ABSTRACT
On 6 March 1482, Mary — the only child of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy and legitimate heiress to the duchy following her father's death at the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, who married Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the future Roman-German king and Holy Roman emperor — fell under her horse during falconry. Twenty-five-year-old Mary died three weeks after her accident on 27 March in the presence of Emperor Maximilian, their two children Philip the Handsome, the father of the later Holy Roman emperor Charles V and Margaret. The union of Burgundy with the Habsburgs had been planned for a long time and was based on Burgundian considerations to free themselves from their feudal dependence on France by gaining kingship. After all, Duke Charles had refused King Louis the oath of fealty and, in 1468, he had also succeeded in removing Flanders from the jurisdiction of the Parisian parliament.
