Charles VI of France
Charles VI ruled France for forty-two years while suffering recurrent psychosis, and his incapacity nearly cost the country its independence. Born in Paris in 1368, the son of Charles V, he acceded at eleven under the regency of his uncles, who plundered the treasury his father had accumulated. He took power at twenty in 1388, dismissed his uncles, recalled his father's able officials — nicknamed the Marmousets — and governed well enough to be called Charles the Beloved. In August 1392, riding through a forest near Le Mans in great heat, he was startled by a page dropping a lance and attacked his own escort, killing several knights before being subdued. It was the first of some forty episodes over thirty years. Between them he was lucid and functioned; during them he did not know his own name, refused to bathe for months, believed he was made of glass and had iron rods sewn into his clothing to prevent shattering, and did not recognise his wife. Power reverted to his uncles and to his brother Louis of Orléans, whose rivalry with John the Fearless of Burgundy split the kingdom. Louis was murdered in a Paris street in 1407 on Burgundian orders, and the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war followed. Henry V invaded a divided country and destroyed the French nobility at Agincourt in 1415. The Treaty of Troyes in 1420, signed while Charles was incapable and pushed by his wife and the Burgundians, disinherited his own son and made Henry V heir to France. He died in 1422, weeks after Henry.
- Lived: 1368 CE – 1422 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
