Charles VI (3 December 1368 – 21 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé) and in the 19th century, the Mad (French: le Fol or le Fou), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic episodes that plagued him throughout his life, including glass delusion.
Charles ascended the throne at age 11, his father Charles V leaving behind a favorable military situation, marked by the reconquest of most of the English possessions in France. Charles VI was placed under the regency of his uncles: Philip II, Duke of Burgundy; Louis I, Duke of Anjou; John, Duke of Berry; and Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. He decided in 1388, aged 20, to emancipate himself. In 1392, while leading a military expedition against the Duchy of Brittany, the king had his first attack of delirium, during which he attacked his own men in the forest of Le Mans. A few months later, following the Bal des Ardents (January 1393) where he narrowly escaped death from burning, Charles was again placed under the regency of his uncles, the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy.
From then on, and until his death, Charles alternated between periods of mental instability and lucidity. Power was held by his influential uncles and by his wife, Queen Isabeau. His younger brother, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, also aspired to the regency and saw his influence grow. The enmity between the Duke of Orléans and his cousin John the Fearless, successor of Philip the Bold as Duke of Burgundy, plunged France into the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War of 1407–1435, during which the king found himself successively controlled by one or the other of the two parties.
In 1415, Charles's army was crushed by the English at the Battle of Agincourt. The king subsequently signed the Treaty of Troyes, which entirely disinherited his son, the Dauphin and future King Charles VII, in favour of Henry V of England. Henry was thus made regent and heir to the throne of France, and Charles' daughter Catherine married to Henry. However, Henry died shortly before Charles, which gave the House of Valois the chance to continue the fight against the House of Lancaster, leading to eventual Valois victory and the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453. Charles was succeeded in law by his grandson (Henry V's son), the infant Henry VI of England, but Charles's own son was crowned first in Reims Cathedral in 1429 and was widely regarded even before his coronation as the true heir by the French people.
Charles VI was born in Paris, in the royal residence of the Hôtel Saint-Pol, on 3 December 1368, the son of King Charles V of the House of Valois and of Joanna of Bourbon. As the eldest son of the king, Charles was heir to the French throne and held the title Dauphin of France. By that time, the region of Dauphiné was under the effective French rule, but the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV still considered it as part of the Kingdom of Burgundy (Arles) within the Holy Roman Empire, and thus an arrangement was made in 1378, by appointing the young French prince Charles as the imperial vicar of Burgundy, but only for his lifetime.
At his father's death on 16 September 1380, Charles inherited the throne of France. His coronation took place on 4 November at Reims Cathedral. Charles was only eleven years old when he was crowned king. During his minority, France was ruled by Charles's uncles as regents. Although the royal age of majority was 14 (the "age of accountability" under Roman Catholic canon law), Charles was 21 when he formally terminated the regency.
The regents were Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Louis I, Duke of Anjou, and John, Duke of Berry – all brothers of Charles V – along with Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, Charles VI's maternal uncle. Philip took the dominant role during the regency. Louis of Anjou was fighting for his claim to the Kingdom of Naples after 1382, dying in 1384; John of Berry was concerned only with his interests in Languedoc, and not particularly enthusiastic with royal politics; and Louis of Bourbon was a largely unimportant figure, owing to his eccentric personality (showing signs of mental illness) and comparatively low status (he was from a junior branch of the royal bloodline).
During the regency, the financial resources of the kingdom, painstakingly built up by Charles V, were squandered for the personal profit of the dukes, whose interests were frequently divergent or even opposing. The new royal administration took steps to centralize power by usurping control of political offices and reimposing several unpopular taxes. The latter policy represented a reversal of the deathbed decision by Charles V to repeal them, and led to tax revolts, known as the Harelle. The dukes also engaged in state capture; for instance, the Battle of Roosebeke (1382) was fought solely for Philip's benefit.
Charles VI finally stripped his corrupt uncles of their positions in 1388. To guide his rule, he restored to office the highly competent advisors of Charles V, known as the Marmousets, who ushered in a new period of high esteem for the crown. Charles VI was initially referred to as Charles the Beloved by his subjects.
Charles VI's early successes with the Marmousets as his counselors quickly dissipated as a result of the bouts of psychosis he experienced from his mid-twenties. Mental illness may have been passed on for several generations through his mother, Joanna of Bourbon, with familial schizophrenia syndrome that led to her. The true cause of his illness is not known. Since the development of the modern psychiatry in the late 19th century, it has generally been assumed that Charles had suffered from schizophrenia, but alternative theories have over the years included manic-depressive psychosis, familial sarcoidosis causing neurosarcoidosis, severe arsenic poisoning, typhus-induced encephalopathy, porphyria, and others. Typhus could explain his skin plaque or rashes along with his fits of delirium. Although still called by his subjects Charles the Beloved, he became known also as Charles the Mad.
Charles's first known episode occurred in 1392 when his friend and advisor, Olivier V de Clisson, was the victim of an attempted murder. Although Clisson survived, the king was determined to punish the would-be assassin, Pierre de Craon, who had taken refuge in Brittany. John IV, Duke of Brittany, was unwilling to hand him over, so Charles prepared a military expedition.
Contemporaries reported that Charles appeared to be in a "fever" to begin the campaign and was disconnected in his speech. He set off with an army on 1 July 1392. The progress of the army was slow, driving Charles into a frenzy of impatience. As the king and his escort were traveling through the forest near Le Mans on a hot August morning, a barefoot leper dressed in rags rushed up to the king's horse and grabbed his bridle. "Ride no further, noble King!" he yelled: "Turn back! You are betrayed!" The king's escorts beat the man back but did not arrest him, and he followed the procession for half an hour, repeating his cries.
After the company emerged from the forest at noon, a page who was drowsy from the sun dropped the king's lance, which clanged loudly against a steel helmet carried by another page. Charles shuddered, drew his sword and yelled, "Forward against the traitors! They wish to deliver me to the enemy!" The king then drew his sword, spurred his mount, and attacked his own knights before one of his chamberlains and a group of soldiers were able to grab him from his mount and lay him on the ground. He lay still and did not react, but then fell into a coma; as a temporary measure, he was taken to the castle of Creil, where it was hoped that good air and pleasant surroundings might bring him to his senses. The king had killed a knight known as "the Bastard of Polignac" and several other men during the attack.
Periods of mental illness continued throughout Charles's life. 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 help her so he would be left alone. During another episode in 1395–96, the king claimed he was Saint George and that his coat of arms was a lion with a sword thrust through it. At this time, he recognized all the officers of his household, but not his wife or children. At times, the king ran wildly through the corridors of the Hôtel Saint-Pol, and to keep him inside, the entrances were walled up. In 1405, he refused to bathe or change his clothes for five months.