Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/422

410 siiiation of Marcel, and the support of the nobles and of the provincial States, Charles regained the supremacy. When he again appealed to the States-General, in order to obtain the rejection of the ruinous treaty of London, which John had signed in his eagerness to procure his own release, he also received from them troops and money to carry on the war in Picardy. But he never again convoked them, ex cept on one occasion (in 1369), when they are said to have proved extremely submissive. Ever after he had recourse to assemblies of notables, or to the provincial States, which never ventured to offer him serious opposition. From 1360 to 1364 John, ransomed by the treaty of Bretigny, ruled in person ; but in the latter year, to save his honour, he returned to London, and in April he died there, leaving the crown to Charles. Charles at once set himself vigorously to the task of binding up the wounds of the kingdom, and preparing to expel the English. He employed Duguesclin, an able soldier of Brittany, to lead 30,000 men of the free com panies into Spain, and to set Henry of Transtamare upon the throne. Thus he not only freed the country from a grievous scourge, but also obtained the friend ship of the Spanish king. He had already made alliances with the king of Castile, with the count of Flanders, with Scotland, and even with Charles of Navarre ; and after having carefully fortified the principal towns, he provoked a renewal of the war with England. The wise policy on which he had resolved was carried out with great firmness. Pitched battles were avoided, and the enemy, being repulsed by the towns, had nothing left but to ravage the country, with the result of deepening the hatred of the people. The Bretons were gained over, and soon all the land to the north of the Garonne ceased to belong to the English (1373). In 1380 the conquest of Guienne by the Fiench left them only Bayonne, Bordeaux, Brest, and Calais. At the same time Charles crushed his other great enemy, the king of Navarre. After accusing him of various plots against himself and other members of the royal family, he took his two sous as hostages, executed two of his ministers, and raised up enemies against him who seized great part of his territory, and forced him to give up twenty places as security for peace. But Charles s last aggressive attempt was not equally successful He summoned the duke of Brittany before him, and when he failed to appear, declared his dukedom confiscated to the crown. The result, however, was that the people recalled the duke, who had previously been banished, and formed an alliance with England. While affairs were in this condition Charles died at Vincennes, on the 16th September 1380. His reign had left many important results. The country had been freed for a time though, unfortunately, only for a time from its two great scourges, the free companies and the English. The residence of a pope at Avignon under the influence of the king tended to make the Gallican Church more independent. The privileges of the nobility were somewhat invaded by Charles s favour to the burgesses of Paris. Something was done to increase the purity of the administration of justice, and the parliament of Paris was allowed to become self-elective, a reform which, however, was only temporary, a retrogressive change being made under Charles VII. On the other hand, the States-General were silenced ; the personal power of the king was increased ; and the weight of taxes, often from their nature peculiarly oppressive, was greatly multiplied, for, notwithstanding the grievous war expenses, Charles set no limit to the free indulgence of his tastes. He left several costly specimens of the expensive art of architecture, including the splendid palace of Saint Paul and the strong walls of the Bastille ; and he distinguished him self still more honourably by founding the royal library at Paris.

1em  CHARLES VI. (1368-1422), king of France, was the son of Charles V., whom he succeeded in 1380, at the age of twelve. The treasure left him by his father was at once seized by his four uncles, the dukes of Berry, Bur gundy, Anjou, and Bourbon, whose tyranny and rapa city aroused a general rebellion throughout France. It gained the supremacy in Paris (where the insurgents, from the weapon with which they armed themselves, took the name of Maillotiiis), in Rouen, and in many other French towns, and also in the Flemish cities, of which the foremost was Ghent, now led by Philip van Artevelde. At first the union of the popular parties in the various towns was successful against the nobility, but in 1382 the latter won a great victory at Roosebeke, in which Artevelde was killed, and after which many of the rebels were punished by death or by heavy fines. In 1385 immense and costly preparations were made for an in vasion of England, in which the king was to take part in person, but on account of various obstacles, over which he had not sufficient resolution to triumph, nothing was done. In 1388, with the advice and support of the cardinal of Laon, Charles, who had six years before reached the age fixed for his majority by his father, threw off the control of his uncles, the dukes of Berry and Burgundy. But in 1392, on his march against the duke of Brittany, who had seized and then attempted to assas sinate the constable, De Clisson, the appearance of a rough- looking man, who declared that the king was betrayed, so affected him that, in a fit of madness, he killed four of his attendants, and was for some time after insane. During the next year another accident, by which he was nearly burnt to death, brought on a second fit, from which he never completely recovered. By these unfortunate events a field was opened for the ambition of the dukes of Burgundy and Orleans. The latter first obtained the government ; but the former, John Sans Feur, as champion of the people of Paris, gradually became so powerful that, in 1407, he ventured to assassinate his rival and allow the mob to massacre his adherents. But a confederacy was formed against him, the duke of Orleans who succeeded his victim being joined by the dukes of Berry, Bourbon, and Brittany, and the powerful and able count of Armag- nac. The Parisians opened their gates to the Armagnacs (as the party was now called), but they in turn treated Paris as if it had been a hostile city conquered by force. In 1415 Henry V. of England, the fulfilment of the treaty of Bretigny being refused, landed in France, and gained the victory of Agincourt. In 1418 the gates of Paris were opened to the duke of Burgundy, and another massacre of the Armagnacs took place. Famine and plague carried off thousands of others. Charles died, deprived of almost every sign of royal dignity, in 1422.

1em  CHARLES VII. (1403-1461), king of France, the son of Charles VI., was betrothed at ten to Mary of Anjou, daughter of Louis, king of Sicily, whom he married nine years after. He became dauphin at the age of thirteen ; and while only fourteen, on account of the insanity of his father, he held the position of lord-lieutenant of the king dom. At first the strong hand of Bernard of Armagnac, the constable, guided the government ; but the triumph of the Armagnacs, crowned by the murder of John of Burgundy in the very presence of the dauphin, brought the most serious trouble upon France. Aided by the Burgundians, 