VOLUME V

WOMEN OF MEDIÆVAL FRANCE

by

PIERCE BUTLER, PH. D.

OF TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

ODETTE DE CHAMPDIVERS AND CHARLES VI. After the painting by Albrecht de Vriendt

The king, now often idiotic when he was not raving,... To amuse and distract him, and also to strengthen the Burgundian influence, the Duke of Burgundy provided him with a fair child as playmate and mistress. To the sway once held by Valentine over Charles there now succeeded Odette. She was little more than a child, but she became mistress as well as playfellow of the mad king. Of humble origin (daughter of a horse dealer), she wears in court history a name better than that she was born to, Odette de Champdivers; and the people, indulgent of the sin of the mad king, called her "la petite reine" She was happy, it seems, and kind to the king, amused him, was loved by him; and, more true to him than was quite pleasing to the Burgundians, did not play false to France in later years when Burgundy and England were leagued together.