Isabella of Bavaria. Victim or monster: what was the Queen of France Isabella of Bavaria like? Isabella's entry into Paris

French Queen Isabella of Bavaria- a very controversial personality, like many other people who have left their mark on history. On the one hand, they say that she regularly tried to fulfill the functions of the king’s wife. She bore him children and tried to reconcile the French, German and English parties that were fighting for power.

Others believe that this woman plunged headlong into promiscuity and various intrigues, including the murder of her own children. Today we will try to tell her story, and you decide for yourself which camp to join.

Early marriage

In the 14th century, the situation in Europe was very tense, so King Charles VI of France was looking for a wife who would primarily be beneficial to the state. True, he was also given a choice: the artists were sent to several eminent families. Of the portraits received, the groom liked Isabella the most.

Contemporaries claim that she was a very sweet girl, but did not correspond to the canons of beauty of the Middle Ages: she had a large mouth, small stature and dark, delicate skin (although court artists painted her in accordance with the rules of that time).

Despite this, at the age of 15 Isabella became the bride and soon the wife of Charles VI. They say that the king was so impressed by the girl’s appearance that he ordered the wedding to take place just a few days after her arrival. So the future queen didn’t have any luxurious dress; she simply didn’t have time to sew it.

Life at court

The first years of the royal couple's life together were spent in a series of feasts and other holidays. One of the reasons, oddly enough, was the early death of the couple’s first child. To cheer up his wife, Karl regularly organized various receptions.

As for governing the state, this responsibility did not greatly concern the king. The country was led by several guardian regents, to whom Charles trusted and delegated his powers.

It was then that the role of King Louis’s younger brother, the Duke of Orleans, intensified. It is said that the young queen had an affair with him from the first years after her wedding. Louis himself was married to Valentina Visconti, who helped raise his illegitimate son. By the way, later this same bastard will become one of the main associates of Joan of Arc.

King's illness

Today, historians argue about the cause of Charles VI's mental illness, which began to occur in 1392. Some say that the whole thing is a matter of ordinary schizophrenia, others argue that the king suffered from systematic poisoning with ergot, which Isabella’s Italian relatives regularly used, which again casts a shadow on the queen.

One way or another, Charles’s condition worsened after the incident that happened on January 28, 1393. Then, during a masquerade ball organized by Isabella in honor of the wedding of her maid of honor, the king came out to the people along with his companions, covered in wax and with hemp glued on top.

At that time, the story of “wild people”, who were portrayed by the king’s companions, was popular. Louis d'Orléans allegedly wanted to take a closer look at the costumes by holding a torch. The hemp caught fire, several people died, and the king was saved by the young duchess, who threw her train over him. The event went down in history as "Ball of the Flames".

After this, Karl’s seizures became more frequent; he might not recognize his wife, rush at people with weapons, or refuse food or clothing. Regretting what he had done, Louis ordered the construction of the Orleans Chapel at his own expense. Although the randomness of what happened was immediately questioned, they say the queen, together with her lover, was trying to get rid of the sick king in this way.

Isabella left her insane husband for the Barbette Palace. It is interesting that at the same time she continued to give birth to his children. This is explained by the fact that during periods of the king’s normal state, the spouses maintained a relationship. But during this period of her life, Isabella was also accused of infidelity.

Policy

Leaving the king, the woman began to engage in politics. At that time, a struggle broke out between two parties, the so-called Armagnacs and Bourguignons. At first, Isabella supported the first, led by Louis of Orleans, but then went over to the leader of the Bourguignons, Jean the Fearless, who killed Louis.

In addition, the woman is accused of not loving her own children. In order for the Lord to help cure the king, Isabella sent her daughter Jeanne to a monastery when she was still little. Son Charles was sent away to marry Mary of Anjou when he was 10 years old. The boy was raised by his future mother-in-law.

The adventures of Isabella’s children do not end there: the woman is accused of the death of another son of Charles, the Dauphin of Vienne (it is worth noting that most modern historians are inclined to believe that Charles died of tuberculosis). But the daughter Michelle, married to the son of Jean the Fearless, was allegedly poisoned by her mother for not following her instructions.

Home guilt and loss of power

Most of all, the French are unhappy with the fact that Isabella took part in the signing of the Treaty of Troyes. According to this document, France practically lost its independence. King Henry V of England was appointed heir to Charles VI.

Subsequently, Charles VII had to fight for the crown with weapons. This is the same confrontation when the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, helped the monarch ascend to the throne.

In 1422, Isabella's husband dies. After this, she lost all influence and ceased to be of interest to political groups. The queen spent the rest of her life alone, lacking basic means of subsistence, and had to fight various illnesses.

As you can see, passions ran high at court at all times, and not only in France. For example, we previously wrote about a story that happened in the 14th century in Portugal.

Author of the article

Ruslan Golovatyuk

The most attentive and observant editor of the team, an intelligent person. He can effectively carry out several tasks at the same time, remembers everything down to the smallest detail, and not a single detail can escape his keen eye. Everything in his articles is clear, concise and to the point. Ruslan also understands sports no worse than professionals, so articles in the corresponding section are his everything.

Isabella of Bavaria (Elizabeth, Isabeau) Queen of France, wife of Charles VI, only daughter of the Bavarian Duke Stefan of Ingolstadt and Taddei Visconti. Thanks to a meeting arranged by her relatives with the young King of France Charles VI on a pilgrimage, on July 18, 1385, Isabella became Queen of France. The first years of marriage, Isabella showed no interest in politics, focusing on court entertainment. In August 1389 she was crowned in Paris, and on this occasion wonderful mysteries were played in the capital. However, after Charles's first attack of madness (August 1392), the queen was forced to support the policy of the Duke of Burgundy, who actually arranged her marriage. Isabella had twelve children, six of whom were born after 1392 (among them Isabella - Queen of England, wife of Richard II, Joan - Duchess of Brittany, wife of Jean de Montfort, Michelle - Duchess of Burgundy, wife of Philip the Good, Catherine - Queen of England, wife Henry V, Charles VII, three of her children died as infants (Charles (+1386), Jeanne (+1390) Philippe (+1407), the second Charles died at the age of ten, two more Louis of Guienne and Jean of Touraine - before the age of twenty).

Very mediocre in appearance and intelligence, the queen was never able to properly learn French, and in politics she showed herself to be narrow-minded and self-interested. The queen's passions include animals (she kept a large menagerie in Saint-Paul) and food, which very soon reflected on her disproportionate figure.

The queen's maintenance cost the treasury 150,000 gold francs annually; she, without hesitation, sent carts of gold and jewelry to her native Bavaria. After the death of Philip of Burgundy in 1404, Isabella supported her brother-in-law Louis of Orléans. She was later accused of treason against the king with the Duke of Orleans, but this is not mentioned in modern sources. There is a hypothesis that the British came up with this story in order to remove the Dauphin Charles from inheriting the throne. After the assassination of Louis d'Orléans (1407) on the orders of Jean the Fearless, Isabella alternately set the Armagnacs and Bourguignons against each other.

She successfully played on the political crisis of 1409, appointing her supporters to key government posts. In 1417, after being accused of treason against the king with the nobleman Louis de Bois-Bourdon (who, after cruel torture, was drowned in the Seine), the queen was imprisoned in Tours with the light hand of constable Bernard d'Armagnac. Freed with the help of the Duke of Burgundy, the queen joined the ranks of the Bourguignons. In May 1420, she arranged the signing of the Treaty of Troyes, according to which her only surviving son Charles was deprived of the right to inherit the French throne, and her son-in-law Henry of England (husband of Catherine Valois) was recognized as regent and heir to the throne of France. However, after the deaths of Henry (August 1422) and Charles VI (October 1422), she lost all political influence. Physically helpless, the overweight queen in the last years of her life could not even move without assistance. During the Paris coronation of her grandson Henry VI, no one even remembered her.

The queen was very limited in funds, the treasury allocated her only a few deniers a day, so Isabella was forced to sell her things. On September 20, 1435, she died at her mansion Barbette and was buried in Saint-Denis without honors.

ISABELLA OF BAVARIAN

Alexandr Duma

Translation from French by B. Weissman and R. Rodina.

The novel by the French writer describes the dramatic episodes of the Hundred Years' War and the bloody feuds of the highest French nobility at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries.

Preface

One of the enviable advantages of the historian, this ruler of bygone eras, is that, surveying his possessions, he only needs to touch with his pen the ancient ruins and decaying corpses, and palaces appear before his eyes and the dead are resurrected: as if obeying the voice of God, according to his will naked skeletons are again covered with living flesh and clothed in elegant clothes; in the vast expanses of human history, spanning three thousand years, it is enough for him, at his own whim, to identify his chosen ones, call them by name, and they immediately raise the gravestones, throw off the shroud, responding, like Lazarus to the call of Christ: “I am here, Lord, what do you want from me?

Of course, one must have a firm tread in order to descend into the depths of history without fear; with a commanding voice to question the shadows of the past; with a confident hand to write down what they dictate. For the dead sometimes keep terrible secrets that the gravedigger buried with them in the grave. Dante's hair turned gray while he listened to Count Ugolino's story, and his gaze became so gloomy, his cheeks were covered with such a deathly pallor that when Virgil again brought him from hell to earth, the Florentine women, guessing where this strange traveler was returning from, told their children , pointing his finger at him: “Look at this gloomy, grieving man - he was descending into the underworld.”

If we leave aside the genius of Dante and Virgil, we can well compare ourselves with them, for the gates that lead to the tomb of the Abbey of Saint-Denis and are about to open before us are in many ways similar to the gates of hell: and above them could stand the same the very inscription. So that if we had Dante's torch in our hands, and Virgil as our guide, we would not have long to wander among the tombs of three reigning families, buried in the crypts of the ancient abbey, in order to find the tomb of a murderer, whose crime would be as heinous as that of Archbishop Ruggieri , or the grave of a victim whose fate is as deplorable as the fate of the prisoner of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

In this vast cemetery, in a niche on the left, there is a modest tomb, near which I always bow my head in thought. On its black marble, two statues are carved next to each other - a man and a woman. For four centuries now they have been resting here, with their hands folded in prayer: the man asks the Almighty why he angered him, and the woman asks for forgiveness for her betrayal. These statues are statues of a madman and his unfaithful wife; For two whole decades, the insanity of one and the love passions of the other served as the cause of bloody strife in France, and it is no coincidence that on the deathbed that united them, following the words: “Here lie King Charles VI, the Blessed, and Queen Isabella of Bavaria, his wife,” the same hand wrote : “Pray for them.”

Here, in Saint-Denis, we will begin to leaf through the dark chronicle of this amazing reign, which, according to the poet, “passed under the sign of two mysterious ghosts - an old man and a shepherdess” - and left only a card game, this mocking and bitter symbol as a legacy to descendants the eternal instability of empires and the human condition.

In this book the reader will find few bright, joyful pages, but too many will bear red traces of blood and black traces of death. For God wanted everything in the world to be painted in these colors, so that he even turned them into the very symbol of human life, making it the motto of the word: “Innocence, passions and death.”

And now let’s open our book, like God opens the book of life, on its bright pages: blood-red and black pages await us ahead.

On the twentieth of August 1389, Sunday, crowds of people began to flock to the road from Saint-Denis to Paris from the very early morning. On this day, Princess Isabella, daughter of Duke Etienne of Bavaria and wife of King Charles VI, made her first ceremonial entry into the capital of the kingdom as Queen of France.

To justify general curiosity, it must be said that extraordinary things were told about this princess: they said that already on their first meeting with her - it was on Friday, July 15, 1385 - the king fell passionately in love with her and with great reluctance agreed with his uncle, the Duke of Burgundy , postpone wedding preparations until Monday.

However, this marriage union in the kingdom was looked upon with great hope; it was known that, when dying, King Charles V expressed a desire for his son to marry a Bavarian princess, in order to thereby become equal to the English king Richard, who married the sister of the German king. The flared passion of the young prince could not have been more consistent with the last will of his father; In addition, the court matrons who examined the bride certified that she was capable of giving the crown an heir, and the birth of a son a year after the wedding only confirmed their experience. Not without, of course, the ominous soothsayers who are found at the beginning of every reign: they prophesied evil, since Friday is not a suitable day for matchmaking. However, nothing has yet confirmed their predictions, and the voices of these people, if they dared to speak out loud, would have been drowned in the joyful cries that, on the day on which we begin our story, involuntarily burst from a thousand lips.

Since the main characters of this historical chronicle - by right of birth or by their position at court - were next to the queen or followed in her retinue, we, with the reader's permission, will now move along with the solemn cortege, already ready to set off and awaiting only the duke Louis of Touraine, the king's brother, whose worries about his toilet, some said, or the night of love, others said, had already been delayed for a full half hour. This way of getting to know people and events, although not new, is very convenient; Moreover, in the picture that we will try to sketch, relying on old chronicles,1 other strokes may not be devoid of interest and originality.

***

We have already said that this Sunday here, on the road from Saint-Denis to Paris, such a crowd of people gathered as if people had come here by order. The road was literally strewn with people, they stood closely pressed to each other, like ears of corn in a field, so that this mass of human bodies, so dense that the slightest shock experienced by any part of it was instantly transmitted to all the rest, began to sway, like like a ripening field swaying with a light breeze.

Introduction

Isabella of Bavaria (Elizabeth of Bavaria, Isabeau; French Isabeau de Bavière, German Elisabeth von Bayern, c. 1370, Munich - September 24, 1435, Paris) - Queen of France, wife of Charles VI the Mad, periodically ruled the state since 1403.

After Charles VI began to suffer from bouts of madness and power actually passed to the queen, she found herself unable to pursue a firm political line and rushed from one court group to another. Isabella was extremely unpopular among the people, especially because of her extravagance. In 1420, she signed a treaty with the English in Troyes, recognizing the English king Henry V as heir to the French crown. In fiction, she has a strong reputation as a libertine, although modern researchers believe that in many ways this reputation could be the result of propaganda.

1. Biography

1.1. Childhood

Most likely, she was born in Munich, where she was baptized in the Church of Our Lady (a Romanesque cathedral on the site of the modern Frauenkirche) under the name “Elizabeth,” traditional for German rulers since the time of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The exact year of birth is unknown. The youngest of two children of Stephen III the Magnificent, Duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, and Taddei Visconti (granddaughter of the Duke of Milan Bernabo Visconti, overthrown and executed by his nephew and co-ruler Gian Galeazzo Visconti). Little is known about the childhood of the future queen. It was established that she received a home education, among other things, was taught to read and write, Latin, and received all the necessary skills for running a household in a future marriage. At the age of 11, she lost her mother. It is believed that her father intended her for marriage with one of the small German princes, so the proposal of the uncle of the French king, Philip the Bold, who asked for her hand in marriage to Charles VI, came as a complete surprise. Isabella was fifteen years old at the time.

1.2. Preparing for marriage

Before his death, King Charles V the Wise ordered his son’s regents to find him a “German woman” as a wife. Indeed, from a purely political point of view, France would have greatly benefited if the German princes had supported its fight against England. The Bavarians also benefited from this marriage. Evran von Wildenberg noted in his Chronicle of the Dukes of Bavaria (German) "Chronik und der fürstliche Stamm der Durchlauchtigen Fürsten und Herren Pfalzgrafen bey Rhein und Herzoge in Baiern")

Despite these considerations, Isabella's father Stefan the Magnificent was very wary of his daughter's proposed marriage. Among other things, he was worried that the French king was also offered Constance, daughter of the Earl of Lancaster, daughter of the King of Scotland, as well as Isabella, daughter of Juan I of Castile, as a wife. The Duke was also alarmed by some of the overly free customs of the French court. Thus, he knew that before marriage, it was customary to undress the bride in front of the court ladies so that they could thoroughly examine her and make a judgment about the future queen’s ability to bear children.

But still, in 1385, the princess was engaged to the seventeen-year-old King of France Charles VI at the suggestion of her uncle Frederick of Bavaria, who met with the French in Flanders in September 1383. The marriage had to be preceded by a “review”, since the French king himself wanted to make a decision. Fearing refusal and the associated shame, Stephen sent his daughter to Amiens, France, under the pretext of a pilgrimage to the relics of John the Baptist. Her uncle was to accompany her on the trip. The words of Stephen, spoken to his brother before leaving, have been preserved:

The route of the cortege to France ran through Brabant and Gennegau, where representatives of the younger branch of the Wittelsbach family ruled. Count Albert I of Bavaria of Gennegau arranged a magnificent meeting for the princess in Brussels and offered his hospitality so that she could rest for a while before continuing her journey. His wife Margarita, sincerely attached to her cousin, during this time managed to give her several lessons in good manners and even completely update her wardrobe, which might have seemed too poor to the French king. Karl, who left Paris to meet on July 6 and arrived in Amiens the day before, was also excited by what was happening and, according to the story of his valet La Riviera, kept him awake all night before the upcoming meeting, tormenting him with questions: “What is she like?”, “When I Will I see her? etc.

1.3. Marriage

Meeting of Charles and Isabella. "The Chronicles of Froissart"

Isabella arrived in Amiens on July 14, not knowing the real purpose of her trip. The French set a condition for the “view” of the prospective bride. She was immediately brought to the king (after changing clothes again, this time in a dress provided by the French, since her wardrobe seemed too modest). Froissart described this meeting and the outbreak of Charles’s love for Isabella at first sight:

On July 17, 1385, the wedding took place in Amiens. The newlyweds were blessed by Bishop Jean de Rollandi of Amiens. A few weeks after the wedding, in memory of this, it was ordered to knock out a medal depicting two cupids with torches in their hands, supposed to symbolize the fire of love between two spouses.

Early (“lucky”) period (1385-1392)

"Years of Celebration"

The day after the wedding, Charles was forced to leave for his troops, who were fighting against the British, who had captured the port of Damm. At the same time, Isabella also left Amiens, having previously donated to the cathedral a large silver dish decorated with precious stones, according to legend, delivered from Constantinople, and until Christmas she remained in the castle of Creil under the tutelage of Blanche of France, the widow of Philip of Orleans. She devoted this time to studying the French language and French history. The young couple spent the Christmas holidays in Paris, and Isabella, having moved into the royal residence - the Hotel Saint-Paul, occupied the apartments that previously belonged to Jeanne of Bourbon, the king's mother. That same winter, the Queen's pregnancy was announced. Early the next year, the queen and her husband attended the wedding of her sister-in-law Catherine of France, who at the age of eight married Jean de Montpellier.

Later, the young couple settled in the castle of Beauté-sur-Marne, which Charles VI chose as his permanent residence. Charles, who was preparing an invasion of England, left for the English Channel coast, while the pregnant queen was forced to return to the castle, where on September 26, 1386 she gave birth to her first child, named Charles after his father. On the occasion of the baptism of the Dauphin, magnificent festivities were organized; Count Karl de Dammartin became his successor from the font, but the child died in December of the same year. To entertain his wife, Charles organized incredibly lavish celebrations in honor of the coming of the next 1387. On January 1, a ball was given at the Hotel Saint-Paul in Paris, which was attended by the king's brother Louis of Orleans and his uncle, Philip of Burgundy, who presented the queen with a “golden table strewn with precious stones.”

Delacroix. "Louis d'Orléans showing off the charms of one of his mistresses."

On January 7 of the same year, Louis d'Orléans became engaged to Valentina, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. After the end of the festivities, the beginning of the royal boar hunt was announced, and Isabella, along with her court, accompanied her husband to Senlis, in July to Val-de-Reil, and finally, in August, to Chartres, where she entered with great solemnity, in honor of the young queen. organized an organ concert. At this time, as Veronica Klan put it, Isabella’s life was “an endless series of celebrations.” In the fall, the queen returned to Paris, where on November 28 she celebrated the wedding of one of her German ladies-in-waiting, Catherine de Fastovrin, with Jean Morelet de Campreny. The bride's dowry, amounting to 4 thousand livres, was fully paid by the queen, and 1 thousand of this amount went to pay off the groom's debts, with the rest of the money lands were purchased, which became Catherine's dowry itself.

At the beginning of the next 1388, as Juvenal des Ursins noted in his chronicle, it was officially announced that Queen Isabella had “carried in her womb” for the second time. To provide for the unborn child, a new tax was introduced by a special decree - the “Queen's Belt”, which brought in about 4 thousand livres from the sale of 31 thousand barrels of wine. The pregnant queen had to stay in Paris in the castle of Saint-Ouen, which previously belonged to the Order of the Star, while the king continued to have fun hunting in the vicinity of Gisors, however, the couple constantly corresponded. On June 14, 1388, at ten o'clock in the morning, a girl named Jeanne was born, but she lived only two years.

On May 1 of the following year, 1389, the queen and her husband attended the magnificent knighting ceremony of the royal cousins, Louis and Charles of Anjou. Celebrations in honor of this event continued for six days, during which tournaments were replaced by religious ceremonies. Michel Pentoine, a Benedictine monk, wrote in his chronicle:

Pentoin did not name the names of the lovers, but modern researchers are inclined to believe that the queen and Louis of Orleans were meant. Indeed, the king’s brother at that time enjoyed a reputation as a heartthrob and a dandy; in the contemptuous expression of Tom Bazin, he “neighed like a horse around beautiful ladies.” There is another point of view - as if it was not about Isabella, but about Margaret of Bavaria, the wife of the Duke of Burgundy, Jean the Fearless. It is also noted that the queen was in her fourth month of pregnancy during the festivities, and she endured her situation quite hard - which already casts doubt on the assumption of adultery.

Isabella's entry into Paris

On August 22, 1389, it was decided to arrange a ceremonial entry of the queen into the capital of France. Isabella was already very familiar with Paris, where she had invariably spent the winter for four years, but the king, who loved magnificent festivities and ceremonies, insisted on organizing a particularly solemn, theatrical procession. The queen, who was then six months pregnant, was carried in a stretcher, accompanied on horseback by Valentina, the wife of Louis of Orleans. Juvenal des Ursins, who left a detailed description of this day, wrote that Paris was richly decorated, wine fountains were flowing in the squares, from which the cupbearing girls filled cups, presenting them to anyone who wanted them. At the Tritite hotel, minstrels presented the battle of the Crusaders with the Arabs of Palestine, with Richard the Lionheart at the head of the Christian army, who invited the King of France to join him in the fight against the “infidels.” The young girl, representing Mary with the baby in her arms, greeted and blessed the queen, while the boys, representing the angels, descended from the height of the arch with the help of a theatrical machine and placed a golden crown on Isabella's head. The Queen later heard Mass in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris and donated to the Holy Virgin the crown presented to her by the "angels", while the Bureau de la Rivière and Jean Lemercier immediately placed an even more expensive crown on her head

At the same time, several townspeople caused confusion in the procession, trying to break into the first rows of spectators, however, law enforcement officers quickly restored calm, rewarding the violators with blows with sticks. Later, the cheerful young king admitted that these violators were himself and several close associates, and their backs were sore for a long time. The next day, Isabella was solemnly crowned in the presence of the king and courtiers at the Sainte-Chapelle. Her wedding and entry into Paris are the most documented episodes of her life; in most chronicles, only the dates of birth of her 12 children are indicated in detail. Historians agree that if not for the tragedy of her husband's madness, Isabella would have spent the rest of her life in quiet anonymity, like most medieval queens.

In November of the same year, a third child was born - Princess Isabella, the future Queen of England. Subsequently, the queen accompanied her husband on his inspection trip to the south of France and made a pilgrimage to the Cistercian abbey in Maubuisson and further to Melun, where on January 24, 1391 she gave birth to her fourth child, Princess Jeanne.

Bavarian born in Paris at the royal residence - ... 000 ecus. Charles VI and Isabel Bavarian retained their titles until their death...

Having learned that Duke Etienne of Bavaria had a delightful fourteen-year-old daughter, Isabeau, Philip the Bold asked to marry her to the King of France. Charles VI was then seventeen. He was endowed with an almost painful sensuality, which was similar to the sexual obsession about which the clergy so lamented. That’s why his eyes shone so much when they described the beautiful German princess to him...

On July 15, smartly dressed Isabeau arrived in Amiens, and she was immediately brought to the king. Froissart breathtakingly described this meeting and Karl’s love for Isabeau, which flared up at first sight:

“When she, embarrassed, approached him and made a low bow, the king carefully took her arm and tenderly looked into her eyes. He felt that she was very pleasant to him and that his heart was filled with love for this young and beautiful girl. He dreamed of only one thing: for her to become his wife.”

The wedding took place on July 18 in the cathedral in Amiens. Everything happened so hastily that most of the court ladies did not have enough time to dress luxuriously, as was customary for such ceremonies. Even Isabeau of Bavaria did not have a wedding dress. Nevertheless, the celebrations were luxurious.

A magnificent banquet was held in the episcopal palace, where counts and barons served. Charles VI, who had been striving for three days to experience the joys of love, took his young wife into his bedroom. After the wedding, the young couple settled in the castle of Beauté-sur-Marne, which Charles VI chose as his permanent residence.

Golden time

Isabella, on the one hand, excited the intriguers, and on the other, gave the young sovereign complete sexual satisfaction. And the fact that he managed to curb his feelings in this way was very useful for him. He became sensible and was possessed by a great thirst for action. And this allowed him to finally take up government affairs.

One morning, after the usual nightly amusements in which he looked like a superior man, intoxicated with his own pride, he rose from bed full of ambitious ideas. Charles decided to resume hostilities against England. A few days later he left for Flanders to review his fleet...

Isabeau was left alone in Botha. This passionate princess, already accustomed to amorous entertainment, felt that loneliness was weighing her down. And, tired of peering into the distance, waiting to see if Karl would appear on the horizon, she decided to take a closer look at the men surrounding her.

First favorites

The first person she noticed was a well-built, very courteous young man. His name was Bois-Bourdon. Isabeau fell in love with this handsome nobleman. She was only fifteen years old, but she made decisions quickly. The next night, after explanations, she became Bois-Bourdon's mistress.

After several days of intimacy, the young favorite not only conquered the power-hungry Isabeau, but also introduced her to the intrigues in Botha. The Queen, without the slightest hesitation, agreed to participate in palace intrigues and frankly admitted that she was ready to use any means to achieve her elevation. She began to think about a plan to fight for the throne.

Before the eyes of the astonished Bois-Bourdon, the young empress turned into a treacherous politician. She coolly proposed options for eliminating the three regents who could hinder her rise.

Queen Isabella of Bavaria. Fragment of a medieval miniature

Isabeau then decided that it was necessary to achieve closer ties with the Duke of Touraine, the king's brother, a handsome, ardent and passionate young man. He was fifteen years old, but he looked like he was eighteen. In addition, he already had some experience in love affairs.

The young Duke of Touraine, realizing what was required of him, tried to prove to his delightful queen that he was a master, as they said then, in the matter of “planting his family tree.” They spent such a stormy night that Isabeau, captivated by the ardent young man, gave herself up entirely to voluptuousness and completely forgot about the political plans that forced her to choose the king’s brother as her lover.

Royal orgies

Isabeau did not immediately decide to get rid of the regents. Not wanting to rush things, she waited patiently for time to start working on her. In the meantime, the queen continued to have fun.

It was at that time that Isabeau created a very obscene “love salon” in Vincennes. In the absence of the king, peculiar festivities with dressing up were held there. Some dressed up as a bird (with feathers glued to the body), others as a fish, or simply appeared in Adam and Eve costumes.

These bacchanalia with copious libations lasted whole nights. The young and passionate queen herself took part in them several times. Such entertainments were ways to exhaust any woman of the best health. They were, of course, designed to satisfy the sensual Isabeau, the strongest and most self-confident woman in France.

Isabella is said to have led an extremely luxurious lifestyle. In particular, historians have calculated that the expenses of the queen’s personal court, which amounted to 30 thousand livres under Joan of Bourbon, increased to 60 thousand under Isabella. She repeatedly used the services of prügelknabe (a kind of “whipping boys”, deputies): she forced her to perform the nine-day prayer in her place. court doctor.

Sometimes she found the strength to leave these violent gatherings in order to again participate in political intrigues and begin a merciless fight against the regents who were interfering with her. Extramarital affairs did not prevent the queen from showing herself as a kind and passionate wife.

During the first two years of her marriage, she had a son and a daughter, for which Charles VI was very grateful to her. The king was as gentle with her as in the first days of their life together. Although Karl was often carried away and courted by pretty ladies-in-waiting, he still took care of his wife, endlessly presenting her with magnificent gifts.

The king decided to organize a punitive campaign against the Duke of Brittany, with whom the Marquis de Craon was hiding. Alas! During this campaign, terrible grief shook France. Charles VI began to show very strong nervousness. He was repeatedly seen "making gestures unworthy of His Majesty the King", and was infuriated by any cry of a child or the sound of a door being opened.

Delacroix. “Charles VI and Odette de Chamdiver” - one of the king’s attacks of madness

Madness of the King

Isabeau decided to take advantage of his painful condition and ensure that the King of France was declared crazy. On the way, an incident was about to happen to the king, all the details of which she had carefully foreseen and which would have instilled such fear in the king that no doctor would ever be able to cure him.

The Duke of Touraine knew about this plan in great detail, since the mission was entrusted to him. And this plan almost failed. The king actually had a seizure, during which Charles VI killed four people.

The Queen immediately gave the event great publicity in order to force Charles VI to abdicate the throne. “The Duke of Touraine must be placed on the throne,” Isabeau told everyone. However, the guardians of Charles VI were not going to give up the reins of power, citing Louis’s youth.

At the end of August, by order of his guardians, Charles VI was taken to the castle of Creil. On June 15, 1394, the poor sovereign suffered a relapse of the disease, and, as the chronicler reports, “his mind became very clumsy.” Isabeau left the residence of Saint-Paul and settled with her lover, the Duke of Touraine, in a mansion in Barbette, which she acquired.

While the King of France wandered the corridors of Saint-Paul in his dirty rags, Isabeau led a very carefree life in her residence in Barbette. However, the magnificent festivities and stormy nights did not make her forget about her power-hungry plans.

Having learned that Charles VI's illness had begun to recede, she visited him, spoke tenderly to him and even agreed to share a bed, despite the disgustingly dirty sheets. Embracing him, she inspired the king with the idea of ​​​​increasing the possessions for the Duke of Touraine by separating the Duchy of Orleans from the royal possessions. The king agreed, and his brother became Duke of Orleans.

Political assassinations

The connection between the queen and the Duke of Orleans, which so outraged the people, aroused even greater indignation among the nobles, who wanted to take advantage of the illness of Charles VI in order to achieve the desired titles and privileges. Among them, the most dissatisfied was John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, the king's cousin. The Queen could not stand this careerist who interfered with the implementation of her plans.

But then she realized that the Duke of Burgundy was brave, cunning, treacherous, cynical and depraved. With such a lover and ally, she could be confident in achieving her goals and decided to replace Louis (who, however, was already beginning to tire of her) with the Duke of Burgundy.

She had a difficult task ahead of her - to seduce this formidable young man. And Isabeau succeeded. One dark night the Duke of Orleans was killed. A terrible scandal broke out. Soon it became known throughout the city that the Duke had been killed on the orders of his cousin. John the Fearless miraculously managed to escape from Paris.

In the end, the kingdom found itself divided into two camps: some supported the Duke of Burgundy, others were on the side of the Duchess of Orleans. Meanwhile, the English king was preparing for military action.

Civil War

The first battle of this internecine war, which lasted twenty-six years and destroyed the kingdom, took place at Agincourt on October 14, 1415. Thirty thousand people were killed in it, the cavalry was completely destroyed, the Duke of Orleans and the Duke of Bourbon were captured.

Despite the tragedy that had broken out in the country, the queen did not want to change her habits and began to organize festivities, which all chroniclers report with indignation. Sometimes she just had obscene ideas.

For example, she loved to walk the streets of Paris with several ladies-in-waiting, dressed as prostitutes, satisfying the lustful desires of university professors... After a secret investigation, it was established that Bois-Bourdon was the inspirer of all the intrigues and the favorite. The king sentenced him to death.

A few days after the execution of Bois-Bourdon, the Dauphin Charles, together with Constable d'Armagnac, gave the order for the arrest of the queen, and she was sent under reliable guard, first to Blois, then to Tours. There she eked out a very painful existence.

She managed to escape from there with the help of the Duke of Burgundy. But soon John the Fearless died during an attempted coup. After the death of her lover, Isabeau hated her son, the 16-year-old Dauphin Charles, even more. She spread rumors that he was illegitimate, and as a result her son Charles VII was disinherited.

Indeed, the queen deeply mourned the death of her lover. She was mourning not just a lover, but her last lover. She was already fifty years old, and in a few months she had gained incredible weight. Isabeau understood perfectly well that there was no chance of luring beautiful, young and passionate gentlemen into her bed.

Assassination of John the Fearless

Battle with the Dauphin

Having brought charges against her son for the murder of John the Fearless at a time when the Burgundian group was the most significant in France, she was confident that she would be able to raise almost the entire kingdom against the Dauphin.

While the Dauphin was trying to gather all his supporters in Poitiers, Isabeau came to Paris in order to establish an even closer relationship with Philip of Burgundy, the son of her lover.

At another time, she would undoubtedly have become his mistress, which she always did in order to subjugate a man and gain an ally. But she understood perfectly well that she was no longer suitable for this. And then Isabeau married her daughter Michelle, a charming blonde with blue eyes and a flexible figure, to Philip.

The Duke of Burgundy immediately fell in love with this beautiful person and happily married her. He paid her a lot of attention. And Isabeau rejoiced at their marriage. But soon the old queen noticed that Michel, whose influence over Philip was growing every day, also had tender feelings for her brother the Dauphin.

Isabeau was afraid that her daughter might try to reconcile the two men and thereby disrupt her plans. She gave the order, and three days later the lovely Duchess of Burgundy died of poisoning. Philip's grief was inconsolable. Did he suspect something? Unknown. But, in any case, his attitude towards the queen changed dramatically from that day on.

As soon as Michelle was buried, the English king, on whose help Isabeau was counting, suddenly began to experience severe pain, from which he died. And two months later, on October 20, 1422, at the residence of Saint-Paul, Charles VI gave his sick soul to God.

At the same time, in Poitiers, her son, who, as Isabeau believed, was finally removed from the throne, was crowned by his followers under the name of Charles VII.

The kingdom was officially divided into two parts. One of them was ruled by a French king, rejected by his mother; in another, on behalf of a foreign baby, a regent...

Death of Isabella

The civil war between the Armagnacs and Bourguignons flared up with renewed vigor. It was Isabeau who gave the British the idea to burn Joan of Arc, whom she hated for helping her son Charles VII. After the death of the Maid of Orleans, nine-year-old Henry VI, Isabeau's grandson, was crowned.