Paris, 1368-1422.
King of France in 1380. Son of Charles V and Jeanne de Bourbon, he acceded to the throne in his twelfth year. Despite the ordinance of Charles V which fixed the royal majority at fourteen years, he remained until 1388 under the tutelage of his uncles, the Dukes of Anjou, Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon. These princes are not totally devoid of capacities but their interests are too diverse, sometimes too opposed, for it to be possible for them to lead a coherent action together; generally, they are determined to take advantage of their passage to power to increase their appanage; only Bourbon is marked by a certain restraint, but, although Charles V insisted that he should have his share of the government, he is the least influential of the four.
In less than two years, the fine management of the "princes of the fleur-de-lys" led to the drying up of the financial reserves patiently amassed by the late king. New taxes had to be instituted which were very badly received everywhere, particularly in Paris where they triggered the Maillotins revolt in 1382. The same year, the Duke of Burgundy, son-in-law of the Count of Flanders, led the king to intervene against the Flemings revolted; the brilliant victory of Roosebeke (November 27) will be of no benefit to the kingdom. The repression of the troubles in Rouen, Troyes, Reims and Paris will crush the manifestations of social discontent without taming their causes. An expedition will be prepared at great expense against England, but it will have no consequences, perhaps for lack of a leader. In the meantime, to serve the Germanic policy of Philip the Bold, the king will marry Isabeau of Bavaria, daughter of Duke Stephen II (1385).
In 1388, the king, impatient of the yoke of his uncles, declared himself of age. The following year, he recalled his father's advisers, the "Marmousets" (among whom we find Bureau, Admiral de Vienne, Clisson, Juvénal des Ursins). Thanks to them, the administration is taken in hand; it seems that the happy times of the previous reign have been restored. A daughter of Charles VI, Isabelle, is engaged to the young King of England Richard II, who seems to be won over to the idea of reconciliation with France. The government of Languedoc is removed from the unworthy Duke of Berry to be entrusted to Gaston Phébus. Fortune smiled on the young king, whom Christine de Pisan described as "sovereignly handsome in body and in life", and whose justice the people praised. Only the attentive observer notices that the mind of the king has moments of weakness; but these are attributed to the pleasures and feasts which the Court abuses. It was then that the famous episode of the forest of Le Mans occurred (August 1392):having experienced two consecutive frights, the king was seized with a fit of frenzy during which he nearly slew his brother Louis of Orléans. From that moment, he is no longer sane, or rather he lives in alternations of delirium and lucidity. As time passes, the periods of madness lengthen and the lulls become daze. It may be that the ball of the savages or the Ardents, in 1393, aggravated the evil.
While its king lives sadly recluse behind the walls of the Hôtel Saint-Pol, France falls back into the power of feudal factions. This time, the power is disputed between the houses of Orléans (Louis Ier, brother of the king, then Charles, son of Louis Ier) and Burgundy (Philippe le Hardi then Jean sans Peur). Relatively peaceful as long as the house of Burgundy was represented by Philippe le Hardi, the rivalry took a sharp turn when Jean sans Peur succeeded him in 1404, and degenerated into armed struggle after the assassination of Louis d'Orléans by Burgundian henchmen (1407 ). Since his accession, Jean sans Peur had several times tried to seize the person of the king; now he's getting his way. From 1408 to 1410 he dominated the King's Council without sharing. In his moments of lucidity, Charles V always showed himself favorable to his brother Louis or his nephew Charles; the Duke of Burgundy is responsible for disguising his reasonable wishes into manifestations of insanity; during his fits of madness, he makes her sign whatever he wants. Nevertheless, he gives him, to distract him, a devoted and compassionate companion, the gentle Odinette de Champdivers.
Thus began the quarrel between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, the latter supporting the Orléanist party under the military command of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, father-in-law of Charles d'Orléans. Paris is handed over to the successive dominations of factions and to the bloodiest revolutions. During the Burgundian reign, the University allies itself with the butchers. The result is a more reasonable ordinance than its name would suggest, the Cabochian Ordinance (May 1413) which will not be applied, the Parisian bourgeois, who have become "Armagnacs", having driven out the Burgundians in August. The new king of England, the Lancaster Henry V, takes advantage of the anarchy to invade France; he methodically conquered Normandy before winning the battle of Agincourt (1415) where he cut the French chivalry to pieces. Meanwhile, Isabeau moves to the Burgundians. For a moment prisoner of the Armagnacs à l’ours, she escapes them and proclaims herself regent in Paris.
Then begins one of the darkest periods in national history. Jean sans Peur, who had secretly allied himself with the English, made himself master of the capital in 1418. It was he who governed under the name of Charles VI, until the day when, going to the bridge of Montereau to negotiate with the dolphin Charles the conditions of an abandonment of the English alliance, he is assassinated (1419). His son and successor Philippe le Bon concluded an official alliance with Henri V. With the complicity of Queen Isabeau, he purely and simply delivered what remained of the kingdom to the English, by the Treaty of Troyes, in 1420. Henri V married Catherine, another daughter of Charles VI, and will be proclaimed King of France and England. However, as it is Charles VI who is supposed to make this decision and King Beloved continues to benefit from the attachment of his people, he will be generously left with the royal title until his death.
This takes place two months after that of Henry V. Charles VI is almost 54 years old. His reign, one of the longest in our history, lasted forty-two years.