CHARLES V, King of France. - Son of John II the Good, he was the greatest figure of the French royal house of the Valois branch in the 14th century. Born at Vincennes on 21 January 1337, while still young he received the government of the Dauphiné, ceded by the last dauphin of the house of Latour du Pin to the king of France on condition that its government should always be in the hands of the king's firstborn. He was therefore the first dauphin of the royal house. In 1355 he received from his father the government of the duchy of Normandy. After the battle of Poitiers, in which John II was taken prisoner by the English (1356), Charles, as dauphin, assumed the office of regent and lieutenant of the king. The political crisis through which the kingdom passed made him acquire, at his own expense, a knowledge of men and discern friends from enemies; thus, although still young, he attained a perfect awareness of the duties of a sovereign and the conviction of the necessity that the monarch should have complete and absolute power. In order to have support in the reorganization of the State, he convened the Estates General but had to fight against the opposition of the king of Navarre, Charles the Bad, and of the Parisian bourgeoisie led by an eloquent lawyer, Etienne Marcel. Forced to leave Paris, he found help in the provincial feudal nobility, which meanwhile was crushing the rural insurrection of the Jacquerie; with an army of nobles he re-entered Paris and re-established his authority. In 1360 he negotiated with the English the peace of Brétigny-Calais and, once his father had returned from prison, restored the kingdom to him. John II died on 8 April 1364, and then Charles ascended the throne. He reigned only 16 years, but his reign was of great importance in the history of France.
A cultured man, he preferred a retired life, among studies and meditations, to the hunting and chivalric life preferred by his father. He conceived his government as necessarily absolute, tempered only by the awareness of a king's duties and by the honest and intelligent collaboration of cultured men. His program was to restore peace and order in the State, settling the whole legacy of conflicts and wars. The period of industrious peace nevertheless lasted only until 1369. The execution of the treaty of Calais in fact led to serious difficulties with the king of England, both because of the still pending payment of John II's ransom and because of the rights of high sovereignty that the king of France claimed over the feudatories of the territories occupied by the English. In 1369, therefore, the war began again. In the King's Council the project of invading England was discussed; then, under the command of the new constable Du Guesclin, the French armies conquered Poitou, Saintonge and Brittany. The death of the Black Prince, the English military leader, and of the king of England caused the war to languish.
As regards the king's political activity in other fields, it should be remembered that Charles tried to persuade Urban V not to return to Rome, but to keep the papal seat at Avignon. When the schism broke out in 1378, the king first recognized Urban VI, then abandoned him and recognized the new pope of Avignon, Clement VII. He died on 16 September 1380 at Beauté-sur-Marne and was buried at St-Denis.
Bibliography2 works
Francesco Cognasso