Editing Charles V of France (section)

===Regency and the uprising of the Third Estate===
[[File:Karel5 BNF.jpg|thumb|Miniature, not contemporary]]
King John was considered by many as a rash ruler, much in the same style as the feudal kings who came before which by then was becoming outdated, who alienated his nobles through arbitrary justice and elevated associates that were sometimes considered questionable. After a three-year break, the [[Hundred Years' War]] with England resumed in 1355, with [[Edward, The Black Prince]], leading an English-Gascon army in a violent raid across southwestern France. After checking an English incursion into [[Normandy]], John led an army of about 16,000 men to the south, crossing the [[Loire|Loire river]] in September 1356 with the goal of outflanking the Prince's 8,000 soldiers at [[Poitiers]]. Rejecting advice from one captain to surround and starve the Prince, a tactic Edward feared, John attacked the strong enemy position. In the subsequent [[Battle of Poitiers]] (19 September 1356), English archery all but annihilated the French cavalry, and John was captured.<ref>David Nicolle, ''Poitiers 1356: The Capture of a King'', (Osprey Publishing, 2004), 28.</ref> Charles led a battalion at Poitiers that withdrew early in the struggle; whether the order came from John (as he later claimed), or whether Charles himself ordered the withdrawal, is unclear.<ref>Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War: Trial by Fire'', (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 241.</ref>

The outcome of the battle left many embittered with the nobility. Popular opinion accused the nobles of betraying the king, while Charles and his brothers escaped blame – he was received with honor upon his return to Paris. The [[Dauphin of France|Dauphin]] summoned the [[Estates General (France)|Estates-General]] in October to seek money for the defense of the country. Furious at what they saw as poor management, many of those assembled organized into a body led by [[Étienne Marcel]], the [[Provost (civil)|Provost]] of Merchants (a title roughly equivalent to [[Mayor of Paris]] today). Marcel demanded the dismissal of seven royal ministers, their replacement by a Council of 28 made up of [[Nobility|nobles]], [[clergy]] and [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]], and the release of Charles the Bad, who had been imprisoned by John for the murder of his constable. The Dauphin refused the demands, dismissed the Estates-General, and left Paris.

A contest of wills ensued. In an attempt to raise money, Charles tried to devalue the currency; Marcel ordered strikes, and the Dauphin was forced to cancel his plans and recall the Estates in February 1357. The [[Estates of the realm#Third Estate|Third Estate]] presented the Dauphin with a [[Great Ordinance of 1357|Grand Ordinance]], a list of 61 articles that would have given the Estates-General the right to approve all future taxes, assemble at their own volition, and elect a Council of 36 (with 12 members from each Estate) to advise the king.<ref>Thomas Ertman, ''Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe'', (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 85–86.</ref> Charles eventually signed the ordinance, but his dismissed councillors took news of the document to King John, imprisoned in [[Bordeaux]]. The King renounced the ordinance before being taken to [[England]] by Prince Edward.

Charles made a royal progress through the country that summer, winning support from the provinces, and winning [[Paris]] back. Marcel, meanwhile, enlisted Charles the Bad, who asserted that his claim to the throne of France was at least as good as that of King [[Edward III of England]], who had used [[English claims to the French throne|his claim]] as the pretext for initiating the [[Hundred Years' War]].

Marcel used the murder of a citizen seeking sanctuary in Paris to make an attack close to the Dauphin. Summoning a group of tradesmen, the Provost marched at the head of an army of 3,000, entered the royal palace, and had the crowd murder two of the Dauphin's marshals before his eyes. Charles, horrified, momentarily pacified the crowd, but sent his family away and left the capital as quickly as he could. Marcel's action destroyed support for the Third Estate among the nobles, and the Provost's subsequent backing of the [[Jacquerie]] undermined his support from the towns. He was murdered by a mob on 31 July 1358. Charles was able to recover Paris the following month and later issued a general amnesty for all, except close associates of Marcel.