Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

STATE OF EUROPE.
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them, by that offer, to favour the fchemes
which his reftlefs ambition was continually form-
This rendered the alliance with her an objeft
of general attention; and all the advantages of
acquiring poffeflion of her territories, the mod
opulent at that time, and the bed cultivated of
any on this fide of the Alps, were perfectly
underdood. As foon, then, as the untimely
death of Charles opened the fucceflion [A. D.
1477, Jan. 5], the eyes of all the princes in Eu¬
rope were turned towards Mary, and they felt
themfelves deeply intereded in the choice which
Ihe was about to make of the perfon on whom
flie would bedow that rich inheritance. •
Louis XI. from -whofe kingdom feveral of the
provinces which Ihe poffeffed had been difmem-
bered, and whofe dominions dretched along the
frontier of her territories, had every inducement
to court her alliance. He had, likewife, a good
title to expedf the favourable reception of any
reafonable propofition he diould make, with
refpedl to the difpofal of a princefs, who was the
vaffal of his crown, and defcended from the royal
blood of France. There were only two propo-
fitions, however, which he could make with pro¬
priety. The one was the marriage of the
dauphin, the other that of the count of Angou-
leme, a prince of the blood, with the heirefs of
Burgundy. By the former, he would have an¬
nexed all her territories to his crown, and have
rendered France at once the mod refpeftable
monarchy in Europe. But the great difparity of
age between the two parties, Mary being twenty,
and the dauphin only eight years old; the
l 3 avowed