Political+Factors

Paris experienced political instability again in the early 15th century under the rule of the insane king Charles VI (1380-1422). Two rival aristocratic factions, the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, sought to dominate the weak-minded king, and their clashes verged on civil war. The English king Henry V, taking advantage of the dissension, invaded and defeated French forces at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 

 //English and French soldiers engaged in heavy fighting during the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415. //

The Burgundians subsequently allied themselves to the English, who occupied Paris in 1420. English officer John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, became the regent of Paris and took up residence in the royal palace. Charles VI’s son, the future Charles VII, received backing in his claim as the rightful king from Joan of Arc, who rallied military support behind him. The English occupation of Paris ended in 1436, when the victorious Charles VII entered the city. Much of Paris remained in ruins for several decades, and only after 1480 were new mansions and churches built. The reign of Francis’s son Henry II (1547-1559) saw the ascendancy of Catherine de Médicis, Henry’s queen. Catherine wielded a great deal of power during Henry’s reign and the successive reigns of three of their sons: Francis II (1559-1560), Charles IX (1560-1574), and Henry III (1574-1589).

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