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56-697: In the spring of 1413, John the Fearless , duke of Burgundy, managed to raise the people of Paris and impose a reform called the Cabochien ordinance. However, after several months, Parisians desiring a return to order supported return of the Armagnacs. On 23 November 1407, Louis, Duke of Orléans , brother of king Charles VI (known as "Charles the Beloved" and "Charles the Mad"), was murdered by masked assassins in

112-524: A Parlement in Poitiers . On 11 July of that same year, Charles and John the Fearless attempted a reconciliation on a small bridge near Pouilly-le-Fort , not far from Melun where Charles was staying. They signed the Treaty of Pouilly-le-Fort in which they would share authority of the government, assist each other and not to form any treaties without the other's consent. Charles and John also decided that

168-654: A bared sword into Charles' bed, according to one source. Eventually, in 1446, after Charles's last son, also named Charles, was born, the king banished the Dauphin to the Dauphiné . The two never met again. Louis thereafter refused the king's demands to return to court, and he eventually fled to the protection of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1456. In 1458, Charles became ill. A sore on his leg (an early symptom, perhaps, of diabetes or another condition) refused to heal, and

224-556: A bid to gain power, John the Fearless encouraged the Cabochiens to revolt. Riotous mobs, sporting distinctive white caps, assaulted Armagnac noblemen and followers, and their properties throughout the city. On April 27, they seized the Bastille Saint-Antoine and took prisoner its defender, Pierre des Essarts , Provost of Paris. (Pierre des Essarts was beheaded the following 13 July.) They also forced their way into

280-657: A ceremony at the Louvre Palace . Charles claimed the title King of France for himself, but failed to make any attempts to expel the English from northern France out of indecision and a sense of hopelessness. Instead, he remained south of the Loire River, where he was still able to exert power, and maintained an itinerant court in the Loire Valley at castles such as Chinon . He was still customarily known as

336-761: A child at the time. Before his accession to become the Duke of Burgundy , John was one of the principal leaders of the French forces sent to aid King Sigismund of Hungary in his war against Sultan Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire. John fought in the Battle of Nicopolis of 25 September 1396 against the Ottomans with such enthusiasm and bravery that he was given the cognomen Fearless ( Sans-Peur ). Despite his personal bravery, his impetuous leadership ended in disaster for

392-591: A diplomatic meeting. He was, however, assassinated by the Dauphin's companions. He was later buried in Dijon . Following this, his son and successor Philip the Good formed an alliance with the English, which would prolong the Hundred Years' War for decades and cause incalculable damage to France and its subjects. John and his wife Margaret, who were married in 1385, had the following children: John and his mistress Agnes de Croy, daughter of Jean I de Croÿ , had

448-592: A few skirmishes against the Orléans party, John managed to recover the king's favour. In the treaty of Chartres , signed on 9 March 1409, the king absolved the Duke of Burgundy of the crime, and he and Louis' son Charles pledged a reconciliation. A later edict renewed John's guardianship of the Dauphin. He moved further closer to securing the Regency for himself when he had Jean de Montagu , Grand Master of France and

504-457: A further meeting should take place the following 10 September. On that date, they met on the bridge at Montereau . The Duke assumed that the meeting would be entirely peaceful and diplomatic; thus, he brought only a small escort with him. The Dauphin's men reacted to the Duke's arrival by attacking and killing him. Charles's level of involvement has remained uncertain to this day. Although he claimed to have been unaware of his men's intentions, this

560-475: A point in July 1461 when the king's physicians concluded that Charles would not live past August. Ill and weary, the king became delirious, convinced that he was surrounded by traitors loyal only to his son. Under the pressure of sickness and fever, he went mad. By now another infection in his jaw had caused an abscess in his mouth. The swelling caused by this became so large that, for the last week of his life, Charles

616-494: Is far overshadowed by the deeds and eventual martyrdom of Joan of Arc and his early reign was at times marked by indecisiveness and inaction, he was responsible for successes unprecedented in the history of the Kingdom of France. He succeeded in what four generations of his predecessors (namely his father Charles VI, his grandfather Charles V , his great-grandfather John II and great-great grandfather Philip VI ) failed to do –

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672-768: The Battle of Castillon in 1453, the French expelled the English from all their continental possessions except the Pale of Calais . The last years of Charles VII were marked by conflicts with his turbulent son, the future Louis XI . Born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol , the royal residence in Paris, Charles was given the title of Count of Ponthieu six months after his birth in 1403. He was the eleventh child and fifth son of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria . His four elder brothers, Charles (1386), Charles (1392–1401), Louis (1397–1415) and John (1398–1417) had each held

728-503: The Duke of Bedford (the uncle of Henry VI ), was advancing into the Duchy of Bar , ruled by Charles's brother-in-law, René . The French lords and soldiers loyal to Charles were becoming increasingly desperate. Then in the little village of Domrémy , on the border of Lorraine and Champagne , a teenage girl named Joan of Arc ( French : Jeanne d'Arc ), demanded that the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, Robert de Baudricourt , collect

784-693: The Duke of Orléans , in an attempt to gain control of the government, which led to the eruption of the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War in France and in turn culminated in his own assassination in 1419. The involvement of Charles , the heir to the French throne, in his assassination prompted John's son and successor Philip to seek an alliance with the English, thereby bringing the Hundred Years' War to its final phase . John, like his father Philip before him, played an important role in

840-613: The English claims to the French throne . During the Hundred Years' War , Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and the duke of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris , the capital and most populous city, and Reims , the city in which French kings were traditionally crowned . In addition, his father, Charles VI , had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as

896-514: The Hôtel Saint-Pol , the royal residence, arrested several of the king's men, and incarcerated them in the various prisons of Paris. They controlled Paris for four months, until the last days of July and beginning of August, when the revolt was put down. Academics took this opportunity to propose administrative reforms known as the “Ordonnance cabochienne", which limited the power of the monarch, giving, for example, greater fiscal control to

952-574: The "Dauphin", or derisively as the "King of Bourges ", after the town where he generally lived. Periodically, he considered flight to the Iberian Peninsula , which would have allowed the English to advance their occupation of France. Political conditions in France took a decisive turn in the year 1429 just as the prospects for the Dauphin began to look hopeless. The town of Orléans had been under siege since October 1428. The English regent,

1008-420: The Armagnacs. Although he talked of helping his sovereign, his troops took no part in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, although two of his brothers, Antoine, Duke of Brabant , and Philip II, Count of Nevers , died fighting for France during the battle. Two years later, with the rivalry between Burgundians and Armagnacs at an all-time high because of the shattering defeat at Agincourt, John's troops set about

1064-578: The Burgundian family took place in Cambrai . John married Margaret , daughter of Count Albert I of Holland , while at the same time his sister Margaret married Albert's son William in order to consolidate John's position in the Low Countries . The marriage took place after John cancelled his engagement to his first cousin, Catherine , a daughter of King Charles V of France , who was only

1120-494: The Burgundians were causing increasing dissatisfaction among the population who began to rise against the Cabochiens. On 2–3 August, the Cabochiens revolt was over. The Cabochiens who were unable to flee were executed and the ordinance was overturned on 5 September 1413. Simon Caboche was able to escape with the Duke of Burgundy. Charles d’Orléans , son of the murdered duke of Orléans, had married Bonne d’Armagnac, daughter of

1176-531: The Burgundians. With peace between the factions solemnly sworn in 1410, John returned to Burgundy and Bernard remained in Paris, where he reportedly shared the Queen's bed. The Armagnac party was not content with its level of political power, and after a series of riots and attacks against the citizens, John was recalled to the capital, then sent back to Burgundy in 1413. At this time, King Henry V of England invaded French territory and threatened to attack Paris. During

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1232-405: The Dauphin and the king's children. This did not improve relations between John and the Duke of Orléans. Soon the two rivals descended into making open threats. Their uncle, John, Duke of Berry , secured a vow of solemn reconciliation on 20 November 1407, but only three days later, on 23 November 1407, Louis was brutally assassinated in the streets of Paris. The order, no one doubted, had come from

1288-404: The Dauphin tried to bring about a reconciliation with John. They met in July and swore peace on the bridge of Pouilly-le-Fort, near Melun . On the grounds that peace was not sufficiently assured by the meeting at Pouilly, a fresh interview was proposed by the Dauphin to take place on 10 September 1419 on the bridge at Montereau . John of Burgundy was present with his escort for what he considered

1344-444: The Duke of Burgundy, who shortly admitted to the deed and declared it to be a justifiable act of " tyrannicide ". According to Thomas Walsingham , Orléans had simply received his just deserts as he had been "taking his pleasure with whores, harlots, incest" and had committed adultery with the wife of an unnamed knight who had taken his revenge by killing him under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy. After an escape from Paris and

1400-592: The Estates General. Although the ordinance carried the name of Caboche, because it was published on 26–27 May 1413 during the Cabochian revolt, it had been prepared in January–February 1413 by the États généraux de Langue d'Oïl . It was actually the work of advisors of John of Burgundy who imposed the ordinance on Charles VI, who signed it on 22 May 1413. However, the exactions of the Cabochiens and of

1456-537: The European expedition. He was captured and did not recover his liberty until the next year after an enormous ransom was paid. John inherited the Duchy of Burgundy in 1404 upon the death of his father and the counties of Burgundy , Flanders and Artois on his mother's death in 1405. He almost immediately entered into open conflict with Duke Louis I of Orléans , the younger brother of the increasingly disturbed King Charles VI of France . Both men attempted to fill

1512-432: The French forces at Orléans. She was aided by skilled commanders such as Étienne de Vignolles, known as La Hire , and Jean Poton de Xaintrailles . They compelled the English to lift the siege on 8 May 1429, thus turning the tide of the war. The French won the Battle of Patay on 18 June, at which the English field army lost about half its troops. After pushing further into English and Burgundian-controlled territory, Charles

1568-636: The chamber in which the court was assembled. Joan identified Charles immediately. She bowed low to him and embraced his knees, declaring "God give you a happy life, sweet King!" Despite attempts to claim that another man was in fact the king, thereafter Joan referred to him as "Dauphin" or "Noble Dauphin" until he was crowned in Reims four months later. After a private conversation between the two, Charles became inspired and filled with confidence. After her encounter with Charles in March 1429, Joan of Arc set out to lead

1624-612: The count Bernard VII of Armagnac . The count was a brutal and powerful lord who commanded a number of troops from the Adour and Garonne. Putting himself at the disposal of his son-in-law, he took control of Paris. In recognition of his help, Bernard VII d'Armagnac was made Constable of France on 30 December 1415 in a letter signed by Charles VI. John the Fearless John I ( French : Jean sans Peur   ; Dutch : Jan zonder Vrees ; 28 May 1371 – 10 September 1419)

1680-504: The development of gunpowder artillery in European warfare, making extensive and successful use of it in his military campaigns. John was born in Dijon on 28 May 1371 to Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy and Countess Margaret III of Flanders . On the death of his maternal grandfather Count Louis II of Flanders in 1384, he received the County of Nevers . In 1385, a double wedding for

1736-473: The expulsion of the English and the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War . Charles created France's first standing army since Roman times. In The Prince , Niccolò Machiavelli asserts that if his son Louis XI had continued this policy, then the French would have become invincible. Charles VII secured himself against papal power by the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges . He also established

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1792-526: The following child: John and his mistress Marguerite de Borsele had the following children: Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious ( French : le Victorieux ) or the Well-Served ( le Bien-Servi ), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years' War and a de facto end of

1848-540: The following two decades, the French recaptured Paris from the English and eventually recovered all of France with the exception of the northern port of Calais . Charles's later years were marked by hostile relations with his heir, Louis , who demanded real power to accompany his position as the Dauphin. Charles consistently refused him. Accordingly, Louis stirred up dissent and fomented plots in attempts to destabilise his father's reign. He quarrelled with his father's mistress, Agnès Sorel, and on one occasion drove her with

1904-593: The importance of the middle class of merchants and tradesmen or the University of Paris . Louis tried to gain the favour of the wife of Charles VI, Queen Isabeau of France, and may have become her lover. After his son-in-law, the Dauphin Louis , was successively kidnapped and recovered by both parties, the Duke of Burgundy managed to gain appointment by royal decree—during one of the king's "absent" periods when mental illness manifested itself—as guardian of

1960-490: The infection in it caused a serious fever. The king summoned Louis to him from his exile in Burgundy, but the Dauphin refused to come. He employed astrologers to foretell the exact hour of his father's death. The king lingered on for the next two and a half years, increasingly ill, but unwilling to die. During this time he also had to deal with the case of his rebellious vassal John V of Armagnac . Finally, however, there came

2016-580: The king's long standing favorite and administrator aligned with the Orleanists, arrested during another one of Charles' manic episodes, and after an expedited summary trial carried out by the Burgundian-aligned politicians, Montagu was beheaded at the Gibbet of Montfaucon on 17 October 1409. Even with the Orléans dispute resolved in his favour, John did not lead a tranquil life. Charles ,

2072-692: The legitimate successors to the French crown. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois ) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy , which was allied to the English). With his court removed to Bourges , south of the Loire river, Charles was disparagingly called the "King of Bourges", because the area around this city

2128-442: The peace negotiations with the Armagnacs, Henry was also in contact with John, who was keen to wrest control of France away from King Charles VI. Despite this, he continued to be wary of forming an alliance with the English for fear of destroying his immense popularity with the common people of France. When Henry demanded Burgundy's support for his claim to be the rightful King of France, John backed away and decided to ally himself with

2184-487: The people of Reims switched allegiance and opened their gates, which enabled the coronation of Charles VII at Reims Cathedral in 1429. Six years later, he ended the English-Burgundian alliance by signing the Treaty of Arras with Burgundy, followed by the recovery of Paris in 1436 and the steady reconquest of Normandy in the 1440s using a newly organized professional army and advanced siege cannons. Following

2240-414: The power vacuum left by the demented king. John played a game of marriages by exchanging his daughter Margaret of Burgundy for Michelle of Valois , who would marry his heir, Philip the Good . For her part, Margaret was married to Louis, Duke of Guyenne , the heir to the French throne from 1401 until his death in 1415. For all his concentration on aristocratic politics, John nonetheless did not overlook

2296-550: The red, white, and blue that represented his family; his heraldic device was a mailed fist clutching a naked sword. On 25 June 1421, he took Gallardon and executed, as traitors, the garrison, and by the end of June Charles had invested Chartres. He then went south of the Loire River under the protection of Yolande of Aragon , known as "Queen of the Four Kingdoms" and, on 18 December 1422, married her daughter, Marie of Anjou , to whom he had been engaged since December 1413 in

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2352-468: The regions of France that they occupied. Northern France, including Paris, was thus ruled by an English regent, Henry V's brother, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford , based in Normandy (see Dual monarchy of England and France ). In his adolescent years, Charles was noted for his bravery and flamboyant style of leadership. At one point after becoming Dauphin, he led an army against the English dressed in

2408-630: The service of John the Fearless. Afterwards, John acquired considerable popularity among the population of Paris. He aligned himself with a popular faction of butchers, the écorcheurs (flayers), named “Cabochiens”, after their commander, a butcher named Simon Lecoustellier, known as Simon Caboche . This group had its origins among butchers of the Grande Boucherie de Paris , a relatively wealthy class of tradespeople not integrated within Parisian high & aristocratic class. In April 1413, in

2464-601: The soldiers and resources necessary to bring her to the Dauphin at Chinon, stating that visions of angels and saints had given her a divine mission. Granted an escort of five veteran soldiers and a letter of referral to Charles by Lord Baudricourt, Joan rode to see Charles at Chinon. She arrived on 23 February 1429. Second-hand testimony by witnesses who were not present when Joan and the Dauphin met state Charles wanted to test her claim to be able to recognise him despite never having seen him, and so he disguised himself as one of his courtiers. He stood in their midst when Joan entered

2520-407: The son and heir of the murdered Duke of Orleans, was only 14 at the time of his father's death and was forced to depend heavily on allies to support his claims for the property that had been confiscated from him by the Duke of Burgundy. Chief among these allies was his father-in-law Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac . Because of this alliance, their faction became known as the Armagnacs in opposition to

2576-510: The succession was cast into doubt. Under the Treaty of Troyes , signed by Charles VI on 21 May 1420, the throne would pass to Henry V or his heir. Henry had died in July 1422: his heir was the infant King Henry VI of England , son of Henry and Charles VI's daughter Catherine of Valois . However, Frenchmen loyal to the Valois regarded the treaty as invalid on grounds of coercion and Charles VI's diminished mental capacity. Those who did not recognize

2632-416: The task of capturing Paris. On 30 May 1418, he did capture the city, but not before the new Dauphin , the future Charles VII of France , had escaped. John then installed himself in Paris and made himself protector of the king. Although not an open ally of the English, John did nothing to prevent the surrender of Rouen in 1419. With the whole of northern France in English hands and Paris occupied by Burgundy,

2688-524: The title of Dauphin of France as heirs apparent to the French throne in turn. All died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles. Almost immediately after becoming dauphin, Charles had to face threats to his inheritance, and he was forced to flee from Paris on 29 May 1418 after the partisans of John the Fearless , Duke of Burgundy , had entered the city the previous night. By 1419, Charles had established his own court in Bourges and

2744-560: The treaty and believed the Dauphin Charles to be of legitimate birth considered him the rightful heir to the throne. Those who considered Charles illegitimate recognized as the rightful heir Charles, Duke of Orléans , cousin of the Dauphin, who was in English captivity. Only the supporters of Henry VI and the Dauphin Charles were able to enlist sufficient military force to press effectively for their candidates. The English, already in control of northern France, enforced Henry's claim in

2800-484: Was a scion of the French royal family who ruled the Burgundian State from 1404 until his assassination in 1419. He played a key role in French national affairs during the early 15th century, particularly in his struggle to remove the mentally ill King Charles VI and during the Hundred Years' War against Kingdom of England . A rash, ruthless and unscrupulous politician, John murdered Charles's brother,

2856-401: Was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431. Nearly as important as Joan of Arc in the cause of Charles was the support of the powerful and wealthy family of his wife Marie d'Anjou , particularly his mother-in-law, Queen Yolande of Aragon . But whatever affection he may have had for his wife, or whatever gratitude he may have felt for the support of her family, the great love of Charles VII's life

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2912-540: Was considered unlikely by those who heard of the murder. The assassination marked the end of any attempt of a reconciliation between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions, thus playing into the hands of Henry V of England. Charles was later required by a treaty with Philip the Good , the son of John the Fearless, to pay penance for the murder, which he never did. At the death of Charles' father Charles VI in October 1422,

2968-514: Was crowned King Charles VII of France in Reims Cathedral on 17 July 1429. Joan was later captured by Burgundian troops under John of Luxembourg at the Siege of Compiègne on 24 May 1430. The Burgundians handed her over to their English allies. Tried for heresy by a court composed of pro-English clergy such as Pierre Cauchon , who had long served the English occupation government, she

3024-492: Was his mistress, Agnès Sorel . Charles VII and Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, then signed the 1435 Treaty of Arras , by which the Burgundian faction rejected their English alliance and became reconciled with Charles VII, just as things were going badly for their English allies. With this accomplishment, Charles attained the essential goal of ensuring that no Prince of the Blood recognised Henry VI as King of France. Over

3080-452: Was one of the few remaining regions left to him. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a spiritual leader in France. Joan and Jean de Dunois led French troops to lift the sieges of Orléans and other strategic cities on the Loire river, and to crush the English at the Battle of Patay . With the local English troops dispersed,

3136-540: Was unable to swallow food or water. Although he asked the Dauphin to come to his deathbed, Louis refused, instead waiting at Avesnes , in Burgundy, for his father to die. At Mehun-sur-Yèvre , attended by his younger son, Charles, and aware of his elder son's final betrayal, the King starved to death. He died on 22 July 1461, and was buried, at his request, beside his parents in Saint-Denis . Although Charles VII's legacy

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