FRA 
Tfabella, the confort of the unfortunate king, has already 
been celebrated for her uncommon beauty and infinuating 
addrefs: but tliefe qualities were alloyed by a mind vio¬ 
lent, vindidtive, and intriguing; by a heart infenfible to 
the natural affections of a parent; but open to flattery, 
and fufceptible of the impreffion of every lawlefs paflion. 
The duke of Orleans, brother of the king, had but juft 
entered his twentieth year; his perfon was graceful, his 
features animated, and he was by nature formed to fucceed 
in gallantry; his early marriage with Valentina daughter 
of the duke of Milan, a princefs of extraordinary charms 
and accomplifhments, did not prevent him from engaging 
in a variety of licentious amours; and his intimacy with 
his royal fifter-in-law was abhorred as criminal and in- 
ceftuous. Profufe and prodigal, his hopes were inflamed 
by th.e partiality of the queen; and he openly afpired to 
the regency : but the (fates regarded him with diftruft, 
and conferred the adminiftration of affairs on his uncle 
the duke of Burgundy. 
In the intervals of convalefcence, Charles occafionally 
refumed his authority. The war between the French and 
Kngliih had been carried on with languor, and the two 
kings, equally tired of thefe fruitlefs hoftilities, were 
anxious for a lading peace. An interview for this pur- 
pofe, in 1396, was appointed near Calais, when they efta- 
bliftied a truce for twenty-five years. Charles prevailed on 
Richard II. to reftore Cherbourg to France, and Breft to 
the duke of Brittany ; and to draw the bands of amity ftill 
clofer, Richard, now a widower, was contracted to Ifa- 
bella the daughter of Charles, a princefs then only feven 
years of age. But the marriage was never confummated, 
on account of the inequality of their years. 
The unhappy malady of Charles now feemed daily to 
gain ground ; and the difcordant interefts and contending 
parties of the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, grew up 
into factions of the moll inveterate kind. The former, 
in the year 1400, by his dominion over the affections of 
the queen, gained a tranfient fuperiority, and obtained a 
commiflion which created him lieutenant-general and go¬ 
vernor of the realm : but he abufed his power to levy 
new imports on the people; and he imprudently included 
the church in the oppreflion. A bttrft of general refent- 
ment loon drove him from his high ftation, and called to 
it the equally vindictive duke of Burgundy. The paflions 
of thefe haughty chiefs might perhaps have kindled the 
flames of civil war, had not their rage been appealed by 
the mediation of the duke of Bourbon, the only prince 
who cordially approached the throne, and maintained a 
character pure and unfpotted. Yet fome praife mull be 
allowed to the policy of the duke of Burgundy, which 
allured to Paris the youthful tons of the late duke of Brit¬ 
tany, and preferved them from being feduced by the arts 
of Henry IV. of England, who had married their mother 
to ftrengthen his intereft in that province. Perhaps his 
life might have fhielded France from the calamities which 
afterwards overwhelmed it, fmee his premature death, in 
7404, expofed it, without chart or pilot, to the fury of 
the ftorm. He was fucceeded in his dominions by his 
fon John count of Nevers, furnamed the Fearlefs, who in¬ 
herited the enmity of his father to the duke of Orleans, 
without poffelling his judgment or abilities. 
The queen and the duke of Orleans, in 1405, had again 
feized the adminiftration, and were again driven from it 
by the clamours of a people, who regarded their adulte¬ 
rous connexion with honeft indignation. While their 
refpeCtive courts had been maintained in luxury and mag¬ 
nificence, the unhappy Charles and his children had been 
abandoned to the moft ahieCt diftrefs; they were relieved 
and treated with relpeftand attention by the duke of Bur¬ 
gundy, who was nominated to the regency on the retreat of 
Jfabella and the duke of Orleans to Melon : when fucldenly 
rite king feemed to emerge from the delirium which bad 
30 long oblcured his underftanding ; his reafon returned for 
a longer interval ; he deprived the rival dukes of the au¬ 
thority which they had alternately enjoyed and alternately 
Voi. VII. No. 460. 
N C E. 685 
abufed ; and verted the entire government in the queen and 
a council of ftate compofed of the princes of the blood. 
The dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, now alike pre¬ 
cluded from interfering in the cabinet, at the intreaties of 
the duke of Berri, confented to a reconciliation ; they 
embraced at Paris in the prefence of their uncle; and 
even vowed on the facrament to bury in oblivion the re¬ 
membrance of former enmity. But thefe folemn pledges 
were proftituted by the duke of Burgundy more eafily to 
fatiate his vengeance. A contention for pow'er was in¬ 
flamed by the rage of jealoufy; and he fufpedted the 
duke of Orleans, whofe character for gallantry w^as noto¬ 
rious, of having violated the honour of his marriage-bed. 
The injury was mortal; but the means which he purfued 
to obtain his revenge were unworthy of his family and 
his fame. As the duke of Orleans returned in the dark 
from the hotel of St. Pol, accompanied only by two pages, 
he was fuddenly attacked by eighteen affaliins, who clove 
his fkull, and left him dead on the ground. 
The duke of Burgundy at firft affected to lament the 
death of his noble kinfman, but confcious of bis danger, 
he acknowledged to the duke of Bourbon that be was 
the author of the bloody deed ; and, with his band of 
aflaflins, in 140S, he eluded the fword of juftice by a pre¬ 
cipitate flight into Flanders. Valentina, the widow of the 
late duke of Orleans, oppreffed by grief, foon followed 
her hufoand to the grave; but ber fon, though only fix- 
teen years of age, and who fucceeded to iiis father’s ho¬ 
nours, loudly demanded vengeance on the murderer. The 
kingdom was rent between the two fadtions, the Burgun¬ 
dians and the Armagnacs, for fo the adherents of the duke 
of Orleans were called, from the count of Armagnac, the 
father-in-law of that prince. The duke of Burgundy, in 
1414, at the head of a numerous army returned to the 
capital, and extorted a pardon from the feeble king, who, 
feized fometimes by one party and fometimes by the other, 
transferred alternately to each of them the appearance of 
legal authority ; and fome idea may be formed of the rage 
which defolated the kingdom, fince, in Paris only, two 
thoufand citizens perifhed in one commotion. 
The mifery of France fcarcely feemed to admit of any 
addition, when the calamities of internal difeord, which 
almoft bowed the monarchy to the ground, were unex¬ 
pectedly augmented by the fcourge of foreign invafion. 
The pretenfions which had purpled with blood the fields 
of Crecy and Poidtiers, were again revived by the crown 
of England : and to a warlike prince, already wreathed 
with vidtory, and early educated and experienced in bat¬ 
tle, Fiance could only oppofe an infane king; an inex¬ 
perienced dauphin, whofe charadter, fickle, inconftanf, 
and dilfolute, accumulated the evils of the ftate; and a 
nobility divided in principle, and purfuing each other 
with adtive enmity and remorfelefs rage. 
Henry V. in 1415, meditated the recovery of his conti¬ 
nental dominions. The diffenfions of France prefented to 
his mind a favourable opportunity ; and he was fcarcely 
eftablifhed on his throne, before all England refounded 
with his preparations. The minifters of Charles were 
petrified at his demand, as the price of peace, of Catha¬ 
rine the French king’s daughter in marriage; twomillions. 
of crowns as her portion; one million fix hundred thou¬ 
fand as the arrears of king john’s ranfom ; and the imme¬ 
diate potfertion and full fovereignty of ail the provinces 
which had been ravilhed from England by the arms of 
Philip Auguftus, together with the fuperiority oi Brit¬ 
tany and Flanders. 
A fhort interval of convalefcence had allowed the king 
of France at this period to refume the reins of govern¬ 
ment ; and he had difplayed a tranfient vigour in reprefi¬ 
fing the fadions of the dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, 
and compelling them to fubrnit to tiie terms that he pre- 
feribed. But his council, confcious how little dependance 
could be placed on the prelent calm, were willing to 
avert the ftorm which threatened them from abroad. In- 
ftead of rejecting thefe exorbitant demands with con- 
3 M tempt. 
