Isabeau of Bavaria

Isabeau of Bavaria arrived in France at 15 or 16, married Charles VI three days after meeting him, and was crowned with full ceremony in 1389. In 1392, Charles descended into a mental illness that would recur for the rest of his life, withdrawing from rule with increasing frequency and leaving Isabeau to act as regent - a role she held despite his demands during episodes that she be removed from his sight. The power vacuum ignited the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War, and Isabeau shifted allegiances between the factions as she sought to protect the heir, enduring accusations of adultery from the Burgundians and imprisonment by the Armagnacs. After her son Charles had John the Fearless assassinated in 1419, he was disinherited; Isabeau attended the 1420 Treaty of Troyes, which named the English king as heir to France. She lived in occupied Paris until her death in 1435, carrying a reputation as a spendthrift and philanderess that modern historians trace not to fact but to propaganda.