18: Loomis, _Medieval Hellenism_.]

[Footnote 19: Pirenne, _Histoire de Belgique_, ii., 231.]

[Footnote 20: It was in June, 1434, that this alliance had been made.
Sigismund claimed that Philip had no right in Brabant, Holland,
Zealand, and Hainaut, which in his opinion were lapsed fiefs, of the
empire.]

[Footnote 21: Putnam, _A Medieval Princess_.

[Footnote 22: Monstrelet, _La Chronique_, v., 344.]

[Footnote 23: La Marche, _Memoires_, ii., 50.]

[Footnote 24: Reiffenberg, _Essai sur les enfants naturels de Philippe
de Bourgogne._]

[Footnote 25: Meyer, _Commentarii sive Annales rerum Flandricarum, _
p. 296.]

CHAPTER II

YOUTH

1440-1453

The heir of Burgundy was still in very tender years when he began to
take official part in public affairs, sometimes associated with one
parent, sometimes with the other.

There was a practical advantage in bringing the boy to the fore by
which the duke was glad to profit. With his own manifold interests, it
was impossible for him to be present in his various capitals as often
as was demanded by the usage of the diverse individual seigniories. It
was politic, therefore, to magnify the representative capacity of his
son and of his consort in order to obtain the grants and _aides_ which
certain of his subjects declared could be given only when requested
orally by their sovereign lord. Thus, in 1444, it was Count Charles
and the duchess who appeared in Holland to ask an _aide_.[1] In the
following year, Charles accompanied his father when Philip made one
of his rare visits--there were only three between 1428 and 1466--to
Holland and Zealand.

[Illustration: A CASTLE IN BURGUNDY]

Olivier de la Marche was among the attendants on this occasion, and he
describes with great detail how rejoiced were the inhabitants to have
their absentee count in their land.[2] Many matters could only be
set aright by his authority. Among the complaints brought to him at
Middelburg were accusations against a certain knight of high birth,
Jehan de Dombourc. Philip ordered that the man be arrested at once and
brought before him for trial. This was easier said than done. Warned
of his danger, Dombourc, with four or five comrades, took refuge