the fourteenth century. Not least of these was the formation of quasi-independent principalities under the rule of great princes. The territorial lordships held by the dukes of Orléans, Bourbon, Brittany, or Anjou, and by the counts of Foix or Armagnac formed princely 'states' profiting from the disputed succession to the French throne and from the crises which befell the Valois monarchy--the disaster at Poitiers ( 1356) when King John II (the Good) was captured by Edward, the Black Prince, or the madness of Charles VI after 1392. Signs of revival in the monarchy's authority and prestige were clearly evident, however, under Charles V ( 1364-80) and it is from his reign, as well as Philip the Fair's, that much of the political theory, iconography, and ritual of kingship in later medieval France stems. The elaboration of the coronation ceremony, for instance, as set out in the Coronation Book of Charles V ( 1365), or of the king's entries into his principal towns, stressed the theatrical qualities of monarchy and the significance of public appearances, costume, and insignia which were exclusive to the king alone. Under Charles V, the image of French monarchy certainly underwent changes. The king was presented to his subjects not only as a quasi-sacerdotal figure, directly descended from Charlemagne, and endowed with thaumaturgic power to heal diseases such as scrofula, but as an educated, literate, and astute individual. Christine de Pisan's posthumous Livre des faits et mœurs of Charles V, called 'the Wise', exemplified this development. With his much-advertised preference for diplomacy rather than warfare, his exploitation of the sovereign rights of the French crown to hear appeals from all its subjects against the judgements of the princes and their courts, and his patronage of letters and the arts, Charles V has sometimes been seen as a prototype of those 'princes of the Renaissance' who emerged at a later period. But much of his reign was devoted to the construction of an edifice of government, partly inherited from his predecessors, to military and financial reforms, and to diplomatic alliances (with the empire and with Castile) which were to set the monarchy upon a firmer footing.

It is perhaps no coincidence that internal tensions developed

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