1
00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,120
Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how

2
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:13,520
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:17,439
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy, we

4
00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:19,720
Speaker 1: have not had a Mad Royal episode in a little bit.

5
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,160
Speaker 1: We have not, so we're kind of do It's kind

6
00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:26,319
Speaker 1: of a theme though. Yeah, we have a lot of

7
00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:28,920
Speaker 1: them and people love them, but we haven't done one

8
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,200
Speaker 1: in a bit, so it seemed like time to circle

9
00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:34,360
Speaker 1: back on the mad Royals. This one, like all of

10
00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:36,519
Speaker 1: those stories, is really sad and that it features a

11
00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,199
Speaker 1: person who has never really properly treated for their illness,

12
00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:41,800
Speaker 1: although there was a lot of theorizing and attempts at

13
00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 1: treating it. But it's also smack dab in the middle

14
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,360
Speaker 1: of the Hundred Years War between England and France, which

15
00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,680
Speaker 1: ran from thirty seven to fourteen fifty three. You'll find

16
00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:53,279
Speaker 1: some accounts that want to shift those numbers a little bit,

17
00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:58,400
Speaker 1: but that's sort of the agreed upon general range, which yes,

18
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:00,680
Speaker 1: is more than a hundred years. Uh. And we're talking

19
00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,680
Speaker 1: today about Charles the sixth of France and his reign

20
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,840
Speaker 1: because of its position on the timeline of Europe had

21
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:11,720
Speaker 1: ripple effects throughout the histories of both those countries, and uh,

22
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,840
Speaker 1: this stuff is really convoluted. There is so much intrigue

23
00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,800
Speaker 1: and loyalty gaming and power grabbing, and to make matters worse,

24
00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,640
Speaker 1: there are a lot of repeating names. So hopefully I

25
00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:25,120
Speaker 1: have managed to pare it down in a way that

26
00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:28,200
Speaker 1: makes sense. But yeah, we're going to talk about Charles

27
00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:30,320
Speaker 1: the sixth of France, who was also known as the

28
00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 1: Mad King. Yeah, if you looked at your at the

29
00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:37,600
Speaker 1: title of this and your podcast player and said, didn't

30
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:42,640
Speaker 1: they do this when already uh I was Charles the ninth. Yeah,

31
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 1: a lot of Charles's obviously nine iyabokuda Charles. So this

32
00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:55,520
Speaker 1: particular Charles was born on December three, thirty eight in Paris.

33
00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,440
Speaker 1: His parents were King Charles five and John du Bourbon,

34
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,960
Speaker 1: and he was only eleven. Charles became king. He was

35
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:09,560
Speaker 1: crowned on October and initially it really seemed like Charles

36
00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,560
Speaker 1: was a golden child. He was very bright, he was charming,

37
00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,720
Speaker 1: he was handsome, and he was athletically skilled. So the

38
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,120
Speaker 1: country and the court of France really believed that he

39
00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,280
Speaker 1: was going to grow into a fine king because he

40
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 1: was so young when he inherited the throne though his

41
00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,960
Speaker 1: uncle's surface his aids and advisors, and he's included the

42
00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,160
Speaker 1: Dukes of Burgundy, Bourbon and jow and Barry. They also

43
00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,640
Speaker 1: created an advisory council to guide the young Charles, called

44
00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:39,280
Speaker 1: the Council of twelve. Philip the Bold of Burgundy was

45
00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,800
Speaker 1: selected to lead this cabinet. This was not to be

46
00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,359
Speaker 1: confused with the King of France also called Philip the Bold,

47
00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:48,880
Speaker 1: and that was Philip the Third and he had reigned

48
00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:52,120
Speaker 1: from twelve seventy to twelve eighty five, so this is

49
00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,960
Speaker 1: roughly a century later. Yes, again, so many and they

50
00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,919
Speaker 1: were used not only names like Philip and Charles, but

51
00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:03,520
Speaker 1: nickname which makes it really confusing. But while France was

52
00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,080
Speaker 1: in effect being ruled by Charles's duke uncles, a number

53
00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:09,400
Speaker 1: of actions were taken that were not so much in

54
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:11,720
Speaker 1: the interests of the people as they were to benefit

55
00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:15,960
Speaker 1: those royals. England and France, as we mentioned, were deep

56
00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:18,040
Speaker 1: into the Hundred Years War at this point, it had

57
00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,040
Speaker 1: been going on since thirty seven and it had really

58
00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:25,040
Speaker 1: been a very expensive effort for France. So the dukes

59
00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:28,320
Speaker 1: raised taxes, but a lot of what they were trying

60
00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,200
Speaker 1: to do was replace reallocated treasury funds that they had

61
00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:36,600
Speaker 1: actually spent to benefit themselves. So just two years after

62
00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,320
Speaker 1: Charles the sixth was named king, revolts started breaking out

63
00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:44,080
Speaker 1: throughout the country as France's people grew very frustrated with

64
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:46,480
Speaker 1: things that were being done in the young king's name.

65
00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:49,360
Speaker 1: You know, one account I read suggested that all of

66
00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:51,800
Speaker 1: those dukes kind of each had their own agenda, and

67
00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,720
Speaker 1: so they were spending money, not as a unified force,

68
00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 1: but they were each just going, well, I'm gonna take

69
00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,360
Speaker 1: some money to go do my thing over here. I'm

70
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:00,160
Speaker 1: gonna take money to go do my thing over year,

71
00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:02,800
Speaker 1: and so they were really just part of the problem

72
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,080
Speaker 1: was not only that they were benefiting themselves, but they

73
00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,720
Speaker 1: were doing their own projects and kind of funding them

74
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,480
Speaker 1: willing really. In thirteen eighty five, at the age of seventeen,

75
00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,760
Speaker 1: Charles was married to Isabeau of Bavaria, and that was

76
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,360
Speaker 1: a union which had been brokered by Philip the Bold.

77
00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:20,799
Speaker 1: This was a move that benefited Philip, who had inherited

78
00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,280
Speaker 1: the Countship of Flanders in thirteen eighty four, and at

79
00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:27,320
Speaker 1: the time England was exerting its power in Flanders, so

80
00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,560
Speaker 1: Philip arranged the marriage in part to ensure that he

81
00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:34,840
Speaker 1: had German support there. Even though it was arranged, this

82
00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:38,280
Speaker 1: marriage was definitely not something Charles had been forced into.

83
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,359
Speaker 1: Despite the fact that he didn't speak German and Isabeau

84
00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:44,680
Speaker 1: didn't speak French, the young king was instantly smitten when

85
00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,440
Speaker 1: he saw his Bavarian princess, so much so that the

86
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:52,279
Speaker 1: young man insisted that the wedding happened as quickly as possible.

87
00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:56,120
Speaker 1: Three days after they met, the young couple were already

88
00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:00,200
Speaker 1: husband and wife, and the marriage, initially in a way,

89
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,920
Speaker 1: went well. Uh The young couple became known for their

90
00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,640
Speaker 1: entertaining They were both very attractive and charming, so even

91
00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,160
Speaker 1: if they had not been royalty in those first years,

92
00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,160
Speaker 1: at least, they probably would have been fourteenth century Europe's

93
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:17,320
Speaker 1: version of an IT couple. In August eight, at Phillip's urging,

94
00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,960
Speaker 1: Charles back to Jean of Brabant in a disagreement with

95
00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:25,720
Speaker 1: Duke William of Gelderland. Jean of Brabant was related to

96
00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:28,240
Speaker 1: phill Up the Bowl by marriage. She was his wife's aunt,

97
00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 1: so he was using his position and his influence over

98
00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:33,919
Speaker 1: the king to try to smooth things out for his family.

99
00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,159
Speaker 1: But once Charles arrived on the scene, what he actually

100
00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:40,039
Speaker 1: did was to make peace with Duke William and that

101
00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,239
Speaker 1: was the end of things. It was not the show

102
00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:46,120
Speaker 1: of force that Philip and John had been hoping for. Yeah,

103
00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:49,159
Speaker 1: I don't think they wanted negotiations at all. They wanted

104
00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:53,000
Speaker 1: somebody to come in, crack some skulls and show who

105
00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:54,680
Speaker 1: was who. And instead it was like, hey, we can

106
00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:57,880
Speaker 1: work this out, you guys. Uh. Just a few months

107
00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:00,679
Speaker 1: after this, Charles, who was twenty and at that point,

108
00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,560
Speaker 1: decided that he was ready to govern on his own, so,

109
00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,159
Speaker 1: with the help of Louis, the Duke of Orleon, who

110
00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,599
Speaker 1: was his brother, he made the move to dissolve the

111
00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:11,880
Speaker 1: Council of Twelve, and so his uncles were also removed

112
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:16,360
Speaker 1: from their advisory positions. Charles's father, Charles the Fifth, had

113
00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,880
Speaker 1: had an advisory cabinet called the Marmosets, and when Charles

114
00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,479
Speaker 1: took over his reign, he reinstated the Marmosets, which included

115
00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:28,479
Speaker 1: non Aristocrats as his advisors. Charles sought reform once he

116
00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,719
Speaker 1: started ruling on his own with the Marmosets and placed

117
00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,320
Speaker 1: to advise, Charles began repairing the damage that his uncle's

118
00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:39,440
Speaker 1: had been doing slowly. The French economy improved and the

119
00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:43,080
Speaker 1: corruption of the royals and their government was reduced, and

120
00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:45,680
Speaker 1: this is when the nickname Charles the Beloved came to

121
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:49,080
Speaker 1: be associated with the king. Yeah, initially it looked like

122
00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:53,440
Speaker 1: everything was going so great. Uh. In nine Charles made

123
00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,719
Speaker 1: a move that was intended to bring greater power to

124
00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:59,320
Speaker 1: France by placing an ally on the papal throne. And

125
00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:01,200
Speaker 1: this is one of those points in history where there

126
00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,000
Speaker 1: were several contenders for pope, and Charles aligned with Antipope

127
00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,200
Speaker 1: Clement the seventh. Charles knew that if he could convince

128
00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,840
Speaker 1: Clement the seventh that he should make a strong move

129
00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:13,640
Speaker 1: to take the role of pope, and if he assisted,

130
00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,640
Speaker 1: then France would have this really strong ally in Rome.

131
00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:21,880
Speaker 1: But not everyone wanted the same pope. King Richard the

132
00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,800
Speaker 1: second of England wished for Boniface the ninth to become

133
00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,200
Speaker 1: the pope win word of Charles's plans to installed Clement

134
00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:32,440
Speaker 1: the seventh. As pope reached England, it led to the

135
00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,160
Speaker 1: two monarchs and meeting to discuss this issue as well

136
00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:42,000
Speaker 1: as their country's ongoing antagonism, and Charles managed with Richard

137
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,240
Speaker 1: the Second to come to a temporary peaceful agreement, and

138
00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:47,760
Speaker 1: that was the Truth of Lullingham, which put an end

139
00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:50,280
Speaker 1: to the second segment of fighting between the two countries

140
00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:52,440
Speaker 1: in the course of the Hundred Years War, and it

141
00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:55,119
Speaker 1: actually also led to the longest period of peace within

142
00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:58,720
Speaker 1: the Hundred Years War. The treaty also included an arrangement

143
00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:02,160
Speaker 1: made several years later for Richard the Second to marry

144
00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:07,080
Speaker 1: Charles and Isabella's daughter, Isabella. Isabella was six when the

145
00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:10,960
Speaker 1: treaty was signed, and that marriage did happen then. UM,

146
00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,440
Speaker 1: So we're going to do a really brief sidebar here

147
00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,000
Speaker 1: on gross child marriages. UM. Richard the Second and Isabella

148
00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:20,560
Speaker 1: were marrying before the girl's seventh birthday. Although according to

149
00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:23,280
Speaker 1: the custom of the time and canon law, marriage to

150
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:26,120
Speaker 1: a child in such an instance was seen as political.

151
00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,240
Speaker 1: Such marriages were not consummated until the child involved was

152
00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:33,320
Speaker 1: a more appropriate age. Um. But in terms of what

153
00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,400
Speaker 1: that means for girls, that was commonly twelve years old,

154
00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,240
Speaker 1: which is still troubling but at that time was pretty standard.

155
00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:44,280
Speaker 1: But in Isabella's case, her husband, Richard the Second, died

156
00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:47,199
Speaker 1: when she was only ten, so the marriage was never consummated,

157
00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,640
Speaker 1: and most accounts suggest that he really did treat her kindly.

158
00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,040
Speaker 1: He wanted to protect her, and he felt like, that's fine,

159
00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:55,480
Speaker 1: we can make this political alliance and I will wait

160
00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:59,600
Speaker 1: to make her my wife in actuality. Um. But he

161
00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:02,600
Speaker 1: died before any of that came to fruition. So because

162
00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,040
Speaker 1: they had not consummated the marriage, she was not considered

163
00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:08,360
Speaker 1: a queen dowager, And initially it was a little bit

164
00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,120
Speaker 1: tricky to get her moved back to France. Uh. There

165
00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,360
Speaker 1: was a lot of political maneuvering going on in an

166
00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:17,120
Speaker 1: attempt to remarry her to the young Henry the fifth,

167
00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:21,040
Speaker 1: but she was eventually returned to her parents in France.

168
00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:24,640
Speaker 1: So we're about to get into the first time that

169
00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:29,160
Speaker 1: Charles exhibited some truly bizarre and upsetting behavior. But before

170
00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:31,320
Speaker 1: we do that, we'll get to a word from one

171
00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:38,160
Speaker 1: of our sponsors. The first instance of Charles having medical

172
00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,080
Speaker 1: issues which would be associated with his madness was in

173
00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:44,319
Speaker 1: thirteen nine, and he had in April of that year

174
00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:47,120
Speaker 1: been quite ill and had lost most of his hair

175
00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:51,040
Speaker 1: and his fingernails to that illness, which remains unidentified. While

176
00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:53,880
Speaker 1: he was recovering from that illness, Charles learned that one

177
00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,640
Speaker 1: of his friends had been the target of a failed

178
00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:00,200
Speaker 1: murder attempt, so in August, Charles began a jar need

179
00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,960
Speaker 1: to try to seek a vengeance on this attempted murderer,

180
00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,360
Speaker 1: who had fled to Brittany. While he was riding to

181
00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,880
Speaker 1: his destination, Charles developed a high fever and also out

182
00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:13,920
Speaker 1: of nowhere, stabbed four of his men with a sword.

183
00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:17,440
Speaker 1: He was overpowered and laid out on the ground and

184
00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:20,760
Speaker 1: he started having some kind of convulsions and then fell

185
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,040
Speaker 1: into a coma like state. Yeah, he actually may have

186
00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:27,280
Speaker 1: stabbed more than that, but he definitely killed four of

187
00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:31,400
Speaker 1: his men. Um. There's also a weird little part of

188
00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:36,840
Speaker 1: that story where a stranger, a seemingly very distraught possibly

189
00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:39,920
Speaker 1: wild man runs up and and yells some things right

190
00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:43,360
Speaker 1: before this all happens. It's a very weird scene that happened,

191
00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:47,160
Speaker 1: and apparently like a lance was dropped and that may

192
00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:49,240
Speaker 1: have triggered it. We basically do not know why he

193
00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,680
Speaker 1: went on this bizarre killing spree. But after several days

194
00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,240
Speaker 1: of being unconscious, the young king awoke and he was

195
00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,120
Speaker 1: treated by a doctor, and he was completely heartbroken when

196
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,640
Speaker 1: he learned that he had killed four members of his party.

197
00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:05,600
Speaker 1: He had also injured his brother Louis in the process,

198
00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,080
Speaker 1: and this was unfortunately the start of a cycle that

199
00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:10,839
Speaker 1: would play out over and over throughout the King's life,

200
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,960
Speaker 1: where he would have these bouts of madness followed by

201
00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:20,640
Speaker 1: a period of apparent normalcy. About five months later, on January,

202
00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,760
Speaker 1: the king was in a serious accident at a masked

203
00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:27,760
Speaker 1: ball that was thrown by Queen Isebeu. He and several

204
00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:31,560
Speaker 1: other men had been dressed as so called wild men,

205
00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,200
Speaker 1: and their linen costumes caught fire when they came in

206
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,679
Speaker 1: contact with a torch that was being carried by the

207
00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:41,040
Speaker 1: King's brother Louis, who got too close while trying to

208
00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:46,200
Speaker 1: identify who the masqueraders were. Thinking very quickly, the Duchess

209
00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:48,880
Speaker 1: of Berry used her skirts to smother the flames that

210
00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:52,880
Speaker 1: were engulfing the king, but four of his courtiers burned

211
00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,839
Speaker 1: to death in the incident. This incident came to be

212
00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:59,080
Speaker 1: known by the grizzly name bal Dessardaunt, or the Ball

213
00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:02,400
Speaker 1: of the Burning Men. I had thought about doing a

214
00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,079
Speaker 1: whole episode on this at some point, but like what

215
00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:09,640
Speaker 1: we just said, is most of the information about it.

216
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,840
Speaker 1: It was a grizzly and horrifying spectacle. Yeah, there are

217
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,320
Speaker 1: some pieces that have a hair more detail that as

218
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,120
Speaker 1: part of their costumes that were linen, they had soaked

219
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,640
Speaker 1: them in some sort of um formula that allowed them

220
00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:26,000
Speaker 1: to like stick hair to them so that they would

221
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:29,000
Speaker 1: look more wild, and that that was super flammable. But

222
00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,440
Speaker 1: most of them really all kind of center around really

223
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:36,040
Speaker 1: making it clear that this was not anything but an accident.

224
00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:38,120
Speaker 1: Louis really was just trying to figure out who these

225
00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:40,400
Speaker 1: people were. He was not trying to attack them with

226
00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:45,120
Speaker 1: this this torch. And at this point Charles was still

227
00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:48,439
Speaker 1: grappling with his guilt over the August incident in the forest,

228
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:52,240
Speaker 1: and this accident only made him more deeply upset, and

229
00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:55,920
Speaker 1: several months later he experienced another attack that was very

230
00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:58,760
Speaker 1: similar to the first one, and this time a surgeon

231
00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:02,040
Speaker 1: intervened and trepan the King's skull to relieve pressure on

232
00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:06,640
Speaker 1: Charles's brain, and that procedure actually seemed, at least according

233
00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:09,520
Speaker 1: to record, to work for a while. He felt better

234
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:14,400
Speaker 1: and he did not have another episode until But as

235
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:19,640
Speaker 1: time progressed, this cycle between periods of lucidity and periods

236
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,240
Speaker 1: of psychosis became shorter and shorter to the point that

237
00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:26,960
Speaker 1: he would experience about of madness, lasting anywhere from three

238
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,280
Speaker 1: to nine months, followed by a lucid period that would

239
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:35,120
Speaker 1: last three to five months. And there were many theories

240
00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,760
Speaker 1: as to what was going on with the king, and

241
00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:39,480
Speaker 1: one of them started circulating that he might be possessed

242
00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:43,640
Speaker 1: or cursed in some way. So church officials attempted exorcism

243
00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:47,560
Speaker 1: on several occasions, and during one such attempt, Charles called out,

244
00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:50,280
Speaker 1: begging that if someone present had been part of the curse,

245
00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:52,600
Speaker 1: that they should just let him die rather than let

246
00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,840
Speaker 1: him continue to suffer. These episodes began to manifest with

247
00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,840
Speaker 1: serious breaks from reality, and his delusions weren't really consistent

248
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,400
Speaker 1: from one episode to another. He claimed at various points

249
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:07,600
Speaker 1: that he was not the king, that he was being

250
00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:10,319
Speaker 1: chased through the palace, and that his wife and children

251
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:13,960
Speaker 1: were not in fact his family. He attacked physicians and

252
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:18,160
Speaker 1: servants and destroyed his apartment, and at one point he

253
00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:20,920
Speaker 1: also exhibited a version of the glass delusion that we

254
00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:25,800
Speaker 1: spoke about in our podcast episode covering Alexandra of Bavaria.

255
00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,920
Speaker 1: Unlike Alexandra, who thought she had swallowed a glass piano,

256
00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:31,720
Speaker 1: Charles believed that he was made of glass, and so

257
00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:36,400
Speaker 1: he demanded that iron rods and sometimes wooden planks be

258
00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,440
Speaker 1: placed in his clothing to protect him from shattering, and

259
00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:44,120
Speaker 1: he became really fearful of physical contact. Charles was horrified

260
00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:47,280
Speaker 1: when he would return to a state of relative lucidity

261
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,800
Speaker 1: and discover what he had done in the previous episode,

262
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,240
Speaker 1: and it particularly upset him on one occasion when he

263
00:14:54,320 --> 00:15:00,440
Speaker 1: realized his children had heard him ranting beginning as earliest tee.

264
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:03,440
Speaker 1: So really, when this all really started to get serious,

265
00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:07,240
Speaker 1: Isabeau basically started acting as regent whenever Charles was in

266
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:10,720
Speaker 1: one of his psychotic states and leading a regent's council.

267
00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:14,520
Speaker 1: And Isabelle really has been characterized in a number of

268
00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,920
Speaker 1: ways throughout the years, many of them not flattering. Uh.

269
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,240
Speaker 1: She has been described as power hungry, as an adulteress,

270
00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,640
Speaker 1: as self indulgent, as a shallow woman who only wanted

271
00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:28,040
Speaker 1: to enjoy the luxuries of royal life. But she really

272
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:31,280
Speaker 1: was in a unique position of power, and more modern historians,

273
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,760
Speaker 1: as they've analyzed more of the actual documents of the

274
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:36,560
Speaker 1: time and not just things that were written kind of

275
00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,080
Speaker 1: in the interim that maybe embellished the story, realized that

276
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,960
Speaker 1: she was really quite adept at managing diplomacy in the

277
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:46,360
Speaker 1: very stressful situation of having a husband who was not

278
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:50,800
Speaker 1: only experiencing psychosis but was very dangerous as a consequence.

279
00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:54,400
Speaker 1: I do want to take a moment to just clarify

280
00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:56,840
Speaker 1: that the vast majority of people who have some kind

281
00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:01,120
Speaker 1: of mental illness are not dangerous. Correct. Yeah, we we

282
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,720
Speaker 1: have a couple of stories about royalty who were both

283
00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,080
Speaker 1: mentally ill and dangerous, but like, those things don't live together,

284
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:11,360
Speaker 1: and they're probably yeah, they're not necessarily hand in hand.

285
00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:15,920
Speaker 1: These manifested that way. Uh, probably due to a number

286
00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,520
Speaker 1: of factors. But yeah, that's never make that assumption. Yeah,

287
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,960
Speaker 1: So Charles, the sixth rain stretched on and it became

288
00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:25,760
Speaker 1: more and more apparent that there was something really wrong.

289
00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:30,000
Speaker 1: Other members of the French court began to scheme about

290
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,200
Speaker 1: how they could take advantage of this situation and seize

291
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,200
Speaker 1: power for themselves. Even when the king seemed to be lucid,

292
00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,200
Speaker 1: he couldn't really think clearly, and he relied on advice

293
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:42,840
Speaker 1: of those around him more and more, to the point

294
00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,240
Speaker 1: that he just started doing what other people told him

295
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,400
Speaker 1: to do. This led to a series of events that

296
00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:52,600
Speaker 1: are just a complicated mess of drama right. So John

297
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:55,360
Speaker 1: the Fearless, who had become the Duke of Burgundy after

298
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,040
Speaker 1: Philip the Bold had died, had been at odds with

299
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,320
Speaker 1: Louis Valois, the Duke of Orleans, who was of course

300
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,879
Speaker 1: Charles the Sixes brother, and Louis was also rumored to

301
00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:08,399
Speaker 1: be having an affair with Queen Isabeau. So John the

302
00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,240
Speaker 1: Fearless felt that if he didn't do something about Louis,

303
00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:14,240
Speaker 1: who was close to both the king and Isabeau, that

304
00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:18,480
Speaker 1: he John would have virtually no power. The two dukes

305
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,920
Speaker 1: were openly hostile to one another, and in what John

306
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,360
Speaker 1: perceived as a power gap created by the King's instability,

307
00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:29,200
Speaker 1: he plotted to have Louis assassinated. In fourteen oh seven,

308
00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:32,679
Speaker 1: after a false note claiming that the King wanted to

309
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,760
Speaker 1: see him was sent to Louis. A crowd of more

310
00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:40,000
Speaker 1: than a dozen attackers set upon the Duke of Orleans

311
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:42,119
Speaker 1: as he went to answer the request, and he was

312
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:47,240
Speaker 1: stabbed to death. But then, in a really surprising move, Isabeau,

313
00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:49,760
Speaker 1: who had been close with Louis, joined up with the

314
00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,639
Speaker 1: Burgundians Louise attackers, and she and John the Fearless actually

315
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:58,159
Speaker 1: became close friends. In the meantime, Louise followers continued to

316
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:02,240
Speaker 1: oppose the Burgundy power grab, and those uh those resistors

317
00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,960
Speaker 1: were led by Bernard the seventh, the Count of Armagnac.

318
00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:09,480
Speaker 1: Over the next several years, the Burgundians and the Armagnacs

319
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:13,160
Speaker 1: remained at odds, and the Armagnacs gradually pushed their rivals

320
00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:17,399
Speaker 1: out of Paris and what's fittingly called the Armagnac Burgundian

321
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:21,400
Speaker 1: Civil War. But in fourteen fifteen, a new development, which

322
00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,640
Speaker 1: was the invasion of France by Henry the Fifth, added

323
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:28,480
Speaker 1: yet another layer of stress and intrigue to the whole situation.

324
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,639
Speaker 1: Henry and his army of eleven thousand men had arrived

325
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:36,600
Speaker 1: in France in late summer fourteen fifteen. After a five

326
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,960
Speaker 1: week siege at our Fleur. Henry was victorious, but it

327
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:44,040
Speaker 1: was a costly win. They really did not expect Our

328
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:46,320
Speaker 1: Fleur to be able to resist that long, and so

329
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,359
Speaker 1: his army was depleted by half. He had at that

330
00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:52,040
Speaker 1: point intended to move north to Calais and then head

331
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,359
Speaker 1: back to England from there, but he was confronted at

332
00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:58,159
Speaker 1: Agincourt by the French army, which was twenty thousand men strong,

333
00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:02,200
Speaker 1: and in one of history's most famous upsets. Henry's more

334
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,399
Speaker 1: agile troops were able to defeat the armor encumbered French

335
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:10,040
Speaker 1: forces despite that massive deficit in head count. Coming up,

336
00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 1: we will talk about how John the Fearless had been

337
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,560
Speaker 1: hoping to manipulate the situation to his advantage. But before

338
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:22,320
Speaker 1: we do, we'll have one more quick sponsor break. So

339
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:24,320
Speaker 1: when we left off, we had been talking about how

340
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,840
Speaker 1: Henry the Fifth had entered France, and initially John the

341
00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:30,440
Speaker 1: Fearless had hoped to curry favor with Henry the Fifth

342
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:33,399
Speaker 1: by backing him, at least in a sneaky way. But

343
00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:36,160
Speaker 1: his efforts fell apart and the alliance that he hoped

344
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:40,120
Speaker 1: for never materialized, and after that he turned to his enemies,

345
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 1: the Armagnacs for help. He wanted the Armagnacs and Burgundians

346
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,960
Speaker 1: to forge a truce and joined forces to fight England.

347
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:49,439
Speaker 1: He hoped in this move to also get in the

348
00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,159
Speaker 1: good graces of Charles the Sixes air that was the

349
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:56,240
Speaker 1: Dauphin Charles the seventh. But during the discussions, which took

350
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,720
Speaker 1: place on the Montereu Bridge, John the Fearless was killed

351
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:02,240
Speaker 1: in what was likely a planned attack, although at the

352
00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,760
Speaker 1: time it was carefully staged to look like a spontaneous

353
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,240
Speaker 1: disagreement that escalated and got out of hand. As a

354
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 1: quick aside, Charles the Seventh was something of an unlikely dauphin.

355
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,560
Speaker 1: Charles the sixth and Isabeau had a lot of kids.

356
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,760
Speaker 1: From six to fourteen oh seven, there had been twelve children,

357
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:24,080
Speaker 1: and four of them were boys. Their first child and

358
00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:27,920
Speaker 1: first son, also named Charles, died at just three days old.

359
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,280
Speaker 1: Their second son, another Charles, died when he was nine.

360
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,120
Speaker 1: The two other sons, Louis and John, each died when

361
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:38,920
Speaker 1: they were eighteen, so Charles the seventh didn't become next

362
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 1: in line to the throne until he was fourteen, when

363
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:45,399
Speaker 1: John died, and the death of Burgundy in a meeting

364
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,360
Speaker 1: with Charles the seventh soured Isabel's relationship with the crown prince.

365
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,440
Speaker 1: Up to that point, she had really favored the young

366
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,879
Speaker 1: man over her other children, and there were a lot

367
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:59,040
Speaker 1: of suspicions and rumors going around that Charles the Seventh

368
00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,480
Speaker 1: was actually the child eild of her deceased close friend Louis,

369
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:06,159
Speaker 1: the Duke of Orleon. But after John the Fearless was killed,

370
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:09,320
Speaker 1: Isabeau disowned Charles the seventh and forged ahead with her

371
00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 1: own plan to make peace with England. In May of

372
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:15,639
Speaker 1: fourteen twenty, the Treaty of Tis was signed, and it

373
00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,399
Speaker 1: was really Isabeau and the Duke of Burgundy who was

374
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:20,199
Speaker 1: fill up the third and fill up the good at

375
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 1: that point, who orchestrated the terms of this deal. In it,

376
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:28,680
Speaker 1: Charles and Isabel's youngest daughter, Catherine of Valwas was promised

377
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,840
Speaker 1: as wife to Henry the Fifth of England. As part

378
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 1: of the agreement, Henry the five would become king of

379
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,399
Speaker 1: France as well as England when Charles the sixth that died.

380
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:42,159
Speaker 1: This meant that Charles the seventh would be completely bypassed

381
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,720
Speaker 1: as the monarch and his sister Catherine would instead be queen.

382
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:50,200
Speaker 1: The treaty further provided that the descendants of Henry, King

383
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:55,280
Speaker 1: of England should rule France going forward. Yeah, this was

384
00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:57,680
Speaker 1: sort of a weird thing where it's like, well, we're

385
00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:59,639
Speaker 1: never going to win against them, but maybe we can

386
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,680
Speaker 1: work some thing out. And Charles the seventh really stinks,

387
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: so let's do whatever we can to make this rough

388
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:09,760
Speaker 1: for him. Um, And that way, in making Catherine Henry

389
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 1: the fifth wife, they were at least ensuring that their

390
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:16,520
Speaker 1: bloodline was still part of the ruling um effort in

391
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:20,159
Speaker 1: France and beyond being bypassed, all parties involved in this

392
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,199
Speaker 1: treaty denounced Charles the seventh and agreed that he and

393
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 1: his followers should not be bargained with in any way,

394
00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:28,359
Speaker 1: and that opposition to the terms of the treaty, which

395
00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:32,040
Speaker 1: would undoubtedly come from Charles the Seventh, should be eliminated.

396
00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 1: But Henry the Fifth, who had been working his way

397
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,680
Speaker 1: through France claiming territory, continued to do just that. After

398
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 1: the treaty was signed, and throughout all this Charles the

399
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,159
Speaker 1: sixth was basically out of the game. The people of

400
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: France were not pleased, and the Treaty of Tis really

401
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:52,840
Speaker 1: set off a couple of decades worth of unrest. Yeah,

402
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 1: they weren't really thrilled with this whole Oh we're giving

403
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 1: the country's rule away to England. Uh. They didn't care

404
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: that it was a French a French wife that was

405
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:03,919
Speaker 1: involved in that. They just felt like they have been

406
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:09,440
Speaker 1: completely betrayed. And on October one, just shy of the

407
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 1: forty two anniversary of his crowning is King of France,

408
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,400
Speaker 1: Charles the six died Henry the fifth of England had

409
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: actually already died just two months prior, so that meant

410
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,560
Speaker 1: that Henry the fifth could not reign, but Henry's infant

411
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,680
Speaker 1: son that he had had with Catherine was proclaimed king

412
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: of England and France. Charles the sixth son Charles the seventh,

413
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,239
Speaker 1: was declared King of France by his supporters, though, and

414
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,920
Speaker 1: for a time everything north of the Loire was under

415
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: English rule, while the portions of France south of there

416
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,560
Speaker 1: were back in Charles the seventh as their king. It's

417
00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 1: a little more complex than that, but that becomes a

418
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 1: whole podcast episode in and of itself. Um. But I

419
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit because, particularly in those

420
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 1: later years, Charles the six is madness doesn't get talked

421
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,840
Speaker 1: about a lot um because the kind of just started

422
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,399
Speaker 1: to ignore him in some ways. In total, Charles the

423
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 1: sixth had forty four documented episodes of madness through his life.

424
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 1: So those those instances where he had a psychotic break

425
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 1: of some sort. Uh. Initially, they were really well documented

426
00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 1: when this happened, but as his episodes of psychosis became

427
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:23,040
Speaker 1: more frequent and longer, there were fewer and fewer records

428
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: kept about them. As is so often the case. There's

429
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,679
Speaker 1: a lot of modern speculation about his diagnosis, and that

430
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: speculation has included porphyria and in sephalitis as well as schizophrenia.

431
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 1: Charles the sixth was certainly not the first in his

432
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 1: family to exhibit some kind of mental illness. His mother,

433
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 1: John of Bourbon, had also exhibited some instability, as had

434
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:51,400
Speaker 1: her brother and father. It's also possible that porphyria from

435
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: Charles the sixth is French bloodline was introduced into the

436
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 1: English royal lineage with his daughter Catherine. That's one of

437
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:05,920
Speaker 1: the theorized diagnoses attributed to King George the Third's madness. Yeah,

438
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: which we uh, some listeners may know about if they

439
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 1: ever saw the film In the Madness of King George,

440
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 1: which was again an episodic instance where he had this

441
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 1: psychotic break and some really weird things were going on

442
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 1: in him and then he recovered and was fine again. Uh.

443
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 1: Which it's uh that that brings up some interesting stuff

444
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 1: that goes on later with Victoria and Albert's bloodline, but

445
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,879
Speaker 1: we won't get into that now. Yeah, it gets so

446
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: convoluted and it's one of those things working on this

447
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 1: It's like tricky where you're like, I don't how far

448
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 1: do we go in on either end of this of

449
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 1: Charles the sixth reign, because it all affects. It's all

450
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: like this big moving morass, and every gear that turns

451
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 1: affects things down the road and is related to things

452
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 1: that happened way before, and it's tricky. The Hundred Years

453
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: War is a very complicated thing because there were so

454
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: many schemes playing out by so many different people that

455
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 1: intersected in interesting ways. But it's not always easy to

456
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:08,199
Speaker 1: tease them apart because there was also a lot of

457
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:12,000
Speaker 1: fakery going on of like, oh, that's an assassination, but

458
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: really we made it look like we just had a

459
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 1: disagreement that went bad. Things like that were happening all

460
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 1: the time, and a lot of the history that was written,

461
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 1: for example, in like the eighteen hundreds about all of

462
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: this when it was had a surge in popularity is

463
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,680
Speaker 1: really embellished. And it's one of those things we've seen

464
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 1: happen many, many times where someone will say something like,

465
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: you know, that's where sort of Isabea's um characterization as

466
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 1: being this you know, licentious woman who took a lot

467
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: of lovers, which she allegedly did, but we have no

468
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: real evidence. Um. But that's really where that sort of

469
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: story picks up steam and gets repeated over and over

470
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: and if you look back at the actual records of

471
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 1: the time, there isn't really much. There are hints that

472
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:02,240
Speaker 1: she may have had paramours outside of her marriage, but

473
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: we don't. There's no no solid evidence when we or

474
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: the other, so it's tricky. I have completely uh non

475
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:18,680
Speaker 1: drama listener mail. It's about space. Uh. It is from

476
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 1: our listener Roger, and he writes, Dear Tracy and Holly,

477
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: thank you for your recent podcast. I'm Dr Hugh Dryden.

478
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: I have worked for the past twenty five years at

479
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,160
Speaker 1: n I s T. That's the National Institute of Standards

480
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: in Technology uh AS. NBS, which was the National Bureau

481
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,639
Speaker 1: of Standards where Hugh Dryden worked, was renamed in the

482
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 1: mid nineteen eighties. This institution has over a century of

483
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: scientific and engineering excellence which is widely celebrated here. So

484
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 1: I was surprised not to have heard of Dryden, though

485
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: I knew of the NBS wind tunnels, the Bat Project,

486
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:52,919
Speaker 1: and other achievements related to aeronautics. There is an encyclopedics

487
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: three volume History of NBS N I S T. Covering

488
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 1: the first one hundred years of its existence. But even

489
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: this exhaustive reference contain it's only a few incidental references

490
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,439
Speaker 1: to this extraordinary man. I cannot offer an explanation for

491
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: this oversight, the reading between the lines. One might conjecture

492
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:10,439
Speaker 1: as to the reasons, But no matter the cause, I

493
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: hope we might celebrate Dr Dryden's accomplishments more fully. I

494
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: have nominated Dr bill Berry, who was our guest on

495
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,959
Speaker 1: the show where we talked about him, as a speaker

496
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 1: for the and I S T. Colloquium series, which is

497
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:25,439
Speaker 1: so cool. I love that idea, and Um Bill Berry

498
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 1: is such a fond of knowledge. Even as much as

499
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,919
Speaker 1: we talked on the show, he has so much more

500
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 1: knowledge in his head and passion for the subject that

501
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,520
Speaker 1: he would be a phenomenal speaker. And also, Roger enclosed

502
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: an assortment of postcards and pictures and pages from an

503
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: account of early NBS history for our amusement, which is lovely.

504
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: It's such a cool packet. Uh. It came in a

505
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: very official looking envelope and I felt very fancy. Uh,

506
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: but it's really really great pictures about this pictures and

507
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 1: and documents about this early stage of of an a

508
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,960
Speaker 1: branch of the United States government that maybe isn't always

509
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: lauded in no wise it should be in terms of

510
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: what it helped us achieve scientifically. So thank you, thank you,

511
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: thank you, Roger. That was super fantastic to open this morning.

512
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can

513
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcast. At how stuff works dot com,

514
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: you can find us across the spectrum of social media

515
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 1: as Missed in History. That means on Twitter and Instagram

516
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: and Pinterest and Tumbler and Facebook everywhere there we are

517
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 1: missed in History. We also have a website, which is

518
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: Missed in History dot com, which covers all of the

519
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: episodes of the show ever in archive form, and for

520
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: any of the episodes that Tracy and I have worked

521
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: on together, there are show notes. Prior to a couple

522
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: of months ago, those were their own separate pages for

523
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: each episode, and now they're integrated, so all of the

524
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 1: sources are right there with the podcast itself. If you

525
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 1: would like to visit our parents site, that is how

526
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. You can type in almost anything

527
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: you're curious about in the search bar. You will come

528
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: up with a plethora of content and information to explore

529
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 1: and learn from, so please come and visit us at

530
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: mist in history dot com and how stuff works dot com.

531
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

532
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. M