Legitimacy of Charles VII of France: Queen Isabeau reapprais

[Tony Hoskins]

Some time ago I raised the widely circulated claim that Queen Isabeau of
France, in the Treaty of Troyes, declared her own son - later Charles
VII - illegitimate.

I recently read Rachel Gibbon's very interesting, "Isabeau of Bavaria,
Queen of France (1385-1422): The Creation of an Historical Villainess:
The Alexander Prize Essay, _Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society_, 6th Ser., Vol. 6, pp. 51-73. According to Ms. Gibbons this is
just not so (from this article, pp. 70-1):

"Despite popular misinformation about its contents, the Treaty of
Troyes of 1420 is not a source of evidence for this affair [the supposed
liaison of Queen Isabeau and her brother-in-law, Louis, duc
d'Orléans]: it contains no mention of the queen's adultery,
and does not declare the dauphin, the future Charles VII, to be
illegitimate, a bastard of Louis of Orléans or anyone else. The only
mention of Dauphin Charles is in one of the very last articles, which
states that:

Considerez les orrible et énorme crimes et deliz perpetrez oudit
Royaume de france par Charles soy disant daulphin de viennois, Il est
accordé que nous ne nostre filz le Roy henry ne aussi nostre treschier
filz phelippe duc de Bourgoigne ne traicterons aucunement de paix ou de
concorde avecques ledit Charles, ne feron our ferons traictier se non de
conseil et assentement de tous et chascun de nous trios, et des troiz
estas deux Royaumes. [AN X1a 8603, fos. 63-4]

[Ms. Gibbon's translation: Considering the horrific and enormous
crimes perpetrated in the said kingdom by Charles who calls himself
dauphin of Vienne, it is agreed that neither we (Charles VI), nor our
said son King Henry [V of England], nor our very dear son Philip duke of
Burgundy shall negotiate any peace or agreement with the said Charles
without the advice and consent of all and each of us three, and of the
three Estates of our two kingdoms.]

This description of Charles as the 'soy disant daulphin de
viennois' has been taken as a denial of him as the legitimate son
of the king, without recognizing that it was a common device for
insulting one's rivals in legal documentation of the time: for
instance, there has never been any suggestion that Charles, duke of
Orléans thought Jean sans Peur was illegitimate when he wrote a
defiance to the 'soy disant duc de Bourgogne' in 1408. In letters
personally issued by Charles VI on 17 January 1420, it was declared
that, by breaking the peace with his involvement in the assassination of
the duke of Burgundy, his son the dauphin had rendered himself unworthy
to succeed to the throne or any other title, so no one was to give him
aid, acknowledge his rule or support him. Therefore the dauphin in fact
had been disinherited personally by his father before the Treaty of
Troyes was enacted in May: the declarations of the treaty only confirmed
his outlaw status, and recognized the conqueror Henry V as heir to the
throne of France, This was acknowledged as the situation on both sides
of the Channel. In his chronicle, Edward Hall records Henry V
acknowledging Charles as 'the kynges sone' but that saying he has
been deprived of his dignity as heir because: 'contrary to his promise
& against all humaine honestie, (he) was not ashamed to polute & staine
him selfe with the bloud and homicide of the valeaunt duke of
Bugoyne.'

However the Treaty certainly did disinherit the dauphin and, because
Charles VI was unable to appear on 12 May 1420, Isabeau was his
replacement at the ceremony and it is she rather than her husband who
has the perpetual responsibility of having sworn France away in the oath
to uphold the treaty, and of betraying her son."

----

Ms. Gibbons's discussion of the few sources slavishly (in her view)
adhered to in writing of Queen Isabeau over the years is of great
interest. It could be that for once drastic revisionism might be
justified. Should Queen Isabeau be historically rehabilitated? I hope a
full scale scholarly biography is to be anticipated.






Anthony Hoskins
History, Genealogy and Archives Librarian
Sonoma County Archivist
Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library
3rd and E Streets
Santa Rosa, California 95404

707/545-0831, ext. 562

[Gjest]

She was still an unpatriotic bitch.

Compare her conduct to that of Blanche of Castille or Catherine de
Medici or Anne of Austria in similar circumstances!

Jean Coeur de Lapin