1420–1422: The Treaty of Troyes and the Death of Charles VI

The combination of civil war and English pressure led to a sovereignty crisis. In 1420, part of the power chose a radical solution: to reorganise the succession in favour of England.

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🤝 1420: The Treaty of Troyes

The Treaty of Troyes (1420) stipulated that Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, would marry Henry V of England, and that the heir of this union would be recognised as King of France. The Dauphin Charles was set aside.

This text was contested: many judged that a king could not freely dispose of the crown, and Charles VI’s authority was undermined by illness. But the treaty became a major political weapon: it justified the Anglo-Burgundian alliance.

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⚰️ 1422: End of a Reign

Charles VI died on 21 October 1422 at the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris, after more than forty years of reign. He was buried at Saint-Denis.

The succession remained disputed: juridically and politically, the kingdom divided between the partisans of the lineage arising from the treaty and those who supported the Dauphin, the future Charles VII, in the territories south of the Loire.

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🧠 Key Takeaways

• Troyes (1420) was a civil war solution: a settlement that fractured the kingdom further.
• The death of 1422 opened a legitimacy crisis at the heart of the end of the Hundred Years’ War.