Scott Alexander (author/host)

The head of this party was Philip the Bold's nephew and Charles the Mad's brother, Louis of Orléans, but for some bizarre reason his party was called the Armagnac.

Footnote.

The name came from the title of Louis of Orléans' son's wife's father, Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, who led the faction for a time.

You do not need to remember his name.

Back to the text.

Louis took advantage of a moment of lucidity on his brother's part to get the regency, but was dismissed for corruption, and then when he continued to cross the Burgundians, murdered.

But he had a son who inherited the blood feud, and the two sides took advantage of the long truce in the War of England to go at it hammer and tongs, riots alternating with coups interspersed with outright field battles.

Footnote about dismissed for corruption.

Corruption by the standards of the period, yes.

It was also suspected he was sleeping with his brother's wife on the side, but that was probably just hostile slander, especially if you're Catholic.

We'll get to that.

Back to the text.

Commoners and nobles alike rallied to one side or the other, and loyal Frenchmen could consider either faction to be the lesser evil.

When Henry V invaded, the Armagnacs had happened to be in control of the government, and so their leaders had been at the Battle of Agincourt, and few escaped.

The Burgundians were faced with a foreign invasion on the one hand and domestic strife on the other.

So John the Fearless, then Duke of Burgundy, offered the Armagnacs an end to the feud and an alliance against the English, conditional on the Armagnacs yielding the regency to the Burgundian faction.

The Armagnacs agreed.

The two sides met to discuss terms, and then, with Henry V and his army rampaging around Normandy, taking towns at will, the chiefs of the Armagnac faction had John the Fearless murdered in retaliation for Louis' earlier murder.

Here's a picture of a bunch of people on a bridge, all murdering each other.

It's captioned, This is fine.