Бавариялық Изабелла: Франция королевасының тарихы

Queen of France from 1385 to 1422

Isabeau of Bavaria (or Isabelle; also Elisabeth of Bavaria Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – September 1435) was Queen of France from 1385 to 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach as the only daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. At age 15 or 16, Isabeau was sent to France to marry the young King Charles VI; the couple wed three days after their first meeting. Isabeau was honored in 1389 with a lavish coronation ceremony and entry into Paris. In 1392, Charles suffered the first attack of what was to become a lifelong and progressive mental illness, resulting in periodic withdrawal from government. The episodes occurred with increasing frequency, leaving a court both divided by political factions and steeped in social extravagances. A 1393 masque for one of Isabeau's ladies in waiting—an event later known as Bal des Ardents—ended in disaster with the King almost burning to death. Although the King demanded Isabeau's removal from his presence during his illness, he consistently allowed her to act on his behalf. In this way she became regent to the Dauphin of France (heir apparent), and sat on the regency council, allowing her far more power than was usual for a medieval queen. Charles' illness created a power vacuum that eventually led to the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War between supporters of his brother, Duke Louis I of Orléans, and the royal dukes of Burgundy. Isabeau shifted allegiances as she chose the most favorable paths for the heir to the throne. When she followed the Armagnacs, the Burgundians accused her of adultery with Louis of Orléans; when she sided with the Burgundians, the Armagnacs removed her from Paris and she was imprisoned. In 1407, John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, assassinated Orléans, sparking hostilities between the factions. The war ended soon after Isabeau's eldest son, Charles, had John the Fearless assassinated in 1419—an act that saw him disinherited. Isabeau attended the 1420 signing of the Treaty of Troyes, which decided that the English king should inherit the French crown after the death of her husband, Charles VI. She lived in English occupied Paris until her death in 1435. Isabeau was popularly seen as a spendthrift and irresponsible philanderess. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries historians re examined the extensive chronicles of her lifetime, concluding that many unflattering elements of her reputation were unearned and stemmed from factionalism and propaganda.

Isabeau's parents were Duke Stephen III of Bavaria Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti, the eldest child of Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan, who turned her over to Duke Stephen for a dowry of 100,000 ducats. During this period, Bavaria was counted among the most powerful German states, divided though it was at certain times among members of the House of Wittelsbach. at the Church of Our Lady. Her notable Wittelsbach ancestors included her great grandfather Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV. In 1383, Isabeau's uncle, Duke Frederick of Bavaria Landshut, suggested that she be considered as a bride for King Charles VI of France. The match was proposed again at the lavish Burgundian double wedding in Cambrai in April 1385. At this event, John, Count of Nevers (who became known as John the Fearless after he succeeded his father Philip the Bold as duke of Burgundy in 1404) married Margaret of Bavaria, whereas John's sister, Margaret of Burgundy, married Duke William II of Bavaria Straubing, one of the brothers of Margaret of Bavaria. Charles, then 17, rode in the tourneys at the wedding. He was an attractive, physically fit young man who enjoyed jousting and hunting and was anxious to be married. As part of his duties as a member of the regency council that governed France during the minority of Charles VI, the king's uncle, Philip the Bold, thought that the proposed marriage to Isabeau would be an ideal means to build an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire in opposition to the crown of England. Isabeau's father reluctantly agreed to the plan and sent her to France with his brother Frederick on the pretext of taking a pilgrimage to Amiens, whose Cathedral housed a celebrated relic of the time (the reputed head of John the Baptist). Before her presentation to Charles, Isabeau visited Hainaut for about a month, staying with her granduncle Duke Albert I, Count of Holland, who also ruled part of the hereditary Wittelsbach territories of Bavaria Straubing. Albert's wife, Margaret of Brieg, had Isabeau discard her Bavarian style of dress, which would have been deemed unsuitable as courtly attire in France, and taught her etiquette suitable for the French court. She learned quickly, suggestive of an intelligent and quick witted character. On 13 July 1385, she traveled to Amiens to be presented to Charles. She did not yet speak French and may not have reflected the idealized beauty of the period, perhaps inheriting her mother's dark Italian features, which were considered unfashionable at the time. Nonetheless, Charles and Isabeau were married just three days later. Charles seemingly loved his young wife, and he lavished gifts on her. On the occasion of their first New Year in 1386, he gave her a red velvet palfrey saddle trimmed with copper and decorated with an intertwined K and E (for Karol and Elisabeth), and he continued to give her gifts of rings, tableware and clothing. As Isabeau crossed the Grand Pont to Notre Dame, a person dressed as an angel descended from the church by mechanical means and "passed through an opening of the hangings of blue taffeta with golden fleurs des lis, which covered the bridge, and put a crown on her head." The angel was then pulled back up into the church. An acrobat carrying two candles walked along a rope suspended from the spires of the cathedral to the tallest house in the city.

In 1392, Charles suffered the first of what was to become a lifelong series of bouts of insanity when, on a hot August day outside Le Mans, he attacked his retinue, including his brother Orléans, killing four men. After the attack he fell into a coma that lasted four days. Few believed he would recover. His uncles, the dukes of Burgundy and Berry, took advantage of his illness to seize power quickly by re establishing themselves as regents and dissolving the so called Marmouset council, a group of clerics and lesser nobles who had advised Charles V. The uncles of Charles VI ruled France as members of a regency council during his minority between 1380 and 1388. The Marmousets then returned as royal counselors until Charles VI became ill. Modern historians speculate that he may have suffered from the onset of paranoid schizophrenia. The comatose king was returned to Le Mans, where Guillaume de Harsigny—a venerable 92 year old physician—was summoned to treat him. Charles regained consciousness and his fever subsided; he was gradually returned to Paris in September. Charles suffered a second and more prolonged attack of insanity the following June; it removed him from his duties for about six months and set a pattern that would hold for the next three decades as his condition deteriorated. Froissart described the bouts of illness as so severe that the King was "far out of the way; no medicine could help him", although he had recovered from the first attack within months. For the first 20 years of his illness, he experienced sustained periods of lucidity to the extent that he could continue to rule. Suggestions were made to replace him with a regent, although there was uncertainty and debate as to whether a regency could assume the full role of a living monarch. During the worst of his illness, Charles was unable to recognize her and caused her great distress by demanding her removal when she entered his chamber. The Monk of St Denis wrote in his chronicle, "What distressed her above all was to see how on all occasions  the king repulsed her, whispering to his people, 'Who is this woman obstructing my view? Find out what she wants and stop her from annoying and bothering me. As his illness worsened at the turn of the century, she was accused of abandoning him, particularly when she moved her residence to the Hôtel Barbette. Historian Rachel Gibbons speculates that Isabeau wanted to distance herself from her husband and his illness, writing, "it would be unjust to blame her if she did not want to live with a madman." Since the King often did not recognize her during his psychotic episodes and was upset by her presence, it was eventually deemed advisable to provide him with a mistress, Odette de Champdivers, the daughter of a horse dealer. According to Tuchman, Odette is said to have resembled Isabeau and was called "the little Queen". She had probably assumed this role by 1405 with Isabeau's consent, but during his remissions, the King still had sexual relations with his wife, whose last pregnancy occurred in 1407. Records show that Isabeau was in the King's chamber on 23 November 1407, the night of the assassination of the duke of Orléans, and again in 1408. The King's bouts of illness continued unabated until his death. He and Isabeau may have still felt mutual affection, and Isabeau exchanged gifts and letters with him during his periods of lucidity, but she distanced herself during the prolonged attacks of insanity. Historian Tracy Adams writes that Isabeau's attachment and loyalty is evident in the great efforts she made to retain the crown for his heirs in the ensuing decades.

Isabeau's movements and political activities are well documented after the time of her marriage, partially because of the unusual positions of power she occupied as a result of her husband's recurring illnesses. Nevertheless, not much is known about her personal characteristics historians even disagree about her appearance. She is variously described as "small and brunette" or "tall and blonde"; contemporaneous evidence is contradictory—chroniclers said of her either that she was "beautiful and hypnotic, or so obese through dropsy that she was crippled." Despite her continuous residence in France from the time of her marriage as a teenager, she spoke with a heavy German accent that never diminished. Tuchman describes this as giving her an "alien" cast at the French court. Charles VI attained sole control of the monarchy when was crowned King in 1387 at the age of 20. His first acts included the dismissal of his uncles who had been acting as regents and the reinstatement of the so called Marmousets—a group of clerics and lesser nobles who had served as councilors to his father, Charles V. Additionally, he gave his brother, the duke of Orléans, more responsibility in affairs of state. Some years later, after the King's first attack of illness, tensions mounted between the duke of Orléans and the three royal uncles: Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; John, Duke of Berry; and Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. Forced to assume a greater role in maintaining peace amidst the growing power struggle, which was to persist for many years, Isabeau succeeded in her role as peacekeeper among the various court factions. The duke of Orléans, who was married to Gian Galeazzo's daughter Valentina, formed a pro Visconti faction at court in alliance with the Duke of Burgundy. An anti Visconti faction formed in opposition to them that included Isabeau, her brother Louis VII, Duke of Bavaria, and John III, Count of Armagnac. At that time, Isabeau lacked the political power to effect change. Some years later, however, at the 1396 wedding of her seven year old daughter Isabella to Richard II of England, Isabeau successfully negotiated an alliance between France and Florence with the Florentine ambassador Buonaccorso Pitti. In the 1390s, Jean Gerson, later the Chancellor of the University of Paris, formed a council to eliminate the Western Schism, and in recognition of her negotiating skills, he placed Isabeau on the council. The French wanted both the Avignon and Roman popes to abdicate in favor of a single papacy in Rome; Clement VII in Avignon welcomed Isabeau's presence given her record as an effective mediator. However, the effort faded when Clement VII died in 1394. In appointing Isabeau, Charles acted under laws enacted by his father, Charles V, which gave the Queen full power to protect and educate the heir to the throne. These appointments separated power between Orléans and the royal uncles, increasing ill will among the factions. and in the following decade Isabeau and Orléans agreed to raise the level of taxation. Rumors that Isabeau and Orléans were lovers began to circulate, a relationship that was considered incestuous. Whether the two were intimate has been questioned by contemporary historians, including Gibbons who believes the rumor may have been planted as propaganda against Isabeau as retaliation against tax increases she and Orléans ordered in 1405. At about the same time, a satirical political pamphlet called Songe Veritable, now considered by historians to be pro Burgundian propaganda, was released and widely distributed in Paris. The pamphlet hinted at the Queen's relations with Orléans. John the Fearless accused Isabeau and Orléans of fiscal mismanagement and again demanded money for himself, in recompense for the loss of royal revenues after his father's death; The incident, that came to be known as the enlèvement of the dauphin, almost caused full scale war, but it was averted. Orléans quickly raised an army while John encouraged Parisians to revolt. They refused, claiming loyalty to the King and his son; Berry was made captain general of Paris and the city's gates were locked. In October, Isabeau became active in mediating the dispute in response to a letter from Christine de Pizan and an ordinance from the Royal Council.

In 1407, John the Fearless ordered Orléans' assassination. hired killers attacked the duke as he returned to his Paris residence, cut off his hand holding the horse's reins, and "hacked [him] to death with swords, axes, and wooden clubs". His body was left in a gutter. John first denied involvement in the assassination, His royal uncles, shocked at his confession, forced him to leave Paris while the Royal Council attempted a reconciliation between the Houses of Burgundy and Orléans. In March 1408, Jean Petit presented a lengthy and well attended justification at the royal palace before a large courtly audience. practiced sorcery and necromancy, was driven by greed, and had planned to commit fratricide at the Bal des Ardents. Petit then argued that John should be exonerated because he had defended the King and monarchy by assassinating Orléans. Charles, "insane during the oration", was convinced by Petit's argument and pardoned John the Fearless, only to rescind the pardon in September. At this point, the Queen and her influence were still crucial to the power struggle. Physical control of Isabeau and her children became important to both parties and she was frequently forced to change sides, for which she was criticized and called unstable. Isabeau's actions with respect to John the Fearless angered the Armagnacs, who in the fall of 1410 marched to Paris to "rescue" the Dauphin from the Duke's influence. At that time, members of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson in particular, proposed that all feuding members of the Royal Council step down and be immediately removed from power. To defuse tension with the Burgundians, a second double marriage was arranged in 1409. Isabeau's daughter Michelle married Philip the Good, son of John the Fearless; Isabeau's son, the Dauphin Louis, married John's daughter Margaret. Before the wedding, Isabeau negotiated a treaty with John the Fearless in which she clearly defined family hierarchy and her position in relation to the throne.