his pay foreign mercenaries,
particularly Englishmen and Italians, and by developing his artillery.
Furthermore, he had lost no opportunity of extending his power. In 1469
the archduke of Austria, Sigismund, had sold him the county of Ferrette,
and the landgraviate of Alsace and some other towns, reserving to
himself the right to repurchase. In 1472-1473 Charles bought the
reversion of the duchy of Gelderland from its old duke, Arnold, whom he
had supported against the rebellion of his son. Not content with being
"the grand duke of the West," he conceived the project of forming a
kingdom of Burgundy or Arles with himself as independent sovereign, and
even persuaded the emperor Frederick to assent to crown him king at
Trier. The ceremony, however, did not take place owing to the emperor's
precipitate flight by night (September 1473), occasioned by his
displeasure at the duke's attitude. In the following year Charles
involved himself in a series of difficulties and struggles which
ultimately brought about his downfall. He embroiled himself successively
with Sigismund of Austria, to whom he refused to restore his
possessions in Alsace for the stipulated sum; with the Swiss, who
supported the free towns of Alsace in their revolt against the tyranny
of the ducal governor, Peter von Hagenbach (who was condemned and
executed by the rebels in May 1474); and finally, with Rene of Lorraine,
with whom he disputed the succession of Lorraine, the possession of
which had united the two principal portions of Charles's
territories--Flanders and the duchy and county of Burgundy. All these
enemies, incited and supported as they were by Louis, were not long in
joining forces against their common adversary. Charles suffered a first
rebuff in endeavouring to protect his kinsman, the archbishop of
Cologne, against his rebel subjects. He spent ten months (July 1474-June
1475) in besieging the little town of Neuss on the Rhine, but was
compelled by the approach of a powerful imperial army to raise the
siege. Moreover, the expedition he had persuaded his brother-in-law,
Edward IV. of England, to undertake against Louis was stopped by the
treaty of Picquigny (29th of August 1475). He was more successful in
Lorraine, where he seized Nancy (30th of November 1475). From Nancy he
marched against the Swiss, hanging and drowning the garrison of Granson
in spite of the capitulation. Some days later, however, he was attacked
before Granson by the confede