Ruth Putnam’s Charles the Bold tells the dramatic story of the last Valois Duke of Burgundy, whose ambition nearly forged a powerful kingdom between France and the Holy Roman Empire. Putnam follows Charles through his wars with Louis XI of France, his struggles with the Swiss, and the spectacular court culture of fifteenth-century Burgundy, before his death at the Battle of Nancy in 1477 shattered his dream. The biography blends political and military history with vivid character study.
Drawing on chronicles and diplomatic records, Putnam portrays a proud, reckless prince whose collapse reshaped the map of late medieval Europe and enriched the rising Habsburg dynasty through his daughter Mary of Burgundy. The book captures the splendour and violence of the Burgundian state at its height. Readers drawn to the politics of the late Middle Ages, the Hundred Years’ War’s aftermath, and dynastic rivalry will find it absorbing.