=Source.=--"Le recouvrement de Normendie," in _Reductio
Normannie_, pp. 333 _et seq._ (Rolls Series.)
... On the fifteenth of April they (the French) came up with the
English in a field near a village named Formigny, between Carentan
[Triviers] and Bayeux. And when the said English saw and perceived
them, they put themselves in order of battle, and sent very hastily
for the said Matthew Gough, who had left them that morning to go to
Bayeux, and he immediately returned. And then the French and the
English were one in the presence of the other, for the space of three
hours, skirmishing. And in the meantime the English made large holes
and trenches with their daggers and swords before them, in order that
the French and their horses should stumble if they attacked them. And
at the distance of a long bowshot behind the English there was a little
river between them, with a great abundance of gardens full of various
trees, as apples, pears, elms, and other trees; and they encamped in
this place because they could not be attacked in the rear.
And in the meantime the lord of Richmond, Constable of France, the lord
of Laval, the lord of Loheac, marshal of France, the lord of Orval,
the marshal of Bretaigne, the lord of Saint-Severe, and many others
set out from Triviers, where they had slept that night, and joined
them, to the number of three hundred lances, and the archers. And when
the said English saw them come, they left the field, and the troops
marched and came to the river to place it behind them; for they were
afraid of the Constable's company, who had slept the night at a village
named Triviers, and had put himself in order of battle upon the arrival
of the said English at a wind-mill above the said Formigny. And then
marched the troops of the said lord of Clermont and his company, in
which were from five to six hundred lances and the archers, and they
charged the said English, as did also those of the said Constable, who
crossed the river by a ford and a little bridge of stone. And there
they attacked the English on both sides very bravely, so that in the
end they discomfited them close by the said river.
And there there were killed, by the report of the heralds who were
there, and of the priests and good people who buried them, three
thousand seven hundred and seventy-four English.
A FATHER'S COUNSEL (+April 30, 1450+).
=Source.=--_Paston Letters_, vol. i., No. 91.
["Whoever has read this affecting composition will find it difficult to
persuade himself that the writer could have been either a false subject
or a bad man."--+Lingard.+]
_The Duke of Suffolk to his Son._
+My dear and only well-beloved Son+,
I beseech our Lord in Heaven, the maker of all the world, to bless
you, and to send you ever grace to love him, and to dread him; to the
which, as far as a father may charge his child, I both charge you, and
pray you to set all spirits and wits to do, and to know his holy laws
and commandments, by the which ye shall with his great mercy pass all
the great tempests and troubles of this wretched world. And that also,
wittingly, ye do nothing for love or dread of any earthly creature
that should displease him. And there as any frailty maketh you to
fall, beseech his mercy soon to call you to him again with repentance,
satisfaction, and contrition of your heart never more in will to offend
him.
Secondly, next him, above all earthly thing, to be true liege man
in heart, in will, in thought, in deed unto the King our most high
and dread Sovereign Lord, to whom both ye and I be so much bound
to; charging you, as father can and may, rather to die than be the
contrary, or to know any thing that were against the welfare or
prosperity of his most royal person, but that as far as your body and
life may stretch, ye live and die to defend it, and to let his highness
have knowledge thereof in all the haste ye can.
Thirdly, in the same wise, I charge you, my dear son, as ye be bound
by the commandment of God to do, to love, to worship your lady and
mother, and also that ye obey always her commandments, and to believe
her counsels and advices in all your works, the which dread not but
shall be best and truest to you. And if any other body would stir you
to the contrary, to flee the counsel in any wise, for ye shall find it
nought and evil.
Furthermore, as far as father may and can, I charge you in any wise
to flee the company and counsel of proud men, of covetous men, and of
flattering men, the more especially and mightily to withstand them, and
not to draw, nor to meddle with them, with all your might and power.
And to draw to you and to your company good and virtuous men, and such
as be of good conversation, and of truth, and by them shall ye never
be deceived, nor repent you of. Moreover, never follow your own wit
in no wise, but in all your works, of such folks as I write of above,
ask your advice and counsel; and doing thus, with the mercy of God, ye
shall do right well, and live in right much worship, and great heart's
rest and ease. And I will be to you as good lord and father as my heart
can think.
And last of all, as heartily and as lovingly as ever father blessed his
child in earth, I give you the blessing of our Lord and of me, which of
his infinite mercy increase you in all virtue and good living. And that
your blood may by his grace from kindred to kindred multiply in this
earth to his service, in such wise as after the departing from this
wretched world here, ye and they may glorify him eternally among his
angels in heaven.