Ten days after the battle of Poitiers, in which the king and his
youngest son, Philippe le Hardi, were taken prisoners, the Dauphin
Charles, Duc de Normandie, returned to Paris, took the title of
lieutenant of the King of France, and convoked the estates, which
assembled in October. The bourgeoisie, irritated at the ineptitude of
the royal power, assumed the authority under the _prevot_ of the
merchants, Etienne Marcel, and the civil war followed. On the side of
the dauphin were the nobility and all those attached to the court; on
that of the _prevot_, the bourgeoisie, the shop-keepers, artisans, and
common people. The latter extended the fortifications, especially those
on the northern side of the city, so as to include all the buildings
erected outside the walls of Philippe-Auguste. The dauphin, with a force
of seven thousand lances, occupied alternately Meaux, Melun, Saint-Maur,
the bridge of Charenton, and shut off all the supplies coming from the
upper Seine and the Marne. The attempt of Marcel to deliver the city to
Charles le Mauvais, King of Navarre, was discovered, the _prevot_ was
killed at the city gate, and the dauphin entered Paris triumphantly two
days later.

In 1364, he succeeded to the throne, under the title of Charles V, and
by his wise administration, his prudent conduct of the war, and the
judicious management of the finances, secured for himself the surname
of "the Sage." He rendered the parliament permanent, instead of
occasional, and he gave it for its sittings in the Cite the ancient
palace of Saint-Louis, which became the Palais de Justice. A royal
ordinance, which remained in force till the Revolution, fixed the
majority of the kings of France at thirteen years of age, and provided
that the regent should _not_ be the guardian of the young prince;
another, dated in 1370, authorized the bourgeois of Paris to wear the
spurs of gold and other ornaments of the order of knighthood, and a
third, of 1377, awarded titles of nobility to the _prevots_ and
_echevins_, or aldermen, of the city. In 1369, the authority of the
_prevot_ of Paris was officially confirmed in regard to all offences and
misdemeanors committed within the city by any person whatsoever.

Among the many important buildings which this king erected or commenced
was the Bastile, founded in 1370, to replace the old Porte
Saint-Antoine, and consisting at first of two towers, united by a
fortified gate; the Louvre, repaired and enlarge