Civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundian

The civil war between Armagnacs and Bourguignons is a conflict which devastated France, already fights about it with England during the Guerre One hundred Year old.

First steps

The historical context is that of the Guerre One hundred Year old and of the Great schism of Occident. The conflict finds its roots under the reign of Charles VI.

In fact, these are two economic systems, sociétaux and religious different which face. On the one hand France, very favoured country by agriculture, with a feudal system and strong monk. In addition England, with the rainy climate supporting the pastures and thus the breeding of the sheep, which sells its wool to the clothiers of Flanders: country where the craft industry, the middle-class and the cities take importance. The Bourguignons are favorable to the English model (more especially as the Flanders belongs to the duchy of Burgundy), while the Armagnacs defend the French model. Same manner, the great schism of occident involved the election of a antipape which sits at Avignon (Clément VII) and is supported by the Armagnacs, whereas the pope of Rome (Urbain VI) is supported by the English.

Charles VI being insane, the queen (Isabeau of Bavaria) chairs starting from 1393 a council of regency, where the large ones of the kingdom sit. The uncle of Charles VI, the duke of Burgundy Philippe Bold the, which was regent with the minority of the king (of 1380 to 1388), is fine policy and influences the queen (it had organized the royal marriage during his regency). This influence will be gradually diverted by Louis of Orleans, the brother of the king who is even suspected of being the lover of the queen. With died of Philippe Bold the, his son Jean without Fear, related to Isabeau, will still lose influence. The other uncles de Charles VI are less influential on regency: the duke of Anjou is monopolized by the management of the kingdom of Naples and the duke of Berry (Jean de Berry) is used especially as mediator between the parties of Orleans (future Armagnacs) and of Burgundy whose competition will increase gradually, to lead to a true civil war.

To counter the territorial expansion of the duchy of Burgundy (which has the Flanders), the duke of Orleans acquires in gagère Luxembourg in 1402.

While Louis of Orleans, tie of the royal Treasury the nine tenth of his incomes, buys grounds and fortified towns in the Eastern steps of the kingdom that the Burgundian ones regard as an exclusive domain, Jean Without Peur, which does not have the prestige of fire his/her father, sees drying up royal generosities. Whereas the father received two hundred and thousand books per annum, the son must be satisfied with thirty-seven thousand.

The duke of Orleans, son-in-law of Jean Galéas Visconti and holder of more or less hypothetical strongholds in the peninsula, wants to utilize Charles VI militarily in his favor. Moreover, it seems to want to make break the Franco-English truce, going until causing Henri IV of Lancaster in duel, which Jean Without Peur cannot admit, because the Flemish industrialists depended completely on the wool imports on on the other side of the channel and would have been ruined by an embargo.

The quarrel respects the courteous forms first of all: Jean Without Peur adopted the nettle like emblem, Louis of Orleans the knotty stick. Incontinent, the duke of Burgundy takes the plane for badge and distributes " rabotures" , or money chips, with its partisans: It launches out in a seduction campaign where it deploys treasures of demagogy (it promises for example falls of taxes and to reform the state i.e. to accept a controlled monarchy). It thus allures the merchants, the small people and the university

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