Praguerie

Its causes lay in the reforms of Charles VII at the close of the Hundred Years' War, by which he sought to diminish the anarchy in France and its brigand-soldiery.

The ordinances passed by the estates of langue d'oïl at Orléans in 1439 not only gave the king an aid of 100,000 francs (an act which was later used by the king as though it were a perpetual grant and so freed him from that parliamentary control of the purse so important in England), but demanded as well royal nominations to officerships in the army, marking a gain in the royal prerogative which the nobility resolved to challenge.

The duke of Bourbon won over the dauphin Louis—afterwards Louis XI—then only sixteen years old, and proposed to set aside the king in his favour, making him regent.

[1][5] Louis was readily induced to rebel; but the country was saved from a serious civil war by the energy of the king's officers and the solid loyalty of his "good cities".

[1] Charles then attempted to ensure the loyalty of the duke of Bourbon by the gift of a large pension, forgave all the rebellious gentry, and installed his son in Dauphiné.