Little had France to hope from the boy who was now called on to fill the throne.  Charles VI. was not twelve years old, a light-wined, handsome boy, under the guardianship of the royal Dukes his uncles, who had no principles except that of their own interest to guide them in bringing up the King and ruling the people.  Before Charles VI. had reached years of discretion, he was involved by the French nobles in war against the Flemish cities, which, under guidance of the great Philip van Arteveldt, had overthrown the authority of the Count of Flanders.  The French cities showed ominous signs of being inclined to ally themselves with the civic movement in the north.  The men of Ghent came out to meet their French foes, and at the battle of Roosebek (1382) were utterly defeated and crushed.  Philip van Arteveldt himself was slain.  It was a great triumph of the nobles over the cities; and Paris felt it when the King returned.  All movement there and in the other northern cities of France was ruthlessly repressed; the noble reaction also overthrew the “new men” and the lawyers, by whose means the late King had chiefly governed.  Two years later, the royal Dukes signed a truce with England, including Ghent in it; and Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, having perished at the same time, Marguerite his daughter, wife of Philip of Burgundy, succeeded to his inheritance (1384.) Thus began the high fortunes of the House of Burgundy, which at one time seemed to overshadow Emperor and King of France.  In 1385, another of the brothers, Louis, Duc d’Anjou, died, with all his Italian ambitions unfulfilled.  In 1386, Charles VI., under guidance of his uncles, declared war on England, and exhausted all France in preparations; the attempt proved the sorriest failure.  The regency of the Dukes became daily more unpopular, until in 1388 Charles dismissed his two uncles, the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri, and began to rule.  For a while all went much better; he recalled his father’s friends and advisers, lightened the burdens of the people, allowed the new ministers free hand in making prudent government; and learning how bad had been the state of the south under the Duc de Berri, deprived him of that command in 1390.  Men thought that the young King, if not good himself, was well content to allow good men to govern in his name; at any, rate, the rule of the selfish Dukes seemed to be over.  Their bad influences, however, still surrounded him; an attempt to assassinate Olivier de Clisson, the Constable, was connected with their intrigues and those of the Duke of Brittany; and in setting forth to punish the attempt on his favourite the Constable, the unlucky young King, who had sapped his health by debauchery, suddenly became mad.  The Dukes of Burgundy and Berri at once seized the reins and put aside his brother the young Duc d’Orleans.  It was the beginning of that great civil discord between Burgundy and Orleans, the Burgundians and Armagnacs, which worked so much ill for France in the earlier part of the next century.  The rule of the uncles was disastrous for France; no good government seemed even possible for that unhappy land.