V.J THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 79 prevailed by steady perseverance, which held on till their enemies gave way, partly from exhaustion, partly from factions at home. 37. Fall of Jacques Cceur, 145 1. — Charles has been well named the " Well Served," for he had been placed on his father's throne and made master of his kingdom almost in spite of himself. The prime movers in his late undertakings had been Agnes Sorel and Jacques Coeur. When Agnes died, he fell under the influence of the Count of Dammartin, a favourite of the old stamp, who was determined to keep the king in his own hands, and began by persuading him that Jacques Coeur had poisoned Agnes. His innocence was shown, but other monstrous charges of extortion and maladministration were trumped up, and he was shut up in a convent, whence he escaped to Rome. He was honourably received there, and died at Chios on his way to fight against the Turks. Dammartin then attacked the chief nobles. The Count of Armagnac deservedly, and the Dukes of Bourbon and Alenqon most undeservedly, were accused of treason ; and the dauphin, taking alarm, began to arm the men of the Viennois. Dammartin took measures that so alarmed him that, in 1456, he galloped away from a hunting party, and put himself under the protection of Philip of Burgundy, who welcomed him kindly at Brus- sels. " My cousin of Burgundy is nursing the fox who will eat up his hens," said the king. At the same time the great constable, Arthur of Richemont, became Duke of Britanny, in consequence of a great mortality in his brother's family. But he only reigned sixteen months ; and as he died childless in 1458, the duchy went to Francis II., a descendant of the first of the Montfort dukes. In his latter days, Charles would seem to have had some touches of his father's insanity, and, when an abscess in the mouth made eating painful, he fancied that his eldest son had sent him poison, and refused food till his throat lost the power of swallowing. He died on the 22nd of July, 1461, leaving two sons, Lewis XI. and Charles, duke of Berri. He was the most ungrateful king who ever was well served, and a conqueror almost against his will, though in the crisis he awoke from his indolence ejiough to secure to the crown all the advantage of the national success. 38. Lewis XI., 1461. — His son thus had far more power than any king of the house of Paris had yet
