The arts in France around 1400.

The French king Charles VI was born in Paris in 1368. At the age of twelve, in 1380, he succeeded to the throne under the regency of his uncles, including Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who drained the royal treasury. When Charles VI began to rule in his own right in 1388, be faced political unrest as well as the continuing struggle with England known as the Hundred Years' War.

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Charles had two nicknames: the well-beloved and the mad. The first was due to his ability to unite various factions within France and the second was because of the recurring bouts of insanity, which began in 1392. Henry V of England took advantage of the turmoil and in 1415 soundly defeated the French at Agincourt. Five years later Charles was forced to sign the Treaty of Troyes, which made Henry, rather than the son of Charles VI, successor to the throne of France.

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The result was an uprising led by Joan of Arc, who argued that Charles had only signed the treaty because of his illness. Charles VI died in Paris in 1422, and in 1429 his son was crowned king of France in Reims Cathedral, thanks to the efforts of Joan of Arc.

Despite the internal and international turmoil that characterized Charles ...