written:

"To-day, November 3, 1473, Messire Olivier de la Marche ... took
the oath of office of master and overseer of the land and duchy of
Guelders."[5]

The charge of the ducal children, Charles and Philippa, was entrusted
to the duke who, in his turn, deputed Margaret of York to supervise
their education. In a comparatively brief time agitation in behalf
of the disinherited heir ceased, and imperial ratification alone was
required to stamp the territory as a legal fraction of the Burgundian
domains. Under the circumstances the minor heirs were the emperor's
wards, and it was his express duty to look to their interests, but
Frederic III. showed no disposition to assert himself as their
champion. On the contrary, the embassy that arrived from his court on
August 14th was charged with felicitations to his dear friend, Charles
of Burgundy, for his acquisition, and with assurances that the
requisite investiture into his dignities should be given by his
imperial hand at the duke's pleasure.[6]

Communication between Frederic and Charles had been intermittently
frequent during the past three years, and one subject of their letters
was probably a reason why Charles had been willing to abandon a losing
game in France to give another bias to his thoughts. He was lured
on by the bait of certain prospects, varying in their definite form
indeed, but full of promise that he might be enabled, eventually, to
confer with Louis XI. from a better vantage ground than his position
as first peer of France. The story of these hopes now becomes the
story of Charles of Burgundy.

When Sigismund of Austria completed his mortgage, in 1469, at St.
Omer, and returned home, as already stated, he was fired with zeal to
divert some of the dazzling Burgundian wealth into the empty imperial
coffers. An alliance between Mary of Burgundy and the young Archduke
Maximilian seemed to him the most advantageous matrimonial bargain
possible for the emperor's heir. He urged it upon his cousin with
all the eloquence he possessed, and was lavish in his offers to be
mediator between him and his new friend Charles.

Frederic was impressed by Sigismund's enthusiastic exposition of the
advantages of the match, and little time elapsed before his ambassador
brought formal proposals to Charles for the alliance. The duke
received the advances complacently and returned propositions
significant of his personal ambitions. As early as May, 1470, his
i