Part 14
Pope Sixtus IV. in revenge for these executions, fulminated, in the name of the cardinals in consistory, an excommunication and interdict against the city of Florence, and incited a cruel war against Tuscany, in the name of the church,--in which war numbers lost their lives.
During this time, an ambassador from the republic of Venice obtained the liberty of the cardinal of St George, who returned to Rome: nevertheless, the war was still continued between the church and the Florentines, but it was at length ended, and the excommunication and interdict were taken off.
The Jews, about this time, stole a child of twelve years of age, called Symon, in the city of Trent, whom they crucified, and caused to suffer the mysteries of the passion, in ridicule of what our Saviour had suffered,--for which they were most severely punished, according to their deserts. The body of the child was carried in procession, as a martyr, to the cathedral, whither great crowds of people flocked from all parts; for through the devotion of this child many miracles were performed in remembrance of the passion of our Lord.
A similar crime was committed by the Jews in the city of Opiterge[83], within the principality of Venice, where they martyred a youth in like manner. They were brought to Venice, and having confessed their guiltiness of this abominable crime, were burnt alive between the two marble columns in the place of St Marco.
At this time, a girl was born at Verona, which had one head, two feet, and four arms: two were larger than the others, which she could move,--but the others were smaller, and motionless. She had two bellies joined to the stomach, and two openings through which she passed her excrements, and other natural superfluities. In this state, she was carried throughout Italy, begging money of all that were desirous to see and examine her.
About this time, there were great inundations with very high winds, that overthrew many buildings.
The grand Turk now led a numerous and puissant army by sea and land to besiege the city of Rhodes, which he bombarded at several places, and slew very many Christians. He surrounded the city on all sides, and advanced even to the tower of St Nicholas, which was thought impregnable; but he was on the point of taking it, and ready to shout, 'Town won!' when the grand master displayed from the walls a great banner, painted with the representation of the blessed cross; which banner was no sooner displayed than the Turks became blinded, and, by the Divine aid of our blessed Saviour, were repulsed. They made no further attempts on the city,--but there were numbers slain on both sides.
The Turks, on their ill success at Rhodes, invaded part of the kingdom of Sicily, and gained many towns. They put the inhabitants to death, and seized their effects, so that they were become a cruel pestilence to Christendom. They took the city of Otranto, and slew almost all the inhabitants, on account of their religion, which they suffered with singular patience for the honour of God,--and at length they seized the archbishop, whom they put to death by sawing him in two.
A devout Hermit, who resided in Swisserland near Underwalden, subsisted for the space of fifteen years on the holy wafer, which he received at the monthly sacrament, without taking any other food. This has been attested by many persons, witnesses of the fact.
I have forgotten to mention a marvellous comet that appeared in the year 1477, on St Agnes-day, in the month of January,--and therefore the bloody wars that took place between different princes, with the great miseries that ensued, need not be wondered at. This comet was visible at Cologne, in the opposite direction to the constellation Libra, having an immense tail, thirty degrees in length. On St Blaise's day, the 3d of February, it remained stationary in the constellation of Aries, throwing its tail to the eastward, near the Pleiades. It was of different colours,--sometimes white, at others all on fire, inclining to a lemon colour. The astrologers considered it as indicative of battle, epidemic disorders, and plagues: and in consequence, the following summer was hotter than had been remembered by any then living. In some parts, subterraneous fires broke forth, from the vehemence of which may God preserve us!
We will now return to notice events that happened in France, Flanders, Burgundy and England, at the period we quitted them to make mention of the surprising circumstances contained in this chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 81: For further particulars, see Scipione Ammirato, and other italian historians,--and particularly the Life of Lorenzo de Medici, by W. Roscoe, esq.]
[Footnote 82: Cardinal of St George. Q. if it should not be 'of _Riario_, and nephew to the pope Sixtus IV.?']
[Footnote 83: Opiterge. The ancient latin name was Opitergium,--the modern Oderso: it is in the venetian state twelve miles from Trevigio.
_Martiniere._]
CHAP. XXV.
THE KING, ON HIS RETURN FROM PICARDY, SETS AT LIBERTY THE PRISONERS IN THE CHASTELET.--OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE AND SIR CLAUDE DE VAUDRAY IN THE COUNTRY OF BURGUNDY.--THE STATUES OF ST LOUIS AND ST CHARLEMAGNE REMOVED.--THE KING HAS TWELVE GREAT BOMBARDS MADE.--EDWARD KING OF ENGLAND CAUSES HIS BROTHER THE DUKE OF CLARENCE TO BE DROWNED IN A BUTT OF MALMSEY.--AN ACCUSATION IS LAID AGAINST DANIEL THE SERVANT TO OLIVIER LE DAIM.--ON THE RETURN OF THE KING FROM PICARDY, GREAT ENTERTAINMENTS ARE GIVEN AT PARIS IN THE YEAR MCCCCLXXVIII.
The king of France, before he left Picardy, appointed the lord bastard of Bourbon, admiral of France, his lieutenant-general for the management of the war in that country. He assigned, for the cantonments of his men, the cities and towns of Arras, Tournay, Lens, La Bassée, and other places on the frontiers of Flanders, which still held out for the princess of Flanders, daughter to the late duke of Burgundy. Having arranged these matters, the king went to pay his devotions to Nôtre Dame de la Victoire, whose image was richly ornamented, and thence proceeded to Paris. As he arrived on the feast-day of St Denis, from his reverence to the saint, he delivered all the prisoners confined in the Châtelet.
The king made no long stay in Paris, but went to Tours, Amboise, and places in that district, where he the more willingly resided.
During this interval, the Burgundians and other enemies to the king, under the prince of Orange, and sir Claude de Vaudray, committed great devastations in Burgundy, and defeated many parties of the royal forces, more especially at the town of Gray sur Saone, wherein they were quartered. The Burgundians killed a number of gentlemen of the companies of Salazart and Coninghame, a scots captain.
The king had this year great devotion for St Louis and St Charlemagne, and ordered that their statues of stone, which had been placed in their rank with those of the other kings of France in the great hall of the palace, should be removed and placed beside the chapel at the upper end of the said hall,--which was done, and the expenses of their removal were paid by Robert Cailletel, receiver of taxes in the city of Paris.
In the month of December, the king, to increase his artillery, ordered twelve great bombards to be cast of a prodigious length and weight. Three of them were to be cast at Paris, three at Tours, three at Orleans, and three at Amiens; and at the same time a quantity of iron bullets were cast at the founderies at Creil, of which charge was given to master John de Reilhac his secretary. In the quarries near to Peronne, were also made many stone bullets for the bombards,--and great stores of scaling ladders and small pieces of ordnance were constructed, for the attack of several towns in Flanders and Picardy that remained to be reduced.
At this period, king Edward of England, having been assured that his brother the duke of Clarence had intentions of crossing the sea to give assistance to his sister. The widowed duchess of Burgundy, ordered him to be arrested and confined in the tower of London, where he remained for some time. During his confinement, the king assembled his council, who condemned him to be drawn on a sledge from the tower to a gibbet, and thereon hanged,--after which, his entrails were to be thrown into a fire, his head cut off, and his body quartered. But this sentence was changed at the intercession of his mother, and the execution deferred until the month of February following, when he was taken out of prison, and, after he had confessed himself, was thrown alive into a butt of malmsey Madeira, which had one of its ends taken off, and held therein, with his head downwards, until he expired. He was then taken out: his head was cut off, and carried to be buried at the Carmelite's church, beside his duchess, daughter to the late earl of Warwick, who had been slain at the battle of Coventry, at the same time when the prince of Wales, son to the sainted Henry of Lancaster, fell[84].
An event happened at this time, at Paris, that made some noise. Daniel de Bar, servant to master Olivier le Daim[85], first barber and valet de chambre to the king, was arrested and imprisoned by the court of parliament, in consequence of several informations laid against him, and especially on the complaint of Marion, the wife of Colin Panier, and another dissolute woman, who charged the said Daniel with having forced them and with having committed upon them the beastly and abominable sin of sodomy. When the parliament and the provost began to examine more minutely into these charges, the women contradicted themselves, and denied the facts, confessing that they had been induced to make such accusations at the instance of Panier, the husband of Marion, and of another called Janvier, enemies of the said Daniel, in order to be revenged on him. The two women were therefore sentenced, by the provost, to be whipped naked and banished the realm; and their effects were to be confiscated to the king, out of which sufficient damages should first be taken for the said Daniel, as an indemnification for these false charges. This sentence was executed in all the squares of Paris, on Wednesday, the 11th day of March.
In this month, the king came from Tours toward Paris, and staid two days at Ablon sur Seine, at the house of Marc Senamy, assessor of Paris; whence he came to his palace of the Tournelles, and on the morrow morning, paid his devotions at the cathedral to the blessed virgin Mary. This done, he went to Louvres, and places in that neighbourhood, where he staid some time, and then proceeded to Hêdin, Amiens, and other towns in Picardy. While he was there, the lord Howard came to him from the king of England, to endeavour to conclude a peace between him and the Flemings. The king appointed the lord de St Pierre to confer with him on the subject; and in the interval, the king marched the whole of his army and artillery into Picardy.
A.D. MCCCCLXXVIII.
After Low Sunday, in the month of March of the above year, the duchess of Orleans arrived at Paris, in company with the duke of Orleans,--a young son of the duke of Cleves, nephew to the duchess,--madame de Narbonne, daughter to the late duke of Orleans, and wife to the viscount of Narbonne, son to the count of Foix,--the son of the count of Vendôme, and a number of lords, gentlemen, ladies and damsels, who were twice most magnificently feasted in the city of Paris.
The first entertainment was given by the cardinal of Foix, in the hôtel d'Estampes, near the bastile,--and the second, by the lord cardinal of Bourbon, at his hôtel, where he gave a grand supper on Wednesday the last day in March. At this supper, there was the greatest plenty of every delicacy that could be procured, with music and singing, mummeries, farces, and other gallant amusements. This supper was served up in the gilt gallery, where all the guests attended but madame de Narbonne,--who, on account of her being far gone with child, and to be more at her ease, supped with her husband and seven more, in the lower apartments of the said hôtel, belonging to John Roye, secretary to the duke of Bourbon, who had the care of his hôtel.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 84: The earl of Warwick was killed at the battle of Barnet,--and the prince of Wales was ungenerously murdered after the fatal battle of Tewkesbury, for a spirited answer to an insolent demand from Edward IV.]
[Footnote 85: Never was the proverb of 'like master like man'--'tel mâitre, tel valet,' so truly exemplified as in Louis XI. and Olivier le Diable, Olivier le Mauvais, or, as the king ordered him to be called in his letters of nobility, Olivier le Daim. I copy from the 222d number of Proofs to Comines what M. Godefroy said of this infamous character.
'Philip de Comines cries out justly against the choice the king made of a man of such a character as his ambassador to the princess of Burgundy. Master Olivier (for thus he was called in the low countries, where, to this day, the masters of any trade are called by their Christian names only) was born in the little town of Thielt, a dependancy on the castlewick of Courtray in Flanders. He went to France and became barber to the king, whose confidence he gained by his intrigues.
'Having acquired great riches, the desire of appearing with eclat in the country of his birth, which is the usual presumption of persons suddenly raised from the dregs of the people to high rank, blinded him so much that he accepted of an embassy, which he naturally should have refused, if he had not been devoured with pride.
'The magnificence of his equipage only served to make him more despised by his countrymen--and the barber was plainly seen under the dress of a prince. The ghent men would have made his time pass unpleasantly, and, if he had not avoided it by a precipitate retreat, would have suffered what he afterward could not escape from.
'He was one of the most profligate and unprincipled men in the world.'
Here follows what a french author, named Boitel, relates of the latter end of his life, in the 321st page 'des intentions morales, civiles, et militaires d'Antoine le Pipre,' printed at Antwerp in the year 1625.
'You must know that Louis XI. king of France, bewitched with friendship for Olivier le Daim, (whose first trade was that of barber) made him governor of the castle of Loches, which was and is at this moment, a handsome establishment, appointed him to the government of St Quentin, in Picardy, and made him one of the gentlemen of his bed-chamber. He had purchased considerable lordships from the great riches he possessed, and plunged into all kinds of luxuries, as well during the king's life as after his death.
'It happened one day that a young gentleman committed a crime, for which the provost of the king's household had him confined. His wife, fearing the consequences might be fatal to her husband, solicited every one whom she thought had credit with king Charles VIII. Thinking that Olivier le Daim might enjoy the same favour as with the late king, from seeing him richly dressed, followed by many of the courtiers, and having admittance to the king's apartments when he pleased, she addressed herself to him, and entreated that he would obtain her husband's liberty. Olivier observing that the suitress was young, handsome, and elegantly made, promised the deliverance of her husband, provided she would yield to his desires, which after many difficulties, she consented to.
'To perform his promise, he went to the provost and desired that he would not criminate the gentleman, which he refused. He then begged that he would allow him to escape, as if he had forced his way out of prison; but this he more obstinately refused. Master Olivier, seeing himself thus disappointed, began to reproach the provost for his ingratitude,--for he had given him his place, and had also obtained for him, from Louis XI. many rich presents; and when that king was much irritated against him for bad management in his office, he had appeased the king's anger. In short, these reproaches had such an effect on the provost that he told him to consider on some means for the prisoner to escape, provided that he were not brought into trouble, nor implicated,--for those who had caused him to be confined had great power. Master Olivier replied, that the most secure method would be to strangle him in his dungeon, and to throw the body into the river; for then his enemies would be satisfied, and his wife, by avoiding the infamy of a public execution, would likewise be contented,--and this would be the means of gratifying all parties.
'Having fixed on their plan, master Olivier solicited the lady to come that night to his lodgings, which she complied with, assuring herself that on the morrow she should obtain her husband's liberty; but she was deceived; for while master Olivier, was caressing her in bed, his valet de chambre Daniel, with another called Oyac, strangled the miserable gentleman in the provost's prison, and then dragged the body to the Seine. The corpse floated on the water, as they were unable to sink it. The boatmen drew it to the bank, where it lay the whole day, and was viewed by numbers, who immediately recognised it for the body of such a gentleman. The wife, who had risen early in the expectation of meeting her husband, was told that he had been drowned, and was then lying on the bank of the river. Thither she hastened and found the report but too true.
'This unfortunate lady flung herself on the corpse, and, with bitter tears, cursed Olivier le Daim, who had deceived her, and ravished her honour, under promise of procuring her husband's liberty. Her lamentations excited the pity of the populace in so great a decree that they informed the officers of justice of what had happened. On this, master Olivier was arrested, and sentenced to the torture; but without suffering much, he confessed the fact, imagining his judges would not dare to condemn him, and, if they should, he trusted to his favour with the king. He was, however, completely mistaken; for, being hated for his abuse of authority under Louis XI. he was sentenced to be hanged and strangled. His servant Daniel was condemned to make a pecuniary restitution to the widow.
'With regard to Oyac, he was not hanged, because it had appeared on the trial that he would not assist to strangle the gentleman in prison, although he had aided to throw him into the river; for which he was condemned to have his ears cut off, his tongue pierced, and to be banished the realm.
'Master Olivier was pitied by none: and it may be shown, from an infinity of examples, that a disgraceful or an unfortunate death is commonly the lot of such as put their trust in the favour of princes, abuse their authority, and only make use of their great riches in the commission of the most enormous crimes. God becomes tired of their iniquities, and commences even in this world to punish them for their wickednesses.'
This crime may be nearly matched by that of another monster in our own country. Colonel Kirke, when pursuing the duke of Monmouth's partisans at Taunton, was guilty of an act attended with rather more insulting cruelty; and to him likewise may be applied the motto, 'Tel mâitre, tel valet.'
There is also a similar story told in 491. of the Spectator; but it is not mentioned by Comines, or by any other historian of that period that I am acquainted with.]
CHAP. XXVI.
THE KING OF FRANCE'S SOLDIERS SEIZE THE MONEY THAT WAS SENT TO PAY THE FLEMISH TROOPS, AND GAIN ALSO THE TOWN OF CONDÉ FROM THEM.--A CORDELIER FRIER, NAMED ANTHONY FRADIN PREACHES AT PARIS, AND IS AFTERWARDS BANISHED.--THE POPE SENDS A LEGATE TO THE KING OF FRANCE AND TO THE DUKE OF AUSTRIA.--THE DECEIT OF THE LAST TOWARD THE KING.--A TREATY CONCLUDED BETWEEN THEM.--SIR CHARLES D'AMBOISE REGAINS MANY TOWNS FOR THE KING IN THE DUCHY OF BURGUNDY.
In the month of April, Guerin le Groin bailiff of St Pierre-le-Monstier, and Robinet du Quesnoy, who had each the command of one hundred lances for the king, received information, while cantoned in Picardy, that the Flemings were sending a large sum of money to Douay for the pay of their troops and the support of the town. These captains took the field to intercept this money, which they did, killing many, and making prisoners of others of the escort. Intelligence of this was instantly carried to the garrisons in Lille and Douay, who made all haste to recover the money and prisoners; but although they were in great numbers the French not only saved themselves but slew four score, or better, and carried off the money in safety,--their loss not amounting to more than twenty-six or twenty-seven men.
The king arrived in Picardy during the month of May,--but nothing of consequence passed except gaining from the Burgundians the little town of Condé, which was inconveniently situated for sending provisions and stores to Tournay. A garrison for the duke of Austria was in the place, who defended it for a short time; but when they saw the great army that was advancing to besiege it, they surrendered the town and castle to the king, on being allowed to march away in safety with their arms and baggage.
In this year, a cordelier friar, a native of Ville-Franche, in the Beaujolois, came to preach against the profligate manners of the times at Paris. He preached long and strongly on the vices which blemished the creatures of God, and with such good effect that many women, who had abandoned themselves to carnal pleasures, and other debaucheries, changed their course of life. Some gave themselves up to religious pursuits, abandoning those pleasures they had of late so wildly followed. He blamed all ranks, and preached on the justice and government of the king, the princes, and great lords of the realm; adding, that the king was ill served,--that he had about his person servants who were traitors,--and that, if he did not discard them, they would destroy him and the kingdom also. The king when told of this, ordered that the friar should be forbidden to preach; and for this purpose, master Olivier le Daim, the king's barber, came to Paris to see that he was put under an interdict. This was very displeasing to several of both sexes, who were much inclined to follow him, for the sake of his sermons; and for fear any insult should be offered him, they had him watched, night and day, in the convent of the Cordeliers in Paris. It was said that numbers of women went to him secretly, by day and night, with knives and staves hidden under their clothes, to spike such as should endeavour to hurt him, or hinder him from preaching: telling him not to be afraid for that they would perish sooner than any mischief should befal him.