AN EASY VICTORY
1468
It was in the midst of heavy rains that the journey was made to Namur
and then on to the environs of Liege. Grim was the weather, befitting,
in all probability, Charles's own mood. The king's escort was confined
to very few besides the Scottish guard, but a body of three hundred
troopers was permitted to follow him at a distance, while the faithful
Dammartin across the border kept himself closely informed of every
incident connected with the march that his scouts could gather, and
in readiness to fall upon Burgundian possessions at a word of alarm,
while he restrained his ardour for the moment in obedience to Louis's
anxious command.
By the fourth week of October the Franco-Burgundian party were settled
close to Liege in straggling camps, separated from each other by hills
and uneven ground. Long was the discussion in council meeting as to
the best mode of procedure. Liege was absolutely helpless in the face
of this coalition. Wide breaches made her walls useless. Moats she had
never possessed, for digging was well-nigh impossible on her rocky
site covered by mud and slime from the overflow of the Meuse. On
account of this evident weakness, the king advised dismissing half the
army as needless, advice that was not only rejected immediately but
which excited Charles's doubts of the king's good faith. Over a week
passed and feeble Liege continued obstinate, while each division of
the army manoeuvred to be first in the assault for the sake of the
plunder. But advance was very difficult, for the soldiers were
impeded in their movements by the slime. Wild were some of the night
skirmishes over the uneven, slippery ground and amidst the little
sheltering hills.
On one occasion, "a great many were hurt and among the rest the Prince
of Orange (whom I had forgotten to name before), who behaved that day
like a courageous gentleman, for he never moved foot off the place he
first possessed.
The duke, too, did not lack in courage but he failed sometimes
in order giving, and to say the truth, he behaved himself not so
advisedly as many wished because of the king's presence."[1]
There is no doubt that Charles entertained increasingly sinister
suspicions of his guest. He thought the king might either try to enter
the city ahead of him and manage to placate his ancient allies by a
specious explanation, or else he might succeed in effecting his escape
without fulfilling his compact. At last Charles appointed Sunday,
October 30th, for an assault. On the 29th, his own quarters were in
a little suburb of mean, low houses, with rough ground and vineyards
separating his camp from the city. Between his house and that of the
king, both humble dwellings, was an old granary, occupied by a picked
Burgundian force of three hundred men under special injunctions to
keep close watch over the royal guest and see that he played no sudden
trick. To further this purpose of espionage, they had made a breach in
the walls with heavy blows of their picks.
The men were wearied with all their marching and skirmishing, and in
order to have them in fighting trim on the morrow, Charles had ordered
all alike to turn in and refresh themselves. The exhausted troops
gladly obeyed this injunction. Charles was disarmed and sleeping, so,
too, were Philip de Commines and the few attendants that lay within
the narrow ducal chamber. Only a dozen pickets mounted guard in the
room over Charles's little apartment, and kept their tired eyes open
by playing at dice.
On that Saturday night when Charles was thus prudently gathering
strength for the final tussle, the people of Liege also indulged in
repose, counting on Sunday being a day of rest, that is, the major
part of the burgher folk did within city limits. But another plan was
on foot among some of the inhabitants of an outlying region. An attack
on the Burgundian camp was planned by a band from Franchimont, a wild
and wooded district, south of the episcopal see. The natives there had
all the characteristics of mountaineers, although the heights of their
rugged country reached only modest altitudes.[2]
These invaders were fortunate in obtaining as guides the owners of
the very houses requisitioned for the lodgings of the two princes.
Straight to their goal they progressed through paths quite unknown to
the foe, and therefore unwatched. The highlanders made a mistake
in not rushing headlong to the royal lodgings, where in the first
confusion they might have accomplished their design upon the lives of
Louis and of Charles or at least have taken the two prisoners. But a
pause at a French nobleman's tent created a disturbance which roused
the archers in the granary. The latter sallied out, to meet with a
fierce counter-attack. In order to confuse them the mountaineers
echoed the Burgundian cries, _Vive Bourgogne, vive le roy et tuez,
tuez_, and they were not always immediately identified by their harsh
Liege accent.
The highlanders were far outnumbered by the Burgundians, and it was
only by dint of their desperate courage and by reason of the pitchy
darkness and of the locality with its unknown roughness that the
former inflicted the damage that they did.
Commines and his fellows helped the duke into his cuirass, and stood
by his person, while the king's bodyguard of Scottish archers "proved
themselves good fellows, who never budged from their master's feet and
shot arrow upon arrow out into the darkness, wounding more Burgundians
than Liegeois." The first to fall was Charles's own host, the guide of
the marauders to his own cottage door. There were many more victims
and no mercy. It was, indeed, an encounter characterised by the
passions of war and the conditions of a mere burglarious attack on
private houses.
Quaking with fear was the king. He thought that if the duke should now
fail to make a complete conquest of Liege, his own fate would hang in
the balance. At a hasty council meeting held that night, Charles
was very doubtful as to the expediency of carrying out his proposed
assault upon the city. Very distrustful of each other were the allies,
a fact that caused Philip de Commines to comment,[3] "scarcely fifteen
days had elapsed since these two had sworn a definitive peace and
solemnly promised to support each other loyally. But confidence could
not enter in any way."
Charles gave Louis permission to retire to Namur and wait until the
duke had reduced the recalcitrant burghers once for all. Louis thought
it wiser to keep close to Charles's own person until they parted
company for ever, and the morrow found him in the duke's company as he
marched on to Liege.
"My opinion is, [says Commines], that he would have been wise to
depart that night. He could have done it for he had a hundred
archers of his guard, various gentlemen of his household, and,
near at hand, three hundred men-at-arms. Doubtless he was stayed
by considerations of honour. He did not wish to be accused of
cowardice."
Olivier de la Marche, also present as the princely pair entered Liege,
heard the king say: "March on, my brother, for you are the luckiest
prince alive." As they entered the gates, Louis shouted lustily,
"_Vive Bourgogne_," to the infinite dismay of his former friends, the
burghers of Liege.
The remainder of the history of that dire Sunday morning differs from
that of other assaults only in harrowing details, and the extremity of
the pitilessness and ferocity manifested by the conquerors. Charles
had previously spared churches, and protected the helpless. Above
all he had severely punished all ill treatment of respectable women.
Little trace of this former restraint was to be seen on this occasion.
The inhabitants were destroyed and banished by dozens. Those who fled
from their homes leaving their untasted breakfasts to be eaten by the
intruding soldiers, those who were scattered through the numerous
churches, those who attempted to defend the breaches in the walls--all
alike were treated without mercy.
The Cathedral of St. Lambert, Charles did endeavour to protect. "The
duke himself went thither, and one man I saw him kill with his own
hand, whereupon all the company departed and that particular church
was not pillaged, but at the end the men who had taken refuge there
were captured as well as the wealth of the church."
[Illustration: OLIVIER DE LA MARCHE
(FROM MS. REPRODUCED IN MÉM. COURONNÉS, ETC., PAR L'ACAD,
ROYALE DE BELGIQUE VOL. XLIX.)]
At about midday Charles joined Louis at the episcopal palace, where
the latter had found apartments better suited to his rank than the
rude huts that had sheltered him for the past few days. The king was
in good spirits and enjoyed his dinner in spite of the unsavoury
scenes that were still in progress about him. He manifested great joy
in the successful assault, and was lavish in his praises of the duke's
courage, taking care that his admiring phrases should be promptly
reported to his cousin.[4] His one great preoccupation, however, was
to return to his own realm.
After dinner the duke and he made good cheer together. "If the king
had praised his works behind his back, still more loud was he in
his open admiration. And the duke was pleased." No telling sign of
friendship for Charles had Louis spared that day, so terrified was he
lest some testimony from his ancient protégés might prove his ruin.
"Let the word be Burgundy," he had cried to his followers when the
attack began. "_Tuez, tuez, vive Bourgogne_."
There is another contemporaneous historian who somewhat apologetically
relates the following incident of this interview.[5] In this friendly
Sabbath day chat, Charles asked Louis how he ought to treat Liege when
his soldiers had finished their work. No trace of kindliness towards
his old friends was there in the king's answer.
"Once my father had a high tree near his house, inhabited by crows
who had built their nests thereon and disturbed his repose by their
chatter. He had the nests removed but the crows returned and built
anew. Several times was this repeated. Then he had the tree cut down
at the roots. After that my father slept quietly."
Four or five days passed before Louis dared press the question of his
return home. The following note written in Italian, dated on the day
of the assault, is significant of his state of mind:
LOUIS XI. TO THE COUNT DE FOIX
"Monseigneur the Prince:
"To-day my brother of Burgundy and I entered in great multitude
and with force into this city of Liege, and because I have great
desire to return, I advise you that on next Tuesday morning I will
depart hence, and I will not cease riding without making any stops
until I reach there.[6] I pray you to let me know what is to be
done.
"Writ at Liege, October 30th.
"LOYS
"DE LA LOERE."
Punctilious was Louis in his assurances to his host that if he could
be of any further aid he hoped his cousin would command him. If there
were, indeed, nothing, he thought his best plan would be to go to
Paris and have the late treaty duly recorded and published to insure
its validity. Charles grumbled a little, but finally agreed to speed
his parting guest after the treaty had been again read aloud to the
king so that he might dissent from any one of its articles or ever
after hold his peace.
Quite ready was Louis to re-confirm everything sworn to at Peronne.
Just as he was departing he put one more query: "'If perchance my
brother now in Brittany should be dissatisfied with the share I accord
him out of love to you, what do you want me to do?' The duke answered
abruptly and without thought: 'If he does not wish to take it, but
if you content him otherwise, I will trust to you two.' From this
question and answer arose great things as you shall hear later. So
the king departed at his pleasure, and Mons. de Cordes and d'Émeries,
Grand Bailiff of Hainaut escorted him out of ducal territory."[7]
"O wonderful and memorable crime of this king of the French
[declares a contemporaneous Liege sympathiser.][8] Scarcely
anything so bad can be found in ancient annals or in modern
history. What could be more stupid or more perfidious, or a better
instance of infamy than for a king who had incited a people to
arms against the Burgundians to act thus for the sake of his own
safety? Not once but many times had he pledged them his faith,
offering them defence and assistance against the same Burgundians.
And now when they are overwhelmed and confounded by this
Burgundian duke, this king actually co-operates with their foe, to
their damage, wears that foe's insignia and dares to hide himself
behind those emblems, and assist to destroy those to whom he
himself had furnished aid and subsidies with pledges of good
faith! I am ashamed to commit this to writing, and to hand it down
to posterity, knowing that it will seem incredible to many. But
it is so notorious throughout France and is confirmed by so many
adequate witnesses who have seen and heard these things that no
room is left for doubt of their veracity except to one desiring to
ignore the truth."[9]
November 2d is the date of Louis's departure. It needs no stretch
of the imagination to believe the words of his little Swiss page,
Diesbach, when he says that on reaching French soil Louis dismounted
and kissed the ground in a paroxysm of joy that he was his own man
again.[10] Devoutly, too, he gave thanks to God for helping him in his
need. Still this joy was concealed under euphemistic phrases in his
correspondence. On November 5th, he wrote again to the Duke of Milan
from Beaumont:
"We went in person with the duke against the Liegeois, on account
of their rebellion and offence, and the city being reduced by
force to the power of the duke, we have left him in some part of
Liege as we were anxious to return to our kingdom of France."
In January, 1469, Guillaume Toustain, the brother of the faithful
secretary Aloysius Toustain, who had written several of Louis's
letters from Liege, goes to Pavia to finish his studies, and Louis
writes to the Duke of Milan asking him to assure his protégé a
pleasant reception in the university.
The ratification of the treaty took place duly at Paris on Saturday,
November 19th, and the king also sternly forbade the circulation of
any "paintings, rondels, ballads, songs, or defamatory pamphlets"
about Charles.[11] The same informant tells us that loquacious birds
were put under a ban.
"And on the same day in behalf of the king, and by virtue of his
commission addressed to a young man of Paris named Henry Perdriel,
all the magpies, jays, and _chouettes_, caged or otherwise, were
taken in charge, and a record was made of all the places where the
said birds were taken and also all that they knew how to say, like
_larron, paillart_, etc., _va hors, va! Perrette donnes moi à
boire_, and various other phrases that they had been taught."
Abbé le Grand thinks that "Perrette" was meant for Peronne instead of
a mistress of Louis of that name. But this conjecture seems the only
basis for the very deep-rooted tradition that _Peronne_ was a word
Louis could not bear to have uttered.
"In the way of justice there is nothing going on here, [wrote one
Anthony de Loisey from Liege to the president of Burgundy], except
every day they hang and draw such Liegeois as are found or have been
taken prisoners and have no money to ransom themselves. The city is
well plundered, nothing remains but rubbish. For example I have not
been able to find a sheet of paper fit for writing to you, but with
all my pains could get nothing but some leaves from an old book."[12]
Charles decided that nothing should be left standing except churches
and ecclesiastical buildings. On November 9th, before the final fires
were lit, he departed from the wretched town and went down the left
bank of the Meuse to an abbey on the river, where he paused for the
night. Four leagues distant from the city was this place, and from it
were plainly visible the flames of the burning buildings on that grim
St. Hubert's Day--a day when Liege had been wont to give vent to
merriment.
"From all the dangers that had encompassed him, Charles escaped with
his life, simply because his hour had not yet struck, and because
he was God's chosen instrument to punish the sinning city," is the
verdict of one chronicler who does not spare his fellow-Liegeois for
their follies while he profoundly pities their fate.[13]
Out of the many contemporaneous accounts a portion of a private letter
from the duke's cup-bearer to his sister is added:[14]
"Very dear sister, with a very good heart I recommend myself to
you and to all my good friends, men and women in our parts, not
forgetting my _beaux-pères,_ Martin Stephen and Dan Gauthier. Pray
know that, thanks to God, I and all my people are safe and sound.
As to my horses, one was wounded and another is sick in the hands
of the marshals at Namur, and the others are thin enough and have
no grain to eat except hay. The weather, has, indeed, been enough
to strike a chill to the hearts of men and horses. Since we left
Burgundy there have not been three fine days in succession and we
are in a worse state than wolves.
"You already know how we passed through Lorraine and Ratellois
without troubling about Salesart or other French captains, nor the
other Lorrainers either, although they were under orders to
attack us, and were no more afraid of us than we of them. As we
approached the territory of Hainaut, M. the duke sent Messire
Pierre de Harquantbault[15] to us to show us what road to take.
He told us that the duke had made a treaty with the king, who had
visited him, news that filled us with astonishment....
After skirmishing for several days we reached the faubourgs of
Liege and remained there three of four days under arms, with no
sleep and little food, and our horses standing in the rain with no
shelter but the trees. While we were thus lodged, the king and
the duke with a fair escort arrived and took up their quarters in
certain houses near the faubourg. [... Constant firing was
interchanged for several days. Sallies were essayed and men were
slain.]
"Finally a direct attack was made on the king and Monseigneur
and there were more of their people than ours and that night
Monseigneur was in great danger. The following Sunday at 9 A.M. we
began the assault in three separate quarters. It was a fine thing
to see the men-at-arms march on the walls of the said city, some
climbing and others scaling them with ladders. The standards
of monseigneur the marshal and monsgn. de Renty who had been
stationed together in the faubourgs, were the first within the
said city which contained at that moment sixteen to eighteen
thousand combatants, who were surprised when they saw their walls
scaled.
"In a moment we entered crying 'Burgundy' and 'city gained.' Ever
so many of their people were slain and drowned in their flight. We
flew to reach the market-place and the church of St. Lambert where
a number of prisoners were taken and thrown into the water. Our
ensign stood in the midst of the fray on the market-place, in the
hopes that they would rally for a combat but they rallied only
to flee. While we held our position on the square several were
created knights.... All the churches--more than four hundred--were
pillaged and plundered. It is rumoured that they will be burnt
together with the rest of the city. Piteous it is to see what ill
is wrought.... [The king] stayed in the city with Monseigneur two
or three days. Then he departed, it is said for Brussels to await
my said lord. It is a great thing to have seen the puissance of my
master, _which is great enough to defeat an emperor_. I believe
the Burgundians will shortly return to Burgundy.
"I paid my respects to my said lord, who received me very well. At
present I am listed[16] among those whose term is almost expired
and I am ready to follow him wherever he wishes until my service
is out, which will be soon. I would have written before had I had
any one to send it by. Pray write me about yourself by the first
comer. Praying our Lord, beloved sister, to keep you. Written in
Liege, November 8, 1468.
"JEHAN DE MAZILLES."
This sober letter and other accounts by reliable witnesses agree as to
the terrible havoc wrought in the city by the assault on October 30th
and by determined and systematic measures of destruction, both during
Charles's ten days' sojourn for the express purpose of completing the
punishment and after his departure. Yet the result assuredly fell
short of the intention. The destruction was not complete as was that
of Dinant. Vitality remained, apart from the ecclesiastical nucleus
intentionally preserved by the duke.
Having watched the tongues of flame lap the unfortunate city, Charles
turned with his army towards Franchimont, that rugged hill country
which had proved a nest of hardy and persistent antagonists to
Burgundian pretensions. Jehan de Mazilles is in close attendance and
gives further details of the pitiless fashion in which Charles carried
out his purpose of leaving no seed of resistance to germinate. Four
nights and three days they sojourned in a certain little village while
there was a hard frost and where, without unarming, they "slept under
the trees and drank water." Meantime a small party was despatched
by the duke to attack the stronghold of Franchimont. The despairing
Liegeois who had taken refuge there abandoned it, and it was taken by
assault. A few more days and the duke was assured that Liege and her
people were shorn of their strength. When the remnant of survivors
began to creep back to the city and tried to recover what was left
of their property, many were the questions to be settled. Lawsuits
succeeded to turmoils and lingered on for years.
In the lordly manner of conquerors Charles, too, demanded
reimbursement for his trouble in bending these free citizens to
his illegal will. The reinstated bishop wanted his rents and legal
perquisites, all difficult to collect, and many were the ponderous
documents that passed on the subject. How justly pained sounds
Charles's remonstrance on the default of payment of taxes to his
friend, the city's lord!
"Therefore [he writes,] in consideration of these things, taking into
account the terror of our departure to Brussels last January, we
decide, my brother and I, that the payment of both _gabelle_ and poll
tax must be forced, and that we cannot permit the retarding of such
taxes under any colour or pretence. At the request of our brother and
cousin we order the inhabitants of the said territories to pay both
_gabelle_ and poll tax, all that is due from the time it was imposed
and for the time to come, under penalty of the confiscation of their
goods and their persons."
It was the old story of bricks without straw--taxes and rents for
property ruthlessly destroyed were so easy. To this extent of tyranny
had Duke Philip never gone, and undoubtedly the treatment of Liege was
a step towards Charles's final disaster. So much hatred was excited
against him that his adherents fell off one by one when his luck began
to fail him.
No omen of misfortune was to be seen at this time, however. That month
of November saw him master absolute wherever he was and he used his
power autocratically. At Huy, he had a number of prisoners executed.
At Louvain, at Brussels, he gave fresh examples of his relentlessness
as an overlord.
[Footnote 1: Commines, ii., ch. xi. It was not far from the place
where another Prince of Orange tried to cross the Meuse exactly a
hundred years later.]
[Footnote 2: The story of the "men of Franchimont" is questioned.
Commines is the only authority for it.]
[Footnote 3: II., ch. xiii.]
[Footnote 4: Commines, ii., ch. xiii.]
[Footnote 5: Oudenbosch, _Veterum scriptorum, etc. Amplissima
Collectio_, ed. E. Martene, iv. Rerum Leodiensim. Opus Adriani de
Veteri Busco, p. 1343. The writer acknowledges that the story is
hearsay.]
[Footnote 6: "_Non cessero di cavalchare senza fare demoia alcuna.
Lettres,iii_., 300.]
[Footnote 7: Commines, ii., ch. xiv.]
[Footnote 8: "_O proeclarum et memorabile facinus hujus regis
Francorum_."]
[Footnote 9: Basin, _Histoire des règnes de Charles VII. et de Louis
XI_., Quicherat ed., ii., 204. This also appears in _Excerpta ex
Amelgardi. De gestis Ludovici XI_., cap. xxiii. Martene's _Amplissima
Collectio,_ iv., 740 _et seq_.]
[Footnote 10: Quoted in Kirk, i., 606, note.]
[Footnote 11: Jean de Roye, _Chronique Scandaleuse_, ed. Mandrot, i.,
220.]
[Footnote 12: Comines-Lenglet, iii., 83.]
[Footnote 13: Johannes de Los, _Chronicon_, p. 60. _Quia hora nendum
venerat._ De Ram, "Troubles du pays de Liége."]
[Footnote 14: Commynes-Dupont, _Preuves_, iii., 242. Letter of Jehan
de Mazilles to his sister.]
[Footnote 15: Hagenbach, later Governor of Alsace.]
[Footnote 16: _Conte aux escros_. This word strictly applies to the
prisoners on a jailer's list--evidently used in jest.]