page_title: Isabeau of Bavaria
section_title: Orléans' assassination and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Isabeau of Bavaria / Orléans' assassination and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Meurtre du duc Louis d'Orléans, par le Maître de la Chronique d'Angleterre (enlumineur), (BnF)
context_page_description: Isabeau of Bavaria was queen of France between 1385 and 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach as the eldest daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. At age 15 or 16, Isabeau was sent to the young King Charles VI of France; the couple wed three days after their first meeting.
  Isabeau was honored in 1389 with a lavish coronation ceremony and entry into Paris. In 1392 Charles suffered the first attack of what was to become a lifelong and progressive mental illness, resulting in periodic withdrawal from government. The episodes occurred with increasing frequency, leaving a court both divided by political factions and steeped in social extravagances. A 1393 masque for one of Isabeau's ladies-in-waiting—an event later known as Bal des Ardents—ended in disaster with the King almost burning to death. Although the King demanded Isabeau's removal from his presence during his illness, he consistently allowed her to act on his behalf. In this way she became regent to the Dauphin of France, and sat on the regency council, allowing far more power than was usual for a medieval queen.
context_section_description: In 1407, John the Fearless ordered Orléans' assassination. On 23 November, hired killers attacked the duke as he returned to his Paris residence, cut off his hand holding the horse's reins, and "hacked [him] to death with swords, axes, and wooden clubs". His body was left in a gutter. John first denied involvement in the assassination, but quickly admitted that the act was done for the Queen's honor, claiming he acted to "avenge" the monarchy of the alleged adultery between Isabeau and Orléans. His royal uncles, shocked at his confession, forced him to leave Paris while the Royal Council attempted a reconciliation between the Houses of Burgundy and Orléans.
  In March 1408 Jean Petit presented a lengthy and well-attended justification at the royal palace before a large courtly audience. Petit argued convincingly that in the King's absence Orléans became a tyrant, practiced sorcery and necromancy, was driven by greed, and had planned to commit fratricide at the Bal des Ardents. John should be exonerated, Petit argued, because he had defended the King and monarchy by assassinating Orléans. Charles, "insane during the oration", was convinced by Petit's argument and pardoned John the Fearless, only to rescind the pardon in September.
  Violence again broke out after the assassination; Isabeau had troops patrol Paris and, to protect the Dauphin Louis, Duke of Guyenne, she again left the city for Melun. In August she staged an entry to Paris for the Dauphin, and early in the new year Charles signed an ordinance giving the 13-year-old the power to rule in the Queen's absence. During these years Isabeau's greatest concern was the Dauphin's safety as she prepared him to take up the duties of the King; she formed alliances to further those aims. At this point the Queen and her influence were still crucial to the power struggle. Physical control of Isabeau and her children became important to both parties and she was frequently forced to change sides, for which she was criticized and called unstable. She joined the Burgundians from 1409 to 1413, and switched sides to form an alliance with the Orléanists from 1413 to 1415.
  At the Peace of Chartres in March 1409, John the Fearless was reinstated to the Royal Council after a public reconciliation with Orléans' son, Charles, Duke of Orléans, at Chartres Cathedral, although the feuding continued. In December that year Isabeau bestowed the tutelle (guardianship of the Dauphin) upon John the Fearless, made him the master of Paris, and allowed him to mentor the Dauphin, after he had Jehan de Montagu, Grand Master of the King's household, executed. At that point the Duke essentially controlled the Dauphin and Paris, and was popular in the city because of his opposition to taxes levied by Isabeau and Orléans. Isabeau's actions with respect to John the Fearless angered the Armagnacs, who in the fall of 1410 marched to Paris to "rescue" the Dauphin from the Duke's influence. At that time members of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson in particular, proposed that all feuding members of the Royal Council step down and be immediately removed from power.
  To defuse tension with the Burgundians a second double marriage was arranged in 1409. Isabeau's daughter Michelle married John the Fearless' son Philip the Good; Isabeau's son, Dauphin Louis, married John's daughter Margaret. Before the wedding, Isabeau negotiated a treaty with John the Fearless in which she clearly defined family hierarchy and her position in relation to the throne.
caption: John the Fearless ordered the assassination of Isabeau's political ally Louis of Orléans in 1407, depicted in a 15th-century miniature.
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