The War of the Burgundian Succession - my 'research project' (long read)

[Charlie_]

I thought it was about time I shared what I've been working on the for past year or so...

I've been researching the War of Burgundian Succession and writing up a summary of sorts, hopefully in an easy to follow wargamer-friendly style.

IMPORTANT - I would like to make absolutely clear that I am not any sort of academic and do not pretend to be. I don't have any sort of degree in history, and so what I've come up with isn't anything 'serious' and I welcome any input from people with more knowledge on the subject.

I am also working on making a new blog which will be used to track my painting and gaming project, as well as a place to host my 'research' for all to read. The links given here will go to stand alone pages on the blog, but for now the blog itself has not started, and it's possible you will witness it in the process of being re-formatted and tinkered with at some point. You are welcome to subscribe to it to get notified when I do start posting.

What follows is the Introduction page I have made for the blog, with links to the actual thing in a few sections.

I hope this is of interest!


INTRODUCTION

When I returned to wargaming in 2016, it was definitely one historical era that drew me back in – the late 15th century. I have always loved the look of the arms and armour of this period, and so my historical interests have always centred around the 1450-1500 timeframe. The go-to wargaming focus of this period of course is the Wars of the Roses, but I wanted to do something different. After much thought and a little preliminary research I decided to commit myself to the War of the Burgundian Succession.

The what??? Not exactly a well-known conflict and not one I’ve seen as a wargaming project before, but I soon realised it had a lot of potential. Covering a sixteen year period (1477-1493), it’s basically what happened after the Duke of Burgundy died without a male heir in 1477. It ticks the following boxes for me:

• Various European nationalities involved (French, Burgundian, Flemish, German, Swiss and more).
• Potential for lots of different troop types (good for keeping both the army-building and gaming interesting).
• A worthwhile research project – there isn’t a great deal of detailed information in English, but with a bit of perseverance and the wonder of Google Translate,  things can happen!
• A good setting for making up scenarios – though there was only one major battle and a handful of smaller ones, there were endless sieges, skirmishes, raids and the like to base scenarios on.
• And finally… it’s not the Wars of the Roses!

Having read the brief wikipedia article on the subject, there was at first the slight worry that it wasn’t really much of a war but just a one-off large battle and a series of treaties. But my research has unearthed no end of details on small-scale engagements throughout the whole sixteen year period. This was indeed a war, and a perfect opportunity for an interesting wargaming project.

I am pleased to share my research on the subject on this blog, which I have divided into the following subjects.

• General overview of events
• The war in the Low Countries (1477-1482)
• The war in Burgundy (1477-1480)
• Maximilian’s regency (1483-1493)

Note that most references to this war date its end as 1482, with the Treaty of Arras. I'm also covering the extra eleven years to the Treaty of Senlis in 1493, and treating the whole sixteen year period as one extended conflict.

This isn’t an academic work, and I do not claim to be any sort of academic, just a hobbyist. If any real historians want to publish an actual book on this subject – please do! I’d definitely buy it. I’ve provided a list of my sources here.


(And for LAF readers, here's another page on the cast of characters involved, with some family trees I made to try and get my own head around the various complex connections.)

[WuZhuiQiu]

This looks interesting, and possibly worth emulating in, say, 15mm.

Note that your blog's home page and "tree of post links" is still blank.

Having read all of the posts, it looks as though this conflict would be a very suitable basis for a campaign. Is there a boardgame about it? If not, GMT should consider publishing one!

[KarwickWingmaker]

Accessible while providing all the depth necessary to take the fight to the tabletop!

Love it!

[gregmita]

Thank you! This is a great read for a background to the era.

[fantasticlegions]

Thanks for sharing.  I look forward to reading with great interest.  (Sadly it's late here.)  And especially thank you for listing your sources.

[HappyChappy439]

Really excellent work on the write-up!

It's a shame that the period is often overlooked both in wargaming and in English-language sources more generally so it's really great to see such a comprehensive runthrough of it!

Keep up the great work!

[Charlie_]

Thanks you all for your interest!

Having read all of the posts, it looks as though this conflict would be a very suitable basis for a campaign. Is there a boardgame about it? If not, GMT should consider publishing one!

Yes, I imagine it would be a good setting for a boardgame. You would play as Maximilian, trying to assert your authority on the Burgundian territories, all the time trying to fight off French incursions and put down rebellious subjects!

[GulKelan]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

When i go on your blog main page it says there are no posts. will the articles u wrote will be up on the main page aswell for the future?

There is a documentary with scenes from the movie Maximilian if anybody is intrested. but sadly only in german: