In 1465, Charles of Burgundy led a league of nobles against Louis XI, hoping to roll back French central power. In OTL Louis lost. Could he win, and how? What are France's war goals & strategy? What might the consequences be?
In 1465, Charles of Burgundy led a league of nobles against Louis XI, hoping to roll back French central power. In OTL Louis lost. Could he win, and how? What are France's war goals & strategy? What might the consequences be?
He did not really lost and even a battle of Monthlery was a rather confused affair in which both sides declared a victory. Of course, if Louis won this battle decisively (which would take a marginally decent generalship manifestly absent in OTL even if some authors are trying to present the inept leadership as some meaningful tactics), he could skip the OTL "concessions stage" and directly proceed to the OTL "revenge stage" which did not take him too long, anyway. Louis' goals were obvious: consolidation of the royal power at the expense of the grand seigniors. Strategy was initially lousy because he managed to alienate everybody simultaneously. When he did stop to think for a little while, he easily came to an obvious solution: deal with one person at a time. This worked just fine both by the beheadings and confiscations (Charles de Melun, Jacques of Armagnac) and with pardoning and awarding (as with John II, Duke of Bourbon who was made a Connetable or with Dunois). Then there would be a time to deal with Charles the Bold, now Duke of Burgundy.