When Isabeau arrived at the French court the chief members of the royal family were the King, his brother Louis, Comte de Valois, and Duc de Touraine, who, though only fourteen, was already a soldier, having fought at the King’s side in the battle of Rosebecques, in Flanders, when he was scarcely twelve years old, wearing a small suit of armour he had insisted on having made on purpose; and the little Princess Catherine,[99] who lived with her grandmother at St. Marcel but came often to Vincennes and the other palaces of her brother. Next in rank were the two uncles of the King, the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy, who, with the Duc de Bourbon, were now regents and guardians of the King and kingdom, for the Duc d’Anjou had been adopted as her heir by Giovanna, Queen of Naples and Sicily, and had left France for his new inheritance two or three years before. Chief among the princesses were the famous Queen Blanche of Navarre, widow of Philippe de Valois, the King’s great-grandfather; Blanche, Duchesse d’Orléans, widow of Philippe, the King’s great uncle, and daughter of Charles IV., the last king of the elder Capétienne House; and Marguérite, Duchesse de Bourgogne, the heiress of Flanders, wife of the last Capétien and the first Valois Dukes of Burgundy.[100] In the case of the two last-named princesses, Charles left his young wife at Creil when, a few days after their wedding, he started for Flanders to make war upon the contumacious city of Gand, or Ghent. He returned in September and conducted the Queen to Paris; but they did not then make a state entry into the capital, as was usual on such occasions.
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Although the majority of the King had been fixed at fourteen years by his father, who considered a boy at that age a less objectionable ruler for France than the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy; they had managed to keep the government in their hands until now. But Charles was exceedingly tired of their interference and strongly urged on by Louis and Isabeau, resolved to get rid of them. He observed one day to his brother: “Beau frère, il est temps que je gouverne comme a fait mon père, et je ne veux souffrir mie l’autorité et volonté des beaux oncles de Berry et Bourgogne le peuple aussi trop fort s’en plaint et souffre de leurs faits.”[101] And shortly afterwards he informed his two uncles, much to their consternation, that he intended for the future to govern his own kingdom. But he took care to keep with him his uncle Louis, Duc de Bourbon, whom he loved. The frank, loyal, affectionate, and sympathetic nature of the Duke, his chivalrous tastes, and the really paternal care with which he had watched over his nephews, had won their warmest affection[102]; and now that his influence was no longer weakened by their other uncles, immediate reforms were the result of his wise counsels. Taxes were reduced, certain corrupt officials dismissed, a truce of three years was made with the English, the trusty Juvenal des Ursins was made provost of Paris, and all these measures were received with unqualified approval throughout the kingdom.
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The extravagance of the court, and especially of the royal family, prevented any improvements of this kind from lasting long. No queen before her had ever been consumed by such a passion for dress, luxury, and pleasure, as Isabeau de Bavière; never had such boundless extravagance been seen, even at the brilliant court of the Valois.[103] Towards the end of September of the year after the marriage of Charles and Isabeau, a son was born to them at the château de Beauté, the favourite resort of Charles V., on the edge of the forest of Vincennes. The birth of the Dauphin was, as usual, received with acclamations, and proclaimed by couriers all over the kingdom. It was also usual on such occasions that the King and Queen should endow churches, remit taxes and debts, and distribute alms to the poor. But they did none of these things, and when, shortly after, the little Dauphin Charles died, every one said that was the reason, especially as during all that autumn there were frightful storms, and it was said[104] that many crows had been seen flying about, dropping hot ashes from their beaks on the thatched roofs of barns, of which many were set on fire.[105]
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It was the eve of the Holy Innocents when the Dauphin died, and he was carried that night by torchlight, with a grand procession of nobles, to St. Denis, and buried there in the chapel of his grandfather, Charles V. A daughter was Isabeau’s next child, born at the Louvre in 1387. She was called Isabelle, and married Richard II., King of England. In 1388 was born a second daughter, Jeanne, at the Maison Royale de St. Ouen, à l’heure de prime. She died in infancy.
In his interesting study of Isabeau de Bavière, M. Vallet de Viriville says that in the portrait painted of her in 1383 we see a young girl “qui rayonnait d’innocence: telle elle était sortie des mains de l’universel auteur,”[106] and goes on to ask by what means she could have fallen from such a height to such a depth of infamy. But it seems improbable that this description could ever have applied to Isabeau de Bavière. Except that she was remarkably beautiful, we hear very little about her childhood. The chroniclers of her father’s court indeed said that she possessed admirable beauty, elegant manners, and exquisite virtue. But at the time this was written, Isabeau was probably twelve or thirteen years old; and could hardly have done any great good or harm. During her whole career, beginning at the day when, at fourteen years old, she became Queen of France, there does not seem to have been any great difference in her way of going on; by which we may gather that she was one of the sort of women one meets every now and then who are always surrounded with a turmoil of quarrels, discredit, and difficulties caused by themselves, into which everybody who goes near them is sure to be drawn. We meet them in novels, we meet them in history, we meet them in real life; and when we do, we know that there will be no more peace till they are gone. But, fortunately, we do not meet them as powerful and irresponsible rulers, like Isabeau de Bavière. And we can perhaps imagine what a calamity such a head of society was for France.
Inordinately vain, selfish, capricious, too shallow either really to love or hate, extravagant and yet avaricious, with no sense and no scruples, this young girl, scarcely out of childhood, not knowing a word of French, and having been brought up in the distant castle of a Bavarian noble, was suddenly placed at the head of the court of France, the gayest and most splendid in Europe, with every one at her feet, her will supreme except for the nominal control of a dissipated, extravagant boy only two years older than herself, and very much in love with her. Isabeau began by introducing many foolish and exaggerated fashions in dress which, with all their richness, had neither the grace nor the distinction of the costume of the last two or three reigns. For instance, she increased the height of the tall headdresses called hennins so enormously that those who wore them could not get through the doors without stooping; some of them also had horns. Very long pointed open sleeves were worn, large wide sashes of silk or cloth of silver, and a surcot, which was a sort of garment something like a chasuble. Sometimes the surcots had slits and openings to show the dress underneath, of which the preachers loudly complained. These surcots had been worn in the former reigns. Dogskin and chamois-skin boots and gloves lined with fur were also worn. One of the court costumes was a surcot open at the sides and a corsage of cloth of gold.[107] Evening dresses were worn for the first time open at the neck and bosom, and arms were no longer blazoned upon the robes.
As to men’s dress, the Valois had made a great change about the middle of the fourteenth century. Long tunics were quite done away with, and they now wore short doublets and justaucorps reaching to the knee, hoods with long points hanging down to the loins, round or pointed hats with plumes and brims looped up behind, cloaks with scolloped edges, open in front or behind, chausses, a kind of stockings of a different colour for each leg and sometimes with soles to them instead of shoes. Shoes were still worn with points to the toes.[108]