y "aid" except on conditions which Charles declined to accept.
They demanded the dismissal of a number of the royal ministers; the
establishment of a commission elected from the three estates to regulate
the dauphin's administration, and of another board to act as council of
war; also the release of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, who had been
imprisoned by King John. The estates of Languedoc, summoned to Toulouse,
also made protests against misgovernment, but they agreed to raise a
war-levy on terms to which the dauphin acceded. Charles sought the
alliance of his uncle, the emperor Charles IV., to whom he did homage at
Metz as dauphin of the Viennois, and he was also made imperial vicar of
Dauphine, thus acknowledging the imperial jurisdiction. But he gained
small material advantage from these proceedings. The states-general were
again convoked in February 1357. Their demands were more moderate than
in the preceding year, but they nominated members to replace certain
obnoxious persons on the royal council, demanded the right to assemble
without the royal summons, and certain administrative reforms. In return
they promised to raise and finance an army of 30,000 men, but the
money--a tithe levied on the annual revenues of the clergy and
nobility--voted for this object was not to pass through the dauphin's
hands. Charles appeared to consent, but the agreement was annulled by
letters from King John, announcing at the same time the conclusion of a
two years' truce, and the reformers failed to secure their ends. Charles
had escaped from their power by leaving Paris, but he returned for a new
meeting of the estates in the autumn of 1357.

Meanwhile Charles of Navarre had been released by his partisans, and
allying himself with Marcel had become a popular hero in Paris. The
dauphin was obliged to receive him and to undergo an apparent
reconciliation. In Paris Etienne Marcel was supreme. He forced his way
into the dauphin's palace (February 1358), and Charles's servant, Jean
de Conflans, marshal of Champagne, and Robert de Clermont, marshal of
Normandy, were murdered before his eyes. Charles was powerless openly to
resent these outrages, but he obtained from the provincial assemblies
the money refused him by the states-general, and deferred his vengeance
until the dissensions of his enemies should offer him an opportunity.
Charles of Navarre, now in league with the English and master of lower
Normandy and of the approaches to