The Mad War, 1483.
There was nothing noble about Louis XI. but his aims, and nothing great
but the results he attained; yet however different he might have been he
could not have done better, for what he achieved was the making of
France. This was soon seen after his death in the reaction which menaced
his work and those who had served him; but thanks to himself and to his
true successor, his eldest daughter Anne, married to the sire de
Beaujeu, a younger member of the house of Bourbon, the set-back was
only partial. Strife began immediately between the numerous malcontents
and the Beaujeu party, who had charge of the little Charles VIII. These
latter prudently made concessions: reducing the _taille_, sacrificing
some of Louis XI.'s creatures to the rancour of the parlement, and
restoring a certain number of offices or lands to the hostile princes
(chief of whom was the duke of Orleans), and even consenting to a
convocation of the states-general at Tours (1484). But the elections
having been favourable to royalty, the Beaujeu family made the states
reject the regency desired by the duke of Orleans, and organize the
king's council after their own views. When they subsequently eluded the
conditions imposed by the states, the deputies--nobles, clergy and
burgesses--showed their incapacity to oppose the progress of despotism.
In vain did the malcontent princes attempt to set up a new League of
Public Weal, the _Guerre folle_ (Mad War), in which the duke of
Brittany, Francis II., played the part of Charles the Bold, dragging in
the people of Lorraine and the king of Navarre. In vain did Charles
VIII., his majority attained, at once abandon in the treaty of Sablé the
benefits gained by the victory of Saint-Aubin du Cormier (1488). In vain
did Henry VII. of England, Ferdinand the Catholic, and Maximilian of
Austria try to prevent the annexation of Brittany by France; its heiress
Anne, deserted by every one, made peace and married Charles VIII. in
1491. There was no longer a single great fief in France to which the
malcontents could fly for refuge.