Charles VI, King of France, called the Mad

CHARLES VI, King of France, called the Mad. - Son of the preceding and of Joan of Bourbon, b. in Paris on 3 Dec. 1368, d. on 21 Oct. 1422. His uncles, the dukes of Burgundy, Berry and Anjou, governed for him until he had completed his 21st year. It was a period of violence and anarchy in which the regents took financial means wherever they found them and by every method. In 1385 C. assumed the government personally, and in 1388 he married Isabeau of Bavaria. Incapable of quelling the tumults raised by the regency, he recalled his father's wise counsellors, called the Marmousets in derision, but their good government lasted a short time, since the king in 1392 went mad and royal power was disputed between the uncles, the dukes of Burgundy and of Orléans. In 1407 the latter was murdered, and the crime gave rise to the war between the two parties into which court and nobility had divided, that of the Armagnacs and that of the Burgundians.

Henry V of England took advantage of the anarchy to invade France with the connivance of John the Fearless, the new duke of Burgundy, won at Agincourt in 1415, and took possession of Normandy. John the Fearless, having entered Paris, took the government in the name of C. During a meeting with the Armagnacs, who had the dauphin on their side, John the Fearless was murdered in 1419, and the new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, concluded an open alliance with Henry king of England, also plotting with Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of C. By the treaty of Troyes of 1420, Henry V was to marry Catherine, daughter of C., and thus become king of France upon the death of his father-in-law. But two years later, C. and Henry both died a few weeks apart from one another.

C. sought to exploit the schism to the advantage of royal authority, but the University of Paris, interpreter of public opinion, imposed on him that he should work instead for the union of the obediences.

Luigi Michelini Tocci