For Charles VI. was in a much worse state of health than he had been at the time of the attack on Clisson, and though he was transported with sorrow and indignation and swore vengeance upon the murderers, he almost immediately fell into one of his fits of madness, and when he got better he was so confused and weak as to be unable to take any decided measures. The Queen had implored him to punish the assassins, but she had no power to do so when he was again mad, and, fearing for her own safety, she left Paris with the Duke of Aquitaine, his wife, her other children and her brother, and took up her abode at Melun with them.[225] The other members of the royal family were afraid of the Duke of Burgundy,[226] who besides his violent character and immense power, could easily have endangered France by throwing in his lot with the English, who were carrying on the war, notwithstanding the absurd injustice of the claim they put forward to the crown of France.
It will be remembered that, as was explained in the former volume,[227] Edward III. of England claimed that throne through his mother, Isabella, daughter of Philippe IV., and persisted in it, although it was finally decided that the Valois, as nearest heirs male, descending from Charles, brother of that King, were the lawful possessors of the throne ascending to the _loi salique_ or Salic law, which henceforward was adopted by the country; and notwithstanding the existence of daughters and grandsons through them, who would have come before the sister of the then last Kings, Louis Hutin, Philippe-le-Long and Charles-le-Bel, supposing the female line to have been admitted at all.
But Henry IV. had still less pretensions than Edward III., for he was not the lawful heir even of the English King. If, as has been shown, the claim of King Edward was an unjust one, of course he had no ground to stand upon. If, on the other hand, it were a just one, then it would belong, not to the descendant of his third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, but to the Mortimers, who descended by the female line from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, his second son, Richard II., son of the Black Prince, having left no children. In fact, the Mortimers were the right heirs to the crown of England.[228]