When the 33-year-old Charles the Bold became duke of Burgundy in succession to his father Philip the Good on 15 June 1467, the territorial conglomerate he inherited was a major European power. The nucleus of Burgundy had been formed, through the dynastic union of the duchy and county of Burgundy with the county of Flanders, by his great-grandfather Philip the Bold (1363–1404), youngest son of King John II of France, as a result of an attempt by the French monarchy both to provide for its cadet branches and to extend by this means its own power. But as the decades passed the links between Burgundy and France became less close and often more strained. Philip the Bold and his son John the Fearless (1404–1419) laid the foundations for the dramatic expansion of Burgundian rule (into much of what are now the Benelux countries) which took place in the reign of Duke John's son Philip the Good (1419–1467). The centre of the Burgundian dukes' interests, power and wealth shifted decisively northwards.

This change was masked for a time by the courtly deference to the French monarchy shown by the ostensibly Francophile Philip the Good, but a new clarity emerged during the reign of his son Charles the Bold (1467–1477). If the Hundred Years War had provided an opportunity for Burgundy to take advantage of the weakness of her neighbour to expand, then the recovery of France after the effective end of that conflict presented her with an obvious potential threat. Charles did not feel bound by any of the ties of sentiment which had caused his father sometimes to overlook the danger from France. He aimed to convert de facto into de jure independence of France, to keep French power in check while seeking to increase the power of Burgundy. To this end he gathered allies wherever he could. Though he was indefatigable in trying to maintain the concessions of French territory gained by his father, power in France itself was not his priority, and the scope of his ambitions lay elsewhere, particularly in the lands of the Empire, where he negotiated to succeed Frederick III on the imperial throne.