nd
Regnault de Chartres, archbishop of Reims, saw their profits menaced by
the triumphs of Joan of Arc, and accordingly the court put every
difficulty in the way of her military career, and received the news of
her capture before Compiegne (1430) with indifference. No measures were
taken for her deliverance or her ransom, and Normandy and the Isle of
France remained in English hands. Fifteen years of anarchy and civil war
intervened before peace was restored. Bands of armed men fighting for
their own hand traversed the country, and in the ten years between 1434
and 1444 the provinces were terrorized by these _ecorcheurs_, who, with
the decline of discipline in the English army, were also recruited from
the ranks of the invaders. The duke of Bedford died in 1435, and in the
same year Philip the Good of Burgundy concluded a treaty with Charles
VII. at Arras, after fruitless negotiations for an English treaty. From
this time Charles's policy was strengthened. La Tremoille had been
assassinated in 1433 by the constable's orders, with the connivance of
Yolande of Aragon. For his former favourites were substituted energetic
advisers, his brother-in-law Charles of Anjou, Dunois (the famous
bastard of Orleans), Pierre de Breze, Richemont and others. Richemont
entered Paris on the 13th of April 1436, and in the next five years the
finance of the country was re-established on a settled basis. Charles
himself commanded the troops who captured Pontoise in 1441, and in the
next year he made a successful expedition in the south.

Meanwhile the princes of the blood and the great nobles resented the
ascendancy of councillors and soldiers drawn from the smaller nobility
and the _bourgeoisie_. They made a formidable league against the crown
in 1440 which included Charles I., duke of Bourbon, John II., duke of
Alencon, John IV. of Armagnac, and the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. The
revolt broke out in Poitou in 1440 and was known as the _Praguerie_.
Charles VII. repressed the rising, and showed great skill with the rebel
nobles, finally buying them over individually by considerable
concessions. In 1444 a truce was concluded with England at Tours, and
Charles proceeded to organize a regular army. The central authority was
gradually made effective, and a definite system of payment, by removing
the original cause of brigandage, and the establishment of a strict
discipline learnt perhaps from the English troops, gradually stamped out
the most