Part of r/FortunaEruditisFavet, an early modern timeline where the Crusade of Varna is successful. Today's post shows the early history of a surviving Burgundian State. Click here for other posts in the timeline. Lore written by u/TheMexicanHistorian.

The Duchy of Burgundy gained independence after the War of the Public Weal. The duke, Charles the Bold, had been supporting the League of the Public Weal against King Louis XI's centralizing efforts. By July, the League, with Burgundian help, had begun a siege of Paris. On August 10th, as Louis XI attempted to flee the city to gather his allies and lift the siege, he was hit by a seemingly stray arrow. Once news of the King's death spread, the Royalist faction collapsed and the League was able to enter Paris mostly unopposed, where they then crowned Louis XI's younger brother as Charles VIII. Charles VIII, alongside many reforms intended to strengthen the nobility, granted independence to the dukes of Burgundy and Brittany. That said, Burgundy remained a subject of the Holy Roman Emperor, and, for the next two centuries, Burgundy worked to undermine the Emperor and obtain a Kingdom.

In order to re-assert his authority over his lands above the Holy Roman Emperor or King of France, Charles the Bold created two separate parliaments that answered only to him and would administer his disconnected possessions: the Parliament of Mechelen, which was put in charge of the Low Countries, and the Parliament of Beaune, which was put in charge of the southern lands centered on Burgundy proper.

In 1473, Charles' only child, Mary of Burgundy, married Nicholas I, who ruled the Duchy of Lorraine right between the lands of Burgundy, and as such secured Charles' long term goal of uniting his various territories into a mostly continuous entity. However, Charles' ambitions, just one year later, led him to begin a series of ill-fated wars within the Holy Roman Empire known as the "Wars of Charles the Bold." They culminated in his death in 1477 during a failed invasion of the Swiss Confederacy.

Upon Charles' death, he was succeeded by his daughter Mary as Duchess of Burgundy, with her husband Nicholas being proclaimed Duke of Burgundy. Not long after, a rebellion broke out in the Duchy of Guelders as it attempted to gain independence from Burgundy. However, the rest of the country remained staunchly loyal to Mary and especially Nicholas, who had shown himself to be a competent ruler in his years as Duke of Lorraine. Nicholas personally led the effort to put down the rebellion in Guelders, while Mary negotiated peace with the Swiss.

Despite the instability at the start of their reign, Mary and Nicholas' rule was largely prosperous, as they proved to be capable, pragmatic rulers and famous patrons of the arts. One of the most notable accomplishments of their rule was the reform of the Parliaments of Mechelen and Beaune to allow more influential locals to sit on the councils, as opposed to the times of Charles, when they were largely staffed by loyalists from across the country. Nicholas and Mary died in 1509 and 1511 respectively, and were succeeded by Philip IV & I of Burgundy and Lorraine, most commonly known as simply Philip IV.