Part 6
[Footnote 31: Viscount of Villars. Q. if not Thouars?]
[A.D. 1470.]
CHAP. XI.
THE EARL OF WARWICK AND THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, DRIVEN OUT OF ENGLAND BY KING EDWARD, COME TO FRANCE.--QUEEN MARGARET AND HER SON ARRIVE THERE ALSO, TO THE DISPLEASURE OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY.--THE BIRTH OF THE DAUPHIN, CHARLES.--THE EARL OF WARWICK RETURNS TO ENGLAND.--AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE KING OF FRANCE AND KING HENRY OF ENGLAND.--THE FLIGHT OF KING EDWARD.--THE ENTRY OF THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND INTO PARIS.--THE INHABITANTS OF AUXERRE TAKE PART WITH THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY.--THE KING'S VICTORIES IN THE DUCHY OF BURGUNDY AND THE COUNTRIES OF CHAROLOIS AND PICARDY.--OF THE KING'S JOURNEYS, AND OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED DURING THE YEAR MCCCCLXX.
In the month of May in this year, the earl of Warwick and the duke of Clarence, whom king Edward had forced to banish themselves, and their families from England, arrived at Honnefleur and Harfleur, with about four score vessels. They found there the lord admiral of France, who received the earl of Warwick, the duke of Clarence, and the count de Vuasanfort[32], and their ladies with every respect. Their vessels were admitted in the harbours; and after a short time, the ladies, with their trains, departed, and went to Valognes, where lodgings had been provided for them.
The duke of Burgundy, hearing of this, wrote to the court of parliament at Paris, to say, that he had received intelligence of the king having admitted the earl of Warwick and his company into some of his towns within the duchy of Normandy contrary to the articles of the treaty of Peronne; and to entreat that the parliament would remonstrate with the king on this subject, to prevent him from favouring the said Warwick and his party, whom he styled his capital enemy, as well as the enemy of the realm of France,--otherwise he would seek him wherever he could find him, in the kingdom of France, to do with him as should seem to him good.
Nevertheless the earl of Warwick remained some time at Honnefleur, namely, the whole of the month of June,--and during this, several of the king's garrisons made frequent sallies on the borders of Normandy and Picardy, and wasted the country.--In this same month two men at arms under the command of the constable waylaid and murdered two young clerks of the treasurer of the army, in the plains of Beauce, to rob them of the money they were carrying to the troops. Shortly after they were taken at Honnefleur, and carried before the constable at Meaux, who had them hanged on two trees that were by the side of two different roads.
The king all this while resided at Tours, Amboise, Vendôme, and at divers places in that country, whither the English came to him, as did queen Margaret and her son the prince of Wales. They had many conferences on the causes of their having left England, and on public affairs,--after which, the English returned to Honnefleur, Valognes, St Lo, and other towns in Normandy. The duke of Burgundy, in the mean time, had all the effects of the french merchants in his countries seized, until his own merchants should have restitution made them for the vessels and goods which these English had captured on their voyage to Harfleur.
On Saturday, the last day of June about two or three in the morning the queen of France was brought to bed in the castle of Amboise, of a fair son, who was then baptised by the name of Charles by the archbishop of Lyon, who was his godfather with the prince of Wales, son to king Henry VI. which latter was then detained a prisoner by Edward, calling himself king of England: his godmother was the princess Jeanne of France, duchess of Bourbon. This event was celebrated by Te Deums sung in most of the churches, by bonfires, and public tables in all the streets of the principal towns.
Not long after this, the king of Sicily, the duke of Guienne, the duke of Bourbon, the archbishop of Lyon, the lord de Beaujeu, and others went to Angers, Saumur, Pont de Cé, and other places near, to negotiate a pacification between the king and the duke of Brittany,--and they remained until it was accomplished. The king having signed the treaty, returned to the queen at Amboise. Ambassadors were, in consequence of this peace, sent by the duke of Brittany to the duke of Burgundy, to deliver up and cancel the alliance that subsisted between them, which greatly vexed the duke of Burgundy, especially on hearing the good understanding and union that reigned between the duke of Brittany and the king.
The duke of Burgundy hearing that the earl of Warwick was preparing to sail for England, instantly ordered a fleet of ships of war, full of artillery, and manned with English, Picards, Burgundians, and others, to cruize in the channel to intercept him. They sailed close to the norman coast in hopes of falling in with the earl, and there remained at anchor a considerable time,--during which the king was gone on a pilgrimage to Mont Saint Michael.
Having performed his devotions, he returned to Avranches, Tombelaine[33], Coutances, Caen and Honnefleur; and while on the coast, he ordered the ships Lord Admiral, the Colon, and others, to be victualled, on board of which the earl of Warwick and the duke of Clarence embarked with their company, and a body of franc-archers and men at arms which the king had given them as an escort, and for their defence. On their embarking, they weighed anchor, and set sail in sight of the Burgundians, who had been at anchor, so long without doing any thing but expend all their provision, which forced them to weigh also, and return to their duke with hungry stomachs. This was matter of joy to the king, for they had lost much time in inactivity,--and the victualling and manning of this fleet had been very expensive.
The wind proving favourable to the french fleet, it soon arrived off the english coast,--and the earl of Warwick and his company landed, during the night at Plymouth and Dartmouth. Warwick, on his landing, instantly dispatched a party of his men ten miles up the country to seize an english baron, who was quietly sleeping in his bed, unsuspicious of this invasion. They brought him to Warwick who ordered him to be immediately beheaded. From Dartmouth, Warwick marched to Bristol, where he was well received,--for it was there he had left his artillery and baggage when he fled to Normandy. When he had remained there about three days, to collect his friends together, he found himself at the head of about sixty thousand men in arms who promised to stand by him until death, and with them he began his march to meet king Edward; but it was more than fifteen days after his landing in England before any intelligence from him reached France.
In this interval, the lord d'Argueil son to the prince of Orange[34], who was of the household of the duke of Burgundy, and one of his nearest relatives, having married the sister of the duke of Bourbon, suddenly quitted the service of the duke of Burgundy, and joined the king, who received him with much distinction. The duke, when he heard of his departure, was ready to burst with grief and vexation; and declared, in the presence of the ambassadors from Brittany, that the lord d'Argueil should have all the property he possessed in his territories confiscated,--and he afterwards had all his castles within his dominions razed to the ground.
The king on the 14th of October, sent letters-patent to Paris, which were read and published in all the squares, in the presence of the lieutenants of the provostship of Paris. They contained information of the treaty of peace which he had concluded with Henry VI. of England, and orders for the admission of all the English of his party into France on their private affairs, or commercial transactions, with or without passports,--but to the exclusion of all who supported the late king Edward IV. his allies and abettors.
This day, news arrived in France, that the duke of Clarence and the earl of Warwick prospered greatly in their enterprises; that they had taken the field in pursuit of Edward,--and that the greater part of the nobles, prelates and gentlemen of England, had joined them, more especially the populace of London, who had gone out to meet Warwick, having turned their backs on Edward; that king Henry, who had been so long detained in confinement by Edward, was fully restored to liberty and to his crown,--that Warwick had been appointed regent of the kingdom,--and that great rejoicings had taken place in London. All the french prisoners were sent home free of ransom; but Warwick had seized on the persons and effects of those who were subjects to the duke of Burgundy. And the intelligence concluded by saying, that Edward, finding himself thus abandoned, had fled the kingdom, to seek an asylum with his brother in law the duke of Burgundy,--but that his wife and family had remained behind.
The king of France, having made a long stay at Tours and Amboise, moved by devotion, went on a pilgrimage to the church of our Lady at Celles, in Poitou,--whence after a few days, he returned to Amboise.
In the month of November, the king sent letters to Paris, to order all the nobles, clergy, and inhabitants of that city, to make processions in praise of God and the virgin Mary, and to continue them, laying aside all other employments whatever, for three days, to return thanks for the great victory which Henry of Lancaster, king of England, had gained over the earl of March, who had, for a long time usurped his throne, by the support of the duke of Burgundy, and, also, for the happy peace and good understanding that now subsisted between him and the king of England. These processions, thus ordered, were executed in all the principal towns of France.
Shortly after, he dispatched other letters to Paris, to say, that he should send thither the queen of England, consort to king Henry, with her son the prince of Wales, his princess, daughter to the earl of Warwick, and her mother the countess of Warwick, the lady Wiltshire, and other ladies and damsels that were with the queen of England.
Queen Margaret came thither as the king had given notice, attended, according to his orders, by the counts d'Eu, de Vendôme, and de Dunois, the lord de Châtillon and other noblemen. When she approached Paris, the bishop, the court of parliament, the university, the provosts of Paris, and the court of Châtelet, by express orders from the king, together with the principal inhabitants, came out to meet her, handsomely dressed, and in very numerous bodies.
She made her entry by the gate of St James,--and all the streets through which she passed from that gate to the palace, where apartments had been handsomely prepared for her, were adorned with hangings of tapestry, and had tents pitched in all the squares. At this time the royal artillery was removed from Tours to the Louvre, wherein it was deposited,--and the king wrote to the provost and sheriffs, that it was his pleasure to hold the feast of his order in their city: having the intention to bring a large company of nobles and knights-companions with him, he willed that lodgings should be provided for them by the inhabitants, according to the choice of his harbingers which was complied with.
In the month of December of this year, sir Arthur de Longueval entered the town of St Quentin, in the name of the king, with the consent of the inhabitants. Afterward, on the 10th day of that month, the constable came thither with two hundred lances and archers; and on the 14th, master John Ladriesche, treasurer of France, master Robert Fessier, master Pierre de Boieuval, and other officers attached to the constable, made a proclamation by sound of trumpet, at the table of marble, in the palace at Paris, to make known the capture of the town of St Quentin, in the Vermandois, by the lord constable, and ordering the public to return thanks to God, praying him to grant prosperity to the king and to the constable, in the recovery of the other pledged towns, which he intended to wrest from the hands of Charles, styling himself duke of Burgundy: such were the words of the proclamation.
The king left Amboise, in the month of January, for Clery and Orleans, and thence went into Beauce. He lay the first night at Puiset[35], and on the morrow at Palaiseau, near Montlehery. The next day, he dined at Seaux, at the house of master John Baillet, master in ordinary of requests of the king's household, and that evening came to his hôtel of the Tournelles at Paris. He was accompanied by the queen, madam de Bourbon, and other ladies and damsels, their attendants, and remained in Paris until the 26th of January, when he set out for Senlis, Compiégne, and other places thereabout, where his army was quartered, in readiness to march against the duke of Burgundy. His artillery was sent after him, by land and water, to Compiégne, Noyon, and other parts of Picardy and Flanders. Proclamation was also made in Paris, that all franc-archers and nobles, in the Isle of France, should make themselves ready, and, properly equipped, to follow the king to the army. In the mean time, great quantities of powder and cannons were made and constructed at Paris.
Before the king joined his army, he sent sir Christopher Paillard, member of the chamber of accounts, and sir James Hesselin, comptroller of the salt magazines at Paris, to the town of Auxerre, to summon the inhabitants to surrender the place to the king, and admit a garrison from him. These commissioners made them an eloquent harangue; but they required time for consulting among themselves, and until the Thursday following to give their answer. To wait their answer, the commissioners went to the town of Joigny, six leagues distant, where they staid until the Thursday, when the townsmen sent them their answer by an inhabitant of Auxerre, said to be a cobbler, who told them, that the inhabitants of Auxerre had garrisoned their town with a steady garrison for the duke of Burgundy, as they were resolved to live and die in his service, and to defend their town for him. The day the duke's garrison was admitted, one of the townsmen, called Guillemin Goutier was killed,--which was a pity, for he suffered from supporting the cause of the king.
On the king's departure from Paris for Senlis, the towns of Amiens, Roye and Mondidier, surrendered to his obedience. The 4th of February, general processions were made at Paris, at which the queen, madame de Bourbon, and the court assisted, to the cathedral church of Nôtre Dame, and thence to our Lady of Recovery at the Carmelites. At both places prayers were offered up for the prosperity of the king and queen.
It was now published, that the three before-mentioned towns had submitted to the king's obedience, to which Abbeville was added,--but this was groundless. Masons, carpenters, and various other workmen, were now collected at Paris, and sent to the towns that had surrendered, under the care of master Henry de la Cloche, king's attorney at the Châtelet, a good and loyal Frenchman, who conducted them to Roye, where they erected strong outworks and bulwarks, as well as at the other towns. These workmen remained in those parts a considerable time, even unto Easter, when the king agreed to a truce with the duke of Burgundy. The duke had been besieged in his encampment between Bapaumes and Amiens, and was in such misery and distress for provision that, had it not been for the truce, the king might have had his whole army at his pleasure.
Since the commencement of this war, the king had been very successful in his different engagements with the Picards and Flemings, as well against the foraging party from the enemy's camp as against others of the burgundian party. Great damages had been done in the duchy of Burgundy, the county of Charolois, and in the Mâconnois, where the royal partisans gained much plunder, made many good prisoners, and slew numbers. The lords count-dauphin of Auvergne, of Comminges, of Combrodes, of Charente, sir William Cousinot, and several others of the nobility, would have conquered the whole country had not the king sent to stop them on account of the truce, which was very displeasing to them as well as to many more who had a regard for the king's honour. On this occasion several libels were written and placed in the churchyard of the holy Innocents at Paris and on the town-house, greatly blaming and abusing many of the lords about the king's person.
During the truce, the king, the duke of Guienne, and others of the nobility fixed their quarters at Ham with the constable, whence there were great goings and comings between the ambassadors of the king and those from the duke of Burgundy. Nothing, for a long time, was concluded on; but at length, a truce for one year was signed,--during which, commissioners were to be appointed on each side, to examine into the matters in dispute between the king and the duke, and between their partisans. The king now left Ham, and every person retired to his home, but the royal army was quartered in the towns he had won prior to the truce.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 32: Vuasanfort. John de Vere, earl of Oxford.]
[Footnote 33: Tombelaine,--a small rock, or island, between St Malo and Avranches.]
[Footnote 34: John de Châlons, son to William prince of Orange.]
[Footnote 35: Puiset,--a village near Orleans.]
[A.D. 1471.]
CHAP. XII.
THE KING OF FRANCE RECEIVES INTELLIGENCE OF THE VICTORY OF KING EDWARD AND THE DEFEAT OF KING HENRY'S ARMY.--THE KING AND THE DUKE OF GUIENNE COME TO PARIS, AND THENCE GO TO ORLEANS, WHERE THE PRINCE OF PIEDMONT DIES.--OF THE DEATH OF THE COUNT D'EU.--THE DUKE OF GUIENNE AND THE COUNT D'ARMAGNAC FORM AN ALLIANCE.--OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THE COURSE OF THIS YEAR.
At this time, there were great dissensions in England between Henry of Lancaster, king of that country, his son the prince of Wales, the earl of Warwick, and other nobles of that party, against Edward earl of March, who had usurped the throne. A civil war ensued, which was very bloody and murderous on both sides. This warfare lasted until the month of June in this year, when news was brought to the king of France, at Ham, that Edward had landed in England, with a large army of English, Easterlings, Flemings, Picards, and of other nations, which the duke of Burgundy had sent to his aid, and was on his march to meet the powers of Henry, Warwick, and the other lords of the lancastrian party: that several engagements had taken place, in which many were killed on each side,--but that victory had remained with Edward, as at well from treachery on the part of some of Henry's army as from other causes; that the prince of Wales was slain, which was a pity, for he was a very promising and handsome prince; that Warwick was dead,--which was a great loss, as he was singularly disposed to serve the king and his realm, and the king had been at a very considerable expense in supporting him while in France, and in conveying him back to England. This intelligence was, therefore, most disagreeable to the king.
Having received this bad news, the king departed from Ham, taking with him the duke of Guienne, the count de Dammartin, the president of his chamber of accounts, and several others, to Paris,--where, however, he made no long stay. While he was there, many feasts were given,--and the king himself kindled the bonfire in the place of the Greve, on St John Baptist's day. On leaving Paris, he went to Orleans, where the prince of Piedmont fell so dangerously ill that he died. The king, after this, went to visit the queen and the dauphin at Amboise, and thence to Tours.
The king was much displeased at the defamatory epigrams and libels that had been published against the constable and others; and for the better discovery of their authors, he had it proclaimed throughout Paris, by sound of trumpet, that all persons who had any knowledge of them should instantly appear and give information thereof to commissioners named for this purpose, who would pay three hundred golden crowns to each informer; and that such as should have any knowledge of the authors, and fail to inform against them, would have their heads cut off. A young scholar of Paris, called Pierre le Mercier, son to a spectacle maker in the palace, was confined on suspicion of having written them, but soon after set at liberty, nothing being proved against him. Master Henry Mariette, who had been lieutenant-criminal in the provost's court, was also confined, as well for these libels as for certain words he had used (as was said) against master John Ladriesche, treasurer of France, but was afterward delivered from the prison of the Conciergerie by the court of parliament.
In the month of July died the count d'Eu. It was a pity: for he was a noble, wise, and good lord, who had ever served the king most loyally, to the utmost of his power. The county of Eu reverted to the crown,--and the king gave it to the constable, to the great disappointment of the count de Nevers, the count d'Eu's brother, who expected to have this county after his brother's decease, with his other lands, as being his legal heir.
From the month of July to Christmas, nothing particular happened in France, except that there was frequent intercourse between the ambassadors of the king and those of the duke of Burgundy, to establish a permanent peace. This year, the mortality was very great throughout the kingdom from a severe flux, which carried off numbers of persons of distinction in Paris and elsewhere.
The duke of Guienne returned in the course of this year, after he had come back from Picardy to his duchy, discontented with the court. He sent for the count d'Armagnac, who was an exile, and whose estates the king had given to his brother; and on the count d'Armagnac's coming to him, he restored the greater part of them to him, contrary to the will or inclination of the king. The count d'Armagnac, being joined by the count de Foix, made preparations to carry on a war against France. The king, to prevent any damage being done to his realm, dispatched a large body of franc-archers, artillery, and five hundred lances' to the borders of Guienne, where they were posted some time.
In the mean time, news arrived that the duke of Guienne was dead at Bordeaux,--but it was unfounded. Divers negotiations now took place respecting the truce which expired on the 4th of May; and on the 1st of that month the lord de Craon, master Pierre d'Oriole, and others, were employed on that business.
CHAP. XIII.
POPE PAUL II. SHORTENS THE INTERVALS OF THE JUBILEES.--HE DIES.--POPE SIXTUS IV. ELECTED IN HIS STEAD: HE WAS GENERAL OF THE ORDER OF FRANCISCAN MONKS.--A YOUNG GIRL PRETENDS TO HAVE THE WOUNDS OF OUR LORD ON HER HANDS, FEET, AND SIDE.