CHARLES VII. (1403-1461), king of France, fifth son of Charles VI. and Isabeau of Bavaria, was born in Paris on Feb. 22, 1403. The count of Ponthieu, as he was called in his boy hood, was betrothed in 1413 to Mary of Anjou, daughter of Louis II., duke of Anjou and king of Sicily, and spent the next two years at the Angevin court. He received the duchy of Tou raine in 1416, and in the next year the death of his brother John made him dauphin of France. He became lieutenant-general of the kingdom in 1417. He became regent in Dec. 1418, but his authority in northern France was paralysed in 1419 by the murder of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, in his presence at Montereau. Although the deed was not apparently premeditated, as the English and Burgundians declared, it ruined Charles's cause for the time. He was disinherited by the treaty of Troyes in 1420, and at the time of his father's death in 1422 had retired to Mehun-sur-Yevre, near Bourges, which had been the nominal seat of government since 1418. He was recognized as king in Touraine, Berry and Poitou, in Languedoc and other provinces of southern France ; but the English power in the north was presently increased by the provinces of Champagne and Maine, as the result of the victories of Crevant (1423) and Verneuil (1424). The Armagnac administrators who had been driven out of Paris by the duke of Bedford gathered round the young king, nicknamed the "king of Bourges," but he was weak in body and mind, and was under the domination of Jean Louvet and Tanguy du Chastel, the instigators of the murder of John the Fearless, and other dis credited partisans. The power of these favourites was shaken by the influence of the queen's mother, Yolande of Aragon, duchess of Anjou. She sought the alliance of John V., duke of Brittany, who, however, vacillated throughout his life between the English and French alliance, concerned chiefly to maintain the independence of his duchy. His brother, Arthur of Brittany, earl of Richmond (comte de Richemont), was reconciled with the king, and became constable in 1425, with the avowed intention of making peace between Charles VII. and the duke of Burgundy. Richemont caused the assassination of Charles's favourites Pierre de Giac and Le Camus de Beaulieu, and imposed one of his own choosing, Georges de la Tremoille, an adventurer who rapidly usurped the constable's power. For five years (1427-32) a private Year between these two exhausted the Armagnac forces, and central France returned to anarchy.
Meanwhile Bedford had established settled government through out the north of France, and in 1428 he advanced to the siege of Orleans. For the movement which was to lead to the deliver ance of France from the English invaders, see JOAN OF ARC. The siege of Orleans was raised by her efforts on May 8, 1429, and two months later Charles VII. was crowned at Reims. But the court put every difficulty in the way of her military career, and received the news of her capture before Compiegne (1430) with indifference. No measures were taken for her deliverance or her ransom, and Normandy and the Isle of France remained in Eng lish hands. Fifteen years of anarchy and civil war intervened before peace was restored. The duke of Bedford died in and in the same year Philip the Good of Burgundy concluded a treaty with Charles VII. at Arras, after fruitless negotiations for an English treaty. From this time Charles's policy was strength ened. La Tremoille had been assassinated in 1433 by the con stable's orders, with the connivance of Yolande of Aragon. For his former favourites were substituted energetic advisers, his brother-in-law Charles of Anjou, Dunois (the famous bastard of Orleans), Pierre de Breze, Richemont and others. Richemont entered Paris on April 13, 1436, and in the next five years the finance of the country was re-established on a settled basis. Charles himself commanded the troops who captured Pontoise in 1441, and in 1442 he made a successful expedition in the south.
Meanwhile the princes of the blood and the great nobles made a formidable league against the crown in 1440 which included Charles I., duke of Bourbon, John II., duke of Alencon, John IV. of Armagnac, and the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. The re volt broke out in Poitou in 144o and was known as the Praguerie. Charles VII. repressed the rising, and finally bought over the rebel nobles individually by considerable concessions. In 1444 a truce was concluded with England at Tours, and Charles proceeded to organize a regular army. The central authority was gradually made effective. Domestic troubles in their own country weakened the English in France. The conquest of Normandy was com pleted by the battle of Formigny (April 15, 1450). Guienne was conquered in 1451 by Dunois, but not subdued, and another ex pedition was necessary in 1453, when Talbot was defeated and slain at Castillon. Meanwhile in 1450 Charles VII. had resolved on the rehabilitation of Joan- of Arc. This was granted in 1456 by the Holy See. The only foothold retained by the English on French ground was Calais. The change which made Charles take an active part in public affairs is said to have been largely due to the influence of Agnes Sorel, who became his mistress in and died in 1450. She was the first to play a public and political role as mistress of a king of France. Pierre de Breze, who had had a large share in the repression of the Praguerie, obtained through her a dominating influence over the king. Charles and Rene of Anjou retired from court, and the greater part of the members of the king's council were drawn from the bourgeois classes. The most famous of all these was Jacques Coeur (q.v.). It was by the zeal of these councillors that Charles obtained the surname of "The Well-Served." Charles VII. continued his father's general policy in church matters. He desired to preserve as far as possible the liberties of the Gallican church. With the council of Constance (1414-18) the great schism was practically healed. Charles, while careful to protest against its renewal, supported the anti-papal con tentions of the French members of the council of Basle and in 1438 he promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction at Bourges, by which the patronage of ecclesiastical benefices was removed from the Holy See, while certain interventions of the royal power were admitted. Bishops and abbots were to be elected, in ac cordance with ancient custom, by their clergy. After the English had evacuated French territory Charles still had to cope with feudal revolt, and with the hostility of the dauphin, who was in open revolt in 1446, and for the next ten years ruled like an in dependent sovereign in Dauphine. He took refuge in 1457 with Charles's most formidable enemy, Philip of Burgundy. Charles VII. nevertheless found means to prevent Philip from attaining Vii. nevertheless found means to prevent Philip from attaining his ambitions in Lorraine and in Germany. But the dauphin suc ceeded in embarrassing his father's policy at home and abroad, and had his own party in the court itself. Charles VII. died at Mehun sur-Yevre on July 22, 1461. He believed that he was poisoned by his son, who cannot, however, be accused of anything more than an eager expectation of his death.