Excerpt from Schillers Jungfrau Von Orleans: Eine Romantische Trag�die

French at Crecy (1345) and Poitiers the first phase of that war had ended in the Peace of Bretigny (1360) by which the captive French King, John II, ceded to Edward III a large section of Southwestern France. This lost territory was indeed regained subsequently by Charles V, but with his death in I 380 and the accession of Charles VI, a child of twelve, internal dis sensions, fostered by partisans of his brother, Louis of Orleans, and later by the intemperate passions of his wife, Isabeau of Bavaria, greatly weakened the forces of order. After 1392, the king became subject to periods of insanity, and John the F ear less Duke of Burgundy, was able to gain possession of the reins of government in the northern provinces while Louis with the help of Queen Isabeau dominated the South.' Anarchy and oppression followed. In 1407 partisans of the Duke of Bur gundy assassinated Louis, but the. Southern party under the headship of Count d'armagnac gained control of Paris. Then Burgundy appealed to England. This gave Henry IV an oppor tunity to reassert the shadowy claims abandoned at the Peace of Bretigny. His more daring successor, Henry V, invaded Normandy and in 1415 gained a great victory at Agincourt. Then Isabeau, who had been banished from the court of her son, then Dauphin and afterward Charles VII, made common cause with Burgundy, who, secure in the benevolent neutrality of Henry V, gained control of Paris by treachery. The Eng lish having captured Rouen, the Dauphin in desperation began negotiations with the Duke of Burgundy, but while these were pending the Duke was murdered by some partisan who thus avenged the death of Louis of Orleans. This seemed to the duke's son and successor, Philip, afterward known as The Good, a valid excuse for joining Isabeau in negotiating with Henry the treaty of Troyes by which the English king was declared regent of France during the life of the mad Charles VI and heir to his throne. Northern France at first acceded to this arrangement; the South held by the Dauphin.

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