Bourges, to require that he would interfere between his two nephews of
Orleans and Burgundy, and make peace between them, which he engaged
to do; and in consequence, he sent his chancellor, the archbishop of
Bourges, to Paris, well instructed by the duke how he was to act.
Shortly after, this chancellor, the marshal Boucicaut, with others,
were dispatched to the duke of Burgundy, then at St Omer, who, having
heard all they had to say, replied, that it was no fault of his, nor
should it ever be so, that any articles of the late treaties were
infringed; for that in this, and in every thing else, he was very
desirous of obeying the king. And this his answer they laid before the
king and council.
But as the proceedings against the murderers of the late duke of
Orleans did not seem to his son, and his advisers, to be carried on
with sufficient vigour, he wrote letters, signed with his own hand, to
complain of this and other matters to the king, the contents of which
were as follows:
‘Most redoubted lord, after offering my humble recommendation,--lately,
very redoubted lord, two of your counsellors came to me, namely, sir
Collart de Charleville, knight, and sir Simon de Nanterre, president of
your parliament, whom you had been pleased to send me to signify and
explain your good will and pleasure touching certain points, which they
have clearly and distinctly declared, according to the terms of their
commission.
‘First, they require and entreat of me, in your name, who may command
me as your loyal subject and humble servant, that I should submit the
quarrel that subsists between me and the duke of Burgundy, for the
inhuman and cruel murder of my very redoubted lord and father, and your
own brother, on whose soul may God have mercy! to my lady the queen,
and to my lord and uncle the duke of Berry, who has been in like manner
solicited by your ambassadors to labour diligently to establish a firm
peace, for the general good of the kingdom.
‘They have informed me, that you have also made a similar proposal to
the duke of Burgundy,--and that, to effectuate so desirable an object
as peace, I should send four of my friends to my said uncle of Berry,
who will there meet the same number from the duke of Burgundy.
‘The second point mentioned by them is, that you entreat I would desist
from assembling men at arms.
‘Thirdly, that I would accept of letters from you similar to those
which had been formerly sent me at my request, respecting the
murderers, and their accomplices, of my late father and your brother.
‘Having very maturely weighed and considered the above points, I reply,
that I most humbly thank you, very redoubted lord, for your grace and
kindness in thus sending to me; and I can assure you, that I have no
greater pleasure than in hearing often from you, and of your noble
state; that I was, and am always ready to serve and obey you in body
and fortune, to the utmost extent of my own and my subjects’ abilities.
‘But as the matters which they have mentioned to me in your name are
of very high consideration and importance, concerning yourself and
your noble state, and as I shall ever be most anxious to show my ready
obedience to your will, I was unable at the moment to make them any
reply, excepting that I would send you an answer as speedily as I
could. This I have hitherto deferred, for I know you have near your
person, and in your council, several of my bitter enemies, whom you
ought to regard as yours also, and to whom I am unwilling that my
answer, or my future intentions, should be made known: neither is it
right they should be made acquainted with what concerns me, or have the
opportunity of giving their opinions in council, or elsewhere, relative
thereto.
‘I therefore assure you, most redoubted lord, in the fullest manner,
that I am your humble son and nephew, ready at all times to obey you
as my sovereign lord, and most heartily anxious to honour and exalt to
the utmost of my power your crown and dignity, as well as that of the
queen, the duke of Acquitaine, and all your other children and kingdom,
and to advise you most loyally and faithfully, without ever concealing
any thing from you that may tend to the glory of your crown, or to the
welfare of your realm.
‘I have some time hesitated to denounce to you such of my enemies, and
yours also, as are in your council and service, namely, the bishop of
Tournay, the vidame d’Amiens, John de Neelles[67], the lord de Heilly,
Charles de Savoisy, Anthony des Essars, John de Courcelles, Peter de
Fontenay and Maurice de Railly, who, by force or underhand means, are
capable of doing me great mischief, insomuch that they have dismissed
certain very able men from their offices, who were your trusty
servants, and have done them very great and irreparable damages: they
are guilty also of insinuating very many falsehoods, to keep myself and
others, your relations and faithful servants, at a distance from you,
by which, and other means equally dishonourable and iniquitous, long
followed by them and their adherents, have they troubled the peace of
the kingdom: nor is it very probable that so long as such persons shall
remain in power, and in your service, any firm or lasting peace can be
established; for they will always prevent you from doing justice to
myself or to others, which ought indifferently to be done to all,--to
the poor as well as to the rich.
‘This conduct they pursue, because they know themselves guilty of many
crimes, and especially John de Neelles and the lord de Heilly, who were
accomplices in the murder of my late honoured father, and your only
brother, under the protection of the duke of Burgundy, the principal
in this crime. They are his sworn servants and pensioners, or allies
to the said duke, whence they may be reputed actors and accomplices in
this base and cowardly assassination. These accomplices, most redoubted
lord, appear daily in your presence, and you ought to consider their
crimes in the same light as if done personally against you, for indeed
your authority was set at nought.
‘That I may now say all that I know, I am satisfied, that had not the
course of your justice been checked by the aforesaid persons and their
accomplices, ample justice would have been done for the death of my
lord and father, and your brother, with the aid of your officers and
loyal subjects, as I know for certain that they were well inclined to
it.
‘For this I am very thankful; and I most earnestly pray you, for your
own honour, for that of the queen and of the duke of Acquitaine, as
well as for the honour of your kingdom, that you would do good and fair
justice, by causing these guilty persons to be arrested and punished,
since they are equally your enemies as mine,--and that you would not
longer admit to your presence and councils the partisans of the duke of
Burgundy, but select in their places good, loyal, and able men, such as
may be found in abundance in your kingdom.
‘When these things shall be done, I will then, under God’s pleasure,
send you such answer, that you may clearly know my inmost thoughts, and
which shall prove satisfactory to God, to yourself, and to the world.
For the love of God, I pray you, my most redoubted lord, do not neglect
doing this; otherwise I see plainly, that whatever supplications or
requests I make to you will never be attended to, although they be
conformable to reason and justice, and that you will be prevented from
acting in the manner you have proposed, through your ambassadors to me,
nor shall I be able to do what they have required from me on your part.
‘Therefore, my most redoubted lord, I beg you will not disappoint
me; for what I have required is but just and reasonable, as will be
apparent to any one. My very dear lord, may it please you to order me
according to your good pleasure, and, with the will of God, I will obey
you faithfully in all things.’
When the duke of Orleans had sent this letter to the king, he wrote
others of the like tenour to the chancellor of France, and to such
of the ministers as he knew were favourable to him, to entreat that
they would earnestly exert themselves in pressing the king, queen, and
duke of Acquitaine, to dismiss those of the council who governed under
the name of the duke of Burgundy, and whose names have been already
noticed,--and that he might obtain justice on the murderers of his
late father. Notwithstanding the many attempts he made by repeated
letters to the king and to others, he could not at that time, through
the interposition before mentioned, obtain any answer which was
satisfactory.
CHAP. XXVI.
THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BAR.--THE KING OF FRANCE SENDS AN
EMBASSY TO THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY,--AND OTHER MATTERS.
In this year died that valiant and wise man Henry duke of Bar, and was
succeeded by his eldest son Edward, marquis du Pont, in the duchy of
Bar and castlewick of Cassel, excepting a part which he had bequeathed
as an inheritance, after his decease, to Robert de Bar, son to the
deceased Henry de Bar, his eldest son, and to the lady de Coucy,
namely, Varneston, Bourbourg, Dunkirk and Rhodes[68]. In consequence
of his death, Edward was styled Duke of Bar, and began his reign
prosperously.
At this period, the king of France sent ambassadors to the duke of
Burgundy, who, beside what they delivered to him in speech, gave
him the letters which the duke of Orleans had written to the king,
containing his charges against him and his accomplices. He was much
displeased at this conduct, and made reply by these ambassadors, that
the charges brought against him by the duke of Orleans were untrue.
When he had received the ambassadors with every honour, he took leave
of them, and went to his county of Flanders: and they returned to
Paris without any satisfactory answer to the matters concerning which
they had been sent.
It was not long before the duke of Burgundy raised a large body of men
at arms, whom he sent into the Cambresis, and toward St Quentin; but
immediately after, by orders from the king and council, he dismissed
them to the places whence they had come.
On the 15th day of July, master John Petit, doctor of divinity, whom
the duke of Orleans had intended to prosecute, before the university
of Paris, for heresy, died in the town of Hesdin, in the hôtel of
the hospital which the duke of Burgundy had given him, beside large
pensions, and was buried in the church of the Friars Minors in the town
of Hesdin.
At this time, a tax was laid on the clergy of France and of Dauphiny,
of half a tenth, by the pope, with the consent of the king, the
princes, and the university of Paris, and the greater part of the
prelates and cities, to be paid by two instalments; the first on
Magdalen day, and the second at Whitsuntide following. It was so
rigorously collected that the poorer clergy complained bitterly.
During this transaction, and while the duke of Burgundy was resident
in his town of Bruges, on Saturday the 10th of July, sir Amé de
Sarrebrusse, sir Clugnet de Brabant, and other captains of the duke of
Orleans, came, with a numerous body of men at arms, before Coucy, in
the Vermandois, and Ham sur Somme.
News of this was soon carried to the duke of Burgundy, who, suspecting
they intended to invade and make war on his territories, gave
commissions to several of his captains, namely, the lord de Heilly,
Enguerrand de Bournouville, the lord de Ront, and some others, to march
a body of men at arms towards Bapaume and Ham, to oppose the Armagnacs,
should they attempt to penetrate further into the country.
During this time, the duke of Orleans and his brothers continued their
solicitations for justice, and again sent letters to the king, princes,
cities, and prelates, to engage them to unite with them in obtaining
the object of their petitions. The tenour of the letter they wrote to
the king is as follows.
CHAP. XXVII.
THE DUKE OF ORLEANS AND HIS BROTHERS SEND LETTERS TO THE KING
OF FRANCE, TO OTHER LORDS, AND TO SEVERAL OF THE PRINCIPAL
TOWNS IN FRANCE, TO COMPLAIN OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY.
‘Most redoubted and sovereign lord,--we Charles duke of Orleans,
Philip count de Vertus, and John count of Angoulême, brothers, your
very humble children and nephews, have, with all due humiliation
and submission, considered it right to lay before you, jointly and
separately, what follows.
‘Although the barbarous and cruel murder of our redoubted lord and very
dear father, your brother, must for certain be most strongly impressed
on your royal memory, and engraven on your heart,--nevertheless, most
redoubted lord, our grief and the sense of what is due to us from all
laws, human and divine, force us to renew in your memory all the minute
transactions of that inhuman event.
‘It is a fact, most dear lord, that John, who styles himself duke
of Burgundy, through a hatred he had long nourished in his breast,
and from an insatiate ambition and a desire of governing your realm,
and that he might have the office of regent, as he has clearly shown
and daily continues to show, did, on the 14th day of November in the
year 1407, most treacherously murder your brother, our most renowned
lord and father, in the streets of Paris, and during the night, by
causing him to be waylaid by a set of infamous wretches, hired for this
purpose, without having previously testified any displeasure towards
him. This is well known to all the world; for it has been publicly
avowed by the traitorous murderer himself, who is more disloyal, cruel,
and inhuman than you can imagine; and we do not believe you can find in
any writings one of a more perverse or faithless character.
‘In the first place, they were so nearly connected by blood, being
cousins-german, the children of two brothers, that it adds to his crime
of murder that of parricide; and the laws cannot too severely punish
so detestable an action. They were also brothers in arms, having twice
or thrice renewed this confederation under their own hands and seals,
and solemnly sworn on the holy sacrament, in the presence of very many
prelates and nobles, that they would be true and loyal friends,--that
they would not do any thing to the prejudice of each other, either
openly or secretly, nor suffer any such like thing to be done by others.
‘They, besides, entered into various protestations of love and
friendship, making the most solemn promises to continue true brothers
in arms, as is usual in such cases, to demonstrate that they felt a
perfect friendship for each other; and as a confirmation of their
affection, they mutually wore each other’s colours and badges.
‘Secondly, he proved the perverseness of his heart by the manner in
which this murder was committed. Under cover of his pretended affection
for your aforesaid brother, he conversed frequently with him; and once
when he was ill, a short time before his death, he visited him at his
house of Beauté sur Marne, and in Paris, showing him every sign of love
and friendship that brother, cousin, or friend could testify,--when,
at the same time, he had plotted his death, had sent for the murderers
to Paris, and had even hired the house to hide them in, which clearly
demonstrates the wickedness and disloyalty of his heart.
‘In addition to what I have just stated, and the very day before the
murder took place, after the council which you had held at the hôtel
de St Pol was broken up, they both, in your presence and before the
other princes of the blood who were there, drank wine and ate together;
and your brother invited him to dine with him the Sunday following.
The duke of Burgundy accepted the invitation, although he knew what
a diabolical attempt he harboured in his heart, and that it would be
put into effect the very first favourable opportunity. This is an
abomination disgraceful even to relate.
‘On the morrow, therefore, notwithstanding all his fair promises and
oaths, being obstinately bent upon his wicked purpose, he caused him to
be put to death with more cruelty than ever man of any rank suffered,
by those whom he had hired to waylay and murder him, and who had, for
a long time, been watching their opportunity. They first cut off his
right hand, which was found the next day in the dirt: they then cut his
left arm so that it held only by the skin, and, beside, fractured and
laid open his skull in several places that his brains were scattered
in the street; and they then dragged his body through the mud, until it
was quite lifeless.
‘It would be pitiful to hear of such barbarous conduct towards the
meanest subject: how much the more horror must the recital cause, when
it was practised on the first prince of the blood of France! Never was
any branch of your noble race so cruelly and infamously treated,--and
you and all of your blood, and such of your subjects as wish you well,
ought not to suffer such a lamentable deed to be perpetrated without
any punishment or reparation whatever, as is the case till this present
time, which is the most shameful thing that ever happened, or ever
could happen, to so noble a house; and additional disgrace will fall
upon it, if you any longer delay justice.
‘Thirdly, he shows his perverseness and obstinacy by false and damnable
hypocrisy; for after the horrid deed had been done, he came with the
other princes dressed in black, to attend the body, pretending the
utmost grief at the funeral for the loss of his brother in arms,
thinking by this means to cover the wickedness of his sin. It would be
tiresome to relate all the damnable and hypocritical arts he employed
to hide the treacherous and murderous part he had acted, until he
perceived that his crime must be brought to light by the diligence of
your officers of justice.
‘He then, and then only, confessed to the king of Sicily, and to the
duke of Berry, that he had perpetrated this murder, or at least had
caused it to be committed; and that the devil had tempted him to do
it, for that in truth he could not assign any other cause for having
so done. But he was not contented with murdering his body: he wanted
again, so great is his iniquity, to murder his fame and fair reputation
by false and wicked accusations, when he was no more able to defend
himself against them. The falsehood of these charges, through the grace
of God, is notorious to you and to the whole world.
‘My late most redoubted lady-mother, whose soul may God receive!
suffered the utmost tribulation, not only for the death of her
much-beloved lord and husband, but also for the inhuman and cruel
manner of it; and like one in despair, attended by me, John of
Angoulême, she waited on you, as her king and sovereign lord, and
her sole refuge in this her distress, and most humbly supplicated
that you would, out of your benign goodness, have compassion on her
and her children, and would order such prompt and just judgment to
be executed on the perpetrators of this murder as the blackness of
the case required; and as you are bound in your quality of king to
administer strict justice to all your subjects without delay, as well
to the poor as to the rich, so rather the more promptly ought you to
exercise it in favour of the poor and deserted than for the rich and
powerful; for this upright administration of justice is a great virtue,
and on this account were kings chiefly appointed, and power intrusted
to their hands. The case that was then and is now again brought before
you requires the most speedy justice; for it not only concerns you as
king, but affects you more sensibly and personally,--for her husband,
our much regretted lord, who was so treacherously slain, was your only
brother, and, consequently, strict justice ought to have been granted
to her, and done on the murderers.
‘You did indeed appoint a day for doing her this justice; on which
account, she constantly employed her agents near your person, to
remind you thereof: she waited long after the appointed day had elapsed
for the judgment which you had promised her,--and, notwithstanding all
her diligence and exertions, she met with nothing but delays, caused by
the means of the aforesaid traitor, his friends and adherents, as shall
be more fully explained hereafter.
‘However, most redoubted lord, I know for certain, that your
inclinations were very willing to do us justice, and that they still
remain the same. Our most afflicted mother, attended by me Charles of
Orleans, again returned; and we renewed our request to have judgment
executed on the assassins of our late lord and father. We also caused
to be most fully detailed before my lord of Acquitaine, your eldest
son, and by you commissioned as your lieutenant on this occasion, and
before the queen, every circumstance relative to the murder, and the
infamous charges urged by way of exculpation by the murderer, and the
causes why he had committed this atrocious crime. We, at the same time,
fully replied to what had been argued in his defence; and after this,
our lady-mother caused conclusions to be drawn against the aforesaid
traitor, according to the usual customs of your reign, and required
that your attorney should join with her in the further prosecution of
the criminals, so that they might be brought to justice.
‘When this was done, our very redoubted lord the duke of Acquitaine,
by the advice of the princes of your blood and divers others of your
council, then present at the Louvre, made answer to our lady-mother,
that, as your lieutenant, he and the princes of the blood, and
the members of your council, were satisfied, and pleased with the
justifications offered by our lady-mother in behalf of your brother,
our much redoubted father, whose soul may God pardon! and that they
considered him as fully innocent of the charges brought against him,
and added, that substantial justice should be done to her satisfaction.
‘Notwithstanding all these promises, there was much delay in their
execution, insomuch that she frequently renewed her solicitations
to you, the princes of your blood, and to your council, and used
various other means to obtain justice, the recital of which would
tire you: nevertheless, she could never gain the assistance of your
attorney-general in prosecuting the aforesaid criminals to judgment,
which circumstance is lamentable to think on.
‘For the aforesaid traitor, well knowing your inclination to execute
justice, knowing also that his crime could by no means be justified, in
order to prevent matters being pushed to extremity, (notwithstanding
your positive orders to him, to forbid his appearing at Paris, with any
body of men at arms) came thither with a powerful force, composed of
foreigners, and several who had been banished your realm, who did great
mischief to the countries through which they passed, as is notorious to
every one.
‘Your and our lady the queen, with the duke of Acquitaine, your son
and heir, and the princes of the blood, were forced to quit your
capital before he arrived there. He remained, therefore, in your
town of Paris lord paramount, and conducted himself in a tyrannical
manner, subversive of your dominion, and contrary to the interests
of the people. To avoid greater inconveniences and oppressions on
your subjects from him and his men at arms, it was judged expedient
that you, the royal family and council of state should, according to
his good pleasure, come to Chartres, and there grant him whatever
he should ask. Thus he thought he should be acquitted of all the
traitorous acts and murders which he had committed, by trampling your
justice under his feet. Consequently he refuses to suffer any of your
officers to take cognizance of his crimes, and has not condescended to
humiliate himself before you, whom he has troubled and offended more
than can be told. He is not, therefore, capable of receiving any grace
by law or reason; nor worthy of being admitted to your presence, and
having any favours shown to him or to his dependants and friends. He
should have presented himself before you in all humility and contrition
for his offences; whereas he has done precisely the contrary, and has
so obstinately persisted in his wickedness that he has had the boldness
to avow to yourself publicly, and before so great an assembly as met at
Chartres, that he put your only brother to death for your welfare and
that of the state.