Treaty of Arras (1482)

When the last Burgundian duke Charles the Bold died at the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, his territories in France including Burgundy proper, Flanders, Artois and the Picardy were seized as reverted fiefs[1] by the French king.

Before his death however, Charles had arranged with Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg the marriage of their children Mary the Rich and Archduke Maximilian, which took place on 19 August 1477.

Maximilian did not hesitate to defend the heritage of his wife, culminating in the 1479 Battle of Guinegate, where he defeated the troops of King Louis XI.

To settle the conflict with France, he by the Treaty of Arras agreed to marry his daughter, Archduchess Margaret of Austria, to the Dauphin of France, the later King Charles VIII, bringing the Imperial County of Burgundy to the French crown as her dowry.

France retained most of its Burgundian fiefdoms except for the affluent County of Flanders, which passed to Maximilian (but soon rebelled against the archduke).