165 



CHARLES VI. 



CHARLES VI. 





of the ducby by the French) enabled him to regain his dominions. 

 The English assisted him in the enterprise ; and a body of their troops 

 marched unresisted from Calais to Bretagne (1380), Charles restrain- 

 ing by positive injunction the martial ardour of his brother, the Duke 

 of Eourgogne, who with a superior body of forces hung upon their 

 rear. 



At this conjuncture Charles died at the age of forty-three, after a 

 reign of more than sixteen years. He married Jeanne, daughter of 

 the Duke of Bourbon, by whom he had nine children, of whom three 

 survived him. His learning has already been adverted to : it may be 

 added that the Royal Library at Paris owes its origin to him. Not- 

 withstanding the ware he carried on, Charles left his exchequer well 

 filled. 



CHARLES VI., milled Le Bien-aime" (the WeE-beloved), son of the 

 last-mentioned prince, came to the throne upon the death of his father 

 in 1380, being yet in his minority. The guardianship of the king's 

 person and the administration of his power became the subject of 

 dispute between his uncles, Louis of Anjou, Jean of Berri, and Philippe 

 of Bourgogne ; the first-mentioned of whom had managed upon the 

 death of Charles V. to possess himself of the crown-jewels and treasure, 

 and of a deposit of the precious metals in bars, which that king had 

 caused to be secretly built into the walls of his palace at Melun. The 

 difference was terminated by an arrangement : Anjou was allowed to 

 retain the valuables which he had purloined, and the king was declared 

 to be of an age to assume the government, which was however really 

 regulated by a council. 



The beginning of Charles's reign was marked by intestine commotions. 

 The Duke of Berri, governor of Languedoc, goaded the people of that 

 province into rebellion by exactions as galling as those of his brother 

 and predecessor Louis of Anjou. These troubles were not immediately 

 extinguished either by the powerful force or dreadful severity of the 

 duke, although he succeeded in repressing open insurrection ; for the 

 peasantry took refuge in the woods, and waged against those of higher 

 station a war as much marked by unpitying atrocity as that of the 

 Jacquerie. [CHARLES V.] An attempt to establish a market-toll led 

 to serious commotions both at Rouen and at Paris ; the commotions 

 were suppressed, and were followed by numerous executions, open and 

 secret, in both cities. 



Troubles in Flanders, where the wealthy inhabitants of the great 

 manufacturing towns were engaged in perpetual broils with their 

 feudal lords, next engaged the attention of the young king. The 

 Flemings had rebelled against Count Louis, father-in-law of the Duke 

 of Bourgogne; and the king marched to the support of the count with 

 a completely-appointed army, and defeated Philippe von Arteveld, 

 leader of the Flemings, in the great battle of Rosbecque, with dreadful 

 slaughter (1382). Courtray was plundered, and Bruges and Tournay 

 came into the hands of the French ; but Ghent and other places held 

 out, and the approach of winter compelled the king to disband his 

 army. Upon his return to Paris, Charles punished severely some 

 tumults which the citizens had raised during his absence, and similar 

 measures of coercion were adopted at Rouen, Chftlons-sur-Marne, 

 Reims, Sens, and Orleans. A campaign, the following year, against 

 the Flemings, who were supported by a body of English under Henry 

 le Spenser, the warlike bishop of Norwich, was on the whole successful, 

 though not marked by any brilliant exploit. This war partook of the 

 nature of a religious war, for it was the time of the great schism in 

 the papacy, and the English and Flemings supported Urban VI., one 

 of the claimants, while the French supported Clement VIL, his rival 

 The troubles of Flanders were composed by a treaty (1384), during 

 the negociation of which the Count of Flanders died, stabbed, according 

 to some accounts, by the Duke of Berri, the king's uncle. 



The year 1385 was distinguished by the marriage of Charles with 

 I&abelle, daughter of the Duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, as well as by a 

 renewal of the troubles in Flanders ; and the following year (1388) by 

 the assemblage of a vast force for the invasion of England. This force 

 amounted, according to Froissart, to 20,000 men-at-arms, 20,000 cross- 

 bowmen, partly Genoese, and 20,000 ' stout varlets.' Other accounts 

 enlarge the number to 600,000 fighting men. A fleet almost innu- 

 merable, 1287 vessels according to some, was collected on the coast of 

 Flanders from all parts of Europe, from the Baltic to the extremity of 

 Spain ; and an enormous wooden bulwark was constructed, capable of 

 sheltering, it was said, the whole army from the dreaded archery of 

 England : it could be taken to pieces and replaced at pleasure. But 

 various delays, whether from contrary winds or other causes, prevented 

 the sailing of the fleet, or a tempest so far shattered it as to frustrate 

 its object ; and the king, who was to embark in person, returned to 

 Paris, after exhausting bis resources in the equipment of such a force, 

 and desolating by the consequences of its march the face of the country 

 which he traversed. The project of invasion was resumed next year, 

 with preparations of a far less costly nature ; but this expedition was 

 net aside by the captivity of the Constable de Clisson, who was 

 treacherously seized by his mortal enemy De Montfort, duke of 

 Bretagne, who was jealous of De Clisson's proposed alliance with the 

 house of Blois, which had disputed the succession of Bretagne with 

 De Montfort. De Clisson was released, but upon hard conditions; 

 and his hostility was probably diverted from England to Bretagne. 

 In the year 1388 Charles undertook an expedition against the Duke 

 of Gueldres, but he could obtain only a qualified submission ; and the 

 BIOO. DIV. YOJU Ifc 



result of the expedition was, considering hia superior force, regarded 

 as inglorious. The public murmured, and it is likely their murmurs 

 were chiefly directed against the king's uncles, the dukes of Berri and 

 Bourgogne, for the king took the opportunity to emancipate himself 

 from the tutelage in which he had been held by these royal dukes. 

 The cardinal of Laon, who had acted a prominent part in bringing 

 about this change, was taken off by poison : the immediate author of 

 his death was detected, but the probable instigators of the crime were 

 too lofty for punishment. 



A variety of events of greater or less importance, such as an unsuc- 

 cessful expedition of the French to Tunis, under the Duke of Bourbon, 

 the king's maternal uncle; a projected expedition against Tunis, and 

 subsequently against Rome, by Charles himself; an unsuccessful attack 

 on the Viscount of Milan by the Count of Armagnac ; a vain negociation 

 for peace with England, which issued ouly in the prolongation of the 

 existing truce ; and an illness of the king, the precursor, it is likely, of 

 his subsequent malady, occupied the succeeding period to the spring 

 of the year 1392. In that year an attempt was made to assassinate 

 De Clisson, and the Duke of Bretagne, if he did not instigate the 

 crime, protected the criminal. This determined Charles to march 

 against him ; and it was iu this march that the insanity manifested 

 itself, which rendered Charles for the rest of his reign a mere tool in 

 the hands of others. He had indeed brief lucid intervals, and thero 

 seemed, on one occasion, a prospect of recovery, when an accident at 

 a masquerade, in 1393, by which he was nearly burnt to death, 

 occasioned a relapse. 



The period which succeeded the king's insanity was mainly occupied 

 in a struggle for that power, which he was no longer able to wield, 

 between the Duke of Orleans, his brother, and the Duke of Burgogne, 

 the most energetic and ambitious of his uncles. The latter established 

 a preponderant authority, though not without many fluctuations. He 

 chased from court and despoiled of his office the Constable de Clisson, 

 who retired to his estates in Bretagne, and carried on hostilities against 

 his old enemy, the duke of that province, until 1395, when a treaty 

 terminated their difference. By an edict issued in 1394 the Jews 

 were banished from France: this edict continued unrepealed for 

 centuries. The year 1396 was marked by the marriage of Richard II. 

 of England with the daughter of Charles ; but the deposition of the 

 bridegroom, two or three years afterwards, and the tender age of the 

 bride, rendered it only a marriage in form. The same year was 

 marked by the unfortunate expedition of the Count of Nevers against 

 the Turks, and by the submission of Genoa to France. The Genoese 

 however shook off the French yoke in 1409. The hatred which the 

 Duke of Bourgogne entertained against the Duke of Orleans was 

 marked by his encouraging the popular belief that the Duchess of 

 Orleans had caused the king's disease by magic, and by his supporting 

 the Genoese against the Viscount of Milan, the father of the duchess. 

 Upon the death of the Duke of Bourgogne in 1404, his power, and hU 

 rivalry, descended to his son, more ambitious and unscrupulous than 

 his father. 



The death of the Duke of Bourgogne threw the reins of government 

 for a time into the hands of the Duke of Orleans, to whom public 

 opinion imputed too great intimacy with the queen, and whose luxury 

 and thoughtlessness exhausted the revenues of the crown, while his 

 manifestations of hostility against Henry IV. of England would hava 

 led probably to a renewal of the war, had not Henry's attention been 

 fully taken up in securing his usurped throne. It is to be observed 

 that the hostilities between the two nations had been suspended by a 

 succession of truces rather than closed by a definitive treaty. The 

 Duke of Bourgogne, who was regarded by the commonalty, especially 

 of Paris, as the champion of their liberties, having acquired, in 1405, 

 possession of the persons of the king and the dauphin Louis, began to 

 gain the ascendancy over Orldans ; a reconciliation, cordial in appear- 

 ance, was effected, but their hatred continued to rankle, until it '.vas 

 revealed by the murder of the latter by the former, in 1407. 



We pass over the subsequent struggles between the factions of the 

 Bourguignons and the Armagnacs, as the rival party was designated, 

 the warfare and massacres to which they led, and the negociatious of 

 the Armagnacs with the King of England, iu order to come to the 

 invasion of France by Henry V. of England, who had lately succeeded 

 his father Henry IV. on the throne. Henry V. had negooiated for the 

 hand of Catherine, daughter of Charles, and demanded as her portion 

 the arrears of the ransom of King John, and all the provinces which 

 had been ceded to the English by the treaty of Bretigny ; while Charles 

 was not willing to give more than 800,000 crowns, and the duchy or 

 principality of Aquituiue, as it had been possessed by Edward the 

 Black Prince ; refusing to give up the other territories which by that 

 treaty had been ceded to England. A rupture was evidently impend- 

 ing, and the domestic troubles of France were increased by the dauphin, 

 who at this conjuncture seized the reigns of government, and alienated 

 the leaders of both tlie contending factions. The Armagnacs however 

 rallied round him for the defence of their country against foreign 

 invasion, and to their party belonged the long list of nobles and 

 gentlemen who fell in the disastrous battle of Agincourt (1415). The 

 dauphin died shortly after this, and was survived little more than a 

 year by his next brother, Jean, to whom the title devolved : on the 

 death of Jean it came to a still younger brother, Charles, afterwards 

 Charles VII. The Armngnac faction now predominated, and the 







