Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/231

 THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 219 coming powerful ; the other was a revolt of the peasants called the Jacquerie; the former demanding political privileges and the latter the right to live like human beings. The The Jac- nobles here found themselves compelled to give querie, 1358. the Crown their support. The peasants were crushed, and the growing power of the cities was curtailed. Just after the treaty of Bretigny there was another event, of which the importance was not immediately apparent. One of the French fiefs was the duchy of Burgundy ; the French portion of what had once been the Burgundian kingdom, of which very much the The Duke- greater part was attached to the German Empire, dom of not to the French Crown. The line of dukes now Bur ^ und y- failed, and the duchy became Crown property. The king be- stowed it on his younger son Philip. Philip acquired by marriage the county of Burgundy, otherwise called Franche Comte, which was a fief of the empire, and also Flanders, with other provinces of the old Burgundian kingdom. Hence a hundred years after- wards we shall find the Duke of Burgundy in a position to aim at setting up once more a middle kingdom between France and Germany, stretching from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. There was a period of rather more than forty years, during which the English were too much occupied at home to make anything more than desultory attempts at renewing the war in France. But in the meanwhile France fell upon evil days. A boy, Charles VI., succeeded to the throne, and when he grew up he proved to be more than half crazy. His uncles of Orleans and Burgundy took possession of the regency; but France was divided into two factions, bitterly hostile, of which they or their children were the respective leaders. Treacherous murders were committed on both sides. The two parties were known as Burgundians and Armagnacs. The English Henry v. seized his opportunity to invade France, won the battle of The conquest Agincourt, returned three years later to make a by Henry v., deliberate organised conquest piecemeal of the 1420# north of France, brought the Burgundian party to support him, and, before his premature death, was actually master of the northern half of France, and had secured for himself the succession to Charles vi.