The assassination took place during the Hundred Years War. Two rival factions, the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, vied for power within the French regency council headed by the queen, Isabeau of Bavaria. The Duke of Orléans and leader of the Armagnacs, Louis I of Orléans, is said to have gained an advantage by becoming the queen's lover, with the subsequent allegation that Charles VII was the Duke of Orléans' illegitimate son. John the Fearless, sensing that he was losing power, had Louis of Orléans assassinated in Paris in 1407. This event led to a civil war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. When the English invaded Normandy, John the Fearless manoeuvred to deal with them carefully, because the Low Countries, which belonged to him, were dependent on the supply of English wool for the production of draperies. Therefore, he only sent a few troops to fight them. He profited from the war by taking power in Paris, supported by the academics and artisans. However, since the English had crushed the French knights at Agincourt in 1415, putting an end to the civil war was urgent.
John the Fearless and the Dauphin Charles met on 8 July 1419, at Pouilly-le-Fort, then again on 11 July, when they agreed the Treaty of Pouilly-le-Fort. On 19 July, their forthcoming reconciliation was celebrated in Paris with a Te Deum. That, however, was delayed by an English attack which, progressing along the course of the Seine, seized Poissy on 31 July and threatened Paris. The Duke of Burgundy had the royal family evacuated to Troyes, in the East.
Finally, John and Charles agreed to seal their alliance on the bridge across the Seine at Montereau on 10 September 1419.
It was suspected but not proven that John the Fearless was also behind the deaths of two of Charles's brothers, Louis and John.
The assassination
Assassination of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, on the Bridge of Montereau, in 1419. — facsimile of a miniature in the "Chronicles" of Monstrelet, manuscript of the fifteenth century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris.
On 10 September 1419, the Dauphin and John the Fearless, with their men-at-arms, arrived on the two banks of the Seine, on either side of the bridge of Montereau. John the Fearless was informed that his life was in danger, and his entourage increased its watch in order to protect the duke. The same was done for the Dauphin. In the middle of the bridge, carpenters had put up two barriers with a door on each side, creating an enclosure for the meeting. It had been agreed that the two rivals would enter the enclosure, each with an escort of ten people, and that the doors would be closed during the meeting. Each of the ten men had taken an oath. Despite the arrangements that had been made, the Duke of Burgundy had second thoughts about the meeting.
The atmosphere was tense. The Duke knelt with respect before the Dauphin, who feigned indifference. Rising, John looked for support by putting his hand on the hilt of his sword. "You put your hand on your épée in the presence of His Highness the Dauphin?" one of the Dauphin's companions, Lord Robert of Loire, asked him. Tanneguy du Châtel did not wait for this pretext to deliver an axe blow to the Duke's face, crying "Kill, kill!" There was then a scramble, according to a narrative given afterwards by Jean Séguinat, the Duke's secretary, to the commission of inquiry appointed by the Burgundians. Men-at-arms rushed into the enclosure through the door on the Dauphin's side, which had been kept open. The Duke was stabbed repeatedly, while the Dauphin, at a distance, remained impassive.
According to some accounts, the corpse of the Duke of Burgundy had the right hand cut off as the Duke himself had done twelve years earlier to his cousin, the Dauphin's uncle Louis I of Orléans. The Dauphin was pointed out as the principal instigator of the assassination of the Duke of Burgundy. Despite his denials and excuses, he could not clear himself.
Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by Jan van Eyck, dating from around 1435 (detail). A bridge in the painting has been suggested to have been the location of the assassination. The Treaty of Arras, concluded by Nicolas Rolin, (sitter of painting) on 21 September 1435, contained a decree to the effect that a cross in memory of the assassination be erected on the bridge. The years between the murder and the recently concluded Treaty can be read in the number of floor-tiles between the arcade and the picture-plane.
This act would have catastrophic consequences for France, already greatly weakened by struggles for power and the French defeat at Agincourt. The new Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, made an alliance with the English; John the Fearless had always avoided this, though he had observed a benevolent neutrality towards them and promptly benefited from their aid, e.g., in order to gain power in Paris. This led to the Treaty of Troyes a year later, which gave the crown of France temporarily to Henry V of England. The Armagnacs contested this treaty, but at the time controlled only the south-east of the country.
John's skull seen by Francis I
In 1521, during a visit by Francis I of France to the Burgundian capital, a monk presented the skull of John the Fearless to the King of France, saying to him, "Sire, this is the hole through which the English entered France."
Notes
↑ Norbert Schneider. The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-painting, 1420–1670. Taschen 2002. pp. 36–39
Bibliography
Françoise Autrand Charles VI , Fayard, 1986.
Paul Bonenfant, Du meurtre de Montereau au traité de Troyes, Coll. Mémoires de la classe des Lettres et Sciences morales et politiques, tome LII, fasc. 4, Bruxelles, Académie Royale de Belgique, 1958.
Sources
Le Meurtre de Jean Sans Peur sur le pont de Monterau (Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, 15th century, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris)
Charles VII, called the Victorious or the Well-Served, was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years' War and a de facto end of the English claims to the French throne.
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The Burgundian party was a political allegiance against France that formed during the latter half of the Hundred Years' War. The term "Burgundians" refers to the supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, that formed after the assassination of Louis I, Duke of Orléans. Their opposition to the Armagnac party, the supporters of Charles, Duke of Orléans, led to a civil war in the early 15th century, itself part of the larger Hundred Years' War.
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Louis was the eighth of twelve children of King Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. He was their third son and the second to hold the titles Dauphin of Viennois and Duke of Guyenne, inheriting them in 1401, at the death of his older brother, Charles (1392–1401).
Margaret of Nevers, also known as Margaret of Burgundy, was Dauphine of France and Duchess of Guyenne as the daughter-in-law of King Charles VI of France. A pawn in the dynastic struggles between her family and in-laws during the Hundred Years' War, Margaret was regarded as the future Queen of France at two separate times, as a result of her two marriages: first to the Dauphin and second to the Duke of Brittany.
Margaret of Bavaria was Duchess of Burgundy by marriage to John the Fearless. She was the regent of the Burgundian Low Countries during the absence of her spouse in 1404–1419 and the regent in French Burgundy during the absence of her son in 1419–1423. She became most known for her successful defense of the Duchy of Burgundy against Count John IV of Armagnac in 1419.
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Tanneguy III du Châtel was a Breton knight who fought in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War and the Hundred Years' War. A member of the Armagnac party, he became a leading adviser of King Charles VII of France, and was one of the murderers of Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy in 1419.
The Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War was a conflict between two cadet branches of the French royal family – the House of Orléans and the House of Burgundy from 1407 to 1435. It began during a lull in the Hundred Years' War against the English and overlapped with the Western Schism of the papacy.
The assassination of Louis I, Duke of Orléans took place on November 23, 1407 in Paris, France. The assassination occurred during the power struggles between two factions attempting to control the regency of France during the reign of Charles VI, who was seen as unfit to rule due to his mental illness. One faction was led by Louis, the king's younger brother, and Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, Charles' wife. They attempted to seize control of the country from the House of Burgundy after the death of the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, in 1404.
The dual monarchy of England and France existed during the latter phase of the Hundred Years' War when Charles VII of France and Henry VI of England disputed the succession to the throne of France. It commenced on 21 October 1422 upon the death of King Charles VI of France, who had signed the Treaty of Troyes which gave the French crown to his son-in-law Henry V of England and Henry's heirs. It excluded King Charles's son, the Dauphin Charles, who by right of primogeniture was the heir to the Kingdom of France. Although the Treaty was ratified by the Estates-General of France, the act was a contravention of the French law of succession which decreed that the French crown could not be alienated. Henry VI, son of Henry V, became king of both England and France and was recognized only by the English and Burgundians until 1435 as King Henry II of France. He was crowned King of France on 16 December 1431.
The Burgundian State is a concept coined by historians to describe the vast complex of territories that is also referred to as Valois Burgundy.
The Treaty of Pouilly-le-Fort, also called the Peace of Ponceau was signed on 11 July 1419 by John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and the Dauphin Charles.
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