It had been promised by the King and Queen that the late Dauphin should marry the eldest daughter of the Comte de Nevers, and she was now betrothed to the Dauphin Louis, commonly called Duc d’Aquitaine,[203] and it was further arranged that the Princess Michelle should be married to Philippe, eldest son of the Comte de Nevers, but that she should be left to be brought up by the Queen her mother. The marriage of the Dauphin and Marguérite of Burgundy was celebrated with great pomp at Paris in the cathedral of Notre Dame in August 1404. There had been some talk of marrying Jean, the second son of the King, to another daughter of the Comte de Nevers, but this idea was given up and he was betrothed to Jacqueline, only child of Guillaume, Comte de Hainault, and Marguérite de Bourgogne, a great heiress.
Not long afterwards the Duke of Burgundy was taken ill on a journey from Arras, where he had left the Duchess, to Brussels, in order to visit his aunt, the Duchesse de Brabant. The roads were very bad, and though pioneers were sent on before his litter to smooth and mend them, he could not go on much further, but stopped at an inn called the “Stag,” and sent for his three sons, Jean, Antoine, and Philippe. He expressed repentance for his oppressions, exhorted his sons to fear God, to be good brothers to each other, loyal subjects to the King, and to live at peace with the rest of the royal family, after which he arranged his affairs and died.
So extravagant had he been that, in spite of his immense possessions, it was doubtful whether he had left enough money to pay his debts, for which reason the Duchess of Burgundy formally renounced _communauté de biens_, laying her girdle, purse and keys upon his coffin, according to the custom. She died very soon after.[204]
At the same time the Duc de Berry was very ill, and when he recovered and found the Duke of Burgundy was dead he was deeply grieved. While the former was ill and the King mad, the Duc d’Orléans, at the head of an armed band, broke into the Palais one night and carried away nearly all the money to be found there. The Hundred Years’ War had begun again, and there were constant fights going on, towns and castles attacked and taken, seaports and villages surprised and sacked by warships. The new Duke of Burgundy was much worse than the old one, and had not, of course, the same authority in the council or royal family. The Duc d’Orléans, though he hated his uncle, was obliged to have a certain respect for him as a sort of representative of his father,[205] and the King, in spite of putting a stop every now and then to his tyrannical proceedings, looked up to him with an amount of consideration which neither he nor his brother entertained for Jean Sans-peur, who was as ambitious and extravagant as his father, without his great qualities, and was harder, more unscrupulous, more cruel, and more crafty. The chief princes of the blood who ruled in council were now the Queen, the Duc de Berry (the last surviving son of King Jean), Louis le Bon, Duc de Bourbon, Louis II., King of Sicily (son of the late Duc d’Anjou, and a much better man than his father), Charles III., King of Navarre (also an excellent character), and Jean Sans-peur, Duke of Burgundy, besides, of course, the Duc d’Orléans. But unfortunately the two most influential were the Dukes of Burgundy and Orléans, the latter being always supported by the Queen and her brother, Ludwig of Bavaria.