The death of the dauphin Louis, speedily followed by that of his brother and successor John, gave the dignity of dauphin to Charles, the youngest son of the king. The duke of Burgundy had hoped to exercise an influence over John, but he had only hostility to expect from Charles, who, as far as a boy of fifteen could be any thing, was a partisan of the Armagnacs. By war alone could any thing be gained, and he therefore prepared to wage it. The gross impolicy of the opposite party gave him manifold advantages. While the count of Armagnac, the constable, who was the head of the reigning faction, goaded the people by forced loans, enormous imposts, and severities against all whom he suspected, he and the dauphin contrived also to exasperate the queen, by seizing her treasures, casting, perhaps not undeservedly, a stain upon her character, and banishing her to Tours. Driven to desperation by these injuries and insults, she abjured her long-cherished hatred of the duke, and wrote to him for succour. He gladly listened to the call, released her from captivity, and escorted her to Chartres, where, in virtue of an obsolete ordinance of the king, she assumed the title of regent, and created a parliament, to counterbalance that of the capital. A preponderating weight was thus thrown into the scale of the Burgundian prince. Nor did he neglect to strengthen himself by conciliating the people; for, while the count of Armagnac was daily irritating them by his extortions, the duke held out to them a tempting lure, by proclaiming that all the towns which opened their gates to him should be freed from taxes. Encouraged by these circumstances, his partisans in the capital formed a plan for admitting him into the city; but it was discovered and frustrated. The return of our Henry the fifth to France, in 1417, and the progress which he was making in Normandy, recalled to their senses most of the leaders of the factions. The necessity of union being felt, negotiations were opened. The queen, the dauphin, and the duke of Burgundy were willing to come to terms; the principal article agreed on was, that the queen and the duke should form a part of the royal council. But the count of Armagnac would hear of no treaty that did not really leave in his hands the whole power of the state; and he accordingly strained every nerve, and was even guilty of the most revolting cruelty, to render impossible an accommodation with the Burgundian leaders. He little dreamt how soon he was to be precipitated from the pinnacle of greatness, and trampled in the mire by the basest of the base.