Medieval France. An Encyclopedia

(Darren Dugan) #1

and two royal armies marched against him (November-December 1411 and May-July
1412). After a long siege at Bourges, the king’s son, the duke of Guyenne, negotiated a
treaty that Berry accepted on July 15, 1412. The more formal Treaty of Auxerre followed
on August 22.
The ensuing delicate balance was upset when Burgundy incited the riot of the
Cabochiens in Paris in April 1413. Named for the butcher who led them, the Cabochiens
were the popular faction of the Burgundian party in Paris. The fall of the Cabochiens in
August and Burgundy’s flight resulted in a period of Armagnac influence, during which
the king led a military campaign against John the Fearless that ended with the Peace of
Arras (September 1414; finalized February 22, 1415). The duke of Guyenne sought to
curb the influence of the Armagnacs, but his death al-lowed them much greater freedom
to act. Bernard of Armagnac was named constable of France and became the leader of his
party with the departure, in 1417, of Louis II of Anjou, a bitter enemy of Burgundy.
Berry had died in 1416, and the dukes of Orléans and Bourbon, taken captive at
Agincourt, were still prisoners in England. In April 1417, Bernard engineered the exile of
the queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who was plotting against the supremacy of his party. She
was rescued, however, and set up a rival government in Troyes. In May 1418, the
Burgundians attacked Paris, and on July 12, two days before the entry of Burgundy and
the queen, Bernard was put to death. During the invasion in May, one of his partisans had
spirited away the dauphin, the future Charles VII, who then became head of the anti-
Burgundian party. After this time, the faction continued to be called the Armagnacs.
Richard C.Famiglietti
[See also: CABOCHIENS; CHARLES VI; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR; ISABEAU
OF BAVARIA; JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY; JOHN THE FEARLESS; LOUIS, DUKE
OF GUYENNE]
Caillet, Louis. “Le traité d’Arras de 1414 d’après un nouveau texte aux archives de Lyon.”
Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts d’Arras 2nd ser. 40(1909):220–35.
Durrieu, Paul. “Acte original de la ligue de Gien (1410)”. Mémoires de la Société Nationale des
Antiquaires de France 54(1893):167–204.
Famiglietti, Richard C. Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI 1392–1420. New York:
AMS, 1986.
Mirot, Léon. “Autour de la paix d’Arras (1414–1415).” Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes
75(1914):253–327.
——. “Autour de la paix de Chartres, 9 mars 1409.” Annales de Bourgogne 3(1931):305–42.


ARMOR AND WEAPONS


. The armor worn in France throughout the medieval period was directly derived from
that worn in the Migrations Period by the leaders of Germanic war bands, and its basic
structure, which included a shield, helmet, and coat, changed little between ca. A.D. 100
and 1150. In the early period, the shield (Lat. scutum, OFr. escu) was normally
constructed of wood covered with leather and reinforced with strips of bronze or iron
centered on a hemispherical metal boss that covered the grip. Down to ca. 1000, the
shield was usually ovoid or round and about three feet in diameter. A round shield of


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