llion, which was fostered by the
Dauphin Louis, who was ready to do anything that could annoy his father.
But he was soon detached from them; the Duke of Burgundy would not
assist them, and the league fell to pieces. Charles VII. by thus
retaining companies of hired troops in his pay laid the foundation of
the first standing army in Europe, and enabled the monarchy to tread
down the feudal force of the nobles. His government was firm and wise;
and with his reign began better times for France. But it was long before
it recovered from the miseries of the long strife. The war had kept back
much of progress. There had been grievous havoc of buildings in the
north and centre of France; much lawlessness and cruelty prevailed; and
yet there was a certain advance in learning, and much love of romance
and the theory of chivalry. Pages of noble birth were bred up in castles
to be first squires and then knights. There was immense formality and
stateliness, the order of precedence was most minute, and pomp and
display were wonderful. Strange alternations took place. One month the
streets of Paris would be a scene of horrible famine, where hungry dogs,
and even wolves, put an end to the miseries of starving, homeless
children of slaughtered parents; another, the people would be gazing at
royal banquets, lasting a whole day, with allegorical "subtleties" of
jelly on the table, and pageants coming between the courses, where all
the Virtues harangued in turn, or where knights delivered maidens from
giants and "salvage men." In the south there was less misery and more
progress. Jacques Coeur's house at Bourges is still a marvel of
household architecture; and Rene, Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence,
was an excellent painter on glass, and also a poet.

CHAPTER III.

THE STRUGGLE WITH BURGUNDY.

1. Power of Burgundy.--All the troubles of France, for the last 80
years, had gone to increase the strength of the Dukes of Burgundy. The
county and duchy, of which Dijon was the capital, lay in the most
fertile district of France, and had, as we have seen, been conferred on
Philip the Bold. His marriage had given to him Flanders, with a gallant
nobility, and with the chief manufacturing cities of Northern Europe.
Philip's son, John the Fearless, had married a lady who ultimately
brought into the family the great imperial counties of Holland and
Zealand; and her son, Duke Philip the Good, by purchase or inheritance,
obtained possession