Charles VII 171Louvre and ordered translations of ARISTOTLE (the
Politics, Ethics, Economics) and Augustine (The City of
God), all to promote royal authority. He built numerous
structures in Paris, such as the Louvre, Bastille, Hötel
Saint-Pol, and fortress at Vincennes. He commissioned
histories and art for the glory of the Crown such as the
Grandes chroniques de France and their illuminations.
Never in good health he died aged 42 on September
16, 1380. Married to Jeanne de Bourbon, he had eight
children, of whom only Charles VI (1368–1422) and
his brother, Louis (1372–1407), the duke of Orléans,
survived him.
See alsoHUNDREDYEARS’WAR;ORESME,NICHOLAS.
Further reading: Susan M. Babbitt, “Livre de Poli-
tiques” and the France of Charles V(Philadelpia: American
Philosophical Society, 1985); John Bell Henneman, Jr.,
Royal Taxation in Fourteenth-Century France: The Captivity
and Ransom of John II, 1356–1370(Philadelphia: Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, 1976).Charles VII (le Bien Servi, the Well Served)(1403–
1461)king of France
Born on February 22, 1403, in Paris he was the fifth son of
Charles VI (r. 1380–1422) of FRANCE and Isabeau of
Bavaria (ca. 1370–1435). He was betrothed in 1413 to
Marie of Anjou. He was made count of Anjou and became
the dauphin or successor to the throne after the unexpected
deaths of his elder brothers. The Armagnacs took him away
to his land in Poitou, where he organized a possible govern-
ment. The assassination of the duke of Burgundy, John the
Fearless (r. 1407–19), at Montereau on September 10
always weighed on his conscience. After the Battle of Agin-
court in 1415 and the Treaty of Troyes on May 21, 1420,