...what you typed in bold there sort of seems like a direct quote of my earlier post you know... I certainly understood that, but I will freely admit I had great difficulties understanding the rest.

Anyway.

There's a difference between professionalism and a professional. Any mercenary was certainly a professional soldier, but that didn't by itself mean a bunch of them would automatically display great professionalism - if you see what I mean.

Well-trained and motivated militias using sound tactics were, in any case, long easily enough the match for even the best full-time soldiery, nevermind now the often somewhat amateurish feudal warrior aristocracy (the often quite fearsome individual combat skill of the latter nonwithstanding).

Burgundy was one of those aforementioned feudal barony thingies (duchy more specifically); the Duke was probably theoretically a vassal of the French king (or the Holy Roman Emperor), but frankly I haven't dwelt too much into the early history of the place. Seems to have been typically complicated. Anyway, it was very much an independent statelet when its army underwent the reforms - and indeed France was one of its major opponents.