The memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton, Volume 2 (of 2) : $b Containing the histories of Louis XI. and Charles VIII. Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. To which is added the Scandalous Chronicle, or, secret history of Louis XI., by Jean de Troyes.

"The memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton, Volume 2 (of 2) by Commynes is a historical memoir written in the late 15th century. It offers a statesman’s inside view of French and Burgundian politics, centering on the rule of Louis XI, the accession of Charles VIII, and the fate of Charles the Bold’s dominions. The narrative blends eyewitness reporting with sharp analysis of diplomacy, warfare, and court intrigue. Readers interested in realpolitik and the formation of early modern statecraft will find its portraits and tactics illuminating. The opening of the volume recounts how Louis XI, after Charles the Bold’s death, neutralizes England through rich pensions and delay tactics—dangling a marriage he never means to complete—so he can seize Burgundian towns unopposed. It then follows Mary of Burgundy’s marriage to Maximilian of Austria amid Ghent’s factional politics, notes the strain of foreign rule, and shows Burgundian weakness deepening after Mary’s death. Commines describes France’s reconquest of the county of Burgundy under Charles d’Amboise, secured by a crucial Swiss alliance, before turning to his own embassy to Florence during the Pazzi conspiracy and the ensuing war waged by the pope and Naples against the Florentines. Returning to France, he summarizes the hard-fought battle of Guinegaste, Louis’s dislike of pitched battles, and the pivot to peace via the dauphin’s betrothal to Margaret of Austria and the strategic remodeling of Arras. The section closes with an intimate portrait of Louis’s illnesses, suspicion, fortress-like seclusion at Plessis, his expanding fiscal-military machine, and the opening articles of the Treaty of Arras that frame the Franco-Burgundian settlement. (This is an automatically generated summary.)