Isabella of Bavaria. Preparing for marriage

french queen Isabella of Bavaria- a very controversial personality, like many other people who left their mark on history. On the one hand, they say that she regularly tried to fulfill the functions of the king's wife. She gave birth to children for him and tried to reconcile the French, German and English parties that fought for power.

Others believe that this woman plunged headlong into promiscuity and various intrigues, including the murder of her own children. Today we will try to tell her story, and you decide for yourself which camp to join.

early marriage

In the XIV century, the situation in Europe was very tense, so the king of France, Charles VI, was looking for a wife who would be beneficial to the state in the first place. True, he was also given a choice: the artists were sent to several eminent families. Of the portraits received, the groom liked Isabella the most.

Contemporaries claim that she was a very sweet girl, but did not correspond to the canons of beauty of the Middle Ages: she had a large mouth, small stature and swarthy delicate skin (although court artists painted her in accordance with the rules of that time).

Despite this, at the age of 15, Isabella became the bride, and soon the wife of Charles VI. It is said that the king was so impressed with the appearance of the girl that he ordered the wedding to take place a few days after her arrival. So the future queen did not have any luxurious dress, they simply did not have time to sew it.

Life at court

The first years of the royal couple's life together took place in a series of feasts and other holidays. One of the reasons, oddly enough, was the quick death of the couple's first child. To cheer up his wife, Karl regularly arranged various receptions.

As for the administration of the state, this duty did not greatly excite the king. The country was led by several guardian regents, whom Charles trusted and delegated his powers.

It was then that the role of the younger brother of King Louis, Duke of Orleans, intensified. It is said that the young queen had a relationship with him from the first years after her marriage. Louis himself was married to Valentina Visconti, who helped raise his illegitimate son. By the way, later this same bastard will become one of the main associates of Joan of Arc.

king disease

Today, historians argue over what caused the mental illness of Charles VI, the attacks of which began to occur in 1392. Some say that the whole thing is ordinary schizophrenia, others argue that the king suffered from systematic ergot poisoning, which Isabella's Italian relatives regularly used, which again casts a shadow on the queen.

One way or another, Charles's condition worsened after the incident that happened on January 28, 1393. Then, during a masquerade ball arranged by Isabella in honor of the wedding of her maid of honor, the king went out to the people, along with his companions, smeared with wax and with hemp glued on top.

At that time, the story about "wild people" was popular, which were portrayed by the king's companions. Louis d'Orleans allegedly wanted to take a closer look at the costumes by holding a torch. The hemp caught fire, several people died, and the king was saved by the young duchess, who threw her plume over him. The event went down in history as "Ball of the Flames".

After that, Karl's seizures became more frequent, he could not recognize his wife, throw himself at people with weapons, refuse food or clothes. Regretting what he had done, Louis ordered the construction of the Orleans Chapel at his own expense. Although the chance of what happened was immediately called into question, they say the queen, along with her lover, thus tried to get rid of the sick king.

From her insane husband, Isabella left for Barbette Palace. Interestingly, while she continued to give birth to his children. This is explained by the fact that during periods of the normal state of the king, the spouses maintained relations. But during this period of life, accusations of treason also rained down on Isabella.

Politics

Leaving the king, the woman began to engage in politics. At that time, a struggle broke out between the two parties, the so-called Armagnacs and Bourguignons. At first, Isabella supported the first, led by Louis of Orleans, but then went over to the leader of the Bourguignons, Jean the Fearless, who killed Louis.

In addition, the woman is accused of disliking her own children. In order for the Lord to help heal the king, Isabella sent her daughter Jeanne to a monastery when she was still young. Son Charles was expelled to marry Mary of Anjou when he was 10 years old. The boy was raised by his future mother-in-law.

The adventures of Isabella's children do not end there: the woman is accused of the death of another son of Charles, the Dauphin of Vienne (it is worth noting that most current historians are inclined to believe that Charles died of tuberculosis). But the daughter Michelle, married to the son of Jean the Fearless, was allegedly poisoned by her mother for not following her instructions.

Home guilt and loss of power

Most of all, the French are unhappy with the fact that Isabella took part in the signing of the treaty at Troyes. According to this document, France practically lost its independence. Charles VI's heir was King Henry V of England.

Subsequently, Charles VII had to fight for the crown with weapons. This is the same confrontation when the maiden of Orleans, Joan of Arc, helped the monarch to ascend the throne.

Isabella's husband dies in 1422. After that, she lost all influence and ceased to be of interest to political groups. The Queen spent the rest of her life alone, lacking the basic means of subsistence and having to contend with various illnesses.

As you can see, passions were in full swing at the court at all times, and not only in France. For example, earlier we wrote about a story that happened in the 14th century in Portugal.

Article author

Ruslan Holovatyuk

The most attentive and observant editor of the team, a man of intellect. It can simultaneously effectively perform several tasks, remembers everything to the smallest detail, and not a single detail will escape from its vigilant gaze. Everything in his articles is clear, concise and on the shelves. And Ruslan understands sports as well as professionals, so articles in the corresponding section are everything.

Introduction

Isabella of Bavaria (Elizabeth of Bavaria, Isabeau; French Isabeau de Bavière, German Elisabeth von Bayern, c. 1370, Munich - September 24, 1435, Paris) - Queen of France, wife of Charles VI the Mad, from 1403 periodically ruled the state.

After Charles VI began to suffer from bouts of insanity and power, in fact, passed to the queen, she was unable to pursue a firm political line and rushed from one court group to another. Isabella was extremely unpopular with the people, especially because of her extravagance. In 1420, she signed a treaty with the British at Troyes, recognizing the English King Henry V as heir to the French crown. In fiction, she has a persistent reputation as a libertine, although modern researchers believe that in many ways such a reputation could be the result of propaganda.

1. Biography

1.1. Childhood

Most likely, she was born in Munich, where she was baptized in the Church of Our Lady (the Romanesque cathedral on the site of the modern Frauenkirche) under the name "Elizabeth", traditional for German rulers since the time of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The exact year of birth is unknown. The youngest of two children of Stephen III the Magnificent, Duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, and Taddei Visconti (granddaughter of the Duke of Milan Bernabò Visconti, deposed and executed by his nephew and co-ruler Gian Galeazzo Visconti). Little is known about the childhood of the future queen. It is established that she was educated at home, among other things, she was taught to read and write, Latin and received all the necessary skills for housekeeping in her future marriage. She lost her mother at the age of 11. It is believed that her father intended her for marriage with one of the minor German princes, so the offer of the uncle of the French king, Philip the Bold, who asked for her hand for Charles VI, was a complete surprise. Isabella was fifteen at the time.

1.2. Preparing for marriage

King Charles V the Wise before his death obliged the regents of his son to find him a "German" wife. Indeed, from a purely political point of view, France would seriously benefit if the German princes supported her struggle with England. The Bavarians also benefited from this marriage. Evran von Wildenberg noted in his "Chronicle of the Dukes of Bavaria" (German. "Chronik und der fürstliche Stamm der Durchlauchtigen Fürsten und Herren Pfalzgrafen bey Rhein und Herzoge in Baiern")

Despite these considerations, Isabella's father Stephen the Magnificent was very wary of his daughter's proposed marriage. Among other things, he was worried that the French king was also offered as a wife Constance, daughter of the Earl of Lancaster, daughter of the King of Scotland, as well as Isabella, daughter of Juan I of Castile. The duke was also alarmed by some of the overly free customs of the French court. So, he knew that before marriage, it was customary to undress the bride in front of the ladies of the court so that they could thoroughly examine her and make a judgment about the ability of the future queen to bear children.

But still, in 1385, the princess was engaged to the seventeen-year-old king of France, Charles VI, at the suggestion of her uncle Frederick of Bavaria, who met with the French in Flanders in September 1383. The marriage had to be preceded by a "review", since the French king himself wanted to make a decision. Fearing rejection and the shame associated with it, Stephen sent his daughter to the French Amiens under the pretext of a pilgrimage to the relics of John the Baptist. Her uncle was to accompany her on the trip. Stefan's words, spoken to his brother before leaving, have been preserved:

The path of the motorcade to France ran through Brabant and Gennegau, where representatives of the younger branch of the Wittelsbach family ruled. Count of Gennegau Albert I of Bavaria gave the princess a magnificent reception in Brussels and offered his hospitality so that she could rest for a while before continuing her journey. His wife Margarita, sincerely attached to her cousin, during this time managed to give her several lessons in good manners and even completely update her wardrobe, which might seem too poor to the French king. Karl, who left Paris to meet on July 6 and arrived in Amiens the day before, was also agitated by what was happening and, according to the story of his valet La Riviere, did not let him sleep all night on the eve of the upcoming meeting, harassing him with the questions “What is she like?”, “When I will I see her?" etc.

1.3. Marriage

Meeting of Charles and Isabella. "Chronicles of Froissart"

Isabella arrived in Amiens on July 14, not knowing the real purpose of her trip. The French set the condition for the "review" of the intended bride. She was immediately brought before the king (dressed again, this time in a dress provided by the French, as her wardrobe seemed too modest). Froissart described this meeting and Karl's love for Isabella that broke out at first sight:

On July 17, 1385, the wedding took place in Amiens. The young people were blessed by Bishop of Amiens Jean de Rollandi. A few weeks after the wedding, it was ordered to knock out a medal in memory of this, depicting two cupids with torches in their hands, supposed to symbolize the fire of love between two spouses.

Early ("happy") period (1385-1392)

"Festive Years"

The day after the wedding, Charles was forced to leave for his troops, who were fighting against the British, who had captured the port of Damm. Then Isabella also left Amiens, having previously donated to the cathedral a large silver dish adorned with precious stones, according to legend, delivered from Constantinople, and until Christmas she remained in the castle of Creil under the care of Blanca of France, the widow of Philip of Orleans. She devoted this time to studying the French language and the history of France. The young couple spent the Christmas holidays in Paris, and Isabella, having entered the royal residence - the Saint-Paul Hotel, occupied the apartment that previously belonged to Jeanne of Bourbon, the mother of the king. That same winter, the queen's pregnancy was announced. At the beginning of the following year, the queen, along with her husband, attended the wedding of her sister-in-law, Catherine of France, who at the age of eight married Jean de Montpellier.

Later, the young couple settled in the castle of Bothe-sur-Marne, which Charles VI chose as his permanent residence. Charles, who was preparing an invasion of England, departed for the English Channel, while the pregnant queen was forced to return to the castle, where on September 26, 1386 she gave birth to her first child, named Charles in honor of his father. On the occasion of the baptism of the Dauphin, magnificent festivities were arranged, Count Karl de Dammartin became his godfather from the font, but the child died in December of the same year. To entertain his wife, Charles arranged incredibly magnificent festivities in honor of the next year 1387. On January 1, a ball was given at the Saint-Paul Hotel in Paris, which was attended by the king's brother Louis of Orleans and his uncle, Philip of Burgundy, who brought the queen "a golden table studded with precious stones".

Delacroix. "Louis d'Orléans demonstrating the charms of one of his mistresses."

On January 7 of the same year, Louis d'Orléans became engaged to Valentina, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. After the end of the festivities, the beginning of the royal boar hunt was announced, and Isabella, together with her court, accompanied her husband to Senlis, in July - to Val-de-Rei, and finally, in August - to Chartres, where she entered with great solemnity, in honor of the young queen staged an organ concert. At this time, in the words of Veronica Clan, Isabella's life was "an endless series of festivities." In autumn, the queen returned to Paris, where on November 28 she celebrated the marriage of one of her German ladies-in-waiting, Catherine de Fastovrin, to Jean Morel de Campreny with pomp. The bride's dowry, which amounted to 4 thousand livres, was fully paid by the queen, and 1 thousand of this amount went to pay the groom's debts, the rest of the money was used to purchase land that became Katerina's own dowry.

At the beginning of the following year, 1388, as Juvenal des Yursin noted in his chronicle, it was officially announced that Queen Isabella had “carried in her womb” for the second time. To provide for the unborn child, a new tax was introduced by a special decree - the "Queen's belt", which brought about 4 thousand livres from the sale of 31 thousand barrels of wine. The pregnant queen had to stay in Paris in the castle of Saint-Ouen, which previously belonged to the Order of the Star, while the king continued to have fun hunting in the vicinity of Gisors, however, the couple constantly corresponded. On June 14, 1388, at ten o'clock in the morning, a girl named Jeanne was born, but she lived only two years.

On May 1 of the following 1389, the queen, along with her husband, attended a magnificent ceremony of knighting the royal cousins - Louis and Charles of Anjou. Festivities in honor of this event continued for six days, during which tournaments were replaced by religious ceremonies. Michel Pentoine, a Benedictine monk, wrote in his chronicle:

The names of the lovers Pentoine did not name, however, modern researchers are inclined to think that the queen and Louis of Orleans were meant. Indeed, the king's brother at that time enjoyed a reputation as a heartthrob and a dandy, in the contemptuous expression of Tom Bazin, he "neighed like a horse around beautiful ladies." There is another point of view - as if it was not about Isabella, but about Margaret of Bavaria, the wife of the Duke of Burgundy Jean the Fearless. It is also noted that the queen was four months pregnant during the festivities, and she endured her position quite hard - which already casts doubt on the assumption of adultery.

Isabella's Entry into Paris

On August 22, 1389, it was decided to arrange a solemn entry of the queen into the capital of France. Isabella was already well acquainted with Paris, where she spent the winter for four years, but the king, who loved magnificent festivities and ceremonies, insisted on organizing a particularly solemn, theatrical procession. The queen, who was then six months pregnant, was carried in a stretcher, accompanied on horseback by Valentine, the wife of Louis of Orleans. Juvenal des Yursin, who left a detailed description of this day, wrote that Paris was richly decorated, wine fountains beat on the squares, from which cupbearers filled goblets, offering them to anyone who wished. At the building of the Tritite hotel, the minstrels presented the battle of the crusaders with the Arabs of Palestine, and at the head of the Christian army was Richard the Lionheart, who invited the king of France to join him to fight the "infidels". A young girl, representing Mary with a baby in her arms, greeted and blessed the queen, while the boys, representing angels, descended with the help of a theater machine from the height of the arch and placed a golden crown on Isabella's head. Later, the queen heard mass at Notre Dame de Paris and donated to the Virgin the crown presented to her by the "angels", while the Bureau de la Rivière and Jean Lemercier immediately placed an even more expensive crown on her head.

At the same time, several townspeople brought confusion into the procession, trying to break into the first rows of spectators, however, the law enforcement officers quickly restored calm, rewarding the violators with stick blows. Later, the cheerful young king admitted that these violators were himself and several close associates, and their backs were hurt for a long time. The next day, Isabella was solemnly crowned in the Sainte-Chapelle in the presence of the king and courtiers. Her wedding and entry into Paris are the most documented episodes of her life; in most chronicles, only the dates of birth of her 12 children are indicated in the same detail. Historians agree that if not for the tragedy of her husband's insanity, Isabella would have spent the rest of her life in quiet anonymity, like most medieval queens.

In November of the same year, the third child was born - Princess Isabella, the future Queen of England. Later, the queen accompanied her husband on his inspection trip to the south of France and made a pilgrimage to the Cistercian abbey in Maubuisson and then to Melun, where on January 24, 1391 she gave birth to her fourth child, Princess Jeanne.

Bavarian was born in Paris in the royal residence - ... 000 ecu. Charles VI and Isabel Bavarian retained the titles until their deaths...

One of the enviable advantages of the historian, this lord of bygone eras, is that, surveying his possessions, it is enough for him to touch the ancient ruins and decayed corpses with a pen, and palaces already appear before his eyes and the dead are resurrected: as if obeying the voice of God, according to his will naked skeletons are again covered with living flesh and dressed in elegant clothes in the boundless expanses of human history, numbering three millennia. It is enough for him, at his own whim, to identify his chosen ones, to call them by their names, and they immediately raise the gravestones, throw off their shroud, responding, like Lazarus, to the call of Christ: “I am here, Lord, what do You want from me?”

Of course, one must have a firm step in order not to be afraid to descend into the depths of history; in a commanding voice to question the shadows of the past; confident hand to write down what they dictate. For the dead sometimes keep terrible secrets, which the gravedigger buried with them in the grave. Dante's hair turned gray while he listened to the story of Count Ugolino, and his eyes became so gloomy, his cheeks were covered with such a deathly pallor that, when Virgil again brought him out of hell to earth, the Florentine women, guessing where this strange traveler was returning from, told their children , pointing at him with his finger: "Look at this gloomy, mourning man - he descended into the underworld."

Leaving aside the genius of Dante and Virgil, we can well compare ourselves with them, for the gate that leads to the tomb of the abbey of Saint-Denis and is about to open before us is in many ways like the gates of hell: and above them could stand the same the very inscription. So, if we had Dante's torch in our hands, and Virgil our guide, we would not have long to wander among the tombs of the three reigning families, buried in the crypts of the ancient abbey, to find the grave of a murderer whose crime would be as heinous as the crime of the Archbishop Ruggieri , or the grave of the victim, whose fate is as deplorable as the fate of the prisoner of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

In this vast cemetery, in a niche on the left, there is a modest tomb, near which I always bow my head in thought. On its black marble, two statues are carved next to each other - a man and a woman. For four centuries now they have been resting here with their hands folded in prayer: a man asks the Almighty how he angered Him, and a woman asks for forgiveness for her betrayal. These statues are statues of a madman and his unfaithful wife; for two whole decades, the insanity of one and the passions of love of the other served in France as the cause of bloody strife, and it is no coincidence that on the deathbed that connected them, after the words: “Here lie King Charles VI the Blessed and Queen Isabella of Bavaria, his wife” - the same hand inscribed: “ Pray for them."

Here, in Saint-Denis, we will begin leafing through the dark chronicle of this amazing reign, which, according to the poet, "passed under the sign of two mysterious ghosts - an old man and a shepherdess" - and left only a card game, this mocking and bitter symbol, as a legacy to posterity. the eternal precariousness of empires and the human condition.

In this book, the reader will find a few bright, joyful pages, but too many will bear red traces of blood and black traces of death. For God was pleased that everything in the world be painted in these colors, so that he even turned them into the very symbol of human life, making it the motto of the word: "Innocence, passions and death."

And now let's open our book, as God opens the book of life, on its bright pages: blood-red and black pages await us ahead.

Sunday, August 20, 1389, crowds of people began to flock to the road from Saint-Denis to Paris from the very early morning. On this day, Princess Isabella, daughter of Duke Etienne of Bavaria and wife of King Charles VI, for the first time in the rank of Queen of France, made a solemn entry into the capital of the kingdom.

To justify the general curiosity, it must be said that extraordinary things were told about this princess: they said that already at the first meeting with her - it was on Friday July 15, 1385 - the king fell passionately in love with her and with great reluctance agreed with his uncle, the Duke of Burgundy postpone wedding preparations until Monday.

However, this marriage was looked upon in the kingdom with great hope; it was known that, dying, King Charles V expressed a desire that his son marry a Bavarian princess, in order to thereby equal the English king Richard, who married the sister of the German king. The flaming passion of the young prince corresponded in the best possible way to the last will of his father; in addition, the matrons of the court, who examined the bride, certified that she was able to give the crown an heir, and the birth of a son a year after the wedding only confirmed their experience. Not without sinister soothsayers, of course, who are at the beginning of any reign: they prophesied evil, because Friday is not a suitable day for matchmaking. However, nothing has yet confirmed their predictions, and the voices of these people, if they dared to speak aloud, would be drowned in joyful cries, which, on the day with which we begin our story, involuntarily burst from a thousand lips.

Since the main characters of this historical chronicle - by birthright or by their position at court - were next to the queen or followed in her retinue, we will now, with the reader's permission, move along with the solemn procession, already ready to set off and waiting only for the Duke Louis of Touraine , the king's brother, whom some said about worrying about his toilet, or the night of love, others claimed, had already been delayed for half an hour. This way of getting to know people and events, although not new, is very convenient; moreover, in the picture that we will try to sketch, relying on old chronicles, other strokes, perhaps, will not be devoid of interest and originality.

We have already said that this Sunday, on the road from Saint-Denis to Paris, so many people gathered here, as if people had come here by order. The road was literally littered with people, they stood closely pressed against each other, like ears of corn in a field, so that this mass of human bodies, so dense that the slightest shock experienced by any part of it was instantly transmitted to everyone else, began to sway, like the way a ripening field sways with a light breeze.

At eleven o'clock, loud screams resounded somewhere ahead and a thrill ran through the crowd, finally made it clear to the exhausted people that something important was about to happen. And indeed, a detachment of sergeants soon appeared, dispersing the crowd with sticks, and behind them followed Queen Joan and her daughter, the Duchess of Orleans, for whom the sergeants cleared the way among this human sea. To prevent its waves from closing behind high-ranking persons, they were followed by two rows of horse guards - one thousand two hundred horsemen, selected from among the most noble Parisian citizens. The riders who made up this honorary escort were dressed in long coats of green and scarlet silk, their heads were covered with hats, the ribbons of which fell to their shoulders or fluttered in the wind when its light gust refreshed the suddenly hot air, mixed with sand and dust raised by hooves. horses and walking feet. The people pushed back by the guards stretched out on both sides of the road, so that the liberated part of it was like a canal, bordered by two rows of citizens, and along this canal the royal motorcade could move almost without interference, in any case, much easier than it could be. guess.

In those distant times, people went out to meet their king not out of simple curiosity: they had a feeling of respect and love for his person. And if the then monarchs sometimes condescended to the people, then the people even in their thoughts did not dare to rise to them. Such processions in our time are not complete without shouting, without scolding in the square and police intervention; here everyone tried to settle down as best they could, and since the road passed over the fields surrounding it, people tried with all their might to climb as high as possible so that it was more convenient to look. Instantly they occupied all the trees and roofs in the area, so that there was not a single tree that, from the crown to the lower branches, would not be hung with outlandish fruits, and uninvited guests appeared in the houses, from the attic to the lower floor. Those who did not dare to climb so high settled themselves along the sides of the road; women stood on tiptoe, children climbed on the shoulders of their fathers - in a word, one way or another, but everyone found a place for himself and could see what was happening, either looking at him over the horse guards, or modestly looking into the gaps between the legs of their horses. As soon as the uproar caused by the appearance of Queen Joan and the Duchess of Orleans, who were traveling to the palace where the king was waiting for them, had barely died down, at the turn of the main rue Saint-Denis, the long-awaited stretcher of Queen Isabella appeared. The people who came here, as already mentioned, really wanted to look at the young princess, who was not yet nineteen years old and with whom France pinned her hopes.

ISABELLA OF BAVARIAN

Alexandr Duma

Translation from French by B. Weissman and R. Rodina.

The novel by the French writer describes the dramatic episodes of the Hundred Years War and the bloody feuds of the highest French nobility at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century.

Foreword

One of the enviable advantages of the historian, this lord of bygone eras, is that, surveying his possessions, it is enough for him to touch the ancient ruins and decayed corpses with a pen, and palaces already appear before his eyes and the dead are resurrected: as if obeying the voice of God, according to his will naked skeletons are again covered with living flesh and dressed in elegant clothes; in the vast expanses of human history, numbering three millennia, it is enough for him, at his own whim, to outline his chosen ones, call them by name, and they immediately raise gravestones, throw off their shrouds, responding like Lazarus to the call of Christ: “I am here, Lord, what do you want from me?"

Of course, one must have a firm step in order to descend without fear into the depths of history; in a commanding voice to question the shadows of the past; confident hand to write down what they dictate. For the dead sometimes keep terrible secrets, which the gravedigger buried with them in the grave. Dante's hair turned gray while he listened to the story of Count Ugolino, and his eyes became so gloomy, his cheeks were covered with such a deathly pallor that, when Virgil again brought him out of hell to earth, the Florentine women, guessing where this strange traveler was returning from, told their children , pointing at him with his finger: "Look at this gloomy, mourning man - he descended into the underworld."

In this vast cemetery, in a niche on the left, there is a modest tomb, near which I always bow my head in thought. On its black marble, two statues are carved next to each other - a man and a woman. For four centuries now they have been resting here with their hands folded in prayer: a man asks the Almighty why he angered him, and a woman asks for forgiveness for her betrayal. These statues are statues of a madman and his unfaithful wife; for two whole decades, the insanity of one and the passions of love of the other served in France as the cause of bloody strife, and it is not by chance that on the deathbed that connected them, after the words: "Here lie King Charles VI, the Blessed One, and Queen Isabella of Bavaria, his wife" - the same hand inscribed : "Pray for them."

And now let's open our book, as God opens the book of life, on its bright pages: blood-red and black pages await us ahead.

Since the main characters of this historical chronicle - by birthright or by their position at court - were next to the queen or followed in her retinue, we, with the reader's permission, will now move along with a solemn cortege, already ready to set off and waiting only for the duke. Louis of Touraine, the king's brother, whom some said about the care of his toilet, or the night of love, others claimed, had already been delayed for half an hour. This way of getting to know people and events, although not new, is very convenient; moreover, in the picture that we will try to sketch, relying on old chronicles,1 other strokes, perhaps, will not be devoid of interest and originality.

***

Isabella of Bavaria (Elizabeth, Isabeau) Queen of France, wife of Charles VI, only daughter of the Bavarian Duke Stephen of Ingolstadt and Taddei Visconti. Thanks to a meeting arranged by her relatives with the young King of France Charles VI on a pilgrimage, on July 18, 1385, Isabella became Queen of France. The first years of marriage, Isabella did not show interest in politics, hitting the court entertainment. In August 1389 she was crowned in Paris, and on this occasion wonderful mysteries were played in the capital. However, after the first bout of madness of Charles (August 1392), the queen was forced to support the policy of the Duke of Burgundy, who actually arranged her marriage. Isabella had twelve children, six of whom were born after 1392 (among them Isabella - Queen of England, wife of Richard II, Jeanne - Duchess of Brittany, wife of Jean de Montfort, Michel - Duchess of Burgundy, wife of Philip the Good, Catherine - Queen of England, wife Henry V, Charles VII, three of her children died as babies (Charles (+1386), Jeanne (+1390) Philip (+1407), the second Charles died at the age of ten, two more Louis of Guienne and Jean Touraine - before the age of twenty).

A very mediocre appearance and mind, the queen was never able to really learn French, and in politics she proved to be narrow-minded and self-interested. Of the queen's passions, it is known about animals (she kept a large menagerie in Saint-Paul) and food, which very soon affected her disproportionate figure.

The content of the queen cost the treasury 150,000 gold francs annually, she, without hesitation, sent carts of gold and jewelry to her native Bavaria. After the death of Philip of Burgundy in 1404, Isabella supported her brother-in-law, Louis of Orleans. Later, she was accused of treason against the king with the Duke of Orleans, but this is not mentioned in modern sources. There is a hypothesis that the British came up with this bike to remove the Dauphin Charles from succession to the throne. After the assassination of Louis d'Orleans (1407) on the orders of Jean the Fearless, Isabella alternately pitted the Armagnacs and the Bourguignons against each other.

She successfully played on the political crisis of 1409 by appointing her supporters to key positions in the state. In 1417, after being accused of treason against the king with the nobleman Louis de Bois-Bourdon (who was drowned in the Seine after severe torture), the queen was imprisoned in Tours with the light hand of constable Bernard d'Armagnac. Freed with the help of the Duke of Burgundy, the queen joined the ranks of the Bourguignons. In May 1420, she arranged for the signing of a treaty in Troyes, according to which her only surviving son, Charles, was deprived of the right to inherit the French throne, and her son-in-law, Henry of England (husband of Catherine of Valois), was recognized as regent and heir to the throne of France. However, after the death of Henry (August 1422) and Charles VI (October 1422) she lost all political influence. The physically helpless, fat queen in the last years of her life could not even move without outside help. During the Paris coronation of her grandson Henry VI, no one even remembered her.

The queen was very limited in funds, the treasury allocated her only a few deniers a day, so Isabella was forced to sell her things. On September 20, 1435, she died at her Barbette mansion and was buried without honors at Saint-Denis.