ANST - FW: Musing on August 5th -- Mad King and Two Moms

[j'lynn yeates]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 23:19
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on August 5th -- Mad King and Two Moms


Dear Folk,

Today, August 5 marks the second onset of madness in a king and the
conclusion of a major peace treaty by two women. Which would you hear
of first? Okay, mad kings are interesting. Let us being with Charles
VI
of France.

Chuck VI (1368 to 1422) became king at the age of 12. Remember Henry
III of England? As we pointed out there, it is tough being king as a
pre-teen. He was, as most of us are at that age, dreamy and nice,
kind
of Renfaire material, you know? Of course his adult uncles, Dukes of
Berry, Burgundy, Bourbon, and Anjou, were moral and upright men who
set
a good example for the young king. Well, not exactly. They told Chuck
to just lay back while they took care of the nasty details of ruling.
They helped the country with higher taxes and then managed to vote
themselves pay raises. I guess the US Congress learned from them.

It was not like France had a lot of cash to waste, either. The
Hundred
Years War with England had bankrupted most of the royal and not so
royal treasuries. In 1388 Chuck, aided by brother Louis of Orleans,
kicked out his uncles and put back in guys who used to council their
dad.

In 1385 lightning struck the heart of Charles VI. Not actually, that
is
a metaphor. The stunningly beautiful Bavarian Princess Isabeau
(1371-1435) arrived in Chuck’s court. She was 14 and was beyond
description. Her beauty set its hooks in Charles’ face. He could not
stop looking at her. He arranged that they should be married
immediately. It was a meeting of souls. Well, it was as close to that
as you could get without her speaking French and him not speaking
German. He dug her and that was enough. Remember he was 17. Need I
say
more?

The honeymoon lasted for what seemed like a year or two. Chuck was
studly, Isabeau was beautiful if a tad vacant. She never did learn to
speak French very well, did love partying. Folks started to say she
was
selfish and vain. But of course!

The honeymoon came to an end in April of 1392. Chuck contracted a
mysterious illness which caused him to lose his hair and nails. Was
it
poison? Was it a disease? Who can say? He was still sick when one of
his advisors was attacked. Chuck decided to go do a kingly thing and
set things right.

On this day August 5, 1392 King Charles VI was riding up front of his
assault force when a Christopher Lloyd looking dude ran up to him and
shouted out words of doom and betrayal. The king shook it off but
looked a tad worried. Next thing you know a page dropped a lance.
Whoops! Don’t you just hate clumsy pages? I know I do and understand
why Chuck drew his sword and killed four of his own men before they
could subdue him.  The king went into a seizure and they had to find
an
oxcart to truck him back home. For two days Chuck lay in a coma. With
the help of a physician, Guillaume de Harcigny, he made a partial
recovery. When Charles heard that he had killed four of his own men,
he
wept. From then on his mental health was never quite right.

On January 28, 1393 Queen Isabeau gave a masque. For you
non-medievalists out there, masques were theme parties with playlets
in
the middle. Really groovy thangs but hard to host unless you are
really
rich (and decadent.)  Charles VI and a group of his courtiers dressed
up like 'wild men' in linen costumes. These costumes were not OSHA
approved and you can guess what happened next. They were accidentally
set alight by a torch and four of them burned alive. Charles was
saved
by the Duchess of Berry, who threw her voluminous skirts over him.
Got
to admire that lady. True, she was his aunt but still that was a nice
touch. I had a real crush on one of my aunts once but that is quite
none of your business. You can image how much toasting his troop
depressed Chuck.

June of 1393 found Chuck strung out with a bad case of the dementia.
A
surgeon did some trepanning (cutting holes in the skull) of the king
hoping that or anything would help. It did for about 2 years. He
suffered a relapse in 1395. In 1397 Chuck knew it wasn’t going well.
He
told folks to keep sharp objects away from him. The church folk tried
an exorcism.  It did not seem to work.

Chuck went from small periods of being lucid to times where he
thought
he was made of glass and could break if anyone got too close. He
stopped washing or changing his clothes. Lice and the smell were
getting to be a bit much. His doctors had some guys dress up in black
face, hide in the king’s chamber  to jump out and scare him. Seemed
to
work, at least as far as letting folks bathe him.

Now Isabeau hung in there with Chuck until about 1407. I mean, she
was
still getting lots of cash and throwing outrageous parties. Problem
was
Chuck was getting dangerous. Isabeau arranged to have a cute young
thing, Odette de Champdivers, to take her place in the king’s bed.
She
meanwhile decided that brother-in-law Louis of Orleans looked studly
like her hubby without that annoying madness. Louis had been hot for
her since she arrived in court. Pretty soon it was obvious to
everybody
that they were eating ice cream off the same spoon. Say no more. In
fact, some were so bold to say that when Young Charles was born in
1403, he looked more like Unca Louis than Chuck.

Although Chuck looked healthy from the outside, he was not very
competent to rule. There became a shoving match between Louis and a
guy
named John the Fearless of Burgundy to see who controlled poor
demented
Chuck. John had Louis whacked in 1407. Now Isabeau had just given
birth
to her 12th child and could see the best way to survive. She sided
with
John the Fearless.

This all got very Byzantine in a hurry. Isabeau put on quite a bit of
weight and was confined to a wheel chair. She lived with her pets and
children and hangers-on. Bernard of Armagnac guarded the interests of
her children and when he found out that Isabeau was plotting with the
Duke of Burgundy, he took revenge by informing the King about the
Queen's dissolute behaviour.  Her son, Young Charles, told daddy that
mommy was messing around on him out at Vincennes. Dad actually
rallied
enough to go out there and grab someone who was designated as
Isabeau’s
latest beau. Poor sap was tortured, strangled and thrown into the
Seine
in a leather sack. Isabeau was bawled out but it did little good.

Isabeau had a new favorite, Jean de Villers, whack Bernard of
Armagnac
and carve the cross of Burgundy on his chest. Lovely lady. You know,
Isabeau still liked John the Fearless which mightily peeved her son,
Young Charles. Young Charles had John hacked to death.  Isabeau
disowned her 16 year old son and named her daughter Catherine next in
line.

King Henry V of England invaded France in 1415 and miraculously, for
he
was against a French force five times his, beat the flower of French
chivalry at Agincourt.  Hank rescued Chuck VI from living in squalor
and brought him back to Paris. He put Chuck on an orange and
pomegranate diet which seemed to help. In 1421 Chuck took a downturn
and died amongst strangers. Hank V died the same year. Hank’s young
son
was crowned Hank VI (1421 to 1471) as king of both England and
France.

Young Charles was strangely afflicted too. He had a fear of
assassination attempts; okay, you can see why. He also had a fear of
bridges: he had had John the Fearless whacked on a bridge. It seems
like most of Chuck’s kids had some sort of mental problems. Some
folks
think it could have been some inherited malfunction, others think it
could have been something like encephalitis. Still others think that
there was a whole lot of poisoning going on. Not a pleasant time for
anyone.

Let us talk of peace.

Peace of Cambrai was signed into effect on this day August 5, 1529.
It
was  known as the "Ladies' Peace" because it was negotiated by two
women who played prominent roles in the political affairs of their
times: Margaret of Austria (on behalf of Charles V), and Louise of
Savoy (the mother of François I of France). An armistice of sorts
ensued upon the Peace of Cambrai. France and Austria were both intent
upon gaining total control over Europe and both failed to achieve
their
goal. By the terms of the truce, François renounced his claim to
Italy,
Flanders and Artois. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V gave up his
claim
to Burgundy and most all of France.

What can we learn from this? Madness in royalty is not too rare
(especially in France?) Don’t mess with queens? Pomegranates can be
very helpful? Got two of them on my arms BTW. Beauty has its way?
Living at court can be very dangerous? Don’t wear costumes that
obstruct your vision and are flammable? I think my take on this is
more
toward Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy: peace is best
negotiated by those who give us life. Thanks, moms everywhere.

As always, if you are flinging these monkeys toward other folk, leave
my name and sig attached.

Madly yours,
J.  Ellsworth Weaver

SCA – Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats


=====
SmileWeavers Astrology Charts & Interpretations
Modern & Medieval (but always discreet)
If you are interested, contact me at
astroweaver at yahoo.com or 805.473.8867

Read back issues of Musings at
http://www.thereadersvine.com/~Jennifer_deTocqueville/sebastiansmusing
s.html

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites.
http://invites.yahoo.com/

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Personal Privacy 6.5.3
Comment: public key for jyeates at realtime.net at certserver.pgp.com

iQA/AwUBOYvzcc50zdvN3Vp0EQJ/nwCgs/mH1zigJI5S7xdUdKL529w9FrQAn1Yj
1auECVnB8K0h+IIRmq8L9vOL
=bhy2
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.