House of Valois-Burgundy in the context of "Lord of the Netherlands"

Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (French: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (le Bien-Servi), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years' War and a de facto end of the English claims to the French throne.

During the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and the duke of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the capital and most populous city, and Reims, the city in which French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father, Charles VI, had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy, which was allied to the English).

The Capetian House of Valois ( VAL-wah, also US: /vælˈwɑː, vɑːlˈwɑː/ va(h)l-WAH, French: [valwa]) was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet (or "Direct Capetians") to the French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans, Anjou, Burgundy, and Alençon.

The Valois descended from Charles, Count of Valois (1270–1325), the second surviving son of King Philip III of France (reigned 1270–1285). Their title to the throne was based on a precedent in 1316 (later retroactively attributed to the Merovingian Salic law) which excluded females (Joan II of Navarre), as well as male descendants through the distaff side (Edward III of England), from the succession to the French throne.

Duke of Burgundy (French: duc de Bourgogne) was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by the French crown in 1477, and later by members of the House of Habsburg, including Holy Roman Emperors and kings of Spain, who claimed Burgundy proper and ruled the Burgundian Netherlands.

The Duchy of Burgundy was a small portion of the traditional lands of the Burgundians west of the river Saône which, in 843, was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of the West Franks. Under the Ancien Régime, the duke of Burgundy was the premier lay peer of the Kingdom of France. Beginning with Robert II of France (r. 996–1031), the title was held by the Capetians, the French royal family. In 1032 King Henry I of France granted the duchy to his younger brother, Robert, who founded the House of Burgundy. When the senior line of the House of Burgundy became extinct in 1361, the title was inherited by King John II of France through proximity of blood. John granted the duchy to his younger son, Philip the Bold, in 1363. The Valois dukes gradually came to rule over a vast complex of territories known as the Burgundian State, and became dangerous rivals to the senior French royal line of the House of Valois.

The Burgundian Netherlands were those parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by the House of Valois-Burgundy between 1384 and 1482. During the Burgundian Age, those lands were also parts of the wider Valois-Burgundian State, which itself belonged, in terms of suzerainty, partly to the Kingdom of France and partly to the Holy Roman Empire. The Valois Dukes of Burgundy gradually acquired and united those lowlands into a political union that went beyond a personal union establishing central institutions for the first time (such as the States General).

The period began with Duke Philip the Bold taking office as count and lord of Antwerp, Artois, Flanders, Mechelen, and Rethel in 1384, and lasted until the death of Duchess Mary of Burgundy in 1482, after which the Valois-Burgundian State was dissolved, as Mary's titles and lands were inherited by her son Philip the Handsome, from the House of Habsburg, thus initiating creation of the Habsburg Netherlands.

Mary of Burgundy (French: Marie de Bourgogne; Dutch: Maria van Bourgondië; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy, and ruler in her own right (sui iuris) over much of the Valois-Burgundian lands, from 1477 to 1482. Her effective rule extended over major part of the Burgundian Netherlands, while she also claimed the rest of the Burgundian inheritance, including domains that were seized by her cousin, the French king Louis XI in 1477, such as the Duchy of Burgundy, the Free County of Burgundy and several other lands, both within the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

As the only child of Charles the Bold, ruler of the Valois-Burgundian State, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, Mary became the heiress of Valois-Burgundian lands, and at the age of 19, upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, she claimed the entire inheritance, being accepted as the new ruler in several domains. Her claims were not recognized by the French king Louis XI, who quickly seized various Valois-Burgundian domains, not only those that belonged to the French realm (such as the Duchy of Burgundy), but also some that belonged to the Holy Roman Empire (such as the Free County of Burgundy). Those disputes led to the War of the Burgundian Succession.

The Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande; historically in Spanish: Flandes, the name "Flanders" was used as a pars pro toto) were a collection of States of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, held in personal union by the Spanish Habsburgs, but not annexed to the Spanish Crown, thus encompassing the second period in history of the Habsburg Netherlands, that lasted from 1556 to 1714. This region comprised most of the modern states of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France, the southern Netherlands, and western Germany, with the capital being Brussels. The Army of Flanders was given the task of defending the territory.

The Imperial fiefs in the former Burgundian Netherlands had been inherited by the House of Habsburg from the extinct House of Valois-Burgundy upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482. The Seventeen Provinces formed the core of the Habsburg Netherlands, which passed to the Spanish Habsburgs upon the abdication of Emperor Charles V in 1556. Spanish hegemony in Netherlands was solidified following their victory in the Fall of Antwerp during the Eighty Years' War. When part of the Netherlands separated to form the autonomous Dutch Republic in 1581, the remainder of the area stayed under Spanish rule until the War of the Spanish Succession.

The Duchy of Burgundy (/ˈbɜːrɡəndi/; Latin: Ducatus Burgundiae; French: Duché de Bourgogne) was a medieval and early modern feudal polity in north-western regions of historical Burgundy. It was a duchy, ruled by dukes of Burgundy. The Duchy belonged to the Kingdom of France, and was initially bordering the Kingdom of Burgundy to the east and south, thus being distinct from the neighboring Free County of Burgundy (modern region of Franche-Comté). The first duke of Burgundy (Latin: dux Burgundiae), attested in sources by that title, was Richard the Justiciar in 918.

In 1004, prince Henry of France, a son of king Robert II of France, inherited the Duchy, but later ceded it to his younger brother Robert in 1032. Robert became the ancestor of the ducal House of Burgundy, a cadet branch of the royal Capet dynasty, ruling over a territory that roughly conformed to the borders and territories of the modern region of Burgundy (Bourgogne). Upon the extinction of the Burgundian male line with the death of Duke Philip I in 1361, the duchy reverted to King John II of France and the royal House of Valois. The Burgundian duchy was absorbed in a larger territorial complex after 1363, when King John II ceded the duchy to his younger son Philip. With his marriage with Countess Margaret III of Flanders, he laid the foundation for a Burgundian State which expanded further north in the Low Countries collectively known as the Burgundian Netherlands. Upon further acquisitions of the County of Burgundy, Holland, and Luxemburg, the House of Valois-Burgundy came into possession of numerous French and imperial fiefs stretching from the western Alps to the North Sea, in some ways reminiscent of the Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia.

The House of Burgundy (/ˈbɜːrɡəndi/) was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, descending from Robert I, Duke of Burgundy, a younger son of King Robert II of France. The House ruled the Duchy of Burgundy from 1032 to 1361 and achieved the recognized title of King of Portugal.

The last member of the House was Philip of Rouvres, who succeeded his grandfather in 1349. Philip died childless in 1361 and the duchy reverted to his liege, who two years later created his son the new duke of Burgundy, thus beginning the Younger House of Burgundy.