_The Trials of Jacqueline_
The enemies of Duke John of Brabant were disappearing one by one. The
bitterest opponent of all, the injured and insulted wife, whose heritage
he had yielded to her ruthless competitor, and whose honour he had
trampled in the dust, about this time, too, endured the first of that
long series of rebuffs which in the end crushed her.
Shortly after her flight to England Jacqueline had lodged an appeal to
the Holy See for the dissolution of her marriage, on the ground that at
the time she pledged her troth she was not a free agent. Whilst the case
was still pending she had bestowed her hand on Humphrey Duke of
Gloucester, and towards the close of the year 1423 she appeared in
Hainault with the man whom she now called her husband and six thousand
English archers.
The nobles almost to a man flocked to her standard, every town in the
county save Hal acknowledged Gloucester as their lawful prince, even the
Governor of Hainault cast off his allegiance to John and swore fealty to
his rival. But Jacqueline's former friends in Brabant regarded her new
marriage from another point of view. The men of Brabant had dreamed that
their triumph would be hers; they flattered themselves that they would
have been able to reconcile the ill-matched pair. They had looked
forward to the birth of a son destined to unite under one sceptre his
father's and his mother's domains, and they now turned their swords,
not against the outraged woman whose wrongs they had sworn to avenge,
and whose dignity, as the Consort of their Sovereign, they were bound in
honour as loyal subjects to uphold, but against the wanton, whose
delirious passion had shattered their hopes. And there were others, too,
who were angered at the course which Jacqueline had seen fit to
pursue:--John the Pitiless, who, opportunely dying by poison, it was
said, shortly after her arrival, was unable to vent his spleen, and
Philippe l'Asseuré, to whom John had bequeathed his claims, and who, in
order to safeguard his interests as heir-presumptive to Jacqueline's
dominions, effectually showed his displeasure by joining hands with her
former husband. The men of Hainault and their English allies were unable
to withstand the united strength of Brabant and Burgundy. City after
city and fortress after fortress surrendered or went up in flames. When,
early in March 1424, Braine-le-Comte was taken, Gloucester withdrew to
England to collect fresh forces, and before he had had time to return
his last stronghold was in the hands of his opponents, and his wife a
prisoner in Ghent.
De Dynter relates a strange delusion on the part of the English, which
led to the surrender of Braine-le-Comte during the opening days of the
campaign, and that, in spite of the fact that the city was strongly
fortified and well stored with supplies. They had descried, they said,
from the ramparts, amongst the knights of Brabant, their patron, Saint
George; his arms were displayed on his ensign, and he was seated on his
traditional white charger. At sight of the apparition their hearts had
shrivelled, and no strength was left in their bodies; it was a sure sign
from Heaven that they were favouring an unrighteous cause. 'Now, amongst
our knights,' explains De Dynter, 'was Myn Here Daniel van Bouchout,
the horse he bestrode was a white one, and his family arms exactly
resemble the arms of _Monseigneur Saint Georges_.'
Burghers from every commune in Brabant, save Bois-le-Duc, took part in
the siege of Braine, and when all was over and the loot divided the
great town bell was allotted to the men of Lierre. They carried it in
triumph to their native city, where it still hangs in the tower
adjoining the Town Hall.[24]
[24] _See_ page 305.
Of the events which led to the surrender of Mons and to her own
imprisonment, Jacqueline herself gives a curious account in a letter
which she dispatched to Gloucester early in July 1425, and shortly
before the final catastrophe. Mons had been besieged since the middle of
May by Duke John of Brabant in person, and the city had been reduced to
such straits that the burghers themselves had opened negotiations with
the enemy unknown to Jacqueline, who was daily expecting reinforcements
from England and had obstinately refused to treat. Early in June
conditions of surrender were agreed upon, which, though sufficiently
favourable to the burghers, provided that Jacqueline should undertake to
break off all relations with Gloucester and acknowledge her former
husband as legitimate Sovereign of her domains until such time as the
Pope should pronounce judgment on her appeal.
To these terms she refused to consent, and the city was in consequence
on the verge of rebellion. In vain she had gone down to the Town Hall
(June 16) and made a personal appeal to the honour and chivalry of the
burghers.
'Not only did they refuse to help me,' runs the letter from
which the above facts are culled, 'but they said that my
knights were doing their utmost to compass their destruction,
and then, in spite of me, took Sergeant Macquaert and cut off
his head, and put no less than two hundred and fifty of your
most devoted followers under arrest, and at last told me
plainly that if I any longer refused to make peace they would
themselves deliver me into the hands of my cousin of Brabant.
I have only eight days' delay and then they will send me to
Flanders, grievous affliction, and I shall never see you again
unless you make speed to save me, my only hope, my sole and
sovereign joy. All that I suffer is for love of you; for God's
sake, then, have pity on your sorrowing creature if you would
not bring about her ruin. I have some hope that you will help
me, for never have I done aught to offend you, nor will I as
long as I live, but on the contrary I am ready to die for love
of you and of your person, so greatly doth your noble
domination delight me, by my faith, most redoubted lord and
prince. For the love of God and of my Lord Saint George,
consider then my wretched plight, this you have not yet done
and methinks you have clean forgotten me. Inform me of your
good pleasure and I will do it with all my heart, as the
Blessed Son of God doth know right well. May He grant you a
good and a long life and give me the joy of seeing you.
Written in the false and traitorous town of Mons on the 6th
day of July 1425. Your grieving and devoted handmaid,
suffering great pain by your commandment.--Your handmaid,
'JACQUELINE.'
This letter was intercepted _en route_ and handed to Philip of Burgundy,
but had it reached Gloucester it would probably not have touched him. If
he indeed loved Jacqueline, she was not the sole mistress of his heart;
her rival, Eleanor Cobham, had accompanied him to Hainault and returned
with him to England, and doubtless the society of this lady was some
consolation for the grief which, as Vinchant informs us, he had publicly
displayed at parting with the woman he called his wife.
As for the hapless Jacqueline, she accepted the terms of surrender
arranged on the 1st of June, and was presently conducted to Philip's
palace at Ghent, where she was virtually a prisoner. She recognised John
of Brabant as rightful Sovereign of her domains until such time as the
Pope should pronounce judgment on her appeal: John, in his turn,
undertook to provide for her maintenance, and in accordance with the
terms of the treaty appointed Philip of Burgundy Regent of Hainault and
Holland.
Jacqueline, however, was not yet at the end of her adventures. In
Holland the Hoeks[25] were still devoted to her, a plan was contrived
for her deliverance, and presently it was successfully carried out.
Vinchant tells us how it all happened.
[25] Or Feudal party, as distinguished from the Kabiljauws or Town
party, broadly speaking. 'Il n'est guère plus aisé' says Pirenne (Vol.
II. p. 165), 'de comprendre l'acharnement qu'elles manifestèrent l'une
contre l'autre pendant quatre-vingts ans, (1347-1427) que de découvrir
l'origine des appellations par quoi elles se désignèrent. S'il est vrai
que les Kabiljauws représentèrent surtout la politique urbaine et les
intérêts de la bourgeoisie marchande, il ne l'est pas moins qu'ils ne
les représentèrent pas uniquement. On trouve parmi eux de nombreux
barons, de même que l'on constate dans le parti des Hoeks, plus
spécialement nobiliaire, la présence de plusieurs villes.
'One evening early in October two of her most trusty and loyal
friends, Dirk Merwede and Arnulph Spyerink, arrived in the city of
Ghent, and having left their horses saddled and bridled in a certain
place, went to visit their lady, bringing with them, done up in a
bundle, a suit of male attire, which she, whilst her people were
at supper, hastily put on, and thus disguised departed with the
aforesaid knights without being recognised by any of her guards,
and riding hard all night never halted till she reached Wondelghem,
and from thence she went to the castle of the Lord of Vianen, who
received her gladly, and having arrayed her in some of his wife's
garments led her to Schoonhaven, where all the town was marvellously
glad at her coming. Next day she journeyed to Gouda, from thence to
Oudenwater ... and wherever she went she was welcomed, caressed and
entreated as Lady and Countess of Holland--always accompanied by the
Lord of Vianen, whom she named her commander-in-chief.'
For three years this indomitable princess was able to defy her
opponents, but the issue of the contest was from the first a foregone
conclusion. Philip was able to pour into Holland the _élite_ of his
soldiery, 'tous exercités,' as Monstrellet says, 'et excités en armes et
faits de guerre.' He had, too, the support, of the Duke of Gelderland
and of course of John of Brabant, and in Holland itself the Church, the
burghers, the great mass of the industrial population, were all in his
favour.
What chance had Jacqueline of victory in face of such odds? At first,
indeed, she had some help from Gloucester, who, in spite of his brother
of Bedford, Philip's friend, made shift to send her three thousand
archers, but on the 27th of January 1426, the Pope affirmed the validity
of Jacqueline's former marriage, and Gloucester, constrained to sever
his connection with the woman who had suffered so much for his sake,
made her cup yet more bitter by espousing her rival, Eleanor Cobham, and
by withdrawing his troops from Holland. Henceforth she stood alone at
the head of her loyal Hoeks. Inspired by her heroic courage, her
indomitable will and the glamour of her misfortunes and her beauty,
these stalwart Dutch knights were able to prolong the unequal contest
for nearly three years, and then at last she was constrained to own
herself vanquished.
On the 3rd of July 1428, by the Treaty of Delft, she acknowledged Philip
as Regent of her domains, delivered into his hands all her strongholds
and solemnly engaged not to marry again without his consent, for
Jacqueline was now a widow--on the 17th of April, 1427, Duke John of
Brabant had gone the way of all flesh.
This last condition she did not scruple to break, and Vinchant tells us
why. 'After four years had passed,' he says, 'in good peace and concord
between Madame Jacqueline, Countess of Holland, and Duke Philip of
Burgundy, it so happened that Madame Marguerite, the Countess Dowager,
sent her by certain gentlemen a present of some beautiful jewels and
several good horses; whereat Countess Jacqueline, finding herself
without cash, having expended all her funds on the late war, and having
nothing to bestow by way of gratuity on her mother's people, sent
secretly to the Vicomte de Montform, who had formerly been her
lieutenant in Holland, begging him to lend her the wherewithal to
preserve her reputation in the eyes of the aforesaid gentlemen by
bestowing on each of them, according to his rank, some token of her
gratitude; but the Vicomte excused himself, saying that he had expended
all his means in her service, and the aforesaid lady, much perplexed,
sent to another of her friends and was treated by him in like manner.
Whereat she was so grieved that she withdrew to her chamber weeping, and
one of her servants, Guillaume de Bye, seeing his lady thus distressed,
took pity on her and said, "Madame, an it please you, I will go to
Messire Franche de Borselle, lieutenant of Zeeland, and explain to him
your present straits, and I am not without hope that some good will come
of it?" "What!" says she, _"toute esplourée_, he is our foe and has
never received any kindness from us." "Yet," says Guillaume, "an it
please Madame, _je l'esprouveray par quelque moyen que ce soit_." "I
fear," quoth the Countess, "we shall gain nothing by it, albeit go, and
say I will soon repay the debt." And Guillaume went, _de bonne grace_,
and presently the Lord of Borselle, counting out the money, "Go tell my
lady that not this time only, but always throughout my life, she may
dispose of me and mine according to her good pleasure." Wherefore Madame
Jacqueline held him in high esteem and conceived so great an affection
for him that she desired to give him her hand, which she afterwards did
clandestinely in her own chamber.' But for all that Philip got wind of
it and obtained possession of the persons of the newly-married couple,
and Jacqueline, constrained to choose between the death of her husband
and the loss of her crown--for the Treaty of Delft conserved to her the
nominal sovereignty of her domains--preferred the latter alternative. On
the 12th of April 1433 Philip the Good exchanged his title of Regent for
that of Count, and some three years later (April 9, 1436), his victim
died of despair and consumption at the old Castle of Teylingen, hard by
Leyden.
Jacqueline left no issue and her cousin of Burgundy thus became the
legitimate lord of her domains. Six years before he had received the
heritage of Duke Philip of Brabant, who had died most opportunely on the
eve of his intended marriage (August 4, 1430). Rumour had said poison;
the physicians, a sudden chill; and the man who inherited his patrimony,
that Fortune was invariably kind to him.