CHARLES VII, King of France, called the Victorious. - Son of the preceding and of Isabella of Bavaria, b. in Paris on 2 February 1403, d. at Mehun-sur-Yèvre on 22 July 1461.
In 1417 he assumed the regency of the kingdom for his father and in 1422 succeeded him, while the English occupied almost all of France north of the Loire and in the south held the western part of Guienne. The Duke of Burgundy was allied with the Duke of Bedford, who governed France for the King of England Henry VI, and C. found himself at once in extremely difficult conditions. But the States General and provincial states procured for him the most urgent financial means, while the city of Orléans held out obstinately against the invader. Joan of Arc, overcoming the hostility and the lack of understanding of the court and of the king himself, succeeded in having him consecrated at Reims; but when the Maid fell prisoner to the English, C. knew not how to do anything to save her. A series of fortunate events came to his aid; the Duke of Burgundy was reconciled with him through the treaty of Arras of 1435, Paris surrendered to the constable de Richemont, and the English, weary and themselves on the eve of a civil war, signed the truce of 1444.
Relations with the Church at the end of the Council of Constance were regulated in 1418 by a concordat that recognized special privileges for France. When in 1431 the Council opened at Basel, the French clergy assembled at Bourges in February 1432 sided with the Council, although Eugene IV had dissolved it; and in a second assembly it issued a "pragmatic sanction" which the king signed on 7 July 1438, in which the principle of the superiority of the Council over the Pope was reaffirmed, relations with the Pope were regulated, and the "laudable customs of the Church of France" were safeguarded. In a third assembly at Bourges in June 1447, before the sad schism stirred up by Felix V was concluded, King C., in agreement with the envoys of the German princes, of the King of England, of Savoy, and of the Fathers of Basel, demanded that a new council be convened in a city of France. But these and other negotiations remained without result; instead the spirit of aversion in a good part of the French clergy against the prerogatives of the Holy See continued.
Between 1445 and 1448 C. reorganized the State, laid the foundations of a regular army and permanently reordered the finances. In 1449 the war with England began again. Normandy was reconquered in a year, and, after three years, a struggle that had lasted for more than a century ended victoriously for France. Only Calais remained to the English.
The triumph over every aristocratic opposition, the prompt repression of the revolt known as the Praguerie, the campaigns in Switzerland and Lorraine, the alliances with the German princes, the rebirth of the country's economic prosperity, reaffirm with C. the royal authority and the prestige of France.
Bibliography8 works
Luigi Michelini Tocci