[Footnote 219: Sermone. Q.]
[Footnote 220: Oliveto. Q.]
[Footnote 221: Pesolo. Pesol_a_ is a lake in the Basilicata.]
[Footnote 222: Thoco. Q.]
[Footnote 223: Capua,--fifteen miles from Naples.]
[Footnote 224: Aversa,--ten miles north from Naples.]
[Footnote 225: Benevento,--in the Principato Ultra.]
[Footnote 226: Lusano. Q.]
[Footnote 227: Borso d'Este, marquis of Ferrara, was succeeded by his
legitimate brother Hercules d'Este.]
[Footnote 228: Rougia. Q. Reggio? a sea-port of Naples in Calabria
Ultra.]
CHAP. LXV.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, WITH A LARGE ARMY, ESCORTS HIS BASTARD SON INTO
HOLLAND, AND PUTS HIM IN PEACEABLE POSSESSION OF THE BISHOPRICK OF
UTRECHT.--HE BESIEGES DEVENTER[229], AND FORCES ITS INHABITANTS TO
OBEY THE NEW BISHOP, WHICH THEY HAD BEFORE REFUSED.
When duke Philip saw that he could not prevail by love and entreaties
to make his son be accepted for bishop by the chapter of Utrecht, he
sent to Picardy and Hainault for a body of troops, and he was soon
joined by full thirteen thousand combatants. The chapter now changed
their tone, and admitted his son as their bishop, under certain
conditions, namely, that the brother of the lord de Brederode, who had
been elected, should receive for his life an annual pension, from the
bishoprick of Utrecht, of four thousand francs, from the bishoprick
of Therouenne two thousand francs,--and, for the expenses he had been
put to, fifty thousand lyons once paid. He was also to be made first
counsellor to the duke in the affairs of Holland, with a salary of a
thousand florins of the Rhine. In consideration of this arrangement,
he resigned the bishoprick, which was commonly said to be worth yearly
fifty thousand mailles of the Rhine.
When this had been settled, duke Philip entered Utrecht, with his
company on the 5th of August, and was most honourably received. On the
morrow, his son entered in arms, grandly accompanied; and on the Sunday
following, he said mass in the cathedral.
Soon after, the duke left Utrecht, with his whole army, to besiege
a considerable town in the diocese, called Deventer, because it had
refused to acknowledge the new bishop. Those of the town sallied out
against him; and a smart skirmish ensued, in which many were killed
on both sides. In the end, they were repulsed and driven back into
the town; and on the fourth day, a strong bulwark they had erected in
front of the gate was so much battered with cannon that those within,
foreseeing it must be taken, set in on fire, and burnt it during the
night. The siege, however, lasted until the end of September, when the
townsmen sent offers to the duke to obey the bishop, as the other towns
within his diocese had done.
While this treaty was carrying on, the duke of Gueldres, who had
married the niece of duke Philip, by whom he had a fair son about
sixteen years of age, after having promised his aid to the duke
of Burgundy, quitted his country, and abandoned his places,--but
nevertheless made an hasty alliance with the Frizelanders, when they
assembled a great army with the intent of overthrowing duke Philip.
The duke of Burgundy would have remained in perfect ignorance of this
treachery, had not his niece been told of the wicked designs of her
husband against her uncle; and instantly quitting the place she was
in with her son, attended by her servants, she hastened to the duke,
then besieging Deventer, and told him of the plots against him. This
caused the duke to lose no time in closing with the offers of those in
Deventer, so that the treaty was immediately concluded, and hostages
were given for its performance. The duke raised the siege the 27th day
of September, and returned to Utrecht, and thence to the Hague, where
he disbanded his army, leaving his son David in peaceable possession of
the bishoprick of Utrecht.
He was under great obligations to his niece for the information she
had given him; for if he had remained two days longer at the siege, he
would have been attacked by the duke of Gueldres and the Frizelanders
before he knew any thing of their intentions, and it would probably
have been unfortunate to him by reason of his being totally unprepared
to receive them.
The duke of Gueldres was much reproached for this conduct, considering
that he had married the duke of Burgundy's niece, and that the good
duke had sent their daughter to marry the king of Scotland, at his own
expense, and had done many and very great kindnesses to the duke of
Gueldres.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 229: Deventer,--on the Issel, the capital of Overissel.]
CHAP. LXVI.
THE DUKE OF ALENÇON IS ARRESTED AND THROWN INTO PRISON.--THE TURKS ARE
MIRACULOUSLY DEFEATED IN HUNGARY.--OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THIS
YEAR OF MCCCCLVI.
Soon after the feast of Pentecost, the duke of Alençon was arrested
in Paris, by orders from the king and the count de Dunois, bastard of
Orleans, and sent to Melun. From Melun he was carried before the king,
and convicted, as it was said, of having intrigued with the English to
accomplish a marriage between his eldest son and the eldest daughter of
the duke of York, unknown to the king, and of having engaged to deliver
up to the English his strong places, to the prejudice of the king,
and particularly the duchy of Normandy. Having confessed his guilt, he
was closely confined until after the death of king Charles. When he
was arrested, it was currently reported that the duke of Burgundy was
implicated in these intrigues of the duke of Alençon with the English,
which so much displeased the king that he had it proclaimed throughout
the realm, that no one, under pain of death, should make such charges
against his good brother of Burgundy, nor any way speak disrespectfully
of his honour.
In the month of June in this year, a comet with a prodigious tail
appeared in the west, having its tail pointed toward England: it
continued visible for three months. The new wines of this season were
so sour that the old ones were in greater request for their superior
goodness and flavour.
In this year also, the great emperor of the Turks, called
Morbesan[230], besieged the strong town and castle of Belgrade,
situated on the confines of Hungary. He was upwards of four months
and a half before it, which vexed him so much that he swore, in the
presence of his army, to win it by force or perish in the attempt.
There were some in the turkish army who gave information of this to
those in the town, that they might be prepared; and Ovidianus[231],
one of the noblest and most powerful princes of Hungary, hearing also
of this intention, instantly assembled nine hundred cavalry and forty
thousand infantry of all sorts, and entered the town by the Danube,
without the Turk knowing any thing thereof,--for he had only besieged
the place on the land side, and had neglected to post any guards on
that great river the Danube.
Ovidianus entered the town on the eve of Magdalen-day, which was the
day fixed on by the Turk to storm the place; and so eager was he to
fulfil his vow that he ordered one third of his army to commence
the attack at midnight, which was done with much courage,--but the
besieged made so gallant a defence that they were repulsed. The attack
lasted until eight o'clock in the morning, when another division, equal
in numbers to the first, advanced to renew the combat, but they also
were forced to retreat.
The emperor of the Turks now advanced in person, accompanied by the
boldest of his captains, and continued the combat with such obstinacy
and courage that, from its commencement, at four in the afternoon, it
lasted until the middle of the following day, which made twenty hours
in the whole: a terrible fatigue to those in the town thus to support
three renewed attacks without any respite or repose. They were at
length so worn down that they could not longer help each other, and the
Turks were beginning to enter the town in large bodies.
Among the Christians in this town was a very devout cordelier friar,
called John Capistran, who, seeing the Turks enter the breach, seized a
crucifix, and, ascending the highest part of the castle, cried aloud,
'O Deus meus, Deus meus! O altissime Pater! veni in adjutorium, veni
et libera populum quem redemisti pretioso sanguine tuo. Veni noli
tardare. Deus meus ubi sunt misericordiæ tuæ antiquæ, veni ne Turci
et increduli dicant ubi est Deus eorum.' The cordelier, in uttering
these words, wept bitterly; and when the Christians heard them, they
felt quite refreshed, and as if they were new men, without feeling any
fatigue, and instantly fell on the Turks who were entering the town
with such courage that they slew all they met, and put the rest to
flight. They pursued them upwards of eight leagues, killing or wounding
all they overtook, so that more than one hundred thousand were slain
in the whole. They gained all the artillery of the Turks, and such
quantities of riches, in tents, money, and effects, as it would seem
marvellous to relate.
Among other things won were eleven large bombards, six of which were
of prodigious length, and of a great bore, and more than two hundred
smaller bombards and cannons. When news of this important victory
was carried to the pope then reigning, he ordered processions and
thanksgivings to be made in all the churches of Christendom, to render
thanks to God for this great victory,--and, among other things, to ring
the Ave Maria between two and three o'clock on the anniversary of the
day this miracle happened, as it is usual to ring it every evening in
all churches; and this manner of ringing it after dinner is continued
in several churches in France.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 230: Morbesan. Mohammed II. surnamed the Victorious.]
[Footnote 231: Ovidianus. Probably Huniades,--John Corvin.]
CHAP. LXVII.
THE DAUPHIN OF FRANCE TAKES REFUGE WITH DUKE PHILIP OF
BURGUNDY.--OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THIS YEAR.
Louis de Valois, eldest son to the king of France, and dauphin of
Vienne, had resided for ten or twelve years in Dauphiny, because the
king was displeased with him. Some said, this was owing to his ill
treatment of his subjects in Dauphiny, more particularly the bishops
and churchmen, whose revenues he seized against their wills, for
the support of his state: others, however, excused him for so doing,
because his father had stopped the allowance he had formerly given him.
It was also reported, that the king's anger arose from the death of the
fair Agnes being caused by poison, of which the dauphin was suspected,
as he had frequently blamed and murmured against his father for his
attachment to her. In truth, Agnes Sorel was the handsomest woman of
her age, and in more favour with the king than the queen: the great
lords also paid more court to her than to the queen, who was a very
good and honourable lady, which had vexed the dauphin much,--and he had
hastened her death.
However, after the decease of the fair Agnes, the damsel de Villequier,
her niece, succeeded her in the affections of the king, who, in his
latter days, would have about him the finest and handsomest women of
his realm.
Whatever may have been the real cause of the quarrel between the king
and the dauphin, the king ordered sir Anthony de Chabannes count de
Dammartin, to proceed into Dauphiny with a sufficient body of men at
arms to arrest the dauphin and bring him to his presence by force
or otherwise; but the dauphin fortunately escaped,--for it was then
commonly believed that, had he been arrested, the king would have
treated him very harshly, and would have made king his younger son
Charles.
The dauphin having had intimation of the orders to arrest him, gave
public notice for a hunting party on the morrow, and ordered his dinner
to be prepared at the place of rendezvous. Intelligence of this was
carried to the count de Dammartin, who posted ambushes to seize the
dauphin the moment he should arrive at the place; but, as he suspected
their machinations, early on the morrow, when it was thought he was
gone to the hunt he with six of his most confidential attendants,
mounted their fleetest horses, and set off, as fast as they could
travel, for Burgundy, and never stopped until they arrived at St
Claude, a town in Burgundy. It was well for them that they made this
haste, or they would have been overtaken by the count de Dammartin, who
followed very closely at their heels.
Shortly after the dauphin's arrival at St Claude, he went to the prince
of Orange at Nasere[232], who received him most honourably: and on
hearing him declare that he feared he should be pursued, and that he
was desirous of going to the duke of Burgundy, the prince sent off in
haste for the marshal of Burgundy, who came to him with a handsome
escort of men at arms,--and they instantly departed for Brabant.
This conduct was truly extraordinary,--for the prince of Orange and
the duke of Burgundy were the two men in the world whom the dauphin
hated the most, for having several times repulsed, with loss, his own
and the king's men, whenever they made any excursions on the duke's
territories, which he was determined to preserve from inroads; but
necessity, which owns no law, forced him to seek an asylum among those
he hated, and to make use of them in his time of need.
The marshal of Burgundy conducted him with such prudence through the
territories of the duke of Burgundy that he arrived safely at Louvain,
whence he went to Brussels, and thence he sent one of his attendants
with information to the duke, at that time in Holland, of his arrival.
The good duke, anxious to receive and entertain him as the eldest son
of his sovereign lord, hastened as much as possible the treaty of
Deventer, that he might return to Brabant.
Immediately on his arrival at Brussels, he went to the dauphin,
and paid him every respect in honour to the king, and to himself
personally,--and no prince knew better how to do these honours. He
instantly assigned him three thousand francs monthly to maintain his
estate, and begged of him to make choice of what place he should please
for his residence, and he would give orders for its being immediately
delivered up to him. The dauphin asked for Geneppe[233], a castle in
Brabant, pleasantly situated, and a handsome residence, where he lived
for a long time.
In the course of this year, sir Thibault de Luxembourg, lord of
Fiennes, brother to the count of St Pol, and widower of the daughter of
the lord of Antoing, by whom he had several children, became a monk of
the order of Cistercians, notwithstanding that in his youth he had been
a very free liver.
Toward the end of October, soon after the arrival of the dauphin in
Brabant, the duke of Burgundy sent a handsome embassy to the king of
France, the chief of which was the lord de Chimay high bailiff of
Hainault, to satisfy him as to his son's coming to his territories,
and to say that he would show him every possible honour in his power.
The ambassadors waited long for an audience; and while they were thus
delayed, the king of France sent a body of men at arms to Compiègne
and Soissons, two towns on the frontiers of the duke of Burgundy's
possessions. The duke, hearing of this, suspected that the king
intended to make war on him, as indeed did many others, and issued a
summons throughout Picardy, Flanders, and Hainault, for all men capable
of bearing arms to be ready in his defence in case the king should
attack him.
About Christmas in this year, Charles duke of Bourbon departed this
life, and was succeeded by his eldest son, who, by his mother, was
nephew to the duke of Burgundy.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 232: Nasere. Q. Nazey? a village near Besançon.]
[Footnote 233: Geneppe,--on the Dyle, six leagues from Brussels. Louis
XI. resided here, when dauphin, with the dauphiness, upwards of five
years.]
CHAP. LXVIII.
A QUARREL TAKES PLACE BETWEEN DUKE PHILIP OF BURGUNDY AND HIS SON THE
COUNT OF CHAROLOIS, BUT IS APPEASED BY THE DAUPHIN.--THE COUNTESS OF
CHAROLOIS IS BROUGHT TO BED OF A DAUGHTER.--OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED
IN DIVERS PARTS.
On the 17th of January, of this same year, while the duke of Burgundy
resided at Brussels, a dispute arose between the lord de Quievrain and
the lord d'Aymeries, both chamberlains to the count de Charolois, each
of whom, during the absence of the lord d'Auxy his first chamberlain,
would take the precedency of the other. The count was desirous that
the lord d'Aymeries should have the preference,--which coming to the
knowledge of the duke, he sent for his son, and commanded him to prefer
the lord de Quievrain. The count replied, that he would do no such
thing, and that the house of Croy should not govern him, as he had
suffered them to do in regard to himself.
The duke was so exceedingly irritated at this answer of his son that
he would have struck him, and commanded him to quit his territories
instantly. The count, therefore, departed, much angered and grieved.
When night came, the duke, equally troubled, called for a horse, and,
having mounted it, rode alone into the fields, although it was then
raining very hard. He soon after entered a forest, and lost his road,
so that he knew not whither to direct his horse: luckily he came to the
house of a poor man, who received him, and he lay there that night. On
the morrow, at the earliest dawn, he made his host conduct him strait
to Geneppe,--and on his departure gave him eight florins of the Rhine.
The attendants of the duke sought him during the night, so that on the
morrow he was grandly accompanied, and thus returned to Brussels. He
shortly after pardoned his son, at the request and entreaties of the
principal lords of his household, and especially at the entreaties of
the dauphin; but he banished from his territories two of the count's
attendants, because he suspected them of having advised his son to act
in the manner he had done, respecting the two chamberlains.
It happened, that not long after, as the dauphin and the count de
Charolois were hunting in a forest, toward evening they separated, and
the dauphin, with only two attendants, lost his way in the thickest
part of the forest. The count, imagining that he was returned to
Brussels, came home without him. The duke, seeing him return without
the dauphin, was much angered, and ordered him to remount, and sent
him, with many others, with torches and lights, charging them withal to
seek diligently and find him. They made such haste that they met him
full eight leagues from Brussels under the guidance of a peasant, to
whom he had given a golden crown: by this means they had so soon found
him, and were much rejoiced thereat,--as was the duke, when he saw him
arrive in safety.
On the 13th of February, in this year, the countess of Charolois
was brought to bed of a daughter in the town of Brussels. At her
christening, the dauphin, the duchess of Burgundy, and the lady of
Ravestein were sponsors. The dauphin named her Mary, in honour of the
queen his mother, who bore that name. Great feasts took place on this
occasion throughout the duke's territories,--and in the great towns
there were illuminations, and thanksgivings were offered up to God.
A short time after this event, the duke of Burgundy sent again the same
embassy, namely, the lord de Chimay and sir Simon de Lalain, to assure
the king of France, that the dauphin had come to him of his own accord,
and to find means of satisfying the king on this subject.
About this time died the patriarch of Antioch, brother to the
chancellor of France, Juvenel des Ursins, to the archbishop of Rheims,
and to another knight at arms, who were four brothers much in the good
graces of the king of France.
[A.D. 1457.]
CHAP. LXIX.
AN EMBASSY FROM THE KING OF HUNGARY ARRIVES AT TOURS, AND IS
HONOURABLY RECEIVED BY THE KING OF FRANCE.--THE KING OF HUNGARY
DIES.--THE FRENCH TAKE THE SEAPORT OF SANDWICH BY STORM.
In the year 1457, the king of France, anxious to attack his enemies,
more particularly the Saracens and other unbelievers in the catholic
faith, made an alliance with the potent king of Hungary, who was
sovereign of three kingdoms, namely, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia.
In consequence of this alliance, the king of Hungary was to espouse
the princess Magdalen, the king of France's daughter; and very many
great barons, knights, and lords of the three kingdoms were sent as
ambassadors to France to be present at the betrothing: even churchmen
were of this embassy, such as the archbishop of Cologne and the bishop
of Passau,--to the amount, in all, of six hundred horse.
When they arrived at Tours in their various dresses, the king was at
Montils le Tours, a place hard by,--but the queen and princess were
in Tours. The ambassadors presented to the queen a rich robe of cloth
of gold, embroidered with pearls and jewels, and another, equally
sumptuous, to the princess, together with a splendid waggon hung on
springs[234]. Many of the principal lords of the king's household went
about a league from Tours to meet them.
They were handsomely received by the king and his court, and great
entertainments were made for them, especially by the count de Foix,
who gave a grand feast on Thursday before Christmas, in the abbey of
St Julian at Tours, where all the princes and lords of the court were
present. The tables were served, in the utmost abundance, with all
sorts of delicacies, such as pheasants, partridges, bustards, cranes,
wild geese, rabbits without number, fat capons, six score quarts of
hypocras, as well white as red, removes,--morrice dances of children
dressed as savages issuing from a rock, singers, trumpets, clarions,
and various devices,--insomuch that this dinner cost eighteen hundred
crowns, besides the rich presents to the guests.
These feasts were continued to the ambassadors waiting for the
betrothing of the princess to the king of Hungary, by procuration, soon
after Christmas. But it has been truly said, that often man proposes,
and God disposes; for on the morrow of Christmas-day, the melancholy
news of the king of Hungary's death was brought to the king of France,
which caused great sorrow to him and his whole court.
The king ordered a general mourning, and a grand funeral service to be
performed, in honour of the potent king of Hungary, in the metropolitan
church of St Gratien in Tours, with ringing of bells, illuminations of
wax tapers in the greatest profusion, befitting the obsequies of so
noble a prince.
The hungarian ambassadors took their leave of the king of France on the
morrow after new-year's-day[235], and departed for their own country,
taking their road through Paris, where they were grandly received,--and
all the nobility then in the town went out to meet them as far as
the windmill beyond the gate of St James. They had people appointed,
however cold the weather was, to lie upon their carriages, which were
chained up with great chains. This was a novel sight,--and the chains
were fastened with a lock, the key of which one of their governors
carried with him when he went to sleep. A grand funeral service was
performed in the church of Nôtre Dame, with a great display of torches
and wax lights.