Charles VI

Also known as: Charles the sixt / Charles the sixt French king / king Charles his father / king Charles the sixt · Family: France · Role: king of France · First appears: Richard II 62

Around 1380, Charles VI reached a final peace with John IV, Duke of Brittany, requiring him to render homage, expel the English, and transport them home. About 1395, he sent Richard II the French clergy’s writing supporting Clement VII, while Richard II’s Oxford theologians sent Charles their endorsement of Pope Urban VI. Around 1398, Charles received Richard II’s request to prevent a proposed marriage involving a banished nobleman. After Richard II’s death became certain around 1400, the army Charles had prepared for an invasion of England was dissolved; he then sought the return of his daughter Isabella of Valois, once espoused to Richard II, while Waleran, Count of Saint-Pol urged him and his council to make war on Henry IV.

In 1406, Charles was the old friend to whom Robert III sent James I of Scotland for education and safety, though James I of Scotland was intercepted at Flamborough. In 1420, Charles and Henry V concluded and swore treaties at Troyes, with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy also involved. Charles agreed that Henry V would marry his daughter Catherine of Valois, govern France as regent during Charles’s life, and succeed him as king; during that life, French documents and grants were to continue under Charles’s name and seal. Charles later accompanied Henry V and John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy from Troyes and was present with Henry V at the siege of Melun.