Charles d'Orléans,

Charles d'Orléans, son of Louis d'Orléans, a duke who was murdered by the Burgundians, and of Valentina of Milan, was born in May 1391. He was the grandson of Charles V. of France, and the father of Louis XII. He was taken prisoner at Agincourt, and kept in captivity in England from 1415 to 1440, when he was ransomed. He wrote a number of lyrics while in prison and after his return to France. At Blois, where he held his court, he gathered together the chief French writers of his time, and took part with them in poetical tournaments, in one of which François Villon competed successfully. He died in 1465. He has been termed the father of French lyric poetry, but he has no claim to the title. His light and graceful lyrics are the last flowering of the courtly poetry of the middle ages; they show no trace of the modern spirit which appears so strongly in the works of his con- temporary Villon (q.v.). His favourite themes are love and the spring-time; his favourite form is the rondel, with two rhymes, of which he is considered the chief master, as Villon is of the ballade, and Voiture of the rondeau. An edition of his works (ed. J. M. Guichard) appeared in 1842, and another (ed. Héricault) in 1874.