marriage of his second son Anthony, count of Rethel, who was afterwards duke of Brabant, with the only daughter of Waleran count of St Pol,-which daughter he had by the countess Maud, his first wife, sister to king Richard of England. These feasts were very magnificent, and well attended by many princes and princesses, with a noble chivalry, and they were all supported at the sole expense of the duke of Burgundy.

[A. D. 1403.]

CHAP. XII.

THE ADMIRAL OF BRITTANY, WITH OTHER

N

LORDS, FIGHTS THE ENGLISH AT SEA.GILBERT DE FRELUN MAKES WAR AGAINST KING HENRY.

In the beginning of this year, the admiral of Brittany, the lord de Penhors, the lord du Chastel*, the lord du Boys, with many other

Chastel, the name of a noble house in Brittany, Tanneguy, so often mentioned hereafter, was of the same family.

knights and esquires of Brittany, to the amount of twelve hundred men at arms, assembled at Morlens*, and embarked on board thirty vessels at a port called Chastel-Pol†, to engage the English, who had a large fleet at sea on the look-out for merchantmen like pirates. On the following Wednesday, as the English were cruising before a port called St Matthieu‡, the Bretons came up with them, and chaced them until sun-rise the ensuing morning, when they engaged in battle. It lasted for three hours; but the Bretons at last gained the victory, and took two thousand prisoners, with forty vessels with sails, and a carrack. The greater part of the prisoners were thrown overboard and drowned, but some escaped by promising punctual payment of their ransom.

About this same time, an esquire, named Gilbert de Fretun, a native of the country of Guines, sent his challenge to the king of England, to avoid paying him his homage; and in consequence, this Gilbert collected many men at arms, and made such exertions that he provided himself with two vessels well

* Morlens. Q. Morlaix?

+ Chastel-Pol. Q. St Pol de Leon ?

At the entrance of Brest harbour.

equipped, and carried on a destructive war against the king as long as the truces between the kings of France and England were broken, from which event great evils ensued,

CHAP. XIII,

THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS QUARRELS WITH

SIR CHARLES DE SAVOISY AND WITH THE PROVOST OF PARIS.

Ar this period, when the university of Paris was making its annual processions, much dissention arose between some of its members, as they were near to St Catherine du Val des Escoliers, and the grooms of sir Charles de Savoisy, chamberlain * to the king of France, who were leading their horses to drink in the river Seine. The cause of the quarrel was owing to some of the grooms riding their horses against the procession, and wounding some of the scholars, who, displeased at such conduct, attacked them with stones, and knocked some of the riders off their horses.

* In 1383, he was appointed to the office of grand

treasurer.

The grooms, on this, returned to the hôtel de Savoisy, but soon came back armed with bows and arrows, and accompanied by others of their fellow-servants, when they renewed the attack against the scholars, wounding many with their arrows and staves even when in the church. This caused a great riot. In the end, however, the great number of scholars overpowered them, and drove them back, after several of them had been soundly beaten and badly wounded.

When the procession was concluded, the members of the university waited on the king, to make complaints of the insult offered them, and demanded, by the mouth of their rector, that instant reparation should be made them for the offence which had been committed, such as the case required,-declaring, at the same time, that if it were not done, they would all quit the town of Paris, and fix their residence in some other place, where they might be in safety.

The king made answer, that such punishment should be inflicted on the offenders as that they should be satisfied therewith. In short, after many conferences, in which the members of the university urged their complaints

to the king, as well as to the princes of the blood who composed his council, it was ordered by the king, to appease them, that the lord Charles de Savoisy, in reparation for the offence committed by his servants, should be banished from the king's household, and from those of the princes of the blood, and should be deprived of all his offices. His hôtel was demolished, and razed to the ground; and he was besides condemned to found two chapelries of one hundred livres each, which were to be in the gift of the university.

After this sentence had been executed, sir Charles de Savoisy quitted France, and lived for some time greatly dispirited in foreign countries, where, however, he conducted himself so temperately and honourably *, that at length principally, through the queen of France and some great lords, he made his peace with the university, and, with their approbation, returned again to the king's household.

*He is said, during his exile, to have signalized himself, like a true knight, in combating the Saracens, of whom he brought back to France so many prisoners that he constructed his magnificent castle of Seignelay without the aid of other labourers.--Paradin, cited by Moreti, Art. Savoisy."