General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> The /Wise/
REFN: 12805AN
Charles was born at Vincennes, Île-de-France, France, the son of King Je
an II and Bonne of Luxembourg. Upon his father's succession to the thro
ne in 1350, Charles became Dauphin. He was the first French heir to use t
he title, after the region of Dauphiné was acquired by his father.
The future king was highly intelligent but physically weak, with pale sk
in and a thin, ill-proportioned body. He made a sharp contrast to his fath
er -- who was tall, strong and sandy-haired -- and gossip at the time sugg
ested he was not Jean's son. Similar rumors would pursue Charles' grandso
n, Charles VII.
King Jean was a brave warrior but a poor ruler who alienated his nobles th
rough arbitrary justice and the elevation of associates considered unworth
y. After a three-year break, the war resumed in 1355, with Edward, The Bla
ck Prince, leading an English-Gascon army in a violent raid across southwe
stern France. After checking an English incursion into Normandy, Jean l
ed an army of about 16,000 south, crossing the Loire in September, 1356, a
ttempting to outflank the Prince's 8,000 soldiers at Poitiers. Rejecting a
dvice from one captain to surround and starve the Prince -- a tactic Edwa
rd feared -- Jean ordered a charge up a slope where the enemy forces we
re entrenched. In the subsequent Battle of Maupertuis (Poitiers), Engli
sh archery all but annihilated the French cavalry, and Jean was capture
d. Charles led a battalion at Poitiers which withdrew early in the struggl
e; whether the order came from Jean (as he later claimed) or whether Charl
es himself ordered the withdrawal is unclear.
The outcome of the battle left many embittered at the nobility, who popul
ar opinion accused of betraying the King, but Charles and his brothers esc
aped blame, and he was received with honor upon his return to Paris. The D
auphin summoned the Estates-General in October to seek money for the defen
se of the country. But the parliament, furious at what they saw as poor ma
nagement, organized into a body led by Etienne Marcel, the Provost of Merc
hants (a title roughly equivalent to mayor of Paris today). Marcel demand
ed the dismissal of seven royal ministers, their replacement by a Counc
il of 28, made of nobles, clergy and bourgeois, and the release of Charl
es II of Navarre, a leading Norman noble with a claim on the French thro
ne who had been imprisoned by Jean for the murder of his constable. The Da
uphin refused the demands, ordered the Estates-General to dismiss and le
ft Paris.
A contest of wills followed. In an attempt to raise money, Charles tri
ed to devalue to the currency; Marcel ordered strikes, and the Dauphin w
as forced to cancel his plans and recall the Estates in February, 1357. T
he Third Estate presented the Dauphin with a Grand Ordinance, a li
st of 61 articles that would have required the Estates-General to appro
ve all future taxes, assemble at their own volition and elect a Counc
il of 36 -- with 12 members from each Estate -- to advise the king. Charl
es eventually signed the ordinance, but his dismissed councilors took ne
ws of the document to King Jean, imprisoned in Bordeaux. The King renounc
ed the entire ordinance before being taken to England by Prince Edward.
Charles made a royal progress through the country that summer, winning sup
port from the provinces. Marcel, meanwhile, enlisted Charles of Navarre, w
ho claimed his claim to the throne was at least as good as that of King Ed
ward of England's. The Dauphin, re-entering Paris, won the city back.
Marcel, meanwhile, used the murder of a citizen seeking sanctuary to ma
ke an attack close to the Dauphin. Summoning a group of tradesmen, the Pro
vost marched at the head of an army of 3,000, entered the royal palace a
nd had the crowd murder two of the Dauphin's marshals before his eyes. Cha
rles, horrified, momentarily pacified the crowd, but sent his family aw
ay and left the