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In 1429, however, came a change. Orléans had been under siege since October 1428. The English regent, the Duke of Bedford(the uncle of Henry VI) was advancing into the Duchy of Bar, ruled by Charles's brother-in-law, René. The French lords and soldiers loyal to Charles were becoming increasingly desperate. Meanwhile, in the little village of Domrémy, on the border between Lorraine and Champagne, a teenage girl named Jeanne d'Arc("Joan of Arc"), believing she had been given a divine mission, demanded of the Duke of Lorraine the soldiers and resources necessary to bring her to Chinon, and the Dauphin. Granted an escort of five veteran soldiers and a letter of referral to Charles by the governor of Vaucouleurs, Robert Baudricourt, Jeanne rode to Chinon, where Charles was in residence, arriving there on 10 March 1429. What followed would later pass into legend. When Jeanne arrived at Chinon, Charles—testing Jeanne's claim to recognize him despite having never seen him—disguised himself...

Charles's later years were marked by increasing hostility between himself and his heir, Louis. Louis demanded real power to accompany his position as the Dauphin; Charles refused. Accordingly, Louis stirred dissent and made plots in attempts to destabilize his father. He quarrelled with his father's mistress, Agnès Sorel, on one occasion driving her with a bared sword into Charles's bed, according to one source. Eventually, in 1446, after Charles's last son, also named Charles, was born, the King banished the Dauphin to the Dauphiny. The two never met again; Louis thereafter refused the King's demands that he return to court, eventually fleeing to the protection of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1456. In 1458, Charles became ill: a sore on his leg (an early symptom, perhaps, of diabetes or syphilis refused to heal, and the infection in it caused a serious fever. The King summoned Louis to him from his exile in Burgundy; but the Dauphin refused, and employed astrologers to for...

Although Charles VII's legacy is far overshadowed by the deeds and eventual martyrdom of Joan of Arc, he himself was also responsible for successes unprecedented in the history of the Kingdom of France. When he died, France was for the first time since the Carolingian Emperors united under one ruler, and possessed its first standing army, which in time would yield the powerful gendarme cavalry companies, notable in the wars of the sixteenth century; he had also established the University of Poitiers in 1432, and his policies had brought some economic prosperity to his subjects. His rule as a monarch had at times been marked by indecisiveness and inaction, and his ending years marked by hostility between himself and his elder son; nonetheless, it is to his credit that he left his kingdom in condition better than he had found it.

Charles married his second cousin Marie of Anjou on 18 December 1422. They were both great-grandchildren of King John II of France and his first wife Bonne of Bohemia through the male-line. Their children include: 1. Louis XI, King of France (1423–1483), married Charlotte of Savoy, by whom he had issue including King Charles VIII of France, Anne of France, and Joan of France, Duchess of Berry. 2. John of France (1424-25) 3. Radegonde de France (1428–44) 4. Catherine de Valois (1428-1446), married Charles de Charolais, future Charles le Téméraire, Duke of Burgundy, in 1440 5. Jacques de France (1432-1437) 6. Yolande de France (1434–1478), married the future Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy in 1452. Upon his death in 1472, she became regent of Savoy. She was the mother of ten children. 7. Jeanne de Valois (1435–82), married the future John II, Duke of Bourbon in 1452. No issue. 8. Margaret of France (1437–38) 9. Mary of France (7 September 1438 – 14 February 1439) 10. Jeanne (7 September 143...