that of the king which lay upon his frontiers. The king now married his eldest daughter*, whom he had promised to the late duke of Calabria, to the lord de Beaujeu, brother to the duke of Bourbon. The Burgundians, by treason and otherwise, suddenly invaded the country of the Nivernois, and took several towns belonging to the count de Nevers, such as La Roche, Châtillon, and others. The king's commissioners, who had before been at Senlis, now went to Compiègne, in expectation of meeting those from Burgundy, who had promised to come thither; but after waiting for some time in vain, they returned to Paris, and went thither again on the 15th of January. It was now currently reported that the duke of Burgundy, seeing he could not by open force destroy the kingdom of France, notwithstanding all the pains he had taken to accomplish it, had formed a conspiracy to poison the king; in which business he employed a person called master Ythier Marchant, who had been a servant to the late duke of Guienne, and another called John Hardy, servant to this Ythier, who, after the death of the duke of Guienne, had sought protection from the duke of Burgundy.

John Hardy undertook to manage this affair, and consequently the poisons were delivered to him, with promises of great wealth on his success: at the same time fifty thousand crowns were paid him down, for him to distribute among such as he should judge able to assist him. He had also money given him for his expenses; and this madman, Hardy, not having the fear of God before his eyes, nor foreseeing, that had his plot succeeded (which, thanks to God, it did not), the whole of the noble realm of France would have been destroyed, set out on his journey to the place of the king's residence. On his arrival at Amboise, forgetting that the king had formerly kindly received him and given him great sums of money, in order to execute his damnable enterprise, he addressed himself to a person who had the charge of making sauces in the royal kitchen, with whom Hardy was acquainted during the time they were both in the service of the duke of Guienne. Hardy communicated to him his plan, and offered him twenty thousand crowns if he would assist him to accomplish it. The saucemaker listened to him, but said he could not engage in the business without the consent of Colinet, the king's head cook, who had likewise been in the same service with themselves. He promised to mention the matter to Colinet, and urge him to join them, but desired Hardy to give him the poisons to show the head cook. Soon after, the saucemaker and head cook having discussed the business together, went and informed the king of the plot, who was very much alarmed, but most honourably and handsomely rewarded them for having discovered it. John Hardy had set out for Paris, but was instantly followed and overtaken near Estampes, where he was arrested and brought back to the king, who interrogated him, and had him examined by others, as to the charges made against him, all of which he confessed to be true.

To make the matter public, and that his trial might have the greater notoriety, the king set out from Amboise for Chartres, Meulan, Creil, and other places in the Beauvoisis, followed by Hardy, chained with heavy irons, in a low cart, under the guard of John Blosset, esquire, captain of one hundred archers of the dauphin's guard, fifty of whom always surrounded the cart. Thus guarded, he was sent to Paris to be delivered up to the provost and sheriffs, where he arrived on Thursday, the 20th day of January, about three o'clock in the afternoon; when sir Denis Hesselin, the provost, and others, went out to receive him in the suburbs, beyond the gate of St. Denis. With sir Denis were the four sheriffs, their officers, and great crowds of people, and the archers of the town in handsome array. Hardy was placed on a high chair in the middle of the cart that he might be seen by the populace, who were strictly forbidden to abuse him by words or deeds. Thus was he conducted along the great street of St. Denis to the town-house, when he was delivered up by John Blosset to the provost and sheriffs, under whose guard the king had ordered him to be placed, that they might have the honour of trying and executing him.

While the king was at Creil he issued an edict respecting the gens-d'armes of his realm, by which he declared that each lanceman should not have more than six horses, namely— three horses for himself, his page and his armour-bearer; the two archers have two horses, and one for the varlet; but they were no longer to have panniers to carry their arms. They Eldest daughter." Anne of France, a most accomplished woman. She made a great figure in the succeeding

* 64

reign.

were not to remain longer than one day in any village when on their march. And proclamation was made to forbid all merchants from selling or affording to any of the gens-d'armes cloths of silk or camlets, on pain of forfeiting the money these gens-d'armes might give or owe for them; and no woollen cloths were to be sold them of a higher price than thirty-two sols parisis the ell. At the same time he issued another edict touching the coin, and ordered the grands blancs to be exchanged for eleven deniers, although before they had only been worth ten deniers the targes, eleven deniers tournois, that had been worth twelve-the crown, thirty sols three deniers tournois; and so on with the rest, for the whole value of the coin was changed.

On the 20th of January a reconciliation took effect between the king and the constable. He had possessed himself of the town of St. Quentin, and driven out the lord de Creton, who there commanded one hundred lances for the king. By this reconciliation the constable remained not only master, as before, of St. Quentin, but the town of Meaux and other places were given up to him, of which he had before been deprived. Commissioners were also appointed to inquire after those who had spoken disrespectfully of the constable relative to his taking St. Quentin, that they might be brought to punishment. Money was likewise given him for the pay of his troops, which was the means of preventing his town of St. Quentin from being taken. The king about this time left Amboise for Senlis, where he remained while his commissioners and those from Burgundy were labouring to bring about a peace. At length the truce was prolonged to the middle of the ensuing May, in the expectation of a more lasting agreement being concluded before then. The king went from Senlis to Ermenonville in Santerre, belonging to master Pierre L'Orfevre, counsellor in the chamber of accounts, where he staid a month, during which time the duke of Bourbon, whom the king had repeatedly sent for, came at last, but did not remain more than ten or twelve days, and returned, with the king's leave, to his own country, to celebrate Easter, promising to come back the Sunday after Easter, which he did.

On the 30th of March John Hardy, before mentioned, was condemned by the court of parliament to be taken to the gate of the prisons of the Conciergerie, and there put into a tumbrel and drawn before the town-house, where a scaffold had been erected for the quartering of his body, according to the sentence, which was executed. His head, placed on the point of a lance, was to remain in front of the town-house, and his four quarters were sent to four of the principal towns, at the extremities of the kingdom-on each of which an inscription was to be put, declaring the cause why they were thus placed-and the body was ordered to be burned and reduced to cinders at the place of execution. All the houses of the said John Hardy, particularly that in which he had been born, were to be razed to the ground, and no buildings were to be thereon erected in future; an inscription was also to be placed on the spot declaratory of the enormity of the offence, and why these buildings had been destroyed. Hardy was executed in the presence of the lord de Gaucourt, king's lieutenant, the first president of the parliament Boulenger, the two provosts, and sheriffs, and other principal persons of the town; and he had a celebrated doctor in divinity, called doctor Hue, assigned to him for the care of his soul. On the Saturday following the head of Hardy, which had been placed on a lance before the town-house, was taken down, nobody knew how, and thrown into a cellar hard by.

This day a handsome embassy came to Paris from the king of Arragon, and was honourably received there by the count de Penthievre *, the lord de Gaucourt and others, who feasted them well in divers parts of Paris until Palm Sunday, when their festivities ceased on account of the approaching Passion-week. The king arrived at Paris after Easter, the 16th day of April, in the year 1474.

"Count de Penthievre." Jean de Brosse had, by his wife Louisa de Laval, René, who married Jeanne, only daughter to the historian Philip de Comines.

CHAPTER CLXVIII.—THE PARISIANS ARE REVIEWED BY THE KING.— OF THE ARRAGONIAN AMBASSADORS.-A CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE KING AND THE CONSTABLE.—A TRUCE WITH THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY.-OTHER EVENTS. THE DUKE OF ALENÇON CONDEMNED TO BE BEHEADED AT PARIS.-THE KING TAKES POSSESSION OF ANJOU. THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY BESIEGES NUYS -HE TAKES SEVERAL TOWNS, NOTWITHSTANDING THE TRUCE BETWEEN THE KING AND HIMSELF.

[A. D. 1474.]

THE king ordered a review of the Parisians on Saturday, the 20th of April. They were drawn up from the bastile of St. Anthony, along the ditches, to the tower of Billy; and thence, in battle-array, to the Grange aux Merciers: there was another division formed on the opposite side of the town. They made a brilliant and formidable appearance, for the whole number was estimated at one hundred and four thousand men, all in uniforms, with red hoods and white crosses. A large train of artillery was also drawn out of Paris, which added much to the beauty of the spectacle. The king was accompanied at this review by the Arragonian ambassadors, who were astonished at the numbers of men under arms that Paris alone had sent forth. The king was attended by his guards, the gentlemen of his household, the count de Dammartin in great pomp, Philip of Savoy count of Bresse, the lord du Perche, Salazart, and several other captains and gentlemen of renown. After the review the king went to Vincennes to supper, taking with him the Arragonian embassy; and shortly after he gave to the two principal ambassadors two cups of fine gold, embossed with figures, which weighed forty marcs, and had cost three thousand two hundred crowns of gold.

The king left Paris for Senlis, where he made some stay; and during that time two embassies came to him, one from Brittany and another from Germany-the chief of which last was the duke of Bavaria. With the embassy from Brittany came Philip des Essars, lord of Thieux, master of the household to the duke of Brittany, who had been very active against the king. He was, however, kindly received by him, presented with ten thousand crowns, and appointed general inquisitor and inspector of waters and forests in Champagne and Brie, -which office the lord de Châtillon had held, but it was taken from him to be given to Philip des Essars. While the king was at Senlis, Ermenonville, and other places in that district, an embassy arrived from the duke of Burgundy, which remained long, but concluded nothing. The king then departed for Compiègne, Noyon, and divers places thereabout, when a meeting was appointed between him and the constable to settle some differences between them near a villaget, where a bridge was thrown over a river, and each had a large party of guards for his personal security. Their mutual accusations were discussed, and particularly the capture the constable had made, by force, of St. Quentin, by driving thence the lord de Creton and his garrison, which had greatly angered the king, who for this reason had stopped the payments due to the constable's troop of four hundred lances, for the months of April, May, and June. After a long conversation, the king ordered the arrears of pay to be made good, and continued as before, and they parted good friends. Peace was likewise made between the constable and the count de Dammartin, and the king on his going away freely pardoned the constable, who promised and swore never to commit any more faults, but to serve him henceforward faithfully against all, without any exception whatever.

During this period the king passed some time at Senlis, Ermenonville, Pont St. Maixence, and other places near. He went almost daily to the abbey de la Victoire to adore the statue of the Virgin, which was there in great request, and in honour to her made the prior very rich gifts, in money, to the amount of ten thousand golden crowns. This year, from his singular love to his people, and his wish to avoid the shedding of human blood, he agreed to a truce with his adversary the duke of Burgundy for one year, to expire the first of April in the year 1475; although several embassies had come from the emperor of Germany, humbly to desire that he would not conclude any truce, for that he would reduce the duke by force

Nuys, a town in the department of the Roer, in the present division of France.

The place of meeting was on a barricaded bridge, near to La Fere, three leagues from Noyon.

of arms to sue for his mercy, and that whatever conquests the emperor should make he would give to the king without his putting himself to the smallest cost. Notwithstanding these flattering proposals, the king assented to a truce with the duke of Burgundy, to the great displeasure of all his good and loyal subjects. The Burgundians, nevertheless, and in contempt of the truce, at first committed many outrages on the king's territories and subjects, without making any reparation; and it was scandalous thus to see a vassal of the king injure with impunity the country and subjects of his sovereign lord.

In the beginning of July the king returned to Paris, but only lay there one night. On the morrow he went to the church of Nôtre Dame, and thence to the holy chapel in the palace. He dined in the apartments of master John de Ladriesche, president of the chamber of accounts, in the Conciergerie of the Palace; and about four in the afternoon he embarked in a boat at the point of the Palace, and went to the tower of Nesle, where he mounted his horse and rode to Chartres, Amboise, and thence to Nôtre Dame de Behuart, in Poitou. In this year the king sent a very large army, with franc-archers and others, and a considerable train of artillery, to conquer the kingdom of Arragon. Prayers were offered up that God would give them grace to behave well, and return in health; for it was commonly said that Arragon was the churchyard of Frenchmen.

Monday, the 18th day of July, the duke d'Alençon was brought before the court of parliament, when the chancellor, master Pierre d'Oriole, recapitulated his former crimes, and the sentence that had been passed upon him by the court held at Vendôme, under the late king Charles (whose soul may God pardon !) and the grace the present king had shown him, not only by granting him his life, but his liberty and estates, for which favours he had shown the blackest ingratitude. The present accusations were then brought forward, when he was found guilty of high treason, and condemned by the chancellor to be beheaded at Paris, saving the good pleasure of the king to order otherwise; and all his effects, hereditary and acquired, were confiscated to the king's use. The duke, having heard his sentence, was led back to his prison in the Louvre, under the guard of sir Denis Hesselin, sir James Hesselin his brother, sir John de Harclay, commander of the night-guard in Paris, and others appointed by the king for this purpose.

When this affair was finished the king went toward Angers, and took possession of that town and all other places and lordships in Anjou belonging to the king of Sicily, for certain reasons moving him thereto; and the government and administration of them was given to master Guillaume de Cerisay, greffier-civil in the court of parliament. The king then returned through Beauce to Chartres, and to Bois-de-Malesherbes, where he staid a long time, hunting stags, wild boars, and other beasts, of which he found such plenty that he was very fond of this part of his kingdom; although otherwise it is but a poor country. On the king's departure he went to Pont de Chamois, the residence of the lord de Beaujeu, where he remained until the 6th of October, and thence went to Montereau-faut-Yonne. During his absence the members of his grand council went daily to Pont de Chamois.

The duke of Burgundy had now declared war against the Germans, and had marched an army to lay siege to Nuys, a good town near Cologne, on the Rhine, where he and his army remained long. The king sent an embassy into Brittany, composed of the chancellor, Philip des Essars, and others, who, on their return, brought with them sir Pierre de Morvilliers, formerly chancellor of France, who had attached himself to the late duke of Guienne, and on his death had sought an asylum in Brittany. The Burgundians, notwithstanding the truce, took the city of Verdun, in Lorraine, of which the king was protector; and to recover it, he sent thither three hundred lances, and four thousand franc-archers, under the command of the lord de Craon, and others. The Burgundians took also by storm a town in the Nivernois called Molins en Gibers, whither, likewise, the king sent men-at-arms and artillery. The Burgundians, however, regardless of the truce, never failed, when any favourable opportunities offered, to oppress the subjects, towns, and countries of the king of France.

CHAPTER CLXIX.-KING EDWARD SUMMONS THE KING OF FRANCE TO RESTORE TO HIM THE DUCHIES OF GUIENNE AND NORMANDY.-GOOD NEWS FROM THE FRENCH ARMY IN ARRAGON.-SOME ARRAGONIANS BEHEADED.—THE KING'S PHYSICIANS OPEN A MAN ALIVE, AND RECOVER HIM.-OF THE FEAST OF ST. CHARLEMAGNE, KING OF FRANCE. -OF THE LOSSES OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY BEFORE NUYS, AND OF THE CONQUESTS GAINED OVER HIM IN PICARDY AND BURGUNDY.-SOME BARONS EXECUTED AT PARIS. -THE REDUCTION OF THE TOWN OF PERPIGNAN.

KING EDWARD about this time sent his heralds to the king of France, to summon him to restore the duchies of Guienne and Normandy, which he claimed as his property,—and in case of refusal, to declare war against him. The king gave his answer to these heralds, and sent by them, to king Edward, the handsomest courser in his stables; and he, moreover, sent him by Jean de Laslier, his harbinger, an ass, a wolf, and a wild boar, with which the heralds returned to their own country.

In November, the king came near to Paris, and was lodged at Ablon-sur-Seine, at Vincennes, Haubervilliers, and other places. He thence went to the house of master Dreux Budé, examiner to the court of chancery, called Bois-le-comte, while the archbishop of Lyon, the lord de Beaujeu, and others of his court, were lodged at Mietry, in the Isle of France. The king, from Bois-le-Comte, went with the above-named lords to Château-Thierry, where he made some stay. About the 12th of December, he came to Paris, for the feast of Christmas, and performed his devotions on that day in the church of Notre-Dame. Intelligence was brought to the king, on St. Stephen's day, that the English were in great force at sea, and near to the coast of Normandy, at St. Michel. He instantly ordered a body of archers, which he had just raised, and called the Dauphin's Guard, to mount their horses and hasten into Normandy. Nearly at the same time, he heard from his army in Arragon, that they had taken a place near Perpignan, called Gonne, in which were several gentlemen, inhabitants of Perpignan, whom they would have put to death, had they not promised to cause the town of Perpignan to be surrendered to the king's arms within a certain time by them named. But as they failed in their promise, some of them were beheaded: in the number, was one called Bernard de Douys. Soon after, an agreement was made between the king and the Arragonians, by which Roussillon was again restored to him. In the month of January, some Burgundian adventurers collected together, and made several inroads on France, even so far as Compiègne, plundering or killing all they met. They attempted to build themselves a place of security at Arson, near Roye, whither they had brought a number of pioneers. When the king heard of this, he sent orders for the garrisons of Amiens, Beauvais, and other places, to assemble with the company of the grand-master, the crossbows and archers of Paris, and to put themselves under the command of sir Robert d'Estouteville, provost of Paris, and destroy these Burgundians and their stronghold. But the Burgundians no sooner heard of these orders, than they packed up their plunder, and ran away like thieves as they were. This same month, a franc-archer of Meudon was confined in the prisons of the Châtelet, in Paris, for divers robberies, and even for sacrilege in the church of Meudon. He was condemned, for these crimes, to be hanged at Montfaucon,— but he appealed to the court of parliament, whither he was led for trial. That court dismissed his appeal, and confirmed the sentence of the provost of Paris, to whom he was remanded for execution; but the surgeons and physicians of Paris petitioned the king, that as a variety of persons were afflicted with the stone and other internal disorders, and that as this franc-archer had complaints similar to those of which the lord de Bouchage* now lay dangerously ill, it was requisite that the internal parts of a living man should be examined, and that no better subject could have offered than this franc-archer, under sentence of death. The physicians and surgeons, in consequence of the king's permission, opened his body,and having examined his bowels, replaced them, and sewed up the body. By the king's * " Bouchage." Imbert de Balarney, counsellor and chamberlain to Louis XI., and one of his greatest

favourites.