Regnault de Chartres was Archbishop of Reims, noted as prelate and diplomat. He was the son of Hector de Chartres, Lord of Onz-en-Bray, grand master of forests and waters in Normandy and Picardy, who was killed at Paris during the rising of 1418, when the Burgundians entered the city. Regnault was at that time thrown into prison. Three brothers of Regnault had already found their deaths at the disaster of Agincourt. An immense fortune recompensed these faithful servants in the person of the young prelate.

Regnault's ecclesiastical career was in effect very rapid; he was dean of the cathedral of Beauvais before 1410, and was master of the great schools of the Cholets. He is cited, September 17, 1412, as camérier of the pope, référendaire, and his constant messmate; he intrigued to be elected Bishop of Beauvais. In 1414 Jean XXIII named him Archbishop of Reims in spite of the city and the Chapter. As the Pope's friend he was entrusted at Constance with explaining the flight of the Pope; he went to see Emperor Sigismund in August, 1414, to have him determine the removal of the Council. Jean XXIII sent him as ambassador to Louis II of Anjou as well as to Charles VI.

These missions continued to increase Regnault's importance in France, and from '1414 he undertook futile reconciliations between the houses of Orléans and Burgundy. He was created councillor of the King in 1417, and in 1418 we see him at the conference at Montereau representing the King and the Count of Armagnac. In 1417 he went to England; in 1418 to Languedoc, where he raised troops, and in Savoy; in 1420 he went to Scotland to look for aid, and in 1422 to Spain. In 1425 we encounter him at Rome.

This young man had even then a reputation as an expert, a good diplomat, entrusted with the most difficult missions, as if he were an old ambassador. On May 8, 1424, he was created chancellor. The English confiscated his mansion in Paris, and Charles VII remitted to him 4,000 &us d'or so that he could marry one of his nieces to the Sire de Vauvert. The King sold for him the seigneurie of Vierzon.

A prudent man, reasonable to excess, having full confidence in his diplomatic ability, Regnault worked to end the English war by breaking the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. He was a witness of the decisive interview of the King and Jeanne, and was one of her examiners, was sent to Blois to direct the relief of Orléans. Regnault wrote from Troyes to the inhabitants of Reims to dispose them to receive the King with honor.

He consecrated the King and recovered his capital city. It seemed at that instant that all would be accomplished for him as well as for Jeanne. The singular question that he asked Jeanne on the road to Crepy-en-Valois shows him already in defiance and from that moment we see Regnault return to his former and great idea of peace through an alliance with Burgundy. The extraordinary letter that he addressed to the people of Reims on the day after Jeanne was made prisoner is perhaps that of a politician; but it is also a testimonial to his hardness of heart.

Jeanne had become at a day's notice a hindrance, setting at naught the system of truces which stopped short the march of the victorious army and determined the check before Paris. But in any case we cannot see anything there but gloomy maneuvers. It would be more unwise still to regard Guillaume de Flavy, Regnault's half-brother, as a traitor abandoning the Maid before his besieged city. Regnault, after Reims, always represented the cause of peace in the King's council, against Jeanne and those who desired adventures, like the duc d'Alençon To this extent one can say that Regnault was responsible for her loss.

It is unfortunate that he could not have read, as we can in the papers of Ghillebert de Lannoy, the Burgundian memoranda advocating the continuance of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. And we must not forget that Regnault's idea was to be realized five years later in the happy peace of Arras, for which he had worked so hard, and which led to the end of the Hundred Years' War.

Regnault de Chartres died full of honors in 1445, after mid-Lent, at Tours, while as an obstinate peacemaker he was treating for peace between France and England.