by contrition, entreaties, etc., and resumes His natural benignity by forgetting things past [etc.]....  Alas, what kindness did He use toward Adam, His first offender, upon whom through his son Seth He poured the oil of pity in five thousand future years, and then to Cain the first born of mother He postponed vengeance for his crime for ten generations etc.  What did he do in Abraham’s time, when He sent word to Lot that if there were ten righteous men in Sodom and Gomorrah He would remit the judgment on the two cities?  In Ghent,” etc.[4]

In the chancellor’s answer to this plea, the duke’s consent to grant forgiveness to Ghent is again compared to God’s own mercy.  The divine attributes were referred to again and again, not only on the pages of contemporaneous chroniclers who may be accused of desiring ducal patronage, but also in sober state papers.

There was one antidote to this homage universally offered to Charles wherever there was no rebellion against him.  One of the rules of the Order of the Golden Fleece was that all alike should be subject to criticism by their fellows.  In May, 1468, at Bruges, Charles held an assembly of the Order, the first over which he had presided.  It was a fitting opportunity for the knights to express their sentiments.  When it came to his turn to be reviewed, Charles listened quietly to the representations that his conduct fell short of the ideals of chivalry because he was too economical, too industrious, too strenuous, and not sufficiently cognisant of the merits of his faithful subjects of high degrees.[5]

In these plaints, respectful as they are, there is perhaps a note of regret for the lavish and amusing good cheer of the late duke’s times.  Charles was undoubtedly husbanding his resources at this period.  The vision of wide dominions was already in his dreams, and he was prudent enough to begin his preparations.  And prudence is not a popular quality.  Still his courtiers were not quite bereft of the gorgeous and spectacular entertainments to which the “good duke” had accustomed them.  Soon after the assembly of the Order, the alliance between Duke Charles and Margaret of York was celebrated at Bruges.  Our Burgundian Chastellain is not pleased with this marriage.  That Charles inclined towards England at all was due to the French king, whom both he and his father had found untrustworthy.  Again, had there been any other eligible partie in England Charles would never have allied himself with King Edward when all his sympathies were with the blood of Lancaster.  But when King Louis forsook his cousin Margaret of Anjou, whose woes should have commanded pity, simply for the purpose of undermining the Duke of Burgundy, the latter felt it wise to make Edward his friend.

    “That it was sore against his inclination he confessed to one who
    later revealed it to me, but he decided that it was better to
    injure another rather than be down-trodden and injured himself.[6]