1419–1421: Treaty of Ponceau, Montereau and Treaty of Troyes
p5Charles VII: Joan of Arc, Reconquest and Restoration of the State (1422–1461) · HIGH MIDDLE AGES
The years 1419–1421 mark a decisive turning point in the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, with direct consequences on the Hundred Years’ War. These events lay the groundwork for the crisis of legitimacy that would erupt in 1422.
🤝 July 1419: The Treaty of Ponceau (Pouilly-le-Fort)
However, John the Fearless was still eager to bring the dauphin back to Paris under his father’s guardianship, in order to control him more easily, as he had already done with the two preceding dauphins. In vain, for Charles was already campaigning to recover his kingdom.
The alliance between the Burgundians and the English was fraying in the face of the ambitions of King Henry V of England. John the Fearless therefore decided to negotiate directly with the dauphin and his advisors a treaty of alliance against the English.
A first meeting took place on 8 July 1419 at Pouilly-le-Fort. It resulted in a provisional treaty signed on 11 July 1419, known as the Peace of Ponceau, which was to be confirmed later. John the Fearless, aware of the Armagnacs’ hostility toward him, had taken precaution to have the treaty co-signed and sealed by the dauphin’s councillors, making them swear an oath upon the Holy Scriptures and sacred relics, in the presence of Burgundian prelates, under penalty of being charged with lèse-majesté in case of perjury.
John the Fearless committed to breaking all relations with the English and to relinquishing the positions he held around Paris. It was agreed that a second meeting would be scheduled to consolidate this alliance against the English. It was specified that John the Fearless still intended to bring the dauphin back to Paris, under royal guardianship, once this commitment was fulfilled.
🔪 10 September 1419: The assassination of John the Fearless at Montereau
The second meeting between the dauphin of France and the Duke of Burgundy John the Fearless took place on 10 September 1419, at Montereau, the royal residence where the dauphin had established himself, surrounded by his guard. An enclosure was erected in the middle of the bridge over the Yonne connecting the castle to the town of Montereau: the dauphin and John the Fearless each met there with 10 armed men, while the bulk of each party waited on either bank.
The discussion was stormy: the dauphin reportedly reproached his cousin for secretly maintaining his alliance with the English and failing to withdraw his garrisons, in defiance of the provisional treaty of Pouilly. The latter allegedly retorted that “he had done what he had to do”! The entourages grew nervous, and as the tone rose, men-at-arms drew their swords. Tanguy du Châtel, who had saved the young prince during the Burgundian entry into Paris in 1418, drew the dauphin away from the fray. John the Fearless was killed.
The Burgundians accused the dauphin of premeditated murder. He defended himself, and had to contend for a long time with the vengeance of Duke Philip the Good, son and successor of John the Fearless.
👑 21 May 1420: The Treaty of Troyes
From the moment of his father’s death, Philip the Good, informed by his former tutor, Monseigneur de Thoisy, allied himself with the English to fight the dauphin. He sought vengeance by associating himself with King Henry V of England and Queen Isabeau of Bavaria to eliminate Dauphin Charles from the succession to the kingdom of France.
On 21 May 1420, in the midst of a fit of madness by the King of France Charles VI, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria signed on his behalf. She confirmed the disinheritance of her own son in favour of the King of England and his lawful heirs, by signing with the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, and Henry V of England, the Treaty of Troyes.
This tripartite treaty stipulated that the crown of France would be ceded to Henry V of England upon the death of King Charles VI, on the condition that the King of England marry one of the daughters of the King of France. On Trinity Sunday, in the church of Saint-Jean-du-Marché in Troyes, his marriage was celebrated with Catherine of Valois (the dauphin Charles’s own sister), with whom he would have a son: the future Henry VI was to be crowned — still a child — King of France and England after the death of his father King Henry V of England, and that of his maternal grandfather King Charles VI of France, by virtue of the Treaty of Troyes.
Dauphin Charles, invoking his father’s mental incapacity, refused the terms of the Treaty of Troyes, which its signatories claimed would end the war.
Highlighting the depredations of men-at-arms, Alain Chartier, poet and historiographer of the future Charles VII, wrote in Le Quadrilogue invectif: “We go like a ship without a rudder and like a horse without a bridle.”