|
Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious ((フランス語:le Victorieux))〔''Charles VII, King of France'', Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War, ed. John Wagner, (Greenwood Publishing, 2006), 89.〕 or the Well-Served ((フランス語:le Bien-Servi)), was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1422 to his death. In 1422, Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and Duke Philip III of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which the French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father Charles VI the Mad had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors of the French crown instead. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois) and the Burgundian party. With his court removed to Bourges, south of the Loire River, Charles was disparagingly called the “King of Bourges”, because the area around Bourges was one of the few remaining regions left to him. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a spiritual leader in France. Joan of Arc and other charismatic figures led French troops to several important victories that paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII in 1429 at Reims Cathedral. This long-awaited event boosted French morale as hostilities with England resumed. By 1453, the French had expelled the English from all their continental possessions except for the Pale of Calais. The last years of Charles VII were marked by conflicts with his turbulent son, the future Louis XI of France. ==Early life== Born in Paris, Charles was the fifth son of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria.〔 His four elder brothers, Charles (1386), Charles (1392–1401), Louis (1397–1415) and John (1398–1417) had each held the title of Dauphin of France (heir to the French throne) in turn.〔 Each died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles.〔 Almost immediately after his accession to the title of Dauphin, Charles had to face threats to his inheritance, and he was forced to flee from Paris in May 1418 after the soldiers of Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy attempted to capture the city.〔Richard Vaughan, ''John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power'', Vol. 2, (Boydell Press, 2005), 263.〕 By 1419, Charles had established his own court in Bourges and a Parlement in Poitiers.〔 The same year, Charles attempted to reconcile with the Duke. First he met him on a bridge at Pouilly, near Melun, in July 1419, but this proved insufficient to conclude peace, so the two met again on 10 September 1419 on the bridge at Montereau.〔Richard Vaughan, ''John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power'', 274.〕 The Duke assumed that the meeting would be entirely peaceful and diplomatic, thus he brought only a small escort with him. The Dauphin's men reacted to the Duke's arrival by attacking and killing him, however. Charles' level of involvement has remained uncertain to this day. Although he claimed to have been unaware of his men's intentions, this was considered unlikely by those who heard of the murder.〔 The assassination only naturally exacerbated the feud between the family of Charles VI and the Dukes of Burgundy. Charles himself was later required by a treaty with Philip the Good, John's son, to pay penance for the murder, but he never did so. In his adolescent years, Charles was noted for his bravery and flamboyant style of leadership. At one point after becoming Dauphin, he led an army against the English dressed in the red, white, and blue that represented France; his heraldic device was a mailed fist clutching a naked sword. However, two events in 1421 broke his confidence: first, he was forced to withdraw from battle against Henry V of England, to his great shame, and then his parents repudiated him as the legitimate heir to the throne, claiming that he was the product of one of his mother's notorious extramarital affairs. Humiliated, and in fear of his life, the Dauphin fled to the protection of Yolande of Aragon, the so-called Queen of the Four Kingdoms, in southern France, and married her daughter, Marie of Anjou. On the death of Charles' insane father, Charles VI, the succession was cast into doubt. The Treaty of Troyes, signed by Charles VI in 1420, mandated that the throne pass to the infant King Henry VI of England, the son of the recently deceased Henry V and Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI; however, many Frenchmen regarded the treaty as invalid on grounds of coercion and the French king's diminished mental capacity. For those who did not recognize the treaty and believed the Dauphin Charles to be of legitimate birth, he was considered to be the rightful heir to the throne. For those who did not recognize his legitimacy, the rightful heir was recognized as Charles, Duke of Orléans, cousin of the Dauphin, who was in English captivity. Only the supporters of Henry VI and the Dauphin Charles were able to enlist sufficient military force to press effectively for their candidates. The English, already in control of northern France, were able to enforce the claim of their king in the regions of France that they occupied. Northern France, including Paris, was thus ruled by an English regent based in Normandy (see Dual monarchy of England and France). Charles, unsurprisingly, claimed the title King of France for himself, but he failed to make any attempts to expel the English from northern France out of indecision and a sense of hopelessness. Instead, he remained south of the Loire River, where he was still able to exert power, and maintained an itinerant court in the Loire Valley at castles such as Chinon. He was still customarily known as "Dauphin," or derisively as "King of Bourges," after the town where he generally lived. Periodically, he considered flight to the Iberian Peninsula, which would have allowed the English to advance their occupation of France. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles VII of France」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|