Although the dukes had sprung from the Valois house of France and remained peers of the French kingdom, an increasing detachment from their parent dynasty can be observed. The loosening of the bonds which tied them to Valois France was greatly assisted by the murder of John the Fearless ( 1404-19) by partisans of the Valois dauphin Charles on the bridge at Montereau during a diplomatic interview. John's son, Philip, was obliged to renounce all loyalty to the dauphin and by the time he succeeded to the French crown in 1422 the house of Burgundy had moved into the camp of his rival, the infant Henry VI of England and his regent John, duke of Bedford. Burgundian alliance with England thus furthered ducal independence of Valois France and, after his reconciliation with the dauphin (now Charles VII) at Arras in 1435, Philip the Good never regained the central position in French politics held by his father. While professing to be a 'good, true, and loyal Frenchman', Philip's political energies were absorbed by the government of turbulent subjects in Flanders, by dynastic
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