



Produced by Renald Levesque









WOMAN

VOLUME V



WOMEN OF MEDIAEVAL FRANCE

BY

PIERCE BUTLER, PH. D.
OF TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA



[Illustration 1:
ODETTE DE CHAMPDIVERS AND CHARLES VI.
After the painting by Albrecht de Vriendt.
The king, now often idiotic when he was not raving,... To amuse and
distract him, and also to strengthen the Burgundian influence, the Duke
of Burgundy provided him with a fair child as playmate and mistress. To
the sway once held by Valentine over Charles there now succeeded Odette.
She was little more than a child, but she became mistress as well as
playfellow of the mad king. Of humble origin (daughter of a horse
dealer), she wears in court history a name better than that she was born
to, Odette de Champdivers; and the people, indulgent of the sin of the
mad king, called her "la petite reine" She was happy, it seems, and kind
to the king, amused him, was loved by him; and, more true to him than
was quite pleasing to the Burgundians, did not play false to France in
later years when Burgundy and England were leagued together.]




Woman

In all ages and in all countries

VOLUME V



WOMEN OF MEDIAEVAL FRANCE

BY

PIERCE BUTLER, PH. D.
Of Tulane University of Louisiana



ILLUSTRATED



PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE BARRIE & SONS,