In the month of August, 1392, Charles, King of France, went mad, the first instance of a mental illness that would plague him for the remainder of his life. Froissart, a historian described as the “Herodotus of his age,” 1 recounts this story in his Chronicles: how the king, after hearing of betrayal, attacked his own men and had to be confined for months while he slowly regained his sanity. The momentous events that led up to Charles’s attack shed a light on the possible reasons for the king’s mental state. It is this event—the day Charles went mad—that Froissart chronicles. While the royal party was travelling through the forest of Le Mans, a mysterious man stopped the king and warned him that he had been betrayed. The king’s troops chased the man away, and he was never seen again. Later that same day, a pageboy accidentally knocked a lance against another’s helmet. Fearing an attack, the king thought he had been betrayed and for no particular reason started to attack those in his party, including his brother, the Duke of Orleans, whom Charles attacked. The king eventually exhausted himself and was disarmed. The dukes took 1 Tuchman 192
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In the month of August, 1392, Charles, King of France, went mad, the first instance of a
mental illness that would plague him for the remainder of his life. Froissart, a historian described
as the “Herodotus of his age,”1 recounts this story in his Chronicles: how the king, after hearing
of betrayal, attacked his own men and had to be confined for months while he slowly regained
his sanity. The momentous events that led up to Charles’s attack shed a light on the possible
reasons for the king’s mental state.
It is this event—the day Charles went mad—that Froissart chronicles. While the royal
party was travelling through the forest of Le Mans, a mysterious man stopped the king and
warned him that he had been betrayed. The king’s troops chased the man away, and he was never
seen again. Later that same day, a pageboy accidentally knocked a lance against another’s
helmet. Fearing an attack, the king thought he had been betrayed and for no particular reason
started to attack those in his party, including his brother, the Duke of Orleans, whom Charles
attacked. The king eventually exhausted himself and was disarmed. The dukes took Charles back
to Le Mans; there they sent for doctors and questioned those close to the king, looking for the
cause of the strange illness. As the story spread, people assigned different causes; the two popes
both proposed different reasons for the king’s madness. People across the country prayed for
Charles’s recovery. Enguerrand de Coucy, a confidant of the king who witnessed the events at
Le Mans, suggested that his doctor, Guillaume de Harsigny, examine the king. Harsigny treated
Charles at Creil, and under his care, Charles returned to health.
Why did the king go mad? It is helpful to explore the events of 14th-century France, as
well as Charles’s own life, to discuss the potential harm they caused on the young king’s mental
state. In doing so, we can see that the stresses of ruling a war-torn country divided both
politically and religiously likely overburdened a young ruler to the point that he just snapped.
1 Tuchman 192
The backdrop of the 14th century was the Hundred Years’ War between France and
England. It began the way many conflicts between France and England began: The King of
France, in this case Edward III, had a claim to the French throne and tried to take it.2 Edward’s
connection to the French throne was through his mother, Isabel, the daughter of Philip the Fair,
whose three brothers all died without male heirs.3 Philip of Valois, the old king’s nephew, took
the throne, but, despite Edward’s vows of loyalty for the lands he held in France,4 the English
king was still after power on the Continent, where he still held Guienne (Aquitaine) against
French forces.5 The territory, which had been part of English holdings since Eleanor of Aquitaine
married King Henry II,6 was important to English economy: In addition to being a market for
exported cloth and wool, it was the “greatest wine-exporting region in the world.”7 Though the
French kings disliked the English foothold in the region, it was an important source of wealth for
England; Edward, as well as his predecessors, was loathe to lose it. He was willing to battle
France in order to keep the territory in England’s possession, and he used his claim to the throne
of France as an excuse for battle. In 1338, Philip tried to retake Guienne, and thus the Hundred
Years’ War began.8
This war between Edward and the kings of France continued for decades. The war started
before Charles VI was born and continued after he died, and the goals remained the same: for
England, to take the throne; for France, to keep it. It is important to understand the beginning of
the war to understand why it went on for so long—and to understand why Charles was willing to
One main reason for the prolonged war was intertwined succession disputes.9 Not only
was Edward fighting for Guienne—and the crown on France, though whether he would have
been content to stop with shoring up his hold on certain territories on the Continent is debatable
—but the English also had a stake in other areas, namely Flanders, Brittany, Castile, and the
papacy.10 Each crisis drew the English further into the battles; by the time the papacy split in
1378, the war had already been going for decades.
The English used the Welsh longbow, which Edward I had used to beat the Scots into
submission, to bear against the French.11 The English used their superior weaponry to make up
for their inferior numbers and succeeded in taking control of the Channel,12 a blow for France.
More were to come as Edward gained the loyalty of some French vassals, and thus an easy
foothold on the mainland. Using his claim to the throne of France, lords in Brittany and
Normandy switched their allegiance.13 Civil wars in Brittany aided the chaos of the conflict, with
each claimant siding with one country or the other.14 Similar conflicts in Flanders, a great
importer of English wool, threatened France’s hold on the territory.15
This was just the beginning of the conflict, which was largely fought on French soil. In
1346,16 the two armies met at Crecy in a battle that claimed the lives of 4,000 men, including
Count Louis de Nevers of Flanders and King John the Blind of Bohemia.17 The English forces
later took Calais. But this campaign did not end the war. Through the next three decades, the two
sides continued to fight on and off, with campaigns broken by periods of truce and outside
9 Palmer, J. J. N. England, France and Christendom, 1377-99. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1972. Print.10 Palmer 1611 Tuchman 7012 Tuchman 7013 Tuchman 7314 Tuchman 7515 Tuchman 7716 Tuchman 8617 Tuchman 88
influences, such as the Black Plague. Other rulers, such as Charles of Navarre,18 were drawn into
the conflict. In addition to the Black Plague, the French suffered from political strife, the
disastrous King Jean II (who was eventually captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers),19
and the revolt of Etienne Marcel and the Jacqueie.
In “one of the darkest [hours] in French history,”20 Jean signed half his kingdom over to
Edward, though his heir rejected the treaty.21 Even so, Edward was not able to take the French
crown. He was unable to enter the city of Reims,22 where the French kings were traditionally
crowned, and was again turned away from Paris.23
During this period and following, France was practically in ruins. With an ineffective and
at times captive king, not to mention that the bulk on the fighting had been on French soil, much
of the countryside was uncontrolled. Some brigands, called the Free Companies, roamed the
Continent, pillaging at will.24 At times, they were employed by kings; they often proved useful
since, unlike knights, who wanted honor and personal glory, the brigands worked together and
followed orders.25 Some of these mercenaries joined bands for profit; others joined because, in
the chaos of war, they had lost their previous positions or their land had been torn apart.26 Some
were even fallen members of the nobility. “Unable to live adequately off ruined lands, they
joined the mercenaries rather than follow a life without the sword.”27 Even though they were
extortionists and outlaws, and were excommunicated by the pope in 1364,28 they were integrated
into the structure of society. They dealt with lawyers, they had bankers to manage their finances,
they married, and in some cases, such as that of “Archpriest” Arnaut de Cervole, they were
advisers to high-ranking aristocrats.29 These “sons on iniquity” pillaged throughout northwestern
Europe, held only by the necessity of absolution, which they often extorted from priests.30
Though the kings and other nobility were sometimes able to hire the mercenary groups, they did
not control the brigands. Even though the French had not lost—even during Jean’s capture in
England, his family still held the throne—and they were making strides toward pushing the
English off the Continent, they were not winning. Between the English and the outlaws, the
French countryside was ravaged, and the king was running out of money. When Charles V died,
France lost a great leader, and it, like England, was left in the hands of a boy.
But the Hundred Years’ War was not the only crisis plaguing Europe during the 14th
century. The Papal Schism also divided the continent, intertwining with the war; alliances and
papal allegiance were often one and the same.
By the start of the war, the popes had already left Rome for Avignon in France. There
they remained for decades, a period referred to as the “Babylonian Exile.” Though the popes
resided in France, they did not necessarily side with that country. In fact, Pope Benedict XII tried
to dissuade Philip VI from retaking Guienne;31 however, his efforts to stave off war were futile.
Though Benedict worked for peace, he and his fellows—the seven popes who reigned at
Avignon between 1305 and 1378—were seen as being under the thumb of the French, which did
not please the English.32 Benedict was one of five Avignon popes during the war; though they
were often condemned for their “Francophile” leanings and seen as French popes, Benedict
29 Tuchman 22330 Tuchman 22431 Gruber, John. “The Peace Negotiations of the Avignon Popes.” The Catholic Historical Review 19.2 (1933): 190-199. JSTOR. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org// >.32 O’Malley, John W. A History of the Popes: From Peter to the Present. Lanham, MD: Sheed & Ward, 2010. Print.
attempted to intercede for the better.33 He would have preferred to see French and English forces
united in the goal of Crusade; in fact, he urged them to unite, saying,
“Who can doubt that these constant bickering and conflicts among Christian rulers enable the enemies of Christianity to possess themselves of Christian lands and even strive to wipe out the name of religion itself. Experience proves that their audacity grows even greater as they perceive discord among rulers of Christendom. Knowing this, will not the infidel be inclined to conceive even more bold and pernicious plans for the subversion of our princes and people?”34
Benedict’s plans did not come to pass; war could not be stopped.
Two of the pope’s successors, Urban V and Gregory XI, tried to deal with the intricacies
of Italian politics from Avignon, but to no avail.35 When Catherine of Siena pleaded with
Gregory to return the papacy to the Italian peninsula, he was swayed by her words and did as she
asked, but he died just 15 months after his return.36 This left a vacancy in the papacy, one that
was filled by the election of Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, as Urban VI—a Roman
who would not return the papacy to Avignon.37 Above all, the Italians feared that the cardinals,
many of whom were French, would elect another French pope who would return the papacy to
Avignon.38 Their fears were allayed when the cardinals elected Urban; the French cardinals, who
were divided between the Limousins and the northern French, did not put another Frenchman on
the papal throne.39
33 Gruber 19034 Gruber 19135 Tuchman 32836 Tuchman 32837 Tuchman 32938 O’Malley 14939 Rollo-Koster, Joelle. A Companion to the Great Western Schism (1378-1417). Google Books. Google, 2009. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://books.google.com/ books?id=mgnaIRVSx44C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Companion+to+the+Great+Western+Sch ism+(1378%E2%80%931417).&source=bl&ots=qllHRmXeLE&sig=fP241NKQT9aT9S2WPiMBKk24qJ4 &hl=en&ei=xOK9Taz2M8u4twf6hYW9BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCEQ 6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
However, the cardinals’ plans control the new pope failed. Urban had experience at the
papal court in Avignon, but he decided to do things differently than his predecessors.40 Unlike
other candidates the cardinals considered, Urban had not been one of them, and while he had
experience, he did not have the tact necessary to deal with the men who had chosen him.41 Urban
tried to do away with simony, the selling of indulgences, and the cardinals’ luxurious lifestyles.42
He went beyond attempts to reform the church, often flying into fits of rage, accusing the
cardinals of accepting bribes, and meddling in secular affairs of state.43 The cardinals, in a unique
move for their time, wanted to be rid of Urban before his death, but they were not sure how to go
about this. They asked Urban to step down, calling him the “anti-Christ, demon, apostate,
tyrant.”44 Urban refused. The solution the cardinals decided on was to invalidate the election,
claiming that fear of mob violence had forced them to pick Urban.45 The conclave had also been
quicker than usual; expecting trouble, Gregory had written before his death that the cardinals
were to dispense with many traditions, such as forming a quorum, in order to have a new pope as
soon as possible.46 They chose another candidate, Robert of Geneva—known to many as the
“Butcher of Cesena”—as Clement VII,47 largely because of his relation to the French monarchy
and the German royal family.48 Urban refused to bow to their whims; instead, he created 25 new
cardinals, all loyal to him.49 He maintained power in Rome while Clement ruled in Avignon,50
the latter unable to force the former out of Italy.51
However, the parlay did not go as planned. The French and English both named sums
they believed were owed by the other side and dithered over the proper ownership of Calais.92
The two sides managed to extend the truce by a year but did little else.93 During the proceedings,
Charles fell ill for unknown reasons, “suffering from high fever and transports of delirium.”94 He
was taken from Amiens and recovered at Beauvais, then resumed his previous activities.95
Whether this was a random event or a portent of things to come remains unknown.
The king had plenty of internal issues to deal with. Olivier de Clisson, the Constable, was
hated by the uncles and the Duke of Brittany.96 Clisson, a Breton, was involved in the power
battles in the region and opposed Brittany and Montfort;97 he had also been a supporter of
Charles V’s ministers,98 whom the uncles chased from power. Brittany used Pierre de Craon,
who also hated Clisson, as a weapon; the latter attacked Clisson, wounding but not killing him;99
he recovered a few weeks after being wounded.100 Craon fled to Brittany, who refused to turn
him over to Charles.101 Though the uncles, who did not like Clisson and were possibly in league
with Brittany, tried to stop the king; there is even the possibility that Berry knew of the planned
attack on Clisson and could have prevented it.102 Charles and his brother disagreed with their
uncles and pushed for war,103 and despite the uncles’ objections to the plan, they joined the
king’s forces.104 Despite the king’s fervor, he was still weak from his illness at Amiens; “Charles
92 Tuchman 49393 Tuchman 49394 Tuchman 49395 Tuchman 49396 Tuchman 49497 Palmer 1998 Palmer 1999 Tuchman 496100 Henneman, John Bull. Olivier de Clisson and Political Society in France Under Charles V and Charles VI. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. Print.