But whatever might be his reasons, Jean left France according to the “Grandes Chroniques,” on Tuesday evening, January 3, 1364, embarking at Boulogne; and arrived at Dover on Thursday, whence after two or three days he pursued his way to London, was met by a great company of illustrious persons and lavishly entertained by King Edward and the English royal family, who assigned the Savoy Palace for his dwelling, where, after about three months passed in festivities and diversions of various kinds, he was taken ill and died.
The Dauphin was at Vernon, besieging his step-grandmother, Blanche de Navarre, when the news came of his father’s death. Towards her as well as his eldest sister Jeanne, Queen of Navarre, and his aunt, Jeanne d’Evreux, Charles was often placed in an attitude of hostility in which there was no personal animosity, but which arose from their relationship to and affection for his arch-enemy, the King of Navarre. Charles had no wish at all to injure or frighten his sister, of whom he was very fond, or his aunt, for whom he had the greatest respect, or his step-grandmother, who was also his cousin, and with whom he seems to have been on friendly terms when there was no particular quarrel going on about Charles of Navarre. Nevertheless this was not the first time he had been at open war with these ladies, or engaged in besieging one of their castles. He hastened to come to an arrangement with Queen Blanche, and leaving Bertrand du Guesclin in command of the troops that were actively opposing the Navarrais, he hastened to Paris, where the body of the late King was sent from England. “After the funeral at Saint-Denis,” says the chronicler, “Charles went out into a meadow of the cloister of the said church, and there, leaning against a fig tree in the said meadow, he received the homage of several peers and barons; after which he went to dinner, and spent that day and the next at Saint-Denis. And the following Thursday, the 9th May, departed the said King Charles to go to his coronation at Reims, which was to be on the day of the Trinity following.”
Nothing could be more solemn, stately, and imposing than the ceremonial used at the coronation of the Kings and Queens of France; and it must have made a strong impression upon the religious and cultivated minds of Charles and Jeanne. By the regulations made to a great extent by Louis le Jeune in 1179, and afterwards added to and confirmed by St. Louis, the King and Queen, on their arrival at Reims, the city consecrated by the baptism of the first Christian King of France and the coronation of so many generations of his successors, were met by a procession of the canons and other ecclesiastics of the cathedral, churches, and convents of the town. On Saturday, the day before the coronation, after complines, the church was committed to the care of guards appointed by the King, with those belonging there. Then the King, in the silence of the night, came to the church and remained alone in prayer and watching.