ページの画像
PDF
ePub

A.D. 1400. death; and to conclude, thus matters went on in the kingdom of England.

News then spread throughout the country that King Richard was dead, and nothing else had been expected for a long while before, for it was well known and understood by all manner of people that he would never come out of the Castle of Pomfret alive. Nevertheless, his death was kept secret and concealed so far as concerned the Queen, his wife, for it was commanded and ordained that she should not yet be told, and this order was well and wisely observed. Of all these events they were well informed in England from one end to the other, and also in France, wherefore all the knights and esquires who were accustomed to serve in the wars kept along the frontiers and were only waiting for orders to take the field. However, the councils of both kings as well for one kingdom as for the other, considered it best that the truce should be kept, and that it would be more profitable for both parties than war, and negotiators met, as I shall tell you, in the Marches of Calais, and forasmuch as the King of France was not in a good state of health and had not been since the day when he was made acquainted with the tribulations and sorrows of his son-in-law, Richard of Bordeaux, King of England (and his illness redoubled when he heard of his death) the Duke of Burgundy on the French side was more concerned about the matter than any other, wherefore he came to Saint Omer, and at Bourbourg were the Duke of Bourbon, Sir Charles de Labrech, Sir Charles de Hangiers, and Sir John de Chastel-Morant, and of the prelates of their party there were there the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Bishop of Paris, and the Bishop of Auxerre. And on the side. of the English there were the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Rutland, Sir Henry de Percy, son of Sir Thomas de Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and

Sir John Fitz-Warin; of the prelates there were the A.D. 1400. Bishop of Winchester and the Bishop of Ely. The French proposed to have back the young Queen of England, while the English would not hear of restoring her, but said that they would willingly keep her in England on her dowry, and that if she had lost her husband they had provided for her another, handsome, young, and noble, to whom she might well incline, for Richard of Bordeaux was too old, and he whom they spoke of would suit her well. This was the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King Henry, to which proposal the French did not agree, nor would they ever have passed it without the advice, order, or leave of the King of France, her father, and he was not in a good condition but very weak in health, and no physician could be found who understood his malady. So this overture came to nothing, and the affair of the truce was resumed, and so debated that by the advice of both parties and by common agreement a truce was sworn to last for twenty-six years and the four years that it had already endured, making thirty years, in such and the like manner as the first ordinance declared, and of these matters letters were written and sealed by those who had authority by good proxies of the two kings, which things being thus done and achieved, every one returned to his place.

I have not yet told you what became of the Earl Marshal, through whom all these troubles had happened in England, but I will now tell you. He was at Venice when the news came to him that Henry of Lancaster was King of England and Richard of Bordeaux dead, which things he took so much to heart that he took to his bed, and was taken with a dreadful madness of which he died.

Thus, as you have heard, happened these troubles and mischances to the greatest lords of England about

u 17967.

A.D. 1400, the year of grace 1400,1 and also Pope Benedict, whom the French had, with great good will, set up and sustained, was at this time deposed, and likewise was the Emperor of Germany for his misdeeds dismissed from his empire, for the Imperial electors and all the princes and barons of Germany made a crusade against him and sent him back to Bohemia, of which he had previously been king, and elected a distinguished and wise man to be Emperor of Germany, who came from Bavaria, named Robert, Duke of Heidelberg, who came to Cologne, where he was crowned with the crown of Germany, for the people of Aix would not open their gates to him, nor would the Duke of Gueldres come to do him obeisance, wherefore he remained under his indignation, and then this new king promised to re-unite the church. Nevertheless, the King of England did not meddle in the affair, but the King of France and his council negotiated with the people of Liège who were inclined towards the Pope of Rome, and they effected so much by the means of Sir Baldwin de Montjardin, who governed in part the whole bishopric of Liège and who was a knight of the King of France and his chamber, that all the country turned neutral on account of the said King of France, and the men of Liège sent word to all the clergy on their side who were at Rome that within one day of this order they were to come back to the frontiers of Liège or they would lose all their benefices, and they on this news, wishing to obey the command, all returned to Liège. Pope Boniface, who lost so much by this change, sent a legate to Germany to preach to the men of Liège and bring them back to submission to

1 1399 in printed texts and S. sending him back to Bohemia, where

2 The reading here in S. is:fore, &c.

closed against him and were for

his pontificate, but the legate did not dare to pass A.D. 1400. Cologne but sent letters to Liège, which were read, and then it was said to the messenger:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Do not "return hither for such things under pain of being drowned, for so many messengers as come in this "behalf we will throw into the Meuse." And thus for this time the men of Liège remained in their perverse and wicked obstinacy.

How the King of France behaved when he knew of the death of King Richard, and how he sent ambassadors to England to the Council to get back the queen his daughter. CHAPTER XIV.

THE King of France and his council knowing of a truth of the death of King Richard of England and the manner thereof held several councils to find means how he could get back to him his daughter Queen Isabel, the said late King Richard's widow, who he felt was very lonely and unhappy in the hands of those who had caused her husband to be miserably murdered, wherefore in order to get her back again he sent several distinguished ambassadors to King Henry, and in like manner the said King Henry sent to the King of France to treat for the marriage of his son the Prince of Wales with the said lady Queen Isabel, but to this marriage the princes and great council of France would in no wise assent, for the reason chiefly that King Charles was indisposed, and thus the ambassadors of England, who had been sent into France, returned, without having done anything, to King Henry their lord, who took it in bad part, but nevertheless he could not help it, and was obliged to put up with it. Notwithstanding this the King of France and his council ceased not to continually persevere

A.D. 1400. through his ambassadors to King Henry to negotiate with him principally that he might send back Queen Isabella his daughter, and moreover would let her enjoy and possess the dowry, which had been promised her by the agreements about her marriage. Which ambassadors, after several conferences, at length came to the conclusion that the widowed lady should be taken back across sea to France by Sir Thomas de Percy, then, Constable of England, and with him. many English knights and esquires, ladies and young ladies, to accompany the said Queen Isabella, whom they brought and conducted to a village which lies between Boulogne and Calais, which is called Lolinghem, and there she was delivered over, and given into the charge of Count Walleran of Saint Pol, then Captain of Picardy, with whom were the Bishop of Chartres and the Lord of Longueville' to receive her, and there were also Mademoiselle de Montpensier, sister of the Count of Marche, and Mademoiselle de Luxembourg, sister to the said Count of Saint Pol, and other ladies and young ladies sent by the Queen of France, which French lords and ladies after they had taken leave of the English lords and ladies departed thence, and brought Queen Isabella to the Dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon, who with a large and noble suite awaited her on a hill near by, where she was most honourably received and welcomed by them. They then conducted her to Boulogne, and from thence to Abbeville, where the Duke of Burgundy prepared a magnificent banquet for her welcome, after which the noble duke took leave of her and returned to his country of Artois, while the Duke of Bourbon, together with the others who were charged to do so, brought her to Paris to the king her father and the queen her mother, who most kindly received her.

1 Hongueville in S.

« 前へ次へ »