Isabelle de Valois, Duchess-dowager de Bourbon, took charge of her granddaughters and retired into the convent of the Cordelières at Paris, where she ended her days.
[Illustration: Semé de France au bâton de gueules mis enbande.]
_THE REIGN OF CHARLES VI. AND ISABEAU DE BAVIÈRE_
The House of Wittelsbach--Stephan von Wittelsbach and Taddea Visconti--Birth of Isabeau--Negotiations for her marriage--Her journey to Brussels--The fair of Amiens--Her interview with the King--Her wedding--Charles and Louis de France.
During several years after the death of Jeanne de Bourbon no Queen sat on the throne of France, for her son succeeded as a child of twelve years old. And it would have been difficult to find two kings and queens more totally unlike each other in every respect than Charles le Sage and Jeanne de Bourbon, “the sunshine of France,” were to their son and daughter-in-law, Charles VI. and Isabeau de Bavière.
An intelligent woman of my acquaintance once remarked, on being asked whether she considered women to be better than men, “Oh, certainly! Much better. I know several good women, but I only know one good man.”
It might appear as if some idea of the kind pervaded this and a former volume, in which, with the exception perhaps of Charles V. and Louis XII., none of the Kings of France treated of can be exactly so described; whereas the talents, beauty, and goodness of the Queens seem generally made evident. But all the researches into the history of their times, from which these records are drawn, seem to prove that during the eight reigns in question most of the Queens of France really were distinguished for their excellent qualities, and that except the unlucky Charlotte de Savoie they were all more or less good-looking; Blanche de Navarre, Isabeau de Bavière, and Marie d’Anjou being remarkably beautiful; and that at any rate Blanche de Navarre, the three Jeannes, wives of Philippe de Valois, Jean and Charles V., and Anne de Bretagne, were highly cultivated women, possessing superior talents and strongly-marked characters. In Isabeau de Bavière we find an entirely different personality.
Stephan I., Duke of Bavaria, of the ancient house of Wittelsbach, died in 1375, leaving three sons, between whom he divided his dominions, and from whom descend the three lines of Ingolstadt, Landshut, and Munich.