CHARLES IV, THE FAIR, had fallen ill on Christmas Day. At Epiphany the physicians and apothecaries tending him had to admit that he was dying. What had caused the fever that consumed him, the tearing cough that shattered his emaciated chest, the blood that he spat? The physicians impotently shrugged their shoulders, It was the curse, of course: that curse which had fallen on all Philip the Fair’s heirs. And what medicines could operate against such a curse as that? Both the Court and the people were convinced there was no need to look elsewhere.
Louis the Hutin had died at the age of twenty-seven, murdered, as everyone knew, even though the Countess Mahaut of Artois had been exculpated at a public trial. Philippe the Long had died at twenty-nine through having drunk water from a well in Poitou that had been poisoned by the lepers. Charles IV had lived to the age of thirty-three; but this was the limit. It was a known fact that the accursed could never live longer than Christ.
‘It’s up to us, Brother, to seize the reins of government and to hold them with a firm hand,’ said the Count of Beaumont, Robert of Artois, to his cousin and brother-in-law, Philippe of Valois. ‘And this time,’ he added, ‘we won’t let my Aunt Mahaut beat us to it. Anyway, she has no more sons-in-law to push.’
They, at least, both enjoyed the best of health. Robert of Artois, now forty-one, was still the same colossus who had to bend his head to pass through doorways and could overturn an ox by seizing it by the horns. A master of legal procedure, of intrigue and of chicane, he had shown his ability during these last twenty years both in his lawsuit over Artois and in the war in Guyenne, among much else. It had been due to him that the scandal of the Tower of Nesle had come to light. And it was also thanks to him that Lord Mortimer and Queen Isabella had been enabled to take refuge in France, where they had first become lovers, to raise an army in Hainaut, rouse all England and turn Edward II off his throne. Nor, when he went in to dinner, did it embarrass him in the least that his hands were stained with the blood of Marguerite of Burgundy. In recent years, his voice had been more frequently heard in the Council of the weak Charles IV than the Sovereign’s.
Philippe of Valois was six years his junior and nothing like so clever. But physically he was tall, strong, wide-chested, and he moved well; he seemed to be almost a giant when Robert was not by; and he had a splendid knightly presence which was much in his favour. Moreover, he inherited the reputation of his father, the famous Charles of Valois, who had been the most turbulent and adventurous prince of his time, a pretender to phantom thrones and a supporter of unrealized crusades, yet a great warrior, whom Philippe did his best to emulate in prodigality and magnificence.
Though Philippe of Valois’ talents had not as yet made any particular mark on Europe, everyone had confidence in him. He was a brilliant performer in tournaments, which were indeed his passion; and the valour he displayed there was not negligible.
‘Philippe, I’ll make you Regent,’ Robert of Artois was saying, ‘that’s what I want, and I promise to do it. Regent, and very possibly King, if God so wills, provided my niece,2 who’s pregnant to her back teeth, doesn’t have a son in a couple of months’ time. Poor Cousin Charles! He won’t see the child he so longed for. And, even if it’s a boy, you’ll still have the Regency for twenty years. And in twenty years …’
He emphasized his thought with a wave of the arm, which seemed to include every possible hazard: infant mortality, hunting accidents, the impenetrable designs of Providence.
‘And you, as the good friend I know you to be,’ went on the giant, ‘will see to it that I get back my County of Artois, of which Mahaut, thief and poisoner that she is, has been so unjustly possessed since the death of my noble grandfather, as well as the peerage that goes with it. Just think, I’m not even a peer of France! Absurd, isn’t it? It makes me ashamed for my wife, who is after all your sister.’
Philippe nodded his head, lowering that great nose of his, and blinking his eyes in agreement.
‘Robert, justice shall be done you, if I am ever in a position to see to it. You can count on my support.’
The best friendships are based on mutual interest and common plans for the future.
Robert of Artois, who shrank from nothing, undertook to go to Vincennes and make it clear to Charles the Fair that his days were numbered and that certain arrangements must be made: the peers must be summoned at once, and Philippe of Valois recommended to them as Regent. Indeed, so as to make his selection inevitable, why should Charles not confide the administration of the kingdom to Philippe at once, delegating all powers to him?
‘We are all mortal, every one of us, my dear cousin,’ said Robert, who was himself bursting with health, as he entered the dying man’s room, shaking the bed with his heavy tread.
Charles IV was in no condition to argue; indeed, he was relieved that someone else should shoulder his responsibilities. His only concern was to cling on to life, and it was slipping between his fingers.
Thus Philippe of Valois was endued with the sovereign power and was able to summon the peers.
Robert of Artois began campaigning at once. He went first to his nephew of Evreux, a young man of twenty-one, who had great charm but lacked enterprise. He was married to the daughter of Marguerite of Burgundy, Jeanne la Petite, as she was still called, though she was now seventeen. She had been set aside from the succession to the throne of France at the death of the Hutin.
Indeed, the Salic Law had been promulgated on her account, and all the more readily adopted because her mother’s misconduct cast a serious doubt on her legitimacy. In compensation, and to appease the House of Burgundy, she had been recognized as heiress to the Kingdom of Navarre. There had, however, been no untoward haste in keeping this promise and the last two Kings of France had remained also Kings of Navarre.
Had Philippe of Evreux borne any resemblance to his uncle, Robert of Artois, he would have seized this splendid opportunity for chicanery on the largest possible scale by contesting the Law of Succession and claiming the two crowns in his wife’s name.
But Robert of Artois, who had a great ascendancy over him, would very soon have disabused him of pretensions to being a competitor.
‘You shall have Navarre which is your due, my dear nephew, as soon as my brother-in-law of Valois becomes Regent. I have insisted on it as a family matter and as a condition for giving Philippe my support. You shall be King of Navarre! It’s not a crown to be despised and, for my part, I advise you to put it on your head just as soon as you can, and before anyone else comes along to dispute it. Between ourselves, your wife would have a better claim to it if her mother had kept on the right side of the blanket. There’s going to be a scramble for power, and you had best make sure of support: you have ours. And don’t go listening to your uncle of Burgundy; he’ll simply persuade you to do something silly for his own ends. Philippe will be Regent; base your plans on that.’
In return for abandoning Navarre, Philippe of Valois could already therefore count on two votes.
Louis of Bourbon had been made a duke a few weeks before and had received the County of La Marche3 as an apanage. He was the eldest member of the family. If the question of the Regency became dangerously controversial, the fact that he was Saint Louis’ grandson might well enable him to sway several votes. In any case, his views were bound to carry weight with the Council of Peers. He was not only lame but a coward; and it would require more courage than he possessed to enter the lists against the powerful Valois clan. Moreover, his son had married a sister of Philippe of Valois.
Robert gave Louis of Bourbon
