home, and the count to Brussels, whither his father, the duke, was
returned. They shortly after sent an embassy to England, to negotiate
with king Edward: but the subject of their negotiations I do not
mention, because I am ignorant of it.[58]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 55: Thuin,--fourteen miles from Mons.]
[Footnote 56: Hessel,--five miles from Bommel.]
[Footnote 57: Judenge, Judoigne,--an ancient town formerly belonging to
the dukes of Brabant: it forms now part of France, in the department of
the Dyle, 25 miles from Liege.]
[Footnote 58: This embassy probably respected the marriage of the count
de Charolois with Margaret sister to Edward IV. or, perhaps, for the
regulations regarding the tilt between the earl Rivers and sir Anthony
of Burgundy.]
[A.D. 1467.]
CHAP. LIV.
SIR ANTHONY, BASTARD OF BURGUNDY, GOES TO ENGLAND, TO TILT WITH THE
LORD SCALES,[59] BROTHER TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND.
Soon after Easter, in the year 1467, sir Anthony, bastard of Burgundy,
crossed over to England, to perform a deed of arms against the lord
Scales, brother to the queen of England. He went thither handsomely
attended by warriors and artillery; for there were reports, which
proved true, that there were some pirates on the seas lying in wait
to defeat him, under pretence of being Spaniards, although they were
French. It happened, that the bastard's men took two of these vessels,
richly laden and full of soldiers, which were plundered, and then he
arrived safely in England.
He performed his deed of arms greatly to his credit; but it did not
last long,--for, as it was done to please the king of England, he would
not suffer the combat to continue any time, so that it was rather for
amusement.[60]
This was a plentiful year in wine, corn, and fruits, which were all
good, and the corn of a quality fit for preservation.
In this year also, the ladies and damsels laid aside their long trains
to their gowns, and in lieu of them had deep borders of furs of
minever, martin, and others, or of velvet, and various articles of a
great breadth. They also wore hoods on their heads of a circular form,
half an ell, or three quarters, high, gradually tapering to the top.
Some had them not so high, with handkerchiefs wreathed round them,
the corners hanging down to the ground. They wore silken girdles of
a greater breadth than formerly, with the richest shoes, with golden
necklaces much more trimly decked in divers fashions than they were
accustomed to wear them.
At the same time, the men wore shorter dresses than usual, so that the
form of their buttocks, and of their other parts, was visible, after
the fashion in which people were wont to dress monkies, which was a
very indecent and impudent thing. The sleeves of their outward dress
and jackets were slashed, to show their wide white shirts. Their hair
was so long that it covered their eyes and face,--and on their heads
they had cloth bonnets of a quarter of an ell in height. Knights and
esquires, indifferently, wore the most sumptuous golden chains. Even
the varlets had jackets of silk, satin, or velvet; and almost all,
especially at the courts of princes, wore peaks at their shoes of a
quarter of an ell in length. They had also under their jackets large
stuffings[61] at their shoulders, to make them appear broad, which
is a very vanity, and, perchance, displeasing to God; and he who was
short-dressed to-day, on the morrow had his robe training on the
ground. These fashions were so universal that there was not any little
gentleman but would ape the nobles and the rich, whether they dressed
in long or short robes, never considering the great expense, nor how
unbecoming it was to their situation.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 59: Anthony Widville earl Rivers, lord Scales and Newsels,
and lord of the Isle of Wight. This accomplished nobleman, one of the
first restorers of learning to this country, was son to sir Richard
Widville, by Jacqueline of Luxembourg, widow to the regent duke of
Bedford. Caxton printed several of his works.
For further particulars, see Walpole's Noble Authors, last edition, by
Park.]
[Footnote 60: The following extract from Dr. Henry's Hist. of England,
vol. v. pp. 536, 537, 4to. edit. will place the event of this
tournament in a different light.
'The most magnificent of these tournaments was that performed by the
bastard of Burgundy and Anthony lord Scales, brother to the queen of
England, in Smithfield, A.D. 1467. The king and queen of England spared
no expense to do honour to so near a relation,--and Philip duke of
Burgundy, the most magnificent prince of that age, was no less profuse
in equipping his favourite son. Several months were spent in adjusting
the preliminaries of this famous combat, and in performing all the
pompous ceremonies prescribed by the laws of chivalry.
'Edward IV. granted a safe conduct, October 29, A.D. 1466, to the
bastard of Burgundy earl of La Roche, with a thousand persons in his
company, to come into England to perform certain feats of arms with his
dearly beloved brother Anthony Widville, lord Scales and Newsels; but
so many punctilios were to be settled, by the intervention of heralds,
that the tournament did not take place until June 11, A.D. 1467.
'Strong lists having been erected in Smithfield, 120 yards and 10
feet long, 80 yards and 10 feet broad, with fair and costly galleries
all around for the accommodation of the king and queen, attended by
the lords and ladies of the court, and a prodigious number of lords,
knights, and ladies, of England, France, Scotland, and other countries,
in their richest dresses.
'The two champions entered the lists, and were conducted to their
pavilions. There they underwent the usual searches, and answered the
usual questions, and then advanced into the middle of the lists. The
first day they ran together with sharp spears, and departed with equal
honour. The next day, they tourneyed on horseback. The lord Scales'
horse had on his chaffron a long sharp pike of steel,--and as the two
champions coped together, the said horse thrust his pike into the
nostrils of the bastard's horse, so that, for very pain, he mounted
so high that he fell on the one side with his master; and the lord
Scales rode about him, with his sword drawn in his hand, till the
king commanded the marshal to help up the bastard, who openly said,
'I cannot hold me by the clouds; for though my horse fail me, I will
not fail my encounter, companion:' but the king would not suffer them
to do any more that day. The next morrow, the two noblemen came into
the field on foot, with two pole-axes, and fought valiantly; but, at
the last, the point of the pole-axe of the lord Scales happened to
enter into the sight of the bastard's helm, and, by fine force, might
have plucked him on his knees; but the king suddenly cast down his
warder, and then the marshal severed them. The bastard, not content
with this chance, required the king, of justice, that he might perform
his enterprise. The lord Scales refused not. But the king calling to
him the constable and the marshal, with the officer of arms, after
consultation had, it was declared, for a sentence definitive, by the
duke of Clarence, then constable of England,' (John Tiptoft earl of
Worcester was the constable, and not the duke of Clarence: see Rymer)
'and the duke of Norfolk marshal, that if he would go forward with his
attempted challenge, he must, by the law of arms, be delivered to his
adversary in the same state, and like condition, as he stood when he
was taken from him.
'The bastard, hearing this judgment, doubted the sequel of the matter,
and so relinquished his challenge.'
See Stowe, &c.]
[Footnote 61: Stuffings,--mahotoitres. See Du Cange. Supplement.
'Maheria.']
CHAP. LV.
THE DEATH AND INTERMENT OF THE NOBLE DUKE PHILIP OF BURGUNDY, AND THE
GRAND OBSEQUIES PERFORMED FOR HIM IN THE CHURCH OF SAINT DONNAST IN
BRUGES.
On the 12th day of June, in the year 1467, the noble duke Philip of
Burgundy was seized with a grievous malady, which continued unabated
until Monday, the 15th, when he rendered his soul to God, between nine
and ten o'clock at night. When he perceived, on the preceding day, that
he was growing worse, he sent for his son, the count de Charolois,
then at Ghent, who hastened to him with all speed; and on his arrival,
about mid-day of the Monday, at the duke's palace in Bruges, he went
instantly to the chamber where the duke lay sick in bed, but found him
speechless. He cast himself on his knees at the bedside, and, with many
tears, begged his blessing, and that, if he had ever done any thing
to offend him, he would pardon him. The confessor, who stood at the
bedside, admonished the duke, if he could not speak, at least to show
some sign of his good will. At this admonition, the good duke kindly
opened his eyes, took his son's hand, and squeezed it tenderly, as a
sign of his pardon and his blessing.
The count, like an affectionate child, never quitted the duke's bed
until he had given up the ghost. May God, out of his mercy, receive his
soul, pardon his transgressions, and admit him into paradise!
The corpse of the noble duke was left all that night on the bed, with
a black bonnet on his head, and likewise remained there on the morrow
until evening,--so that there was time enough for all who wished it to
see him: it was marvellous the great crowds who went thither, and all
prayed God to have mercy on his soul.
On Tuesday evening, the body was opened and embalmed, and his heart
separated from it. His body and bowels were each put into a well-closed
coffin of lead, and placed that night on a bier from five to six feet
high, covered to the ground with black velvet, in the chapel of his
household, over which bier was a cross of white damask cloth, and at
the four corners four thick waxen tapers burning.
Masses were daily celebrated there until noon,--and, about four or five
in the afternoon on the following Sunday, the body was carried to Saint
Donnast's church in Bruges for interment, until preparations should be
made to carry it elsewhere, according to the instructions which he had
given when alive. The funeral procession to the church was preceded
by sixteen hundred men, in black cloaks emblazoned with the arms of
the duke, each with a lighted taper in his hand,--four hundred of
whom were of the household, and at the expense of the new duke,--four
hundred from the town of Bruges, four hundred from the different trades
of that town, and four hundred from the country of the Franc, each
at the expense of those who sent them. Between this line of torches
walked full nine hundred men, as well nobles as officers and servants
of the late duke: among those were the magistrates of Bruges and of
the Franc,[62] twenty-two prelates: a bishop from Hybernie[63] was in
the number, who chaunted the first mass on the ensuing day. Between
the prelates and the body were four kings at arms, with their heads
covered, and clothed in their tabards of arms.
The body was borne by twelve knights of name and renown, around whom
were the archers of the body of the late duke. It was covered with a
pall of black velvet, reaching to the ground, on which was a broad
cross of white damask cloth. Over the body was borne a canopy of cloth
of gold, on four lances, by the count de Nassau, the earl of Buchan,
Baldwin bastard of Burgundy, and the lord de Châlons. Immediately
before the body walked the first equerry of the late duke, bearing his
sword with the point downward. The chief mourners who followed the body
were the new duke Charles, and after him James de Bourbon and Adolphus
of Cleves, his two cousins-german,--then the count de Marle, Jacques de
Saint Pol, the lord de Roussy, and some others of the great lords of
the court.
In the front of all, walked the four mendicant orders of friars, and
the clergy of the different parishes in Bruges, in the churches of
which the vigils for the dead were that day celebrated, and on the
morrow a solemn service for the soul of the deceased.
The body was placed on a bier, in the middle of the choir of the
cathedral. It had on it a cloth of gold bordered with damask, and a
large cross of white velvet, with four large burning tapers, and was
surrounded by upwards of fourteen hundred lesser ones, which caused so
great a heat that the windows of the church were obliged to be thrown
open.
The whole of the high altar, and the space above it, was hung with
black cloth, the reading-desk, both within and without, with black
velvet hanging down, emblazoned with the duke's arms: there were also
his pennon of arms and his grand banner.
The nave was hung with black cloth, having the top and bottom of black
camlet.
When the body was to be let down into the vault, no one can describe
the groans, tears, and lamentations that filled the church from the
duke's officers, and all present. Indeed all his subjects ought to
have bewailed his death, for they had lost a prince, the most renowned
for virtue and goodness that was in Christendom! full of honour,
liberality, courage, and prudence, with a mind adorned with every
generous virtue, who had preserved his countries in peace as well by
his own good sense, and the prudence of his counsellors, as by the
point of his sword, without personally sparing himself, against any
one, however great he might be. He afforded an asylum to those who
came to him to seek it, even though they were his enemies, doing good
to all, and returning good for evil,--and he never had his equal for
modesty. Even those who had never seen him, and who had disliked him
for any cause, the moment they were acquainted with him, and knew his
liberality, had an attachment and affection to him.
The heart and body of the duke were each put separately in a flat
coffin, covered with a bier of irish oak.
On the morrow, the obsequies were performed, when the bishop of Tournay
celebrated the mass; after which, he made a brief harangue in praise of
the deceased, in order that all present might offer up their prayers
for the salvation of his soul, which may God, out of his most gracious
mercy, admit into his holy Paradise! Amen.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 62: The Franc--consists of a number of villages and
hamlets separated from the _quartier_ of Bruges, and has a separate
jurisdiction.--See _La Martiniere_.]
[Footnote 63: Hybernie,--an ancient name for Ireland.]
CHAP. LVI.
PROLOGUE TO THE CHRONICLES OF THE MOST CHRISTIAN, MOST MAGNIFICENT,
MOST VICTORIOUS, AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS KINGS OF FRANCE, LOUIS XI. OF
THE NAME, AND HIS SON CHARLES VIII.[64]
Considering the saying of Seneca, that it is right to follow the ways
of our elders and governors, provided they have acted properly,--and
remembering the words of the sage, in his proverbs, that right foolish
is he who follows Idleness, for, according to Ecclesiasticus, she leads
to wickedness,--I have collected, with the utmost diligence, several
facts relative to the reigns of those illustrious princes, Louis XI.
and Charles VIII. his son, kings of France, that seemed to me worthy of
remembrance; together with many marvellous events that happened during
their reigns, as well in the kingdom of France as in the duchies of
Brittany, Burgundy, Normandy, Savoy and Lorraine,--the counties of
Flanders, Artois, and Burgundy; including likewise what may have passed
extraordinary in the adjacent countries, and also in the kingdoms
of England, Spain, and Sicily, at Rome, in Lombardy, and the duchy
of Milan, according to that famous chronicler, eloquent orator, and
excellent historian, the late Robert Gaguin,[65] during his lifetime
doctor en decret, and general of the order of the Holy Trinity.
I have also collected materials from other sources, and have
attentively perused and examined the works of those renowned
chroniclers master Jean Froissart and Enguerrand de Monstrelet; which
last I have followed in what he has written concerning the acts of
some of our kings, to the reign of Louis XI. inclusively,--and, with
reverence be it spoken, I have recapitulated some things omitted by him
relative to the actions of king Louis, because, peradventure, he had
not been truly informed of them, for it is very difficult to acquire
a true knowledge of all the gallant and courageous deeds of such
magnificent princes as the kings of France.
From these causes, I have deliberately determined (soliciting the aid
of an all-powerful God, who can do every thing,) to write and publish
several things worthy of remembrance, while I am now in this far-famed
and populous town of Paris, not with a view to correct or amend the
said Enguerrand de Monstrelet or others, for I do not undertake that
charge, but like a faithful and loyal Frenchman, and as such I wish
to remain, to avoid idleness, the parent and nurse of iniquity, and
to exhibit the acts of our sovereign princes, which ought to be
remembered, if done justly and rightly.
There are likewise many who take delight in hearing of the noble deeds,
prowess, and marvels that have happened in different parts of the
world, that they may take example from them, by following the good, and
avoiding the bad, as precedents to be eschewed.
I have, therefore, composed this small work, trifling in regard to the
author, but great in regard to the acts and triumphs of princes. I do
not, however, wish that it may be styled a Chronicle,--for that would
be unbecoming in me, for I have solely written it for an amusement and
recreation to readers, praying them humbly to excuse and supply my
ignorance by correcting whatever passage shall be found badly written.
Many strange events which I have described have happened in such
distant countries that it is difficult for me or for any one else to
know the exact truth of the facts I have related: however, without any
partiality, I have endeavoured to describe the whole truly, according
to the before mentioned authors, and shall begin where Enguerrand de
Monstrelet left off, having first recapitulated some parts of his
chronicle where there may have been any omissions, until the deaths of
the aforesaid kings Louis and Charles.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 64: See the preface to the first volume, respecting these
additions to the Chronicle of Monstrelet.]
[Footnote 65: Robert Gaguin--was born at Amiens, and died at Paris
1501, having been employed in divers embassies by Charles VIII. and
Louis XII.--See _Moreri_, &c.]
CHAP. LVII.
SOME RECAPITULATIONS OF THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF MONTLEHERY BY
MONSTRELET,--WITH THE ADDITION OF FACTS WHICH HE HAD OMITTED.
That master chronicler Enguerrand de Monstrelet, having described
in his third volume the acts of several kings and gallant knights,
concludes his work by relating the death and magnificent funeral of
Philip duke of Burgundy, father to duke Charles, lately deceased in the
town of Nancy in Lorraine.
In the course of his chronicle, he has given an account of the pompous
coronation of king Louis XI. at Rheims, and of his joyous entry into
Paris, the capital of France. He afterward amply treated of the war
and battle of Montlehery, which he has perhaps spoken of and described
with partiality, according to his pleasure and feelings; for I have
read, besides what he has related, that at this battle of Montlehery,
which was fought on Tuesday the 6th day of July, in the year 1465, the
king of France, coming with all haste from beyond Orleans to Paris,
halted at early morn at Chastres, under Montlehery, and that having
taken scarcely any refreshment, and without waiting for his escort,
which was, for its number, the handsomest body of cavalry ever raised
in France, he so valiantly attacked the army of the count de Charolois
and his Burgundians that he put to the rout the van division. Many of
them were slain, and numbers taken prisoners. News of this was speedily
carried to Paris, whence issued forth upward of thirty thousand
persons, part of whom were well mounted; and in scouring the country
they fell in with parties of Burgundians who were flying, and made them
prisoners. They defeated also those from the villages of Vanvres, Issi,
Sevres, St Cloud, Arcueil, Surennes and others.
At this rencounter, great booty was gained from the Burgundians,
so that their loss was estimated at two hundred thousand crowns of
gold. After the van had been thus thrown into confusion, the king,
not satisfied with this success, but desirous to put an end to the
war, without taking any refreshments or repose, attacked the main
body of the enemy with his guards and about four hundred lances: but
the Burgundians had then rallied, and advanced their artillery, under
the command of the count de St Pol, who did on that day the greatest
service to the count de Charolois.
The king was hard pressed in his turn, insomuch that at times he was in
the utmost personal danger, for he had but few with him, was without
artillery, and was always foremost in the heat of the battle; and
considering how few his numbers were, he maintained the fight valiantly
and with great prowess. It was the common report of the time, that if
he had had five hundred more archers on foot, he would have reduced the
Burgundians to such a state that nothing more would have been heard of
them for some time in war.
The count de Charolois, on this day, lost his whole guard,--and the
king also lost the greater part of his. The count was twice made
prisoner, by the noble Geoffroy de St Belin and Gilbert de Grassy,
but was rescued each time. Towards evening, the Scots carried off
the king, that he might take some refreshments; for he was tired
and exhausted, having fought the whole of the day without eating or
drinking, and led him away quietly, and without noise, to the castle of
Montlehery.
Several of the king's army not having seen him thus led off the field,
and missing him, thought he was either slain or taken, and took to
flight. For this reason, the count du Maine, the lord admiral de
Montaulban, the lord de la Barde, and other captains, with seven or
eight hundred lances, abandoned the king in this state, and fled,
without having struck a blow during the whole of the day. Hence it is
notorious, that if all the royal army who were present at this battle
had behaved as courageously as their king, they would have gained a
lasting victory over the Burgundians,--for the greater part of them
were defeated, and put to flight. Many indeed were killed on the king's
side, as well as on that of the enemy,--for after the battle was ended,
there were found dead on the field three thousand six hundred, whose
souls may God receive!
I shall not say more respecting this battle of Montlehery, as related
by Monstrelet; for it has been amply detailed by him, although he may
have been silent as to the whole truth of it.