ENGLISH AFFAIRS
1470-1471
In order to follow out the extension of Burgundian jurisdiction in
one direction, the course of events in the duke's life has been
anticipated a little. The thread of the story now returns to 1469,
when Charles and Sigismund separated at St. Omer both well pleased
with their bargain. Charles tarried for a time at Ghent and Bruges
and then proceeded to Zealand and Holland, where his sojourn had been
interrupted in 1468 by his alarm about French duplicity. In the glow
caused by his past achievements, his present reputation, and future
prospects, Charles of Burgundy was in a mood to prove to his subjects
his excellence as a paternal ruler. Wherever he paused on his journey
easy access was permitted to his presence and he was lavish in the
time given to receiving petitions from the humblest plaintiff. The
following gruesome incident is an illustration of the summary methods
attributed to him.[1]
Shortly before the ducal visit to Middelburg, the governor, a man
of noble birth, a knight, fell in love with a married woman who
indignantly repudiated his advances. In revenge the governor had the
husband arrested on a charge of high treason. The wife, left without a
protector, continued obdurate to the knight until the alternative of
her husband's release or his death was offered her as the reward for
accepting the governor's base suit or as the penalty of her refusal.
She chose to redeem the prisoner. Having paid the price she went to
the prison and was led to her husband truly, but he lay dead and in
his coffin!
When the Duke of Burgundy was once within the Zealand capital, this
injured woman hastened to throw herself at his feet, a petitioner
for justice. He heard her complaint and straightway summoned the
ex-governor to his presence. The accused confessed that he had been
carried away by his adoration for the woman, reminded Charles of
his long and faithful devotion to the late duke and to himself, and
offered any possible reparation for his crime. The duke ordered him to
marry his victim. The widow was horrified at the suggestion, but was
forced by her family to accept it. After the nuptial benediction, the
knight again appeared before Charles to assure him that the plaintiff
was satisfied. "She, yes," replied the duke coldly, "but not I." He
remanded the bridegroom to prison, had him shriven and executed all
within an hour. Then the bride was summoned and shown her second
husband in his coffin as she had seen her first, and on the same spot.
"It was a penalty that hit the innocent as well as the guilty, for the
plaintiff died from the double shock."
The duke, satisfied with his rigour, went on to Holland. Everywhere he
evinced himself equally uncompromising towards the nobles, amiable and
considerate towards the lower classes and humble folk. Various other
stories related about him at this epoch are difficult to accept as
authentic, for the main detail has appeared at other times under
different guises. Wandering tales seem to alight, like birds of
passage, on successive people in lands and epochs widely apart, mere
hallmarks of certain characteristics re-embodied.
The Hague was the duke's headquarters during two months, and there
also he held open court and gave audience to many embassies in the
midst of his administrative work pertaining to Holland and its nearest
neighbours. He took measures to recover what he claimed had been
usurped by Utrecht, and he initiated proceedings to make good the
title of Lord of Friesland, that will-o'-the wisp to successive Counts
of Holland and never acknowledged by the Frisians. In efforts to weld
together the various provinces the months passed, until a new turn of
foreign events began to absorb the duke's whole attention.
The details of English politics with all the reasons for revolution
and counter-revolution involved in the complicated civil disorders,
the Wars of the Roses, affected Charles's policy but they can only
be suggested in his biography. It must be remembered that the modern
impression of English stability and French fickleness in political
institutions, an impression casting reflections direct and indirect
upon literature as well as history, is based on the changes in France
from 1789 down to the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century. Quite
the reverse is the earlier tradition based on the kaleidoscopic
shifts familiar to several generations of observers in the fifteenth
century[2]; stable and firm felt the French as they heard the tidings
of the brief triumphs of belligerent factions across the Channel.
Since 1461, Henry VI. of the House of Lancaster had been a passive
prisoner, while Margaret of Anjou had exhausted herself in efforts
to win adherents at home and abroad for her captive husband and her
exiled son.[3] In 1463, she had received some aid, some encouragement
from Philip of Burgundy, although he had recognised Edward IV. as king
and although, too, his personal sympathies were Yorkish rather than
Lancastrian.
It was Charles who escorted the errant lady into Lille, but later the
duke himself entertained her munificently. The poverty-stricken exile
probably found the accompanying ducal gifts more to the immediate
purpose than the ducal feasts. Two thousand gold crowns were bestowed
upon herself, a hundred upon each of her ladies, while various
Lancastrian nobles were tided over hard times by useful sums of money.
Pleasant though the recognition was, however, the pecuniary assistance
was quite insufficient to accomplish Margaret's purpose. For nine
years Edward IV. sat on his throne and no serious efforts were made to
dislodge him. As he never forgot his mother's lineage, the sympathies
of Charles of Burgundy were with the exiles, and Queen Margaret may
have counted confidently on that sympathy proving valuable for her son
as soon as Charles himself had a free hand. But when he came into his
heritage, his marriage with Margaret of York put a definite end to
those hopes. The new duke thereby declared his acceptance of the king
whom the Earl of Warwick had seated upon the English throne. Then
came clashing of wills between that king and his too powerful
subject-adviser.[4] To punish his unruly royal protégé, Warwick turned
his attention to the Duke of Clarence, brother and heir presumptive to
Edward IV. A marriage was planned between this possible future monarch
and the earl's eldest daughter and then quickly celebrated at Calais
without the king's knowledge (July, 1469).
In the same summer occurred a rising in Yorkshire, possibly instigated
by Warwick.[5] The malcontents, sixty thousand strong, declared that
the king was giving ear to base counsellors and must be coerced into
better ways. An attempt to suppress this revolt by the royal troops
resulted in a pitched battle where Earl Rivers, the father of
Elizabeth Woodville, the young queen, was taken prisoner and beheaded.
Edward, baffled, finally turned for aid to Warwick. Over the Channel
hastened the earl and his new son-in-law, levied troops, met the king
at Olney, and--Edward found himself if not exactly a prisoner, at
least under restraint. Two sovereigns--both without power even over
their own actions,--such was the situation in England at the end of
1469, when Charles of Burgundy was self-complacently regarding Louis
XI. as a foe convinced of his own inferiority.
A menacing letter from this redoubtable ducal brother-in-law was
probably the reason why Edward IV. was set at liberty, and why a
reconciliation was patched up between him and his councillor, with
full pardon for Warwick's adherents. But it was short-lived. A fresh
outbreak in March, 1470, made another change. Warwick and Clarence
sided with the rebels, the king was victorious, and his unfaithful
friend and brother were again forced to flee under a shower of menaces
hurled after them.
"But, and He [Clarence] or Richart Erle of Warrewyk our Rebell and
Traytour come into oure seid Land we woll ... that ye doo Hym
and Theym to be arrested ... He that Taketh and Bryngeth unto Us
either of theym, he shal have for his Reward C._l_ of Land in
Yerely Value to Hym and to his Heyres or Mil. _Lib_ in Redy money
at his election."[6]
Such was the proclamation issued on March 22d by the king himself at
York.
Between Edward and Charles a new link had just been forged in the
chain of friendship. The Order of the Garter is thus acknowledged by
the duke:
"We have to-day received from our much honoured seigneur and
brother, the king of England, his Order of the Garter together
with the mantle and other ornaments and things appertaining to the
said Order and have ... taken the oath according to the statutes
of the Order.
"Done in our city of Ghent under our Grand Seal, February 4, 1469
[O.S.]."[7]
Now it was in consideration of needs that might arise in the near
future, following on the trail of these wide-reaching English
convulsions, that Charles felt it necessary to make preparations for
a strong military defence calculated to suit any emergency. Louis XI.
had a permanent force at his command. He had made the beginning of the
French standing army, the nucleus of one of those bodies that have
ever since urged each other on to expensive growth from opposite sides
of European frontiers. What one monarch possessed that must his near
neighbour have.
Feudal service, volunteer militia, paid mercenaries, were all alike
unstable bulwarks for a nation. Nation as yet Charles had not, but
he wanted to be betimes with his bulwarks. This was why he issued
an ordinance for the levy of a thousand lances, amounting to five
thousand combatants, to be paid with regular wages and kept ready at
call under officers of his own appointment. The ducal treasury could
not stand the whole expense. To meet the deficit, Charles asked from
his Netherland Estates an annual subsidy of 120,000 crowns for three
years. Power to impose taxes he had none. A request to each individual
province was all the requisition that he could make.
In this case, most of the provinces approached had acceded to the
demand, when the Estates of Flanders convened at Lille. Here the
Chancellor of Burgundy expounded to them the grounds of the demand,
and then the session was changed to Bruges, where they debated on the
merits of the request, urged on further by explanatory letters from
Charles. Finally, a deputation was appointed by the Estates to go over
to Ghent and present a _Remonstrance_ to their impatient sovereign
beggar.
Three points were set forth. The deputies objected to this grant being
asked only from the lands _de par de ça_--the Netherlands and not from
the Burgundies. Secondly, they wished a definite assessment imposed on
each province. Thirdly, they desired a declaration that the fiefs and
arrière-fiefs already bound to furnish troops should be exempt from
share in this tax. The remonstrance was courtly in tone. Written
in French, the concluding phrases were in Latin and suggested that
nothing was more becoming a prince than clemency, especially towards
his subjects.[8]
Vigorous and emphatic was the prince's response.[9] How could Burgundy
furnish money? It is a poor land. It takes after France.[10] But its
men make a third of the army. They are the Burgundian contribution. As
to an assessment, what is the use unless the tax is surely to be paid?
Only out of malice is this idle point suggested.
"You act as you have always done--you Flemings. Neither to my
father nor to me have you ever been liberal. What you have
granted--sometimes more than our request--has always been given so
tardily as to prove the lack of good will. Your Flemish skulls
are hard and thick and you cling to your stubborn and perverse
opinions.... I am half of France and half of Portugal and I know
how to meet such heads as yours, ay and _will_ do it. You have
always either hated or despised your prince--if powerful you
hated, if weak you despised. I prefer your hatred to your
contempt. Not for your privileges or anything else will I permit
myself to be trampled on--and I have the power to prevent such
trampling."
Laying stress on the extreme modesty of his demand, whose purpose
mainly was for defence of Flanders, the duke proceeded to berate
his visitors soundly for their presumptuous haggling, declaring
that as to the fiefs and arrière-fiefs he would see to it that no
double burdens were borne.
"And when you shall have determined to accord my request,--which
you will assuredly do (and I do not mean to burden you further
unless I am forced to it),--send some of your deputies after me to
Lille or St. Omer, and there, with my chancellor and my council, I
will determine the apportionment and we will speak also of other
matters touching my province of Flanders."
It was this vehement oratory--and this vehemence was repeated on many
occasions--that did more to alienate Charles from his hereditary
subjects than his actual demands. There is little doubt that his
period of residence in their midst brought with it hatred rather
than liking. No political error of his serves to explain the Flemish
attitude towards the duke as does his method of address, the
gratuitous contempt displayed towards burghers whose purses were
needed for his game. The _aide_ was granted, indeed, but it was levied
with sullen reluctance.
What cause Charles had to make his preparations, what were the
proceedings of the English exiles may be seen from the following
letters to his mother and to the town of Ypres. The first is probably
in answer to her questionings; the second is a specimen of the
epistles showered upon the border towns.
"TO MY VERY REDOUBTABLE LADY AND MOTHER,
MADAME THE DUCHESS, AT AIRE:
"May it please you to know that in regard to what the Sgr. de
Crèvecoeur has written you about the king's proclamations that he
intends to maintain his treaties and promises to me, etc., and has
no desire to sustain the Earl of Warwick, and wishes my subjects
to be reimbursed for the damages inflicted by him and his,
assuredly, my Lady and Mother, the contrary has been and is well
known before the said publications and after. The Earl of Warwick
is my foe and could not, according to the treaty existing between
the king and me, be received in Normandy or elsewhere in the realm
... [complaints about the procedure have been sent to king and
parliament and councillors, without redress, etc.] What is more,
the Admiral of France has sent thither a spy under pretext of
carrying a letter to Sgr. de la Groothuse, which man was charged
to spy upon my ships and by means of a caravel named the
_Brunette_, sent for this purpose by the admiral, to cut the
cables to set them adrift and founder--or to capture certain ships
with such captains, knights, and gentlemen as he could find, and
myself, too, if they were able.
"Furthermore, the said spy was charged to spy on my towns, etc.,
and those of the caravel called the _Brunette_ were charged, if
they failed in taking my ships, or in cutting their cables, to
set fire to them--all in direct conflict with the terms of the
treaties, and procedures that the king would never have tolerated
had he had the slightest intention of maintaining his word ...
[Charles does not consider Groothuse to blame at all, etc.][11]
_Letter from Charles of Burgundy to the Magistrates of Ypres, June 10,
1470_
"DEAR FRIENDS:
"It has come to your knowledge how after the Duke of Clarence and
the Earl of Warwick were expelled from England on account of their
sedition and their ill deeds, they have declared themselves both
by words and deeds of aggression our enemies, and on _Vendredi
absolut_[12] went so far as to capture by fraud ships and property
belonging to our subjects, and have further done damage whenever
opportunity presented itself.
"In order to repel them we have ordered them to be attacked on
the sea. Moreover, at the same time we were advised that the same
Clarence and Warwick and their people, after they were routed at
sea by the troops of my honoured lord and brother, Edward, King of
England, retreated to the marches of Normandy and were honourably
received at Honfleur by the Admiral of France with all which they
had saved from the raid on our subjects after the defeat.
"All this was direct infringement of the treaties lately made
between Monseigneur the king and myself. Therefore, we wrote at
once to Monsgr. the king begging him not to favour or aid the said
Clarence and Warwick in his land of Normandy or elsewhere in his
realm, nor to permit them to sell or distribute the property of
our subjects, and to show his will by publishing such prohibitions
throughout Normandy and elsewhere where need is.
"Also we wrote to the court of parliament at Paris, and to the
council of my said seigneur at Rouen. The answer was that the king
meant to keep the treaty between him and us and had ordered his
subjects in Normandy not to retain the property belonging to our
subjects ... but we have since learned that, notwithstanding,
this same property has been distributed and ransoms have been
negotiated in the sight and knowledge of the Admiral of France and
his officers.
"Moreover, it is perfectly evident that by means of the aid
furnished by the king to the said Clarence and Warwick, the latter
are enabled to continue the war on our subjects and not on the
English, it being understood that they who were banished from
England are not strong enough to return by the force of arms but
must do so by friendship and favour.... On account of the above
and other depredations, we shall attack the said Warwick and
Clarence on the sea as pirates, and all who aid them as is needful
for the protection of our lands and subjects.
"Written at Middelburg in Zealand, June 20, 1470."[13]
"Tell Monsieur de Warwick that the king will assist him to recover
England either with the help of Queen Margaret or by whatever
other means he may propose.... Only let him communicate his
desires in this respect as speedily as possible and the king will
lay aside all other affairs for the purpose of accomplishing it,"
wrote the complaisant King of France in his directions to the
confidential messenger sent to discuss matters with the English
earl.[14]
But that was not his language towards his cousin of Burgundy, whom he
assured that there should be no infringement of their treaty, and that
it was greatly to his royal displeasure that Flemish property
captured at sea in defiance of that treaty should be sold in French
market-places. There is a hot correspondence,[15] that is, it is hot
on the side of Charles, while Louis's phrases are smoothly surprised
at there being any cause for dissatisfaction. The circumstances shall
be investigated, his cousin satisfied, etc. One letter from the duke
to two of Louis's council is emphatic in its expressions of doubt as
to the good faith of these royal statements:
"ARCHBISHOP AND YOU ADMIRAL:
"The vessels which you assure me are destined by the king for
an attack on England have attempted nothing except against my
subjects; but, by St. George, if some redress be not seen to, I
will take the matter into my own hands without waiting for your
motions, tardy and dilatory as they are."[16]
Reprisals were made accordingly, and the innocent French merchants,
coming peaceably to the fair at Antwerp, suffered confiscation of
their private property, while the duke felt fully justified in
stationing his fleet off the coast of Normandy to guard the Channel.
Philip de Commines was one of the company who went at the duke's
behest to Calais to urge the governor, Wenlock, to be faithful to King
Edward, and to give no shelter to the rebellious earl and his protégé
Clarence.[17]
Louis feared an outbreak of hostilities at an inconvenient moment. He
temporised. To Warwick, he denied a personal interview, but at the
same time he sent him a confidential emissary, Sr. du Plessis, to whom
he wrote as follows:
"Monsieur du Plessis, you know the desire I have for Warwick's
return to England, as well because I wish to see him get the
better of his enemies--or that at least through him the realm of
England may be embroiled--as to avoid the questions which have
arisen out of his sojourn here.... For you know that these Bretons
and Burgundians have no other aim than to find a pretext for
rupturing peace and reopening the war, which I do not wish to see
commenced under this colour.... Wherefore I pray you take pains,
you and others there, to induce Mons. de Warwick to depart by all
arguments possible. Pray use the sweetest methods that you can, so
that he shall not suspect that we are thinking of anything else
but his personal advantage."[18]
To gain time was Louis's ardent wish at that moment. The envoys
sent by Louis to placate the duke's resentment at the incidents in
connection with the Warwick affair, and to assure him that Louis meant
well by him and his subjects, found Charles holding high state at St.
Omer. When they were admitted to audience, the duke was discovered
sitting on a lofty throne, five feet above floor level, "higher than
was the wont of king or emperor to sit." His hat remained on his head
as the representatives of his feudal overlord bowed to him and he
acknowledged their obeisance by a slight nod and a gesture permitting
them to rise.
Hugonet, a member of the ducal council, answered their address with
a prosy speech. Burgundian officials revelled in grandiloquent
phrases--which this time bored Charles, He cut short the harangue
impatiently, took the floor himself, and made a statement of the
injuries he had suffered. Louis had promised to be his friend, but he
was aiding the foe of the duke's brother. The envoys repeated their
sovereign's offers of redress. Charles declared that redress was
impossible. Pained, very pained were the French envoys to think that
a petty dispute could not be settled amicably. "The king desires to
avoid friction. He offers you friendship, peace, and redress for every
wrong. It will not be his fault if trouble ensue. Monseigneur, the
king and you have a judge who is above you both."
The insinuation that it was he who was ready to break the peace
infuriated Charles. He started to his feet, his eyes flashing with
fire. "Among us Portuguese there is a custom that when our friends
become friends to our foes we send them to the hundred thousand devils
of hell."[19] "A piece of bad taste to send by implication a king of
France to a hundred thousand devils," comments the suave Chastellain,
aghast at this impolite, emphatic, though indirect reference to Louis
XI.
Equally aghast were the Burgundian courtiers present at this occasion.
After all, they, too, were French by nature. To wreck the new-made
peace for the sake of the English alliance, which had never been
really popular among them, that seemed an act of rash unwisdom.
"A murmur went the rounds of the ducal suite because their chief
thus implied contempt for the name of France to which the duke
belonged. Not going quite so far as to call himself English,
though that was what his heart was, he boasted of his mother,
ancient friend of England and enemy of France."
There were, indeed, times when the duke was more emphatic in asserting
his English blood. Plancher cites a scrap of writing in his own hands
which probably belonged to a letter to the magistrates and citizens of
Calais, whom he addresses, "O you my friends."[20] While reiterating
that he simply must defend his own state he adds, "By St. George who
knows me to be a better Englishman and more anxious for the weal of
England than you other English ... [you] shall recognise that I am
sprung from the blood of Lancaster," etc. His claims of kinship varied
with the circumstances.
While he was so conscious of his own greatness, present and future,
and of his own laudable intentions to do well by his subjects, it is
quite possible, too, that Charles was puzzled more or less consciously
by his failure to win popularity. For he was quite as unpopular with
his courtiers as with his subjects. The former did not like the rigid
court rules. There was no pleasure in sitting through audiences silent
and stiff "as at a sermon," and exposed to personal reprimands from
their chief if there were the slightest lapses from his standard of
conduct. They did not know on what meat the duke was feeding his
imagination, an imagination that already saw him as Cæsar. Had he
actually attained the loftier rank that he dreamed of, his premature
arrogance might have been forgotten, but his pride of glory invisible
to the world about him was undoubtedly a bar to his popularity during
the years 1470-73.
Before this pompous scene passed at St. Omer, Louis had been relieved
of anxiety in regard to the stability of his kingdom, and the dangers
of an heir like his brother who might easily be used as a tool by some
clever faction opposed to the ruling monarch. On June 10th, a son was
born to him, afterwards Charles VIII. of France. Complaisant still
were his words to his Burgundian cousin, but the moment was drawing
near when his efforts to circumvent him were no longer secret.
The embassy returned home. Possibly their report of the duke's
passionate words goaded the king into discarding his mask of
friendship. At any rate, his next steps were unequivocal in showing
which side of the fresh English quarrel he meant to espouse. Margaret
of Anjou hated the Earl of Warwick, not only because he had unseated
her husband but because he had doubted her fidelity to that husband.
Nevertheless, under Louis's persuasions, she consented to forget her
past wrongs and to stake her future hopes on fraternising with him on
a basis of common hate for Edward IV. The alliance was to be sealed
by the marriage of young Edward of Lancaster, the prince whose very
legitimacy Warwick had questioned, with the earl's younger daughter.
It was a singular union to be accepted by the parents, separated as
they had been by the wall of insults interchanged during more than a
decade of bitter enmity.
Louis brought his cousin to this step of concession. She saw her
seventeen-year-old son betrothed to the sixteen-year-old Anne Neville,
and later she herself swore reconciliation to Warwick on a piece of
the true cross in St. Mary's Church at Angers (August 4, 1470).
"Monsieur du Plessis [wrote Louis XI. on July 25th], I have sent
you Messire Ivon du Fou, to put the affairs of Monsieur de Warwick
in surety, and I order him to make such arrangements that the
people of the said M. de Warwick will suffer no necessity until he
is there. To-day we have made the marriage of the Queen of England
and of him, and hope to-morrow to have all in readiness to
depart."[21]
[Illustration: MEDAL OF CHARLES, DUKE OF BURGUNDY (FROM BARANTE)]
Meanwhile, the king kept agents in all the Somme towns, insinuating
opposition to the duke, and reminding the citizens that they were
French at heart. His ambassadors passed in and out of the Burgundian
court, saying many things in secret besides those they said in public.
Plenty there were that wished for war, remarks the observant Commines.
Nobles like St. Pol and others could not maintain the same state in
peace as in war, and state they loved. In time of war four hundred
lances attended the constable, and he had a large allowance to
maintain them from which he reaped many a profitable commission
besides the fees of his office and his other emoluments. "Moreover,"
adds Commines, "the nobles were accustomed to say among themselves
that if there were no battles without, there would be quarrels within
the realm."
The matter of the grants to Charles of France had been settled to his
royal brother's liking, not to that of his Burgundian ally. Champagne
and Brie, so cheerfully promised at Peronne, were withdrawn and
Guienne substituted. When Normandy had been exchanged for Champagne
and Brie, as it was arranged at Peronne, Charles of Burgundy approved
the change as he thought it assured him an obedient friend as
neighbour.[22] The second change, Guienne instead of Champagne and
Brie, was quite a different thing.
Guienne bordered the Bay of Biscay far away from Burgundy. Naturally,
Charles was not content. Then, too, it looked as though he had lost a
useful friend as well as a neighbour, for the new Duke of Guienne was
formally reconciled to his brother and took oath that his fraternal
devotion to his monarch should never again waver.
Long before Charles was completely convinced that Louis was not going
to maintain the humble attitude assumed at Peronne and Liege, he
became very suspicious that intrigues were on foot against him. "He
hastened to Hesdin where he entered into jealousy of his servants"
says Commines. That he was assured that there were reasons for his
apprehensions appears in an epistle circulated as an open letter,[23]
to various cities, wherein he makes a detailed statement of the plots
against his life by one Jehan d'Arson and Baldwin, son of Duke Philip.
Sorry return was this from one recognised as Bastard of Burgundy and
brought up in the ducal household. Further, one Jehan de Chassa,
Charles's own chamberlain, had taken French leave of the duke's
service and made his way to the king in his castle of Amboise, where
he had been pleasantly received and promised rich reward when he had
"executed his damnable designs against our person."
Messengers sent by this Chassa to Baldwin in Charles's court at St.
Omer were arrested as suspicious, and that circumstance frightened
Baldwin and caused him to take to his heels, leaving his retinue, his
horses, and his baggage behind. He dreaded lest he might be attainted
and convicted of treason, and therefore he took shelter with the king.
"Saved from this conspiracy by the goodness and clemency of God,
we inform you of the events so that you may render thanks
by public processions, solemn masses, sermons, and prayers,
beseeching Him devoutly and from the heart that He will always
guard and defend our person, our lands, seigniories, and subjects
from such plots.
"May God protect you, dear subjects. Written in our castle of
Hesdin, December 13, 1470.
"CHARLES.
"LE GROS."
It was not long before Charles had less reason to fear French
"subtleties." At an assembly of notables[24] convened at Tours at the
end of 1470, Louis dropped the mask of friendship worn uneasily for
just two years, and made an open brief of his grievances against the
duke.
His case was cited with a luxury of detail more or less authentic. The
interview at Peronne was a simple trap conceived by Balue and the Duke
of Burgundy. The treaties of 1465 and 1468, both obtained by undue
pressure, had not been respected by Charles, etc. The assembly was
obedient to suggestion. It was a packed house.
Even Commines shows that it is not surprising that there was
unanimity[25] in the declaration that according to God and his
conscience in all honour and justice the king was released from those
treaties, and the way was paved for an invasion into Picardy as soon
as possible.
Charles's public accusations of plots against him did not go
unanswered. Jehan de Chassa promptly issued a rejoinder:
"As Charles, soi-disant Duke of Burgundy, has sent to divers
places letters signed by himself and his secretary, Jehan le
Gros, written at Hesdin, December 13th, falsely charging me with
plotting against his life with Baldwin, Bastard of Burgundy,
and Jehan d'Arson, I, considering that it is matter touching my
honour, feel bound to reply.... By God and by my soul I declare
that these charges against me made by Charles of Burgundy are
false and disloyal lies"[26]
Baldwin, too, expressed righteous indignation at the slur on his
character, but he remained in the French court as did many others who
had formerly served Charles.
Meanwhile, the Earl of Warwick, having left his daughter in the hands
of Margaret of Anjou, openly aided by Louis, sailed back to England in
September But there had been one further change of base of which the
earl was still unconscious. His elder son-in-law had not rejoiced in
the Warwick-Lancaster alliance. It brought young Prince Edward to the
fore, and bereft the Duke of Clarence--long ready to replace Edward of
York--of any immediate prospects. Therefore he was inclined to accept
offers of a reconciliation tendered him by King Edward.
Despite his secret change of heart, Clarence sailed with Warwick and
joined with him in the proclamations scattered over England, declaring
that the exiles were returning to "set right and justice to their
places, and to reduce and redeem for ever the realm from its
thraldom." Never a mention of either Edward IV. or Henry VI. Perhaps
it was as convenient to see which way the wind blew and to put in a
name accordingly.
On landing, however, "King Henry VI." was raised as a cry. In
Nottinghamshire, where Edward lay, not a word was heard for York.
There was no conflict. Edward felt that Fate had turned against him
and off he rode to Lyme with a small following, took ship, and made
for Holland. It was stormy, pirates from the Hanseatic towns gave
chase, and glad was Edward to take shelter at Alkmaar where De la
Groothuse, Governor of Holland, welcomed him in the name of the
duke.[27] Edward was quite destitute. He had nothing with which to pay
his fare across the Channel but a gown lined with marten's fur, and as
for his train, never so poor a company was seen.
Eleven days later, Warwick was master of all England and official
business was transacted in the name of Henry VI., "limp and helpless
on his throne as a sack of wool." He was a mere shadow and pretence
and what was done in his name was done without his will or knowledge.
Charles of Burgundy did not hasten to greet his unbidden guest. He
would rather have heard that his brother-in-law were dead, but he bade
Groothuse show him every courtesy and supply him with necessaries and
five hundred crowns a month for luxuries. After a time, and perhaps
informed by weather prophets that the Lancastrian wind blowing over in
England was but a fickle breeze, he consented to forget his hereditary
sympathies.
"The same day that the duke received news of the king's arrival in
Holland, I was come from Calais to Boulogne (where the duke then
lay) ignorant of the event and of the king's flight.[28] The duke
was first advised that he was dead, which did not trouble him much
for he loved the Lancaster line far better than that of York.
Besides he had with him the Dukes of Exeter and of Somerset and
divers others of King Henry's faction, by which means he thought
himself assured of peace with the line of Lancaster. But he feared
the Earl of Warwick, neither knew he how to content him that was
to come to him, I mean King Edward, whose sister he had married
and who was also brother-in-arms, for the king wore the Golden
Fleece and the duke the Garter.
"Straightway then the duke sent me back to Calais accompanied by
a gentleman or two of this new faction of Henry, and gave me
instructions how to deal with this new world, urging me to
go because it was important for him to be well served in the
matter.[29] I went as far as Tournehem, a castle near to Guisnes,
and then dared not proceed because I found people fleeing for fear
of the English who were devastating the country.... Never before
had I needed a safe-conduct for the English are very honourable.
All this seemed very strange to me for I had never seen these
mutations in the world."
Commines was uncertain as to what he had better do and wanted
instructions. "The duke sent me a ring from his finger, bidding me go
forward with the promise that if I were taken prisoner he would redeem
me." New surprises met the envoy at Calais. None of the well-known
faces were to be seen. "Further, upon the gate of my lodgings and
the very door of my chamber were a hundred white crosses and rhymes
signifying that the King of France and Earl of Warwick were one--all
of which seemed strange to me." Well received was Commines and
entertained at dinner. It was told at table how within a quarter of an
hour after the arrival of news from England every man wore this livery
(the ragged staff of Warwick), so speedy and sudden was the change.
"This is the first time that I ever knew how little stable are these
mundane affairs."
"In all communications that passed between them and me, I repeated
that King Edward was dead, of which fact I said I was well
assured, notwithstanding that I knew the contrary, adding further
that though it were not so, yet was the league between the Duke of
Burgundy and the king and realm of England such that this accident
could not infringe it--whomever they would acknowledge as king him
would we recognise.... Thus it was agreed that the league should
remain firm and inviolate between us and the king and realm of
England save that for Edward we named Henry."
Commines explains further that the wool trade was what made amity with
England necessary to Flanders and Holland, "which is the principal
cause that moved the merchants to labour earnestly for peace."
Charles made vague promises to his uninvited guest, declaring
ostentatiously that his blood was Lancastrian. Nevertheless he
finally consented to an interview with him of York, in spite of the
remonstrances of the Lancastrians, Somerset and Exeter. "The duke
could not tell whom to please and either party he feared to displease.
But in the end, because sharp war was upon him face to face, he
inclined to the English dukes, accepting their promises against the
Earl of Warwick, their ancient enemy." King Edward, "who was on the
spot and very ill at ease," was quieted by secret assurances that the
duke was obliged to dissimulate. "Seeing that he could not keep the
king but that he was bound to return to England and fearing for divers
considerations altogether to discontent him, Charles pretended that he
could not aid the king and forbade his subjects to enter his service."
Privately, however, he gave him fifty thousand florins of St. Andrew's
cross, and had two or three ships fitted out at Vere in Zealand, a
harbour where all nations were received. Besides this he secretly
hired fourteen well appointed "ships of the Easterlings, which
promised to serve him till he landed in England and for fifteen days
after, "great aid considering the times."
King Edward departed out of Flanders in the year 1471, when the
Duke of Burgundy went to wrest Amiens and St. Quentin back from the
king.[30] "The said duke thought now howsoever the world went in
England he could not speed amiss because he had friends on both
sides."[31]
Edward's adventures in England proved that he had not lost his hold
there. Warwick's extraordinary brief success was but a flash in the
pan. London opened her gates and then the pitched battle at Barnet
gave a final verdict between the rival Houses which England accepted.
This battle was fought on April 14th, when the thick fog and the like
speech of the two bodies caused hopeless confusion. Many friends slew
each other unwittingly, and among the slain was the indefatigable,
energetic Warwick who had hoped to play with his royal puppets. Only
forty-four was he and worthy of a better and more statesmanlike
career.
On that same day Margaret of Anjou and her son landed at Weymouth.
Hearing of Warwick's death, they tried to reach Wales but were
intercepted and forced to fight at Tewkesbury. Here the young prince,
too, met his death. To Edward's direct command is attributed the
murder of the unfortunate Henry VI. in the Tower, which happened at
about the same time. The desolated Margaret of Anjou lingered five
years under restraint in England before she was ransomed by King
Louis.
"Sir John Paston to Margaret Paston. Wreten at London the
Thorysdaye in Esterne weke, 1471.
"God hathe schewyd Hym selffe marvelouslye lyke Hym that made all
and can undoo agayn whare Hym lyst."[32]
Charles of Burgundy could now pride himself on his foresight. His
brother of the two Orders was himself again.
"The very day on which this fight happened [says Commines] the
Duke of Burgundy, being before Amiens, received letters from
the duchess his wife, that the King of England was not at all
satisfied with him, that he had given his aid grudgingly and as if
for very little cause he would have deserted him. To speak plainly
there never was great friendship between them afterwards. Yet the
Duke of Burgundy seemed to be extremely pleased at this news and
published it everywhere."
A transaction of his own of this time, the duke did not publish. It
was a procedure perhaps justified by these wonderful "mutations in the
world" which impressed Commines as strange and terrible. The Duke of
Burgundy caused a legal document to be drawn up attesting his own
heirship to Henry VI. of England, and filed the same in the Abbey of
St. Bertin with all due formality. If there came more "mutations"
in the world whose very existence was a new experience to Philip de
Commines, Charles was ready to interpose his own plank in the new
structure.
In the archives of the House of Croy in the château of Beaumont, rests
this document, which was duly signed by Charles on November 3, 1471,
in his own hand "so that greater faith" be given to the statement
that no one was truer heir to the Lancaster House than Charles of
Burgundy.[33] Two canons attested the instrument as notaries, and the
witnesses were Hugonet, Humbercourt, and Bladet.
It was expressly stipulated that if there were any delay in the duke's
entering upon his English inheritance--which devolved to him
through his mother,--a delay caused by motives of public utility of
Christendom, and of the House of Burgundy, this should not prejudice
his rights or those of his successors. A mere deferring of assuring
the titles, etc., brought no prejudice to his rights. His delay ended
in his death and Edward IV. never had to combat this claim of the
brother-in-law who had helped him, though grudgingly, to regain his
throne.
[Footnote 1: Meyer is the earliest historian to tell this story and it
is vouched for by no existing contemporary evidence.]
[Footnote 2: From Henry VI.-Henry VII. the English throne was twice
lost and twice regained by each of the rival Houses of York and
Lancaster. Thirteen pitched battles were fought between Englishmen on
English soil. Three out of four kings died by violence. Eighty persons
connected with the blood royal were executed or assassinated.]
[Footnote 3: Ramsay, _Lancaster and York_, ii., 232 _et seq._; Oman,
_Hundred Years' War_ and _Warwick, the King-maker_, are followed here
in addition to Kirk, Lavisse, etc.]
[Footnote 4: That the king chose his wife without the earl's knowledge
or consent has been accepted as the chief cause, and again denied by
various authorities.]
[Footnote 5: See Oman's _Warwick_, p. 185.]
[Footnote 6: Rymer, _Fædera_, xi., 654; negotiations had been going on
for about a year.]
[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, 651.]
[Footnote 8: "Quia nihil est quod ita relucet in principe sicut
clemencia et maxime circa domesticos et subditos."]
[Footnote 9: Gachard, _Doc. inéd._, i., 216. The editor thinks that
the speech was preserved in the register of Ypres just as it was
delivered, untouched by chroniclers.]
[Footnote 10: _Il sent la France_.]
[Footnote 11: Middleburg, the 3d of June, 1470. "Madame's sign manual"
on the copy is dated June 6th. (Plancher, _Histoire générale et
particulière de Bourgogne_, etc., iv., cclxxi).]
[Footnote 12: Good Friday, April 20th.]
[Footnote 13: Gachard, _Doc. inéd_., i., 226.]
[Footnote 14: Comines-Lenglet., "Preuves," iii., 124. Written at
Amboise, May, 12, 1470.]
[Footnote 15: Plancher, iv., cclxi., etc.]
[Footnote 16: Duke Charles to the Council of the King at Rouen, May
29th. (Plancher, iv., cclxix.)]
[Footnote 17: _Mémoires_, iii., ch. iv.]
[Footnote 18: Duclos "Preuves," v., 296.]
[Footnote 19: Chastellain, v., 453. These phrases are, to be sure,
those of our literary and imaginative chronicler, but the substance is
that of attested words from Charles. M, Petit-Dutaillis accepts it.
(Lavisse, iv^{ii}., 363.)]
[Footnote 20: _See_ Plancher, iv., cclxxxix.]
[Footnote 21: Aujourd'hui avons fait le mariage de la reine
d'Angleterre et de lui." Undoubtedly a half jocose way of stating the
alliance of the children. The following item occurs in the King's
accounts for December, 1470: "à maistre Jehan le prestre, la somme de
xxvii l. x.s.t pour vingt escus d'or à lui donnée par le roy, pour le
restituer de semblable somme que, par l'ordonnance d'icellui seigneur,
il avait baillée du sien au vicaire de Bayeux auquel icellui seigneur
en a fait don en faveur de ce qu' il estait venu espouser le prince de
Galles a la fille du Comte de Warwick." This was a betrothal, not the
actual marriage. In August, Louis was still asking for a dispensation.
(Wavrin, Dupont ed., iii., 4I, note. See also _Lettres de Louis XI_.,
iv., 131.)]
[Footnote 22: A group of smaller seigniories was also involved,
Quercy, Périgord, La Rochelle, etc. _See_ letter-patent,
(Comines-Lenglet, "Preuves," iii., 97.)]
[Footnote 23: Duclos, "Preuves" v., 302.]
[Footnote 24: Comines-Lenglet, "Preuves," iii., 68; Lavisse, iv^{ii},
364.]
[Footnote 25: _See_ Lavisse iv^{ii}, 364. He states that the king
named all the deputies that the towns were to appoint.]
[Footnote 26: Duclos, "Preuves," v., 307.]
[Footnote 27: Commines, iii., ch. v.]
[Footnote 28: Commines, iii., ch. vi.]
[Footnote 29: _See_ instructions given to him for this mission,
Wavrin-Dupont, iii., 271.]
[Footnote 30: Commines, iii., ch. vii.]
[Footnote 31: As soon as Edward and his English exiles sailed, Charles
published a proclamation forbidding his subjects to aid him.]
[Footnote 32: _Letters_, iii., 4.]
[Footnote 33: _See_ Gachard, _Études et Notices historiques concernant
l'histoire des Pays-Bas,_ ii., 343, en approuvant et emologant toutes
les choses deseurdittes et chascune d'icelles et a fin que plus grant
foy soit adjoustée à tout ce que cy desus est escript, avant signé ce
présent instrument de nostre propre main et le fait sceller de nostre
seau en signe de vérité, l'an et jour desusdit. [This in French, the
body in Latin.]
"CHARLES."]