This crisis enabled the dukes to regain their power. The king considered himself
recovered within five weeks, but other psychotic episodes followed. Charles VI suffered
from recurring persecutory delusions and exhibited forms of behavior commonly
observed today in schizophrenics. There was often no clearly visible line of demarcation
to distinguish his schizophrenic thought patterns from “sane” ones. Since he often
seemed able to function, he was allowed to continue to rule with full power, his royal
prerogative protected by the sacred character of French kingship. Despite a manifest
desire to be a good king, Charles VI made many important decisions while his thinking
was disordered, and this soon upset the equilibrium of his government.
His mental illness caused him to deal in an inconsistent and questionable manner with
the assassination of his brother, Louis of Orléans, in 1407. The consequence was almost
constant civil war that exacerbated the persecutory delusions suffered by the king, for
suspicion of treason was everywhere. This atmosphere also had the effect of making the
king’s schizophrenic thinking often seem sane.
In an attempt to protect the monarchy from control by either the Burgundians or the
Armagnacs (the Orléanist party), the king’s eldest son, Duke Louis of Guyenne, sought to
form a separate royalist party. These efforts, spoiled by the invasion of Henry V of
England and by Louis’s own death in December, were not continued by the dauphin
Charles (later Charles VII), who fled Paris as it fell to the Burgundians on May 29, 1418.
He did not return until 1437.
The dauphin Charles and the Armagnacs found support in each other for their
demands. The government was anxious for the dauphin to return to the royal court, but
reconciliation became impossible after he sanctioned the assassination of John the
Fearless, duke of Burgundy, at Montereau in September 1419 and then committed treason
by usurping royal authority to call himself regent of France. As a result, Charles VI
accepted the Anglo-French-Burgundian Treaty of Troyes in May 1420 and married his
daughter Catherine to Henry V. The treaty declared Henry heir to the French throne with
the powers of regent, but preserved Charles VI’s rights and authority. Charles VI
survived Henry and died at the Hotel de Saint-Pol on October 21, 1422.
Richard C.Famiglietti
[See also: ARMAGNACS; CATHERINE OF FRANCE; CLISSON; HENRY V;
JOHN THE FEARLESS; LOUIS, DUKE OF GUYENNE; MARMOUSETS]
Autrand, Françoise. Charles VI. Paris: Fayard, 1986.
Famiglietti, R.C. Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI 1392–1420. New York: AMS,
1986.
Grandeau, Yann. “La mort et les obsèques de Charles VI.” Bulletin philologique et historique du
Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (1970):133–86.
Hindman, Sandra L. Christine de Pizan’s “Epistre Othea”:Painting and Politics at the Court of
Charles VI. Toronto: Pontifi-cal Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1986.
Rey, Maurice. Les finances royales sous Charles VI: les causes du déficit (1388–1413). Paris:
SEVPEN, 1965.
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