Charles VI

Charles VI (born Dec. 3, 1368, Paris, France—died Oct. 21, 1422, Paris) was the king of France who throughout his long reign (1380–1422) remained largely a figurehead, first because he was still a boy when he took the throne and later because of his periodic fits of madness.

Crowned on October 25, 1380, at Reims at the age of 11, Charles remained under the tutelage of his uncles until his declaration to rule alone in 1388. During those early years France was ruled by his uncles and their creation, the administrative Council of 12. Philip the Bold of Burgundy conducted the council from 1382. The marriage of Isabella of Bavaria to Charles (July 17, 1385) was arranged by Philip, who had inherited the countship of Flanders and needed German allies to offset English intervention there. Philip also induced Charles to support Jeanne of Brabant, the aunt of Philip’s wife, and to lead an expedition in August 1388 against Duke William of Gelderland; Charles, however, made a speedy peace with William and returned to France.

It was then (November 2, 1388) that Charles made his decision to rule alone. His uncles withdrew, and the former officials of his father, Charles V, took over. Governmental reorganization and reforms were initiated, and a number of ordinances were promulgated in early 1389. The following winter Charles visited the antipope Clement VII in Avignon, France, and discussed plans to install Clement as pope in Rome and thus enhance French power in Italy. Reports of those plans brought about the resumption of negotiations with England, which had been at war with France since 1337 (the Hundred Years’ War). England’s king Richard II favoured the Roman pope Boniface IX. While efforts were being made for peace in 1392, however, Charles became ill with a fever and convulsions, the first of his 44 attacks of madness. The attacks lasted from three to nine months and were interspersed with three- to five-month periods of sanity for the remainder of his life.

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Royal authority waned, and the dukes of Burgundy and Orléans began to vie for power. The Burgundians, led by John the Fearless, successor of Philip the Bold, arranged the murder of Louis, duc d’Orléans, in 1407 and allied themselves with King Henry V of England, who won the Battle of Agincourt (1415) against the French. In December 1418 Charles, the 15-year-old dauphin, proclaimed himself regent, but in May 1420, under Isabella’s influence, Charles VI signed the Treaty of Troyes for the marriage of his daughter Catherine of Valois to Henry V of England, who was declared regent of France and heir to the French throne (as if the dauphin were not his son). After Charles VI’s death in 1422, the country north of the Loire was under the control of England, while southern France, excluding English Aquitaine, was loyal to the dauphin as Charles VII.