soldiers of Europe by defeating Charles again and again till they left
him slain on the field of Nancy (1477).[9] Louis promptly seized most of
his dead vassal's domains. Maximilian, having wedded Charles' daughter,
inherited the remainder; and the old Burgundian kingdom, so nearly
revived to stretch as a permanent dividing land between France and
Germany, disappeared forever.

What Louis had done with Burgundy he attempted with his other
semi-independent duchies. The Hundred Years' War had almost destroyed
central government in France. Louis, by means as secret and varied as his
cunning could suggest, gradually reestablished an undisputed leadership
above his lords. Fortunately for France, perhaps, England was prevented
by a long series of civil wars from interfering in her neighbor's
affairs. These wars, though they originated before Louis' time, were
constantly fomented and kept alive by him, and England thus paid dearly
for having become a source of danger to France.

The Wars of the Roses,[10] as they are called, caused deep-seated changes
in England's life and society. They mark for her the transition from the
mediaeval to the modern era which was everywhere taking place. Beginning
as a contest between two rival branches of the Plantagenets for the
kingship, these wars remained aristocratic throughout. That is to say,
the common people took little interest in them, while the nobles,
espousing sides, fought savagely and murderously, giving one another
no quarter, sparing the lesser folk, but executing as traitors their
prisoners of rank. When one side seemed hopelessly overcome, Louis would
lend them arms and money wherewith to seek revenge once more. Thus almost
all the old nobility of England perished; and both lines of kings became
extinct, Richard III, their last representative, being accused of
murdering all his relatives or possible rivals.[11] At last, Richard too