In January the Dauphin Charles, who had been gradually growing thinner and weaker, faded away and died. His doctors could not find out what was the matter nor do him any good. The King, who was just then in his right mind, went to St. Denis to pray for him; the Dukes of Burgundy, Bourbon, and Orléans went to Ste. Catherine and Notre Dame for the same purpose, and prayers and processions went on everywhere, but he died on the 11th of January in the middle of the night.[193]
The next brother, Louis, became Dauphin, and the youngest, Jean, then two years old, was created Duc de Touraine. The duchy of Guyenne was also added to the territory of the Dauphin.
The Queen’s father, Stephan of Bavaria, came to France this year and remained some time. He was again a widower and Isabeau wanted to marry him to the widow of the last Sire de Coucy who had great possessions, but the princes objected to placing a Bavarian in a powerful position close to Paris, so it had to be given up.
The King’s attacks got no better; he had six during 1399. Sometimes he was childish, played, laughed, and ran about all over the hôtel St. Paul or wherever he happened to be, so that they had to wall up a great many of the entrances and places he could fall out of. At other times he was raving and furious, so that it was dangerous to approach him, and sometimes sad and melancholy. The Queen was not entirely separated from him, because every now and then he got well and then they were together and he gave his orders and often tried to put to rights the mischief and wrong done in his absence, and recalled friends who had been exiled or imprisoned. He had insisted on Juvenal des Ursins, provost of Paris, being left with him and not molested, and it was of no use for his enemies to try to prevent it. He would not listen to them, but exclaimed angrily, “Where is my provost? I will have my provost!” He was well for part of the summer of 1400, and was at services of thanksgiving in consequence at St. Denis and Notre Dame, but was soon after taken ill again and not well till Christmas. The Princess Catherine was born October 27th, at St. Paul.
In spite of the King’s frequent attacks of madness, the Queen contrived to amuse herself very well. From what one can gather from the records of the times she seems to have been generally on good terms with him when he was well, and not to have allowed the pleasures and diversions of her life to be interfered with when he was ill. The court was still disturbed and excited by the rivalry of the Duchesses of Burgundy and Orléans, but Isabeau, who, if she had been a different sort of woman, could and ought to have ruled them both, did nothing of the kind. She hated the Duchess of Burgundy and was rather inclined to be jealous of Valentine, but still on the whole seems to have got on well enough with her notwithstanding her liaison with the Duc d’Orléans. Louis and Isabeau were nearly always together; they made excursions and gave balls and dinners and suppers at St. Paul, the hôtel Barbette, and other places; they hunted and drove in the royal forests and their proceedings created continual gossip and scandal in society and all over Paris. Louis at the same time was carrying on a more than usually scandalous intrigue[194] with the beautiful wife of the Sire de Canny, which is noticeable because the result of it was the birth of the great Dunois, the far-famed Bastard of Orléans, renowned in French song and story.
The Queen and her children lived chiefly at the hôtel St. Paul, going backwards and forwards between it and the Palais, spending two or three weeks at one and then at the other, making excursions and visits to other of the royal castles in the neighbourhood. The plague, or, as they called it, “the mortality,” was still a good deal about, and there are notices of men sent to find out if it was safe to go to different places, as for instance, Jehan Charron was sent by the Queen to Crécy with letters to the receveur to ask if “the mortality” was there, and another man on another occasion to ride all night somewhere to make the same inquiry; and as Isabeau again sent two or three times in April to different places it must have still been going on. She also went to St. Ouen and borrowed a litter from the Abbot of Coulons.[195] On May 31st she seems to have returned from some excursion, for she dined and supped at the hôtel Barbette and went to St. Paul to sleep. Isabeau and Louis, with their suites, would often go out to dine and sup at one of these châteaux, especially as the days grew long and the weather hot. Baignolet, or Bagnolet, near Romainville, with its wood of elms and other trees, was another of the Queen’s country-places where they sometimes went, returning to Paris at night. But the distress, confusion, and poverty in the kingdom were increasing rapidly, and the people murmured as the sounds of music and merriment were heard from the windows of the hôtel Barbette or the cavalcades of Louis and Isabeau, with their splendid dresses, trappings, and horses swept through the streets or passed out of the gates of Paris.
They were both very fond of horses and rode well, and wherever she was Isabeau had numbers of pet animals. Plenty of dogs, both large and small, monkeys which played about in her rooms, an enormous aviary of all sorts of birds, French and foreign, which sang and chattered all about her palaces, for there were parrots amongst them as well as doves and little birds. When she moved she took them with her, and was always buying more or having them given to her.[196]
All her children were with her at this time except the Queen of England, who was expected before long, and the little nun at Poissy—that is to say, her two boys, her second daughter, Jeanne, Duchesse de Bretagne, who still lived with her, and the little Michelle and Catherine. There is an account of the offerings made by the Queen and the four elder children at Circumcision, Epiphany, Candlemas, Easter, and all the great festivals. The children all gave the same.
Also of enormous quantities of sweetmeats and bonbons made “for the Queen and enfants de France (at the New Year); that is to say, for nos seigneurs the Dukes of Guyenne and Touraine, and nos dames the Duchesse de Bretagne et Michelle de France.” Dragées, coriander, paste du roy, preparations of cinnamon, rose sugar, sugared nuts (perhaps pralines), and various others in great quantities and several times; sometimes twenty pounds, sometimes forty, and then, as one can well imagine, medicines for the Dukes of Guyenne and Touraine.
Also frequently paper and bottles of ink for the Queen, and money paid to the messengers who carried her letters on many occasions to the King, the Duc and Duchesse d’Orléans, to various abbots, abbesses, and different people.[197]