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Henry, which had before been spoken of. These A.D. 1412. ambassadors being come to England found the King at Rochester, where they were very honourably entertained by him and his, especially by the Prince of Wales, to whom the business related; and after that they had on a certain day, by the mouth of the said Bishop of Arras, well and wisely represented in the presence of King Henry, of his children, and of their councils, the whole matter of their embassy, and on this head had a sufficiently acceptable reply, and also had received many gifts from the King; they returned to Dover, thence to Calais, and from Calais to Paris, where in the presence of the King of France, the King of Sicily, the Dukes of Acquitaine, Bar, and Burgundy, and many others of the royal council, they related at full length what they had done, and how the King of England, his children, and the princes had grandly entertained them in honour of the King of France and of those who sent them, giving them many rich jewels, for which they thanked the kings, at which he was much pleased. Then Duke John sent for Philip his son, Count of Charolois, who was then at Ghent, to come to him at Paris to be there at the feast of Easter next coming; and in these same days at the instance of the Duchess of Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Berri, the Lord of Croy was by means of the duke her father, set at full liberty from the prison where he had been kept long enough by the Orleans party, who then conducted him and brought him to near Paris. And at his departure he promised on his faith so to work with his lord the Duke of Burgundy that the Bourbon children,

Bourbon

be delivered; and

who were prisoners, should also
when he was at Paris the Dukes of Acquitaine and
Burgundy received him gladly, and the Duke of Bur-
gundy was much rejoiced; and very soon being come
to him he made the request which he had promised

A.D. 1412. for the deliverance of the said Bourbon children; which request was granted him by the king. So they were sent for from the castle of Renty where they were, and with some of their servants brought to Paris. Afterwards they were sent away freely without paying anything; and Sir John de Croy conducted them well accompanied by his men as far as the lands of the Duke of Berry, and the son of Sir Mansart Du Bois, who had been taken with them, remained in the castle of Renty. Moreover the Lord of Croy, by order and consent of the Duke of Berri and the duchess, was appointed on behalf of the king governor of the county of Boulogne and made castellan of Bryotsur-Somme; and also there was given to him by the king on his return, at the instance of the Duke of Burgundy, the office of chief butler of France, and to Sir Peter des Essars, Provost of Paris, the office of master of the waters and forests, which office Walleran Count of St. Pol, Constable of France, held before.

How the Dukes of Berri and Orleans and others of
their alliance sent their ambassadors to King
Henry of England, and of what came of it. CHAP-
TER XXVII.

AT the beginning of the year fourteen hundred and twelve, the Dukes of Berri, Bourbon, and Orleans, the Counts of Vertus, Angoulême, Alençon [and] Armagnac, and the Lord of Albret, styling himself Constable of France, with other lords of their alliance to ask [aid] on their behalf, with the intention of harming and injuring as much as they could Duke John of Burgundy, sent their ambassadors to King Henry of England, furnished with their seals and instructions to work with him according to the commission which they had from the above-named lords, and also with his children

and other English princes. But as they were passing A.D. 1412. through the country of Maine to go through Brittany and thence to England, they were pursued by the bailly of Kem in Normandy, who, with the aid of a few of the commons whom he got together, fell upon them and took a part of them alive with all the seals, instructions, and other matters which they were carrying, but some escaped whither they best could. After this rifling, were all these matters sent by the said bailly to Paris to the king and his great council; and all the said letters and matters were in a leather bag closed and sealed at the top. The king being at the Hotel of Saint Pol, holding his council, to see and consider these things the first Wednesday after Easter, when were present the King of Sicily, the Dukes of Acquitaine and Burgundy, the Counts of Charolois, Nevers, and Mortain, Sir Giles de Bretaigne, Maitre Henry du Marly, Chancellor of France, the Bishops of Tournai, Amiens, Coutances, [and] Auxerre, the Rector of the University, the Provost of Paris, the sheriffs and clerks of the city, and many others of the king's council, it was set forth by the Chancellor of Acquitaine, namely, the Lord of Lolehaine, a short time previously an advocate of parliament, that lately there had been given into his keeping by order of the royal council a leather bag in which were enclosed several papers, which bag had been found and taken by the bailly of Kem, together with a knight, a chamberlain of the Duke of Brittany, and brother Jacques Petit of the order of Saint Augustine, and other ambassadors above named, and the said bag had been sent by the bailly of Kem. And then the said chancellor told how in the said bag had been found four blank papers sealed with four great seals, and signed with four signs manual, namely, Berri, Orleans, Bourbon, and Alençon, and in each blank paper were their names written outside their seals in the margin, and nothing else was written therein; and also he had found several closed letters

U 17967.

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A.D. 1412. from the Duke of Berri, directed to the King of England, to the queen, to their four sons, and likewise to the Duke of Brittany, to the Earl of Richmond, and other great lords of England; and there were also therein many other letters which had no superscriptions, but were all credentials, all directed to the King and Queen of England. And the said letters were read publicly, in which the Duke of Berri called the King of England, "my most dread lord and nephew," and the queen, "my most dread lady niece and

daughter," and they were signed with the Duke of Berri's own hand. And in those to the queen were two lines in his said hand. Moreover, the King of France held in his hand the said sealed blank papers, present all the princes and the council, and there was a little codicil, in the form of a memorandum, containing one sheet of paper, on which were the instructions of the said ambassadors, and the contents thereof was publicly read, that is to say, how they should relate the assertions made by the Duchess of Orleans and her children against the Duke of Burgundy on account of the death of the Duke of Orleans; they should tell also how on account of his death they had many times requested the King of France to do and have justice for the same, which they had never been able to obtain because the Duke of Burgundy deceived the king and excited his council, in this way, by saying that the Duke of Orleans had been false and a traitor to the King of France and his majesty; and again they should tell how the Duke of Burgundy had bewitched the people, especially those of Paris, [by saying] how the above-named wished to depose the king from his crown and to destroy his progeny, which was also most false and which they had never thought of; and therein it was also [said] that the Duke of Burgundy had brought Duke John of Brittany under displeasure of the King of France because he had broken up the expedition against Calais and several other enter

prises which the Duke of Burgundy had undertaken A.D. 1412. against the King of England, and how he had set the people of Paris against the king, and his son the Duke of Acquitaine, who were entirely governed by their hands, and were in such subjection to them that they scarcely dared to speak a word; and also how the people of Paris under cover of a bull issued by Pope Urban the Fifth on the subject of the great companies which had come into France, had, contrary to justice, caused the above named and their allies to be denounced, excommunicated, aggravated, re-aggravated, and [their sentence]1 corroborated; after this that the ambassadors were to take care not to discover themselves to any man in England unless they saw that he belonged to the above-named set. And when they should have said publicly to the King of England what is touched upon above, they should tell what they wished to speak of to him in private, namely, that the [Dukes of] Berri, Orleans, Bourbon, and Alençon desired above all his good and his honour, and to ally themselves with him to aid and comfort him against the Duke of Burgundy and his allies, and also against the people of Wales and Ireland; moreover they were to say that in case they could not get the better of the Scots, which they were to endeavour to do, with all their power, and if they could not, they would so manage that peace should be made between him and the King of France; and again they were to say that in case they could not secure this, that if there were any lands on the sea coast on which they made any claim or to which they pretended any right, they would so manage that they should be satisfied; and they were to say besides how in default of justice they came to him to have justice and right for the death of the deceased Duke of Orleans, and how by reason of the

The words in the original are excommuniez, agrevez, rengrevez et

renforchies, they are obsolete terms
of Canon Law.

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