University of Paris

This article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of the participation of sorcerers in the political life of France in the late 14th – early 15th centuries. The immediate reasonforthis wasthe king’s illness, which doctors could not cure. Thenthe Duke of Burgundy Philipthe Brave decided to attract sorcerers so that they, using their connections with demons and devils, would return Charles VI to health. Thus a paradoxical situation arose when the most Christian monarch of Europe began to be treated with the help of evil spirits.

This article is devoted to the study of the political crisis in France at the beginning of 1413. In the course of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that the illness of King Charles VI required government reform. Two trends emerged – aristocratic (preservation of power within the Valois family, but with its transfer into the hands of the Dauphin Louis) and democratic (limitation of royal power through the admission of people of humble origin to government).