The Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, vol 3 | Page 8

in the south. About the same time Charles V. sent open
defiance and declaration of war to England. Without delay, he surprised
the English in the north, recovering all Ponthieu at once; the national
pride was aroused; Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who had, through the
prudent help of Charles, lately won as a bride the heiress of Flanders,
was stationed at Rouen, to cover the western approach to Paris, with
strict orders not to fight; the Aquitanians were more than half French at
heart. The record of the war is as the smoke of a furnace. We see the
reek of burnt and plundered towns; there were no brilliant feats of arms;
the Black Prince, gloomy and sick, abandoned the struggle, and
returned to England to die; the new governor, the Earl of Pembroke, did
not even succeed in landing: he was attacked and defeated off Rochelle
by Henry of Castile, his whole fleet, with all its treasure and stores,
taken or sunk, and he himself was a prisoner in Henry's hands. Du
Guesclin had already driven the English out of the west into Brittany;
he now overran Poitou, which received him gladly; all the south
seemed to be at his feet. The attempt of Edward III. to relieve the little
that remained to him in France failed utterly, and by 1372 Poitou was
finally lost to England. Charles set himself to reduce Brittany with
considerable success; a diversion from Calais caused plentiful misery
in the open country; but, as the French again refused to fight, it did
nothing to restore the English cause. By 1375 England held nothing in
France except Calais, Cherbourg, Bayonne, and Bordeaux. Edward III.,
utterly worn out with war, agreed to a truce, through intervention of the
Pope; it was signed in 1375. In 1377, on its expiring, Charles, who in
two years had sedulously improved the state of France, renewed the
war. By sea and land the English were utterly overmatched, and by
1378 Charles was master of the situation on all hands. Now, however,
he pushed his advantages too far; and the cold skill which had
overthrown the English, was used in vain against the Bretons, whose
duchy he desired to absorb. Languedoc and Flanders also revolted

against him. France was heavily burdened with taxes, and the future
was dark and threatening. In the midst of these things, death overtook
the coldly calculating monarch in September, 1380.
Little had France to hope from the boy who was now called on to fill
the throne. Charles VI. was not twelve years old, a light-wined,
handsome boy, under the guardianship of the royal Dukes his uncles,
who had no principles except that of their own interest to guide them in
bringing up the King and ruling the people. Before Charles VI. had
reached years of discretion, he was involved by the French nobles in
war against the Flemish cities, which, under guidance of the great
Philip van Arteveldt, had overthrown the authority of the Count of
Flanders. The French cities showed ominous signs of being inclined to
ally themselves with the civic movement in the north. The men of
Ghent came out to meet their French foes, and at the battle of Roosebek
(1382) were utterly defeated and crushed. Philip van Arteveldt himself
was slain. It was a great triumph of the nobles over the cities; and Paris
felt it when the King returned. All movement there and in the other
northern cities of France was ruthlessly repressed; the noble reaction
also overthrew the "new men" and the lawyers, by whose means the
late King had chiefly governed. Two years later, the royal Dukes signed
a truce with England, including Ghent in it; and Louis de Male, Count
of Flanders, having perished at the same time, Marguerite his daughter,
wife of Philip of Burgundy, succeeded to his inheritance (1384.) Thus
began the high fortunes of the House of Burgundy, which at one time
seemed to overshadow Emperor and King of France. In 1385, another
of the brothers, Louis, Duc d'Anjou, died, with all his Italian ambitions
unfulfilled. In 1386, Charles VI., under guidance of his uncles, declared
war on England, and exhausted all France in preparations; the attempt
proved the sorriest failure. The regency of the Dukes became daily
more unpopular, until in 1388 Charles dismissed his two uncles, the
Dukes of Burgundy and Berri, and began to rule. For a while all went
much better; he recalled his father's friends and advisers, lightened the
burdens of the people, allowed the new ministers free hand in making
prudent government; and learning how bad had been the state of the
south under the Duc de Berri, deprived him of that command in 1390.
Men thought that the young King, if not good himself, was well content
to