Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised, Hey, this
Speaker 1: is Dana Schwartz, the host of Noble Blood. I am
Speaker 1: so excited that my novel Immortality is now I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure officially out in the world, and it would mean
Speaker 1: the world to me if you went out and ordered
Speaker 1: a copy, or found one, or gave it as a gift.
Speaker 1: It's a story of a young woman in regency London
Speaker 1: and a lot of historical characters that I've covered on
Speaker 1: this podcast and make an appearance. I don't want to
Speaker 1: spoil more than that, but if you like this podcast,
Speaker 1: I really think you'll like it. It's called Immortality, a
Speaker 1: love story, let's see. Other than that, if you want
Speaker 1: to support our show, you can do that at patreon
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Speaker 1: I've linked in the episode description and as always, just
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Let's get into it. Paris, fourteen o seven.
Speaker 1: On a cold November night, Jacquette Griffard was putting her
Speaker 1: baby to bed on the top floor of their house
Speaker 1: on the Ruviet de tomp around her residents of the
Speaker 1: city were settling in, Torches were extinguished, and doors were
Speaker 1: being barred against the chilled night air. From the street
Speaker 1: below her, Jacques could hear the clip clap of a
Speaker 1: mule's hoofs She peered out of her window and saw
Speaker 1: a small party traveling toward her, a nobleman at its center,
Speaker 1: singing merrily. She watched the group for a minute and
Speaker 1: then turned back to her baby. Suddenly she heard a
Speaker 1: cry from the street. Kill him, Kill him, A man shouted.
Speaker 1: Jacquette ran back to the window and looked down in
Speaker 1: horror as a group of masked men emerged from the
Speaker 1: shadows and set upon the nobleman and his party. A
Speaker 1: man in a red hood swung his axe at the nobleman,
Speaker 1: severing his hand and knocking him to the ground. The
Speaker 1: noblemen looked frantically around him. Two of his attendants had
Speaker 1: abandoned him in their fright, another two had been carried
Speaker 1: away by their spook horse. Two more had tried to
Speaker 1: defend their lord, only to be brought down by the mob.
Speaker 1: The nobleman was alone, surrounded by assailants. Blood gushed from
Speaker 1: the stump of his wrist as he crouched pitifully on
Speaker 1: the ground. What is this, he pleaded, What are you doing?
Speaker 1: The masked men said nothing, just closed in, slashing him
Speaker 1: with their swords and axes. They meant to kill him,
Speaker 1: but they took their time with it, dealing the nobleman painful,
Speaker 1: not fatal blows. Blood sprayed the street. Jacquette stood frozen
Speaker 1: at her window, holding her baby as one man raised
Speaker 1: his axe and brought it down on the nobleman's head,
Speaker 1: splitting his skull nearly in half, sending part of his
Speaker 1: brain into the gutter. Shocked out of her silence, Jacquet
Speaker 1: screamed from her second story window. Murder, murder. She didn't
Speaker 1: know it then, but she had just witnessed one of
Speaker 1: the worst crimes of medieval France, a brutal act that
Speaker 1: would lead to civil war. Because the noblemen who now
Speaker 1: lay dead in the street, oozing blood, missing teeth and
Speaker 1: a hand and part of his brain was Louis, Duke
Speaker 1: of Orleans, brother of the King of France. I'm Danish
Speaker 1: schwartz and this is noble blood. Close relatives of royals
Speaker 1: are often powerful figures in society, but rarely more so
Speaker 1: than during the reign of King Charles the sixth of France.
Speaker 1: Since thirteen ninety two, Charles had suffered bouts of severe
Speaker 1: mental illness, rendering him unable to rule. For more on
Speaker 1: Charles's specific problems, including periods of believing he was made
Speaker 1: of glass, you can listen to our episode Charles, the Beloved,
Speaker 1: the Mad, the Fool. You might recall a sad story
Speaker 1: we talked about in that episode from before Charles's descent
Speaker 1: into madness, where he and some of his men dressed
Speaker 1: up as wild men for a costume ball. Unfortunately, their
Speaker 1: costumes were extremely flammable, and when the king's brother leaned
Speaker 1: in with a torch to get a better look at them,
Speaker 1: the men went up in flames. The king survived, but
Speaker 1: four of his friends did not. Years later, the king
Speaker 1: would fall into the madness that incapacitated him as a ruler.
Speaker 1: During the king's absences, control of the country fell to
Speaker 1: his closest relatives include his uncles, the Dukes of Barry,
Speaker 1: Burbant and Burgundy, and his brother Louis, Duke of Orleans,
Speaker 1: who happened to have been the one with the torch
Speaker 1: leaning in on that fateful night during the ball of
Speaker 1: the Burning Men. For most of the thirteen nineties. The
Speaker 1: most prominent of these men controlling France was the Duke
Speaker 1: of Burgundy, a man called Philip the Bold. A commanding character,
Speaker 1: Philip had earned his nickname thanks to his bravery in
Speaker 1: battle when he was just fourteen. Now middle aged, Philip
Speaker 1: controlled unparalleled wealth and land, and used his position on
Speaker 1: the King's Council as his uncle to take even more.
Speaker 1: Philip wasn't alone in this self interested approach to ruling.
Speaker 1: Being on the King's Council gave all of the dukes
Speaker 1: the power to enrich themselves, and they didn't hesitate to
Speaker 1: do so. Many of them had served on Charles's Regency
Speaker 1: Council during the first years of his reign, since the
Speaker 1: king had been crowned at the young age of eleven,
Speaker 1: and they had suffered during the years between charles coming
Speaker 1: of age and his first episode of mental illness, a
Speaker 1: period during which Charles, as a lucid king, brought on
Speaker 1: new advisers who advocated for a more equitable distribution of wealth.
Speaker 1: These policies had won Charles the love of his subjects,
Speaker 1: but not long after he first fell ill in thirteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, they were reversed by the Dukes, who resumed
Speaker 1: their earlier program of raiding the treasury and using their
Speaker 1: ill gotten gains to bribe government officials. France was in
Speaker 1: a precarious position given it to ongoing war with England
Speaker 1: at this point, whereabout sixty years into the Hundred Years War,
Speaker 1: but instead of seriously defending their country, the Dukes used
Speaker 1: the war as a pretext for raising taxes and reaping
Speaker 1: the profits. By the late thirteen ninety the Dukes were
Speaker 1: all enormously rich, that is, except for the King's brother Louie.
Speaker 1: Unlike their uncles, Louis had struggled to assert himself in
Speaker 1: the Royal Council. He was also disliked by much of
Speaker 1: French society, especially because of his role as guy who
Speaker 1: brought a torch to party with flammable costumes. In general,
Speaker 1: the French saw Louis as a reckless, greedy womanizer with
Speaker 1: an unhealthy interest in the occult. The perception wasn't too
Speaker 1: far off base. Louie loved to gamble, throw extravagant parties,
Speaker 1: investigate the dark arts, and seduce married noblewomen. He was
Speaker 1: even rumored to have a private portrait gallery consisting of
Speaker 1: nude paintings of his conquests. In one particularly notorious, possibly apocryphal,
Speaker 1: incident of debauchery, Louie was said to have invited a
Speaker 1: nobleman to his palace. When the man arrived, Louis took
Speaker 1: him into a room which had a naked woman lying
Speaker 1: on the bed, her face covered by a veil. Louie
Speaker 1: asked the nobleman to judge how beautiful his mistress was.
Speaker 1: The horrified man quickly realized that the veiled naked woman
Speaker 1: was his wife. Pretty rude of Louis, and if I
Speaker 1: had to weigh in, probably a pretty good way of
Speaker 1: making enemies. But Louis was also a savvy politician. He
Speaker 1: knew that he had one major advantage over his uncle's
Speaker 1: his close relationship with his brother, the King. Louie and
Speaker 1: Charles had been inseparable since childhood, when their parents' early
Speaker 1: deaths had made them reliant on one another. The King
Speaker 1: was also fond of Louie's Italian wife, Valentina Visconti, too fond,
Speaker 1: some thought, leading to Valentina's exile from court in thirteen
Speaker 1: ninety six due to her rumored witchcraft. Stories For another time,
Speaker 1: and soon the tide would change, Louis, not his uncle's,
Speaker 1: would become the dominating force on the King's council. The
Speaker 1: transition began in thirteen ninety nine, when an epidemic of
Speaker 1: plague exploded in Paris. Louie stayed in the city with
Speaker 1: the king, even as other dukes retreated to their country.
Speaker 1: Estates This period of constant companionship cemented the brother's relationship forever.
Speaker 1: Louie began to receive royal grants, increasing his territory and
Speaker 1: his treasury immensely. With his new resources, he executed a
Speaker 1: political shake up, filling the government with his allies, and
Speaker 1: as his power grew, Louie's public reputation underwent a makeover.
Speaker 1: He became more discreet in his affairs, more mature in
Speaker 1: his interests. A man who had once been criticized for
Speaker 1: his inappropriate fondness for the finer things was now praised
Speaker 1: for his excellent taste. He wasn't extravagant with his money,
Speaker 1: he was just generous with it, courtiers exclaimed, as they
Speaker 1: conveniently benefited from said generosity. For many As the historian
Speaker 1: Jonathan Sumpton writes, Louie was quote the kingly figure that
Speaker 1: Charles the sixth might have been less impressed by the
Speaker 1: new Louis was Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who saw his
Speaker 1: influence wayne as Louise waxed. By Philip's death in fourteen
Speaker 1: oh four, Louis had all but supplanted him as the
Speaker 1: most powerful man on the Council and perhaps the kingdom.
Speaker 1: This reversal did not sit well with Philip's son and heir, John,
Speaker 1: Like his father, John was intelligent, ambitious, and determined, but
Speaker 1: he lacked his father's legendary diplomatic skills. John was quick
Speaker 1: to anger, constantly paranoid, and prone to violence. In the
Speaker 1: cutthroat political environment of the Royal Council, these qualities would
Speaker 1: both help and hurt him. He adopted a populist strategy,
Speaker 1: casting himself as an opponent of the corrupt of indulgent
Speaker 1: elites who raised taxes on the poor to feed their
Speaker 1: expensive habits, a political class whose most viable representative was Louie,
Speaker 1: Duke of or Lyons. To what extent John actually believed
Speaker 1: in the principles he publicly proclaimed is difficult to know.
Speaker 1: His tirades against the government handouts to the rich never
Speaker 1: stopped him from accepting those same handouts, but he was
Speaker 1: a genuinely skilled administrator and military leader, and the excesses
Speaker 1: and inefficiencies he saw in the French government must have
Speaker 1: infuriated him. This conflict between John and Louie quickly escalated.
Speaker 1: The French public, especially the Parisians, were sick of the
Speaker 1: high taxes raised by the Royal Council. Simultaneously, the members
Speaker 1: of the Royal Council were getting concerned at how much
Speaker 1: power Louie had. In July fourteen oh five, things came
Speaker 1: to a head when King Charles, briefly of sound mind,
Speaker 1: agreed to summon an emergency council in Paris to address
Speaker 1: the state of affairs. John, with his characteristic light touch,
Speaker 1: decided to bring six hundred armed men with him to
Speaker 1: the meeting. Upon hearing of this, Louie rallied his own
Speaker 1: troops and headed to the city. Battle lines were drawn
Speaker 1: in the Royal Council, which was pretty evenly split between
Speaker 1: the two men, but those lines were also being drawn
Speaker 1: in Paris, where nearly all of the citizens supported John.
Speaker 1: For months, France teetered on the edge of civil war,
Speaker 1: but war is expensive. The Dukes, who had allied themselves
Speaker 1: with Louie and John eventually started to withdraw their men,
Speaker 1: citing costs. Louie and John, despite their vast wealth, were
Speaker 1: also feeling the financial burn. On October sixteenth, the men
Speaker 1: reached a truce, vowing to keep the peace and be
Speaker 1: brothers forever. Unsurprisingly, this happy moment did not last. To
Speaker 1: prevent further power struggles of this sort, the Council was
Speaker 1: recognized with Queen Isabeau, the King's wife, at its head.
Speaker 1: The thought was that the Queen would be an impartial vote,
Speaker 1: serving only the best interests of her husband and their kingdom.
Speaker 1: In reality, it put Isabeau in an impossible position and
Speaker 1: gave Louie an advantage. Over the years, he and Isabeau
Speaker 1: had formed a close relationship, which was sometimes rumored to
Speaker 1: be romantic. Throughout fourteen oh five and fourteen oh six,
Speaker 1: Louie and John may maintained a cordial, if chilly relationship,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't trust each other, and in April fourteen
Speaker 1: oh seven, Louis struck a decisive blow against his rival
Speaker 1: at a meeting attended by the King, the Dauphin, and
Speaker 1: all of the major Royal Council members except for John,
Speaker 1: who was not invited, the Council was once again reorganized.
Speaker 1: John's allies were removed not just from the Council, but
Speaker 1: also from the Treasury and Finance departments. When John learned
Speaker 1: of this policy upon his arrival in Paris a week later,
Speaker 1: there was nothing he could do. With the most important
Speaker 1: government bodies now aligned against him, it was impossible for
Speaker 1: John to access the money the crown had previously given
Speaker 1: him to support his duchy. It was a dire state
Speaker 1: of affairs. Without money to administer his territory, John stood
Speaker 1: to lose everything. It seemed he had only one course
Speaker 1: of action, reconcile with Louie, who it appeared, had bested
Speaker 1: him once and for all. Despite his stubbornness, John was
Speaker 1: a clear eyed strategist. Louie was too powerful to be beaten,
Speaker 1: So in November John agreed to a formal reconciliation organized
Speaker 1: by their uncle, the Duke of Barry. He and Louie
Speaker 1: went to Mass together on November twentieth and exchanged vows
Speaker 1: of perpetual friendship. Louie, perhaps relishing his victory, seemed inclined
Speaker 1: toward graciousness. The two men had a drink together on
Speaker 1: November twenty second, and made plans to meet for dinner
Speaker 1: later that week. Observers heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Speaker 1: With these two great forces finally at peace, the whole
Speaker 1: country could now rest easy, or so they thought, after
Speaker 1: that fatal ball of the Burning Man. Back in thirteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, Louie had endowed a chapel at the Celestine
Speaker 1: Priory in Paris as a part of his penance. Men
Speaker 1: can contain multitudes. Along with his proclivity for beautiful women
Speaker 1: and illicit stories of sorcery, Louie was also deeply religious.
Speaker 1: He occasionally spent the night at the chapel, meditating and
Speaker 1: praying in the small sleeping chamber he'd built for that purpose.
Speaker 1: After one such night in November fourteen oh seven, according
Speaker 1: to the seventeenth century historian Louis Bourier, Duke Louie woke
Speaker 1: up panting in terror. He'd had a terrible nightmare, he
Speaker 1: told the prior, a dream of his own death. He
Speaker 1: found himself, as he said, in a magnificent orchard filled
Speaker 1: with gleaming fruit. But when he reached for the fruit,
Speaker 1: the figure of death appeared before him, brandishing its Scythe
Speaker 1: the black shrouded skeleton told Louie, I carry a way
Speaker 1: both the young and the old. Louie blinked and found
Speaker 1: himself before the throne of God, waiting in agony for judgment.
Speaker 1: Would it be heaven or hell? He would not find out,
Speaker 1: at least not that night, because at the moment of judgment,
Speaker 1: Louie awoke profoundly. Rattled by the dream. He hurried to
Speaker 1: the Prior and begged to confess his sins. The Prior
Speaker 1: heard his confession and absolved him, but Louie could not
Speaker 1: shake the dread the dream had imparted. It was a
Speaker 1: strange time for Louie to be dreaming of his death.
Speaker 1: After a number of tumultuous years, his political position was
Speaker 1: more secure than ever. He had wealth, influence, and a
Speaker 1: burgeoning relationship with his former enemy, John, Duke of Burgundy.
Speaker 1: But within the week Louie was dead. Though the Duke
Speaker 1: may have predicted his own death and l saw it coming,
Speaker 1: the people of France, noble and common alike, were shocked
Speaker 1: and horrified by the brutal crime. The Duke of Orleans
Speaker 1: may not have been the most popular figure, but certainly
Speaker 1: no one deserved to die like that. The government quickly
Speaker 1: began an investigation, led by the Provost of Paris, Guillaume
Speaker 1: de Tignonville, who the historian Eric Jagger describes in Blood
Speaker 1: Royal as quote one of history's first detectives. De Tignonville
Speaker 1: had no shortage of suspects. There were furious husbands of
Speaker 1: all the women Louis had seduced. There were angry Parisians
Speaker 1: impoverished by louis policies. There were English spies who wanted
Speaker 1: to weaken the country. There were the lesser lords whose
Speaker 1: property Louis had absorbed in his pursuit of power. And
Speaker 1: there were his political rivals, including of course John. But
Speaker 1: John and Louis had recently reconciled, and the Duke of
Speaker 1: Burgundy seemed devastated by the death of his longtime enemy
Speaker 1: turned newfound friend. He had helped escort Louis Coffin into
Speaker 1: the Celestine Priory, where he wept through the funeral service,
Speaker 1: so Tignonville had to look elsewhere. Fortunately, there was no
Speaker 1: shortage of witnesses, including Jacquette, the young woman who had
Speaker 1: watched the attack from her window. De Tignonville and his
Speaker 1: staff interviewed them all. Soon a picture of the crime emerged,
Speaker 1: and it was not one of random violence, but of careful,
Speaker 1: premeditated murder. On the night of his death, Louis had
Speaker 1: gone to visit Queen Isabeau at her residence, the Hotel Barbette.
Speaker 1: Two weeks earlier. Isabeau had lost a newborn son shortly
Speaker 1: after his birth, and Louie visited regularly in an attempt
Speaker 1: to keep her spirits up. At eight o'clock, a man
Speaker 1: came to the house, announcing himself as a valet of
Speaker 1: the king and declared that the king needed to speak
Speaker 1: to his brother at once. Louis, along with his small
Speaker 1: traveling party, quickly departed, setting off down the Rue Vielle
Speaker 1: de Tompre. At the intersection of the Rue des Rosiers,
Speaker 1: he was attacked. After their deadly work was done, the
Speaker 1: assailants fled, knocking out any lit torches they passed to
Speaker 1: obscure their path and throwing col troops clusters of metal
Speaker 1: spikes meant to disable pursuing men or horses behind them.
Speaker 1: Several observers claimed to have seen the men coming from
Speaker 1: a house across the street from Jacquettes, and de Tignonville
Speaker 1: later determined that the assassins had rented the home under
Speaker 1: false names, using it as a base of operations. The
Speaker 1: assailants had begun their search for a house more than
Speaker 1: five months earlier, hinting at the level of planning involved.
Speaker 1: All of Paris watched d Tignonville's progress closely. The city
Speaker 1: was on lockdown, with all all the gates leading out
Speaker 1: tightly shut, and people were arming themselves, fearful that the
Speaker 1: murder was only the beginning of the bloodshed. After all,
Speaker 1: Louis had been the closest thing they had to a
Speaker 1: king at the time, given his brother's mental illness. Now
Speaker 1: that Louis was dead, who would keep order in France?
Speaker 1: The dukes of the Royal council were asking themselves the
Speaker 1: same question. On November twenty seventh, they summoned d'e Tignonville
Speaker 1: to a meeting and asked him to report on his progress.
Speaker 1: D'e Tignonville replied that he had learned many things, but
Speaker 1: had not yet gathered enough evidence to conclusively identify the murderers.
Speaker 1: To get to the truth, he told the assembled men
Speaker 1: he might need to search the royal residences, including their own.
Speaker 1: It was a bold request, one that these high ranking
Speaker 1: dukes had every right to refuse, but they knew that
Speaker 1: the stability of the government relied on uncovering the murderer.
Speaker 1: One by one, they agreed to let De Tignonville search
Speaker 1: their homes. All of them agreed, that is, except for John,
Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy. At de Tignonville's request, he had gone pale.
Speaker 1: As everyone awaited his answer, an awkward silence grew. Suddenly
Speaker 1: John stood and beckoned for two of his uncles, the
Speaker 1: Dukes of Barry and Anjou, to join him in a
Speaker 1: side room. Confused, the men agreed. Once they were out
Speaker 1: of the council's hearing, John turned to his uncles and exclaimed,
Speaker 1: I did it. By the tempting of the devil, I
Speaker 1: did it. The Dukes were horrified and shocked. The Duke
Speaker 1: of Barry, who had facilitated Louis and John's reconciliation ceremony
Speaker 1: only days earlier, cried, now I have lost two nephews.
Speaker 1: But they agreed to keep John's confession quiet for the
Speaker 1: moment in order to determine next steps. The Duke of
Speaker 1: Anjou returned to the main room and adjourned the meeting.
Speaker 1: D'etignonville didn't know what John had said, but it's likely
Speaker 1: he could guess it was the conclusion he had predicted.
Speaker 1: His request to search the Duke's houses had been his
Speaker 1: way of flushing John out. Despite the Duke's outward grief,
Speaker 1: D'etignonville had quickly narrowed in on him after witnesses reported
Speaker 1: seeing the fleeing assassins wearing the Burgundian colors. The next morning,
Speaker 1: Barry and Ajou called a meeting of the Royal Council.
Speaker 1: They purposefully did not invite John, but he showed up anyway.
Speaker 1: When Barry, shocked at John's boldness, turned him forcefully away,
Speaker 1: John was confused. He seemed to have taken Barry and
Speaker 1: Jeu's silence the day before as a tacit approval of
Speaker 1: his actions, but it wasn't. He stormed down the stairs,
Speaker 1: bumping into another uncle, the Duke of Bourbond, who asked
Speaker 1: where he was going. Furious and flustered, John allegedly yelled,
Speaker 1: I'm going out to piss smooth move. In reality, John
Speaker 1: was fleeing Paris. His uncle's rejection revealed to him that
Speaker 1: he was no longer safe, and indeed When the Duke
Speaker 1: of Bourbond learned of John's confession from Barry and Aljoux,
Speaker 1: he demanded to know why John had been allowed to leave. Quote.
Speaker 1: This thing must be handled in the right way, he declared.
Speaker 1: But it was too late. Somehow, John and his retinue
Speaker 1: had managed to slip through one of the city's closed gates,
Speaker 1: and they were gone. Gone too were the actual killers,
Speaker 1: retainers of John's who had been paid handsomely for their work.
Speaker 1: By the beginning of December, John was safely back in
Speaker 1: his own territories. In Paris, the Dukes were at a standstill.
Speaker 1: They were worried that sending men after John would provoke
Speaker 1: in armed retaliation, leading to civil war. The king, however,
Speaker 1: was in a period of good health and he was
Speaker 1: more willing to act. On December tenth, Louis's widow, Valentina,
Speaker 1: arrived in Paris after more than a decade in exile
Speaker 1: remember her alleged witchcraft. She pleaded with King Charles for
Speaker 1: justice for her husband, and he agreed, declaring that he
Speaker 1: would avenge Louis, But in early January he relapsed into psychosis.
Speaker 1: The weak willed Dukes walked back his promises to Valentina
Speaker 1: and instead decided to organize a conference with John set
Speaker 1: for January. Emboldened by the lack of response from Paris,
Speaker 1: John decided to double down. He told his uncles in
Speaker 1: December that he had been possessed by the devil when
Speaker 1: he decided to murder Louis. Now he changed his tune,
Speaker 1: shaping a shocking defense for himself in which he claimed
Speaker 1: it was not the devil who inspired him to kill,
Speaker 1: but God. At the conference on January twentieth, fourteen o eight,
Speaker 1: John astounded listeners by declaring that the murder had been
Speaker 1: both righteous and necessary, given louise immoral character and abuses
Speaker 1: of power, and John continued he would return to Paris
Speaker 1: to make his case to anyone who wished to hear.
Speaker 1: This was just what the other dukes had most feared. Paris,
Speaker 1: where Louise taxes had hurt thousands, was home to the
Speaker 1: most receptive audience for John's arguments, and an inflamed populace
Speaker 1: riled up with tales of justifiable murder was a recipe
Speaker 1: for disaster. On February twenty eighth, fourteen o eight, John
Speaker 1: rode into Paris, despite warnings from the Royal Council. He
Speaker 1: had brought hundreds of armed men with him. Thousands of
Speaker 1: Parisians thronged the streets to witness his entrance, cheering him
Speaker 1: on loudly. Despite all of the fans, John knew his
Speaker 1: popularity wasn't universal. He quickly set about adding a fortified
Speaker 1: tower to his Paris mansion so he could sleep in safety.
Speaker 1: And when he showed up at his public defense, a
Speaker 1: carefully staged show trial that John himself had organized, he
Speaker 1: was wearing chainmail under his fine robes. It was now
Speaker 1: March eighth, and most of the high ranking citizens of
Speaker 1: Paris had turned up at the Hotel Sainpo, the King's
Speaker 1: main residence, to hear John's attempt to justify his action.
Speaker 1: Notably absent was the King, who was suffering another bad spell.
Speaker 1: Presiding instead was the eleven year old d'au fin, who
Speaker 1: sat alongside the dukes of Barry, Bourbon, Anjou, and Burgundy
Speaker 1: himself on a bench at the front of the hall.
Speaker 1: John had enlisted Jean Petit, a theologian from the University
Speaker 1: of Paris, to present his defense, and Petit came ready
Speaker 1: to rumble. Standing in front of the crowd. Petit delivered
Speaker 1: a shocking four hour long speech, which began with the
Speaker 1: statement that it is quote permissible and meritorious to kill
Speaker 1: a tyrant, and the Duke of Orleans was a tyrant
Speaker 1: end quote. Continued with an allegory in which Louis was
Speaker 1: the devil and John the holy Avenger, and he moved
Speaker 1: into allegations of witchcraft, including claims that Louis had used
Speaker 1: demonic powers to create cursed swords with which to kill
Speaker 1: the king. He also outlined a variety of ways that
Speaker 1: Louis had betrayed the king and the French, and concluded
Speaker 1: with the statement that John deserved not just a royal
Speaker 1: hardened for his act, but also quote love, honor, and riches.
Speaker 1: When Petit finished, a stunned silence filled the hall. None
Speaker 1: of those present had expected John to be particularly repentant
Speaker 1: for his crime, but no one had expected him to
Speaker 1: actively argue he deserved to be rewarded for what he
Speaker 1: had done. When Petit asked if John indorsed all he
Speaker 1: had said, John replied that he did. Later, John would
Speaker 1: have Petit's oration made into four costly, beautifully illuminated books
Speaker 1: titled The Justification of the Duke of Burgundy. Despite John's
Speaker 1: satisfaction with Petit's speech, not everyone on Team Burgundy was
Speaker 1: so enthusiastic. John Gearson, once an ally of John's, would
Speaker 1: later write that the justification was quote text for damnation,
Speaker 1: a treatise for death, a charter of dishonor, and a
Speaker 1: message from the pit of hell. The only person whose
Speaker 1: opinion really mattered, though, was King Charles. The next day,
Speaker 1: with the king briefly lucid, John and his allies pushed
Speaker 1: Charles for a royal pardon, which the king granted. Charles
Speaker 1: also signed a document, likely drafted by John's team, that
Speaker 1: empowered John to pursue and punish anyone who insulted him,
Speaker 1: the fifteenth century equivalent of a license to kill. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: this outcome did not sit well with many nobles, especially
Speaker 1: not Queen Isabeau or a Louise's widow Valentina. When John
Speaker 1: was forced to return to his lands to quell an
Speaker 1: uprising in July, Valentina and Isabeau began plotting their revenge.
Speaker 1: On July second, at a council meeting attended by the King,
Speaker 1: John's royal pardon was revoked. Two months later, the women
Speaker 1: hosted a show trial of their own, at which John
Speaker 1: was denied, bounced for his treachery, and ordered to surrender
Speaker 1: to the King's justice. Meanwhile, John was decisively putting down
Speaker 1: a rebellion in Liege. His commanding performance at the Battle
Speaker 1: of Aute earned him the nickname John the Fearless, which
Speaker 1: would stick with him for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: The battle also brought monetary reward in the form of
Speaker 1: compensation paid by the newly defeated rebels. His newly energized
Speaker 1: army and his newly flushed treasury terrified the Orleanists. With
Speaker 1: these resources, John might be able to take Paris, and indeed,
Speaker 1: when John returned to Paris in November, he brought two
Speaker 1: thousand troops with him. Afraid of war, the Royal Council
Speaker 1: once again capitulated to John. They met little opposition. Valentina,
Speaker 1: her husband's greatest advocate, had died in December, and the
Speaker 1: couple surviving children were still young. The oldest, Charles, the
Speaker 1: new Duke of Orleans, was only fourteen, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: hard for the royal counselors to push through their plan
Speaker 1: for reconciliation. On March ninth, fourteen o nine, the Houses
Speaker 1: of Burgundy and Orleans met at the Chautre Cathedral to
Speaker 1: reconcile the king. Slipping in and out of sanity, presided.
Speaker 1: Speaking first, John declared that while he did not apologize
Speaker 1: for having Louis killed, he did apologize for the pain
Speaker 1: that this act had caused the king. The King accepted his,
Speaker 1: let's say, non apology. Now it was the Orleans brother's turn.
Speaker 1: The boys were sobbing and had to be pushed to
Speaker 1: recite their statement of pardon. It was humiliating for the
Speaker 1: boys and horrifying too many onlookers. The Clerk of Parliament
Speaker 1: wrote of the ceremony peace piece, and yet no peace.
Speaker 1: Far from assuaging the Orleans supporters or Orleanists, the Treaty
Speaker 1: of chartra recommitted them to revenge. The young Charles of
Speaker 1: Orleans began to recruit allies, including the powerful Count Bernard
Speaker 1: of Armagnac, whose daughter he would eventually marry in Paris.
Speaker 1: John was inadvertently helping Charles cause through a series of
Speaker 1: short sighted, poorly executed, and tactless political moves. Through the
Speaker 1: fall of fourteen o nine, John alienated nearly all the
Speaker 1: most powerful dukes of the Council Charles and his party
Speaker 1: eagerly welcomed these discontented dukes. In April fourteen ten, the
Speaker 1: Orleanists vowed to raise an army against John. In response,
Speaker 1: John started mustering his own troops. By fourteen eleven, the
Speaker 1: Orleanists and the Burgundians were engaged in a full blown
Speaker 1: civil war. I'll note here that histories of the time
Speaker 1: usually refer to the Orleanists as Armagnacs, thanks to the
Speaker 1: central role at this point of the Count of Armagnac,
Speaker 1: but we'll keep calling them for the sake of this
Speaker 1: episode the Orleanists, so you know. These are the men
Speaker 1: who supported the deceased Duke of Orleans and then his
Speaker 1: young son, the new Duke of Orleans, for more than
Speaker 1: two years. The civil war devastated the cities and countryside
Speaker 1: around Paris. Civilians were just as likely to be killed
Speaker 1: as soldiers. Towns were burned and homes looted. The two
Speaker 1: parties would occasionally pause to draw up some sort of
Speaker 1: unsatisfactory treaty, which would quickly be broken. It seemed like
Speaker 1: the war would never end, but in mid fourteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: something crucial shifted. Parisians, longtime supporters of John, began to
Speaker 1: turn against him. They blamed him for the war, which
Speaker 1: was winning their businesses and cutting off the city's food supply.
Speaker 1: Pro or Leanist sentiment rose, and then, in a fitting
Speaker 1: moment for this Satan filled saga, a flyer began appearing
Speaker 1: all around Paris, addressed from the dark Lord himself. It
Speaker 1: was a thank you letter of swords, in which Lucifer
Speaker 1: the quote King of Hell, Prince of the Shadows, master Regent,
Speaker 1: guardian and governor of all the devils in Hell, expressed
Speaker 1: his gratitude for the service of his quote dearist and
Speaker 1: well loved lieutenant and Proctor General in the West, John
Speaker 1: of Burgundy. There's not much you could do to contest
Speaker 1: an endorsement from Satan, and John saw quite literally the
Speaker 1: writing on the wall. He had lost Paris. On August
Speaker 1: twenty third, he once again fled the city. Outside of
Speaker 1: the ongoing fighting, the French had to worry about the English.
Speaker 1: Both the Indians and the Orleanists had requested French assistance
Speaker 1: in the Civil War, giving the new English King Henry
Speaker 1: the Fifth a clear picture of the internal French turmoil.
Speaker 1: He knew it was the perfect opportunity to strike, and
Speaker 1: in fourteen fifteen, he did, taking the city of Harfleur
Speaker 1: after a relatively short siege. The French, already ravaged by
Speaker 1: years of civil war, did their best to resist, bringing
Speaker 1: a massive force to face the English at Agincourt in
Speaker 1: late October. But maybe you know this story already. The
Speaker 1: French forces weren't enough. The English annihilated the French in
Speaker 1: one of history's most famous defeats. Charles of Orleans, leader
Speaker 1: of the Orleanists, was captured by the English at Agincourt
Speaker 1: and spent the next twenty five years as a prisoner
Speaker 1: in England. John of Burgundy, by contrast, had failed to
Speaker 1: show at the battle, even as the country fought off
Speaker 1: the English. The infighting continued. In fourteen eighteen, John retook Paris,
Speaker 1: executing a bloody coup which left hundreds dead. But eventually
Speaker 1: even he could not deny the threat the English represented.
Speaker 1: If the French wanted to repel their foreign enemies, they
Speaker 1: needed to unite internally. John began negotiations with the teenaged
Speaker 1: d'aufins of France, who had created a shadow Orleanist government
Speaker 1: in Borges following John's capture of Paris. The Daufis seemed
Speaker 1: amenable to the idea of a truce, but his advisers,
Speaker 1: middle aged men who had spent the past decade fighting
Speaker 1: for the Orleanist cause, were not as enthusiastic. Nonetheless, negotiations progressed,
Speaker 1: and a treaty of reconciliation was drawn up in July
Speaker 1: fourteen nineteen. The Duke and the Daufins planned to formalize
Speaker 1: the treaty on the bridge at Montereau in September. A
Speaker 1: special enclosure was built in the center of the bridge
Speaker 1: for the meeting, with heavy wooden doors on each side.
Speaker 1: The men would each enter from one side, accompanied by
Speaker 1: only ten companions. All were to be unarmed, though they
Speaker 1: were allowed to wear armor. Of course. Each man also
Speaker 1: brought hundreds more armed men to wait just outside the enclosure,
Speaker 1: just in case. At five o'clock on September tenth, fourteen nineteen,
Speaker 1: John the Fearless entered the enclosure through his side of
Speaker 1: the bridge. He wore scarlet robes and dripped with jewels.
Speaker 1: The Daufin was already waiting for him. Removing his hat,
Speaker 1: John knelt before the prince and greeted him. The Daufint
Speaker 1: bade him to stand, telling him he had spoken well.
Speaker 1: For a moment, the promise of peace hung over the bridge.
Speaker 1: But then the Daufin looked to his advisers, and one
Speaker 1: of them yelled, kill. Kill. The door on the Dauphin's
Speaker 1: side of the enclosure swung open, and armed men flooded in.
Speaker 1: They swarmed the Duke, swinging at him with axes and swords,
Speaker 1: brutally wounding him before they struck the final blow. The
Speaker 1: parallels to Louise's murder were intentional. One of the killers,
Speaker 1: a devoted Orleanist, almost severed John's hand. As the Duke
Speaker 1: tried to defend himself, he shouted, you cut off my
Speaker 1: master's hand, and I shall cut off yours. On the
Speaker 1: other side of the bridge, the Duke's troops were desperately
Speaker 1: trying to get into the enclosure, but they were brought
Speaker 1: down by the Dauphin's archers, who had appeared on the
Speaker 1: river banks. There was nothing they could do anyway. The
Speaker 1: Duke was dead. The Dauphin's men stripped his body of
Speaker 1: its finery and threw it in a wooden coffin, which
Speaker 1: was eventually buried at a nearby church. The assassination of
Speaker 1: John of Burgundy was a victory for the Orleanists, but
Speaker 1: ultimately a tremendous tragedy for France. The Civil War reignited
Speaker 1: more fiercely than before, and eventually led John's son, the
Speaker 1: new Duke of Burgundy, to ally himself with the English
Speaker 1: instead of the French for more than fifteen years. The
Speaker 1: whole country suffered immensely in the all out war that followed,
Speaker 1: and though cause and effect is a tricky business to
Speaker 1: trace in history, it's hard to imagine that things would
Speaker 1: have played out exactly the same way had not the
Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy's men set out on a dark Parisian
Speaker 1: night to kill their master's mortal enemy. But in a
Speaker 1: classic case of two wrongs don't make a right, it's
Speaker 1: equally hard to imagine that France would have been so
Speaker 1: terribly affected by the English had it not been for
Speaker 1: the killing of John of Burgundy. More than a century
Speaker 1: after John's death, in fifteen twenty one, King Francis of France,
Speaker 1: who was in fact Louise's great great grand and son,
Speaker 1: was presented with the Duke's skull by a Burgundian monk Sire.
Speaker 1: The monk is alleged to have said, pointing to a
Speaker 1: wound in the skull. By that whole the English entered France.
Speaker 1: That's the story of the assassination of Louis of Orleans.
Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the legendary rivalry between Louis
Speaker 1: and John of Burgundy. Although John and Louie's rivalry eventually
Speaker 1: reached murderous proportions, it also had its pettier moments. Take
Speaker 1: their emblems, for example, Like all good royals, each man
Speaker 1: had selected a symbolic image to represent themselves, which they
Speaker 1: had embroidered on their clothes and engraved on their armor
Speaker 1: and carved into their castles. For his emblem, Louie chose
Speaker 1: a wooden club. In response, John made his emblem a
Speaker 1: carpenter's plane capable of shaving down, say, a wooden club.
Speaker 1: After the murder, some Parisians were said to have remarked,
Speaker 1: the knotty club has been planed. And then there were
Speaker 1: their mottos. When John and Louie had nearly gone to
Speaker 1: war against one another in the summer of fourteen oh five,
Speaker 1: their troops had paraded around carrying banners emblazoned with their
Speaker 1: leader's respective mottos Louis read I want it or I
Speaker 1: challenge him, depending on the translation, but I want it
Speaker 1: is a fair translation, and John's you might be able
Speaker 1: to guess it. His banners read I have it. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danishwartz.
Speaker 1: Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Speaker 1: Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is
Speaker 1: produced by rema Il Kaali, with supervising producer Josh Thayne
Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.