Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles VI of France
Charles V of France was born on 21 January 1338, in Vincennes, France, to Prince John (John II) and his wife Bonne of France. He grew up alongside other French royal members in his age group, including Louis de Bourbon, Louis I, Philip the Bold, John of Berry, and Edward II of Bar. His uncle Philip, Duke of Orleans, was just two years older than him.
He was educated in the royal court. Although highly intelligent, Charles was physically weak unlike his father, John II the Good.
Although nothing is known of his education, his later activities as a patron of the arts, theoretician of monarchy, and founder of the royal library at the Louvre indicate an early interest in learning.
Charles was born, grew up, and reigned in the shadow of the great Anglo-French conflict called the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). When he was 16, Charles was made Duke of Normandy by his father and was thus entrusted with one of the most vulnerable areas of warfare. At the age of 19, on Sept. 19, 1356, Charles with his father and two younger brothers led the French army, which was cut to pieces by the English at Poitiers. During the battle, John II was taken prisoner and held for ransom. Charles, lacking power and financial resources, had to assume the office of regent during his father's captivity, which lasted until 1360. During this period Charles weathered the threat of an English invasion and, faced with domestic discontent, put down a number of internal revolts, among them the Jacquerie, a peasant uprising. Only his astute political judgment and diplomatic skill saved the crown of France. With the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, he arranged the terms of his father's ransom and established a temporary truce with the English.
Having purchased the Dauphiné (on France’s southeastern frontier) in 1349, Charles bore the title of dauphin until his coronation. After his father, King John II the Good, was captured by the English at Poitiers in 1356, Charles, in order to raise his father’s ransom money, had to convene a hostile States-General, which, led by Étienne Marcel, provost of the Paris merchants, forced him to issue an ordinance of reform on March 3, 1357. To frighten Charles further, Marcel had two of the king’s councilors assassinated in the palace in Charles’s presence in February 1358. Charles, in order to raise an army, left Paris to convoke an assembly of his supporters. On July 31, 1358, Marcel was assassinated.
When Charles re-entered Paris on Aug. 2, 1358, his military situation remained precarious because he still had to fight both the English and his archenemy, the King of Navarre. The treaties of Brétigny and of Calais (May and October 1360) granted to Edward III of England most of southwestern France and 3,000,000 gold crowns for John’s ransom.
Charles ascended the French throne on April 8, 1364, on John’s death. He then challenged the King of Navarre over the succession of Burgundy. Bertrand du Guesclin, Charles’s brilliant military leader, defeated the Navarrese at Cocherel in May 1364 but was defeated at Auray the following September by the English-backed side in a renewal of an old dispute over the Breton succession.
When war broke out again with England in 1369 over France’s failure to abide by its treaty obligations, Charles followed du Guesclin’s military advice, winning for the French so many victories that, by 1375, the settlement of 1360 was virtually nullified. In 1378, after learning of plots of the King of Navarre, Charles dispossessed him of all his French lands except Cherbourg. That December Charles made, unsuccessfully, his last attempt to deprive Duke John IV of Brittany. Charles’s last political acts were primarily concerned with the rivalry between the two newly elected popes; his decision to support Clement VII made him chiefly responsible for the great schism of the papacy.
In his court Charles, an intellectual and religious man surrounded himself with luxury and men of educated tastes. Besides reorganizing the army, creating a new navy, instituting tax changes, and bringing Flanders, Spain, and Portugal into French alliances, he was also concerned with redecorating the Louvre to house a magnificent library and with finishing the castle of Vincennes.
Apart from his activities against the English, Charles's last years were spent in strengthening the defenses of France and organizing matters of law and finance. For the first time since the death of Philip V in 1314, France had an effective and intelligent ruler. But Charles's early death on Sept. 16, 1380, brought far less able men to the throne, kings who would preside over even greater defeats at the hands of the English and who would witness the further disintegration of French society.
Charles V of France kingship laid great emphasis on the royal ceremony as well as scientific political theory.
A great builder king, Charles V established many significant buildings, including Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Bastille, Château de Vincennes, and the Château du Louvre.
His successes, however, proved to be ephemeral as his successors and brothers fought amongst themselves, eventually leading to the division of the French government.
During his lifetime, Charles V of France maintained a vast library that contained over 1,200 volumes. This library was a symbol of his authority and magnificence.
Charles V of France married Joan of Bourbon on 8 April 1350, at the age of 12. The couple had several children, including Charles VI, Joanna, Bonne, Jean, Marie, John, Isabella, and Catherine, who married John of Berry, Count of Montpensier.
(September 1357 - 21 October 1360), interred at Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Abbey
(1358 - 7 December 1360, Paris, France), interred beside her older sister
(Vincennes, 6 June 1366 – 21 December 1366), interred at Saint-Denis Basilica
(Paris, 27 February 1370 - June 1377, Paris)
(Paris, 24 July 1373 - 13 February 1377, Paris)
(1374/76 - died young)
King of France
