Armagnac

As the rivalry turned into civil war after 1407, the factions adopted visible signs to identify themselves.

The Armagnacs wore a white sash.

The Burgundians wore the saltire, the X-shaped cross of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Burgundy, often in red.

During the periods when one faction controlled Paris, wearing the wrong sign could be extremely dangerous.

In 1410, he married again, this time to Bonne, the daughter of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, a hard, experienced, ruthless nobleman from the southwest of France.

Bernard of Armagnac became the leader of the coalition of princes opposed to John the Fearless, and the faction took its name from him.

From then on, France was divided between the Armagnacs, who supported the Orléans family and were seen as the party of the great princes, and the Burgundians, who followed John the Fearless and enjoyed strong support in Paris.

especially among the guilds and the university.

And the French people are like, I hate the Burgundian faction.

Yeah, and the Armagnacs are essentially focused around the Dauphin, the heir to the French crown, and the Burgundians around the Duke of Burgundy.

So when the Armagnacs assassinate the Duke of Burgundy, His son and heir, the new Duke of Burgundy, is like, well, I know someone who'll be on my side.

Yeah.

All it really does is set up this interesting new faction within the French.

Yeah, because I think that that is the real value of Agincourt.

Agincourt doesn't win anything apart from Henry's security in England.

What gets Henry back into France, really, is the assassination of the Duke of Burgundy and the door that that opens for him to offer some sympathy to the Burgundian faction and say, we could get our heads together and we could beat the Armagnacs together.

France was at this time in a most troubled state.

The whole land was divided into two parties, the Burgundians and the Armagnacs.

The Burgundians had made friends with the English, who under Henry V had conquered great part of France.

Henry V was dead, but his little son, Henry VI, had been crowned king of France, and his uncle, the Duke of Bedford, held Paris and many other towns in the north of France for him.

I would like to throw out a little history, and I think the travelers that are listening to this might enjoy it, too, because we didn't really know this when we were on our trip.

But the place, this place, Azay-le-Rideau, during the Hundred Years' War, it was kind of a, a hub of factional fighting between basically Burgundy and Armagnac.

Hmm.

I get it.

This created a political vacuum at the very top of the French government, and into that vacuum stepped two powerful and competing factions, a classic recipe for a civil war.

The two main factions were the Armagnacs and the Burgundians.

The Armagnacs were led by the Duke of Orleans, Louis, who was the king's brother and a powerful man in his own right.

The Burgundians were led by the king's cousin, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.

The rivalry between these two men and their families was a bitter and often violent affair.

This was a direct attack on the royal family, and clear line had been crossed.

The murder plunged France into a bloody and brutal civil war that would last for years.

The Armagnacs, now led by Louis' son and father-in-law, the Count of Armagnac swore revenge on the Burgundians.

1411, intervention in France in favor of the Burgundians.

1412, intervention in France in favor of the Armagnacs.

Henry V, 1413 to 1422.

1415 to 1420, France, ended by the Peace of Troyes, Agincourt.

Of course France has been on the whole a successful and war and a conquering country, otherwise the territory between Belgium, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic would not now be called France.

France 1100 to 1914 Louis VI 1108 to 1137 1104 to 1106 England 1106 to 1128 England 1108 to 1116 Civil War Louis VII 1137 to 1180 1142 War with Thibault de Champagne 1147 to 1149 Second Crusade 1154 to 1155 Attack on Normandy 1173 to 1174 Aid given the revolting English princes Philip Augustus 1180 to 1223 1188 to 1189 Aid given Richard and John of England against Henry II 1190 to 1191 Third Crusade 1194 to 1200 England 1202 to 1204 England 1207 to 1208 War with Aquitaine 1207 to 1215 Raymond of Toulouse First Albigensian War Crusade 1213 to 1214 England Campaign of Bouvines 1215 to 1216 England 1216 to 1217 England 1216 to 1222 Raymond of Toulouse Second Albigensian War Louis VIII 1223 to 1226 1223 to 1225 England 1223 to 1226 Third Albigensian War Regency 1226 to 1236 1226 to 1229 Fourth Albigensian War Ended by Treaty of Paris 1226 to 1231 Strife with the Barons 1233 to 1234 Strife with the Barons Louis IX 1236 to 1270 1241 to 1243 England Recovery of Poitou by the French 1244 Fifth Albigensian War An extermination of Albigensians 1245 England 1248 to 1254 Seventh Crusade 1251 First Rising of the Pestero 1253 to 1255 War in Flanders 1259 England 1268 Expeditions of Charles of Anjou in Italy 1270 Eighth Crusade Philip III 1270 to 1285 1276 Castile Philip IV 1285 to 1314 1284 to 1291 Aragon 1294 to 1298 England and Flanders 1300 to 1305 War in Flanders Campaign of Courtrai 1314 War in Flanders Louis X 1314 to 1316 1315 War in Flanders Philip V 1316 to 1322 1320 Second Pestero Rising Charles IV 1322 to 1328 1324 to 1327 England in Guyenne 1328 Flemish War Campaign of Cassel Philip VI 1328 to 1350 1337 to 1340 England Beginning of the Hundred Years' War 1341 to 1347 England Campaign of Crécy Loss of Calais Hundred Years' War John II 1350 to 1356 1355 to 1357 England, Campaign of Poitiers, Hundred Years' War Charles V, 1356 to 1360 1357 to 1358, Rebellion of Etienne Marcel 1359 to 1360, England, Hundred Years' War broken by Peace of Bretigny John II, 1360 to 1364 1363 to 1364, War of Bretagne Charles V, 1364 to 1380 1365 to 1368, Interference in Castilian War in favour of Henry of Trastamara 1369 to 1375, England, John of Gaunt's failure and French gains 1377 to 1380, England, Hundred Years' War Regency, 1380 to 1388 1381 to 1382, Popular risings in Paris, Les Maillitourines, etc.

1382, War in Flanders, Campaign of Roosbek 1383, Repression in Northern France 1383 to 1389, England, Hundred Years' War Charles VI, 1388 to 1422 1395 to 1396, 10,000 troops sent against the Turks 1405, Naval resumption of Hundred Years' War 1405 to 1407, Civil War of Burgundians against Orléanists 1406, Renewal of Hundred Years' War 1408, Civil War resumed by Burgundians and Orléanists 1410, Civil War between Burgundians and Armagnacs, Orléanists 1411 to 1415, Civil War between Burgundians and Armagnacs 1415 to 1420, England, Campaign of Agincourt, ended by Treaty of Troyes 1418, Second Cabochian Atrocities 1421 to 1422, England, Hundred Years' War End of Section 6 Section 7 of Is War Diminishing by Frederick Adams Woods and Alexander Pulsie This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

I'm starting to share the sense of excitement Gutenberg must have felt when he was finally ready to start printing.

By the late 1440s, he'd moved on from Strasbourg, which had recently been terrorized by a marauding band of French mercenaries called the Armagnacs.

Perhaps they were the reason that he decided to head home to Mainz.

As usual, money was tight, so he borrowed some cash from a relative.

During periods when he was unable to govern, rival factions formed around influential relatives.

The Burgundian and Armagnac factions competed for dominance within the royal court.

Their rivalry weakened centralized authority.

England observed these divisions carefully.

French factions continued to compete for control of a monarch whose authority fluctuated with his health.

By the early fifteenth century, circumstances would once again align to intensify conflict.

In France, factional violence between Burgundians and Armagnacs escalated.

In England, Henry the Fourth's son, Henry the Fifth, matured into a determined and capable leader.

And this was a period of time in the Hundred Years' War where we've had civil war going on since around 1408.

So there's been this lengthy civil war we call the Armagnac-Burgundian War, although the Armagnacs are really the Orléans.

They're the descendants of Louis of Orléans, who's been killed in 1407, which is why we have this war beginning then.

And it doesn't get concluded until Charles VII is crowned at Reims.