Charles the Bold was Duke of Burgundy. He was born in 1433 at Dijon. He was the son of Philip the Good and Isabella of Portugal. While his father yet lived Charles left Burgundy, and forming an alliance with some of the great French nobles for the purpose of preserving the power of the feudal nobility, he marched on Paris with 20,000 men, defeated Louis XI at Montlheri, and won the counties of Boulogne, Guines, and Ponthieu. Succeeding his father in 1467 he commenced his reign by severe repression of the citizens of Liege and Ghent.
In 1468 he married Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England. Liege having rebelled, the duke stormed and sacked the town. In 1470 the war with France was renewed, and although the duke was forced to sue for a truce he soon took up arms anew, and, crossing the Somme, stormed and fired the city of Nesle. Louis meanwhile involved him in greater embarrassments by exciting against him Austria and the Swiss. Charles, ever ready to take up a quarrel, threw himself on Germany with characteristic fury, and lost ten months in a futile siege of Neuss. He was successful, however, in conquering Lorraine from Duke Rene.
Charles now turned his arms against the Swiss, took the city of Granson, putting 800 men to the sword. But this cruelty was speedily avenged by the descent of a Swiss army, which at the first shock routed the duke's forces at Granson, on March the 3rd, 1476. Mad with rage and shame Charles gathered another army, invaded Switzerland, and was again defeated with great loss at Moral. The Swiss, led by the Duke of Lorraine, now undertook the reconquest of Lorraine, and obtained possession of Nancy. Charles marched to recover it, but was utterly routed and himself slain. The house of Burgundy ended in him, and his death Without male heirs removed the greatest of those independent feudal lords whose power stood in the way of the growth of the French monarchy. His daughter Mary married Maximilian of Germany, but most of his French territory passed into the hands of the French king. Research Charles The Bold
Emile Coue was a French psychotherapist. He was born in 1857 and died in 1926. A study of hypnotism led him to the belief that auto-suggestion was able to effect cures in all cases and in 1910 he opened a clinic in Nancy to put his theories to the test. Research Emile Coue
Count Henri Gregoire, bishop of Blois, was a French a churchman and statesman of the French Revolution. He was born in 1750 and died in 1831. In 1789, while cure of Embermenil, in the district of Nancy, he was sent by the clergy of Lorraine as their representative to the states-general. As one of the secretaries of the constituent assembly he joined the extreme democratic section, and in the convention voted for the condemnation, though not for the death, of the king. Although extreme in his democratic opinions, he was an unflinching Jansenist. He was a member of the Council of Five Hundred, of the corps legislatif, and of the senate in 1801. On the conclusion of the concordat he resigned his bishopric. He voted against the establishment of the imperial government, and alone in the senate resisted the restoration of titles of nobility. He himself afterwards accepted the title of count, but in the senate was always one of the small body who opposed Napoleon, and in 1814 was one of the first to vote for his deposition. He passed the latter part of his life in retirement. He left numerous works, among them Ruines de Port Royal, 1801; Essai Historique sur les Libertes de l'Eglise Gallicane; Histoire des Sectes Religieuses depuis Le Commencement de ce Siecle, 1810 and 1828; Annales de la Religion, 1795-1803. Research Henri Gregoire
Jean Ignace Isidore Gerard was a French caricaturist and book illustrator. He was born in 1803 at Nancy and died in 1847. Generally known under the pseudonym of Grandville, he went to Paris in 1824, and after some minor works acquired great popularity in 1828 by his Metamorphoses du Jour, a representation under the guise of animal heads of human foibles and weaknesses. Later on he became a contributor to Le Charivari and an illustrator of the works of Beranger, La Fontaine, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, etc. Research Jean Gerard
John Manley was an English-born American sailor. He was born in 1733 and died in 1793. He moved from England to America and settled in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He was commissioned by George Washington to cruise off Boston and intercept Gage's supplies, on October the 24th, 1775. He opened the naval operations of the American War of Independence by capturing HMS Nancy, laden with military supplies, on November the 29th. In 1776 he was made the second captain in the US navy, and commanded the Hancock in 1776 and 1777, and privateers subsequently. He was twice made a prisoner. In 1782 he commanded the ship Hague. Research John Manley
Rhoda Broughton was an English novelist. She was born in 1840 and died after 1905. The daughter of a clergyman, she was much less prolific than some English lady novelists, and her early works attracted much more attention than her later. Among the chief are Cometh up as a Flower (1867); Not Wisely but too Well (1869); Red as a Rose is She (1870); Good-bye, Sweetheart, Good-bye (1872); Nancy (1873); Joan (1876); Belinda (1883); Scylla or Charybdis (1895) ; Dear Faustina (1897); Lavinia (1902). Her earlier novels show a cleverness, vigour, and originality of plot and characterization hardly maintained in her later ones. Research Rhoda Broughton
Nancy Allen is an American actress. She was born in 1950 at New York. She is perhaps best known for playing 'Officer Anne Lewis' in the three 'Robocop' films of the late 1980's and early 1990's. Research Nancy Allen
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