provision to Salic Law permitting daughters to inherit ancestral lands if no brothers were
alive.
Steven Fanning
[See also: BRUNHILDE; FREDEGUNDE; MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY]
Gregory of Tours. History of the Franks, trans. Lewis Thorpe. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
Ewig, Eugen. “Die fränkischen Teilungen und Teilreiche (511–613).” In Spätantikes und
fränkisches Gallien: Gessamelte Schriften (1952–1973). 2 vols. Zurich and Munich: Artemis,
1976, Vol. 1, pp. 135–41.
James, Edward. The Franks. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988.
Wallace-Hadrill, J.M. The Long-Haired Kings and Other Studies in Frankish History. London:
Methuen, 1982, pp. 185–206.
CHINON
. The town and castle of Chinon (Indre-et-Loire), located in Touraine, was the site of a
truce concluded in 1214 between Philip II Augustus and John Lackland of England
following the French victories of that summer.
Chinon’s major claim to fame, however, arises from events that occurred during
Charles VII’s residence there in 1428–29. Charles concluded a treaty with James I of
Scotland that arranged for the marriage of James’s daughter Margaret to the five-year-old
heir to the French throne, the future Louis XI. In September, Charles convened the
Estates General at Chinon in a rare gathering that included representatives from nearly all
parts of France then under his control and granted him a substantial tax without
demanding ratification by regional estates. In the ensuing months, the English besieged
Orléans, and there was every prospect that they would take this critical city. Charles VII
was still at Chinon during late February 1429, when Jeanne d’Arc arrived at his court and
launched her brief but spectacular public career by persuading him to let her accompany
the troops who would make a final effort to relieve Orléans.
One of the largest castles in western Europe, Chinon is in actuality the ruins of three
separate fortifications, divided by deep moats: the 13th-century Fort-Saint-Georges, built
by Henry II Plantagenêt and named for the patron of England, with its principal
fortifications to the east; the 12th- and 14th-century Middle Castle, with its well-
preserved clock tower; and the Château de Coudray, constructed by Philip Augustus in
the 13th century. Within the town are the medieval churches of Saint-Maurice (12th-16th
c.), Saint-Étienne (15th c.), and Saint-Mexme (10th, 11th, and 15th c.).
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: CHARLES VII; ESTATES (GENERAL); JEANNE D’ARC]
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