relieve, men were beheaded like sheep.

In the first regular engagement in which Charles took part, he showed
a brave front and learned the duties of a prince by rewarding others
with the honour of knighthood. Among those slain in the course of the
war, were Cornelius, Bastard of Burgundy, and the gallant Jacques
de Lalaing. Philip grieved deeply over the death of the former, his
favourite among his natural sons, and buried him with all honours in
the Church of Ste-Gudule in Brussels. The title by which he was known,
hardly a proud one it would seem, passed to his brother Anthony.
Lalaing, too, was greatly mourned, thus prematurely cut down in his
thirty-third year.

There was so much fear lest the duke's sole legitimate heir might also
perish in these conflicts where there was no mercy, that Charles was
persuaded to go to visit his mother in the hope that she would keep
him by her side. She made a feast in his honour, but, to the surprise
of all, the duchess, who had wished to protect her son from the mild
perils of a tourney, now encouraged him with brave words to return
to fight in all earnest for his inheritance.[16] He himself was very
indignant at the efforts to treat him as a child.

The first truce and negotiations for peace, initiated in the summer of
1452, were broken off because the conditions were unbearable to the
Ghenters. Another year of warfare followed before the decisive battle
of Gaveren, in July, 1453, forced them sadly to succumb. There was
no other course open to them. Not only were they defeated but their
numbers were decimated.[17] With full allowance for exaggeration, it
is certain that the loss was very heavy. Terms scornfully rejected at
an earlier date were, in 1453, accepted with every humiliating detail.