serious of the many evils under which the country had suffered.
Pierre Bessonneau, and the brothers Gaspard and Jean Bureau created a
considerable force of artillery. Domestic troubles in their own country
weakened the English in France. The conquest of Normandy was completed
by the battle of Formigny (15th of April 1450). Guienne was conquered in
1451 by Duncis, but not subdued, and another expedition was necessary in
1453, when Talbot was defeated and slain at Castillon. Meanwhile in 1450
Charles VII. had resolved on the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, thus
rendering a tardy recognition of her services. This was granted in 1456
by the Holy See. The only foothold retained by the English on French
ground was Calais. In its earlier stages the deliverance of France from
the English had been the work of the people themselves. The change which
made Charles take an active part in public affairs is said to have been
largely due to the influence of Agnes Sorel, who became his mistress in
1444 and died in 1450. She was the first to play a public and political
role as mistress of a king of France, and may be said to have
established a tradition. Pierre de Breze, who had had a large share in
the repression of the Praguerie, obtained through her a dominating
influence over the king, and he inspired the monarch himself and the
whole administration with new vigour. Charles and Rene of Anjou retired
from court, and the greater part of the members of the king's council
were drawn from the bourgeois classes. The most famous of all these was
Jacques Coeur (q.v.). It was by the zeal of these councillors that
Charles obtained the surname of "The Well-Served."

Charles VII. continued his father's general policy in church matters. He
desired to lessen the power of the Holy See in France and to preserve as
far as possible the liberties of the Gallican church. With the council
of Constance (1414-1418) the great schism was practically healed.
Charles, while careful to protest against its renewal, supported the
anti-papal contentions of the French members of the council of Basel
(1431-1449), and in 1438 he promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction at
Bourges, by which the patronage of ecclesiastical benefices was removed
from the Holy See, while certain interventions of the royal power were
admitted. Bishops and abbots were to be elected, in accordance with
ancient custom, by their clergy. After the English had evacuated French
territory Charles still