Charles VI of France
Charles VI of France
The son of Charles V, Charles VI was born in Paris on December 3, 1368. On his father's untimely death in 1380, he ascended the troubled throne of France. Charles's minority was marked by the rivalry and struggles for power of his uncles, the dukes of Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon.
Charles’ father died on September 16, 1380, when he was 11 years old. He became the king on 4 November. While he was a minor, his uncles ruled France in his name as regents. Despite the fact that 14 was considered the age of maturity for royals at the time, Charles did not end the regency until he was 21.
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; Louis I, Duke of Anjou; and John, Duke of Berry; all of whom were Charles V’s brothers, served as Charles’ regents, along with Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, his mother’s brother. Philip played the leading role during the regency, owing to his brothers being preoccupied with their own affairs and Louis’ social status (not being a prince) and mental instability.
Charles VI’s father had been an exceptional ruler who had built up considerable financial resources for the kingdom. However, during the regency, most of these resources were misused by Charles’ uncles for personal gain. During this period, the royal administration became more empowered and taxes were restructured, which was required to fund the self-serving policies implemented by the king’s uncles. Many considered the latter to be a blatant violation of Charles V’s deathbed wish to repeal taxes. This resulted in tax rebellions.
In 1388, Charles abolished the regency and took charge of his kingdom. He brought back his father’s highly proficient advisors, who were collectively known as the Marmousets. They helped him in bringing about a period when the crown became extremely popular. The King was hailed as Charles the Beloved by his subjects.
In 1385 Charles married Isabelle of Bavaria, and in 1389 he finally assumed personal control of his kingdom. French court life in the 14th century was a joyous world of public revelry and grandiose diplomatic designs. It was brusquely shattered in August 1392, when Charles was stricken with the first of the spells of insanity which afflicted him - and France - for the rest of his life.
On January 29, 1393, the queen arranged what has come to be known as the Bal des Ardents ("Ball of the Burning Men") to commemorate the wedding of one of her ladies-in-waiting at the Hôtel Saint-Pol. After Huguet de Guisay suggested it, the king and four of his lords put on attires that made them look like wild men. These dresses were made of linen soaked in resinous wax or pitch to keep a covering of frazzled hemp in place and were sewn onto the five men. Charles and the four lords were dancing when his brother Louis I, Duke of Orléans, approached them with a torch and one of the dancers was accidentally set on fire. Soon, the fire spread. The Duchess of Berry saved the king by putting her gown over him. All four other wild men died and several knights of the court suffered severe burns.
In September 1394, Charles put out an ordinance in which he ordered the expulsion of the Jews from all his domains. The Religieux de St. Denis, who was Charles’ contemporary, writes that the decree was issued on the suggestion of the queen. Due to the king’s mental illness, a regency council was set up with the queen at its head. Charles’ uncle, Philip, returned to prominence once more like one of the queen’s most trusted advisors. However, things began to change with the involvement of Charles’ brother Louis, who was allegedly the queen’s lover. Following Philip’s death, his son John the Fearless unsuccessfully attempted to replace his father as one of the most influential figures in the court.
The King's madness did not immediately have a disastrous effect on French foreign policy. France and England were observing one of their many truces during the Hundred Years War, and the continuation of their armistice was aided by the marriage of Charles's daughter Isabelle to Richard II of England in 1396. England was then weakened by the struggles which accompanied Henry IV's deposition of Richard II in 1399.
The most important consequence of the King's in-capacity was internal political strife. The governance of France again became the object of a princely dispute, and two major groups sought to control. The Burgundian faction was led by the dukes of Berry and Burgundy, while the Orleanist faction was headed by the King's brother Louis, Duke of Orléans. The King's uncle Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, gradually asserted his ascendancy over Charles. After Philip's death in 1404, his son and successor, John the Fearless, became the leader of the Burgundians and continued their feud with the Duke of Orléans. With the duke's murder in 1407, his son Charles inherited his title. The Orleanist partisans then became known as Armagnacs because they were led by the duke's father-in-law Bernard VII, Duke of Armagnac. A series of murders and disputes between 1407 and 1410 caused both the Burgundian and Armagnac factions to seek the aid of the English.
When the English invaded France in 1415, the Burgundians allied with the invaders, and the Armagnacs became the nationalist party. The English king, Henry V, defeated the French at Agincourt and in 1420 forced the Treaty of Troyes upon Charles VI. By the terms of this treaty, Henry was to marry Charles's daughter Catherine, act as regent for his mad father-in-law, and eventually succeed to the French throne.
When Charles VI died on October 21, 1422, his legacy was discord and chaos. France was divided internally and faced with the prospect of being ruled by an English king. Although Charles VI's son was crowned Charles VII in 1429, strife continued until 1453, when the French expelled the English and ended the Hundred Years War.
Charles VI of France was an extremely competent and popular ruler in the early years of his reign. However, in 1392, he experienced the first of his 44 bouts of madness. These attacks persisted for three to nine months and in between them, he would have three-to-five-month periods of sanity for the rest of his life.
The Jewish people in France were no strangers to being disliked by French Kings, or to be blamed for the woes of the nation, so in 1394 Charles VI published an ordinance claiming that they had violated their agreement with him and expelling them once again from the country.
When Charles was in his mid-20s, in 1392, he had his first psychotic episode. He had likely inherited mental illness from his mother, whose family had a long history of it. While the French people still referred to him as Charles the Beloved, he garnered a second byname, Charles the Mad.
Such bouts of mental illness kept on occurring for the remainder of his life. The one that happened in 1393 made him forget his name and the fact that he was the king. He also could not recognize his wife.
During another episode in 1395-96, he thought himself to be Saint George. For five months in 1405, he did not bathe or change clothes. The later episodes were not recorded with as much detail, perhaps due to their similarities with the earlier ones.
Pierre Salmon, who served as Charles’ secretary, devoted much of his time in conversations with the king about his psychosis during the episodes. He oversaw the creation of two separate versions of the outstandingly illuminated guidebooks to good kingship, which became popularized as Pierre Salmon’s "Dialogues."
One of the ways in which doctors attempted to cure Charles of what is now believed to be schizophrenia was by drilling small holes into his skull to relieve pressure on his brain. That didn’t help, so the desperate doctors tried something different. They called in officials from the Catholic Church to perform an exorcism, but, unsurprisingly, that failed as well.
After his uncle, Philip, made the arrangements, Charles exchanged wedding vows with Isabeau of Bavaria on July 17, 1385. At the time, his age was 17, and hers was 14. Isabeau went on to give birth to 12 children, among whom eight made it to adulthood.
The children were Charles, Dauphin of Viennois (1386); Jeanne (1388-1390); Isabella (1389-1409); Jeanne (1391-1433); Charles, Dauphin of Viennois (1392-1401); Marie (1393-1438), Michelle (1395-1422); Louis, Dauphin (1397-1415); John, Dauphin (1398-1417); Catherine (1401-1437); Charles, Dauphin of Viennois (1403-1461); and Philip (1407).
Charles also fathered an illegitimate daughter, named Marguerite, bâtarde de France (1407-1458), with his favorite mistress, Odette de Champdivers.
Charles’ bastard daughter Marguerite landed better than her mother, being recognized officially by her half-brother Charles VII in 1428 (further supporting the belief that her mother may have been his spy). He was even generous enough to give her a decent dowry and arrange a decent marriage.
The king’s mistress, Odette de Champdivers, was described as a beautiful and gentle woman who, against all odds, really seemed to love the king. She gave him a daughter, Marguerite de Valois, and she stayed by his side until he died. For his part, the king was quite taken with his mistress, nicknaming her the Little Queen.
