Great Charlemagne might come to earth's level, his
patriarchal, flowing beard might drop from his face, and we might see
him as he really was--a plucked and toothless old savage, with no more
Christianity than Jacob, and with all of Jacob's greed. Richard of
England, styled by hero-worshippers "The Lion-hearted," might be
re-christened "The Wolf-hearted," and the famous Du Guesclin might seem
to us a half-brutish vagabond. But Charles of Burgundy, dubbed by this
prone world "The Bold" and "The Rash," would take the greatest fall. Of
him and his fair daughter I shall speak in this history.
At the time of which I write Louis XI reigned over France, Edward IV
ruled in England, and his sister, the beautiful Margaret of York, was
the unhappy wife of this Charles the Rash, and stepmother to his gentle
daughter Mary. Charles, though only a duke in name, reigned as a most
potent and despotic king over the fair rich land of Burgundy. Frederick
of Styria was head of the great house of Hapsburg, and Count Maximilian,
my young friend and pupil, was his heir.
Of the other rulers of Europe I need not speak, since they will not
enter this narrative. They were all bad enough,--and may God have mercy
on their souls.
* * * * *
Most of the really tragic parts in the great drama of history have been
played by women. This truth I had always dimly known, yet one does not
really know a fact until he feels it. I did not realize the extent to
which these poor women of history have suffered in the matter of
enforced marriages, until the truth was brought home to me in the person
of Mary, Princess of Burgundy, to whose castle, Peronne La Pucelle, my
pupil, Maximilian of Hapsburg, and I made a journey in the year 1476.
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