The Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War

06 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in History, War

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Charles VII, Joan of Arc, Rogier van der Weyden, The Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War, The Treaty of Arras, The Treaty of Troyes

John the Fearless (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The painting above is a fine portrait of John the Fearless. The Wikipedia entry does not give the name of the artist, but it could be Rogier van der Weyden. Would that I could explain the symbolism. Why the brooch, the necklace, and, especially, the ring? This is a portrait to remember.

The Armagnac-Burgundian Civil war (1407 -1435)

The Civil War begins in 1407, when Louis I, Duke of Orleans is assassinated
John the Fearless is assassinated in 1419
the Civil War ends in 1435, at the Congress of Arras

Although, we are changing topic after this post, a correction is needed. I found a tiny mistake, a detail, while researching the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War. It has to do with dates. The correction is that the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War did not start when John the Fearless was assassinated in 1419. It started in 1407, when John the Fearless ordered thugs to assassinate Louis I, Duke of Orleans, King Charles IV’s brother.

In an earlier post, I wrote that, rumour has it that Louis, Duke of Orleans fathered Charles VII, his nephew, which could be the case. Isabeau de Bavière was married to Charles VI, the ‘Mad’ King of France, and Louis of Orleans, was a profligate prince. It would appear, that Charles VI knew he had been betrayed.

As we have seen, in an earlier post, Charles VI disinherited Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), twice. Charles VII was disinherited after the assassination of John the Fearless and was again disinherited by virtue of the Treaty of Troyes, signed in 1420. Under the terms of the Treaty of Troyes, not only did Charles VI disinherit his son, but he also agreed to marry his daughter, Catherine de Valois, to Henry V, King of England.

Charles was ‘mad,’ but how mad can one be?

Had Henry VI’s (b. 1421) succeeded in claiming the throne of France, he would have been a legitimate King of France, but not in the eyes of the people of France. They looked upon Charles VII as the rightful successor to Charles VI.

In short, the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War started in 1407, when John the Fearless had masked men assassinate Louis I, Duke of Orleans. Louis I, Duke of Orleans was the King’s brother and Charles, Duke of Orleans’ father. In 1410, Charles married Bonne d’Armagnac, the daughter of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac (1360 – 1418) who was also Constable of France (connétable). Charles d’Orléans was captured at the Battle of Agincourt, fought in 1415, and detained in England for 25 years. (See Related Articles, below.)

The Civil War ended at the Congress of Arras, in 1435, when the Burgundians recognized Charles VII as King of France.

Assassination of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, on the Bridge of Montereau, in 1419. — facsimile of a miniature in the “Chronicles” of Monstrelet, manuscript of the fifteenth century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris.

Charles VII by Jean Fouquet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Tale of Two Kings

Joan of Arc
Charles VII, King of France, crowned on 17 July 1429
Henry VI of England, heir to the throne of France, but crowned in December 1431

In 1429, after La Hire, Dunois, and other officers lifted the Siege of Orleans, Joan of Arc took Charles VII to Reims Cathedral, where he was crowned on 17 July 1429. Charles VI had died in 1422, so there had not been a King of France for seven years. Henry VI, however was crowned at Notre-Dame de Paris on 26 December 1431, which means that, by 1431, there was a second King of France who was also King of England. He had been crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 November 1429.

The people of France looked upon Charles VII as their King because he was the son of Charles VI, or so it seemed. Joan of Arc did save France. Had she not intervened, France could have become an English kingdom.[1]

Charles VI, the “Mad”

Philip the Bold (Burgundy 1)

Philip the Good (Burgundy 3)

John the Fearless (Burgundy 2)

Maître de Boucicault (Charles VI)
Anon. (Philip the Bold)
Rogier van der Weyden (Philip the Good)
Rogier van der Weyden (John the Fearless)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Support for the Treaty of Troyes; Misery for Charles VII

Charles VII was disinherited because he assassinated John the Fearless, his uncle and his father’s (Charles VI) cousin. Moreover, if the rumour is true, and it seems to be true, Louis d’Orléans was Charles VII‘s son, not Charles VI. Historically, Charles VII was disinherited by virtue of the Treaty of Troyes, signed at Troyes (France) in 1420.
Isabeau de Bavière, his mother, was in attendance when the Treaty of Troyes was signed. She disinherited her son.
The Estate General ratified the Treaty of Troyes when Henry V, King of England and heir to the throne of France entered Paris.
Charles VII was found guilty of treason, lèse-majesté, in a 1421 lit-de-justice, a court, he did not attend. The court “sentenced him to disinheritance and banishment from the Kingdom of France, losing all privileges to land and titles.” (See Charles VII, Wikipedia.)
The terms of the Treaty of Troyes were later confirmed by the Treaty of Amiens (1423), when Burgundy and Brittany confirmed the recognition of Henry VI of England as King of France and agreed to form a triple-defensive alliance against the Dauphin (heir) Charles VII.
Despite his being duly-crowned King of France at Reims, on 17 July 1429, Charles VII was called, pejoratively, “roi de Bourges.”

Rogier van der Weyden miniature 1447-8. Philip dresses his best, in an extravagant chaperon, to be presented with a History of Hainault by the author, flanked by his son Charles and his chancellor Nicolas Rolin. (Caption and photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

There would be further claims to the kingdom of France, based on the Treaty of Troyes, but the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War improved the relationship between two French Royal Houses. During the Midde Ages, Burgundy and surrounding areas were the hub of European culture, particularly in the area of music: the Franco-Flemish School. One Burgundian was Jean de France, duc de Berry (d. 1416) who loved the arts and commissioned the Belles Heures du duc de Berry and the Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, duc de Berry.

The Burgundians who ruled during Charles VI minority were: Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; John, Duke of Berry; Louis I, Duke of Anjou; and Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. They were Charles V‘s brothers and the children of John II of France. Philip the Bold was John the Fearless’ father, and John the Fearless was succeeded by Philip the Good.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Hundred Years’ War: Story or History (31 January 2016)
The Hundred Years’ War: its Literary Legacy (24January 2016)
The Hundred Years’ War (16 January 2016)
Charles d’Orléans: a Prince and a Poet (17 February 2015)

My kindest regards to all of you. ♥
_______________

[1] (See Treaty of Troyes and The Dual-Monarchy of England and France, Wikipedia.) (See Britannica)

The One Hundred Years War, the Plague & Charles d’Orléans, revisited

24 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in France, History

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Charles as prisoner of war, Charles d'Orléans a poet, Charles Duc d'Orléans, Duke of Orleans, Joan of Arc, Posts revisited, the Battle of Agincourt, the Black Death

La Bataille de La Rochelle, Jean Froissart

La Bataille de La Rochelle (One Hundred Years War) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jean Froissart

TWO POSTS:

The One Hundred Years War & the Plague (click on the title to open)
Charles d’Orléans: portrait of an unlikely poet (click on the title to open)

I wrote the above posts two years ago and I wish to publish them again.

The One Hundred Years War & the Plague

The first tells about the ills nature can inflict on humans. In 1348–53 CE the Black Death had decimated Europe. Half the population of France had died when France was also at war: the One Hundred Years War (1337 to 1453). The post also tells about the harm humans inflict on themselves: war. My first republished post features Joan of Arc who was betrayed, having saved the kingdom of France. Charles d’Orléans was a “prisoner” in England when Joan of Arc was tried, convicted, and executed.

Charles d’Orléans: portrait of an unlikely poet

The second post is about Charles, Duc d’Orléans, a prince detained in England for nearly 25 years after the Battle of Agincourt (1415). He was a “prince of the blood” and could therefore be crowned. His son would grow to be king Louis XII.

During his years of detention, Charles started to write poetry. As a poet, he is Charles d’Orléans. Therefore, in my eyes, he was, for a very long time, the poet who had written « Le temps a laissé son manteau… » It is a beautiful poem. Charles also wrote « En la forêt de longue attente » and poems in English. Finally, Charles d’Orléans is associated with Valentine’s Day.

Charles d’Orléans is an important figure to the Dutch.

Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)

Trois Chansons de Charles d’Orléans

Charles, Duc d’Orléans

February 23, 2014

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(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Art of Maurice Boutet de Monvel

01 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

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Chansons, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Gustave Boulanger, illustrators, Jean-Batiste de Lully, Jeanne d'Arc, Joan of Arc, Jules Joseph Lefebvre, United States, Yvonne Printemps

Louis Boutet de Monvel (1851 – 1913) was a French painter and illustrator whose family had produced several artists. He attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, where he was a student of Alexandre Cabanel, Gustave Boulanger, Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Carolus Duan. (Wikipedia) Moreover, he showed his work at the Salon de Paris, a juried exhibition, where he won a medal in 1878 for a painting called “The Good Samaritan,” which the internet would not allow me to copy. However, we have a link.

Boutet de Monvel as Academic Painter

Boutet was therefore, at first, an academic painter and had been exposed to the Neoclassicism of Jacques-Louis David, whose painting of Marat dead in his tub has become iconic. However, David’s Neoclassical style is better exemplified by his Oath of the Horatii (1784). We should also remember that as the Neoclassical style lost its popularity, there emerged schools such as the Barbizon School‘s plein-air painters (1830-1870) that favored realistic and representational painting but without the imprecision of Impressionism, a movement that flourished in the 1870s and 1880’s. Moreover, painters associated with Post-Impressionism often doubled up as illustrators and decorators. Art Nouveau (1890-1910) artists, some of whom are linked with Post-impressionism were interested in the decorative arts. They had to make a living and their clients were privileged.

Boutet de Monvel as Illustrator

Louis–Maurice Boutet de Monvel (a cover picture)

(please click of the pictures to enlarge them)

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Chansons de France pour les petits enfants

Several years ago, I purchased a copy of a hardcover edition of Boutet de Monvel’s Chansons de France pour les petits enfants (Songs of France for Children). It is a beautifully illustrated book published in what was the golden age of illustration and posters: the Post-Impressionism of the late nineteenth century and the age of fabulous posters (Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Steinlen) and illustrations often executed against a blank background, such as Léon Bakst‘s designs.

Characteristics of Boutet de Monvel’s Chansons

In Chansons de France pour les petits enfants, whenever the page includes the score and the lyrics, the illustrations are the background. But, as we can see below, in the Gallery, the background of the cover page of the Chansons is coloured but blank.

The combination of Three elements

A fine characteristic of Boutet’s Chansons de France pour les petits enfants is the successful combination of three elements: the illustration, the score, and the lyrics (sometimes abridged). In order to combine these three features, Boutet either knew music or hired an assistant. However, no mention is made of a collaborator.

La Vie de Jeanne d’Arc, by Anatole France

For that matter, no collaborator is named with respect to Boutet’s Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc). Boutet’s Jeanne d’Arc seems altogether the work of an eclectic Boutet de Monvel. Yet Monvel collaborated with Nobel-laureate French writer Anatole France (16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) in the creation of Nos enfants: Scènes de la Ville et des Champs (1887). Nos enfants is an online publication which, unfortunately, does not show illustrations. This would have been Boutet’s contribution.

Influence on Anatole France: Jeanne d’Arc

It may be, however, that Boutet influenced Anatole France, not as an artist but in the choice of Joan of Arc as a subject-matter. Zeitgeist played its role, but the more immediate example was Boutet de Monvel’s Joan of Arc. In 1908, thirteen years after the publication of Boutet’s Jeanne d’Arc, Anatole France published his Vie de Jeanne d’Arc.

Boutet’s Joan of Arc was translated into English and, during a trip to the United States, in 1899, the beauty of his illustrations brought Bouvet a commission “by a wealthy American.” He was asked to create “a series of large scale panels based upon his Joan of Arc illustrations” (Wikipedia). These panels are housed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC.

Back to Chansons de France pour les petits enfants

But, let us return to the Chansons de France pour les petits enfants. It would appear that Au Clair de la Lune was composed by Italian-born Jean-Baptiste de Lully, Giovanni Battista Lulli, (28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687), a dancer and a composer who worked at the court of Louis XIV. If such is the case, the song was composed in the seventeenth century and not in the eighteenth century.

However, it has just occurred to me that the song may have been written by Jean-Baptiste Lully fils, one of Lully’s sons. Au Clair de la Lune would then be an eighteenth-century composition. But knowing that the song is a composition is the more relevant information. Au Clair de la Lune did not go from generation to generation in an oral tradition, which is the case, for example, with Æsop’s fables. Au Clair de la Lune is not folklore, although it may have entered folklore for lack of an identified composer.

I have a great deal of admiration for illustrators. Their work is reproduced, but artistically it does not take a second place to the original. The difference is financial.

Sources and Resources

Boutet de Monvel, L.- M. Chansons de France pour les petits Français, Internet Archive

The Gallery (please click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

lmmonvel.2

1 September 2012

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The One Hundred Years’ War & the Plague

19 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, History, The Human Condition

≈ 526 Comments

Tags

Charles d'Orléans, Charles VII, Joan of Arc, the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War

Joan of Arc

: Painting, c. 1485. An artist’s interpretation, since the only known direct portrait has not survived. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490) (Photo and caption credit: Wikipedia)

—ooo—

Allow me to reflect on the One Hundred Years’ War (1337-1353) that opposed France and England and their various allies and, at the same time, also to reflect on the Black Death, a pandemics that occurred eleven years after the war began.

La Bataille de La Rochelle,
Jean Froissart

The One Hundred Years’ War

The One Hundred Years’ War was a series of wars. There were periods of peace. Still, between 1337 and 1453, men were killing one another as France fought to oust the English.

The French did oust the English, despite England’s victory at Agincourt, the victory out of which emerged a poet, Charles, Duke of Orléans, and other English victories. But consider the price.

A Pyrrhic Victory

It was a Pyrrhic victory. During part of the years Charles d’Orléans was detained in England, a brave young woman, named Joan of Arc (ca. 1412 – 30 May 1431), without whom Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461) would not have been crowned King of France, in 1429, was betrayed, sold to England by the Burgundians and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She has been pronounced a martyr, beatified (1909), and canonized. But recognition did not give her back her most precious possession: her life. Life, short as it is and harsh as it may be.

The Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, ca. 1562 (Museo del Prado) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Black Death: The Plage

The French did oust the English. However, during the One Hundred Years’ War, half the population of France died. Between 1348 and 1350, the Black Death ravaged a large part of Europe. But, if one combines war, famine and the plague, France’s losses were enormous.

Pandemics can be more devastating than wars as they are likely to resurface as epidemics. If you have read my post on the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, you may remember that, in 1416, the Limbourg brothers died of the plague, as did Jean de France who had commissioned his extraordinary Book of Hours in 1410. When they died, the brothers had nearly but not completely carried out their assignment. The Très Riches Heures were completed by Barthélemy van Eyck and Jean Colombe.

The plague killed mercilessly. In some regions of Europe, it snuffed two out of three lives in the space of four days, and the only possible salvation was immediate flight before contamination. There were epidemics of the plague from about the time of the Crusades until the late eighteenth century.

But we need not look back that far, i.e. as far as 1348-1350. The so-called “Spanish Flu” of 1918 killed more individuals than all the battles of World War I combined. I was told that a woman lost three grown sons in the space of twenty-four hours.

Conclusion

We are at the mercy of Lady Fortune who is not always generous. Yet, we lend her a hand. People are still killing one another, regardless of the cost: loss of life, trauma, impoverishment. In fact, let us turn the other cheek, so to speak.

Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911)

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