1403-1461

Charles VI (the Mad or the Well Beloved), 1368-1422 (r.1380-1422), was intermittently insane after 1392.

France was ruled and plundered by his uncle PHILIP THE BOLD and by his brother Louis d'Orléans. Their rivalry led to a civil war that laid France open to an invasion (1415) by HENRY V of England. By the Treaty of Troyes (1420) Charles named Henry his successor.

His disinherited son Charles VII (the Victorious or the Well Served), 1403-1461 (r.1422-61), repudiated the treaty.

Still called the DAUPHIN, he ruled indolently over what parts of France remained to him S of the Loire, but in 1429 JOAN OF ARC spurred him to action and had him crowned king at Rheims. In 1435 he won the alliance of Burgundy against England, and in 1453 he ended the HUNDRED YEARS WAR by expelling the English from most of France.

He reorganized the army and, with the help of Jacques COELIGEUR, restored the finances. The PRAGMATIC SANCTION of Bourges (1438) and the suppression of the Praguerie (1440), a revolt of the nobility, strengthened royal authority. Charles's last years were troubled by the intrigues of his son, the future LOUIS XI.