It seems extraordinary, considering the impoverished condition of the finances and the dreadful state of affairs in general when they came to the throne, that the King and Queen should have been able to spend the sums they did upon buildings, books, treasures of art, and all cultivated and intellectual pursuits. But their wise and good management was so successful in altering the disastrous state of things caused by the follies and misfortunes of their predecessors, that they were able to spend money with royal magnificence upon the aims and objects they preferred.
Jeanne was clear-headed and sensible, and the economy and order she introduced into the royal household was considered an excellent example. She sold a quantity of costly plate to help pay the troops of Du Guesclin in 1369, and so contributed to the successful result of the war with England; after which they began to collect again.
LADY OF THE COURT.
But their daily life was surrounded by magnificence, as may be seen by a list made later on by order of the King, in which appear all sorts of precious and costly things. Statuettes of gold and silver, exquisite carvings in ivory, quantities of gold dishes, plates, candlesticks, basins, salt-cellars, drinking cups, knives and spoons; very few forks—there were only three at Vincennes, of which one belonged to the Queen. Jewels and precious stones in profusion, sets of hangings for rooms—that is to say portières; carpets, hangings, canopies, curtains for windows and beds, some of silk, others cloth of gold or velvet; one is mentioned as being entirely of cloth of gold, with a cross of red velvet embroidered with several coats of arms; another of green with stripes of gold. Spanish leather, richly embroidered cushions, costly tents to put over the Queen’s bath, called espreniers. One of these is described as being made of white satin, embroidered with roses and fleurs-de-lis; others were blazoned with the arms of France and Navarre.[51] Every now and then some curious little incident seems to give a touch of life and interest to this old list, such as a little gold barrel and chain with the arms of Burgundy, which the King always had with him and which had belonged to his grandmother, Jeanne de Bourgogne; the gold serpents on the salt-cellars with their tongues in the salt, which were supposed to reveal the presence of any poison that might have been put in; a crown à bassinet set with jewels, probably belonging to King Jean, who was in the habit of wearing a crown on his helmet in battle, regardless of the additional danger of proclaiming his rank; and in the midst of this catalogue of splendour “item, an old mattress all torn and the pillow the same, which had belonged to King Jean.” Two banners of France covered with fleurs-de-lis and bordered with pearls, to drive away the flies when the King was at table; dog-collars of velvet and silver, green game bags embroidered with pearls, inkstands, purses, whips, leather lanterns. The contents are given of some coffers or boxes the King always took about with him and of which he kept the keys. Amongst the rare cameos, jewels, gold chaplets, &c., was the holy stone to make women have children, and another stone which cured the gout.
Different things are mentioned as having belonged to Charlemagne and St. Louis. There were also gold basins to wash in, and gold vases to put the remains of repasts to give to the poor. Bas-reliefs of gold, generally of sacred subjects, and all the things belonging to the chapels, such as chalices, crucifixes, missals, crosses, statues, hangings, reliquaries, paternosters, &c., most costly and beautiful. An immense number of crowns and coronets seem to have belonged to the King, Queen, and Princesses, and jewelled girdles, clasps, and rings are also enumerated among their possessions.
Charles and Jeanne at the beginning of their reign lived chiefly at the Louvre and at Vincennes, where he ordered four of the inhabitants of the village of Montreuil to watch against poachers every night in the forest. At Vincennes had been born on June 7, 1366, “entre tierce et midi,” another daughter to the King and Queen. She was christened four days afterwards in the chapel there and named Jeanne, her god-parents being the Duc de Berry, the two Queens dowager, Jeanne d’Evreux and Blanche de Navarre, and Marguérite, Countess of Flanders and Artois. But the same ill-luck seemed to pursue the children of Charles and Jeanne as had followed those of Philippe de Valois and Jeanne de Bourgogne; for this little princess also died the following December, and was buried at St. Denis, leaving the King and Queen again childless.