CHARLES VI, 1380-1422, was a most unfortunate son of a fortunate father. During his minority the land was distracted by the quarrels of his uncles, the brothers of Charles V; and when he attained manhood he almost immediately became insane, with only rare lucid intervals. Again there were strug gles for control of the government marked by the assassination, first, of the king's brother (the Duke of Orleans) by his uncle (the Duke of Burgundy). Then, when the latter was killed by the Orleanists (in 1419), there burst forth the furious civil war of the Armagnacs (Orleanists) and the Burgundians. In the midst of this disorder came the renewal of the Hundred Years' War, in 1415, and the victory of England's hero king Henry V at Agincourt. A marriage followed of the young English king to Charles' daughter Katherine.
The death of both King Charles and King Henry in 1422 found the whole north of France in the hands of the English, while the Dauphin, later Charles VII, retained a feeble hold in the south.