French King, Charles V

CHARLES V
Charles V (21 January 1338 – 16 September 1380), called the Wise (French: "le Sage"), was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1364 to his death. In 1349, as a young prince, Charles received from his grandfather King Philip VI the province of Dauphiné to rule.

Charles V coin

 This allowed him to bear the title "Dauphin" until his coronation, which led to the integration of the Dauphiné into the crown lands of France.

After 1350, all heirs apparent of France bore the title of Dauphin until their coronation.

Charles became regent of France when his father John II was captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.

To pay the ransom, Charles had to raise taxes and deal with the hostility of the nobility, led by Charles the Bad, King of Navarre; the opposition of the French bourgeoisie, which was channeled through the Estates-General led by Etienne Marcel; and with peasant revolts known as Jacqueries. Charles overcame all of these rebellions, but in order to liberate his father, he had to conclude the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, in which he abandoned large portions of south-western France to Edward III of England and agreed to pay a huge ransom.

Charles V 

Charles became king in 1364. With the help of talented advisers known as the Marmousets, his skillful management of the kingdom allowed him to replenish the royal treasury and to restore the prestige of the House of Valois. He established the first permanent army paid with regular wages, which liberated the French populace from the companies of routiers who regularly plundered the country when not employed.

Charles V 

Led by Bertrand du Guesclin, the French Army was able to turn the tide of the Hundred Years' War to Charles' advantage, and by the end of Charles' reign, they had reconquered almost all the territories ceded to the English in 1360.

Charles was crowned King of France in 1364 at the Cathedral of Reims. The new king was highly intelligent, but closed-mouthed and secretive, with sharp eyes, a long nose and a pale, grave manner.

He suffered from gout in the right hand and an abscess in his left arm, possibly a side-effect of an attempted poisoning in 1359. Doctors were able to treat the wound but told him that if it ever dried up, he would die within 15 days. His manner may have concealed a more emotional side; his marriage to Joan of Bourbon was considered very strong, and he made no attempt to hide his grief at her funeral or those of his children, five of whom predeceased him.

His reign was dominated by the war with the English and two major problems: recovering the territories ceded at Brétigny and ridding the land of the Tard-Venus (French for "latecomers"), mercenary companies that turned to robbery and pillage after the treaty was signed. In achieving these aims, Charles turned to a minor noble from Brittany named Bertrand du Guesclin.

Charles V 

 Nicknamed "the Black Dog of Brocéliande", du Guesclin fought the English during the Breton War of Succession and was an expert in guerrilla warfare.

Du Guesclin also defeated Charles II of Navarre at the Battle of Cocherel in 1364 and eliminated his threat to Paris. In order to lure the Tard-Venus out of France, Charles first hired them for an attempted crusade into Hungary, but their reputation for brigandage preceded them, and the citizens of Strasbourg refused to let them cross the Rhine on their journey. Charles next sent the mercenary companies (under the leadership of du Guesclin) to fight in a civil war in Castile between King Peter the Cruel and his illegitimate half-brother Henry. Peter had English backing, while Henry was supported by the French.

Charles V 

Du Guesclin and his men were able to drive Peter out of Castile in 1365 after the capture of the fortresses of Magallon and Briviesca and the capital Burgos. But the Black Prince, now serving as his father's viceroy in southwestern France, took up Peter's cause.

Charles V 

 At the Battle of Nájera in April 1367, the English defeated Henry's army. Du Guesclin was captured after a memorable resistance and ransomed by Charles V, who considered him invaluable.

The Black Prince, affected by dysentery, soon withdrew his support from Peter. The English army suffered badly during the retreat. Four English soldiers out of five died during the Castillan Campaign. In 1369, du Guesclin renewed the attack against Peter, defeating him at the decisive Battle of Montiel.

Henry stabbed the captive Peter to death in du Guesclin's tent, thereby gaining the throne of Castile. Bertrand was made Duke of Molina, and the Franco-Castillan alliance was sealed. Charles V could now resume the war against England under favourable conditions.

French King, Charles IV

CHARLES IV
Charles IV (Clermont 18/19 June 1294 – Vincennes 1 February 1328), called the Fair (le Bel) in France and the Bald (el Calvo) in Navarre, was the last direct Capetian King of France and King of Navarre (as Charles I) from 1322 to his death. Charles was the third son of Philip IV; like his father, he was known as "the fair" or "the handsome".

Charles IV and Isabella

Beginning in 1323 Charles was confronted with a peasant revolt in Flanders, and in 1324 he made an unsuccessful bid for the elective German monarchy. As duke of Guyenne, Edward II of England was a vassal of Charles, but he was reluctant to pay homage to another king. In retaliation, Charles conquered the Duchy of Guyenne in a conflict known as the War of Saint-Sardos (1324). In a peace agreement, Edward II accepted to swear allegiance to Charles and to pay a fine. In exchange, Guyenne was returned to Edward but with a much-reduced territory. Above: Charles IV and Isabella of France, Queen of England. Miniature from the Chronicles of St. Denis or Grandes Chroniques de France , copy copied for Charles V and part of the library of the Duke of Berry.

Charles IV

When Charles IV died without male heir, the senior lineage of the House of Capet ended. He was succeeded by his cousin Philip of Valois, but the contested legitimacy was one factor of the Hundred Years' War.

The crusades remained a popular cause in France during Charles' reign.

His father, Philip IV, had committed France to a fresh crusade and his brother, Philip V, had brought plans for a fresh invasion close to execution in 1320.

Their plans were cancelled, however, leading to the informal and chaotic Shepherds' Crusade.

Charles entrusted Charles of Valois to negotiate with Pope John XXII over a fresh crusade. Charles, a keen crusader who took the cross in 1323, had a history of diplomatic intrigue in the Levant – he had attempted to become the Byzantine emperor earlier in his career. The negotiations floundered, however, over the Pope's concerns whether Charles IV would actually use any monies raised for a crusade for actual crusading, or whether they would be frittered away on the more general activities of the French crown. Charles of Valois's negotiations were also overtaken by the conflict with England over Gascony.

Charles IV

After the death of Charles of Valois, Charles became increasingly interested in a French intervention in Byzantium, taking the cross in 1326. Andronicus II responded by sending an envoy to Paris in 1327, proposing peace and discussions on ecclesiastical union.

A French envoy sent in return with Pope John's blessing later in the year, however, found Byzantium beset with civil war, and negotiations floundered.

The death of Charles the next year prevented any French intervention in Byzantium. Charles IV died in 1328 at the Château de Vincennes, Val-de-Marne, and is interred with his third wife, Jeanne d'Évreux, in Saint Denis Basilica, with his heart buried at the now-demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris. Like his brothers before him, Charles died without a surviving male heir, thus ending the direct line of the Capetian dynasty. Twelve years earlier, a rule against succession by females, arguably derived from the Salic Law, had been recognised – with some dissent – as controlling succession to the French throne.

The application of this rule barred Charles's one-year-old daughter Mary, by Jeanne d'Évreux, from succeeding as the monarch, but Jeanne was also pregnant at the time of Charles' death. Since she might have given birth to a son, a regency was set up under the heir presumptive Philip of Valois, son of Charles of Valois and a member of the House of Valois, the next most senior branch of the Capetian dynasty.

Blanche of Valois

After two months, Jeanne gave birth to another daughter, Blanche, and thus Philip became king and in May was consecrated and crowned Philip VI. Edward III of England argued, however, that although the Salic law should forbid inheritance by a woman, it did not forbid inheritance through a female line – under this argument, Edward should have inherited the throne, forming the basis of his claim during the ensuing Hundred Years War (1337–1453).

English King, Richard II

RICHARD II ENGLAND
Richard II (6 January 1367 – c. 14 February 1400), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed on 30 September 1399.

Richard II coin

 Richard, a son of Edward, the Black Prince, was born in Bordeaux during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III.

Richard was the younger brother of Edward of Angoulême, upon whose death, Richard, at three years of age, became second in line to the throne after his father.

Upon the death of Richard's father prior to the death of Edward III, Richard, by primogeniture, became the heir apparent to the throne. With Edward III's death the following year, Richard succeeded to the throne at the age of ten.

During Richard's first years as king, government was in the hands of a series of councils. Most of the aristocracy preferred this to a regency led by the king's uncle, John of Gaunt, yet Gaunt remained highly influential. The first major challenge of the reign was the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

The young king played a major part in the successful suppression of this crisis. In the following years, however, the king's dependence on a small number of courtiers caused discontent among the influential, and in 1387 control of government was taken over by a group of aristocrats known as the Lords Appellant. By 1389 Richard had regained control, and for the next eight years governed in relative harmony with his former opponents.

Richard II coin

In 1397, Richard took his revenge on the appellants, many of whom were executed or exiled.

The next two years have been described by historians as Richard's "tyranny". In 1399, after John of Gaunt died, the king disinherited Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, who had previously been exiled. Henry invaded England in June 1399 with a small force that quickly grew in numbers. Claiming initially that his goal was only to reclaim his patrimony, it soon became clear that he intended to claim the throne for himself.

Meeting little resistance, Bolingbroke deposed Richard and had himself crowned as King Henry IV.

Richard II

Richard died in captivity in February 1400; he is thought to have been starved to death, although questions remain regarding his final fate.

Richard was said to have been tall, good-looking and intelligent. While probably not insane, as earlier historians believed, he may have had what modern psychologists would call a "personality disorder" towards the end of his reign.

Less warlike than either his father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years' War that Edward III had started.

He was a firm believer in the royal prerogative, something which led him to restrain the power of the aristocracy, and to rely on a private retinue for military protection instead; in contrast to the fraternal, martial court of his grandfather, he cultivated a refined atmosphere at his court, in which the king was an elevated figure, with art and culture at the centre.

Richard's posthumous reputation has to a large extent been shaped by Shakespeare, whose play Richard II portrayed Richard's misrule and his deposition by Bolingbroke as responsible for the fifteenth century Wars of the Roses. Modern historians do not accept this interpretation, while not exonerating Richard from responsibility for his own deposition. Most authorities agree that, even though his policies were not unprecedented or entirely unrealistic, the way in which he carried them out was unacceptable to the political establishment, and this led to his downfall.

German King, Otto II

OTTO II
Otto II (955 – December 7, 983), called the Red (Rufus), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.

Otto II

Otto II was made joint-ruler of Germany in 961, at an early age, and his father named him co-Emperor in 967 to secure his succession to the throne. His father also arranged for Otto II to marry the Byzantine Princess Theophanu, who would be his wife until his death.

When his father died after a 37-year reign, the eighteen-year-old Otto II became absolute ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in a peaceful succession. Otto II spent his reign continuing his father's policy of strengthening Imperial rule in Germany and extending the borders of the Empire deeper into southern Italy.

Otto II also continued the work of Otto I in subordinating the Catholic Church to Imperial control. Early in his reign, Otto II defeated a major revolt against his rule from other members of the Ottonian dynasty who claimed the throne for themselves.

His victory allowed him to exclude the Bavarian line of Ottonians from the line of Imperial succession. This strengthened his authority as Emperor and secured the succession of his own son to the Imperial throne. With domestic affairs settled, Otto II would focus his attention from 980 onward to annexing the whole of Italy into the Empire. His conquests brought him into conflict with the Byzantine Empire and with the Muslims of the Fatimid Caliphate, who both held territories in southern Italy.

Otto II coin

After initial successes in unifying the southern Lombard principalities under his authority and in conquering Byzantine-controlled territory, Otto II's campaigns in southern Italy ended in 982 following a disastrous defeat by the Muslims. While he was preparing to counterattack Muslim forces, a major uprising by the Slavs broke out in 983, forcing the Empire to abandon its major territorial holdings east of the Elbe river. Otto II died suddenly in 983 at the age of 28 after a ten-year reign. He was succeeded as Emperor by his three-year-old son Otto III, plunging the Empire into a political crisis.

Otto II coin

Otto II was born in 955, the third son of the King of Germany Otto I and his second wife Adelaide of Italy. By 957, Otto II's older brothers Henry (born 952) and Bruno (born 953) had died, as well as Otto I's son from his first wife Eadgyth, the Crown Prince Liudolf, Duke of Swabia. With his older brothers dead, the two-year-old Otto II's became the Kingdom's crown prince and Otto I's heir apparent. Otto I entrusted his illegitimate son, Archbishop William of Mainz, with Otto II's literary and cultural education. Margrave Odo, commander of the Eastern March, taught the young crown prince the art of war and the kingdom's legal customs.

Otto II

Needing to put his affairs in order prior to his descent into Italy, Otto I summoned a Diet at Worms and had Otto II elected, at the age of six, co-regent in May 961. Otto II was later crowned by his uncle Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne, at Aachen Cathedral on May 26, 961. While Otto I had secured succession of the throne, he had violated the Kingdom's unwritten law that succession rights could only be granted to a child who has reached the age of majority. He was likely motivated by the high-risk associated with his expedition into Italy to claim the Imperial title from the Pope.

Otto I crossed the Alps into Italy, while Otto II remained in Germany, and the two Archbishops, Bruno and William, were appointed as his regents. After three and a half year absence in Italy, Otto I returned to Germany early in 965 as Holy Roman Emperor. In order to give the hope of dynastic continuity after his death, Otto I again confirmed Otto II as his heir on February 2, 965, the third anniversary of Otto I's coronation as Emperor.

In July 983, Pope Benedict VII, a longtime Ottonian supporter, died of natural causes after having reigned for almost ten years. Otto II returned to Rome in September to name a new Pope, selecting the Bishop of Pavia Pietro Canepanova (who reigned as Pope John XIV) in November or early December. While Otto II was in Rome overseeing the election of a new pope, a malaria outbreak in central Italy prevented the resumption of military activity in southern Italy.

Otto II

The outbreak ultimately led to the death of the Emperor himself: he died in his palace in Rome at the age of 28 on December 7, 983, after having reigned for just over a decade. Otto II's money and possessions were divided among the Catholic Church, the poor of the Empire, his mother Adelaide and sister Matilda, and those nobles loyal to him. Otto II was then buried in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica, becoming the only German ruler to be buried in a foreign country instead of in Germany.

Otto II's three-year-old son Otto III was crowned as King of Germany in Aachen on Christmas Day in 983, three weeks after his father's death. Otto III was crowned by Willigis, the Archbishop of Mainz, and John, the Archbishop of Ravenna. News of Otto II's death first reached Germany after Otto III's coronation.The unresolved problems in southern Italy and the Slavic uprising on the Empire's eastern border made the Empire's political situation extremely unstable. The arrival of a minor on the Imperial throne threw the Empire into confusion, allowing Otto III's mother, the Byzantine Princess Theophanu, to reign as his regent.

In 976, Otto II had deposed Henry II as Duke of Bavaria and imprisoned him. In early 984, Henry II escaped from his imprisonment by the Bishop of Utrecht. Free from his confinement, he seized the infant Otto III and, as a member of the ruling Ottonian dynasty, claimed the regency of the Empire for himself. Henry II eventually went so far as to claim the German throne outright, obtaining the allegiance of Mieszko I of Poland and Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia. Henry II's claims were supported by Archbishop Egbert of Trier, Archbishop Gisilher of Magdeburg, and Bishop Dietrich I of Metz.

 Otto III's right to the throne, however, was supported by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz and the Dukes of Saxony, Bavaria, and Swabia. The threat of war from Willigis and Conrad I, Duke of Swabia forced Henry II to relinquish Otto III on June 29, 984 and to respect the regency of Theophanu. The early death of Otto II and the ensuing events proved to be a serious test for Empire. Despite having a child under the regency of his mother as a ruler, the structure established by Emperor Otto the Great remained strong as most of the Empire's most powerful officials stayed loyal to the Imperial system.