Gerberding, Richard A. The Rise of the Carolingians and the
“Liber Historiæ Francorum.” Oxford: Clarendon, 1987.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the
Carolingians, 751–987. London: Longman, 1983.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe,
trans. Michael I. Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania Press, 1993.
Roi, Jean-Henri, and Jean Devoisse. La bataille de Poitiers. Paris:
Gallimard, 1966.
Steven Fanning
CHARLES V THE WISE (1338–1380)
The third French king of the Valois line, Charles V was
born on January 21, 1338, the oldest son of John II
and Bonne de Luxembourg. He was the fi rst heir of a
French king to be styled dauphin of Viennois. Charles
owes much of his reputation to Christine de Pizan, who
depicted him as a prudent and skillful ruler despite
chronic poor health. His reign as king (1364–80) was
a time of success for France, in contrast to those of his
predecessor and successor, but some recent scholars
have questioned how much of the success can be at-
tributed to his abilities.
Charles had an eventful political career before be-
coming king. In 1355, he was implicated in conspira-
cies against his father fomented by Charles the Bad,
king of Navarre. In 1356, after the defeat and capture
of John II at Poitiers, Charles was left to face attacks
on the government from partisans of Charles the Bad,
genuine political reformers, and ambitious men who
hoped to oust unpopular royal fi nancial offi cers and
take their place. Nonnobles were increasingly hostile
to nobles, while much of the nobility of northern and
western France had been hostile to the Valois monarchy
for years.
As royal lieutenant and later regent in the name of
his captive father, Charles had to deal with a serious
crisis in the years 1356–58. Riot and rebellion in Paris,
independent military action by the forces of Charles the
Bad, and the savage uprising against nobles known as the
Jacquerie all contributed to this crisis, as did a seriously
unstable currency and the ravages of unemployed com-
panies of soldiers (routiers). Throughout the period, the
Estates General convened repeatedly, but the militance
of the urban representatives soon alienated the nobles,
who slowly gravitated into the royalist camp.
After Charles regained Paris in 1358, the royal
government began to recover its authority and institute
reforms. A new English invasion in 1359–60 failed to
capture any major towns, and the Treaty of Brétigny
in 1360 secured John II’s release. To pay his ransom,
stabilize the currency, and deal with the brigandage of
routiers, the crown was able to establish substantial
regular taxes in 1360 and 1363, and these fi nanced the
troops that won a major victory over the Navarrese at
Cocherel on May 6, 1364. Charles V, who had just suc-
ceeded his father as king, inherited a favorable situation
and a reform-minded royal council led by Guillaume de
Melun, archbishop of Sens. Charles continued to culti-
vate the newly royalist nobility of the north and west,
who began to provide the bulk of his military leaders.
His brother Louis I of Anjou became royal lieutenant
in Languedoc, providing energetic leadership there for
most of the reign.
As king, Charles profi ted from two important in-
ternational developments, both of them in 1369. His
brother Philip the Bold married the heiress of Flanders
and Artois, thus denying these strategic lands to a po-
tential English suitor. In Spain, Bertrand du Guesclin,
the victor of Cocherel, helped establish a pro-French
candidate on the throne of Castile, giving Charles an
ally with an important fl eet. At home, Charles lured into
the French camp Olivier de Clisson, who brought with
him a host of Breton knights who played a vital role in
the French army. The king also cultivated discontented
Gascon magnates, accepting their appeal against the
English regime in Aquitaine, thus reopening the Hun-
dred Years’ War in 1369, when France was able to win
quick victories. Aided by a Castilian naval victory off La
Rochelle in 1372 and the policy, promoted by Clisson,
of avoiding pitched battles, France reduced the English
possessions in France to a few coastal enclaves by the
end of the reign.
Charles V made his two great mistakes in 1378. One
was the attempted confi scation of Brittany, which cost
him the valuable military services of the Breton mag-
nates. The other was his quick recognition of the ques-
tionable papal election of Clement VII, which brought
about the Great Schism. A pious ruler with a strong sense
of royal majesty and duty, Charles had profi ted greatly
from the taxes enacted toward the end of his father’s
reign, but he felt uneasy about their rightness. An im-
portant intellectual in his circle, Nicole Oresme, had
written a French version of Aristotle’s Politics in which
he strongly criticized taxation. In this climate of opinion,
Charles, on his deathbed, canceled the fouage (hearth
tax), which had fi nanced his victorious armies.
Although clearly not as able a leader as traditionally
portrayed, Charles V was a successful ruler who picked
effective subordinates, encouraged needed reforms, and
had the skill to use rather than antagonize the politically
most infl uential groups in his kingdom.
See also Charles II the Bad; Guesclin, Bertrand du;
Marcel, Étienne; Oresme, NicoleFurther Reading
Babbitt, Susan M. Oresme’s “Livre de politiques” and the France of
Charles V. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1985.CHARLES V THE WISE