Charles VI

Charles VI, the mad King of France

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Charles VI was born on 3rd December 1368, the son of King Charles V of the house of Valois, and his wife Joanna of Bourbon.

His elder brothers died before he was born, so Charles was heir to the French throne, and held the title Dauphin of France.

Charles ascended the throne at the young age of eleven, his father left behind a favorable military situation, marked by the reconquest of most of the English possessions in France.

Charles had several uncles, powerful dukes, who were to rule in his stead, as his regents.

Charles VI would rule France during a time of great chaos, and that turmoil existed within him as well.

His reign was marked by the continuing conflict with the English, known as the Hundred years War.

While Charles’s uncles were busy running France into the ground, Charles grew into a young man.

By 17, he was fit, attractive, and athletic.

Isabeau, of Bavaria, was selected as his Bride.

He fell head over heels for her, the woman his advisors had selected for him, was beautiful, young, and brilliant.

From there, their romance was a whirlwind, he married Isabeau just three days after their first meeting.

When he was 21, he terminated the regency and took over the kingdom himself.

His first bout of madness started in 1392, after assailants attacked his close friend and advisor, Olivier de Clisson.

Young Charles started to grow paranoid—but no one expected just how twisted his mind became.

He constantly started suffering from fever and convulsions.

Charles would live out the rest of his life plagued by insanity, and his kingly power was held by his influential uncles, and by his wife, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria.

His paranoia and violent rages made him dangerous and homicidal to anyone in his close proximity.

He infamously began running wildly through the hallways of his Parisian palace, in various states of dress/undress.

At a certain point, his advisors had to wall up the entrances to the palace, lest the king run straight out into the streets.

During one episode in 1393, he could not remember his name, and did not know he was king.

When his wife came to visit, he asked his servants who she was and ordered them to take care of what she required, so that she would leave him alone.

During his spells of madness, he often had to be restrained, and in 1405, he refused to bathe or change his clothes for five months.

So bad was his personal hygiene, it got to the point that he had to be cut out of his clothes.

For the next three decades of Charles the Mad’s life, he would suffer similar mental breakdowns that would take him out of normality, for months at a time.

Pretty soon, it began to take a toll on his wife.

Isabeau set up a regency council to run the kingdom, while Charles was incapacitated.

The queen became one of the most influential people in all of France, holding on for dear life as her husband’s mind withered away.

Most famously, Charles suffered from a 'glass delusion'—a belief that his body was made of glass.

He faded in and out of this delusion, and it caused radical changes to his character.

When he wasn’t in its grips, he was an outdoorsy athlete.

When the glass delusion struck, he refused to move, sitting still for hours on end.

He reportedly had iron rods sewn into his clothes so that he would not shatter if he came into contact with another person.

Despite his bouts of madness, in 1396 Charles attempted a truce of sorts with England ~ when his daughter, the almost seven-year-old Isabella of Valois, married the 29-year-old Richard II of England.

Then in May 1420, Charles signed the Treaty of Troyes for the marriage of his daughter Catherine of Valois, to Henry V of England.

The Treaty of Troyes might have changed European history forever. In it, Charles disinherited his own son and made Henry V his heir.

Henry was to act as regent for his mad father-in-law, and eventually succeed to the French throne.

Charles VI died on 21st October 1422, in Paris.

He was interred in Saint Denis Basilica, where his wife Isabeau, would join him after her death in September 1435.

When Charles VI died, his legacy was one of discord and chaos. France was divided internally, and faced with the prospect of being ruled by an English king.

Although Charles VI's son was crowned Charles VII in 1429, strife continued until 1453, when the French expelled the English, and ended the Hundred Years War.

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Source~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI_of_France

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