¹ Verdon, Jean, Isabeau de Bavière (Paris, 1981), 252Google Scholar.

² Markale, Jean, Isabeau de Bavière (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar, and Verdon, Isabeau.

³ Froissart, Jean, Chroniques, ed. Luce, S., Raynaud, G. and Mirot, L. (13 vols. incomplete, paris, 1869)–) [hereafter Froissart], xi, 225Google Scholar.

⁴ Istoire et Croniques de Flandres, in Collection des Chroniques Belges, ed. de Lettenhove, J.M. Kervyn (5 vols., Brussels, 1880), II, 351Google Scholar.

⁵ Isabeau held strong religious beliefs on the cult of the family and always marked significant stages in her life by gifts. If she had been born anywhere else, that town should have figured in the list of bequests in one of her wills. For example, twenty francs were left to the church Our Lady and to the Friars Minor, both in Munich, to perform a requiem mass for her soul in the 1408 version of her will—Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, fond français 6544 [hereafter BN f. fr.], piece 7.

⁶ Lionel and Violente in 1368; Leopold and Virida in 1361; Isabelle and Gian Galeazzo in 1364. And, of course, Valentina, the daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Isabelle of France, went back to her mother's family, marrying Isabelle's nephew Louis, duke of Orleans.

⁷ It was widely believed that the saint's head was enshrined there, although Rome and other shrines also claimed that they possessed the relic. The Bavarians arrival was timed for the annual fête, with public worship centred around the relic. de Viriville, Auguste Vallet, Isabeau de Bavière (Paris, 1859), 4Google Scholar.

⁸ McKisack, May, ‘Edward III and the Historians’, History, XLV (1960), 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹ de l'lsle-Adam, P.A.M. Villiers, Trois portraits de femmes. Isabeau de Bavière (Paris, 1929), 59Google Scholar.

¹⁰ As shown in Lewis, P.S., Later Medieval France. The Polity (1968), 114Google Scholar.

¹¹ Baudrillart, H., Histoire de luxe privé et public (4 vols., Paris, 1878–1880), III, 288–9Google Scholar. He does say that the doors were widened at Vincennes, but only to accommodate the fashionably wide skirts that Isabeau wore.

¹² Lévis-Mirepoix, Le due de, La France féodale, 987–1515 (Paris, 1975), 193Google Scholar.

¹³ Labarge, Margaret Wade, Women in Medieval Life: A Small Sound of the Trumpet (1986), 69Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Bearne, Catherine, Pictures of the Old French Court (1900), 109Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Grandeau, Yann, ‘Isabeau de Bavière ou l'amour conjugal’, Actes du 102 Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes Limoges 1977: section de phihlogu et histoire jusqu'à 1610., II: Etudes sur la sensibilité au Moyen âge (Paris, 1979) [hereafter Grandeau, ‘Amour conjugal’], 139Google Scholar.

¹⁶ l'lsle-Adam, Villiers de, Trois portraits, 59Google Scholar (my translation).

¹⁷ La Pastorelet, in Chroniques rélatives à l'histoire de la Belgique sous la domination des dues de Bourgogne, ed. Kervyn, J.M.. de Lettenhove, (3 vols., Brussels, 1873), II, 578Google Scholar.

¹⁸ British Library Harley manuscript 4431.

¹⁹ Carved by Pierre de Thury, this ‘depicts Isabeau in 1435’ according to Hindman, Sandra, ‘The Iconography of Queen Isabeau de Bavière (1410–1415): An Essay in Method’, Gazette des beaux-arts, ser. 6, CII (1983), 104Google Scholar. Although Charles VI had been dead since 1422, the joint mausoleum was still not begun before 1432, although part of the royal library in the Louvre had been sold to pay Thury 400 livres of the 1,400 that had been promised to him for the work. Cf. Grandeau, Yann, ‘La mort et obsèques de Charles VI’, Bulletin phihlogique et historique du comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (jusqu'à 1610) du comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, annèe 1970 (Paris, 1972), II, 184Google Scholar [pièce justificative: Bibliothèque Municipale de Rouen, collection Leber 5870, manuscrit Menant]. This being the case, Isabeau's effigy must certainly have been carved very close to her death.

²⁰ At least, not in documents that have been found to this date. The monk of SaintDenis's inaccurate story of the bride being chosen from three portraits even relates that Charles VI found Isabeau's image to be ‘très supérieure aux autres en grâce et en beauté’. de Saint-Denis, Religieux, Chronique de Charles VI de 1380 à 1422, trans, and ed. Bellaguet, L. (6 vols., Paris, 1841) [hereafter Religieux], I, 359Google Scholar.

²¹ Their previously irreconcilable differences over policy had been greatly alleviated by the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (Louis's father-in-law and Isabeau's second cousin) in 1402, who was considered as an enemy by Isabeau because of his usurpation and murder of her grandfather Bamabo Visconti by Gian Galeazzo's farner.

²² Thibault, Marcel, Isabeau de Bavière: la Jeunesse (Paris, 1903), 426Google Scholar. ‘The duke of Burgundy's death threw the queen into the arms of the duke of Orleans.’

²³ de Viriville, Vallet, Isabeau, 6Google Scholar.

²⁴ Archives Nationales, Paris (hereafter AN) KK45, fos. 5 and 9.

²⁵ As examples, Jeanne, duchess of Brittany stayed with the queen at Melun in January 1415, and Princess Catherine even went to see her mother during her imprisonment at Tours by the Armagnacs in 1417.

²⁶ Religieux, III, 291. ‘People who were there have assured me the king was greatly affected by such indifference’.

²⁷ Vale, M., Charles VII (1974), 23 n.4Google Scholar.

²⁸ Religieux, II, 404, which describes how the king tried to tear down or destroy carvings, windows or other images of the Bavarian arms. Cf. also Famiglietti, R.C., Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI, 1392–1420 (New York, 1986), 15Google Scholar.

²⁹ Grandeau, , ‘Amour conjugal’, 126Google Scholar. ‘Prince Charming turned into the Beast; it was the reverse of the fairy-tale.“

³⁰ Religieux, II, 87–9.

³¹ Ibid., ii, 95.

³² Ibid., ii, 93.

³³ Verdon, , Isabeau, 74Google Scholar.

³⁴ AN KK.32, fo. 24.

³⁵ In 1409, a new silver cruet and a silver-plated meat larder were ordered by the king's kitchen. Purchases such as this would be unnecessary if reality corresponded to myth and (as in the opera by C. & G. Delavigne [1843]) Charles VI was weeping: ‘J'ai faim…tout le monde m'oublie!’ Cf. Barthélemy, Charles, Erreurs et mensonges historiques, IV: A propos de Charles VI et d'Isabeau de Bavière (Paris, 1876), 215Google Scholar.

³⁶ Grandeau, , ‘Amour conjugal’, 126Google Scholar.

³⁷ Religieux, II, 71.

³⁸ AN KK26, fo. 102 [1398].

³⁹ BN f. fr. 6745, fos. 16 [1404] and 13.

⁴⁰ The Latin term that the Religieux uses is ‘venerabilis regina’.

⁴¹ Religieux, II, 89. ‘I would not know how to tell with what profound grief the august queen Isabelle was affected by the king's condition. What distressed her above all was to see how on all the occasions when, fatigued by tears and sobbing, she approached to lavish attention on him, the king repulsed her, whispering to his people: “Who is this woman obstructing my view? Find out what she wants, and stop her from annoying and bothering me, if you can”.’

⁴² Seven of their twelve children were born after the insanity began in 1392.

⁴³ For example, Didot, Firmin, Nouvelle biographie universelle (Paris, 1854), IX, 831Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Ursins, Jean Juvénal des, Histoire de Charles VI, roy de France in Nouuelle collection de mémoires sur l'histoire de France, ed. Michaud, and Poujoulet, (32 vols., Paris, 1836), II [hereafter Juvénal], 438Google Scholar. ‘It was pitiful to see him, because his body was consumed totally with lice and filth.’

⁴⁵ Verdon, , Isabeau, 79Google Scholar. ‘When she thought of the evils which had threatened her, as well as the violence that she had endured already from the king, it was thought better to choose the lesser of the two evils, so she resigned herself to this sacrifice.’

⁴⁶ de Monstrelet, Enguerrand, Chronique, 1400–1444, ed. Douet-d'Arcq, Lucien (6 vols., Paris, 1857–1862), I, 161Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Juvénal, 445.

⁴⁸ Lampitt, Dinah, The King's Women (London, 1992), 431Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Religieux, III, 267 (my italics). ‘They could be reproached also with insulting the people's misery by spending heavily from the payments of others. They took away supplies without paying for them and, when payment was asked of them, the purveyers of the royal household regarded this complaint as a crime. Indifferent to the defence of the kingdom, they (Isabeau and Orleans) put all their vanity in riches, all their joy in the pleasures of the flesh. In a word, they so forgot the rules and duties of royalty that they became an object of scandal for France and the laughing stock of foreign countries.’

⁵⁰ Juvénal, 434.

⁵¹ Religieux, III, 229. ‘The people blamed the bad administration of the queen and the duke of Orleans. They were condemned publicly in the towns for their insatiable greed; it was said that, negligent of the kingdom's defence and not content with normal taxation, they had imposed a general levy the previous year.’

⁵² Her average argenterie expenses for the five years of 1393–8 were about 9,350 livres parisis p. a. For the same time period between 1400 and 1405, the average was about 45,700 livres parisis—an average being almost as much as the total for 1393–8.

⁵³ AN KK42, 10th account (February 1402—January 1403) fo. 61.

⁵⁴ AN KK42, fo. 73.

⁵⁵ Froissart, XI, 228.

⁵⁶ Religieux, III, 269,. ‘Noble queen, I would never want to tell you anything disagreeable, but your salvation is dearer to me than your good graces: thus, I will speak the truth, whatever your opinions of me might be. The goddess Venus is the only ruler at your court; Drunkenness and Debauchery serve in her train and turn night into day amidst the most dissolute dances. These confounded, infernal followers, who incessantly besiege your court, corrupt morals and agitate the heart. They make knights and squires effeminate and prevent them from leaving for war by making them scared of being disfigured by injury…Noble queen, there is talk of these and many other disorders which dishonour your court. If you do not want to believe me, go through town disguised as a poor woman and you will hear what everyone says.’

⁵⁷ Deschamps, Eustache, Œuvres complètes, ed. Raynaud, G (Paris, 1894), IX, 49Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Religieux, III, 269–71. ‘I am astonished that you dare to commit such wicked deeds, and even worse ones, which I shall tell the queen all about, when it pleases her to listen to me.’

⁵⁹ Ibid., III, 331.

⁶⁰ Cousinot, Guillaume, Geste des Nobles, in Chronique de la Pucelle ou Chronique de Cousinot suivie de la Chronique normande de P. Cochon relative au règnes de Charles VI et de Charles VII, ed. de Viriville, Auguste Vallet (1st edn.Paris, 1859; Geneva, 1976), 109Google Scholar.

⁶¹ The Religieux of Saint-Denis recorded public opinion on this issue as fear that she wished to enrich the Germans by impoverishing the French. This money was probably the one-off payment of 57,000 francs that Isabeau gave her brother Louis on 22 July 1405 in return for the revenues of five Bavarian provinces (cf. BN f. fr. 6537, fo. 159), but there were suspicions that this was actually the proceeds of the 1405 tax, being concealed in Bavaria.

⁶² Le Songe Véritable, ed. Moranvillé, H., Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris, XVII (1890), 276Google Scholar. ‘I will make her feel such shame / and such injury and loss / that in the end she will be desolate.’

⁶³ Ibid., 296. ‘You, queen, Lady Isabeau, / enveloped in ugly skin / if you do not come to me soon / I will take away everything of yours / And lead you into such trouble.’

⁶⁴ Chartier, Jean, Histoire de Charles VII, roi de France, ed. de Viriville, A. Vallet (3 vols., Paris, 1858) [hereafter Chartier], i, 208Google Scholar. Famiglietti, assumes that this appellation has the same symbolic significance as the usual description of French kings being ‘très-chrétian’ (Royal Intrigue, 229 n. 35)Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ Religieux, V, 28. Add to this the fact that a Cabochien spokesman criticised the Dauphin Louis for straying despite the sound moral education given him by his mother, the venerable queen. Ibid., V, 31.

⁶⁶ de l'lsle-Adam, Villiers, Trois portraits, 75Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Ibid., 73.

⁶⁸ For accounts on Bosredon's arrest, cf. Cousinot, , Geste des Nobles, 163–4Google Scholar, and de Saint-Rémy, Jean le Fèvre, Chronique de Jean le Fèvre, seigneur de Saint-Rémy, ed. Morand, F. (2 vols., Paris, 1876–1881), I, 292ffGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁹ ‘Léonet’ replies to ‘Florentin’s' outburst with the words: 'Je feray vostre voloir et gaiteray tant que je voia plus à plain les amours en puy ou en plain? Le Pastorelet, 636. Cf. Famiglietti, , Royal Intrigue, 45Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ It is possible that he even attended the funeral because he was an officer of the abbey of Saint-Denis in 1435. Cf. Samaran, C., Chronique latine inédite de Jean Chartier (Paris, 1928), 9Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Chartier, I, 209–10.

⁷² Famiglietti, , Royal Intrigue, 44Google Scholar.

⁷³ Chartier, I, 208.

⁷⁴ Rinel's defence of the Treaty of Troyes is published in full in English Medieval Diplomatic Practice, part 1: Documents and Interpretation (1982), II, 648–52. English propaganda posters illustrating the genealogy of Henry VI stressed his French ancestry, his blood rights to the crown and his legal rights through the Treaty, as well as discounting Charles VII's claim by stating that he had eliminated himself though his culpability in the murder of Jean sans Peur. Cf. McKenna, J. W., ‘Henry VI of England and the Dual Monarchy: Aspects of Royal Political Propaganda, 1422–1432’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXVIII (1965), 151–3Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ Famiglietti, , Royal Intrigue, 228 n. 31Google Scholar (chronicle on m/film at Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais, Arras).

⁷⁶ Chroniques des religieux des Dunes: Jean Brandon, Giles de Royes, Adrien de But, ed. de Lettenhove, J.M. Kervyn (Brussels, 1870), 111Google Scholar. Cf. Famiglietti, , Royal Intrigue, 229 n. 44Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ Verdon, , Isabeau, 12Google Scholar. ‘National consciousness loves clear-cut dichotomies: thus Isabeau serves as a foil to Joan; to one it conferes sanctity, to the other demonic behaviour; the Maid undoes the work of the damned Isabeau.’

⁷⁸ Cazé, was a sub-prefect in Bergerac, who expounded his theory in The Death of Joan of Arc or the Maid of Orleans (Libourne, 1805)Google Scholar, and The Truth about Joan of Arc or enlightenment on her origin (2 vols, 1819)Google Scholar. Cf. Actes du 104e congrès national des sociétés savantes, Orléans 1982: section de philologie et d'histoire médievale—‘Jeanne d'Arc, une époque, un rayonnement’ (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar for modern comment on Joan as an Orléans bastard. Pierre Marot, ‘La genèse d'un roman: Pierre Cazé, l'inventeur de la “bâtardise” de Jeanne d'Arc’ refutes the story, while Claude Ribera-Periville, ‘Aspects du Mécénat de Lous ler d'Orléans’ actually describes the duke as ‘père putatif de Jeanne’.

⁷⁹ AN X1a 8603, fos. 63–4. ‘Considering the horrific and enormous crimes perpetrated in the said kingdom of France by Charles who calls himself dauphin of Vienne, it is agreed that neither we (Charles VI), nor our said son King Henry, nor our very dear son Philip duke of Burgundy shall negotiate any peace or agreement with the said Charles without the advice and consent of all and each of us three, and of the three Estates of our two kingdoms’.

⁸⁰ BN f. fr. 3910, no. 82 (reply by Burgundy at no. 83 in similar style, also including the ‘soy disant’ insult).

⁸¹ Ordonnances des rois de France de la troisième race (22 vols., Paris, 1723–1849), XII, 273–7Google Scholar.

⁸² Hall, Edward, Chronicle (1809), 101Google Scholar.

⁸³ Depréz, E., ‘Un essai d'union nationale à la veille du traité de Troyes (1419)’, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, XCDC (1938), 346–7Google Scholar. ‘You will be pleased to know that I received your letters and I give credence to what you tell me, and to what you ask of me, for which I thank you as humbly as I can.’

⁸⁴ Guinle, Jean-Philippe, Les souverains de la France (Paris, 1990), 102Google Scholar. ‘Probably the most hated queen of France, this perfect “counter-type” to Blanche of Castile does not deserve to be rehabilitated. It is not so much her ways, which are to blame for her irresponsibility after the insanity of a husband whom she still loved. But her fault, found to a lesser degree in Marie-Antoinette, was that she never felt herself to be French, to the point of turning against the English and thus, finally, against her own son whom she did not hesitate to disown at the moment when her help would have been the most precious to him.’

⁸⁵ Labarge, , Women in medieval life, 66Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ Ibid.

⁸⁷ Cf. Menache, Sophie, ‘Isabelle of France, Queen of England—A Reconsideration’, Journal of Medieval History, X:2 (06 1984), 107–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Lee, Patricia Ann, ‘Reflections of Power: Margaret of Anjou and the Dark Side of Queenship’, Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX:2 (Summer 1986), 183–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁸ Stuard, Susan Mosher, ‘Fashion's Captives: Medieval Women in French Historiography’, in Women in History and Historiography, ed. Stuard, Susan Mosher (Philadelphia, 1987), 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁹ Isabeau's, farm was called the ‘hôtel des Bergeries’ and was given to her by Charles VI on 4 03 1398Google Scholar, adjoining her palace at Saint-Ouen. Cf. AN JJ154, fo. 20v°.

⁹⁰ Grandeau, , ‘Amour conjugal’, 124Google Scholar. ‘If she was bruised, she did not resign herself to it, and perhaps this is the secret to her legend: historians see insolence in her refusal to assume the tragic pose.’