garments of pitched flax caught fire. Four were burnt, and the shock
brought back the king's madness. He became subject to fits of insanity
of longer or shorter duration, and in their intervals he seems to have
been almost imbecile. No provision had then been made for the
contingency of a mad king. The condition of the country became worse
than ever, and power was grasped at by whoever could obtain it. Of the
king's three uncles, the Duke of Anjou and his sons were generally
engrossed by a vain struggle to obtain Naples; the Duke of Berry was
dull and weak; and the chief struggle for influence was between Philip
of Burgundy and his son, John the Fearless, on the one hand, and on the
other the king's wife, Isabel of Bavaria, and his brother Louis, Duke of
Orleans, who was suspected of being her lover; while the unhappy king
and his little children were left in a wretched state, often scarcely
provided with clothes or food.


8. Burgundians and Armagnacs.--Matters grew worse after the death of
Duke Philip in 1404; and in 1407, just after a seeming reconciliation,
the Duke of Orleans was murdered in the streets of Paris by servants of
John the Fearless. Louis of Orleans had been a vain, foolish man,
heedless of all save his own pleasure, but his death increased the
misery of France through the long and deadly struggle for vengeance that
followed. The king was helpless, and the children of the Duke of Orleans
were young; but their cause was taken up by a Gascon noble, Bernard,
Count of Armagnac, whose name the party took. The Duke of Burgundy was
always popular in Paris, where the people, led by the Guild of Butchers,
were so devoted to him that he ventured to have a sermon preached at the
university, justifying the murder. There was again a feeble attempt at
reform made by the burghers; but, as before, the more violent and
lawless were guilty of such excesses that the opposite party were called