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
Hundred 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 confiscation of
Brittany, which cost him the valuable military services of the Breton magnates. The other
was his quick recognition of the questionable 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 profited greatly from the taxes enacted toward the end of his father’s
reign, but he felt uneasy about their rightness. An important 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 financed 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 influential groups in his
kingdom.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: GUESCLIN, BERTRAND DU; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR;
JACQUERIE; LIBRARIES; MARCEL, ÉTIENNE; ORESME, NICOLE]
Babbitt, Susan M. Oresme’s “Livre de politiques” and the France of Charles V. Philadelphia:
American Philosophical Society, 1985.
Cazelles, Raymond. Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean le Bon et Charles V. Geneva:
Droz, 1982.
Delachenal, Roland. Histoire de Charles V. 5 vols. Paris: Picard, 1909–31.
Dodu, Gaston. “Les idées de Charles V en matière de gouvernement.” Revue des questions
historiques 110 (1929): 5–46.
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of
John II, 1356–1370. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976.
CHARLES VI
(1368–1422). Charles VI (r. 1380–1422) was born in Paris on December 3, 1368, to
Charles V and Jeanne de Bourbon. He was crowned king on November 4, 1380. His
father had stipulated that during his minority the oldest of his paternal uncles, Louis I of
Anjou, was to be regent, but Anjou agreed under pressure, on October 2, 1380, that
Charles VI be declared of age and the kingdom ruled in his name according to the advice
of all four royal uncles. In 1388, influenced by a plan set in motion by Olivier de Clisson,
Charles VI took control of the government himself. The counselors he then favored,
scornfully called Marmousets by the dukes, initiated a program of reform that was cut
short by the onset of his mental illness on August 5, 1392.
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