October 21, 1369: Death of Charles VI, King of France. Part II.

Tags

Charles the Mad, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy, Expulsion of the Jews, House of Valois, Joan of Arc, King Charles VI of France, King Charles VII of France, King Henry V of England, King Henry VI of England, King of France, Philip the Bold

Expulsion of the Jews, 1394

On September 17, 1394, Charles suddenly published an ordinance in which he declared, in substance, that for a long time he had been taking note of the many complaints provoked by the excesses and misdemeanors of the Jews against Christians, and that the prosecutors had made several investigations and discovered that the Jews broke the agreement with the king on many occasions.

Therefore, he decreed, as an irrevocable law and statute, that no Jew should dwell in his domains (Ordonnances, vii. 675). According to the Religieux de St. Denis, the king signed this decree at the insistence of the queen (“Chron. de Charles VI.” ii. 119). The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they have enough time to sell their property and pay their debts.

Those indebted to them were enjoined to redeem their obligations within a set time; otherwise their pledges held in pawn were to be sold by the Jews. The provost was to escort the Jews to the frontier of the kingdom. Subsequently, the king released Christians from their debts.

Struggles for power

With Charles VI mentally ill, from 1393 his wife Isabeau presided over a regency counsel, on which sat the grandees of the kingdom. Philippe II the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who acted as regent during the king’s minority (from 1380 to 1388), was a great influence on the queen (he had organized the royal marriage during his regency). Influence progressively shifted to Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the king’s brother, another contender for power, and it was suspected, the queen’s lover.

Charles VI’s other uncles were less influential during the regency: Louis II of Naples was still engaged managing the Kingdom of Naples, and John, Duke of Berry, served as a mediator between the Orléans party (what would become the Armagnacs) and the Burgundy party (Bourguignons). The rivalry would increase bit by bit and in the end result in outright civil war.

The new regents dismissed the various advisers and officials Charles had appointed. On the death of Philip the Bold in April 1404, his son John the Fearless took over the political aims of his father, and the feud with Louis escalated. John, who was less linked to Isabeau, again lost influence at court.

Wars with Burgundy and England

In 1407, Louis of Orléans was murdered in the rue Vieille du Temple in Paris. John did not deny responsibility, claiming that Louis was a tyrant who squandered money. Louis’ son Charles, the new Duke of Orléans, turned to his father-in-law, Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, for support against Jean the Fearless. This resulted in the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War, which lasted from 1407 until 1435, beyond Charles’ reign, though the war with the English was still in progress.

With the English taking over much of the country, Jean the Fearless sought to end the feud with the royal family by negotiating with the Dauphin Charles, the king’s heir. They met at the bridge at Montereau on September 10, 1419, but during the meeting, Jean the Fearless killed by Tanneguy du Chastel, a follower of the Dauphin. Jean’s successor, Philippe II the Good, the new Duke of Burgundy, threw in his lot with the English.

English invasion and death

Charles VI’s reign was marked by the continuing conflict with the English, known as the Hundred Years’ War. An early attempt at peace occurred in 1396 when Charles’ daughter, the almost seven-year-old Isabella of Valois, married the 29-year-old Richard II of England. By 1415, however, the feud between the French royal family and the House of Burgundy led to chaos and anarchy throughout France, a situation that Henry V of England was eager to take advantage of. Henry led an invasion that culminated in the defeat of the French army at the Battle of Agincourt in October.

In May 1420, Henry V and Charles VI signed the Treaty of Troyes, which named Henry as Charles’ successor, and stipulated that Henry’s heirs would succeed him on the throne of France. It disinherited the Dauphin Charles, then only 17 years old. (In 1421, it was implied in Burgundian propaganda that the young Charles was illegitimate.) The treaty also betrothed Charles VI’s daughter, Catherine of Valois, to Henry. Disinheriting the Dauphin in favor of Henry was a blatant act against the interests of the French aristocracy, supported by the Duke of Burgundy.

The Dauphin who had declared himself regent for his father when the Duke of Burgundy invaded Paris and captured the king, had established a court at Bourges.

Charles VI died on October 21, 1422 in Paris, at the Hôtel Saint-Pol. He was interred in Saint Denis Basilica, where his wife Isabeau of Bavaria would join him after her death in September 1435.

Henry V of England died just a few weeks before him, in August 1422, leaving an infant son, who became King Henry VI of England. Therefore, according to the Treaty of Troyes, with the death of Charles VI, little Henry became King of France. His coronation as such was in Paris (held by the English since 1418) at the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris on December 26, 1431.

The son disinherited by Charles VI, the Dauphin Charles, continued to fight to regain his kingdom. In 1429 Joan of Arc arrived on the scene. She led his forces to victory against the English, and took him to be crowned in Reims Cathedral as King Charles VII of France on July 17, 1429. He became known as “Charles the Victorious” and was able to restore the French line to the throne of France by defeating the English in 1450.

October 21, 1369: Death of Charles VI, King of France. Part I.

Tags

Charles the Mad, Duke of Burgundy, House of Valois, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, King Charles VI of France, Kingdom of France, Philip the Bold, Pope Pius II

Charles VI (December 3, 1369 – October 21, 1422), called the Beloved and later the Mad, was King of France for 42 years, from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic episodes which plagued him throughout his life. Charles’s reign would see his army crushed at the Battle of Agincourt, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Troyes, which made his future son-in-law Henry V of England his regent and heir to the throne of France. However, Henry would die shortly before Charles, which gave the House of Valois the chance to continue the fight against the English, leading to their eventual victory and the end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453.

Charles was born in Paris, in the royal residence of the Hôtel Saint-Pol, on December 3, 1368, the son of the king of France Charles V, of the House of Valois, and of Joanna of Bourbon. As heir to the French throne, his elder brothers having died before he was born, Charles held the title Dauphin of France.

At his father’s death on September 16, 1380, he inherited the throne of France. His coronation took place on November 4, 1380, at Reims Cathedral. Charles VI was only 11 years old when he was crowned King of France. During his minority, France was ruled by Charles’ uncles, as regents. Although the royal age of majority was 14 (the “age of accountability” under Roman Catholic canon law), Charles terminated the regency only at the age of 21.

The regents were Philippe the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Louis I, Duke of Anjou, and Jean, Duke of Berry – all brothers of Charles V – along with Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, Charles VI’s maternal uncle. Philippe took the dominant role during the regency. Louis of Anjou was fighting for his claim to the Kingdom of Naples after 1382, dying in 1384; Jean of Berry was interested mainly in the Languedoc, and not particularly interested in politics; and Louis of Bourbon was a largely unimportant figure, owing to his personality (showing signs of mental instability) and status (since he was not the son of a king).

Charles VI brought the regency to an end in 1388, taking up personal rule. He restored to power the highly competent advisors of Charles V, known as the Marmousets, who ushered in a new period of high esteem for the crown. Charles VI was widely referred to as Charles the Beloved by his subjects.

Charles VI’s early successes with the Marmousets as his counselors quickly dissipated as a result of the bouts of psychosis he experienced from his mid-twenties. Mental illness may have been passed on for several generations through his mother, Joanna of Bourbon. Although still called by his subjects Charles the Beloved, he became known also as Charles the Mad.

Charles’s first known episode occurred in 1392 when his friend and advisor, Olivier de Clisson, was the victim of an attempted murder. Although Clisson survived, Charles was determined to punish the would-be assassin, Pierre de Craon, who had taken refuge in Brittany. Jean V, Duke of Brittany, was unwilling to hand him over, so Charles prepared a military expedition.

Contemporaries said Charles appeared to be in a “fever” to begin the campaign and disconnected in his speech. Charles set off with an army on July 1, 1392. The progress of the army was slow, driving Charles into a frenzy of impatience. As the king and his escort were traveling through the forest near Le Mans on a hot August morning, a barefoot leper dressed in rags rushed up to the King’s horse and grabbed his bridle. “Ride no further, noble King!” he yelled: “Turn back! You are betrayed!” The king’s escorts beat the man back, but did not arrest him, and he followed the procession for half an hour, repeating his cries.

The company emerged from the forest at noon. A page who was drowsy from the sun dropped the king’s lance, which clanged loudly against a steel helmet carried by another page. Charles shuddered, drew his sword and yelled “Forward against the traitors! They wish to deliver me to the enemy!” The king spurred his horse and began swinging his sword at his companions, fighting until one of his chamberlains and a group of soldiers were able to grab him from his mount and lay him on the ground. He lay still and did not react, but then fell into a coma. The king had killed a knight known as “The Bastard of Polignac” and several other men.

Periods of mental illness continued throughout the king’s life. During one in 1393, he could not remember his name and did not know he was king. When his wife came to visit, he asked his servants who she was and ordered them to take care of what she required so that she would leave him alone. During an episode in 1395–96 he claimed he was Saint George and that his coat of arms was a lion with a sword thrust through it. At this time, he recognized all the officers of his household, but did not know his wife nor his children. Sometimes he ran wildly through the corridors of his Parisian residence, the Hôtel Saint-Pol, and to keep him inside, the entrances were walled up.

In 1405, he refused to bathe or change his clothes for five months. His later psychotic episodes were not described in detail, perhaps because of the similarity of his behavior and delusions. Pope Pius II, who was born during the reign of Charles VI, wrote in his Commentaries that there were times when Charles thought that he was made of glass, and thus tried to protect himself in various ways so that he would not break. He reportedly had iron rods sewn into his clothes so that he would not shatter if he came into contact with another person. This condition has come to be known as glass delusion.

Charles VI married Isabeau of Bavaria (ca. 1371 – 24 September 1435) on July 17, 1385. She gave birth to 12 children. Isabeau of Bavaria (or Isabelle; also Elisabeth of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – 1435) was queen of France between 1385 and 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach as the eldest daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. At age 15 or 16, Isabeau was sent to the young King Charles VI of France; the couple wed three days after their first meeting.

July 25, 1547: Henri II of France is crowned.

Tags

Diane de Poitiers, Elisabeth of Valois, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, House of Valois, Italian Wars, Jousting, King Felipe II of Spain, King Henri II of France, Mary I of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots, Royal Mistress

Henri II (March 31, 1519 – July 10, 1559) was King of France from March 31, 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of François I, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother François III, Duke of Brittany, in 1536.

Henri was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of King François I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany (daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany, and a second cousin of her husband).

King François I of France

His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and held prisoner in Spain. To obtain his release, it was agreed that Henri and his older brother, François III, Duke of Brittany, be sent to Spain in his place. They remained in captivity for over four years.

On July 4, 1530 Henri’s father, King François I, married Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, the eldest child of Felipe I of Austria and Joanna of Castile, who would later become co-sovereigns of Castile. Her brother was Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Diane de Poitiers was born on January 9, 1500, in Château de Saint-Vallier, Drôme, France. Her parents were Jean de Poitiers, Seigneur de Saint Vallier, and Jeanne de Batarnay. Unusually athletic, Diane kept a fit figure by riding and swimming regularly. She became a keen sportswoman, remaining in good physical condition for her time.

Diane de Poitiers

On March 29, 1515, at the age of 15, Diane was married to Louis de Brézé, seigneur d’Anet, who was 39 years her senior. He was a grandson of King Charles VII by his mistress Agnès Sorel and served as a courtier to King François I. They had two daughters, Françoise (1518–1574) and Louise (1521–1577).

Shortly after her marriage, Diane became lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France. After the Queen died, she served in the same capacity to Louise of Savoy, the King’s mother.

After the capture of François I by Charles V’s troops during the battle of Pavia (1525), and as previously mentioned, the princes François and Henri were retained as hostages in Spain in exchange for their father. Because the ransom wasn’t paid in time, the two boys (eight and seven at the time) had to spend nearly four years isolated in a bleak castle, facing an uncertain future.

The experience may account for the strong impression that Diane made on Henri as the very embodiment of the ideal gentlewomen: as his mother was already dead, Diane gave him the farewell kiss when he was sent to Spain. At the tournament held for the coronation of Francis’s new wife, Eleanor of Austria, in 1531, Henri and his older brother were dressed as chevaliers, in which Henri wore Diane’s colors. At one point in the tournament François, the Dauphin of France saluted the new Queen as expected, Henri, on the other hand addressed his salute to Diane.

In 1533 Henri married Catherine de’ Medici, daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne., The bride and groom were both and at the age of fourteen, and the marriage was arranged by Catherine’s uncle Pope Clement VII.

Catherine de’ Medici

At the time of the marriage Henri’s elder brother was alive and there was little prospect of Henry coming to the throne. The following year, Henri became romantically involved with the thirty-five-year-old widow, Diane de Poitiers. Henri and Diane had always been very close: again as previously mentioned the young lady had fondly embraced Henri on the day he, as a 7-year-old child, set off to captivity in Spain, and the bond had been renewed after his return to France.

Extremely confident, mature and intelligent, Diane left Catherine powerless to intervene. Dianebdid, however, insist that Henri sleep with Catherine in order to produce heirs to the throne.

When his elder brother François III, the Dauphin and Duke of Brittany, died in 1536 after a game of tennis, Henri became heir apparent to the throne. He succeeded his father when King François I died on Henri’s 28th birthday and was crowned King of France on July 25, 1547 at Reims Cathedral.

Henri II, King of France

Incidentally, also in this date, July 25, 1554 – Queen Mary I of England marries Felipe II of Spain at Winchester Cathedral

Henri pursued his father’s policies in matters of art, war, and religion. He persevered in the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and tried to suppress the Protestant Reformation, even as the Huguenot numbers were increasing drastically in France during his reign.

The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), which put an end to the Italian Wars, had mixed results: France renounced its claims to territories in Italy, but gained certain other territories, including the Pale of Calais and the Three Bishoprics. In addition, even if the Habsburgs maintained a position of primacy, France managed to change the European balance of power by forcing Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to abdicate during the Eighth Italian War and divide the Habsburg Empire between Spain and Austria.

After the abdication of Charles V in 1556, the Habsburg empire was split between Felipe II of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. The focus of Henri’s conflict with the Habsburgs shifted to Flanders, where Felipe II, in conjunction with Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, defeated the French at the Battle of St. Quentin (1557).

England’s entry into the war later that year led to the French capture of Calais, and French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries. Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which he renounced any further claims to territories in Italy.

Mary I, Queen of Scots

Henri II raised the young Mary I, Queen of Scots, at his court, hoping to use her ultimately to establish a dynastic claim to Scotland. On April 24, 1558, Henri’s fourteen-year-old son, the Dauphin François, married Mary. Had there been a son of this union, he would have been King of France and King of Scotland, and also a claimant to the throne of England. Henri had Mary sign secret documents, illegal in Scottish law, that would ensure Valois rule in Scotland even if Mary died without leaving a child by Francis. (As it happened, Francis died without issue a year and half after his father, ending the French claim to Scotland.)

Henry II was an avid hunter and a participant in jousts and tournaments. On June 30, 1559, a tournament was held near Place des Vosges to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis with his longtime enemies, the Habsburgs of Austria, and to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Elisabeth of Valois to King Felipe II of Spain.

Elisabeth of Valois

King Felipe II of Spain

During a jousting match, King Henri II, wearing the colors of his mistress Diane de Poitiers, was wounded in the eye by a fragment of the splintered lance of Gabriel Montgomery, captain of the King’s Scottish Guard. Despite the efforts of royal surgeon Ambroise Paré, the king died of sepsis on July 10, 1559. He was buried in a cadaver tomb in Saint Denis Basilica. Henry’s death played a significant role in the decline of jousting as a sport, particularly in France.

As Henri II lay dying, Queen Catherine limited access to his bedside and denied his mistress Diane de Poitiers permission to see him, even though he repeatedly asked for her. Following his death, Catherine sent Diane into exile, where she lived in comfort on her own properties until her death on April 25, 1566.

Henri II Awas succeeded by his sickly fifteen-year-old son, François II. François was married to sixteen-year-old Mary I, Queen of Scots, who had been his childhood friend and fiancée since her arrival at the French court when she was five.

François II died 18 months later in 1560, and Mary returned to Scotland the following summer. François II was succeeded by his ten-year-old brother Charles IX. His mother, Catherine de Medici, acted as Regent.

French Dynastic Disputes: Part IV (a).

Tags

Fundamental Laws of Succession to the French Crown, Henri III of France, Henri IV of France, Henri of Navarre, House of Bourbon, House of Valois, Louis IX of France, Louise of Lorraine, Salic Law

The Bourbon succession

At the time of the accession of Henri III, upon the death of his brother, Charles IX on May 30, 1574, France was plagued by the Wars of Religion, and Henri III’s authority was undermined by violent political parties funded by foreign powers: the Catholic League (supported by Spain and the Pope), the Protestant Huguenots (supported by England and the Dutch) and the Malcontents, led by Henri III’s own brother, the Duke of Alençon, which was a party of Catholic and Protestant aristocrats who jointly opposed the absolutist ambitions of the king. Henri III was himself a politique, arguing that a strong and religiously tolerant monarchy would save France from collapse.

Henri III, King of France.

He was expected to produce an heir after he married Louise of Lorraine, age 21, on February 1575, no issue resulted from their union. Louise was the third daughter and youngest child of Nicholas of Lorraine, Duke of Mercœur, and Countess Marguerite d’Egmont. However, as early as the death of François, Duke of Anjou, brother of Henri III of France, in 1584, the succession of Henri of Navarre, Head of the House of Bourbon, had been a likely eventuality. Henri III was the sole remaining representative of the House of Valois, and he was still childless.

Reports that Henri III engaged in same-sex relations with his court favourites, known as the mignons, date back to his own time. Certainly he enjoyed intense relationships with them. The scholar Louis Crompton maintains that all of the contemporary rumours were true. Some modern historians dispute this. Jean-Francois Solnon, Nicolas Le Roux, and Jacqueline Boucher have noted that Henri III had many famous mistresses, that he was well known for his taste in beautiful women, and that no male sex partners have been identified. They have concluded that the idea he was homosexual was promoted by his political opponents (both Protestant and Catholic) who used his dislike of war and hunting to depict him as effeminate and undermine his reputation with the French people.

Louise of Lorraine

The laws of succession designated the head of the next branch of the Capetian family as heir presumptive. Normally this would not have been controversial; but the 16th century was a period of religious discord in France, and Henri of Navarre was the chief of the Protestant party and he was also next in line to the French throne.

This was an unacceptable choice for Catholic France which was considered the eldest daughter of the Church; and anointing the king implied that he must belong to the Catholic faith. Ultra-Catholics rejected Henri of Navarre as a relapsed heretic; they would not accept him even if he converted. Moderate Catholics supported Navarre, provided that he would convert.

How did Henri of Navarre derive his claim to the French throne? And the objection to his claim was not predicated solely on religious reasons, but also upon genealogical issues.

Bourbon claim to the throne

Henri of Navarre was descended through his father from King Louis IX of France, via Robert, Count of Clermont (d. 1317), the sixth and youngest son of Louis IX, and the only son besides Philippe III to produce a surviving line. Robert married Beatrix of Bourbon and assumed the title of sire de Bourbon. Bourbon was elevated into a duchy for Robert’s son Louis, who became the first Duke of Bourbon.

At the death of Charles IV, Duke of Alençon in 1525, all cadet branches of the House of Valois had become extinct, with the only remaining Valois being the royal family itself. The chief of the Bourbons became the first prince of the blood, the closest to the succession to the throne should the immediate family of the king become extinct. At the death of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon in 1527, the Vendôme branch of the House of Bourbon became the senior line of the family. At that time, represented by Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme. His son Antoine de Bourbon was the King of Navarrethrough his marriage (jure uxoris) to Queen Jeanne III of Navarre. Antoine’s son, Prince Henri of Navarre, inherited the throne of Navarre on his death from an arquebus wound at the siege of Rouen in 1562.

Despite meeting the criteria for the crown under the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, the legitimacy of Henri of Navarre’s claim to the throne was still questioned, however. In similar cases, the throne had earlier passed to successors with a much closer blood link to the throne. Louis XII had succeeded Charles VIII as his second cousin once removed in the male line. François I had succeeded Louis XII as his cousin five times removed in the male line. The successions were legally unproblematic because consanguinity was acknowledged in law to the tenth degree.

Henri of Navarre

Henri of Navarre, on the other hand, could claim only an agnatic relationship to Henri III in the twenty-second degree. When Henri of Navarre had become the heir presumptive to the throne in 1584, on the death of François, Duke of Anjou, polemicist Jean Boucher had been among those who protested that such a distance in blood meant Henri of Navarre’s claim to the throne had effectively lapsed and that therefore the French States-General had the right to elect a new king.

History of the French Dynastic Disputes. Part I.

Tags

House of Bourbon, House of Capet, House of Valois, King of France, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Louis XIV, Louis XVI of France

The succession to the French throne has a fascinating history. While all the thrones to each European monarchies are governed by laws and statutes, the laws governing the French monarchy are complex and have lead to their interpretation that borderlines religious fundamentalism. Because of these rules and the unstable, at times, nature of hereditary succession this lead to dynastic disputes. In this series I will examine these disputes in depth.

French dynastic disputes refer to a set of disputes in the history of France regarding the person who should inherit the crown.
Four such disputes had been identified:

* The Hundred Years War, which originated from a dynastic dispute (English claims to the French throne),
* Henri IV of France’s succession, particularly the period between 1589-1594, marked by the refusal to set the Protestant Henry of Navarre to the throne,
* Competition raging since 1830 between the Bourbons and the Orleans,
* Action Bonapartist.
At the moment, there are three main groups who claim the crown:
* The Bourbons
* The Orleans
* The Bonapartes, although Prince Charles Napoleon, “Head of the Imperial House of France” does not claim the restoration of the Empire, some groups are considering this and support the Bonapartist party, sometimes for him, sometimes for his eldest son, Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon.

The Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom of France
To better understand three of the four dynastic disputes regarding the succession to the French throne, it is necessary to have an understanding of the ancient constitution of the Capetian monarchy. The fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France referred to certain fixed rules that the French public law has placed above the sovereign will. They were the unwritten laws which were invoked during the ages when serious difficulties arose: in them can be seen the foundation of the monarchy. Their origin coincides with the development of the House of Hugh Capet; they are related to that house, they existed as long as it reigned, and when the old French monarchy disappeared, they disappeared with it.

Crown of King Louis XV of France and Navarre.