Louis II of Anjou and Yolanda of Aragon
After the untimely death of Louis I in the Regno, his successors in the Second House of Anjou continued the fight for Naples with greater success. In addition to the dukes of the Second House – Louis I, Louis II, Louis III and René – there is a figure who is equally important, and takes her place in the line of remarkable Angevin queens: Yolanda of Aragon. Her marriage to Louis II made her titular queen of Sicily, and not only did she do more to establish the Angevins of the Second House in Naples than anyone else, she also – through the marriage of her daughter to the future Charles VII of France – became the de facto leader of France at its lowest point in the Hundred Years War.
We have seen that the situation in Naples was chaotic, with outright war between the Angevins of Naples and the Second House of Anjou, who had seized Provence. Although the Neapolitan Angevins clung to power for a few more decades, the Second House continued the struggle in each generation. After Louis I’s death in 1384, his widow Marie of Blois-Penthièvre led the fight to take Naples from Charles of Durazzo for her seven-year-old son Louis II. However, the ‘League of Aix’, a coalition of cities formed by Charles of Durazzo to retake Provence for Naples, had succeeded in taking the entire county except Marseilles. Marie fought back by going to Avignon and having Clement VII recognize Louis II as the rightful Count of Provence, then pawned her gold and silver plate to raise an army, which she mobilized against the League of Aix. Had Charles concentrated on Naples and Provence, he might have restored them to the Kingdom of Naples, but the fatal lure of Hungary led him to his death in 1386, leaving the child Ladislas as his heir (Ladislas and Louis II were the same age, both being born in 1377). This crippled Neapolitan power in Provence, and by the end of 1387 Marie and Louis II had entered Aix in triumph.
The Valois kings were also active in opposing the Neapolitan Angevins in favour of the Second House, and this continued under Charles VI. Marie sought French royal backing for Louis II’s claim to Naples, and this was formally recognized when Louis II and his brother Charles were knighted at St Denis by Charles VI in May 1389. On All Saints Day 1389, at the age of twelve, Louis II was crowned King of Sicily at Avignon by Clement VII in the presence of Charles VI.32
In August 1390 a Provençal fleet appeared at Naples, besieged and captured the Castel dell’Ovo and established Louis II’s rule in the city. Ladislas and his mother remained in an impregnable castle at Gaeta, where naturally they had the support of the Roman pope. Although Louis II resided in Naples, and for the next nine years he and his supporters attempted to build alliances throughout the Regno, he could never establish firm support for his ‘foreign’ regime.
One problem was that a new Spanish pope in Avignon abandoned the Avignon papacy’s traditional support for the Second House, and another was that Ladislas was growing older and more accomplished as a warrior, a career in which he would excel. As the two boys matured, Ladislas worked against Louis II throughout the 1390s, culminating on 10 July 1399 when Ladislas captured Naples and took the throne for himself. Louis II, abandoned by the barons of the Regno, was fortunate to have Provence and Anjou to fall back on, although he was essentially a foreigner having spent so long in Naples. He now needed to marry and perpetuate the dynasty of the Second House.33
Not unexpectedly, the continuous intertwining of Angevin and Aragonese in the Mediterranean produced a great marriage that set the stage for the final battle between the two dynasties in the next generation. In 1381, Louis I of Anjou had proposed that his two sons marry the future Juan I of Aragon’s two daughters to form an alliance with the lord of Sicily and Sardinia before he attempted to take Naples, but there was no interest. After Louis I’s death Charles VI revived the request for Yolanda of Aragon to marry Louis II, but Yolanda herself refused the match. She wrote to the king to explain that she had only been eleven when the match was previously discussed and her wishes had not been consulted, but she now categorically refused. She was still only fifteen and this was an unusually strong position for a young woman to take. It was an early demonstration of the character Yolanda would show throughout her time as duchess of Anjou and queen of Sicily.34
Throughout the remainder of the 1390s Marie of Blois-Penthièvre periodically renewed the marriage proposal to the Aragonese court, but Yolanda’s resistance remained, and the matter progressed no further. The situation changed in 1399 when Louis II was expelled from Naples by Ladislas, and he returned to Provence. Louis took up the negotiations on his own behalf, and either because she now had some sense of his character, or because she had gained a new appreciation of the advantages the match might provide, or possibly – though unlikely given her character – because she gave in to pressure from her advisers, in 1400 Yolanda finally agreed to marry him.
As Yolanda journeyed to Arles for the wedding, Louis enacted a chapter from a courtly romance. Yolanda set out from Zaragossa with her entourage, and Charles of Taranto, Louis’s brother, met her at Perpignan to escort her to Arles. Yolanda and Louis had never met, and Louis decided that he would secretly go to Montpellier to catch a glimpse of his bride. He mingled in the crowd as Yolanda made a grand entrance into the city, and, unsurprisingly in this type of story, he was so captivated by her beauty that he went back to Arles to await her official arrival, congratulating himself on the match. That said, other chroniclers such as Juvénal des Ursine did describe Yolanda as ‘one of the most beautiful creatures one could ever see’, so perhaps the story is true.35
The wedding itself was conducted in the archbishop’s palace, and one striking note was the decoration: the tapestry of the Apocalypse, which had been commissioned by Louis I from Hennequin de Bruges, and which is still the glory of the castle at Angers, was sent to Arles for the occasion. This is the largest tapestry in the world, comprised of six panels, each measuring six metres high and 23.5 metres long, making the complete work 140 metres long. As well as being the oldest surviving tapestry in France, it is one of the supreme artistic accomplishments of the Middle Ages, and takes its place beside other iconic examples of Angevin cultural production.36
Yolanda was fortunate in her marriage to Louis II in that she had remarkably comfortable accommodations. Although the castle at Angers remained the military building completed by Saint Louis, with only the addition of a great hall by Louis I to house the Apocalypse Tapestry, the court would frequently travel by boat from Angers to Saumur. Louis I had used Saumur as a residence and remodelled the castle, but after Yolanda received Saumur as part of her dowry she turned it into one of the most beautiful chateaux (as we will call residences, rather than military buildings) on the Loire. We know exactly what it looked like, since Saumur was used as the image for the month of September in the Trés Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry. This was commissioned in 1413, and thus shows the building at the time of Yolanda and Louis II. The chateau today still looks exactly like the image – but this is because it was restored in the 1930s, and the restoration was based on the image in the Trés Riches Heures.
The court was peripatetic in another way, since Louis II divided his time between Anjou and Provence. This was practical, since the revenue of Provence was twice that of Anjou, with the tax, or gabelle, on the salt works at Hyères and Toulon bringing in considerable funds. The journey from Angers to Tarascon, where the court resided in Provence, took seven to eight weeks and so must have caused considerable discomfort. Nevertheless, residing as they did at Tarascon or Aix in the winter and spring, and Angers or Saumur in the summer and autumn must have been pleasant. Despite the genuine horror and destruction of the Hundred Years War, we see a generation in Louis I and II of Anjou, King Charles V and the Duc de Berry who began to live with quite an unparalleled degree of luxury, and this would only increase in the 15th century for their children and grandchildren.
Louis II also had a windfall in 1404 that helped him maintain his magnificent lifestyle. When Marie of Blois-Penthièvre was dying, she called Louis to her and told him a secret: she had always
kept hidden savings of 200,000 écus, which she would now give to him. Louis was astonished and asked why she had never given him the money before, when he had needed it so desperately in Naples; she said it was because she had always feared he would be captured, and she never wanted him to have the shame of having to find a ransom elsewhere.37 The wisdom of this plan would soon be revealed, when Louis’s son King René would be financially ruined by a huge ransom.
Origins of the French Civil War
As for the Hundred Years War, this seemed to have ground to a halt by 1380. Under the guidance of Charles V and Bertrand du Guesclin, the French had recaptured all their territory except Calais and Gascony, and the situation was basically as it had been before the war. The illness that had characterized the last years of Edward III and the Black Prince had sapped the energy of the English for fighting, and Edward’s successor, Richard II, was in an entirely different mould to Edward III or his namesake Richard the Lionheart. Richard II sought harmonious relations with France but was unable to maintain stability in his own kingdom, and was deposed and murdered in 1399.
The man responsible for Richard’s murder, Henry IV, was unsurprisingly a more bellicose figure. He was keen to renew the war in France, since military success would help legitimize his reign, and foreign adventures were always a useful means of occupying restive knights. Despite these plans, Henry IV was largely preoccupied with solidifying his grasp on power and was not able to make headway. Things would be very different for his son Henry V.
Although Richard’s reign was troubled, France after Charles V and du Guesclin was in no stronger a position. Charles VI succeeded to the throne in 1380 at the age of eleven, and Louis I of Anjou became regent, only to leave France to pursue his Italian kingdom, where he died in 1384. The Dukes of Berry and Burgundy, Louis’s brothers, plus the Duke of Bourbon, now became the most influential and powerful men in the kingdom. The Duke of Berry quickly turned his attention towards his love of collecting books and artworks and furnishing palaces, and took little interest in the affairs of the kingdom, leaving the Dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon to rule for Charles. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, who had already made his mark at the battle of Poitiers at the age of fifteen, dominated the regency and remained in power until Charles VI assumed his majority at the age of twenty in 1388.
France seemed to be stronger than it had been for decades, but in 1392 it became clear that Charles VI was subject to fits of madness. These episodes would continue for the rest of his reign, some lasting for weeks and some for months. His wife Isabeau of Bavaria remained with him despite the trauma of his illness, although she was treated very badly by him when he was mad. They still had eleven children, notably the Dauphin Louis of Guyenne (note his title, specifically alluding to Gascony or ‘Guyenne’, the land held by England) born in 1397, and the future Charles VII who was born on 22 February 1403.
Charles VI’s madness devastated France. Inevitably factions split the court, with Philip the Bold preferring peace with England to benefit the wealthy trading cities in Flanders that formed part of his domains. A new figure, Charles VI’s brother Louis of Orleans, now became increasingly important, and Louis saw war with England as the best way to bolster royal power. A key battleground in the royal court was the position of the ‘Marmosets’, wizened low-born counsellors from the time of Charles V who remained highly influential. Philip the Bold detested them as non-nobles, whereas Louis of Orleans wanted to use their experience to implement policies that would increase royal revenue. When Charles VI was sane, he trusted Louis of Orleans and followed his advice, but during his bouts of madness Isabeau of Bavaria favoured Philip the Bold and his policies gained ground.
Despite the divisions in the court, Philip the Bold was competent and his periods of ascendancy were not detrimental to the kingdom. France was also fortunate, because England too was in turmoil under the divisive rule of Richard II and ultimately saw a change in ruler, when Henry IV overthrew Richard. France’s luck changed though, because Philip the Bold died in April 1404 and was succeeded by his son John ‘the Fearless’. John’s bellicosity and rudeness pushed Isabeau into the arms of Louis of Orleans – literally, if contemporaries are to be believed – and Louis consolidated his grip on power, as he was now dominant whether the king was sane or mad. He and Isabeau planned to cement his power by marrying his eldest son Charles to the king’s daughter Isabelle, which infuriated John the Fearless.38
On the evening of Wednesday 23 November 1407, Louis of Orleans was with the queen when a messenger arrived summoning him to the king. As Louis went through the dark streets towards the Hotel St Pol, he was ambushed and brutally murdered, with ‘his brains spilling out onto the pavement’. The assassins then set fire to a house to cause a distraction, and fled. Louis II of Anjou lived nearby and was the first to be alerted to the crime. He took charge of the response, summoning the provost of Paris to begin an inquest and bar the city gates so the assassins could not flee.
At the funeral the following day, all the royal dukes were pallbearers, including John the Fearless, who was the only duke to dress in full mourning attire. The provost of Paris discovered that the murderers were Burgundians, and John fled, taking the murderers under his protection. Louis of Orleans’s widow, Valentina Visconti, cried out for justice, and the royal uncles of Anjou, Berry and Bourbon met the Duke of Burgundy. John the Fearless was unrepentant, claiming that his actions were for the good of the crown, and in the interests of peace the other dukes accepted this. John the Fearless was restored to favour in 1408, but then Valentina Visconti and Louis’s son Charles, the new Duke of Orleans, gained control of the council and banished John.
John then marched on Paris and the other dukes fled to Tours. After months of turmoil, Louis II brokered a peace in March 1409, and at the cathedral of Chartres, the king, the Dauphin and the princes of the blood reconciled with Burgundy. John the Fearless used this as an opportunity to consolidate his power in Paris, and executed the chief of the ‘Marmosets’. This provoked a reaction from the party of Orleans. They fought back and by 1413 had retaken Paris and were in the ascendant throughout the kingdom.39 This was a particularly dangerous time for France, since the accession of the new king of England, Henry V, in 1413 marked the arrival of the most formidable enemy France would face.
Agincourt
Henry V was a remarkably forceful character and the greatest military commander of the age. However, there is something unappealing in his stern inflexibility and ostentatious religiosity; in fact, something very similar to Charles of Anjou. Henry was certainly as ambitious as Charles, and he explicitly set out to reclaim the old Angevin Empire as well as make good Edward III’s claim to the French throne, and he had substantially greater resources in his base of England than Charles had found in Anjou and Provence. In Henry, all of this combined to show how successful a gifted soldier with unlimited ambition could be.
This was especially true when he faced an enemy as fragmented as France now was. John the Fearless had not given up, and attacked Paris unsuccessfully in 1414. His rivals retaliated by threatening to invade Burgundy and depose the duke, and both sides now began to negotiate with Henry V. John the Fearless was prepared to cede Gascony to Henry with some additional lands, but Henry countered by demanding the full settlement from the Treaty of Brétigny plus recognition of his claim to be king of France. At this point, the Burgundians were horrified by the idea of putting the English king on the throne of France, and refused.40
Charles VI’s advisers offered Henry full sovereignty of Aquitaine and to pay the balance of Jean II’s ransom, but Henry toyed with them, continuing the negotiations but asking for more, not less, at each meeting. By summer 1414 Henry’s demand was for Aquitaine, plus Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Poitou and Ponthieu, and he threatened to invade if this were not accepted. The trap was sprung, as Henry had always planned an invasion and had merely been stringing the French along and deepening the divisions between the two factions.
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p; Henry’s decision to resume the war was popular in England, perhaps as a symbol of resurgence after the debacle of Richard II’s reign, as well as a sign of growing national consciousness. Parliament granted Henry generous subsidies for the war, and additional funds were forthcoming from the church and the laity.41
When Henry sailed for France on 11 August 1415, he had a well-armed armada, an impressive artillery train and a coherent strategy. First he besieged and took the port of Harfleur, which would become the forward base for his march on Paris and eventual conquest of France. Harfleur proved difficult to take and the siege dragged on until the city finally surrendered on 22 September, and probably a third of Henry’s army had died in battle or from disease. Henry wasn’t ready to continue the attack until 6 October, and he planned a long march to Calais, which would allow him to pillage Normandy and demonstrate his own power and the impotence of France with its mad king and feuding nobility.
Henry was unaware that the French knew his location, and a French army was on the march. This included most of the great nobles of the royal party and some even of the Burgundians. The Dauphin at the time, Louis of Guyenne, was not allowed to participate given his father’s condition, and the Angevins were also absent; Louis II was debilitated by illness and would die in 1417, and Louis III and René were too young, at the ages of twelve and six respectively. This was fortunate for them. The French pursued the English army until they finally caught up with them on 24 October near the village of Agincourt and blocked the road to Calais. Although the English were heavily outnumbered and had been marching for many days in pouring rain with short provisions, and were exhausted and hungry, they had no choice but to prepare for battle. The situation was so desperate that even Henry thought better of fighting, and offered to give up Harfleur if he were allowed to continue to Calais, but the French countered with a demand that he give up all his claims in France except Gascony, and Henry refused.
Angevin Dynasties of Europe 900-1500 Page 46
