THE KING SUMMONS HIS PARLIAMENT FROM PARIS TO NOYON, TO TRY THE DUKE
OF NEMOURS.--A FORGER EXECUTED AT PARIS.--OF THE VICTORY OF THE LORD
DE CRAON OVER THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.--OF THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF
GUELDRES BEFORE TOURNAY.--THE DUKE OF NEMOURS EXECUTED AT PARIS.--A
PARTY OF FLEMINGS DEFEATED.--SEVERAL PERSONS HANGED AT PARIS FOR
HAVING ASSASSINATED THE SON OF THE PUBLIC EXECUTIONER.
The king sent his letters-patent to Paris, to order the presidents and
councellors of his parliament, and the masters of requests of his
household, to come to Noyon, and form there a court of justice in his
presence, and, in conjunction with the princes of his blood, to try
the duke of Nemours, who had long been confined in the bastile of St
Anthony at Paris. The parliament, in obedience to this order, set out
from Paris on the 2d of June, to arrive at Noyon the ensuing day, which
had been appointed for this trial.
On the 14th of June, a person who had been of the king's household was
imprisoned for having forged the king's signet, and that of one of his
secretaries, by which means he had sent letters to divers towns, and
obtained large sums of money, which he had appropriated to his own
use. He was tried before the provost, or his lieutenant, of the royal
household, and sent to Paris, to have the following sentence executed
upon him, namely, to be pilloried with a paper cap on his head, then
burnt in the forehead, his right hand cut off, to be banished the
kingdom, and all his effects and inheritances to be confiscated to the
king.
In this month of June, the king gave the command of an army to the
lord de Craon[76], to march into the country of Burgundy, and make war
on the prince of Orange[77] for some injuries which the lord de Craon
had complained of having been done him by the prince, who was not of
the same family with himself. The king, also, who had appointed the
prince governor of that country, displaced him, and gave it to the lord
de Craon, although he had been the means of reducing it to the king's
obedience.
The prince of Orange detached into Burgundy a knight of that country
called sir Claude de Vaudray, who made head against the lord de Craon
for some time, until it was known that the prince had entered a town
called Guy[78], when the lord de Craon advanced to besiege it. He
remained before it two days,--when learning that the lord de Château
Guyon[79], brother to the prince of Orange, was marching to his relief,
he advanced in battle-array to meet him, and a great conflict ensued,
insomuch that there were killed on both sides from fourteen to fifteen
hundred combatants. To return thanks for this defeat, the king ordered
a general procession to be made at Paris, to the church of St Martin
des Champs.
In the course of the month of July, the duke of Gueldres had marched
from fourteen to fifteen hundred Germans against the town of Tournay,
thinking to burn the suburbs, and quarter himself at Pont d'Epierre,
near the town. Two sallies were made from the town: in the first, the
duke was mortally wounded, and his body was carried into Tournay. In
the second sally, four hundred of the king's lances and some of the
townsmen attacked and put to flight the Germans and Flemings,--two
thousand of whom were slain, and seven or eight hundred made prisoners.
Te Deum laudamus was chaunted at Paris, and bonfires were made in all
the streets for this signal victory.
On Monday, the 3d day of August of this year, messire Jacques
d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours and count de la Marche, having been
conducted as a prisoner to the bastile of St Anthony on the 4th day
of August in the preceding year, by reason of certain offences and
crimes by him committed and perpetrated,--during which time of his
imprisonment in the said bastile, many interrogatories were put to
him concerning the said charges, to which he answered verbally and
in writing, on many different days, as well before the chancellor
of France, named Pierre d'Oriole, as others, the presidents and
counsellors of the court of parliament, and also before certain great
clerks of the kingdom, dwelling in divers cities and towns of the said
kingdom, summoned and assembled for this purpose in the city of Noyon,
with and in company of the said officers of the parliament, and in
presence of the lord de Beaujeu, then representing the person of the
king,--the proceedings held by the court aforesaid against the said
duke of Nemours were examined, and also the defence by him made, and,
after mature deliberation, it was decreed, that sir John le Boulenger,
first president of the parliament, accompanied by the greffier criminel
of the court and sir Denis Hesselin, master of the king's household,
should instantly set out for the bastile, and declare to the duke of
Nemours, that the court, having fully considered the charges laid
against him, and the whole of his defence and confessions, have found
him guilty of high treason, and sentence him to be beheaded for the
same, this day, in the market-place at Paris, and all his effects and
inheritances to be confiscated to the king. The execution took place
at three in the afternoon of that day, on a scaffold erected in the
market-place. After he was beheaded, the corpse and head were put into
a bier, and delivered to the cordelier friars, to be buried in their
church. About seven or eight score Cordeliers came in procession to
fetch the body, and forty torches were given to them to escort the bier
to their church.
The king was this month at Therouenne, and thence detached part of
his army to drive away a body of Flemings who had encamped near to
Blanfossé[80]. They no sooner heard of this order than they immediately
decamped, but not before the royalists arrived, and slew upwards of two
thousand of them. They were also pursued far into Flanders; and the
king's army passed by Mont de Cassel to Fiennes and other places, which
they razed, or took possession of, and killed full two thousand more
of the Flemings. Many solemn processions were made at Paris for these
successes.
In the month of August, the son of Henry Cousin, the chief executioner
at Paris, called Petit John, (who had already done several notable
deeds in the way of his profession, and, among others, had beheaded
the late constable of St Pol) was murdered in Paris at the instigation
of a carpenter, named Oudin du Bust, a native of Picardy. This Oudin
had conceived a mortal hatred against Petit John, because he had some
time before beaten him, in consequence of a quarrel that had arisen
between them. The cause of this quarrel was Oudin having demanded
the amount of a deed for money he had lent Petit John which had been
repaid all but the expenses of the bond. To be revenged, Oudin had
formed an acquaintance with three disorderly youths of Paris; one was
called l'Empereur du Houlx, sergeant at mace; the other, Jean du Foing,
a plumber,--and the third, Regnault Goris, a silversmith and son to
Martin Goris, broker of jewelry. All these four having determined on
their plan, waylaid Petit John, and attacked him at the corner of the
rue des Grenelles, near the hôtel of the Moulinet.
The first that came up to him was l'Empereur du Houlx, who, under the
mask of friendship, took him firmly under the arm; telling him not to
be afraid of the others, for they would do him no mischief. As he said
this, Regnault Goris approached, and hit Petit John on the head with
a stone, that made him stagger. His pretended friend then let go his
hold,--and John du Foing thrust a javelin through his body, so that he
fell dead on the spot. When he was dead, Oudin du Bust came and cut off
his legs, and then they all four separated and took sanctuary within
the church of the Celestines; whence, on the following night, they were
taken, by orders from sir Robert d'Estouteville, provost of Paris, and
the members of the council, in consequence of the informations that
had been laid before them, clearly proving the murder to have been
committed by a preconcerted plan. The Celestins appealed against this,
as a breach of their privileges, but the court of parliament dismissed
their appeal, and declared the murderers incapable of being received
in sanctuary. The bishop afterward claimed them as his clerks; but the
parliament published an edict, to declare that they should not enjoy
the privilege of clerks, and returned the matter to the provost, who
sentenced them all to be hanged.
They appealed against this sentence to the court of parliament, who
confirmed it,--and they were all four executed on the gibbet of Paris
by the hands of Henry Cousin, father to the late Petit John, who was
thus avenged on them for the murder of his son, the 28th day of August.
They were hanged in a row: first, l'Empereur du Houlx, then John du
Foing, Regnault Goris, and, last of all, Oudin du Bust. The three first
were handsome youths; and for this business a young son of a shoemaker
was publicly flogged and banished the realm, for having conspired the
death of Petit John, although he was not actually present when he was
killed.