Charles VII of France

Charles VII became king in 1422 under conditions close to impossible: his father Charles VI had disinherited him, recognized Henry V of England as the rightful heir, and died leaving the capital, the coronation city of Reims, and most of northern France in enemy hands. A civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians tore what remained. Confined to Bourges and the territory south of the Loire, he was dismissed as a pretender king until Joan of Arc arrived in 1429, lifted the siege of Orléans, and led him to Reims for a proper coronation. He broke the Anglo-Burgundian alliance with the Treaty of Arras in 1435, retook Paris in 1436, and spent the 1440s reconquering Normandy with a reorganized professional army and siege artillery. By the Battle of Castillon in 1453, he had driven England off the continent except for Calais, ending the Hundred Years' War. His final years soured in clashes with his son, the future Louis XI.