Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/87

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

v.] THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 63 up his Constable's sword, and was about to retire to Castile ; but the king soothed him, and sent him to reduce some castles in the south which still held for the English. Before one of these, named Chateau Raiidoii, the great Constable died of a fever, and it was in his dead hand that the keys were laid by the English captain, who would not surrender them to any meaner foe. His office was given to Oliver de Clisson, a Breton of the same type, but more cruel and ruthless, and with r strong personal hatred to the duke and to the English. They had put his brother to death ; and he had therefore sworn to give no quarter, so that they called him the Butcher. The Djike of Glocester came to the aid of Montfort, and a battle was about to take place on the Sarthe, when tidings came of the death of Charles V., on the i6th of September, 1380. He had always been of weak health, and was said never to have recovered from poison given him by the King of Navarre. His wife, Joan of Bourbon, was already dead, and France was left, like England, to a boy king, surrounded by ambitious uncles. 14. The Flemish Revolt Subdued, 1381. — C/mr/^j VI. was twelve years old, and the uncles who had him in charge were Lewis ^ Duke of Anjou, the adopted son of the Queen of Naples, John, Duke of Berry, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy, besides his uncle on the mother's side, Lewis, Duke of Bourboji, who could trace a direct descent in the male line from St. Lewis's second son, and John of Montfort, Duke of Britantiy, who made his peace with the new king, and claimed his place at the council. The most able of these was Philip. Philip's first wish waj. to restore his father-in-law, the Count of Flanders, who was living in exile at Paris, while Ghent and Bruges and the other cities were leagued under the leadership of Philip van Artevelde, the son of the ally of Edward III. The young king was taken on this campaign, and a com- plete victory was gained at Rossbecque over the men of Ghent and Bruges, who came out in their guilds, but could not stand against the knights, and trampled Philip van Artevelde to death in their flight. Still Ghent would not surrender, and Lewis le Male ravaged the country till his death in 1383, when the Duke of Burgundy, succeeding him in right of his wife, granted a pardon to the insur- gents, and made peace. 15. The Great Schism, 1378. — ^There had been an attempt to bring the popes back to Rome, but so great