| Signed | 11 July 1419 |
|---|---|
| Location | Pouilly-le-Fort |
| Signatories |  Dauphin Charles  John the Fearless |
| Parties |  Kingdom of France Duchy of Burgundy |
The Treaty of Pouilly-le-Fort, also called the Treaty of Pouilly and the Peace of Ponceau [1] was signed on 11 July 1419 by John the Fearless (French : Jean sans Peur), Duke of Burgundy, and the sixteen-year old Dauphin, Charles (the future Charles VII of France).
In 1407, during a lull in the Hundred Years' War against the English, civil war had broken out between two cadet branches of the French royal family – the House of Orléans (Armagnac faction) and the House of Burgundy (Burgundian faction).
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, captured Paris in 1418, and made himself protector of the King, Charles VI of France. He entered into negotiations with the English in which he seemed willing to welcome the king of England's claim on the French throne. It became imperative for the Dauphin to negotiate a rapprochement with the Burgundians to avoid an Anglo-Burgundian alliance. John the Fearless, on his part, had become master of a large part of the kingdom after his capture of Paris, but his finances were at rock bottom. John was thus in favour of meeting the Dauphin in order to sign up to an advantageous peace, so several meetings were organised. [2]
John the Fearless and the Dauphin met at Pouilly-le-Fort, a castle located between Melun and Corbeil, [3] initially on 8 July 1419, [4] but were unable to agree. They met again on 11 July [5] [6] and, after initial differences, the Duke and the Dauphin came to an agreement, accompanied by a sworn and signed treaty. In the treaty, the Duke and Dauphin swore peace and loyalty to each other, to help and defend each other against the English, and to work towards the “repulsion” of the English. Their oaths were taken on the Bible, held by the bishop of Léon. [7]
After the agreement, "…the lords of the two retinues raised their hands to the sky. Soon, they mingled with each other and forgetting all resentment, they hugged each other like brothers. After signing the treaty, the two princes stretched out their hands, and swore, having giving each other the kiss of peace, to remain closely united, and made great demonstrations of friendship." [8]
When news of the treaty reached Paris, it was greeted with universal joy: bonfires were lit, bells were rung, and Te Deums were sung in the churches. [9]
On the grounds that peace was not sufficiently assured by the meeting at Pouilly, a fresh interview was proposed by the Dauphin to take place on 10 September 1419 on the bridge at Montereau, in order to build a strategy that would allow them to fight against the English.
However, at the meeting, Charles's men accused the Burgundians of not keeping their promise to break off their alliances with the English. John the Fearless was killed, felled with an axe by Tanneguy du Chastel, one of the Dauphin’s companions, and done to death by the other members of the Dauphin’s escort. Contemporary evidence shows this was a political assassination, and almost certainly carefully premeditated. [10]
Following this event, Jean's son and successor Philip the Good formed an alliance with the English, which would prolong the Hundred Years' War for decades and cause incalculable damage to France and its subjects. [11]
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.
Charles VI, nicknamed the Beloved and later the Mad, was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic episodes that plagued him throughout his life.
Philip III the Good ruled as Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death in 1467. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonged. During his reign, the Burgundian State reached the apex of its prosperity and prestige, and became a leading centre of the arts.
John I was a scion of the French royal family who ruled the Burgundian State from 1404 until his assassination in 1419. He played a key role in French national affairs during the early 15th century, particularly in the struggles to rule the country for the mentally ill King Charles VI, his cousin, and the Hundred Years' War with England. A rash, ruthless and unscrupulous politician, John murdered the King's brother, the Duke of Orléans, in an attempt to gain control of the government, which led to the eruption of the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War in France and in turn culminated in his own assassination in 1419.
Isabeau of Bavaria 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.
Yolande of Aragon was Duchess of Anjou and Countess of Provence by marriage, who acted as regent of Provence during the minority of her son. Yolande played a crucial role in the struggles between France and England, influencing events such as the financing of Joan of Arc's army in 1429 that helped tip the balance in favour of the French. She was also known as Yolanda de Aragón and Violant d'Aragó. Tradition holds that she commissioned the famous Rohan Hours.
The Armagnac faction was prominent in French politics and warfare during the Hundred Years' War. It was allied with the supporters of Charles, Duke of Orléans against John the Fearless after Charles' father Louis of Orléans was killed on a Paris street on the orders of the Duke of Burgundy on 23 November 1407.
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.
The Congress of Arras was a diplomatic congregation established at Arras in the summer of 1435 during the Hundred Years' War, between representatives of England, France and Burgundy. It was the first negotiation since the Treaty of Troyes and replaced the fifteen-year agreement between Burgundy and England that would have seen the dynasty of Henry V inherit the French crown. Historian Richard Vaughan has called it "Europe's first real peace congress."
John II of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny was a French nobleman and soldier, a younger son of John of Luxembourg, Lord of Beauvoir, and Marguerite of Enghien. His older brother Peter received his mother's fiefs, including the County of Brienne, while John received Beaurevoir. He married Jeanne de Béthune, Viscountess of Meaux, widow of Robert of Bar, on 23 November 1418, and became step-father to Jeanne de Bar, Countess of Marle and Soissons. He and Jeanne de Béthune had no children.
The Lancastrian War was the third and final phase of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It lasted from 1415, when King Henry V of England invaded Normandy, to 1453, when the English lost Bordeaux. It followed a long period of peace from the end of the Caroline War in 1389. The phase is named after the House of Lancaster, the ruling house of the Kingdom of England, to which Henry V belonged.
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.
The House of Valois-Burgundy, or the Younger House of Burgundy, was a noble French family deriving from the royal House of Valois. It is distinct from the Capetian House of Burgundy, descendants of King Robert II of France, though both houses stem from the Capetian dynasty. They ruled the Duchy of Burgundy from 1363 to 1482 and later came to rule vast lands including Artois, Flanders, Luxembourg, Hainault, the county palatine of Burgundy (Franche-Comté), and other lands through marriage, forming what is now known as the Burgundian State.
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.
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, was assassinated on the bridge at Montereau on 10 September 1419 during a parley with the French Dauphin, by Tanneguy du Chastel and Jean Louvet, the Dauphin's close counsellors.
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 Burgundian State is a concept coined by historians to describe the vast complex of territories that is also referred to as Valois Burgundy.
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