Chapter 11

See A. d’Herbomey, “Notes et documents pour servir à l’histoire des rois fils de Philippe le Bel,” inBibl. de l’École des Chartes(lix. pp. 479 seq. and 689 seq.); de Bréquigny, “Mémoire sur les différends entre la France et l’Angleterre sous le règne de Charles le Bel,” inMém. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions(xli. pp. 641-692); H. Lot, “Projets de crusade sous Charles le Bel et sous Philippe de Valois” (Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, xx. pp. 503-509); “Chronique parisienne anonyme de 1316 à 1339 ...” ed. Hellot inMém. de la soc. de l’hist. de Paris(xi., 1884, pp. 1-207).

CHARLES V.(1337-1380), king of France, calledThe Wise, was born at the château of Vincennes on the 21st of January 1337, the son of John II. and Bonne of Luxemburg. In 1349 he became dauphin of the Viennois by purchase from Humbert II., and in 1355 he was created duke of Normandy. At the battle of Poitiers (1356) his father ordered him to leave the field when the battle turned against the French, and he was thus saved from the imprisonment that overtook his father. After arranging for the government of Normandy he proceeded to Paris, where he took the title of lieutenant of the kingdom. During the years of John II.’s imprisonment in England Charles was virtually king of France. He summoned the states-general of northern France (Langue d’oïl) to Paris in October 1356 to obtain men and money to carry on the war. But under the leadership of Étienne Marcel, provost of the Parisian merchants and president of the third estate, and Robert le Coq, bishop of Laon, president of the clergy, a partisan of Charles of Navarre, the states refused any “aid” except on conditions which Charles declined to accept. They demanded the dismissal of a number of the royal ministers; the establishment of a commission elected from the three estates to regulate the dauphin’s administration, and of another board to act as council of war; also the release of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, who had been imprisoned by King John. The estates of Languedoc, summoned to Toulouse, also made protests against misgovernment, but they agreed to raise a war-levy on terms to which the dauphin acceded. Charles sought the alliance of his uncle, the emperor Charles IV., to whom he did homage at Metz as dauphin of the Viennois, and he was also made imperial vicar of Dauphiné, thus acknowledging the imperial jurisdiction. But he gained small material advantage from these proceedings. The states-general were again convoked in February 1357. Their demands were more moderate than in the preceding year, but they nominated members to replace certain obnoxious persons on the royal council, demanded the right to assemble without the royal summons, and certain administrative reforms. In return they promised to raise and finance an army of 30,000 men, but the money—a tithe levied on the annual revenues of the clergy and nobility—voted for this object was not to pass through the dauphin’s hands. Charles appeared to consent, but the agreement was annulled by letters from King John, announcing at the same time the conclusion of a two years’ truce, and the reformers failed to secure their ends. Charles had escaped from their power by leaving Paris, but he returned for a new meeting of the estates in the autumn of 1357.

Meanwhile Charles of Navarre had been released by his partisans, and allying himself with Marcel had become a popular hero in Paris. The dauphin was obliged to receive him and to undergo an apparent reconciliation. In Paris Étienne Marcel was supreme. He forced his way into the dauphin’s palace (February 1358), and Charles’s servant, Jean de Conflans, marshal of Champagne, and Robert de Clermont, marshal of Normandy, were murdered before his eyes. Charles was powerless openly to resent these outrages, but he obtained from the provincial assemblies the money refused him by the states-general, and deferred his vengeance until the dissensions of his enemies should offer him an opportunity. Charles of Navarre, now in league with the English and master of lower Normandy and of the approaches to Paris, returned to the immediate neighbourhood of the city, and Marcel found himself driven to avowed co-operation with the dauphin’s enemies, the Englishand the Navarrese. Charles had been compelled in March to take the title of regent to prevent the possibility of further intervention from King John. In defiance of a recent ordinance prohibiting provincial assemblies, he presided over the estates of Picardy and Artois, and then over those of Champagne. The states-general of 1358 were summoned to Compiègne instead of Paris, and granted a large aid. The condition of northern France was rendered more desperate by the outbreak (May-June 1358) of the peasant revolt known as the Jacquerie, which was repressed with a barbarity far exceeding the excesses of the rebels. Within the walls of Paris Jean Maillart had formed a royalist party; Marcel was assassinated (31st July 1358), and the dauphin entered Paris in the following month. A reaction in Charles’s favour had set in, and from the estates of 1359 he regained the authority he had lost. It was with their full concurrence that he restored their honours to the officials who had been dismissed by the estates of 1356 and 1357. They supported him in repudiating the treaty of London (1359), which King John had signed in anxiety for his personal freedom, and voted money unconditionally for the continuation of the war. From this time the estates were only once convoked by Charles, who contented himself thenceforward by appeals to the assembly of notables or to the provincial bodies. Charles of Navarre was now at open war with the regent; Edward III. landed at Calais in October; and a great part of the country was exposed to double depredations from the English and the Navarrese troops. In the scarcity of money Charles had recourse to the debasement of the coinage, which suffered no less than twenty-two variations in the two years before the treaty of Brétigny. This disastrous financial expedient was made good later, the coinage being established on a firm basis during the last sixteen years of Charles’s reign in accordance with the principles of Nicolas Oresme. On the conclusion of peace King John was restored to France, but, being unable to raise his ransom, he returned in 1364 to England, where he died in April, leaving the crown to Charles, who was crowned at Reims on the 19th of May.

The new king found an able servant in Bertrand du Guesclin, who won a victory over the Navarrese troops at Cocherel and took prisoner their best general, Jean de Grailli, captal of Buch. The establishment of Charles’s brother, Philip the Bold, in the duchy of Burgundy, though it constituted in the event a serious menace to the monarchy, put an end to the king of Navarre’s ambitions in that direction. A treaty of peace between the two kings was signed in 1365, by which Charles of Navarre gave up Mantes, Meulan and the county of Longueville in exchange for Montpellier. Negotiations were renewed in 1370 when Charles of Navarre did homage for his French possessions, though he was then considering an offensive and defensive alliance with Edward III. Du Guesclin undertook to free France from the depredations of the “free companies,” mercenary soldiers put out of employment by the cessation of the war. An attempt to send them on a crusade against the Turks failed, and Du Guesclin led them to Spain to put Henry of Trastamara on the throne of Castile. By the marriage of his brother Philip the Bold with Margaret of Flanders, Charles detached the Flemings from the English alliance, and as soon as he had restored something like order in the internal affairs of the kingdom he provoked a quarrel with the English. The text of the treaty of Brétigny presented technical difficulties of which Charles was not slow to avail himself. The English power in Guienne was weakened by the disastrous Spanish expedition of the Black Prince, whom Charles summoned before the parlement of Paris in January 1369 to answer the charges preferred against him by his subjects, thus expressly repudiating the English supremacy in Guienne. War was renewed in May after a meeting of the states-general. Between 1371 and 1373 Poitou and Saintonge were reconquered by Du Guesclin, and soon the English had to abandon all their territory north of the Garonne. John IV. of Brittany (Jean de Montfort) had won his duchy with English help by the defeat of Charles of Blois, the French nominee, at Auray in 1364. His sympathies remained English, but he was now (1373) obliged to take refuge in England, and later in Flanders, while the English only retained a footing in two or three coast towns. Charles’s generals avoided pitched battles, and contented themselves with defensive and guerrilla tactics, with the result that in 1380 only Bayonne, Bordeaux, Brest and Calais were still in English hands.

Charles had in 1378 obtained proof of Charles of Navarre’s treasonable designs. He seized the Norman towns held by the Navarrese, while Henry of Trastamara invaded Navarre, and imposed conditions of peace which rendered his lifelong enemy at last powerless. A premature attempt to amalgamate the duchy of Brittany with the French crown failed. Charles summoned the duke to Paris in 1378, and on his non-appearance committed one of his rare errors of policy by confiscating his duchy. But the Bretons rose to defend their independence, and recalled their duke. The matter was still unsettled when Charles died at Vincennes on the 16th of September 1380. His health, always delicate, had been further weakened, according to popular report, by a slow poison prepared for him by the king of Navarre. His wife, Jeanne of Bourbon, died in 1378, and the succession devolved on their elder son Charles, a boy of twelve. Their younger son was Louis, duke of Orleans.

Personally Charles was no soldier. He owed the signal successes of his reign partly to his skilful choice of advisers and administrators, to his chancellors Jean and Guillaume de Dormans and Pierre d’Orgemont, to Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris, Bureau de la Riviere and others; partly to a singular coolness and subtlety in the exercise of a not over-scrupulous diplomacy, which made him a dangerous enemy. He had learnt prudence and self-restraint in the troubled times of the regency, and did not lose his moderation in success. He modelled his private life on that of his predecessor Saint Louis, but was no fanatic in religion, for he refused his support to the violent methods of the Inquisition in southern France, and allowed the Jews to return to the country, at the same time confirming their privileges. His support of the schismatic pope Clement VII. at Avignon was doubtless due to political considerations, as favouring the independence of the Gallican church. Charles V. was a student of astrology, medicine, law and philosophy, and collected a large and valuable library at the Louvre. He gathered round him a group of distinguished writers and thinkers, among whom were Raoul de Presles, Philippe de Mézières, Nicolas Oresme and others. The ideas of these men were applied by him to the practical work of administration, though he confined himself chiefly to the consolidation and improvement of existing institutions. The power of the nobility was lessened by restrictions which, without prohibiting private wars, made them practically impossible. The feudal fortresses were regularly inspected by the central authority, and the nobles themselves became in many cases paid officers of the king. Charles established a merchant marine and a formidable navy, which under Jean de Vienne threatened the English coast between 1377 and 1380. The states-general were silenced and the royal prerogative increased; the royal domains were extended, and the wealth of the crown was augmented; additions were made to the revenue by the sale of municipal charters and patents; and taxation became heavier, since Charles set no limits to the gratification of his tastes either in the collection of jewels and precious objects, of books, or of his love of building, examples of which are the renovation of the Louvre and the erection of the palace of Saint Paul in Paris.

See the chronicles of Froissart, and of Pierre d’Orgemont (Grandes Chroniques de Saint Denis, Paris, vol. vi, 1838); Christine de Pisan,Le Livre des fais et bonnes moeurs du sage roy Charles V, written in 1404, ed. Michaud and Poujoulat, vol. ii. (1836); L. Delisle,Mandements et actes divers de Charles V(1886); letters of Charles V. from the English archives in Champollion-Figeac,Lettres de rois et de reines, ii. pp. 167 seq.; the anonymousSonge du vergierorSomnium viridarii, written in 1376 and giving the political ideas of Charles V. and his advisers; “Relation de la mort de Charles V” in Haureau,Notices et extraits, xxxi. pp. 278-284; Ch. Benoist,La Politique du roi Charles V(1874); S. Luce,La France pendant la guerre de cent ans; G. Clément Simon,La Rupture du traité de Brétigny(1898); A. Vuitry,Êtudes sur le régime financier de la France, vols. i. and ii. (1883); and R. Delachenal,Histoire de Charles V(Paris, 1908).

CHARLES VI.(1368-1422), king of France, son of Charles V. and Jeanne of Bourbon, was born in Paris on the 3rd of December 1368. He received the appanage of Dauphiné at his birth, and was thus the first of the princes of France to bear the title of dauphin from infancy. Charles V. had entrusted his education to Philippe de Mézières, and had fixed his majority at fourteen. He succeeded to the throne in 1380, at the age of twelve, and the royal authority was divided between his paternal uncles, Louis, duke of Anjou, John, duke of Berry, Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and his mother’s brother, Louis II., duke of Bourbon. In accordance with an ordinance of the late king the duke of Anjou became regent, while the guardianship of the young king, together with the control of Paris and Normandy, passed to the dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon, who were to be assisted by certain of the councillors of Charles V. The duke of Berry, excluded by this arrangement, was compensated by the government of Languedoc and Guienne. Anjou held the regency for a few months only, until the king’s coronation in November 1380. He enriched himself from the estate of Charles V. and by excessive exactions, before he set out in 1382 for Italy to effect the conquest of Naples. Considerable discontent existed in the south of France at the time of the death of Charles V., and when the duke of Anjou re-imposed certain taxes which the late king had remitted at the end of his reign, there were revolts at Puy and Montpellier. Paris, Rouen, the cities of Flanders, with Amiens, Orleans, Reims and other French towns, also rose (1382) in revolt against their masters. TheMaillotins, as the Parisian insurgents were named from the weapon they used, gained the upper hand in Paris, and were able temporarily to make terms, but the commune of Rouen was abolished, and theTuchins, as the marauders in Languedoc were called, were pitilessly hunted down. Charles VI. marched to the help of the count of Flanders against the insurgents headed by Philip van Artevelde, and gained a complete victory at Roosebeke (November 27th, 1382). Strengthened by this success the king, on his return to Paris in the following January, exacted vengeance on the citizens by fines, executions and the suppression of the privileges of the city. The help sent by the English to the Flemish cities resulted in a second Flemish campaign. In 1385 Jean de Vienne made an unsuccessful descent on the Scottish coast, and Charles equipped a fleet at Sluys for the invasion of England, but a series of delays ended in the destruction of the ships by the English.

In 1385 Charles VI. married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen II., duke of Bavaria, her name being gallicized as Isabeau. Three years later, with the help of his brother, Louis of Orleans, duke of Touraine, he threw off the tutelage of his uncles, whom he replaced by Bureau de la Rivière and others among his father’s counsellors, nicknamed by the royal princes themarmousetsbecause of their humble origin. Two years later he deprived the duke of Berry of the government of Languedoc. The opening years of Charles VI.’s effective rule promised well, but excess in gaiety of all kinds undermined his constitution, and in 1392 he had an attack of madness at Le Mans, when on his way to Brittany to force from John V. the surrender of his cousin Pierre de Craon, who had tried to assassinate the constable Olivier de Clisson in the streets of Paris. Other attacks followed, and it became evident that Charles was unable permanently to sustain the royal authority. Clisson, Bureau de la Rivière, Jean de Mercier, and the othermarmousetswere driven from office, and the royal dukes regained their power. The rivalries between the most powerful of these—the duke of Burgundy, who during the king’s attacks of madness practically ruled the country, and the duke of Orleans—were a constant menace to peace. In 1306 peace with England seemed assured by the marriage of Richard II. with Charles VI.’s daughter Isabella, but the Lancastrian revolution of 1399 destroyed the diplomatic advantages gained by this union. In France the country was disturbed by the papal schism. At an assembly of the clergy held in Paris in 1398 it was resolved to refuse to recognize the authority of Benedict XIII., who succeeded Clement VII. as schismatic pope at Avignon. The question became a party one; Benedict was supported by Louis of Orleans, while Philip the Bold and the university of Paris opposed him. Obedience to Benedict’s authority was resumed in 1403, only to be withdrawn again in 1408, when the king declared himself the guardian and protector of the French church, which was indeed for a time self-governing. Edicts further extending the royal power in ecclesiastical affairs were even issued in 1418, after the schism was at an end.

The king’s intelligence became yearly feebler, and in 1404 the death of Philip the Bold aggravated the position of affairs. The new duke, John the Fearless, did not immediately replace his father in general affairs, and the influence of the duke of Orleans increased. Queen Isabeau, who had generally supported the Burgundian party, was now practically separated from her husband, whose madness had become pronounced. She was replaced by a young Burgundian lady, Odette de Champdivers, called by her contemporariesla petite reine, who rescued the king from the state of neglect into which he had fallen. Isabeau of Bavaria was freely accused of intrigue with the duke of Orleans. She was from time to time regent of France, and as her policy was directed by personal considerations and by her love of splendour she further added to the general distress. The relations between John the Fearless and the duke of Orleans became more embittered, and on the 23rd of November 1407 Orleans was murdered in the streets of Paris at the instigation of his rival. The young duke Charles of Orleans married the daughter of the Gascon count Bernard VII. of Armagnac, and presently formed alliances with the dukes of Berry, Bourbon and Brittany, and others who formed the party known as the Armagnacs (seeArmagnac), against the Burgundians who had gained the upper hand in the royal council. In 1411 John the Fearless contracted an alliance with Henry IV. of England, and civil war began in the autumn, but in 1412 the Armagnacs in their turn sought English aid, and, by promising the sovereignty of Aquitaine to the English king, gave John the opportunity of posing as defender of France. In Paris the Burgundians were hand in hand with the corporation of the butchers, who were the leaders of the Parisian populace. The malcontents, who took their name from one of their number, Caboche, penetrated into the palace of the dauphin Louis, and demanded the surrender of the unpopular members of his household. A royal ordinance, promising reforms in administration, was promulgated on the 27th of May 1413, and some of the royal advisers were executed. The king and the dauphin, powerless in the hands of Duke John and the Parisians, appealed secretly to the Armagnac princes for deliverance. They entered Paris in September; the ordinance extracted by the Cabochiens was rescinded; and numbers of the insurgents were banished the city.

In the next year Henry V. of England, after concluding an alliance with Burgundy, resumed the pretensions of Edward III. to the crown of France, and in 1415 followed the disastrous battle of Agincourt. The two elder sons of Charles VI., Louis, duke of Guienne, and John, duke of Touraine, died in 1415 and 1417, and Charles, count of Ponthieu, became heir apparent. Paris was governed by Bernard of Armagnac, constable of France, who expelled all suspected of Burgundian sympathies and treated Paris like a conquered city. Queen Isabeau was imprisoned at Tours, but escaped to Burgundy. The capture of Paris by the Burgundians on the 20th of May 1418 was followed by a series of horrible massacres of the Armagnacs; and in July Duke John and Isabeau, who assumed the title of regent, entered Paris. Meanwhile Henry V. had completed the conquest of Normandy. The murder of John the Fearless in 1419 under the eyes of the dauphin Charles threw the Burgundians definitely into the arms of the English, and his successor Philip the Good, in concert with Queen Isabeau, concluded (1420) the treaty of Troyes with Henry V., who became master of France. Charles VI. had long been of no account in the government, and the state of neglect in which he existed at Senlis induced Henry V. to undertake the re-organization of his household. He came to Paris in September 1422, and died on the 21st of October.

The chief authorities for the reign of Charles VI. are:—Chronica Caroli VI., written by a monk of Saint Denis, commissioned officially to write the history of his time, edited by C. Bellaguet with a French translation (6 vols., 1839-1852); Jean Juvenal des Ursins,Chronique, printed by D. Godefroy inHistoire de Charles VI(1653), chiefly an abridgment of the monk of St Denis’s narrative; a fragment of theGrandes Chroniques de Saint Deniscovering the years 1381 to 1383 (ed. J. Pichon 1864); correspondence of Charles VI. printed by Champollion-Figeac inLettres de rois, vol. ii.;Choix de pièces inédites rel. au règne de Charles VI(2 vols., 1863-1864), edited by L. Douët d’Arcq for the Société de l’Histoire de France; J. Froissart,Chroniques; Enguerrand de Monstrelet,Chroniques, covering the first half of the 15th century (Eng. trans., 4 vols., 1809);Chronique des quatre premiers Valois, by an unknown author, ed. S. Luce (1862). See also E. Lavisse,Hist, de France, iv. 267 seq.; E. Petit, “Séjours de Charles VI,”Bull. du com. des travaux hist.(1893); Vallet de Viriville, “Isabeau de Bavière,”Revue française(1858-1859); M. Thibaut,Isabeau de Bavière(1903).

CHARLES VII.(1403-1461), king of France, fifth son of Charles VI. and Isabeau of Bavaria, was born in Paris on the 22nd of February 1403. The count of Ponthieu, as he was called in his boyhood, was betrothed in 1413 to Mary of Anjou, daughter of Louis II., duke of Anjou and king of Sicily, and spent the next two years at the Angevin court. He received the duchy of Touraine in 1416, and in the next year the death of his brother John made him dauphin of France. He became lieutenant-general of the kingdom in 1417, and made active efforts to combat the complaisance of his mother. He assumed the title of regent in December 1418, but his authority in northern France was paralysed in 1419 by the murder of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, in his presence at Montereau. Although the deed was not apparently premeditated, as the English and Burgundians declared, it ruined Charles’s cause for the time. He was disinherited by the treaty of Troyes in 1420, and at the time of his father’s death in 1422 had retired to Mehun-sur-Yèvre, near Bourges, which had been the nominal seat of government since 1418. He was recognized as king in Touraine, Berry and Poitou, in Languedoc and other provinces of southern France; but the English power in the north was presently increased by the provinces of Champagne and Maine, as the result of the victories of Crevant (1423) and Verneuil (1424). The Armagnac administrators who had been driven out of Paris by the duke of Bedford gathered round the young king, nicknamed the “king of Bourges,” but he was weak in body and mind, and was under the domination of Jean Louvet and Tanguy du Chastel, the instigators of the murder of John the Fearless, and other discredited partisans. The power of these favourites was shaken by the influence of the queen’s mother, Yolande of Aragon, duchess of Anjou. She sought the alliance of John V., duke of Brittany, who, however, vacillated throughout his life between the English and French alliance, concerned chiefly to maintain the independence of his duchy. His brother, Arthur of Brittany, earl of Richmond (comte de Richemont), was reconciled with the king, and became constable in 1425, with the avowed intention of making peace between Charles VII. and the duke of Burgundy. Richemont caused the assassination of Charles’s favourites Pierre de Giac and Le Camus de Beaulieu, and imposed one of his own choosing, Georges de la Trémoille, an adventurer who rapidly usurped the constable’s power. For five years (1427-1432) a private war between these two exhausted the Armagnac forces, and central France returned to anarchy.

Meanwhile Bedford had established settled government throughout the north of France, and in 1428 he advanced to the siege of Orleans. For the movement which was to lead to the deliverance of France from the English invaders, seeJoan of Arc. The siege of Orleans was raised by her efforts on the 8th of May 1429, and two months later Charles VII. was crowned at Reims. Charles’s intimate counsellors, La Trémoille and Regnault de Chartres, archbishop of Reims, saw their profits menaced by the triumphs of Joan of Arc, and accordingly the court put every difficulty in the way of her military career, and received the news of her capture before Compiègne (1430) with indifference. No measures were taken for her deliverance or her ransom, and Normandy and the Isle of France remained in English hands. Fifteen years of anarchy and civil war intervened before peace was restored. Bands of armed men fighting for their own hand traversed the country, and in the ten years between 1434 and 1444 the provinces were terrorized by theseécorcheurs, who, with the decline of discipline in the English army, were also recruited from the ranks of the invaders. The duke of Bedford died in 1435, and in the same year Philip the Good of Burgundy concluded a treaty with Charles VII. at Arras, after fruitless negotiations for an English treaty. From this time Charles’s policy was strengthened. La Trémoille had been assassinated in 1433 by the constable’s orders, with the connivance of Yolande of Aragon. For his former favourites were substituted energetic advisers, his brother-in-law Charles of Anjou, Dunois (the famous bastard of Orleans), Pierre de Brézé, Richemont and others. Richemont entered Paris on the 13th of April 1436, and in the next five years the finance of the country was re-established on a settled basis. Charles himself commanded the troops who captured Pontoise in 1441, and in the next year he made a successful expedition in the south.

Meanwhile the princes of the blood and the great nobles resented the ascendancy of councillors and soldiers drawn from the smaller nobility and thebourgeoisie. They made a formidable league against the crown in 1440 which included Charles I., duke of Bourbon, John II., duke of Alençon, John IV. of Armagnac, and the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. The revolt broke out in Poitou in 1440 and was known as thePraguerie. Charles VII. repressed the rising, and showed great skill with the rebel nobles, finally buying them over individually by considerable concessions. In 1444 a truce was concluded with England at Tours, and Charles proceeded to organize a regular army. The central authority was gradually made effective, and a definite system of payment, by removing the original cause of brigandage, and the establishment of a strict discipline learnt perhaps from the English troops, gradually stamped out the most serious of the many evils under which the country had suffered. Pierre Bessonneau, and the brothers Gaspard and Jean Bureau created a considerable force of artillery. Domestic troubles in their own country weakened the English in France. The conquest of Normandy was completed by the battle of Formigny (15th of April 1450). Guienne was conquered in 1451 by Duncis, but not subdued, and another expedition was necessary in 1453, when Talbot was defeated and slain at Castillon. Meanwhile in 1450 Charles VII. had resolved on the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, thus rendering a tardy recognition of her services. This was granted in 1456 by the Holy See. The only foothold retained by the English on French ground was Calais. In its earlier stages the deliverance of France from the English had been the work of the people themselves. The change which made Charles take an active part in public affairs is said to have been largely due to the influence of Agnes Sorel, who became his mistress in 1444 and died in 1450. She was the first to play a public and political rôle as mistress of a king of France, and may be said to have established a tradition. Pierre de Brézé, who had had a large share in the repression of the Praguerie, obtained through her a dominating influence over the king, and he inspired the monarch himself and the whole administration with new vigour. Charles and René of Anjou retired from court, and the greater part of the members of the king’s council were drawn from the bourgeois classes. The most famous of all these was Jacques Coeur (q.v.). It was by the zeal of these councillors that Charles obtained the surname of “The Well-Served.”

Charles VII. continued his father’s general policy in church matters. He desired to lessen the power of the Holy See in France and to preserve as far as possible the liberties of the Gallican church. With the council of Constance (1414-1418) the great schism was practically healed. Charles, while careful to protest against its renewal, supported the anti-papal contentions of the French members of the council of Basel (1431-1449), and in 1438 he promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction at Bourges, by which the patronage of ecclesiastical benefices was removed from the Holy See, while certain interventions of the royal power were admitted. Bishops and abbots were to be elected, in accordance with ancient custom, by their clergy.After the English had evacuated French territory Charles still had to cope with feudal revolt, and with the hostility of the dauphin, who was in open revolt in 1446, and for the next ten years ruled like an independent sovereign in Dauphiné. He took refuge in 1457 with Charles’s most formidable enemy, Philip of Burgundy. Charles VII. nevertheless found means to prevent Philip from attaining his ambitions in Lorraine and in Germany. But the dauphin succeeded in embarrassing his father’s policy at home and abroad, and had his own party in the court itself. Charles VII. died at Mehun-sur-Yévre on the 22nd of July 1461. He believed that he was poisoned by his son, who cannot, however, be accused of anything more than an eager expectation of his death.

Authorities.—The history of the reign of Charles VII. has been written by two modern historians,—Vallet de Viriville,Histoire de Charles VII ... et de son époque(Paris, 3 vols., 1862-1865), and G. du Fresne de Beaucourt,Hist, de Charles VII(Paris, 6 vols., 1881-1891). There is abundant contemporary material. The herald, Jacques le Bouvier or Berry (b. 1386), whoseChronicques du feu roi Charles VIIwas first printed in 1528 as the work of Alain Chartier, was an eye-witness of many of the events he described. HisRecouvrement de Normandie, with other material on the same subject, was edited for the “Rolls” series (Chronicles and Memorials) by Joseph Stevenson in 1863. TheHistoire de Charles VIIby Jean Chartier, historiographer-royal from 1437, was included in theGrandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis, and was first printed under Chartier’s name by Denis Godefroy, together with other contemporary narratives, in 1661. It was re-edited by Vallet de Viriville (Paris, 3 vols., 1858-1859). With these must be considered the Burgundian chroniclers Enguerrand de Monstrelet, whose chronicle (ed. L. Douët d’Arcq; Paris, 6 vols., 1857-1862) covers the years 1400-1444, and Georges Chastellain, the existing fragments of whose chronicle are published in hisŒuvres(ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove; Brussels, 8 vols., 1863-1866). For a detailed bibliography and an account of printed and MS. documents see du Fresne de Beaucourt, already cited, also A. Molinier,Manuel de bibliographie historique, iv. 240-306.

CHARLES VIII.(1470-1498), king of France, was the only son of Louis XI. During the whole of his childhood Charles lived far from his father at the château of Amboise, which was throughout his life his favourite residence. On the death of Louis XI in 1483 Charles, a lad of thirteen, was of age, but was absolutely incapable of governing. Until 1492 he abandoned the government to his sister Anne of Beaujeu. In 1491 he married Anne, duchess of Brittany, who was already betrothed to Maximilian of Austria. Urged by his favourite, Étienne de Vesc, he then, at the age of twenty-two, threw off the yoke of the Beaujeus, and at the same time discarded their wise and able policy. But he was a thoroughly worthless man with a weak and ill-balanced intellect. He had a romantic imagination and conceived vast projects. He proposed at first to claim the rights of the house of Anjou, to which Louis XI. had succeeded, on the kingdom of Naples, and to use this as a stepping-stone to the capture of Constantinople from the Turks and his own coronation as emperor of the East. He sacrificed everything to this adventurous policy, signed disastrous treaties to keep his hands free, and set out for Italy in 1494. The ceremonial side of the expedition being in his eyes the most important, he allowed himself to be intoxicated by his easy triumph and duped by the Italians. On the 12th of May 1495 he entered Naples in great pomp, clothed in the imperial insignia. A general coalition was, however, formed against him, and he was forced to return precipitately to France. It cannot be denied that he showed bravery at the battle of Fornovo (the 5th of July 1495). He was preparing a fresh expedition to Italy, when he died on the 8th of April 1498, from the results of an accident, at the château of Amboise.

SeeHistoire de Charles VIII, roy de France, by G. de Jaligny, André de la Vigne, &c., edited by Godefroy (Paris, 1684); De Cherrier,Histoire de Charles VIII(Paris, 1868); H. Fr. Delaborde,Expédition de Charles VIII en Italie(Paris, 1888). For a complete bibliography see H. Hauser,Les Sources de l’histoire de France, 1494-1610, vol. i. (Paris, 1906); and E. Lavisse,Histoire de France, vol. v. part i., by H. Lemonnier (Paris, 1903).

CHARLES IX.(1550-1574), king of France, was the third son of Henry II. and Catherine de’ Medici. At first he bore the title of duke of Orleans. He became king in 1560 by the death of his brother Francis II., but as he was only ten years old the power was in the hands of the queen-mother, Catherine. Charles seems to have been a youth of good parts, lively and agreeable, but he had a weak, passionate and fantastic nature. His education had spoiled him. He was left to his whims—even the strangest—and to his taste for violent exercises; and the excesses to which he gave himself up ruined his health. Proclaimed of age on the 17th of August 1563, he continued to be absorbed in his fantasies and his hunting, and submitted docilely to the authority of his mother. In 1570 he was married to Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian II. It was about this time that he dreamed of making a figure in the world. The successes of his brother, the duke of Anjou, at Jarnac and Moncontour had already caused him some jealousy. When Coligny came to court, he received him very warmly, and seemed at first to accept the idea of an intervention in the Netherlands against the Spaniards. For the upshot of this adventure see the articleSt Bartholomew, Massacre of. Charles was in these circumstances no hypocrite, but weak, hesitating and ill-balanced. Moreover, the terrible events in which he had played a part transformed his character. He became melancholy, severe and taciturn. “It is feared,” said the Venetian ambassador, “that he may become cruel.” Undermined by fever, at the age of twenty he had the appearance of an old man, and night and day he was haunted with nightmares. He died on the 30th of May 1574. By his mistress, Marie Touchet, he had one son, Charles, duke of Angoulême. Charles IX. had a sincere love of letters, himself practised poetry, was the patron of Ronsard and the poets of the Pleiad, and granted privileges to the first academy founded by Antoine de Baïf (afterwards the Académie du Palais). He left a work on hunting,Traité de la chasse royale, which was published in 1625, and reprinted in 1859.

Authorities.—The principal sources are the contemporary memoirs and chronicles of T.A. d’Aubigné, Brantôme, Castelnau, Haton, la Place, Montluc, la Noue, l’Estoile, Ste Foy, de Thou, Tavannes, &c.; the published correspondence of Catherine de’ Medici, Marguerite de Valois, and the Venetian ambassadors; and Calendars of State Papers, &c. See also Abel Desjardins,Charles IX, deux années de règne(Paris, 1873); de la Ferrière,Le XVIe siècle et les Valois(Paris, 1879); H. Mariéjol,La Réforme et la Ligue(Paris, 1904), in vol. v. of theHistoire de France, by E. Lavisse, which contains a bibliography for the reign.

CHARLES X.(1757-1836), king of France from 1824 to 1830, was the fourth child of the dauphin, son of Louis XV. and of Marie Josephe of Saxony, and consequently brother of Louis XVI. He was known before his accession as Charles Philippe, count of Artois. At the age of sixteen he married Marie Thérèse of Savoy, sister-in-law of his brother, the count of Provence (Louis XVIII.). His youth was passed in scandalous dissipation, which drew upon himself and his coterie the detestation of the people of Paris. Although lacking military tastes, he joined the French army at the siege of Gibraltar in 1772, merely for distraction. In a few years he had incurred a debt of 56 million francs, a burden assumed by the impoverished state. Prior to the Revolution he took only a minor part in politics, but when it broke out he soon became, with the queen, the chief of the reactionary party at court. In July 1789 he left France, became leader of theémigrés, and visited several of the courts of Europe in the interest of the royalist cause. After the execution of Louis XVI. he received from his brother, the count of Provence, the title of lieutenant-general of the realm, and, on the death of Louis XVII., that of “Monsieur.” In 1795 he attempted to aid the royalist rising of La Vendée, landing at the island of Yeu. But he refused to advance farther and to put himself resolutely at the head of his party, although warmly acclaimed by it, and courage failing him, he returned to England, settling first in London, then in Holyrood Palace at Edinburgh and afterwards at Hartwell. There he remained until 1813, returning to France in February 1814, and entering Paris in April, in the track of the Allies.

During the reign of his brother, Louis XVIII., he was the leader of the ultra-royalists, the party of extreme reaction. On succeeding to the throne in September 1824 the dignity of his address and his affable condescension won him a passing popularity. But his coronation at Reims, with all the gorgeousceremonial of the old régime, proclaimed his intention of ruling, as the Most Christian King, by divine right. His first acts, indeed, allayed the worst alarms of the Liberals; but it was soon apparent that the weight of the crown would be consistently thrown into the scale of the reactionary forces. Theémigréswere awarded a milliard as compensation for their confiscated lands; and Gallicans and Liberals alike were offended by measures which threw increased power into the hands of the Jesuits and Ultramontanes. In a few months there were disquieting signs of the growing unpopularity of the king. The royal princesses were insulted in the streets; and on the 29th of April 1825 Charles, when reviewing the National Guard, was met with cries from the ranks of “Down with the ministers!” His reply was, next day, a decree disbanding the citizen army.

It was not till 1829, when the result of the elections had proved the futility of Villèle’s policy of repression, that Charles consented unwillingly to try a policy of compromise. It was, however, too late. Villèle’s successor was the vicomte de Martignac, who took Decazes for his model; and in the speech from the throne Charles declared that the happiness of France depended on “the sincere union of the royal authority with the liberties consecrated by the charter.” But Charles had none of the patience and commonsense which had enabled Louis XVIII. to play with decency the part of a constitutional king. “I would rather hew wood,” he exclaimed, “than be a king under the conditions of the king of England”; and when the Liberal opposition obstructed all the measures proposed by a ministry not selected from the parliamentary majority, he lost patience. “I told you,” he said, “that there was no coming to terms with these men.” Martignac was dismissed; and Prince Jules de Polignac, the very incarnation of clericalism and reaction, was called to the helm of state.

The inevitable result was obvious to all the world. “There is no such thing as political experience,” wrote Wellington, certainly no friend of Liberalism; “with the warning of James II. before him, Charles X. was setting up a government by priests, through priests, for priests.” A formidable agitation sprang up in France, which only served to make the king more obstinate. In opening the session of 1830 he declared that he would “find the power” to overcome the obstacles placed in his path by “culpable manoeuvres.” The reply of the chambers was a protest against “the unjust distrust of the sentiment and reason of France”; whereupon they were first prorogued, and on the 16th of May dissolved. The result of the new elections was what might have been foreseen: a large increase in the Opposition; and Charles, on the advice of his ministers, determined on a virtual suspension of the constitution. On the 25th of July were issued the famous “four ordinances” which were the immediate cause of the revolution that followed.

With singular fatuity Charles had taken no precautions in view of a violent outbreak. Marshal Marmont, who commanded the scattered troops in Paris, had received no orders, beyond a jesting command from the duke of Angoulême to place them under arms “as some windows might be broken.” At the beginning of the revolution Charles was at St Cloud, whence on the news of the fighting he withdrew first to Versailles and then to Rambouillet. So little did he understand the seriousness of the situation that, when the laconic message “All is over!” was brought to him, he believed that the insurrection had been suppressed. On realizing the truth he hastily abdicated in favour of his grandson, the duke of Bordeaux (comte de Chambord), and appointed Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, lieutenant-general of the kingdom (July 30th). But, on the news of Louis Philippe’s acceptance of the crown, he gave up the contest and began a dignified retreat to the sea-coast, followed by his suite, and surrounded by the infantry, cavalry and artillery of the guard. Beyond sending a corps of observation to follow his movements, the new government did nothing to arrest his escape. At Maintenon Charles took leave of the bulk of his troops, and proceeding with an escort of some 1200 men to Cherbourg, took ship there for England on the 16th of August. For a time he returned to Holyrood Palace at Edinburgh, which was again placed at his disposal. He died at Goritz, whither he had gone for his health, on the 6th of November 1836.

The best that can be said of Charles X. is that, if he did not know how to rule, he knew how to cease to rule. The dignity of his exit was more worthy of the ancient splendour of the royal house of France than the theatrical humility of Louis Philippe’s entrance. But Charles was an impossible monarch for the 19th century, or perhaps for any other century. He was a typical Bourbon, unable either to learn or to forget; and the closing years of his life he spent in religious austerities, intended to expiate, not his failure to grasp a great opportunity, but the comparatively venial excesses of his youth.1

See Achille de Vaulabelle,Chute de l’empire: histoire des deux restaurations(Paris, 1847-1857); Louis de Vielcastel,Hist. de la restauration(Paris, 1860-1878); Alphonse de Lamartine,Hist. de la restauration(Paris, 1851-1852); Louis Blanc,Hist. de dix ans, 1830-1840(5 vols., 1842-1844); G.I. de Montbel,Derniére Époque de l’hist. de Charles X(5th ed., Paris, 1840); Théodore Anne,Mémoires, souvenirs, et anecdotes sur l’interieur du palais de Charles X et les évènements de 1815 à 1830(2 vols., Paris, 1831); ib.,Journal de Saint-Cloud a Cherbourg; Védrenne,Vie de Charles X(3 vols., Paris, 1879); Petit,Charles X(Paris, 1886); Villeneuve,Charles X et Louis XIX en exil. Mémoires inédits(Paris, 1889); Imbert de Saint-Amand,La Cour de Charles X(Paris, 1892).

1This, at any rate, represents the general verdict of history. It is interesting, however, to note that so liberal-minded and shrewd a critic of men as King Leopold I. of the Belgians formed a different estimate. In a letter of the 18th of November 1836 addressed to Princess (afterwards Queen) Victoria he writes:—“History will state that Louis XVIII. was a most liberal monarch, reigning with great mildness and justice to his end, but that his brother, from his despotic and harsh disposition, upset all the other had done, and lost the throne. Louis XVIII. was a clever, hard-hearted man, shackled by no principle, very proud and false. Charles X. an honest man, a kind friend, an honourable master, sincere in his opinions, and inclined to do everything that is right. That teaches us what we ought to believe in history as it is compiled according to ostensible events and results known to the generality of people.”

CHARLES I.(1288-1342), king of Hungary, the son of Charles Martell of Naples, and Clemencia, daughter of the emperor Rudolph, was known as Charles Robert previously to being enthroned king of Hungary in 1309. He claimed the Hungarian crown, as the grandson of Stephen V., under the banner of the pope, and in August 1300 proceeded from Naples to Dalmatia to make good his claim. He was crowned at Esztergom after the death of the last Arpad, Andrew III. (1301), but was forced the same year to surrender the crown to Wenceslaus II. of Bohemia (1289-1306). His failure only made Pope Boniface VIII. still more zealous on his behalf, and at the diet of Pressburg (1304) his Magyar adherents induced him to attempt to recover the crown of St Stephen from the Czechs. But in the meantime (1305) Wenceslaus transferred his rights to Duke Otto of Bavaria, who in his turn was taken prisoner by the Hungarian rebels. Charles’s prospects now improved, and he was enthroned at Buda on the 15th of June 1309, though his installation was not regarded as valid till he was crowned with the sacred crown (which was at last recovered from the robber-barons) at Székesfehérvár on the 27th of August 1310. For the next three years Charles had to contend with rebellion after rebellion, and it was only after his great victory over all the elements of rapine and disorder at Rozgony (June 15, 1312) that he was really master in his own land. His foreign policy aimed at the aggrandizement of his family, but his plans were prudent as well as ambitious, and Hungary benefited by them greatly. His most successful achievement was the union with Poland for mutual defence against the Habsburgs and the Czechs. This was accomplished by the convention of Trencsén (1335), confirmed the same year at the brilliant congress of Visegrád, where all the princes of central Europe met to compose their differences and were splendidly entertained during the months of October and November. The immediate result of the congress was a combined attack by the Magyars and Poles upon the emperor Louis and his ally Albert of Austria, which resulted in favour of Charles in 1337. Charles’s desire to unite the kingdoms of Hungary and Naples under the eldest son Louis was frustrated by Venice and the pope, from fear lest Hungary might become the dominantAdriatic power. He was, however, more than compensated for this disappointment by his compact (1339) with his ally and brother-in-law, Casimir of Poland, whereby it was agreed that Louis should succeed to the Polish throne on the death of the childless Casimir. For an account of the numerous important reforms effected by Charles seeHungary:History. A statesman of the first rank, he not only raised Hungary once more to the rank of a great power, but enriched and civilized her. In character he was pious, courtly and valiant, popular alike with the nobility and the middle classes, whose increasing welfare he did so much to promote, and much beloved by the clergy. His court was famous throughout Europe as a school of chivalry.

Charles was married thrice. His first wife was Maria, daughter of Duke Casimir of Teschen, whom he wedded in 1306. On her death in 1318 he married Beatrice, daughter of the emperor Henry VII. On her decease two years later he gave his hand to Elizabeth, daughter of Wladislaus Lokietek, king of Poland. Five sons were the fruit of these marriages, of whom three, Louis, Andrew and Stephen, survived him. He died on the 16th of July 1342, and was laid beside the high altar at Székesfehérvár, the ancient burial-place of the Arpads.

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