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 PRANCE, -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. orders, every care was taken of him; and within fifteen days, he was perfectly cured, and was not only pardoned for his crimes, but had a sum of money given to him. On the 28th of January, the king, having a particular affection and reverence for the exalted and devout virtues of St. Charlemagne, ordered, that henceforward his feast should on that day be celebrated, which was done in the city of Paris like unto a Sunday, and continued on every succeeding 28th of January. The town of Nuys was revictualled by the Germans from Cologne, and other places under the obedience of the emperor, notwithstanding the duke of Burgundy had been so long before it, and had placed a considerable fleet on the Rhine to hinder any reinforcements, or stores, from entering the town. The duke's fleet was destroyed, and from six to seven thousand persons that were on board of it, were killed or drowned. The Burgundians, before this, had suffered great losses in the army that was besieging Nuys. In the month of March, the king ordered four hundred lances from the garrisons of Amiens, Beauvais, and other parts, to make an inroad on the territories of the duke of Burgundy, to retaliate the damages done by his partisans on the country round Roye, Peronne, and Mondidier, in contempt of the truce. The royalists, in consequence, invaded Artois, and advanced even to the suburbs of Arras, in which they lodged one whole night. By means of flails and portable windmills, they thrashed and ground all the corn they could find in the barns throughout Artois and Picardy; which, together with great numbers of cattle, prisoners, and utensils, were carried off by Salazart and the other captains to Amiens, and their different garrisons. Daring this, the king never stirred from Paris, but kept his Lent there, making good cheer, and, as he said, being healthy and well satisfied. In this month, a youth, son to a brigandine maker, who had been partly brought up by a fresh-water fisherman of Paris, named Jean Pensart, knowing that this fisherman had acquired a large sum of money by the sale of his fish during Lent, which he gained by purchasing from different lords the produce of the ponds by wholesale, and being instigated by the devil, entered the house of this fisherman, and seeing where he kept his money, opened the door of the house after midnight to three Scotsmen, in order that they might rob the said Pensart. One was called Mortimer, surnamed the Esquire, and the name of another was Thomas Clark. By the assistance of this youth, they carried off the money, amounting to two thousand five hundred livres tournois. The fisherman made such diligence to recover his money that, on the same day, the youth was found within sanctuary at the Carmelites in Paris. He was instantly dragged thence, and carried to the prisons of the Châtelet, for the weight of his irons prevented his walking, and he there confessed that the Scotsmen had taken all the money. Great activity was used in seeking them; and Mortimer was seized, and would have been carried to prison, by orders of master Philip du Four, had not two of the Scots guards attacked him and his sergeants, and effected the rescue of Mortimer. Thomas Clark was afterwards discovered, having taken sanctuary in the church of St. Catherine-du-Val-des- écoliers, and was made prisoner, but not before he had courageously defended himself against the officers of the provost of Paris, having wounded several. At length he was overpowered, and confessed at the prison that he was guilty of this robbery.-and great part of the money was restored, which he had hidden near St. Estienne des Grès. For this and other offences, the provost condemned him to the gallows; but he appealed from this sentence to the parliament,which appeal was dismissed, and he was sent back to the provost, who was ordered to execute his sentence, which was done on the 16th of March, on the gibbet of Paris, in the presence of sir Denis Hesselin and master Jean de Ruel, as commissioners for the lieutenantcriminal La Dehors, on account of a severe illness that prevented his personal attendance. At this time, the town of Perpignan surrendered to the king's obedience; when the inhabitants were permitted to go whither they pleased with their effects,-but the artillery, which was very handsome and of great value, was detained. CHAPTER CLXX.-AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY AND THE KING OF On the 7th day of April, in this year, an alliance was concluded between the emperor of Germany and the king,-which he ordered to be proclaimed first in front of the hôtels of monsieur du Maine, duke of Calabria, and of the ambassadors from Brittany, and then throughout the streets and squares of Paris. There arrived at Paris, in the course of this month, two embassies; one from Florence and the other from the emperor of Germany ; which were most honourably received and feasted, as well by the king as by other great lords of his court. Early in April, the king left Paris for Vernon-sur-Seine, where he had appointed the rendezvous for the admiral and his other captains, to determine on the manner of concluding the war that was about to take place, for the truce would expire the last day of April. He then returned to Paris on the 14th; and on the 25th he departed for Pont St. Maixence, to prepare his army. The king took with him, besides the officers of his household, eight hundred lances well equipped, and a large train of great and small artillery, in which were five very large bombards: four of them were named London, Brabant, Bourg-en-Bresse, and St. Omer. In addition to the above, he had his French and Scots guard, his gentlemen, and a great company of franc-archers from the Isle of France and Normandy. Provisions were sent from all parts, for the constant supply of the army. On the first of May, the king departed from the abbey of La Victoire, whither he had gone from Pont St. Maixence, to arrange the plan of his war against the Burgundians; and detachments were sent against Tronquoy* and Mondidier. On the 10th, the archbishop of Lyon joined the king from Paris, where he had been appointed the king's lieutenant in the council, and reported, that a very devout and general procession had taken place at Paris on the 3rd, the feast of the Holy Cross. All the children in Paris walked in procession, each holding a taper in his hand to fetch the Holy Innocent, and carry it to Notre-Dame. The archbishop of Lyon and the chancellor walked beside each other, followed by the lord de Gaucourt, lieutenant for the king in Paris, the provosts and sheriffs, the presidents and counsellors of the parliament and chamber of accounts, and such numbers of the populace that they were estimated at more than one hundred thousand persons. The Holy Innocent was borne, in this procession, by the first president of the parliament, Nanterre president in the same court, Ladriesche president of the chamber of accounts, and by the provost of merchants. All the archers of the town were drawn out to preserve order, and prevent noise and rioting. The 2nd of May, the king sent to summon the town of Tronquoy to surrender; but the Burgundians killed those who summoned them; upon which the king ordered the batteries to be opened, and the artillery played with such success that, by five in the evening of the same day, a breach was made, and the town taken by storm. All within were killed or hanged except one, called Motin de Caulers, whom the king caused to be spared, and made him an assessor extraordinary at Paris. The place, however, was not taken without having made a strong defence, by which the governor of Pontoise, who was said to have *Tronquoy, a village in Picardy, near Mondidier. been an excellent officer, and many of the king's troops, were killed. The town was afterward destroyed and razed to the ground. On the 3rd, the royal army marched for Mondidier, because it had refused to surrender; and on the 5th it was won by capitulation, on condition that the inhabitants might depart in safety, leaving their effects behind. This place was also destroyed. On the 6th, Roye surrendered; and the Burgundians marched away with their baggage in safety. The castle of Moreul followed the example of Roye. These victories caused such dismay, that had the king marched his army further he would soon have reduced to his obedience all the towns of the duke of Burgundy, as well in Flanders as in Picardy, for every one fled before him, To interrupt the career of this grand army, the king received information from different quarters, and even from the lord constable, that it would be necessary for him to look to the defence of Normandy, for that the English were preparing to make a landing on that coast. The constable likewise wrote to him, that he might boldly advance to Normandy without paying any attention to Abbeville and Peronne, for that during his absence he would reduce these towns to his obedience. The king followed this advice, and went into Normandy, taking with him the lord-admiral, five hundred lances, and the nobles and franc-archers: the rest of the troops were disbanded and sent to their homes. But when he arrived in Normandy he heard nothing of the English, although he went along the coast to Harfleur, Dieppe, Caudebec, and other places. During this excursion, nothing was done for the king, as was promised by the constable: on the contrary, his subjects on the borders suffered very much from his absence, by the inroads of the Burgundians. The king went on a pilgrimage to the church of Our Lady of Ecouis*, and thence to a house called Gaillarbois + belonging to Colon, lieutenant to the lord-admiral, where he made some stay; and while he was there, he received intelligence from the constable of the arrival and landing of the English at Calais; and that the duke of Burgundy had raised the siege of Nuys. It had been reported that the duke had gained possession of that town with the consent of the emperor, and that they had united their forces to make war on the king of France, which was afterward found to be exactly the reverse of truth. In this interval, an English herald, called Scales, was made prisoner, and many letters found on him, addressed to different persons. These letters the king saw; and the herald assured him, that a large body of English had disembarked at Calais,-and that king Edward was to be there in person on the 22nd of June, at the head of twelve or thirteen thousand combatants. He besides assured him, that the duke of Burgundy had made his peace with the emperor, and was returned to Brussels, the whole of which turned out to be falsehoods. The king was also informed, while at Ecouis, that the constable had sent to the duke of Bourbon his sealed engagement, to attempt to suborn and induce him to take arms against the king, and unite himself with the duke of Burgundy, all of which greatly surprised him. He instantly sent for the duke of Bourbon, and repeated his summons to come to him by the bishop of Mende, by whom the duke of Bourbon had sent the first intelligence of this treason, with the constable's sealed proposals. The king heard, nearly at the same time, that the duke of Bourbon, whom he had appointed his lieutenant-general against the Burgundians, had, with his army, fallen in with the enemy at Guy, near to Château Chinon, and had defeated them with very great loss in killed and prisoners. Two hundred lances from Lombardy were slain; and among the dead were the lord de Conches and several others. The prisoners were the count de Roussy, the marshal of Burgundy, the lord de Longy, the bailiff of Auxerre, the lord de l'Isle §, the banner-bearer of the lord de Beauchamp, the son of the count de St. Martin, sir Louis de Montmartin, sir John de Digoigne, the lord de Rugny, the lord de Cheligny, the two sons of the lord de Vitaulx, one of whom was count de Joigny ||, and others. This defeat happened on Tuesday the 20th of June. John de Chalons lord of Viteaux, second son of John and brother of Louis prince of Orange. He married Jane, sister and heir of Louis de la Tremouille, count of Joigny, who died s. P. in 1467; and his eldest son by this lady had the title of count de Joigny in right of his mother. In contradiction to the intelligence the king had received from the constable, the king heard from the emperor, that he had revictualled and reinforced the town of Nuys for one year; that he had taken thence all the sick and wounded, and replaced them with fresh troops; and that he had reduced the duke of Burgundy to a nonplus, having taken from him great part of his artillery, his service of plate, and other baggage. On the 27th of June, the lord-admiral, who had been ordered by the king to invade and lay waste Picardy and Flanders with fire and sword, advanced thither with his troops, and put to death all he met, ravaging, at the same time, the whole of the country. He' one day posted some ambushes near to Arras, and then despatched about forty lances to appear before the walls, who were no sooner espied by the garrison than a grand sally was eagerly made, in the expectation of discomfiting them. The forty lances, on being attacked, retreated toward the ambuscades, so that the men from Arras were surrounded and put to flight, leaving on the field from twelve to fifteen hundred dead. The horse of the lord de Romont, son to the count of Savoy *, and brother to the queen of France, was killed, but he himself escaped. The governor of Arras, sir James de St. Pol, with other lords of name and renown, were made prisoners, whom the lord-admiral caused to be led before the walls of Arras, and summoned the inhabitants to surrender the town to the king's obedience, otherwise he would order his prisoners to be beheaded in their sight. The king had held the prince of Orange some time his prisoner, whose ransom was set at thirty thousand crowns: but in the month of June the king restored him to his liberty without ransom: in gratitude for which, he became the king's vassal, and did him homage for his principality of Orange. The king sent him home at his own expense, with powers to coin money of gold and silver, of the same alloy as the coin of Dauphiny, and to grant pardons and remissions of all offences excepting heresy and treason. The king presented to the nobleman who had made the prince prisoner ten thousand crowns in ready money. In the month of June, the king sent orders to the provost of Paris to cause public notice to be given of the arrival of the English at Calais, and to command all the vassals of the crown to hold themselves in readiness on the 3rd of July, and to assemble on that day between Paris and Vincennes, to march whithersoever they should be ordered, notwithstanding any privileges to the contrary, which, on this occasion, must be waved. In consequence of this proclamation, the Parisians sent a large body of men-at-arms, well mounted and equipped, to join their provost in the Soissonnois. The king passed some time in Normandy, at Notre-Dame d'Ecouis and Gaillarbois, whence he departed for Notre-Dame de la Victoire, and after a short stay went to Beauvais. In this month of July, the duke of Burgundy, who had been before Nuys for twelve months, decamped by night, and in disgrace, without having gained any advantages. He returned to his own country with great losses in men and baggage, to meet his brother-inlaw king Edward of England, whom he had prevailed on to come thither, in pursuance of his wicked designs against the king of France and his kingdom. At this time, the countries of the duke of Burgundy suffered much from the destruction caused by the French, in burning towns and laying waste every part they passed through. The king had sent repeatedly for the duke of Bourbon, who at length came to him while he was at Notre-Dame de la Victoire. The duke arrived at Paris in the month of August, triumphantly accompanied by nobles and gentlemen, to the amount of five hundred horse, and departed thence on the 14th to wait on the king. Having staid some time with him, he set out for Senlis, on his way to Clermont. The king received, in the month of August, an embassy from the king of England, whose ambassadors were lodged at Lihons in Santerre; and after some conferences had been held with the king, he sent his chancellor, and the minister of finances, to Paris, to borrow a sum of money under promise of repayment on All-saints-day. The sum lent by the town was seventy-five thousand crowns of gold, which was given to the English ambassadors, in consideration of a treaty which they had concluded with the king. The town of Paris sent him, * James, one of the youngest sons of Louis count of Savoy, was count of Romont. He married Mary, daughter of Peter de St. Pol and of Margaret of Savoy his sister. Philip de Comines exclaims against these incestuous marriages, which he says were very common in the house of Savoy. |