[MR] BBC: Treaty of Troyes Compared with Brexit

[Garth Groff via Atlantia]

Noble Friends,

This might be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but today the BBC is offering an 
interesting commentary that compares the 1420 Treaty of Troyes between 
England and France and its later collapse with the modern Brexit. 
Setting the Brexit question aside, the article provides a summary of 
Troyes, which nearly ended the Hundred Years War. The piece also offers 
several interesting illustrations, some contemporary (check out the head 
wear in the view of a dying Charles VI): 
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-38326618 .

The Treaty of Troyes was, of course, much more complicated. On the 
surface it provided for the marriage of the English King Henry V and 
Catherine Valois, daughter of the mad French King Charles VI, making 
Henry and his line kings of France for all times. It also cut the 
Dauphin (later King Charles VII, thanks to Joan of Arc) out of the loop, 
without saying so in writing but confirming he was a bastard. Much of 
the background of this treaty had to do with the long civil war between 
the Dukes of Burgundy and the Orleans/Armagnac faction. One of the great 
movers behind the Treaty of Troyes was Phillip the Bold, Duke of 
Burgundy, who had made common cause with the English against his native 
France. Much of his power was dependent on the English wool trade 
between England and Flanders, and Phillip also had dreams of creating an 
independent kingdom melding Burgundy and his other French holdings with 
his extensive territories in the Low Countries. You can read more about 
the Treaty of Troyes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Troyes . 
For more on the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War, see 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armagnac–Burgundian_Civil_War .

This period may be the most fascinating and important era in the history 
of western Europe, and merits at least a casual understanding by us as 
historians and re-enactors.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot