CHARLES V. king of France, called THE WISE, was born at the château of Vincennes, on Jan. 21, 1337, the son of John II. and Bonne of Luxembourg. In 1349 he be came dauphin of the Viennois by purchase from Humbert II. and in 1355 he was created duke of Normandy. After the battle of Poitiers (13 56) where his father was taken prisoner by the Eng lish, he arranged for the government of Normandy, and proceeded to Paris, where he took the title of lieutenant of the kingdom. During the years of John II.'s imprisonment in England, Charles was virtually king of France. He summoned the States-General of northern France (Langue d'oll) to Paris in Oct. 1356 to ob tain men and money to carry on the war. But under the leader ship of Etienne Marcel, provost of the Parisian merchants and president of the third estate, and Robert le Coq, bishop of Laon, president of the clergy, a partisan of Charles of Navarre, the states refused any "aid" except on conditions which Charles de clined to accept. They demanded the dismissal of a number of the royal ministers; the establishment of a commission elected from the three estates to regulate the dauphin's administration, and of another board to act as council of war ; also the release of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, who had been imprisoned by King John. The estates of Languedoc, summoned to Toulouse, also made protests against misgovernment, but they agreed to raise a war-levy on terms to which the dauphin acceded. Charles sought the alliance of his uncle, the emperor Charles IV., to whom he did homage at Metz as dauphin of the Viennois, and he was also made imperial vicar of Dauphine, thus acknowledging the imperial jurisdiction. But he gained small material advantage from these proceedings. The States-General were again convoked in Feb. 135 7. Their demands were more moderate than in the preceding year, but they nominated members to replace certain obnoxious persons on the royal council, demanded the right to assemble without the royal summons, and certain administrative reforms. In return they promised to raise and finance an army of 30,00o men, but the money—a tithe levied on the annual reve nues of the clergy and nobility—voted for this object was not to pass through the dauphin's hands. Charles appeared to consent, but the agreement was annulled by letters from King John, who announced at the same time the conclusion of a two years' truce, and the reformers failed to secure their ends. Charles had escaped from their power by leaving Paris, but he returned for a new meeting of the estates in the autumn of 1357.
Meanwhile, Charles of Navarre had been released by his par tisans, and allying himself with Marcel had become a popular hero in Paris. The dauphin was obliged to receive him and to undergo an apparent reconciliation. In Paris Etienne Marcel was supreme. He forced his way into the dauphin's palace (Feb. 1358), and Charles's servant, Jean de Conflans, marshal of Champagne, and Robert de Clermont, marshal of Normandy, were murdered before his eyes. Charles was powerless openly to resent these outrages, but he obtained from the provincial assemblies the money refused him by the States-General, and deferred his ven geance until the dissensions of his enemies should offer him an opportunity. Charles of Navarre, now in league with the English and master of lower Normandy and of the approaches to Paris, returned to the immediate neighbourhood of the city, and Marcel found himself driven to avowed co-operation with the dauphin's enemies, the English, and the Navarrese. Charles had been com pelled in March to take the title of regent to prevent the possibil ity of further intervention from King John. In defiance of a recent ordinance prohibiting provincial assemblies, he presided over the estates of Picardy and Artois, and then over those of Champagne. The States-General of 1358 were summoned to Com piegne instead of Paris, and granted a large aid.
The condition of northern France was rendered more desperate by the outbreak (May–June 13 58) of the peasant revolt known as the Jacquerie, which was repressed with a ferocity far exceed ing the excesses of the rebels. Within the walls of Paris, Jean Maillart had formed a royalist party ; Marcel was assassinated (July 31, 1358), and the dauphin entered Paris in the following month. A reaction in Charles's favour had set in, and from the estates of 1359 he regained the authority he had lost. They sup ported him in repudiating the Treaty of London 0359), which King John had signed in anxiety for his personal freedom, and voted money unconditionally for the continuation of the war. From this time the estates were only once convoked by Charles, who contented himself thenceforward by appeals to the assem bly of notables or to the provincial bodies. Charles of Navarre was now at open war with the regent ; Edward III. landed at Calais in October ; and a great part of the country was exposed to double depredations from the English and the Navarrese troops. In the scarcity of money Charles had recourse to the debasement of the coinage, which suffered no less than 2 2 variations in the two years before the Treaty of Bretigny. This disastrous finan cial expedient was made good later, the coinage being established on a firm basis during the last 16 years of Charles's reign in ac cordance with the principles of Nicolas Oresme. On the conclu sion of peace, King John was restored to France, but being unable to raise his ransom, he returned in 1364 to England, where he died in April, leaving the Crown to Charles, who was crowned at Reims on May 19.
The new king found an able servant in Bertrand du Guesclin, who won a victory over the Navarrese troops at Cocherel and took prisoner their best general, Jean de Grailli, captal de Buch. The establishment of Charles's brother, Philip the Bold, in the duchy of Burgundy, though it constituted in the event a serious menace to the monarchy, put an end to the king of Navarre's ambitions in that direction. A treaty of peace between the two kings was signed in 1365, by which Charles of Navarre gave up Mantes, Meulan and the county of Longueville in exchange for Montpellier. Negotiations were renewed in 137o when Charles of Navarre did homage for his French possessions, though he was then consider ing an offensive and defensive alliance with Edward III. Du Gues clin undertook to free France from the depredations of the "free companies," mercenary soldiers put out of employment by the cessation of the war. An attempt to send them on a crusade against the Turks failed and Du Guesclin led them to Spain to put Henry of Trastamara on the throne of Castile. By the marriage of his brother, Philip the Bold with Margaret of Flanders, Charles detached the Flemings from the English alliance, and as soon as he had restored something like order in the internal affairs of the kingdom, he provoked a quarrel with the English.
The text of the Treaty of Bretigny presented technical diffi culties of which Charles availed himself. The English power in Guienne was weakened by the disastrous Spanish expedition of the Black Prince, whom Charles summoned before the parlement of Paris in Jan. 1369 to answer the charges preferred against him by his subjects, thus expressly repudiating the English supremacy in Guienne. War was renewed in May after a meeting of the States-General. Between 1371 and 1373 Poitou and Saintonge were reconquered by Du Guesclin, and soon the English had to abandon all their territory north of the Garonne. John IV. of Brittany (Jean de Montfort) had won his duchy with English help by the defeat of Charles of Blois, the French nominee at Auray in 1364. His sympathies remained English, but he was now 73) obliged to take refuge in England, and later in Flanders, while the English only retained a footing in two or three coast towns. Charles's generals knew that their general levies were no match for the English men-at-arms in a pitched battle ; they con tented themselves with defensive and guerrilla tactics. The towns were defended, and the English left to do as they would in the countryside. There they could not maintain themselves ; they gradually retreated until in 138o only Bayonne, Bordeaux, Brest and Calais were still in English hands.
Charles had in 1378 obtained proof of Charles of Navarre's treasonable designs. He seized the Norman towns held by the Navarrese, while Henry of Trastamara invaded Navarre, and im posed conditions of peace which rendered his lifelong enemy at last powerless. A premature attempt to amalgamate the duchy of Brittany with the French Crown failed. Charles summoned the duke to Paris in 1378, and on his non-appearance committed one of his rare errors of policy by confiscating his duchy. But the Bretons rose to defend their independence, and recalled their duke. The matter was still unsettled when Charles died at Vin cennes on Sept. 16th, 1380. His health, always delicate, had been further weakened, according to popular report, by a slow poison prepared for him by the king of Navarre. His wife, Jeanne of Bourbon, died in 1378, and the succession devolved on their elder son Charles, a boy of twelve. Their younger son was Louis, duke of Orleans.
Personally Charles was no soldier. He owed the signal successes of his reign partly to his skilful choice of advisers and administra tors, to his chancellors Jean and Guillaume de Dormans and Pierre d'Orgemont, to Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris, Bureau de la Riviere and others; partly to a singular coolness and subtlety in the exercise of a not over-scrupulous diplomacy, which made him a dangerous enemy. He had learnt prudence and self-restraint in the troubled times of the regency, and did not lose his moderation in success. He modelled his private life on that of his predeces sor, St. Louis, but was no fanatic in religion, for he refused his support to the violent methods of the Inquisition in southern France, and allowed the Jews to return to the country, at the same time confirming their privileges. His support of the schis matic pope Clement VII. at Avignon was doubtless due to political considerations, as favouring the independence of the Gallican Church.
Charles V. was a student of astrology, medicine, law and phi losophy and collected a large and valuable library at the Louvre, which became the nucleus of the great Bibliotheque Royale. He gathered round him a group of distinguished writers and thinkers, among whom were Raoul de Presles, Philippe de Mezieres, Nicolas Oresme and others. The ideas of these men were applied by him to the practical work of administration, though he confined him self chiefly to the consolidation and improvement of existing in stitutions. The power of the nobility was lessened by restrictions which, without prohibiting private wars, made them practically impossible. The feudal fortresses were regularly inspected by the central authority, many of them were demolished on the pretext that they might serve as vantage points for the English invaders, and the nobles themselves became in many cases paid officers of the king. The feudal nobility was further weakened by the acces sion to the noblesse of many townsmen. Further, Charles reserved to the Crown the right of giving charters, of coining money; in fact he deprived the great nobles of many sovereign rights hitherto exercised by them. Charles made the parlement of Paris a per manent instead of a temporary body, and established it in the former palace of St. Louis, which became the Palais de Justice. He strengthened the Crown itself by substituting a fixed revenue to princes and princesses of the royal house for the apanages which had led to civil strife in former reigns. He tried to free industry by declaring that every competent workman was free to practise his trade outside the guild if he wished, but custom was too strong, and the guilds retained their monopoly for centuries later. He established indirect taxes on objects of consumption so as to bring all classes under contribution; and he secured the payment of the gabelle or salt-tax on a firm basis. Under Charles V. the system of royal commissioners for the collection of the revenue took shape, and the Cour des aides was definitely established as a court of appeal in taxation cases. He established a merchant marine and a formidable navy, which under Jean de Vienne threatened the English coast between 1377 and 1380. The States-General were silenced and the royal prerogative increased ; the royal domains were extended, and the wealth of the Crown was aug mented; additions were made to the revenue by the sale of municipal charters and patents ; and taxation became heavier, since Charles set no limits to the gratification of his tastes, either in the collection of jewels and precious objects, of books, or of his love of building, examples of which are the renovation of the Louvre and the erection of the palace of Saint Paul in Paris.
See Froissart, Chronicles; Lord Berners' trans., edit. W. P. Ker (1901) ; Les Grandes Chroniques de France, 4 vols., edit. R. Delachanel (1910-2o) ; Christine de Pisan, Le Livre des fais et bonnes moeurs du sage roy Charles V., written 1404, edit. J. F. Michaud and J. J. F. Poujoulat, vol. ii. (1836) ; L. Delisle, Mandements et actes divers de Charles V. (i886) ; letters of Charles V. in J. J. Champollion-Figeac, Lettres de rois et de refines, vol. ii., pp. 167, seq. (1839) ; the anony mous Songe du vergier or Somniurn viridarii, written in 1376, and giving the political ideas of Charles V. and his advisers; J. B. Haureau, Notes et extraits, chap. xxxi. (189o) ; C. Benoist, La Politique du roi Charles V. (1874) ; R. Delachanel, Histoire de Charles V. (1908).