Though the emcees of Charles's arms seems to give justice to his title of 'the and under his government tho kingdom was raised from the lowest point of depression to a respectable and flourish ing state, yet in his court and in his family this monarch was far from happy. In his early youth he was the object of his insane father's caprice, and of the hatred of his licentious mother; who had allied her self to the Bourguignon faction. Ilia wife, Marie of Anjou, was indeed the faithful and affectionate companion of his early distress, notwith standing the just cause of jealousy which he gave her ; and her spirit Is said to have roused him from the indolence and depression in which he was disposed to sink when the predominance of the English was in its tallith. Tradition has transferred to another the part which she thus performed :—Agnes Sorel, the mistress of Charles, has been men tioned as the encourager of the king when he was faint-hearted, but her influence was of later date than the period of Charles's greatest depression (Note Z in Hallam's Middle Ages,' vol. i. chap. 1. part IL): she died in 1450, and all contemporaries agree in commendation of her loveliness and her Intellectual powers. The artfulness and malignity which the dauphin (Charles's eldest eon) manifested when he became king [Louts XL], are snfileleut to account for the jealousy with which his father from an early period regarded him. The connection of this prince with Preguerie' has been already noticed; his subsequent disputes with his father increased to such a degree that he fled to the territories of tho Duke of Bourgogne, by whom he was sheltered, and who was consequently involved in disputes with Charles, who desired his son's return. As to the court of Charles, the first person who exer cised predominant influence there was Tannegui du Chatel, the prime agent in the murder of Jean Sans Peur, duke of Bourgogne (1419); hut when Arthur of Bretagne, count of Richemont, became couetablu of France, he perceived that the removal of Tannegui was necessary in order to open the way for a reconciliation with the Bourguignons, of the desirableness of which he was early sensible. Tannegui was
consequently sent into honourable exile from the court as seneschal of Bcaucaire, in 1424. The violence of Richemont, a blunt rough soldier, involved him in disputes with the minions of the court, and two of them were hastily and arbitrarily executed by his procuration ; a third, La Tr6mouillo, more artful, maintained his poet, and the court became divided into two factions—that of La Trdmouille and that of Riche moat ; ultimately however the constable prevailed. At a later period, Antony of Chabannes, lord of Dammartin, became predominant. Ile had caused, in 1459, the ruin, by fates accusation, of Jacques Coeur, a merchant and banker of Bourges, whose extensive busineae and great wealth had enabled him to afford Charles most important aid in ilium. cial affairs ; and it was from jealousy or fear of Dammartin that the Dauphin Louis fled to Bourgogne. Dammartin seems to have retained his influence until the death of Charles, which took place from a dueler cause. He appears to have inherited from his father a taint of insanity, and the latter end of his life was embittered by mono mania, manifesting itself in the apprehension that his children had conspired to poison him. Under this apprehension lie refused food for seven days, and died of exhaustion at Mehun-sur-Yeere, near Bourges, on the 22nd of July 1461.
It was in the reign of this prince that the Greek language was first taught in the University of Purls. That university is said to have contained at this time 25,000 students.