I Am Already Sick of Love
Charles of Orleans taking Bonne of Armagnac to wife
The first Valentine written is credited to Charles, Duke of Orleans (1394 – 1465). He was captured by the English at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years War between England and France. During his twenty-four year captivity, he composed over five hundred poems, many of them he translated into English from French.
Charles first married Isabeau of Valois, Richard II of England’s young widow. She died bearing him a daughter when he was only fifteen. His second wife was Bonne of Armagnac, the daughter of a count. They had been married five years when he was taken at Agincourt. She never had any children and died while he was yet a captive. The thing she did have of him was his poem, called A Farewell to Love:
