Padula was destroyed, with its three thousand inhabitants, for not one escaped.-Item, another town, called Boucherry, was overwhelmed, and no one who had not seen these places before this unfortunate event would have supposed they could have existed, so thoroughly changed was the whole face of the country. One half of the town of Troia was thrown down, and many people perished. The greater part of the castle of Canosa fell, with some of the town. The cities of Ascoli and Santa Agatha shared the same fate, as did the castle of Arpi and several others

In the country of Molise, the cities of Campo Basso, Laurentino, the castle of St. Julian, Macona, the castles of St. Lou, Castine, and La Rippe, were swallowed up by the earthquake, and many lands near to Altavilla, when upwards of twentyeight thousand persons perished. The city of Naples suffered some damage, but more in the churches than in the other buildings. The earthquake lasted for three days, and in some places more, namely, from the 4th of the month until the 7th inclusive; when, as reported by men of truth, more than one hundred thousand persons of both sexes were destroyed t.

This earthquake ruined in one night the castles of Sanguine, Presole, and la Roche Capoa, where neither walls nor houses were left standing. One half of the city of Sermone and the castle of Oliveto were destroyed: in which last five hundred persons were killed, and in the castle of Pesolo six hundred. In like manner, when the castle of Thoco was overthrown, its lord and all within perished. This accident ruined also part of the port of Ancona, and such damages were done to the buildings of Capua‡, Aversa, and Benevento, and to the castle of Lusano, as would have been incredible but to those who saw it. The account of this unfortunate disaster was sent in writing to the marquis of Ferrara by his brother Hercules §, then in the kingdom of Naples with the king of Arragon, and written at Rougia |, the 7th day of December, in the year 1456.

On the first day of this same year, while the king of France was at St. Prier, near to Lyon, Otho Castellan, a Florentine and treasurer of the king's household, was arrested on the bridge at Lyon by the provost of the palace, from informations the king had received that the said Otho had formed certain devices prejudicial to his personal safety. He had made certain images that, by diabolical arts, would assure him the government of the king, and cause him to do whatever the said Otho should please. Guillaume Gouffier was his accomplice, and was long detained in prison to obtain from him the truth of these charges. Otho was carried prisoner before the parliament of Toulouse, where he had long acted as the king's treasurer; and Gouffier was sent to Tours. In the ensuing year, Otho was condemned by the chancellor to banishment and confiscation of his effects; but the king pardoned him, so that he only lost the places he had held, and was banished to twenty leagues distant from wherever the king should be, and was compelled to pay a fine of a thousand crowns for the expenses of his suit. But Otho was then accused of sodomy, and brought back to Tours for trial, and thence sent to Paris, as it was said that he had appealed to the parliament; but I cannot say how this matter ended, for he was transported from one prison to another, so that I am ignorant of the conclusion.

* Padula, a town of Naples, in the Principato Citra.Bouchery. Q. Bocchianico? a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Citra.-Troia, a town of Naples, in the Capitinata.—Canosa, a town in the country of Bari. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1694.-Ascoli, in the Capitinata.Santa Agatha, in the Principato Ultra. - Arpi, in the Capitinata.

Molise, a country of Naples. Campo Basso is the capital.-Laurentino. Q. Perhaps Larina, the name of a town in the Molise.-St. Julian. St. Giuliano, in Molise. -Macona, Q. Ancona? This is hardly probable, for all the others are names of places in the Molise, or one of the Principati. Macchia has the nearest resemblance in sound of any town in the neighbourhood. St. Lou. St. Lotiero, in the Principato Ultra. - Castine, Castigluini, Principato Ultra-La Rippe, Ripa Linasara, in Molise.VOL. II.

Altavilla, in the Principato Citra, seventeen miles from
Salerno.

Sanguine. Q. Castel del Sangro, in Abruzzo The
river on which it stands is also called the Sanguine.—
Presole. Q Presciano. Principato Citra.-La Roche de
Capoa. Q. Rocca de Minolfa, Molise.
- Sermone. Q.
Isernia, a bishopric in the Molise? or Sulmona, another
city in Abruzzo? - Oliveto. Q. Alifi, in the Terra di
Lavoro -Pesolo. Pesola is a lake in the Basilicata.-
Thoco. Q.-Capua, fifteen miles from Naples.-Aversa,
ten miles north from Naples.-Benevento, in the Princi-
pato Ultra.-Lusano. Q.

This was a great year of rain. The duke and duchess of Savoy came this year to the king of France, and the prince of Piedmont, eldest son to the duke, was married to Yolande daughter to the king of France. An embassy now arrived in France from Spain, to confirm the alliances between the two kingdoms; and at the same time, the prince of Navarre came to demand from the king the duchy of Nemours †, and also the cardinal of Avignon from Brittany, on his return from canonising St. Vincent‡, at Vannes. Shortly after, the cardinal waited on the king, to require a tenth from the clergy of his realm, to carry on the war, as he said, against the Turks.

CHAPTER LXXVI.-THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY WITH A LARGE ARMY ESCORTS HIS BASTARD SON INTO HOLLAND, AND PUTS HIM IN PEACEABLE POSSESSION OF THE BISHOPRIC OF UTRECHT. HE BESIEGES DEVENTER §, AND FORCES ITS INHABITANTS TO OBEY

THE NEW BISHOP, WHICH THEY HAD BEFORE REFUSED.

WHEN duke Philip saw that he could not prevail by love and entreaties to make his son be accepted for bishop by the chapter of Utrecht, he sent to Picardy and Hainault for a body of troops, and he was soon joined by full thirteen thousand combatants. The chapter now changed their tone, and admitted his son as their bishop, under certain conditions; namely, that the brother of the lord de Brederode, who had been elected, should receive for his life an annual pension from the bishopric of Utrecht of four thousand francs, from the bishopric of Therouenne two thousand francs; and, for the expenses he had been put to, fifty thousand lyons once paid. He was also to be made first counsellor to the duke in the affairs of Holland, with a salary of a thousand florins of the Rhine. In consideration of this arrangement, he resigned the bishopric, which was commonly said to be worth yearly fifty thousand mailles of the Rhine. When this had been settled, duke Philip entered Utrecht, with his company, on the 5th of August, and was most honourably received. On the morrow, his son entered in arms, grandly accompanied ; and on the Sunday following he said mass in the cathedral.

Soon after, the duke left Utrecht, with his whole army, to besiege a considerable town in the diocese, called Deventer, because it had refused to acknowledge the new bishop. Those of the town sallied out against him; and a smart skirmish ensued, in which many were killed on both sides. In the end, they were repulsed and driven back into the town ; and, on the fourth day, a strong bulwark they had erected in front of the gate was so much battered with cannon that those within, foreseeing it must be taken, set it on fire, and burned it during the night. The siege, however, lasted until the end of September, when the townsmen sent offers to the duke to obey the bishop, as the other towns within his diocese had done.

While this treaty was carrying on, the duke of Gueldres, who had married the niece of duke Philip, by whom he had a fair son about sixteen years of age, after having promised his aid to the duke of Burgundy, quitted his country, and abandoned his places,-but, nevertheless, made a hasty alliance with the Frizelanders, when they assembled a great army with the intent of overthrowing duke Philip. The duke of Burgundy would have remained in perfect ignorance of this treachery, had not his niece been told of the wicked

Lewis duke of Savoy (son of Amadeus the first duke) and Anne de Lusignan, daughter of James king of Cyprus. The prince of Piedmont was their son, Amadeus, afterwards duke of Savoy, the second duke and ninth count of the name. By this marriage with Yolande of France he had a numerous issue, but no descendants in he third generation.

This claim of Charles of Navarre, prince of Viana to the duchy of Nemours, must have been grounded on a grant made by king Charles VII. to his grandfather Charles the Noble, king of Navarre; which grant was held to have cen only personal, and to have terminated with the death

of the donec. The prince was therefore unsuccessful in his application.

This saint is not the ancient deacon and martyr of that name, but St. Vincent Ferrier, a Dominican, of Valencia in Spain, and a great converter of Saracens and worker of miracles. He died in 1419, and was canonized by order of pope Calixtus, in 1455. He was buried at Vannes, the place of his death; and the miracles which were attested to have been wrought on his tomb were the occasion of the distinguished honours conferred on him. § Deventer, on the Issel, the capital of Overyssel.

designs of her husband against her uncle; and instantly quitting the place she was in with her son, attended by her servants, she hastened to the duke, then besieging Deventer, and told him of the plots against him. This caused the duke to lose no time in closing with the offers of those in Deventer, so that the treaty was immediately concluded, and hostages were given for its performance. The duke raised the siege the 27th day of September, and returned to Utrecht, and thence to the Hague, where he disbanded his army, leaving his son David in peaceable possession of the bishopric of Utrecht.

He was under great obligations to his niece for the information she had given him; for if he had remained two days longer at the siege, he would have been attacked by the duke of Gueldres and the Frizelanders before he knew anything of their intentions, and it would probably have been unfortunate to him by reason of his being totally unprepared to receive them. The duke of Gueldres* was much reproached for this conduct, considering that he had married the duke of Burgundy's niece, and that the good duke had sent their daughter to marry the king of Scotland at his own expense, and had done many and very great kindnesses to the duke of Gueldres.

CHAPTER LXXVII.-THE

DUKE OF ALENÇON IS ARRESTED AND THROWN INTO PRISON. THE TURKS ARE MIRACULOUSLY DEFEATED IN HUNGARY. OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THIS YEAR OF MCCCCLVI.

Soon after the feast of Pentecost, the duke of Alençon was arrested in Paris, by orders from the king and the count de Dunois, bastard of Orleans, and sent to Melun. From Melun he was carried before the king, and convicted, as it was said, of having intrigued with the English to accomplish a marriage between his eldest son and the eldest daughter of the duke of York, unknown to the king; and of having engaged to deliver up to the English his strong places, to the prejudice of the king, and particularly the duchy of Normandy. Having confessed his guilt, he was closely confined until after the death of king Charles. When he was arrested, it was currently reported that the duke of Burgundy was implicated in these intrigues of the duke of Alençon with the English; which so much displeased the king that he had it proclaimed throughout the realm, that no one, under pain of death, should make such charges against his good brother of Burgundy, nor any way speak disrespectfully of his honour.

In the month of June in this year, a comet with a prodigious tail appeared in the west. having its tail pointed toward England: it continued visible for three months. The new wines of this season were so sour that the old ones were in greater request for their superior goodness and flavour. In this year also, the great emperor of the Turks, called Morbesant, besieged the strong town and castle of Belgrade, situated on the confines of Hungary. He was upwards of four months and a half before it, which vexed him so much that he swore, in the presence of his army, to win it by force or perish in the attempt. There were some in the Turkish army who gave information of this to those in the town, that they might be prepared; and Ovidianus, one of the noblest and most powerful princes of Hungary, hearing also of this intention, instantly assembled nine hundred cavalry and forty thousand infantry of all sorts, and entered the town by the Danube, without the Turk knowing

*Arnold of Egmont duke of Gueldres, was married to Catherine daughter of Adolphus duke of Cleves, by Mary a sister of the duke of Burgundy. In the note to chap. lxxiii. a sufficient reason will be found for his hostility, of which, however, Heuterus takes no notice, saying only that the matters in dispute with the Deventrians and Frieslanders were settled through the intervention of the duke of Cleves.

Morbesan. Mohammed II. surnamed the Victorious. Ovidianus. John Corvin supposes this to be Hunniades. If so, then le Chevalier Blanc could not mean Hunniades, since he is already disposed of in page 240. The truth is, that nothing can exceed the confusion and misrepre

sentations with which Monstrelet's accounts from, these distant countries abound; and it is labour lost to attempt at finding a meaning where there probably never was any. Capistran, who is mentioned in the next page, died also immediately or very soon after his friend Hunniades. I rather suspect that this is a mere repetition of the preceding account, as the reader will find the relation of the embassy in chapter lxxx. repeated again in chapter lxxxii. Probably towards the conclusion of his history, Monstrelet set down events without order or method, as he heard them in conversation or otherwise, and did not live to arrange his unconnected notes.

anything thereof,-for he had only besieged the place on the land side, and had neglected to post any guards on that great river the Danube.

Ovidianus entered the town on the eve of Magdalen-day, which was the day fixed on by the Turk to storm the place; and so eager was he to fulfil his vow that he ordered one-third of his army to commence the attack at midnight, which was done with much courage,—but the besieged made so gallant a defence that they were repulsed. The attack lasted until eight o'clock in the morning, when another division, equal in numbers to the first, advanced to renew the combat, but they also were forced to retreat. The emperor of the Turks now advanced in person, accompanied by the boldest of his captains, and continued the combat with such obstinacy and courage, that from its commencement, at four in the afternoon, it lasted until the middle of the following day, which made twenty hours in the whole : a terrible fatigue to those in the town thus to support three renewed attacks without any respite or repose. They were at length so worn down that they could no longer help each other, and the Turks were beginning to enter the town in large bodies.

Among the Christians in this town was a very devout cordelier friar, called John Capistran, who, seeing the Turks enter the breach, seized a crucifix, and, ascending the highest part of the castle, cried aloud, "O Deus meus, Deus meus! O altissime Pater! veni in adjutorium, veni et libera populum quem redemisti pretioso sanguine tuo. Veni noli tardare. Deus meus ubi sunt misericordiæ tuæ antiquæ, veni ne Turci et increduli dicant ubi est Deus eorum." The cordelier, in uttering these words, wept bitterly; and when the Christians heard them, they felt quite refreshed, and as if they were new men, without feeling any fatigue, and instantly fell on the Turks who were entering the town with such courage that they slew all they met, and put the rest to flight. They pursued them upwards of eight leagues, killing or wounding all they overtook, so that more than one hundred thousand were slain in the whole. They gained all the artillery of the Turks, and such quantities of riches, in tents, money, and effects, as it would seem marvellous to relate. Among other things won were eleven large bombards, six of which were of prodigious length and of a great bore, and more than two hundred smaller bombards and cannons. When news of this important victory was carried to the pope then reigning, he ordered processions and thanksgivings to be made in all the churches of Christendom, to render thanks to God for this great victory,-and, among other things, to ring the Ave Maria between two and three o'clock on the anniversary of the day this miracle happened, as it is usual to ring it every evening in all churches; and this manner of ringing it after dinner is continued in several churches in France.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.-THE DAUPHIN OF FRANCE TAKES REFUGE WITH DUKE PHILIP OF BURGUNDY.-OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THIS YEAR.

LOUIS DE VALOIS, eldest son to the king of France, and dauphin of Vienne, had resided for ten or twelve years in Dauphiny, because the king was displeased with him. Some said, this was owing to his ill-treatment of his subjects in Dauphiny, more particularly the bishops and churchmen, whose revenues he seized against their wills, for the support of his state others, however, excused him for so doing, because his father had stopped the allowance he had formerly given him. It was also reported that the king's anger arose from the death of the fair Agnes being caused by poison, of which the dauphin was suspected, as he had frequently blamed and murmured against his father for his attachment to her. In truth, Agnes Sorel was the handsomest woman of her age, and in more favour with the king than queen : the great lords also paid more court to her than to the queen, who was a very good and honourable lady, which had vexed the dauphin much, and he had hastened her death. However, after the decease of the fair Agnes, the damsel de Villequier, her niece, succeeded her in the affections of the king, who, in his latter days, would have about him the finest and handsomest women of his realm.

the

Whatever may have been the real cause of the quarrel between the king and the dauphin, the king ordered sir Anthony de Chabannes, count de Dammartin, to proceed into Dauphiny

with a sufficient body of men-at-arms to arrest the dauphin and bring him to his presence by force or otherwise; but the dauphin fortunately escaped; for it was then commonly believed that, had he been arrested, the king would have treated him very harshly, and would have made king his younger son Charles. The dauphin having had intimation of the orders to arrest him, gave public notice for a hunting-party on the morrow, and ordered his dinner to be prepared at the place of rendezvous. Intelligence of this was carried to the count de Dammartin, who posted ambushes to seize the dauphin the moment he should arrive at the place; but, as he suspected their machinations, early on the morrow, when it was thought he was gone to the hunt, he with six of his most confidential attendants, mounted their fleetest horses, and set off, as fast as they could travel, for Burgundy, and never stopped until they arrived at St. Claude, a town in Burgundy. It was well for them that they made this haste, or they would have been overtaken by the count de Dammartin, who followed very closely at their heels.

Shortly after the dauphin's arrival at St. Claude, he went to the prince of Orange at Nasere*, who received him most honourably; and on hearing him declare that he feared he should be pursued, and that he was desirous of going to the duke of Burgundy, the prince sent off in haste for the marshal of Burgundy, who came to him with a handsome escort of Inen-at-arms, and they instantly departed for Brabant. This conduct was truly extraordinary; for the prince of Orange and the duke of Burgundy were the two men in the world whom the dauphin hated the most, for having several times repulsed, with loss, his own and the king's men, whenever they made any excursions on the duke's territories, which he was determined to preserve from inroads; but necessity, which owns no law, forced him to seek an asylum among those he hated, and to make use of them in his time of need.

The marshal of Burgundy conducted him with such prudence through the territories of the duke of Burgundy that he arrived safely at Louvain, whence he went to Brussels, and thence he sent one of his attendants with information to the duke, at that time in Holland, of his arrival. The good duke, anxious to receive and entertain him as the eldest son of his sovereign lord, hastened as much as possible the treaty of Deventer, that he might return to Brabant. Immediately on his arrival at Brussels, he went to the dauphin and paid him every respect in honour to the king, and to himself personally; and no prince knew better how to do these honours. He instantly assigned him three thousand francs monthly to maintain his estate, and begged of him to make choice of what place he should please for his residence, and he would give orders for its being immediately delivered up to him t The dauphin asked for Geneppe ‡, a castle in Brabant, pleasantly situated, and a handsome residence, where he lived for a long time.

In the course of this year, sir Thibault de Luxembourg, lord of Fiennes, brother to the count of St. Pol §, and widower of the daughter of the lord of Antoing, by whom he had several children, became a monk of the order of Cistercians, notwithstanding that in his youth he had been a very free liver. Toward the end of October, soon after the arrival of the dauphin in Brabant, the duke of Burgundy sent a handsome embassy to the king of France, the chief of which was the lord de Chimay high bailiff of Hainault, to satisfy him

Nasere. Q. Nazey? a village near Besançon. The motive assigned by Heuterus for this extraordinary display of friendship in the duke towards the dauphin, is the hope "that this young prince, bound by the immensity of the obligation, would, on his accession to the throne, be the firm friend of his son Charles, and of the Belgian states. But," adds the historian, "it is in vain that benefits are heaped on men of a depraved disposition, as king Charles himself prophesied in the following words: You know not, duke Philip, the nature of this savage animal. You cherish a wolf who will one day tear your sheep to pieces. Remember the fable of the countryman, who, in compassion to a viper which he found half frozen in the fields, brought it to his house, and warmed it by his fire-side, till it turned round and hissed at its preserver.'"

Geneppe, on the Dyle, six leagues from Brussels. Louis XI. resided here, when dauphin, with the dauphiness, upwards of five years.

§ Thibaut de Luxembourg, lord of Fiennes, younger son of Peter I. count of Brienne and St. Paul, married Philippa of Melun, daughter of John lord of Antoing, by whom he had issue James lord of Fiennes, and count of Gaure, &c. Philip, cardinal, and bishop of Mans, Francis viscount of Martigues, and several daughters. It may be doubtful from what motive he embraced the ecclesiastical profession, since a life of poverty was certainly not included in his intention. He was made bishop of Mans and abbot of Igni and Orcan, and was prevented by death from wearing the cardinal's hat, which was designed for him by pope Sixtus IV. 1st September, 1477.