A miniature from the “Livre des Comptes” of the Society (Fifteenth Century).]

Thus, for the year, 131,000 francs in ecus d’or representing in present money about 12,000,000 francs, were appropriated to the expenses of the State, out of which the sum of 5,000 francs, equal to 275,000 francs of present money, was devoted to what we may call the Civil List.

On the death of Charles V., in 1380, his eldest son Charles, who was a minor, was put under the guardianship of his uncles, and one of these, the Duke d’Anjou, assumed the regency by force.  He seized upon the royal treasury, which was concealed in the Castle of Melun, and also upon all the savings of the deceased king; and, instead of applying them to alleviate the general burden of taxation, he levied a duty for the first time on the common food of the people.  Immediately there arose a general outcry of indignation, and a formidable expression of resistance was made in Paris and in the large towns.  Mob orators loudly proclaimed the public rights thus trampled upon by the regent and the King’s uncles; the expression of the feelings of the masses began to take the shape of open revolt, when the council of the regency made an appearance of giving way, and the new taxes were suppressed, or, at all events, partially abandoned.  The success of the insurrectionary movement, however, caused increased concessions to be demanded by the people.  The Jews and tax-collectors were attacked.  Some of the latter were hung or assassinated, and their registers torn up; and many of the former were ill-treated and banished, notwithstanding the price they had paid for living in the kingdom.

The assembly of the States, which was summoned by the King’s uncles to meet in Paris, sided with the people, and, in consequence, the regent and his brother pretended to acknowledge the justice of the claims which were made upon them in the name of the people, and, on their withdrawing the taxes, order was for a time restored.  No sooner, however, was this the case than, in spite of the solemn promises made by the council of regency, the taxes were suddenly reimposed, and the right of farming them was sold to persons who exacted them in the most brutal manner.  A sanguinary revolt, called that of the Maillotins, burst forth in Paris; and the capital remained for some time in the power of the people, or rather of the bourgeois, who led the mob on to act for them (1381-1382).  The towns of Rouen, Rheims, Troyes, Orleans, and Blois, many places in Beauvoise, in Champagne, and in Normandy, followed the example of the Parisians, and it is impossible to say to what a length the revolt would have reached had it not been for the victory over the Flemish at Rosebecque.  This victory enabled the King’s uncles to re-enter Paris in 1383, and to re-establish the royal authority, at the same time making the Maillotins and their accomplices pay dearly for their conduct.