Les tribulations du Grand Bâtard Antoine de Bourgogne en Italie (1475)

During his Italian journey, which aimed at confirming to Ferrante of Aragon, king of Naples, his elevation to the title of knight of the Golden Fleece, the Bastard Antoine multiplied the visits, the contacts, in Savoy, in Milan twice, in Naples, in the papal court, in Florence, in Venice and in Ferrare. He revealed himself a very pleasant person everywhere he stayed and, in return, was welcomed with the greatest consideration. Whatever may have been, in the name of his brother, the diplomatic relations struck up by the Bastard with the Italian sovereigns, and whatever design they had, either creating an irrepressible strike force against France, or stirring up the most stunning of coalitions against its king by the conclusion of a most politically profitable marital union or by the gift of the Golden Fleece, even if Antoine was able to recruit a few soldiers and weapons, since they took place while the siege of Neuss was dragging on miserably, all these attempts remained in vain in fine. In 1482, the Estates of Burgundy fell to a child and Marie de Bourgogne left behind her a political situation as delicate as the one who prevailed before Sixte IV offered Antoine, by legitimizing him, the dynastic capacity to reign.