| Summary: | That Charles the Bold showed a greater political and intellectual interest in Italy than any of his Valois predecessors is a phenomenon long known to historians. This thesisq howeverg is the first attempt to provide an overall study of the various aspects of that phenomenon. It is a study of both policies and personalities* Chapter 1 examines Charles's relations with the major secular, states of Italy - Milan, Naples and Venice - showing how he sought to oppose Burgundian to French influence in the peninsula and tried to obtain military and financial support from his Italian allies against his enemies north of the Alps, notably Louis XI. Chapter 2 studies his relations with the papacy, both in internal matters, such as the relationship between Church and state and the papal alum monopoly in the Low Countriesq and in diplomacyq for example papal mediationg papal dispensationB for consanguineous marriages and the search for friends in the papal curia; again his rivalry with Louis XI is apparent. Chapter 3 focuses on the activities of Tomm so Portinari, both for their own sake and as a means of elucidating Charles's rather distant relations with Florence; it is argued that Portinari has been too severely criticized for his intimacy with Charles. Chapter 4 concentrateB on the Italians at court as a distinct groupt examining their functions, background and intrigues. Chapter 5 investigates the diplomats and their workj largely on the basisl wherever possiblep of their own surviving correspondence. Chapter 6 concerns the princes at court and further illuminates Charles's relations with Naples, Ferrara, Mantua and Milan. These six chapters also help explain why Italian rulers, for their partq were interested in Charles the Bold and what they had to hope or fear from him. Finallyq Chapter 7 attempts to assess the numbers, value and influence of the duke's Italian soldiers, The Conclusion is slightly negativep that Italian influence on Charles the Bold should not be overestimated. There were limits on how much Charles could usefully adopt from Italian methods of government, diplomacy and warfare; more-over, the Italian influx-was comparatively short-lived. Nonethelessq much new material has been provided by the thesis for a better understanding both of one aspect of Charles's reign and of the Italians around him. The unpublished sources most used are French Belgian, and Italian, especially those in the Archives Departementales du Nord in Lille, the Archives Generales du Royaume in Brussels and the Archivi di Stato in Milan Venice and Mantua; that is to say, Burgundian financial accounts and Italian diplomatic records.
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