of his four uncles, the Dukes of Anjou, Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon; but
the last being only a maternal uncle and a less puissant prince than his
paternal uncles, it was between the other three that strife began for
temporary possession of the kingly power.

Though very unequal in talent and in force of character, they were all
three ambitious and jealous. The eldest, the Duke of Anjou, who was
energetic, despotic, and stubborn, aspired to dominion in France for the
sake of making French influence subserve the conquest of the kingdom of
Naples, the object of his ambition. The Duke of Berry was a mediocre,
restless, prodigal, and grasping prince. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip
the Bold, the most able and the most powerful of the three, had been the
favorite, first of his father, King John, and then of his brother,
Charles V., who had confidence in him and readily adopted his counsels.
His marriage, in 1369, with the heiress to the countship of Flanders, had
been vigorously opposed by the Count of Flanders, the young princess's
father, and by the Flemish communes, ever more friendly to England than
to France; but the old Countess of Flanders, Marguerite of France, vexed
at the ill will of the count her son, had one day said to him, as she
tore open her dress before his eyes, "Since you will not yield to your
mother's wishes, I will cut off these breasts which gave suck to you, to
you and to no other, and will throw them to the dogs to devour." This
singular argument had moved the Count of Flanders; he had consented to
the marriage; and the Duke of Burgundy's power had received such
increment by it that on the 4th of October, 1380, when Charles VI. was
crowned at Rheims, Philip the Bold, without a word said previously to
any, suddenly went up and sat himself down at the young king's side,
above his eldest brother, the Duke of Anjou, thus assuming, without
anybody's daring to oppose him, the rank and the rights of premier peer
of France.