that it had been done. This has shocked every loyal ear that has heard
it, and will shock still more the generations to come, who shall read
and learn that a king of France (the greatest monarch in Christendom)
should not have been displeased at the most inhuman and traitorous
murder of his only brother.
‘This is so manifestly treason of the deepest die against your
own honour, and that of your crown and kingdom, that scarcely any
punishments ordered by law and justice are capable of making reparation
for it. It is also greatly prejudicial to the far-famed justice of your
courts of law.
‘Notwithstanding the excuses which he made to you, that the murder
of your brother had been committed for your personal security, and
the good of your kingdom, it is notorious, that it had been plotted
a very long time, through his immeasurable ambition of obtaining the
government of your realm, as I have before stated. He has declared to
several of his dependants and officers, that there never before was
committed in this country so base a murder; and yet, in his defence, he
says it was done for the public good, and for your personal safety.
‘It is therefore very clear, according to law and equity, that every
thing done at Chartres on that day is null and void; and what perhaps
is as deserving of punishment as the commission of the crime itself
is, that he never deigned to pay you any honour, respect, or condolence
for such a loss as that of your brother, nor ever once solicited
pardon, or any remission for his offence whatever. And he wishes to
maintain, that without confessing his guilt, and without demanding
pardon, you have remitted all further proceedings against him, which is
contrary to all equity and written laws,--a mere illusion, or rather a
derision of justice, namely, thus to leave a murderer, without taking
any cognizance of his crime, without penitence or contrition, and
to prosecute no inquiry into his conduct, and, what is worse, when
such a criminal obstinately perseveres in his wickedness, even in the
presence of his sovereign lord. On that same day, however, he fell
into a manifest and apparent contradiction; for he says that he has
done well, and consequently he assumes to himself merit, and requires
remuneration,--and, nevertheless, he pretends to say that you have
given him pardon and remission, which circumstance implies not good
deeds and merit, but a crime and offence.
‘He has never offered any prayers for the salvation of the soul of the
deceased, nor any remuneration to those who have suffered from the
loss caused by him; and this you ought not, and cannot in any manner
pardon.
‘Thus it clearly appears, that what was done at Chartres was contrary
to every principle of law, equity, reason and justice; whence it again
follows, that from this, and other causes too long to be detailed, all
the proceedings at Chartres are null and of no effect. Should any one
maintain, that the treaty made at Chartres is good and binding, it may
very easily be shown, that this aforesaid traitor has infringed the
articles of it in various ways, and has been the first to violate it.
‘Although you had ordered, that henceforth he should in no way act to
our prejudice, and although he had sworn to observe it,--nevertheless
he did directly the contrary; for, thinking to damn the good fame of
our very redoubted lord and father, he caused your grand master of
the household, whose soul may God receive! to be arrested, thrown
into close imprisonment, and inhumanly tortured, so that his limbs
were broken, and made him suffer other martyrdom that he might,
through the severity of torture, force him to confess that our
ever-to-be-regretted lord and father, and your only brother, whose
soul may God pardon! was guilty of some of the charges which he had
falsely brought against him, so that his crimes might be excused, and
that he might for ever destroy the honour of our family.
‘He had the grand master carried to the place of execution, who there,
when death was before his eyes, declared, on the damnation of his soul
if he told a falsehood, that he had never in his life seen any thing
treasonable in the conduct of the late duke of Orleans, or any thing
that tended to the hurt of any individual,--but that he had always most
loyally served you: and should he have said any thing to the contrary
when under torture, it must have been his sufferings that forced him to
utter what he thought would please his tormentors. What he now said was
the real truth, and he uttered it on the peril of damnation; and this
he persevered in to the moment of his execution, in the hearing of many
knights and other respectable persons.
‘This plainly demonstrates, that the duke of Burgundy’s conduct was
precisely the reverse to what he had sworn to observe when at Chartres.
‘He has received into his hôtel and supported, and continues daily
so to do, the murderers who slew your brother, although they were
especially excepted out of the treaty concluded at Chartres. He
likewise, as is notorious, troubles the officers and servants of our
late lord and father, who now appertain to us, and dismisses them from
all the employments which they held under your government, without any
other cause whatever but his hatred to us and to our house, and to
those servants who are attached to us. He even attempted not only to
ruin them in their fortunes, but to take away their lives by means too
tedious to relate; but the facts are notorious.
‘The traitor, therefore, sensible of the horror of his criminal
cruelty, and that he could not by any means palliate it, has usurped
the government of your kingdom (for the sole cause of his murdering
your brother was his unbounded ambition),--and, by so doing,
effectually prevents your officers of justice from taking cognizance
of his crimes, and likewise creates infinite grief to all your loyal
subjects and wellwishers.
‘He detains your royal person, as well as that of my lord the duke of
Acquitaine, in such subjection that no one, however high his rank, can
have access to you, whatever may be his business, without first having
obtained permission from those whom he has placed around you, and has
thus driven from you and your family several faithful and valiant
servants long attached to you, and filled their places with his own
creatures, and in great part with foreigners and persons unknown to
you. In like manner, he has acted toward my lord of Acquitaine.
‘He has also displaced your officers,--in particular, such as held
the principal posts in your realm; and as for your finances, he has
lavished them here and there according to his will and pleasure, but
greatly to his own advantage, and not at all for the good of yourself,
or for the relief of your people, which has caused much discontent
against you. The underlings in office he has sorely vexed, under
feigned pretences of justice, and has robbed them of their fortunes,
which he has applied to his own proper use, as is well known throughout
Paris and elsewhere.
‘In short, he has introduced such a licentiousness of manners into the
kingdom that all sorts of crimes are committed, without inquiry or
punishment following them; and thus, from default or neglect of justice
being done on this enormous and detestable murderer, many other murders
have been committed with impunity in different parts of the realm,
since the melancholy death of our much-regretted lord and father,
murderers and other criminals saying, ‘Our crimes will be passed over,
since no notice has been taken of him who slew the king’s brother.’
‘On this account, most redoubted lord, my lord of Berry your uncle,
the duke of Bourbon, the count d’Alençon, the counts de Clermont and
d’Armagnac, and I Charles of Orleans, wishing to testify our loyalty to
you, as we are bound by parentage, and being your very humble subjects,
had intended coming to you last year to lay before you the damnable
government of your kingdom, and to remonstrate, that should it continue
longer, it must end in the destruction of yourself, your family, and
your realm.
‘In order, therefore, that you may hear us as well as such as may
maintain the contrary, let there be chosen a sufficient number of
discreet men to examine into the grievances we complain of; and let a
remedy be applied to them, providing first for the security of your
royal person, and for that of my lord of Acquitaine. This was more
fully explained in the proclamations issued previously to our coming
to Paris, when, for our personal safety, we were accompanied by our
friends and vassals, all of them your subjects; and our only object in
thus coming was the welfare of yourself and your kingdom.
‘We offered to wait on you with very few attendants, but we could
never obtain access to you, nor have a single audience, through the
obstructions of this traitor, who was alway by your side; and he alone
prevented the goodness of our intentions being made known to you,
from his persevering ambition and his boundless desire of seizing the
government of yourself and realm.
‘We, therefore, finding all hopes of seeing you fruitless, in
consequence of agreements concluded with your council, returned home;
but to avoid, if possible, the destruction of your country, we must
again confederate.--We faithfully observed all the articles of the
agreement; but we were no sooner at a distance than our enemy violated
them in the most essential part. It had been settled that your new
ministry should be composed of men of unblemished characters, who were
not partisans or servants, or pensioners to either side; but he has
kept those that were attached to him in power, so that he has now a
majority in the council, and consequently rules more despotically and
more securely than when he held the reins of government in his own hand.
‘These grievances are increasing, and will increase, unless God shall
direct your mind to provide a remedy to them.
‘Pierre des Essars, who had been provost of your good town of Paris,
and minister of finance, was to be deprived of these offices, and of
every employment he held under your name. This was done for a short
time,--but he has since obtained for him, by letters sealed with
your great seal, a re-appointment to the provostship, under pretence
of which the said Pierre des Essars has returned to Paris, and has
attempted by force to execute the duties of that office. He came, in
fact, to the court of the Châtelet, seated himself on the judgment
seat, and took possession of his office with the knowledge and
connivance of the duke of Burgundy,--and it was not his fault, if he
failed in success.
‘Hence it appears plainly, that the late arrangements have been by
him, and those of his party, violated; and that he never had any real
intentions of keeping the treaty is clear from his having consented to
the dismission of Pierre des Essars, and then secretly procuring his
restitution. It was also stipulated in this treaty, that all who had
been deprived of their offices for having been in the company of me,
Charles d’Orleans, and the other lords, at the hôtel of Winchester,
should be restored to them; and that, by your orders, and those of your
council, sir John de Charencieres was to be replaced in his government
of your town and castle of Caen,--nevertheless, the duke of Burgundy,
in opposition to these your orders, had him displaced, and solicited
the appointment for himself, from hatred to sir John de Charencieres,
and, having obtained it, now holds it, which is another infringement of
the treaty.
‘Notwithstanding, most redoubted lord and sovereign, all the diligence
and exertions made by our much-loved mother, whose soul may God
pardon! to obtain justice on the murderers of our late very dear
father, four years have now elapsed without any judgment being passed
on such enormous criminals, although she pursued every means in her
power.
‘In consequence of this failure or neglect, I, Charles of Orleans, have
of late most humbly supplicated you to grant me warrants against these
aforesaid murderers, addressed to all your justices, that they might,
on due examination of the charges, imprison and punish, according to
the exigency of the case, all or any who may have been implicated in
this abominable crime. In this I made not any extraordinary request;
for justice is due to all your subjects, and cannot be refused them:
you cannot believe that any man, however low his rank, in your kingdom,
would have a similar request neglected by your courts of justice, for
I know it could not be refused. However, in spite of every exertion I
could make, I have never yet been able to obtain these warrants, the
reason of which is, as I suppose, that some of your new ministers are
implicated in the crime I am anxious to have punished, and therefore
will not suffer such warrants to be issued.
‘For this reason, therefore, most redoubted lord, have I of
late earnestly supplicated you, that you would, from personal
considerations, and for the good of your realm, dismiss from your
service the persons named in my letter,--for I therein charged them
with having obstructed public justice and disturbed the peace of the
country. When this should be done, I declared to your ambassadors,
that I was willing, from my love to your person and attachment to your
kingdom, to make publicly known my future intentions, and that my
conduct should be such as would have the approbation of God and of your
majesty; but notwithstanding this, I have not yet had any satisfactory
answer to all my repeated solicitations for justice on the murderers of
my late regretted lord and father.
‘We, therefore, most redoubted lord, again make our petitions that the
aforesaid criminals may be brought to that justice which is due to them
for the enormity of their offences; the principal having made a public
confession of his guilt in the presence of my lord of Acquitaine, who
presided, in your absence, at the meeting held at his request in the
hôtel de St Pol, and before a numerous body of the nobility, clergy
and others; and the traitor cannot deny that this his confession was
made before a competent judge, and in the presence of such witnesses as
the king of Sicily and my lord of Berry your uncle.
‘He had before privately confessed to these two persons, that he had
committed the murder without any cause whatever, but through the
instigation of the enemy of mankind. This confession, according to
every law, ought to be to his prejudice, nor should he be suffered to
offer any excuse in extenuation of a crime thus publicly and privately
avowed; for he has condemned himself, and ought to have judgment passed
on him accordingly.
‘It is very apparent, that such confession requires not any further
proceedings but the passing of that sentence which the enormity of the
crime deserves. Notwithstanding this, our much-regretted lady-mother
and ourselves have never been able, with all our exertions, to overcome
the premeditated delays to obstruct justice; for three years and a half
are elapsed since we first brought the matter before you, and we are
not one step more advanced to the attainment of judgment than we were
then. It is painful to consider what may be the consequence of this
wilful delay of justice to the welfare of your kingdom, and that the
most dangerous consequences may ensue, unless a speedy and decisive
remedy be applied.
‘May it therefore please your grace to do your loyal duty, in executing
this act of justice, in obedience to God your Creator, to whom judgment
appertains, and from whom you hold your authority. Have regard also to
the good government of your realm, and exert yourself to put an end
to every obstacle in the way of a just punishment on the traitor. We
most earnestly supplicate you to comply with this our request as soon
as possible, for we are bounden to press you to it, to the utmost of
our powers, under pain of not being reputed the children of our late
lamented father, and of being disgraced, and unworthy of bearing his
name and arms, and of succeeding to his honours and estates: such
dishonour we will never endure, but would rather suffer death, as ought
to be the determination of every man of noble heart, of whatever rank
or estate he may be.
‘We therefore entreat you, with all possible humility, that for this
purpose, and also in order to resist and oppose his wicked intention
to destroy us by any means whatsoever, it may please you, from your
benignant grace, to aid, assist and abet by your power, us to whom
God hath vouchsafed so great favour as to cause us to be born your
relations, even of your own kin, and your true nephews, children of
your only brother,--or, to speak more properly, assist your only
brother, who has fallen a martyr to the ambitious views of this
traitor. Most redoubted lord, there is no man so poor, who, having had
his brother murdered, will not prosecute the murderer to death, and
the more earnestly as the criminal displays greater obstinacy. This is
exemplified in the conduct of our traitor; for it is notorious, that he
has dared to write, and to declare to many respectable persons, that he
slew your brother, whom God pardon! our much-redoubted lord and father,
fairly and meritoriously. In answer to which, I Charles of Orleans say,
that he lies, and I at present decline to make a more ample reply,--for
it is very manifest, as I have before explained, that he is a liar, and
a false disloyal traitor, and that, through the grace of God, I am, and
ever will be without reproach, and a teller of truth.
‘Since, therefore, such things cannot fail of being very prejudicial to
your realm and to the public welfare, we beseech you most humbly to do
us that justice which you are bounden to do, and to assist us by every
means in your power, that we may have full and ample reparation for the
wrongs done us and our family, and that this murder may be punished in
the manner it deserves. In acting thus, you will acquit yourself toward
God our Creator, and execute justice, of which you are the supreme
head, to whom we must have recourse after God.
‘That you, our most redoubted lord, may be assured that the contents of
this letter are from our free will and knowledge, we, Charles, Philip
and John, your most humble children and nephews, have each of us signed
it with our own hands. Written at Gergeau, the 10th day of July, in the
year 1411.’
This letter was sent, by a herald of the duke of Orleans, to the king
at Paris, and was laid before the whole of the council, where different
opinions were held as to the contents. Some wished that the brothers
should have their requests complied with, and that the duke of Burgundy
should be summoned, that they might hear what he had to say in his
defence to the charges which they should make against him. But at
length the business was postponed, and the duke of Orleans could not
obtain any favourable answer; for the greater part of those who ruled
the king and the duke of Acquitaine were favourers of the duke of
Burgundy, to whom they shortly after sent a copy of the above letter.
The duke of Burgundy, on reading it, was convinced that the family of
Orleans and their friends would very soon declare war against him;
and in consequence, he immediately began to make every preparation to
oppose them, by forming magazines of stores, and engaging a numerous
body of men at arms, in various parts of his possessions.
The duke of Orleans and his brothers had not only written to the king
of France, and to the princes of the blood, but also to the principal
towns, making complaint against the duke of Burgundy, and requiring
their support. When they perceived that the king and his ministers did
not intend to answer their letter, they again wrote to the great towns,
giving them to understand, that if redress were not granted them in the
legal manner, as they had demanded it, they should seek other means of
obtaining it.
It was now ordered by the king, the queen, and the duke of Berry,
and others of weight in the council, that measures should be adopted
for appeasing the quarrels of the dukes of Orleans and of Burgundy.
Ambassadors were sent to each of the parties, but without success,
principally because the duke of Burgundy would not condescend to make
any other reparation than what had passed at the treaty of Chartres;
and his pride was increased by having the king and the duke of
Acquitaine on his side.
The Orleans-party were much discontented, but not dismayed; for many
very considerable lords were with them, and had promised them aid and
support against the duke of Burgundy to the utmost of their powers. The
queen, therefore, and the others employed to negotiate a peace between
the two factions, finding their attempts fruitless, gave it up, and on
a certain day made a report to the king of what they had done, and the
answers they had received from both parties. Shortly after, the duke
of Orleans and his faction resolved to make mortal war on the duke of
Burgundy and his allies, and sent him their challenges by a herald.
CHAP. XXVIII.
THE DUKE OF ORLEANS AND HIS BROTHERS SEND A CHALLENGE TO THE
DUKE OF BURGUNDY, IN HIS TOWN OF DOUAY.
The following is the tenour of the challenge sent by the three brothers
of Orleans to the duke of Burgundy, in consequence of the murder of
their late father, the duke of Orleans.
‘Charles, duke of Orleans and of Valois, count of Blois and of
Beaumont, and lord of Coucy, Philip count of Vertus, John count of
Angoulême, brothers,--to thee, John, who callest thyself duke of
Burgundy.
‘For the very horrible murder by thee committed (in treacherously
waylaying by assassins) on the person of our most redoubted lord and
father, Louis duke of Orleans, only brother to my lord the king, our
sovereign and thine, in spite of all the divers oaths of brotherhood
and fellowship thou hadst sworn to him; and for the numberless
treacheries and disloyal acts that thou hast perpetrated, as well
against our sovereign lord the king as against ourselves, we thus
acquaint thee, that we shall make war upon and distress thee and thine
by every possible means in our power.
‘And we appeal to God and justice against thy disloyalty and treason,
and call for the assistance of every worthy man in this world. In
testimony whereof, and to assure thee of its truth, we have subjoined
the seal of me Charles of Orleans to these presents. Given at Gergeau,
the 18th day of July.’
The above letter was delivered to the duke of Burgundy by a herald
in his town of Douay, who, having considered its contents, wrote the
following answer, which he sent by one of his heralds at arms to the
aforesaid brothers.
CHAP. XXIX.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY SENDS AN ANSWER TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE
DUKE OF ORLEANS AND HIS BROTHERS.
‘John duke of Burgundy, count of Artois, of Flanders, palatine of
Burgundy, lord of Salines and of Malines,--to thee Charles, who stylest
thyself duke of Orleans and Valois,--and to thee Philip, who signest
thyself count of Vertus,--and to thee John, who callest thyself count
of Angoulême, who have lately sent me your letters of defiance.
‘We make known to you, and to all the world, that to put an end to the
abominable treasons and mischiefs that were daily plotted in various
ways, against the person of our sovereign lord and king, and against
all his royal offspring, by Louis your father, and to prevent your
false and disloyal father from succeeding in his abominable designs
against the person of our and his most redoubted lord and sovereign,
which were become so notorious that no honest man ought to have
suffered him to live, more especially we who are cousin-german to
our lord the king, dean of the peerage, and twice a peer[69], felt it
incumbent on us not to permit such a person longer to exist on the
earth, and, by putting an end to his life, have done pleasure to God,
and a most loyal service to our sovereign lord, in destroying a vile
and disloyal traitor.