A panic seized the Burgundians; Charles in person in vain strove to stem their flight, and he perished by an unknown hand.

His body was found later, stripped naked, lying frozen in a pool.
Charles left an only child, Mary, not yet twenty years of age.

Mary found herself in a most difficult and trying situation.

Louis XI, the hereditary enemy of her house, at once took possession of the duchy of Burgundy, which by failure of heirs-male had reverted to its liege-lord.
The sovereignty of the county of Burgundy (Franche-Comte), being an imperial fief descending in the female line, she retained; but, before her authority had been established, Louis had succeeded in persuading the states of the county to place themselves under a French protectorate.

French armies overran Artois, Hainault and Picardy, and were threatening Flanders, where there was in every city a party of French sympathisers.