 1437 - 1476 (39 years)
Generation: 1
Generation: 2
| 2. | Comte Guy de Montfort, XIV (XII-XIII) was born on 28 Jan 1406 (son of Comte Guy de Montfort, XIII (XII) and Comtesse Anne de Montmorency de Laval); died on 2 Sep 1486; was buried in Saint-Thugal, Laval. Notes:
Comte de Laval
eldest son of Jean de Montfort, seigneur de Kergolay, and Anne de Laval. His father became Guy XIII de Laval by the terms of his marriage contract with Anne, who was the daughter of Guy XII (Jean), Sire de Laval, de Vitré et de Gavre, and Jeanne de Laval, Dame de Châtillon et d'Attichy, the widow of the great French military leader Bertrand Du Guesclin (1320-1380), Constable or France.
On 1 October 1430 Guy married Isabelle de Bretagne, daughter of Jean VI, Duc de Bretagne and Jeanne de France, who was the daughter of Charles VI 'the Mad', King of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. Guy and Isabelle had ten children, of whom three would have progeny: Yolande, who married Guillaume d'Harcourt, Baron de Montgommery; Louise, who married Jean III de Brosse, dit de Bretagne, Comte de Penthièvre et de Boussac; and Jean, who married Jeanne du Perrier, Comtesse de Quintin, Dame du Perrier.
On 8 June 1429 at Selles-en-Berry (Selles-sur-Cher), Guy joined the royal army which reunited Jeanne d'Arc and the duc d'Alençon to win the liberation of the Loire Valley after lifting the siege of Orléans. In a letter to his mother he set down a vivid description of Jeanne, for whom he developed a strong admiration. With his brother André de Laval, Sire de Lohéac et de Châtillon, he followed the king to Reims, and was one of the six pairs of official witnesses at the coronation of Charles VII, replacing the count of Flanders (who was duke of Burgundy). Among the favours granted by the king for the occasion, the land of Laval was raised to a county, and in 1430 Guy was made governor of Lagny.
In 1439 Guy negotiated the draft for the Treaty of Gravelines between France and England. He fought in the Battle of Formigny in 1449. He became Lieutenant-General of the duchy of Brittany in 1472.
Isabelle having died in 1442, at Vitré in February 1451 Guy married Françoise de Dinan, Dame de Châteaubriant, daughter of Jacques de Dinan, Seigneur de Montafilant, de Châteaubriant, and Catherine de Rohan, and widow of Gille de Bretagne, the youngest son of Jean VI, Duc de Bretagne. In marrying Françoise, Guy acquired no rights to the barony of Châteaubriant. Guy and Françoise had three sons, Pierre, François and Jacques.
King Louis XI established a court of public accounts at Laval in 1463. The following year the king authorised Guy, 'his cousin', to add the quartier of France to his arms, to commemorate that Jeanne de France, his first mother-in-law, wife of Jean VI, Duc de Bretagne, was a daughter of Charles VI; also the quartiers of Evreux, to commemorate Jeanne d'Evreux, queen of Navarre, grandmother of Isabelle de Bretagne, Guy's first wife; and the quartiers of Vitré. A further honour granted by Louis XI in 1482 was to grant full powers to the county of Laval in separating it from the county of Maine. The county of Laval was made a direct dependency of the French crown.
To assert better his precedence over the Vicomte de Rohan at the Parliament of Brittany, Guy claimed, like his father, to descend from Conan and Ponthus, the ancient kings of Amorique (Amorica). In 1467 he had inserted in his 'Chartre des Usements de Brécilien' (charter of usage rights for the forest of Brécilien), which set out the seignorial rights to which the inhabitants of the forest were subject, mention of the contests of Ponthus, thereby presenting as historical fact a work of romantic fiction, _Le roman de Ponthus et la Belle Sidoine_ ('The Story of Ponthus and the Beautiful Sidonia') in the style of the Arthurian legends, written in the 14th century.
Guy died 2 September 1486. He is buried at the collegiate church of Saint-Thugal at Laval. His daughter Jeanne was the wife of King René I of Anjou. His son François from his second marriage was Grand Maitre de France (head of the royal household), and Pierre, one of his sons from his first marriage, was archbishop of Reims
Guy married Isabelle de Bretagne on 1 Oct 1430. Isabelle (daughter of Duc Pierre Jean VI de Bretagne and Jeanne de France) was born in 1411; died on 14 Jan 1444. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Generation: 3
Generation: 4
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Roy Charles Capet, VI, 'the Mad' was born in 1368 (son of Roy Charles Capet, V, 'le Sage' and Jeanne de Bourbon); died in 1422. Notes:
King of France (1380-1422).
Charles VI was only 12 years old when he succeeded his father. A regency was therefore established under his uncles, the Dukes of Bourbon, Anjou, Berry and Burgundy, all of them engaged in a power struggle. The beginning of his reign was marked by numerous anti-tax revolts in various regions (the uprisings were known as `'Les Maillotins" in Paris, "La Herelle" in Rouen and "Les Tuchins" in Languedoc) and by uprisings in Flemish towns under the leadership of Philippe Van Artevelde who was killed at the Battle of Rosebeke in l 382. Charles VI signed several truces with England, maintaining peace until 1404. In 1388, the king decided to reign personally and dismissed his uncles, replacing them with his father's erstwhile advisers. This was the period of government by "old men". From 1392 onwards, however, Charles VI suffered fits of insanity, a source of major misfortune for France. He dismissed the old men and government was again placed in the hands of the Dukes, with Orleans and Burgundy struggling for power over a king who was lucid only intermittently. The assassination of Duke Louis of Orleans, the king's brother, in 1407, led to civil war between the Armagnacs who supported Duke Charles d' Orleans and the Burgundians who supported John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Each of the factions took control of Paris in turn and wielded power. England then took advantage of the situation and recommenced the war. Henr,v IV signed an alliance with the Armagnacs in 1412 then landed in France. His successor, Henry V, laid claim to the crown of France, arrived on the continent in 1415 and inflicted the disastrous defeat of Azincourt on the French army. From 1417 to 1419, he took over Normandy. After the murder of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, who was succeeded by Philip the Good, the King of England allied himself with the Burgundian faction (1419). The treachery of Queen Isabella of Bavaria and the Duke of Burgundy led to the signature, with England, of the terrible Treaty of Troyes (1420). Under the terms of the treaty, the heir apparent, Charles, lost his right to the crown of France and Henry V of England was acknowledged as Charles VI's heir. He then married Charles' daughter, Catherine. The death of Henry V followed by that of Charles VI in 1422 left the crown prince, Charles, with a catastrophic situation to settle, especially as Henry VI of England was then proclaimed King of France.
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Charles VI of France became king at the age of 12. He was a dreamy, sentimental, agreeable and pleasure-loving young man and soon his uncles, the dukes of Anjou, Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon, took over the government and plundered the treasury. The Hundred Years War with England had left France short of funds and in 1382 revolts broke out in many parts of France. In 1388 Charles, aided by his bother Louis of Orléans (1371-1407), removed his uncles from power and replaced them with a group of his father's councillors of humble origins.
At the age of 16 Charles VI had fallen in love with the beautiful Bavarian princess Isabeau (1371-1435), who had been send to France to become his bride. For Charles it was love at first sight and he arranged that the marriage was to take place immediately for he could hardly sleep till the marriage was consummated. Isabeau, however, was a selfish woman. All she wanted from life was to have enough means to have her desires fulfilled. She had no real interest in France and never bothered to speak French well. Nevertheless, the first years of their marriage were happy and the young couple held lavish festivities lasting for days.
In April 1392 Charles (to the left) suffered from a mysterious illness which caused his hair and nails to fall out. He was hardly recovered, still suffered from occasional bouts of fever and behaved incoherently, when he set out on a punitive expedition after an assassination attempt on one of his advisors. On a hot day in August Charles rode at the head of a group of knights, when a wild-looking man ran up to his horse and spoke some words of doom and betrayal. While they continued their journey, a page accidentally dropped a lance. Suddenly Charles rushed forward with a drawn sword and killed 4 of his own men before he could be overpowered.
Lifted from his horse, Charles lay flat and speechless on the ground, his eyes rolling wildly from side to side. His attendants found an ox-cart to carry him and thus they returned to Paris. For two days Charles was in a coma. With the help of a physician, Guillaume de Harcigny, he made a partial recovery. From then on his mental health was seriously undermined. On January 28, 1393 the queen gave a masque and Charles VI and a group of his courtiers dressed up like 'wild men' in linen costumes. They were accidentally set alight by a torch and four of them burned alive. Charles was saved by the duchess of Berry, who threw her voluminous skirts over him. Nevertheless, the accident made a deep impression on Charles and in June he was in the grip of another serious attack of insanity. A surgeon drilled some holes in Charles' skull, hoping to relieve pressure on his brain. Although Charles felt some momentary relief after the operation, he suffered a relapse in 1395. In 1397 Charles was aware that his brain became clouded again and requested to have his dagger removed. Some churchmen and doctors of the university came to believe that Charles was the victim of sorcery and around 1398 some attempts were made to exorcise him. Once Charles cried out: "If there is any one of you who is an accomplice in this evil I suffer, I beg him to torture me no longer but let me die!"
Charles' attacks of insanity became more frequent and of longer duration. Still, there were intervals of months during which Charles was sane except for the uncertainty of his temper, alternating between passive listlessness and excitable gaiety. During the attacks Charles had delusions, claiming that his name was Georges, denying that he was the king or had a wife or any children. He ran from room to room until he collapsed from exhaustion, wailing that his enemies were upon him. He smashed the furniture and urinated in his clothes. He also went through a stage of believing that he was made of glass 1 and that if people came too near him he would break. Thus he insisted that iron rods should be inserted into his clothing to prevent him from breaking. For some months in 1405 Charles refused to change his linen, to bathe or to be shaved, and as a consequence he was afflicted by skin trouble and lice. His physicians hoped to cure Charles with shock treatment. They therefore arranged for some men to blacken their faces and hide in his room. When the king entered they all jumped out, presumably shouting "boo". As a result Charles agreed to be washed, shaved and dressed and for a few weeks his behaviour was more reasonable.
For reasons of succession the beautiful Isabeau continued to submit to the embraces of her mad husband until 1407. Charles' attitude to Isabeau show the ambivalent characteristics of schizophrenia; in his derangement Charles felt a strong resentment to his once beloved wife. His wild lusts often kept Isabeau in fear for her life and thus she arranged for a pretty horse-dealer's daughter to take her place. Meanwhile, Isabeau found consolation in the arms of her brother-in-law, Louis of Orléans (1371-1407). From the moment Isabeau had set foot in France, this elegant, ambitious and dissolute youth had been pursuing her. Soon they went everywhere together, often for weeks at a time, flagrantly enjoying themselves together. The legitimacy ofIsabeau's younger children was doubted and her relationship with Louis was at its height when Young Charles (1403-1461) was born. Isabeau lavished more care upon this puny and sickly 11th child than upon the others.
While his body remained healthy, Charles VI was soon unable to concentrate, make decisions or govern at all. Even in his more lucid moments he did whatever those who were with him told him to do, so French politics became a rivalry for custody of the king. A fierce power struggle developed between Louis of Orléans and John the fearless of Burgundy (1371-1419)2 until John instigated the murder of Louis in November 1407. The queen, who had recently lost her 12th child shortly after its birth, openly joined the party of her lover's murderers and it was rumoured that she entered John the fearless' bed as well. The duke of Burgundy was now opposed by count Bernard VII of Armagnac (~1362-1418) and the power struggle intensified with both parties massacring their enemies. When king Henry V of England (1387-1422) invaded France in 1415, his exhausted force of 5000 men routed a French army of five times its size in the famous Battle of Agincourt. In the course of years queen Isabeau had become abnormally fat and as a result she was unable to get around without a wheel chair. She lived with her pets at Vincennes where she was free to do as she chose. Bernard of Armagnac guarded the interests of her children and when he found out that Isabeau was plotting with the duke of Burgundy, he took revenge by informing the king about the queen's dissolute behaviour. Spurred on by his heir, Young Charles, Charles VI actually decided to make a stand, rode with his son and the count of Armagnac to Vincennes, and arrested the queen's supposed latest lover. He was tortured, strangled and thrown into the Seine in a leather sack. Isabeau was officially banished for the "dissolute behaviour of her ladies-in-waiting", but it is likely that they mainly blamed the queen herself. She remained on good terms with John the fearless, while her new favourite, Jean de Villiers, murdered Bernard of Armagnac in 1418 and carved the cross of Burgundy on his chest. In 1419 the 16-year-old heir to the throne was discredited, when John the fearless was hacked to death at a meeting with him. In return for a pension queen Isabeau asserted that the crown prince, "Charles, who calls himself the Dauphin", was illegitimate. She gave her daughter Catherine (1401-1438) in marriage to Henry V of England and recognised them as heirs to the throne. Henry V brought Charles VI, who had been living in a state of neglect at Senlis, back to Paris. There he was taken ill with fever in 1421. He recovered after eating enormous quantities of oranges and pomegranates. In the autumn of 1422 he fell ill again and with only strangers at hand he died. Henry V had died the same year and Henry's baby son was crowned king Henry VI (1421-1471) of both England and France.
Charles' mysterious illness of 1392 could have been typhoid or encephalitis. If this disease was encephalitis, then it could very likely have been a contributory factor to the bizarre features of Charles' behaviour, for encephalitis can cause a marked character change and give rise to impulsive, aggressive and intemperate activity, similar in its symptoms to those of schizophrenia. Regarding Charles' family history, the disease porphyria is another possible diagnose. Porphyria is a rare hereditary disease with symptoms like an acute inflammation of the bowels, difficulty in articulation and swallowing, a painful weakness of the limbs, over-sensitivity and sometimes loss of the power of feeling. In more severe attacks porphyria can result in over-activity, agitation, visual and auditory disturbances, persistent sleeplessness, confusion, delirium and progressive senility.
Charles married Elizabeth von Bayern on 17 Jul 1385 in Amiens, Somme, Picardie, France. Elizabeth (daughter of Stephan III von Bayern and Thaddäa Visconti) was born in 1369-1371; died on 30 Sep 1435 in Paris, Île-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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| 15. | Elizabeth von Bayern was born in 1369-1371 (daughter of Stephan III von Bayern and Thaddäa Visconti); died on 30 Sep 1435 in Paris, Île-de-France, France. Notes:
Isabeau (Isabella), 1393 Regentin in Frankreich
Children:
- Charles Capet was born in 1386; died before 1392.
- Jeanne Capet was born in 1388; died in 1390.
- Isabella Capet was born in 1389; died in 1409.
- 7. Jeanne de France was born on 24 Jan 1391; died on 27 Sep 1433.
- Charles Capet was born in 1392; died in 1401.
- Marie Capet was born in 1392; died in 1438.
- Michelle Capet was born on 11 Jan 1395 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; died on 8 Jul 1422 in Ghent, Vlaanderen, België.
- Louis Capet was born in 1397; died in 1415.
- Jean Capet was born in 1398; died in 1417.
- Catherine de France was born in 1401; died in 1437.
- Roy Charles Capet, VII, 'the Victorious' was born on 22 Feb 1403 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; died on 21 Jul 1461 in Mehun-sur-Yèvre, Cher, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
- Philippe Capet was born in 1407; and died.
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Generation: 5
| 28. |
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Roy Charles Capet, V, 'le Sage' was born in 1338 in Vincennes, Île-de-France, France (son of Roy Jean Capet, II, 'le Bon' and Jutta von Böhmen-Luxemburg); died in 1380 in Nogent-Sur-Marne, Val-de Marne, France; was buried in St. Denis. Notes:
King of France (1364-1380).
Charles, the eldest son of John II the Good and Bonne of Luxembourg, was faced, at the age of eighteen, with his father's imprisonment in England (1356-1360) and found himself faced with the worst possible difficulties while acting as Regent. The States General were attempting to gain control of the monarchy, Etienne Marcel had fomented rebellion in Paris, there were threats from the King of Navarre, Charles the Bad, who coveted the crown and there was a peasants' revolt in the Beauvais area (the "Jacquerie" revolt). Having succeeded in overcoming domestic problems in 1358, Charles then had to withstand a new invasion by the English, to which he put an end by signing the Treaty of Calais in 1360. This laid down the conditions under which his father would be released. John the Good's return to London and subsequent death in 1364 took Charles V to the throne of France. With the assistance of a great warlord, Du Guesclin, he defeated Charles the Bad in Cocherel (1364), put an end to the war of succession in Brittany through the Treaty of Guerande (1365) and partly rid his kingdom of the groups of armed bandits who were pillaging it (1366). In 1369, war against the English broke out again after the confiscation of Guyenne by King Charles V. It was a war waged without any major battles, a conflict designed to wear down the other side, and one by one the King of France succeeded in reconquering each of the Englishheld territories (Rouergue, Quercy and Perigord in ] 369, Limousin and Poitou in 1372, Aunis and Saintonge in 1373). By 1375, the only English possessions remaining in France were Guyenne and Calais. The accession of a new king to the throne of England in 1377, in the person of Richard II, led to a further outbreak of hostilities in 1379-1380. Charles V's domestic policy aimed at re-establishing royal authority which had suffered badly during his father's reign. In particular, he reorganised the army, forming it into "companies" (ordinances of 1373-1374), and the financial system, obtaining the funding he required for war by means of extraordinary taxes which, later, became permanent. Finally, he was a well-educated, literate king who enjoyed the company of educated men and a king-builder who commissioned work on the Louvre, Bastille, Hotel Saint-Pol and the new town walls in Paris. When he died in 1380, his son, Charles VI, succeeded him.
Charles married Jeanne de Bourbon in 1350. Jeanne (daughter of Pierre de Clermont and Isabelle de Valois) was born on 3 Feb 1339 in Vincennes, Île-de-France, France; died on 6 Feb 1378 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; was buried in St. Denis. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Jeanne de Bourbon was born on 3 Feb 1339 in Vincennes, Île-de-France, France (daughter of Pierre de Clermont and Isabelle de Valois); died on 6 Feb 1378 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; was buried in St. Denis. Notes:
Like her brother, father and grandfather, Joan was slightly unstable; "elle en perdi son bon sens et son bon memore". She suffered a complete nervous breakdown in 1373 after the birth of her 7th child. At the age of 12 Joan had been married to Charles V the wise of France (1337-1380), who was "racked with gout" 3 in his hands and feet and died at the age of 43. Charles VI could have inherited the disease porphyria from both his parents.
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