Craon*, to march into the country of Burgundy, and make war on the prince of Oranget for some injuries which the lord de Craon had complained of having been done him by the prince, who was not of the same family with himself. The king, also, who had appointed the prince governor of that country, displaced him, and gave it to the lord de Craon, although he had been the means of reducing it to the king's obedience. The prince of Orange detached into Burgundy a knight of that country called sir Claude de Vaudray, who made head against the lord de Craon for some time, until it was known that the prince had entered a town called Guy‡, when the lord de Craon advanced to besiege it. He remained before it two days,-when, learning that the lord de Château Guyong, brother to the prince of Orange, was marching to his relief, he advanced in battlearray to meet him, and a great conflict ensued, insomuch that there were killed on both sides from fourteen to fifteen hundred combatants. To return thanks for this defeat, the king ordered a general procession to be made at Paris, to the church of St. Martin des Champs. In the course of the month of July, the duke of Gueldres|| had marched from fourteen to fifteen hundred Germans against the town of Tournay, thinking to burn the suburbs, and quarter himself at Pont d'Epierre, near the town. Two sallies were made from the town: in the first, the duke was mortally wounded, and his body was carried into Tournay. In the second sally, four hundred of the king's lances and some of the townsmen attacked and put to flight the Germans and Flemings,-two thousand of whom were slain, and seven or eight hundred made prisoners. Te Deum laudamus was chaunted at Paris, and bonfires were made in all the streets for this signal victory. On Monday, the 3d day of August of this year, messire Jacques d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours and count de la Marche, having been conducted as a prisoner to the Bastile of St. Anthony on the 4th day of August in the preceding year, by reason of certain offences and crimes by him committed and perpetrated,-during which time of his imprisonment in the said Bastile, many interrogatories were put to him concerning the said charges, to which he answered verbally and in writing, on many different days, as well before the chancellor of France, named Pierre d'Oriole, as others, the presidents and counsellors of the court of parliament, and also before certain great clerks of the kingdom, dwelling in divers cities and towns of the said kingdom, summoned and assembled for this purpose in the city of Noyon, with and in company of the said officers of the parliament, and in presence of the lord de Beaujeu, then representing the person of the king,—the proceedings held by the court aforesaid against the said duke of Nemours were examined, and also the defence by him made, and, after mature deliberation, it was decreed, that sir John le Boulenger, first president of the parliament, accompanied by the greffier criminel of the court, and sir Denis Hesselin, master of the king's household, should instantly set out for the Bastile, and declare to the duke of Nemours, that the court, having fully considered the charges laid against him, and the whole of his defence and confessions, have found him guilty of high treason, and sentence him to be beheaded for the same, this day, in the market-place at Paris, and all his effects and inheritances to be confiscated to the king. The execution took place at three in the after * Lord de Craon. George de la Trémouille lord of Jonvelle, baron of Craon, first chamberlain to the king, with whom he was a great favourite, and held the governments of Champagne, Brie, Burgundy, and Touraine. He obtained the county of Ligny from the confiscations of the constable of St. Pol, and had the governments of other towns in the kingdom. The barony of Craon in Anjou fell to his lot. + Prince of Orange,-John de Châlon, second of the name. Guy. Q. if not Gray? on the Saône, ten leagues from Besançon. § De Château Guyon,-Louis or Hugh de Chalons, half-brothers to the prince of Orange. The duke of Gueldres (Adolphus) had been confined a prisoner in the castle of Courtray ever since the cvents which are there mentioned. But, on occasion of VOL. 11. the king's imprudent invasion of the duke of Burgundy's territory, the Flemings brought him out of his prison to command their forces and become the husband of their young sovereign Mary of Burgundy. His death put an end to this design; and the competitors for the hand of the heiress were then reduced to three, viz. the dauphin of France, John son of the duke of Cleves, and Maximilian son of the emperor Frederic and king of the Romans. The violent conduct of Louis towards the states of Burgundy blasted the expectations which be might otherwise have very reasonably entertained for his son. Mary is said to have felt a personal repugnance to the heir of Cleves, and an equal partiality for her imperial suitor. In his favour, therefore, the die was ultimately cast; and their marriage took place on the 18th of August in this same year, 1477. FF noon of that day, on a scaffold erected in the market-place. After he was beheaded, the corpse and head were put into a bier, and delivered to the Cordelier friars, to be buried in their church. About seven or eight-score Cordeliers came in procession to fetch the body, and forty torches were given to them to escort the bier to their church*. The king was this month at Therouenne, and thence detached part of his army to drive away a body of Flemings who had encamped near to Blanfossé t. They no sooner heard of this order than they immediately decamped, but not before the royalists arrived, and slew upwards of two thousand of them. They were also pursued far into Flanders; and the king's army passed by Mont de Cassel to Fiennes and other places, which they razed, or took possession of, and killed full two thousand more of the Flemings. Many solemn processions were made at Paris for these successes. In the month of August, the son of Henry Cousin, the chief executioner at Paris, called Petit John, (who had already done several notable deeds in the way of his profession, and, among others, had beheaded the late constable of St. Pol,) was murdered in Paris at the instigation of a carpenter, named Oudin du Bust, a native of Picardy. This Oudin had conceived a mortal hatred against Petit John, because he had some time before beaten him, in consequence of a quarrel that had arisen between them. The cause of this quarrel was Oudin having demanded the amount of a deed for money he had lent Petit John, which had been repaid all but the expenses of the bond. To be revenged, Oudin had formed an acquaintance with three disorderly youths of Paris; one was called l'Empereur du Houlx, sergeant-at-mace; the other, Jean du Foing, a plumber; and the third, Regnault Goris, a silversmith, and son to Martin Goris, broker of jewellery. All these four, having determined on their plan, waylaid Petit John, and attacked him at the corner of the Rue des Grenelles, near the hotel of the Moulinet. The first that came up to him was l'Empereur du Houlx, who, under the mask of friendship, took him firmly under the arm, telling him not to be afraid of the others, for they would do him no mischief. As he said this, Regnault Goris approached, and hit Petit John on the head with a stone, that made him stagger. His pretended friend then let go his hold; and John du Foing thrust a javelin through his body, so that he fell dead on the spot. When he was dead, Oudin du Bust came and cut off his legs; and then they all four separated, and took sanctuary within the church of the Celestines; whence, on the following night, they were taken, by orders from sir Robert d'Estouteville, provost of Paris, and the members of the council, in consequence of the informations that had been laid before them, clearly proving the murder to have been committed by a preconcerted plan. The Celestines appealed against this, as a breach of their privileges; but the court of parliament dismissed their appeal, and declared the murderers incapable of being received in sanctuary. The bishop afterward claimed them as his clerks; but the parliament published an edict, to declare that they should not enjoy the privilege of clerks, and returned the matter to the provost, who sentenced them all to be hanged. They appealed against this sentence to the court of parliament, who confirmed it; and they were all four executed on the gibbet of Paris by the hands of Henry Cousin, father to the late Petit John, who was thus avenged on them for the murder of his son, the 28th day of August. They were hanged in a row: first, l'Empereur du Houlx, then John du Foing, Regnault Goris, and, last of all, Oudin du Bust. The three first were handsome youths: and for this business, a young son of a shoemaker was publicly flogged, and banished the realm, for having conspired the death of Petit John, although he was not actually present when he was killed. *This nobleman would have fallen unpitied had it not been for the execrable inhumanity which accompanied his execution, his children being brought to the scaffold, and made to stand there in such a position that the blood of their father might sprinkle their bodies. Mary of Anjou, his wife, died in childbirth of the effects of the shock which she experienced on hearing of his captivity. Of his three sons, Louis only lived to the age of manhood. He was restored to his father's honours, and fell at the battle of Cerignole on the 28th of April 1503. Of his daughters, Margaret was the wife of the mareschal de Gié, Catherine married John duke of Bourbon, and Charlotte Charles de Rohan. + Blanfossé, a village of Picardy, near Breteuil. CHAPTER CLXXV.- -THE CARDINAL OF ST. GEORGE IS DETAINED PRISONER AT FLORENCE, ABOUT this time, and soon after the death of the duke of Milan, a violent conspiracy was formed in the city of Florence, by the family of Pazzi, of which Francesco di Pazzi was the leader, against the family of the Medici. Francesco, accompanied by several of good family in Florence, and other conspirators, assassinated, with a dagger, Giuliano de' Medici in the church of Santa Maria di Fuori, during the celebration of the mass. His elder brother, Lorenzo de' Medici, was also wounded, but recovered *. For this crime, the reverend father in God, Nicholas, cardinal of Saint George, and nephew † to count Jerome, was detained in close confinement; and Francesco Salviati, archbishop of Pisa, was publicly hanged in his archiepiscopal robes at the gates of the Medici palace. Several of the conspirators, and their relatives, were hanged at the same time and place, and others executed in divers manners. Pope Sixtus IV., in revenge for these executions, fulminated, in the name of the cardinals in consistory, an excommunication and interdict against the city of Florence; and incited a cruel war against Tuscany, in the name of the church; in which war numbers lost their lives. During this time, an ambassador from the republic of Venice obtained the liberty of the cardinal of St. George, who returned to Rome: nevertheless, the war was still continued between the church and the Florentines; but it was at length ended, and the excommunication and interdict were taken off. The Jews, about this time, stole a child of twelve years of age, called Symon, in the city of Trent, whom they crucified, and caused to suffer the mysteries of the passion, in ridicule of what our Saviour had suffered,--for which they were most severely punished, according to their deserts. The body of the child was carried in procession, as a martyr, to the cathedral, whither great crowds of people flocked from all parts; for through the devotion of this child many miracles were performed in remembrance of the passion of our Lord. A similar crime was committed by the Jews in the city of Opiterge‡, within the principality of Venice, where they martyred a youth in like manner. They were brought to Venice, and, having confessed their guiltiness of this abominable crime, were burnt alive between the two marble columns in the place of St. Marco. At this time, a girl was born at Verona, which had one head, two feet, and four arms: two were larger than the others, which she could move, but the others were smaller and motionless. She had two bellies joined to the stomach, and two openings through which she passed her excrements, and other natural superfluities. In this state, she was carried throughout Italy, begging money of all that were desirous to see and examine her. About this time, there were great inundations, with very high winds, that overthrew many buildings. The Grand Turk now led a numerous and puissant army by sea and land to besiege the city of Rhodes, which he bombarded at several places, and slew very many Christians. He surrounded the city on all sides, and advanced even to the tower of St. Nicholas, which was thought impregnable; but he was on the point of taking it, and ready to shout, "Town won!" when the grand-master displayed from the walls a great banner, painted with the representation of the blessed cross; which banner was no sooner displayed than the Turks became blinded, and, by the Divine aid of our blessed Saviour, were repulsed. They made no further attempts on the city, but there were numbers slain on both sides. The Turks, For further particulars, see Scipione Ammirato, and other Italian historians, and particularly the Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, by W. Roscoe, Esq. † Cardinal of St. George. Q. if it should not be "of Riario, and nephew to pope Sixtus IV. ?" Opiterge. The ancient Latin name was Opitergium, -the modern Oderso: it is in the Venetian states, twelve miles from Trevigio.-MARTINIERE, on their ill success at Rhodes, invaded part of the kingdom of Sicily, and gained many towns. They put the inhabitants to death, and seized their effects, so that they were become a cruel pestilence to Christendom. They took the city of Otranto, and slew almost all the inhabitants, on account of their religion, which they suffered with singular patience for the honour of God, and at length they seized the archbishop, whom they put to death by sawing him in two. A devout hermit who resided in Swisserland, near Underwalden, subsisted for the space of fifteen years on the holy wafer, which he received at the monthly sacrament, without taking any other food. This has been attested by many persons, witnesses of the fact. I have forgotten to mention a marvellous comet that appeared in the year 1477, on St. Agnes' day, in the month of January, -and therefore the bloody wars that took place between different princes, with the great miseries that ensued, need not be wondered at. This comet was visible at Cologne, in the opposite direction to the constellation Libra, having an immense tail, thirty degrees in length. On St. Blaise's day, the third of February, it remained stationary in the constellation of Aries, throwing its tail to the eastward, near the Pleiades. It was of different colours,-sometimes white, at others all on fire, inclining to a lemon colour. The astrologers considered it as indicative of battle, epidemic disorders, and plagues : and in consequence, the following summer was hotter than had been remembered by any then living. In some parts, subterraneous fires broke forth, from the vehemence of which may God preserve us! We will now return to notice events that happened in France, Flanders, Burgundy and England, at the period we quitted them to make mention of the surprising circumstances contained in this chapter. CHAPTER CLXXVI. -THE KING, ON HIS RETURN FROM PICARDY, SETS AT LIBERTY THE PRISONERS IN THE CHASTELET.-OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE AND SIR CLAUDE DE VAUDRAY IN THE COUNTRY OF BURGUNDY.-THE STATUES OF ST. LOUIS AND ST. CHARLEMAGNE REMOVED. THE KING HAS TWELVE GREAT BOMBARDS MADE. EDWARD KING OF ENGLAND CAUSES HIS BROTHER THE DUKE OF CLARENCE TO BE DROWNED IN A BUTT OF MALMSEY.-AN ACCUSATION IS LAID AGAINST DANIEL THE SERVANT TO OLIVIER LE DAIM.-ON THE RETURN OF THE KING FROM PICARDY, GREAT ENTERTAINMENTS ARE GIVEN AT PARIS IN THE YEAR MCCCCLXXVIII. THE king of France, before he left Picardy, appointed the lord bastard of Bourbon, admiral of France, his lieutenant-general for the management of the war in that country. He assigned, for the cantonments of his men, the cities and towns of Arras, Tournay, Lens, La Bassée, and other places on the frontiers of Flanders, which still held out for the princess of Flanders, daughter to the late duke of Burgundy. Having arranged these matters, the king went to pay his devotions to Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire, whose image was richly ornamented, and thence proceeded to Paris. As he arrived on the feast-day of St. Denis, from his reverence to the saint he delivered all the prisoners confined in the Châtelet. The king made no long stay in Paris, but went to Tours, Amboise, and places in that district, where he the more willingly resided. During this interval, the Burgundians and other enemies to the king, under the prince of Orange and sir Claude de Vaudray, committed great devastations in Burgundy, and defeated many parties of the royal forces, more especially at the town of Gray-sur-Saône, wherein they were quartered. The Burgundians killed a number of gentlemen of the companies of Salazart and Coninghame, a Scots captain. The king had this year great devotion for St. Louis and St. Charlemagne, and ordered that their statues of stone, which had been placed in their rank with those of the other kings of France in the great hall of the Palace, should be removed and placed beside the chapel at the upper end of the said hall,-which was done; and the expenses of their removal were paid by Robert Cailletel, receiver of taxes in the city of Paris. In the month of December, the king, to increase his artillery, ordered twelve great bombards to be cast of a prodigious length and weight. Three of them were to be cast at Paris, three at Tours, three at Orleans, and three at Amiens; and at the same time a quantity of iron bullets were cast at the foundries at Creil, of which charge was given to master John de Reilhac his secretary. In the quarries near to Peronne, were also made many stone bullets for the bombards, and great stores of scaling-ladders and small pieces of ordnance were constructed, for the attack of several towns in Flanders and Picardy that remained to be reduced. At this period, king Edward of England, having been assured that his brother the duke of Clarence had intentions of crossing the sea to give assistance to his sister, the widowed duchess of Burgundy, ordered him to be arrested and confined in the tower of London, where he remained for some time. During his confinement, the king assembled his council, who condemned him to be drawn on a sledge from the Tower to a gibbet, and thereon hanged,-after which, his entrails were to be thrown into a fire, his head cut off and his body quartered. But this sentence was changed at the intercession of his mother, and the execution deferred until the month of February following, when he was taken out of prison, and, after he had confessed himself, was thrown alive into a butt of Malmsey Madeira, which had one of its ends taken off, and held therein, with his head downwards, until he expired*. He was then taken out: his head was cut off, and carried to be buried at the Carmelites' church, beside his duchess, daughter to the late earl of Warwick, who had been slain at the battle of Coventry, at the same time when the prince of Wales, son to the sainted Henry of Lancaster, fellt. An event happened at this time, at Paris, that made some noise. Daniel de Bar, servant to master Olivier le Daim‡, first barber and valet-de-chambre to the king, was arrested and This improbable story is, I believe, satisfactorily refuted and justly ridiculed by historians. †The earl of Warwick was killed at the battle of Barnet, and the prince of Wales was ungenerously murdered after the fatal battle of Tewkesbury, for a spirited answer to an insolent demand from Edward IV. Never was the proverb of " like master like man”"tel mâitre, tel valet," so truly exemplified as in Louis XI. and Olivier le Diable, Olivier le Mauvais, or, as tho king ordered him to be called in his letters of nobility, Olivier le Daim. I copy from the 222d number of Proofs to Comines what M. Godefroy said of this infamous cha racter: "Philip de Comines cries out justly against the choice the king made of a man of such a character as his ambassador to the princess of Burgundy. Master Olivier (for thus he was called in the Low Countries, where, to this day, the masters of any trade are called by their Christian names only) was born in the little town of Thielt, a dependency on the castlewick of Courtray in Flanders. He went to France and became barber to the king, whose confidence he gained by his intrigues. Having acquired great riches, the desire of appearing with éclat in the country of his birth, which is the usual presumption of persons suddenly raised from the dregs of the people to high rank, blinded him so much that he accepted of an embassy, which he naturally should have refused, if he had not been devoured with pride. "The magnificence of his equipage only served to make him more despised by his countrymen, and the barber was plainly seen under the dress of a prince. The Ghent men would have made his time pass unpleasantly, and, if he had not avoided it by a precipitate retreat, would have suffered what he afterward could not escape from. He was one of the most profligate and unprincipled men in the world." Here follows what a French author, named Boitel, relates of the latter end of his life, in the 321st page "Des Intentions Morales, Civiles, et Militaires d'Antoine le Pipre," printed at Antwerp in the year 1625. "You must know that Louis XI. king of France, bewitched with friendship for Olivier le Daim (whose first trade was that of barber), made him governor of the castle of Loches, which was and is at this moment a handsome establishment, appointed him to the government of St. Quentin, in Picardy, and made him one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber. He had purchased considerable lordships from the great riches ho possessed, and plunged into all kinds of luxuries, as well during the king's life as after his death. It happened one day that a young gentleman committed a crime, for which the provost of the king's household had him confined. His wife, fearing the consequences might be fatal to her husband, solicited every one who she thought had credit with king Charles VIII. Thinking that Olivier le Daim might enjoy the same favour as with the late king, from seeing him richly dressed, followed by many of the courtiers, and having admittance to the king's apartments when he pleased, she addressed herself to him, and entreated that he would obtain her husband's liberty. Olivier, observing that the suitress was young, handsome, and elegantly made, promised the deliverance of her husband, provided she would yield to his desires, which after many difficulties she consented to. "To perform his promise, he went to the provost, and desired that he would not criminate the gentleman, which he refused. He then begged that he would allow him to escape, as if he had forced his way out of prison; but this he more obstinately refused. Master Olivier, seeing himself thus disappointed, began to reproach the provost for his ingratitude,-for he bad given him his place, and had also obtained for him from Louis XI. many rich presents; and when that king was much irritated against him for bad management in his office, he had appeased the king's anger. In short, these reproaches had such an effect on the provost, that he told him to consider on some means for the prisoner to escape, provided that he were not brought into trouble, nor implicated, for those who had caused him to be confined had great power. Master Olivier replied, that the most secure method would be to strangle him in his dungeon, and to throw the body into |