THE KING OF FRANCE SETS OUT FROM ROUEN TO ORLEANS.--HE SENDS
AMBASSADORS TO ENGLAND.--SEVERAL MALEFACTORS ARE EXECUTED AT
PARIS.--THE DIVORCE OF SIR WILLIAM COLOMBEL FROM HIS WIFE.--THE LORD
DU LAU IS MADE PRISONER.--THE KING PUBLISHES AN EDICT AT PARIS AGAINST
THE ENGLISH.--A TRUCE CONCLUDED BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH.--MANY
PERSONS LOSE THEIR SENSES AT PARIS, AT THE BEAN-FLOWERING SEASON.
The king now departed from Rouen for Orleans, where the queen was, and
remained there a long time, making excursions to Gergeau[3] and in that
neighbourhood. While he was at Orleans, many embassies came to him from
divers countries, on different matters. He also there determined to
send an embassy to England, and selected for this purpose the count
de Roussillon, bastard of Bourbon and admiral of France, the lord de
la Barde, the duke-bishop of Langres, master John de Poupaincourt,
lord of Cercelles, master Olivier le Roy, councellor in the chamber of
accounts, and others, who set out for England in April, in the year
1466.
At this time, the officers of justice in Paris, arrested many poor
creatures, thieves and other malefactors,--some of whom, for their
crimes, were hanged on the gibbet at Montfaucon, and others, less
criminal, were whipped at a cart's tail through the streets of Paris.
At this time also, the damsel Isabeau de Cambray, wife to sir William
de Colombel, a rich and powerful man, was confined a prisoner in
the Conciergerie of the palais-royal at Paris, on the complaint and
information of her husband, who charged her with the three following
crimes: first, that she had abandoned him, and been faithless to his
bed; secondly, that she had robbed him of large sums of money; and,
thirdly, that she had compounded divers poisons to compass his death.
In consequence of these charges, she was long detained in prison, and
put to the torture, to make her confess her guilt. At length, the court
of parliament, having taken full cognizance of the evidence, and her
confession, declared that the said Colombel had sufficiently proved his
accusations,--and she was sentenced to be deprived of all community of
effects, and of her dower. With regard to the poisons, she pleaded an
error in the suit, and paid into court six score livres parisis, as her
pledge for re-appearing.
The 10th day of May, in this year, sir Anthony de Château-neuf lord
du Lau, who had had the king's pardon some time since, on certain
conditions, was accidentally met by the lord de Chabesnais, and others,
in the plains of Clery, near Orleans; and because that he and his
attendants were disguised, they made him a prisoner, and carried him
before the king, who ordered him and his people to be confined in a
castle near Mehun.[4]
On Wednesday, the eve of the Ascension of our Lord, master John
Prevost, notary and secretary to the king, entered the bastile, by the
king's direction, in a subtle manner, and took thence one called Mare,
who was lieutenant to the lord des Bordes, and lately married to the
natural daughter of sir Charles de Melun, son to the lord des Bordes.
On Saturday, the eve of Whitsunday, was proclaimed through all the
squares of Paris, with sound of trumpet, a summons from the constable
of France, which included one from the king, to declare that he had
received information of his ancient enemies the English having raised a
very numerous army for the destruction of his kingdom,--and that they
had prepared a fleet, accordingly, to invade his coasts; that the king,
being resolved to oppose such wicked attempts to the utmost of his
power, had ordered his constable to make proclamation thereof in the
usual places throughout the realm, that all the noble tenants of the
king, as well those of fief as of arriere-fief, of whatever rank, might
be properly prepared with arms, horses, and habiliments for war, on
the 15th day of June next ensuing, under pain of corporal punishment
and confiscation of effects. All franc-archers and others were, at the
same time, ordered to be ready by the said 15th day of June.
The king displaced, at this time, the lord des Bordes from being
governor of the bastile of St. Anthony at Paris, and gave it to the
lord de Blot, seneschal of Auvergne, who was said to be a man of an
excellent character.
At this period, the lord de Montauban[5], who had been admiral of
France, grand master of woods and waters, and the principal cause of
the disturbances in Brittany, which were followed by those in France,
and who had received immense sums of the public money, died at Tours,
and was not much lamented. After his death, the king gave the office of
lord high admiral to the lord bastard of Bourbon, who had married his
natural daughter,--and the office of grand master of woods and waters
to the lord de Châtillon, brother to the marshal of Lohéac.
A truce was now concluded by sea and land with England for twenty-two
months, which was every where publicly proclaimed.
At this time, for some particular cause, the king was moved to displace
the count du Maine from his government of Languedoc, and give the
same to the bastard of Bourbon,--who also received, in consequence of
his marriage with Jeanne, the king's natural daughter, the castle and
town of Usson[6] in Auvergne, said to be the strongest place in the
kingdom, together with the government of Honnefleur, and other places
in Normandy.
In the month of June, of this year 1466, the beans were very abundant
and good,--nevertheless, very many persons of both sexes lost their
senses at this time in Paris. In the number, was a young man named
master Marcial d'Auvergne[7], an attorney in the court of parliament,
and notary to the Châtelet. He had been married about three weeks to
one of the daughters of master Jacques Fournier, king's counsel in
the said court of parliament,--and lost his senses in such wise that,
about nine in the morning of St. John Baptist's day, his frenzy seized
him, and he threw himself out of the window into the street, broke his
thigh, and so bruised his body that he was long in the utmost danger,
for his frenzy continued a long time; but at length he recovered.