Assassination of Louis I, Duke of Orléans

The assassination occurred during the power struggles between two factions attempting to control the regency of France during the reign of Charles VI, who was seen as unfit to rule due to his mental illness.

During the reign of Charles V, French generals like Bertrand du Guesclin steadily regained territory previously lost to the English in the Hundred Years' War.

[1] With the death of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, political power shifted away from his son, John the Fearless, to the king's brother, Louis of Orléans, who was rumoured to have had a relationship with the queen.

[2] In order to appease the combatants following the assassination, King Charles VI of France called the Duke of Burgundy and the children of the deceased to Chartres on 28 February 1409.

He also charged Count William IV of Hainaut, the brother-in-law of John the Fearless, to ensure, at the head of 400 men-at-arms and 100 archers, the protection of each of the delegations during their trip and to fight on the side of the attacked party if hostilities were to occur.

Assassination of the Duke of Orleans, showing the Duke's mutilated hand and his dead esquire.
2014 photograph of the site of the assassination of the Duke of Orleans
Valentine of Milan Mourning Her Husband the Duke of Orléans , an 1802 painting by Fleury François Richard depicting the widowed Duchess of Orléans.