It was a tolerably safe prediction to make at that time, more especially as the death of Louis had not, as the Duke of Burgundy supposed it would, annihilated the party of his opponents. On the contrary the Orléanists married the young Duke Charles, now a widower, to Bonne, daughter of Bernard, Comte d’Armagnac, one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. He claimed descent from Clovis and had married a daughter of the Duc de Berry. Brave, liberal, unscrupulous, a faithful friend, and a relentless foe, he was the man chosen by the princes to take the leadership of the party which none of them were capable of holding themselves. From this time the name of the party changed from Orléanist to Armagnac, and the strife became fiercer and more desperate than it had ever been under the leadership of the more gentle, easy going Louis.
The royal family and court had sustained a great loss in the death of the Duc de Bourbon, who died in August, 1410, on his way to help the Armagnacs at the head of his troops, for he had never for an instant been persuaded to condone the murder of his nephew by the Duke of Burgundy. The lofty character and noble life of Louis II., Duc de Bourbon, stand out conspicuously amidst the corruption and depravity with which he was surrounded during his later years. When the court and rule of his brother-in-law and sister had fallen to his nephews, Isabeau, and the brothers of Charles V., the Duchesse de Bourbon withdrew from court and lived almost entirely with her children on their own estates in the Bourbonnais, where he also spent a great deal of his time, although obliged to be frequently at Paris and elsewhere with his nephews, to whom he was always a good friend and who were extremely fond of him. The only letter existing in the handwriting of Charles VI. is to him. As a son, brother, husband, father, soldier, statesman, and ruler, he was idolised, and after his death his funeral train, as it travelled through the country was followed by crowds of people weeping and lamenting. He had, with the consent of the Duchess, intended after this last expedition to retire to the monastery of the Céléstins at Vichy, and after his death two knotted cords were found under his clothes, which he wore secretly. He knew he could not recover, received the last sacraments and prayed constantly, dying peacefully at the age of seventy-three, leaving a stainless name and a heroic example.[245]