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Charles V
King of France
(more...)
Predecessor John II
Successor Charles VI
Vincennes, France
Beauté-sur-Marne, France
Joanna of Bourbon
Spouse
(m. 1350; died 1378)
Charles VI of France
Issue
Louis I, Duke of Orléans
more...
Catherine, Countess of Montpensier
Jean de Montagu (ill.)
House Valois
Contents
1Biography
o 1.1Early life
o 1.2First Dauphin of the French Royal House
o 1.3Mission in Normandy
o 1.4Regency and the uprising of the Third Estate
o 1.5Treaty of Brétigny
2King of France
o 2.1Accession and first acts
o 2.2War resumes
o 2.3Papal schism
o 2.4Death
3Legacy
4Ancestors
5Marriage and issue
6Notes
7References
8Bibliography
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Charles was born at the Château de Vincennes outside of Paris, the son of Prince
John and Princess Bonne of France.[3] He was educated at court with other boys of his
age with whom he would remain close throughout his life: his uncle Philip, Duke of
Orléans (only two years older than himself), his three brothers Louis, John,
and Philip, Louis of Bourbon, Edward and Robert of Bar, Godfrey of Brabant, Louis I,
Count of Étampes, Louis of Évreux, brother of Charles the
Bad, John and Charles of Artois, Charles of Alençon, and Philip of Rouvres.
The future king was highly intelligent but physically weak, with pale skin and a thin, ill-
proportioned body. This made a sharp contrast to his father, who was tall, strong and
sandy-haired.
First Dauphin of the French Royal House[edit]
Humbert II, Dauphin of Viennois, ruined due to his inability to raise taxes after a crusade
in the Middle East, and childless after the death of his only son, decided to sell the
Dauphiné, which was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. Neither the pope nor the
emperor wanted to buy and the transaction was concluded with Charles' grandfather,
the reigning King Philip VI.
Under the Treaty of Romans, the Dauphiné of Viennois was to be held by a son of the
future king John the Good. So it was Charles, the eldest son of the latter, who became
the first Dauphin. At the age of twelve, he was suddenly vested power while
in Grenoble (10 December 1349 to March 1350). A few days after his arrival, the people
of Grenoble were invited to the Place Notre-Dame, where a platform was erected.
Young Charles took his place next to Bishop John of Chissé and received the oath of
allegiance of the people. In exchange, he publicly promised to respect the community
charter and confirmed the liberties and franchises of Humbert II, which were summed
up in a solemn statute before he signed his abdication and granted a last amnesty to all
prisoners, except those facing the penalty of death.
On 8 April 1350 at Tain-l'Hermitage, the Dauphin married his cousin Joanna of
Bourbon at the age of 12. The prior approval of the pope was obtained for
this consanguineous marriage (both were descended from Charles of Valois). The
marriage was delayed by the death of his mother Bonne of Luxembourg and his
grandmother Joan the Lame, swept away by the plague (he no longer saw them after
he left for the Dauphiné). The dauphin himself had been seriously ill from August to
December 1349. Gatherings were limited to slow the spread of the plague then raging in
Europe, so the marriage took place in private.
The control of Dauphiné was valuable to the Kingdom of France, because it occupied
the Rhône Valley, a major trade route between the Mediterranean and northern
Europe since ancient times, putting them in direct contact with Avignon, a papal territory
and diplomatic center of medieval Europe. Despite his young age, the dauphin applied
to be recognized by his subjects, interceding to stop a war raging between two vassal
families, and gaining experience that was very useful to him.
Mission in Normandy[edit]
Charles was recalled to Paris at the death of his grandfather Philip VI and participated in
the coronation of his father John the Good on 26 September 1350 in Reims. The
legitimacy of John the Good, and that of the Valois in general, was not unanimous. His
father, Philip VI, had lost all credibility with the disasters of Crécy, Calais, the ravages
of the plague, and the monetary changes needed to support the royal finances. The
royal clan had to cope with opposition from all sides in the kingdom.
The first of these was led by Charles II of Navarre, called "the Bad", whose mother Joan
II of Navarre had renounced the crown of France for that of Navarre in 1328. Charles II
of Navarre was the eldest of a powerful lineage. Ambitious of attaining the crown of
France, he managed to gather around him the malcontents. He was supported by his
relatives and allies: the House of Boulogne (and their kin in Auvergne), the barons
of Champagne loyal to Joan II of Navarre (heir of Champagne, had it not merged into
the crown of France), and by the followers of Robert of Artois, driven from the kingdom
by Philip VI. He also had the support of the University of Paris and the northwestern
merchants where the cross-Channel trade was vital.
A brilliant orator, and accustomed to a monarchy controlled by the Cortes of
Navarre (the equivalent of the States General), Charles the Bad championed the reform
of a state considered too arbitrary, leaving no voice to the nobility or the cities (John the
Good governed with a circle of favorites and officers sometimes of humble extraction).
Unlike his father, Charles V thought that a king must have the approval of his subjects
and must listen to their advice. This view allowed him to approach the Norman nobles
and the reformists, and thus Charles of Navarre.
The power of Navarre was such that, on 8 January 1354, he murdered with impunity his
rival Charles de la Cerda (the king's favourite), and openly avowed this crime. He even
obtained, through the Treaty of Mantes, territorial concessions and sovereignty by
threatening to make an alliance with the English. But in Avignon, the English and
French were negotiating a peace that would prevent Charles of Navarre from counting
on the support of Edward III. He therefore concluded a treaty with the English in which
the Kingdom of France would be partitioned between them. An English landing was
planned for the end of the truce, which would expire on 24 June 1355.
King John ordered the Dauphin in March 1355 to organize the defense of Normandy,
which required raising the necessary taxes. The task was difficult because of the
growing influence of Charles the Bad, who had acquired a status similar to that of a
"Duke" under the Treaty of Mantes. He was likely to ally with Edward III and could at
any time open the gateway to Normandy to the English. The Dauphin avoided war by
reconciling Navarre with the king, which was sealed with a ceremony at the court on 24
September 1355. Edward III was offended at the latest betrayal of Charles of Navarre,
and the promised landing did not occur.
Regency and the uprising of the Third Estate[edit]
King John was considered by many as a rash ruler, much in the same style as the
feudal kings who came before which by then was becoming outdated, who alienated his
nobles through arbitrary justice and elevated associates that were sometimes
considered questionable. After a three-year break, the Hundred Years' War with
England resumed in 1355, with Edward, The Black Prince, leading an English-Gascon
army in a violent raid across southwestern France. After checking an English incursion
into Normandy, John led an army of about 16,000 men to the south, crossing the Loire
river in September 1356 with the goal of outflanking the Prince's 8,000 soldiers
at Poitiers. Rejecting advice from one captain to surround and starve the Prince, a tactic
Edward feared, John attacked the strong enemy position. In the subsequent Battle of
Poitiers (19 September 1356), English archery all but annihilated the French cavalry,
and John was captured.[4] Charles led a battalion at Poitiers that withdrew early in the
struggle; whether the order came from John (as he later claimed), or whether Charles
himself ordered the withdrawal, is unclear. [5]
The outcome of the battle left many embittered with the nobility. Popular opinion
accused the nobles of betraying the king, while Charles and his brothers escaped blame
– he was received with honor upon his return to Paris. The Dauphin summoned
the Estates-General in October to seek money for the defense of the country. Furious at
what they saw as poor management, many of those assembled organized into a body
led by Étienne Marcel, the Provost of Merchants (a title roughly equivalent to Mayor of
Paris today). Marcel demanded the dismissal of seven royal ministers, their
replacement by a Council of 28 made up of nobles, clergy and bourgeois, and the
release of Charles the Bad, who had been imprisoned by John for the murder of his
constable. The Dauphin refused the demands, dismissed the Estates-General, and left
Paris.
A contest of wills ensued. In an attempt to raise money, Charles tried to devalue the
currency; Marcel ordered strikes, and the Dauphin was forced to cancel his plans and
recall the Estates in February 1357. The Third Estate presented the Dauphin with
a Grand Ordinance, a list of 61 articles that would have given the Estates-General the
right to approve all future taxes, assemble at their own volition, and elect a Council of 36
(with 12 members from each Estate) to advise the king. [6] Charles eventually signed the
ordinance, but his dismissed councillors took news of the document to King John,
imprisoned in Bordeaux. The King renounced the ordinance before being taken
to England by Prince Edward.
Charles made a royal progress through the country that summer, winning support from
the provinces, and winning Paris back. Marcel, meanwhile, enlisted Charles the Bad,
who asserted that his claim to the throne of France was at least as good as that of
King Edward III of England, who had used his claim as the pretext for initiating
the Hundred Years' War.
Marcel used the murder of a citizen seeking sanctuary in Paris to make an attack close
to the Dauphin. Summoning a group of tradesmen, the Provost marched at the head of
an army of 3,000, entered the royal palace, and had the crowd murder two of the
Dauphin's marshals before his eyes. Charles, horrified, momentarily pacified the crowd,
but sent his family away and left the capital as quickly as he could. Marcel's action
destroyed support for the Third Estate among the nobles, and the Provost's subsequent
backing of the Jacquerie undermined his support from the towns. He was murdered by
a mob on 31 July 1358. Charles was able to recover Paris the following month and later
issued a general amnesty for all, except close associates of Marcel.
Treaty of Brétigny[edit]
John's capture gave the English the edge in peace negotiations following the Battle of
Poitiers. The King signed the Treaty of London in 1359 that ceded most of western
France to England and imposed a ruinous ransom of 4 million écus on the country. The
Dauphin (backed by his councillors and the Estates General) rejected the treaty, and
English King Edward invaded France later that year. Edward reached Reims in
December and Paris in March, but Charles forbade his soldiers from direct confrontation
with the English, relying on improved municipal fortifications made to Paris by Marcel.
He would later rebuild the wall on the Left Bank (Rive gauche), and he built a new wall
on the Right Bank (Rive droite) that extended to a new fortification called the Bastille.
Edward pillaged and raided the countryside but could not bring the French to a decisive
battle, so he eventually agreed to reduce his terms. This non-confrontational
strategy would prove extremely beneficial to France during Charles' reign.
The Treaty of Brétigny, signed on 8 May 1360, ceded a third of western France (mostly
in Aquitaine and Gascony) to the English and lowered the King's ransom to
3 million écus. King John was released the following October. His second son, Louis of
Anjou, took his place as a hostage.
Though his father had regained his freedom, Charles suffered a great personal tragedy
at nearly the same time. His three-year-old daughter Joan and infant daughter Bonne
died within two months of each other late in 1360; at their double funeral, the Dauphin
was said to be "so sorrowful as never before he had been." Charles himself had been
severely ill, with his hair and nails falling out; some suggest the symptoms are those
of arsenic poisoning.[7]
John proved as ineffective at ruling upon his return to France as he had before his
capture. When Louis of Anjou escaped from English custody, John announced he had
no choice but to return to captivity himself. He arrived in London in January 1364,
became ill, and died in April.
King of France[edit]
Accession and first acts[edit]
Charles was crowned King of France in 1364 at the Cathedral of Reims.[8] The new king
was highly intelligent, but closed-mouthed and secretive, with sharp eyes, a long nose
and a pale, grave manner. He suffered from gout in the right hand and an abscess in his
left arm, possibly a side-effect of an attempted poisoning in 1359. Doctors were able to
treat the wound but told him that if it ever dried up, he would die within 15 days. His
manner may have concealed a more emotional side; his marriage to Joan of
Bourbon was considered very strong, and he made no attempt to hide his grief at her
funeral or those of his children, five of whom predeceased him.
His reign was dominated by the war with the English and two major problems:
recovering the territories ceded at Brétigny and ridding the land of the Tard-
Venus (French for "latecomers"), mercenary companies that turned to robbery and
pillage after the treaty was signed. In achieving these aims, Charles turned to a minor
noble from Brittany named Bertrand du Guesclin. Nicknamed "the Black Dog
of Brocéliande", du Guesclin fought the English during the Breton War of
Succession and was an expert in guerrilla warfare. Du Guesclin also defeated Charles II
of Navarre at the Battle of Cocherel in 1364 and eliminated his threat to Paris.
In order to lure the Tard-Venus out of France, Charles first hired them for an attempted
crusade into Hungary, but their reputation for brigandage preceded them, and the
citizens of Strasbourg refused to let them cross the Rhine on their journey. Charles next
sent the mercenary companies (under the leadership of du Guesclin) to fight in a civil
war in Castile between King Peter the Cruel and his illegitimate half-brother Henry.
Peter had English backing, while Henry was supported by the French.
Du Guesclin and his men were able to drive Peter out of Castile in 1365 after the
capture of the fortresses of Magallón and Briviesca and the capital Burgos. The Black
Prince, now serving as his father's viceroy in southwestern France, took up Peter's
cause. At the Battle of Nájera in April 1367, the English defeated Henry's army. Du
Guesclin was captured after a memorable resistance and ransomed by Charles V, who
considered him invaluable. The Black Prince, affected by dysentery, soon withdrew his
support from Peter. The English army suffered badly during the retreat. Four English
soldiers out of five died during the Castillan Campaign. In 1369, du Guesclin renewed
the attack against Peter, defeating him at the decisive Battle of Montiel. Henry stabbed
the captive Peter to death in du Guesclin's tent, thereby gaining the throne of Castile.
Bertrand was made Duke of Molina, and the Franco-Castillan alliance was sealed.
Charles V could now resume the war against England under favorable conditions.
War resumes[edit]
Legacy[edit]
The Louvre Palace, shown in this early fifteenth century illumination, representing the month of October in Les
très riches Heures du duc de Berry, was rebuilt during the reign of Charles V – inaugurating a new era of royal
architecture
Charles' reputation was of great significance for posterity, especially as his conception
of governance was one that courtiers wished his successors could follow. Christine de
Pizan's biography, commissioned by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in 1404, is a
source of most of the intimate details of the king's life of which we are aware, but also
provides a moral example for his successors. It draws heavily on the work of Nicole
Oresme (who translated Aristotle's moral works into French) and Giles of
Rome. Philippe de Mézières, in his allegorical "Songe du Vieil Pèlerin," attempts to
persuade the dauphin (later King Charles VI) to follow the example of his wise father,
notably in piety, though also to pursue reforming zeal in all policy considerations.
Of great importance to Charles V's cultural program was his vast library, housed in his
expanded Louvre Palace, and described in great detail by the nineteenth-century
French historian Leopold Delisle. Containing over 1,200 volumes, it was symbolic of the
authority and magnificence of the royal person, but also of his concern with government
for the common good. Charles was keen to collect copies of works in French, in order
that his counsellors had access to them. Perhaps the most significant ones
commissioned for the library were those of Nicole Oresme, who
translated Aristotle's Politics, Ethics, and Economics into eloquent French for the first
time (an earlier attempt had been made at the Politics, but the manuscript is now lost). If
the Politics and Economics served as a manual for government, then the Ethics advised
the king on how to be a good man.
Other important works commissioned for the royal library were the anonymous legal
treatise "Songe du Vergier," greatly inspired by the debates of Philip IV's jurists
with Pope Boniface VIII, the translations of Raol de Presles, which included St.
Augustine's City of God, and the Grandes Chroniques de France edited in 1377 to
emphasise the vassalage of Edward III.
Charles' kingship placed great emphasis on both royal ceremony and scientific political
theory, and to contemporaries and posterity his lifestyle at once embodied the reflective
life advised by Aristotle and the model of French kingship derived from St.
Louis, Charlemagne, and Clovis which he had illustrated in his Coronation Book of
1364, now in the British Library.
Charles V was also a builder king, and he created or rebuilt several significant buildings
in the late 14th century style including the Bastille, the Louvre Palace, Château de
Vincennes, and Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which were widely copied by the
nobility of the day.
While he was in many ways a typical medieval king, Charles V has been praised by
historians for his pragmatism, which led to the recovery of the territories lost at Brétigny.
His successes, however, proved ephemeral. Charles' brothers, who dominated the
regency council that ruled in the king's name until 1388, quarrelled among themselves
and divided the government. Charles VI, meanwhile, preferred tournaments to the
duties of kingship, and his descent into madness in 1392 put his uncles back in power.
By 1419, the country was divided between Armagnac and Burgundian factions
and Henry V was conquering the northern part of France. The hard-won victories of
Charles V had been lost through the venality of his successors.
Ancestors[edit]
showAncestors
of Charles V of
France
Biography portal
On 8 April 1350 Charles married Joanna of Bourbon (3 February 1338 – 4 February
1378), leaving:[12]
Notes[edit]
1. ^ He was actually the sixth king of that name to rule France, following Charlemagne (Charles
the Great), Charles the Bald, Charles the Fat, and Charles the Simple. However, he officially
ruled as "Charles V", being the first one to assume a regnal number.[2]
2. ^ "Although Biette Cassinel has been attached occasionally to Charles V, no concrete
evidence for a relationship exists."[14]
3. ^ It was said that he was the illegitimate son of Charles V of France, but Merlet states that
Charles was only 12 or 13 at the time of Jean's birth.[16]
References[edit]
1. ^ "Basilica of Saint-Denis Official Website" (in French). Retrieved 14 December 2020.
2. ^ Brunel, Ghislain (2007). "Les cisterciens et Charles V". Société de l'histoire de France: 79.
3. ^ Charles V the Wise, John Bell Henneman Jr., Key Figures in Medieval Europe:An
Encyclopedia, ed. Richard K. Emmerson, (Routledge, 2006), 127.
4. ^ David Nicolle, Poitiers 1356: The Capture of a King, (Osprey Publishing, 2004), 28.
5. ^ Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War: Trial by Fire, (University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2001), 241.
6. ^ Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe, (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 85–86.
7. ^ Jean-Sébastien Laurentie, Histoire de France, divisée par époques depuis les origines
gauloises jusqu'aux temps présents, Tome IV, Deuxième époque, (Lagny Frères, Libraires,
Paris, 1841), p. 61
8. ^ Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War: Trial by Fire, 511.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Anselme1726, pp. 102–103.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b Anselme1726, pp. 100–101.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b Anselme1726, p. 103.
12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Keane 2016, p. 17.
13. ^ Guicciardini 1969, p. 136.
14. ^ Adams & Adams 2020, p. 27.
15. ^ Baron Freytag von Loringhoven, Frank (1984). Europäische Stammtafeln (Band III ed.).
Marburg, Stargardt. p. Tafel 305.[unreliable source?]
16. ^ Jump up to:a b Merlet 1852, p. 253.
Bibliography[edit]
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media related to Charles V
of France.
Charles V of France
House of Valois
Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty
Born: 21 January 1338 Died: 16 September 1380
Regnal titles
Preceded by King of France Succeeded by
John II 8 April 1364 – 16 September 1380 Charles VI
Vacant Vacant
Merged into the crown Duke of Normandy Merged into the crown
Title last held by 1355 – 8 April 1364 Title next held by
John II Charles II
Preceded by Dauphin of Viennois Succeeded by
Humbert II 22 August 1350 – 3 December 1368 Charles II