Denied access to Paris and derisively called “king of
Bourges,” Charles courted provincial estates and the
bonnes villes. His actions foreshadowed the administra-
tive decentralization of his later reign.
After years of catastrophic defeats, the appearance
of Jeanne d’Arc marked a turning point in Charles’s
fortunes. Her victories at Orléans and Patay brought
Charles to Reims for a coronation in July 1429. By
1435, he brought Burgundy to a separate peace in the
Treaty of Arras, which allowed the Valois reentry into
Paris in 1436. A contentious decade of reform passed
before Charles could complete the reconquest of France.
The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges in 1438 affi rmed
royal control of the French episcopacy and ecclesiasti-
cal revenues, and, at the Estates of 1439, Charles in-
creased taxation and attempted to outlaw unauthorized
armed forces. The military anarchy of the brigandage
(écorcherie) and the revolt of his son, the future Louis
XI, and many peers in the Praguerie posed a new crisis
that took all of Charles’s tactical and diplomatic skills
to overcome. Infl uenced by his mistress Agnès Sorel, he
settled on his two reliable advisers: Pierre de Brézé and
the constable Richemont, and by 1445 he was able to
implement his program. In 1449, the revitalized Valois
army renewed the war, and by 1453 the English had
been driven from Normandy and Guyenne.
Consolidating his authority for the rest of his years,
Charles easily disciplined such restive princes as the
count of Armagnac and the duke of Alençon, used the
courts to reconcile a nation embittered by civil war,
and perfected the administrative structures that had
brought him victory. Only his son, the future Louis XI,
impatiently waiting in Burgundian exile, celebrated his
death. Sometimes called “the Victorious,” Charles was a
man who preferred negotiations to war and judiciously
waited to exploit his enemies’ divisions. He is better
remembered as “The Well-Served” king, skilled in the
selection and management of advisers who helped him
construct a new monarchy out of the cruel necessities
of a lifelong struggle to reunite France.
See also Jeanne d’Arc
Further Reading
Beaucourt, Gaston du Fresne de. Histoire de Charles VII. 4 vols.
Paris: Librairie de la Société Bibliographique, 1881–91.
Lewis, Peter S. Later Medieval France: The Polity. London:
Macmillan, 1968.
Perroy, Edouard. The Hundred Years War. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1951.
Vale, Malcolm G.A. Charles VII. Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1974.
Vallet de Viriville, Auguste. Histoire de Charles VII, roi de
France, et de son époque: 1403–1461. 3 vols. Paris: Ren-
ouard, 1862–65.
Paul D. Solon
CHARTIER, ALAIN (ca. 1385–ca. 1430)
Author and diplomat, known chiefl y for his controversial
poem, the Belle dame sans merci, and for his talent as
an orator. A native of Bayeux, Alain Chartier studied at
the University of Paris, earning the title of “maistre.”
Early in his career, in the period between 1409 and 1414,
Chartier worked in the household of Yolande d’Anjou,
mother of King René and of Marie d’Anjou, who was
betrothed to the future Charles VII in 1413. Charles’s
presence at the Angevin court gave him occasion to ac-
quaint himself with Chartier’s talents. By 1417, Chartier
was in the service of the dauphin as notary and secretary,
serving also for a time King Charles VI.
For a decade beginning in 1418, Chartier’s life fol-
lowed the wandering of the exiled dauphin through
Berry and Touraine, areas withstanding the Anglo-
Burgundian onslaught. In addition to routine duties as
secretary and notary, Chartier’s later service to Charles
included ambassadorial functions on missions during
1425 to the emperor Sigismund’s court in Hungary and
to the Venetian senate in an effort to convince Sigismund
to side with the French against the English. In 1428,
at the court of James I of Scotland, Chartier helped to
renew relations between France and Scotland and to ne-
gotiate the marriage between James’s daughter Margaret
and the dauphin Louis. During these missions, Chartier
provided eloquent introductory discourses opening the
diplomatic exchanges.
From 1420 on, Chartier held various ecclesiastical
offi ces. In 1420, he was named canon of Notre-Dame
of Paris, although he was unable to assume the re-
sponsibilities of the offi ce because of the Burgundian
occupation of the city. In 1425, he was named curate of
Saint-Lambert-des-Levées near Angers; in 1426, he was
granted the pre-bendal canonry of Tours; and in 1428,
he was appointed chancellor of Bayeux. An epitaph
engraved in 1458 mentions that he was archdeacon of
Paris.
It is generally assumed that Chartier died ca. 1430,
since his signature does not appear on any royal docu-
ment after 1428; L’esperance, begun in 1428, was never
fi nished; and shortly after July 17, 1429, he sent a letter
to Sigismund recounting Jeanne d’Arc’s achievements
and the consecration of Charles VII in Reims. By 1432,
Chartier’s brother had succeeded him as curate of Saint-
Lambert-des-Levées. Record of a tombal inscription
suggests that he was buried in the church of Saint-An-
toine in Avignon, although the reason for his presence
in Avignon at the time of his death is unknown.
An active and valued royal servant who held impor-
tant ecclesiastical positions, Chartier was also a master
of prose both in Latin and French and an accomplished
poet. The range of style, form, and subject matter in
Chartier’s work is impressive.CHARTIER, ALAIN