"Immediately after, Adolph of Cleves, John of Luxemburg, John of Nassau, and others returned to Damme and paid their homage to the new duchess, and then my lady entered a horse litter, beautifully draped with cloth of gold. She was clad in white cloth of gold made like a wedding garment as was proper. On her hair rested a crown and her other jewels were appropriate and sumptuous. Her English ladies followed her on thirteen hackneys, two close by her litter and the others behind. Five chariots followed the thirteen hackneys, the Duchess of Norfolk, the most beautiful woman in England, being in the first. In this array Madame proceeded to Bruges and entered at the gate called Ste. Croix."

There were too many names to be enumerated, but La Marche cannot forbear mentioning a noble Zealander, Adrian of Borselen, Seigneur of Breda, who had six horses covered with cloth of gold, jewelry, and silk.

"I mention him for two reasons [he explains[9]]: first, that he was the most brilliant in the procession, and the second is that by the will of God he died on the Wednesday from a trouble in his leg, which was a pity and much regretted by the nobility.

"The procession from Ste. Croix to the palace was magnificent, with all the dignitaries in their order. So costly were the dresses of the ducal household that Charles expended more than forty thousand francs for cloth of silk and of wool alone.

"Prominent in this stately procession were the nations or foreign merchants in this order: Venetians, Florentines—at the head of the latter marched Thomas Portinari, banker and councillor of the duke at the same time that he was chief of their nation and therefore dressed in their garb; Spaniards; Genoese—these latter showed a mystery, a beautiful girl on horseback guarded by St. George from the dragon.—Then came the Osterlings, 108 on horseback, followed by six pages, all clad in violet.

"Gay, too, was Bruges and the streets were all decorated with cloth of gold and silk and tapestries. As to the theatrical representations I can remember at least ten. There were Adam and Eve, Cleopatra married to King Alexander, and various others.

"The reception at the palace was very formal. The dowager duchess herself received her daughter-in-law from the litter and escorted her by the hand to her chamber, and for the present we will leave the ladies and the knighthood and turn to the arrangement of the hotel.

"In regard to the service, Mme. the new duchess was served d'eschancon et d'escuyer tranchant et de pannetier. All English, all knights and gentlemen of great houses, and the chief steward cried 'Knights to table,' and then they went to the buffet to get the food, and around the buffet marched all the relations of Monseigneur, all the knights of the Order and of great houses. And for that day Mme. the duchess the mother declined to be served a couvert but left the honour to her daughter-in-law as was right.

"After dinner the ladies retired to their rooms for a little rest and there were some changes of dress. Then they all mounted their chariots and hackneys and issued forth on the streets in great triumph and wonderful were the jousts of the Tree of Gold. Several days of festivity followed when the usual pantomimes and shows were in evidence.

"Tuesday, the tenth and last day of the fete, the grand salle was arranged in the same state as on the wedding day itself, except the grand buffet which stood in the middle of the hall. This banquet, too, was a grand affair and concluded the festivities.

On the morrow, Wednesday, July 15th, Monseigneur departed for Holland on a pressing piece of business, and he took leave of the Duchess of Norfolk and the other lords and ladies of quality and gave them gifts each according to his rank. Thus ends the story of this noble festival, and for the present I know nothing worth writing you except that I am yours."

To this may be added the letter of one of the Paston family who was in Margaret's train.[10]

"John Paston the younger to Margaret Paston:

"To my ryght reverend and worchepfull Modyr Margaret Paston dwelling at Caster, be thys delyveryed in hast.

"Ryth reverend & worchepfull Modyr, I recommend me on to you as humbylly as I can thynk, desyryng most hertly to her of your welfare & hertsese whyche I pray God send you as hastyly as my hert can thynk. Ples yt you to wete that at the makyng of thys byll my brodyr & I & all our felawshep wer in good helle, blyssyd be God.

"As for the gydyn her in thys countre it is as worchepfull as all the world can devyse it, & ther wer never Englyshe men had so good cher owt of Inglong that ever I herd of.

"As for tydyngs her but if it be of the fest I can non send yow; savyng my Lady Margaret was maryed on Sonday last past at a town that is called Dame IIj myle owt of Brugge at v of the clok in the morning; & sche was browt the same day to Bruggys to hyr dener; & ther sche was receyvyd as worchepfully as all the world cowd devyse as with presession with ladys and lordys best beseyn of eny pepell that ever I sye or herd of. Many pagentys were pleyed in hyr way to Brugys to hyr welcoming, the best that ever I sye. And the same Sonday my Lord the Bastard took upon hym to answere xxiiij knyts & gentylmen within viij dayis at jostys of pese & when that they wer answered, they xxiiij & hymselve shold torney with other xxv the next day after, whyche is on Monday next comyng; & they that have jostyd with hym into thys day have been as rychly beseyn, & hymselfe also, as clothe of gold & sylk & sylvyr & goldsmith's werk might mak hem; for of syche ger & gold & perle & stonys they of the dukys coort neyther gentylmen nor gentylwomen they want non; for with owt that they have it by wyshys, by my trowthe, I herd nevyr of so gret plente as ther is.

* * * * *

And as for the Dwkys coort, as of lords & ladys & gentylwomen knyts, sqwyers & gentylmen I hert never of non lyek to it save King Artourys cort. And by my trowthe I have no wyt nor remembrance to wryte to you half the worchep that is her; but that lakyth as it comyth to mynd I shall tell you when I come home whyche I trust to God shal not be long to; for we depart owt of Brygge homward on Twysday next comyng & all folk that cam with my lady of Burgoyn out of Ingland, except syche as shall abyd her styll with hyr whyche I wot well shall be but fewe.

"We depart the sooner for the Dwk hathe word that the Frenshe king is purposyd to mak wer upon hym hastyly & that he is with in IIIj or v dayis jorney of Brugys & the Dwk rydeth on Twysday next comyng forward to met with hym. God geve hym good sped & all hys; for by my trowthe they are the goodlyest felawshep that ever I cam among & best can behave themselves & most like gentlemen.

"Other tydyngs have we non her; but that the Duke of Somerset & all hys band departyd well beseyn out of Brugys a day befor that my Lady the Duchess cam thedyr & they sey her that he is to Queen Margaret that was & shal no more come her agen nor be holpyn by the Duke. No more; but I beseche you of your blessyng as lowly as I can, wyche I beseche you forget not to geve me everday onys. And, Modyr, I beseche you that ye wol be good mastras to my lytyll man & to se that he go to scole.

* * * * *

Wreten at Bruggys the Friday next after Seynt Thomas.

"Your sone & humbyll servaunt,

"J. PASTON THE YOUNGER."

[Footnote 1: Chastellain, v., 570.]

[Footnote 2: V., 576.]

[Footnote 3: This deputation was composed of representatives from "all the city in its entirety in three chief members—the bourgeois and nobles, the fifty-two metiers, and the weavers who possess twelve different places in the city entirely for themselves and in their control." The formal apology was made later. (Chastellain, v., 291.)]

[Footnote 4: Ibid 306. By letters patent given on July 28, 1467, Duke Charles pardoned the Ghenters and confirmed the privileges which he had conceded to them, but he exacted that a deputation from the three members [Trois membres] of the city should come to Brussels to beg pardon on their knees, bareheaded, ungirded, for all the disorder of St. Lievin. This act of submission took place probably not until January, 1469, though August 8, 1468, is also mentioned as the date.]

[Footnote 5: Hist, de l'Ordre, etc., p. 511.]

[Footnote 6: Chastellain, V., 342.]

[Footnote 7: III., 101. Evidently this was composed for a separate work and then incorporated into the memoirs.]

[Footnote 8: There is a beautiful portrait of her in MS. 9275 in the Bibliotheque de Burgogne. See also Wavrin, Anchiennes Croniques d'Engleterre, ii., 368.]

[Footnote 9: III., 108.]

[Footnote 10: The Paston Letters, ii., 317.]



CHAPTER XI

THE MEETING AT PERONNE

1468

"My brother, I beseech you in the name of our affection and of our alliance, come to my aid, come as speedily as you can, come without delay. Written by the own hand of your brother.

"FRANCIS."

Such were the concluding sentences of a fervent appeal from the Duke of Brittany that followed Charles into Holland, whither he had hastened after the completion of the nuptial festivities.

The titular Duke of Normandy found that his royal brother was in no wise inclined to fulfil the solemn pledges made at Conflans. His ally, Francis, Duke of Brittany, was plunged into terror lest the king should invade his duchy and punish him for his share in the proceedings that had led up to that compact.

It is in this year that Louis XI. begins to show his real astuteness. Very clever are his methods of freeing himself from the distasteful obligations assumed towards his brother. They had been easy to make when a hostile army was encamped at the gates of Paris. Then Normandy weighed lightly when balanced by the desire to separate the allies. That separation accomplished, the point of view changed. Relinquish Normandy, restored by the hand of heaven to its natural liege lord after its long retention by the English kings? Louis's intention gradually became plain and he proved that he was no longer in the isolated position in which the War for Public Weal had found him. He had won to himself many adherents, while the general tone towards Charles of Burgundy had changed.[1]

In April, 1468, the States-General of France assembled at Tours in response to royal writs issued in the preceding February.[2] The chancellor, Jouvencal, opened the session with a tedious, long-winded harangue calculated to weary rather than to illuminate the assembly. Then the king took the floor and delivered a telling speech. With trenchant and well chosen phrases he set forth the reasons why Normandy ought to be an intrinsic part of the French realm. The advantages of centralisation, the weakness of decentralisation, were skilfully drawn. The matter was one affecting the kingdom as a whole, in perpetuity; it was not for the temporal interests of the present incumbent of regal authority, who had only part therein for the brief space of his mortal journey. Louis's words are pathetic indeed, as he calls himself a sojourner in France, en voyage through life, as though the fact itself of his likeness to the rest of ephemeral mankind was novel to his audience. He reiterated the statement that the interests involved were theirs, not his.

It was a goodly body which listened to Louis. The greatest feudal lords, indeed, were not present, but many of the lesser nobility were, while sixty-four towns sent, all told, about 128 deputies. These hearers gave willing attention to the thesis that it was a burning shame for the French people to pay heavy taxes simply to restrain the insolent peers from rebelling against their sovereign—those noble scions of the royal stock whose bounden duty it was to protect the state and the head of the royal house.

What was the reason for their selfish insubordination? The root of the evil lay in the past, when extensive territories had been carelessly alienated, and their petty over-lords permitted to acquire too much independence of the crown, so that the monarchy was threatened with disruption. There was more to the same purpose and then the deputies deliberated on the answer to make to this speech from the throne. It was an answer to Louis's mind, an answer that showed the value of suggestion. Charles the Wise had thought that an estate yielding an income of twelve thousand livres was all-sufficient for a prince of the blood. Louis XI. was more generous. He was ready to allow his brother Charles a pension of sixty thousand livres. But as to the government of Normandy—why! no king, either from fraternal affection or from fear of war, was justified in committing that province to other hands than his own.

The States-General dissolved in perfect accord with the monarch, and a definite order was left in the king's hands, declaring that it was the judgment of the towns represented that concentration of power was necessary for the common welfare of France. Public opinion declared that national weakness would be inevitable if the feudatories were unbridled in their centrifugal tendencies. Above all, Normandy must be retained by the king. On no consideration should Louis leave it to his brother.[2]

Before the dissolution of the assembly there was some discussion as to the probable attitude of the great nobles in regard to this platform of centralisation. Very timid were the comments on Charles of Burgundy. Would he not perhaps be an excellent mediator between the lesser dukes and the king? Would it not be better to suspend action until his opinion was known, etc? But at large there was less reserve. The statements were emphatic. Naught but mischief had ever come to France from Burgundy. The present duke's father and grandfather had wrought all the ill that lay in their power. As for Charles, his illimitable greed was notorious. Let him rest content with his paternal heritage. Ghent and Bruges were his. Did he want Paris too? Let the king recover the towns on the Somme. Rightfully they were French. Louis made no scruple in pleading the invalidity of the treaty of Conflans, because it had been wrested from him by undue influence. And this royal sentiment was repeated here and there with growing conviction of its justice.

While Charles was occupied with the preparation for his wedding, Louis was engaged in levying troops and mobilising his forces, and these preparations continued throughout the summer of 1468. Naturally, news of this zeal directed against the dukes of Normandy and of Brittany followed the traveller in Holland.

Charles was in high dudgeon and wrote at once to the king, reminding him that these seigneurs were his allies, and demanding that nothing should be wrought to their detriment. Conscious that his remonstrance might be futile, and urged on by appeals from the dukes, Charles hastened to cut short his stay in Holland so that he might move nearer to the scene of Louis's activities. His purpose in going to the north had been twofold—to receive homage as Count of Holland and Zealand, and to use his new dignity to obtain large sums of money for which he saw immediate need if he were to hold Louis to the terms wrested from him.

In early July, Charles had crossed from Sluis in Flanders to Middelburg, and thence made his progress through the cities of Zealand, receiving homage as he went. Next he passed to The Hague, where the nobles and civic deputies of Holland met him and gave him their oaths of fealty on July 21st. Fifty-six towns[4] were represented and there were also deputies from eight bailiwicks and the islands of Texel and Wieringen. "It is noteworthy," comments a Dutch historian, "that the people's oath was given first. The older custom was that the count should give the first pledge while the people followed suit."

As soon as he was thus legally invested with sovereign power, Charles demanded a large aide from Holland and Zealand—480,000 crowns of fifteen stivers for himself; 32,000 crowns as pin money for his new consort; 16,000 crowns as donations for various servants, and 4800 crowns towards his travelling expenses. The total sum was 532,800 crowns. The share of Holland and West Friesland was 372,800 crowns, and of Zealand 16,000 crowns, to be paid within seven and a half years. In Holland, Haarlem paid the heaviest quota, 3549 crowns, and Schiedam the smallest, 350 crowns, while Dordrecht and the South Holland villages were assessed at 39,200 crowns, and the remainder was divided among the other cities and villages.

There was considerable opposition to the assessments. In many cases the new imposts upon provisions pressed very heavily on the poor villagers. Having obtained promise of the grant, however, Charles left all further details in its regard to the local officials and returned to Brussels at the beginning of August to make his own preparation. For, by that time, Louis's intentions of evading the treaty of Conflans were plain, though there still fluttered a thin veil of friendship between the cousins. Gathering what forces he could mobilise, ordering them to meet him later, Charles moved westward and took up his quarters at Peronne on the river Somme.

Louis had been bold in his utterance to the States-General as to his perfect right to ignore the treaty of Conflans, to dispossess his brother, and to bring the great feudatories to terms. In the summer of 1468 he made advances towards accomplishing the last-named desideratum. Brittany was invaded by royal troops, but his victory was diplomatic rather than military, as Duke Francis peaceably consented to renounce his close alliances with Burgundy and England, nominally at least. Further, he agreed to urge Charles of France to submit his claims to Normandy to the arbitration of Nicholas of Calabria and the Constable St. Pol.[5]

Charles of Burgundy remained to be settled with on some different basis. And in regard to him Louis XI. took a resolve which terrified his friends and caused the world to wonder as to his sanity. All previous attempts at mediation having failed—St. Pol was among the many who tried—the king determined to be his own messenger to parley with his Burgundian cousin. It is curious how small was his measure of personal pride. He had been negligent of his personal safety at Conflans, but even then Charles had better reason to respect and protect him than in 1468, after Louis had manoeuvred for three years in every direction to harass and undermine the young duke's power, and when, too, the latter was aware of half of the machinations and suspicious of more.

Yet Louis's famous visit to Peronne was no sudden hare-brained enterprise. There is much evidence that he nursed the project for many weeks without giving any intimation of his intentions. Nor was the situation as strange as it appears, looking backward.

Charles had doubtless made all preparations to combat Louis if need were, and had chosen Peronne for his headquarters with the express purpose of being able to watch France, and, at the same time, he had published abroad that his military preparations were solely for the purpose of keeping his obligations to his allies. Now these obligations were momentarily removed by the action of those same allies. Francis of Brittany had entered into amicable relations with his sovereign, young Charles of France had accepted arbitration to settle the fraternal relations of the royal brothers, while the correspondence between Louis and Liege, was still unknown to the Duke of Burgundy. For the moment, the latter, therefore, had no definite quarrel with the French king. But he was not in the least anxious for an interview with him. Charles was as far as ever from understanding his cousin. Even without definite knowledge of Louis's efforts to make friends in the Netherlands, Charles suspected enough to turn his youthful distrust of the man's character into mature conviction that friendship between them was impossible. But he could not refuse the royal overtures. His letter of safe-conduct to his self-invited visitor bears the date of October 8th, and runs as follows:[6]

"MONSEIGNEUR:

"I commend myself to your good graces. Sire, if it be your desire to come to this city of Peronne in order that we may talk together, I swear and I promise you by my faith and on my honour that you may come, remain and return in safety to Chauny or Noyon, according to your pleasure and as often as it shall please you, freely and openly without any hindrance offered either to you or to any of your people by me or by any other for any cause that now exists or that may hereafter arise."

Guillaume de Biche acted as confidential messenger between duke and king. He it was whom Charles had dismissed from his own service in 1456 at his father's instance. From that time on the man had been in Louis's household, deep in his secrets it was said, and certainly admitted to his privacy to an extraordinary degree. This letter was written by Charles in the presence of Biche, through whose hand it passed directly to the king.

By October, Louis was at Ham, prepared to move as soon as the safe-conduct arrived. No time was lost after its receipt. On Sunday, October 9th, the king started out, accompanied by the Bishop of Avranches, his confessor, by the Duke of Bourbon, Cardinal Balue, St. Pol, a few more nobles, and about eighty archers of the Scottish guard. As he rode towards Peronne, Philip of Crevecoeur, with two hundred lances, met him on the way to act as his escort to the presence of the duke, who awaited his guest on the banks of a stream a short distance out of Peronne.

St. Pol was the first of the royal party to meet the duke as herald of Louis's approach. Then Charles rode forward to greet the traveller. As he came within sight of his cousin, he bowed low to his saddle and was about to dismount when Louis, his head bared, prevented his action. Fervent were the kisses pressed by the kingly lips upon the duke's cheeks, while Louis's arm rested lovingly about the latter's neck. Then he turned graciously to the by-standing nobles and greeted them by name. But his cousinly affection was not yet satisfied. Again he embraced Charles and held him half as long as before in his arms. How pleasant he was and how full of confidence towards this trusted cousin of his!

The cavalcade fell into line again, with the two princes in the middle, and made a stately entry into Peronne at a little after mid-day.[7] The chief building then and the natural place to lodge a royal visitor was the castle. But it was in sorry repair, ill furnished, and affording less comfort than a neighbouring house belonging to a city official. Here rooms had been prepared for the king and a few of his suite, the others being quartered through the town. At the door Charles took his leave and Louis entered alone with Cardinal Balue and the attendants he had chosen to keep near him. These latter were nearly all of inferior birth, and were treated by their master with a familiarity very astonishing to the stately Burgundians.

Louis entered the room assigned for his use, walked to the window, and looked out into the street. The sight that met his view was most disquieting. A party of cavaliers were on the point of entering the castle. They were gentlemen just arrived from Burgundy with their lances, in response to a summons issued long before the present visit was anticipated. As he looked down on the troops, Louis recognised several men who had no cause to love him or to cherish his memory. There was, for instance, the queen's brother Philip de Bresse[8] who had led a party against Louis's own sister Yolande of Savoy. At a time of parley this Philip had trusted the sincerity of his brother-in-law's profession and had visited him to obtain his mediation. The king had violated both the specified safe-conduct and ambassadorial equity alike, and had thrown De Bresse into the citadel of Loches, where he suffered a long confinement before he succeeded in making his escape. He was a Burgundian in sympathy as well as in race. But with him on that October day Louis noticed various Frenchmen who had fallen under royal displeasure from one cause or another and had saved their liberty by flight, renouncing their allegiance to him for ever. Four there were in all who wore the cross of St. Andrew. Approaching Peronne as they had from the south, these new-comers had ridden in at the southern gates without intimation of this royal visitation extraordinary until they were almost face to face with guest and host. Their arrival was "a half of a quarter of an hour later than that of the king."

When Philip de Bresse and his friends learned what was going on, they hastened to the duke's chambers "to give him reverence." Monseigneur de Bresse was the spokesman in begging the duke that the three above named should be assured of their security notwithstanding the king's presence at Peronne,—of security such as he had pledged them in Burgundy and promised for the hour when they should arrive at his court. On their part they were ready to serve him towards all and against all. Which petition the duke granted orally. "The force conducted by the Marshal of Burgundy was encamped without the gates, and the said marshal spoke no ill of the king, nor did the others I have mentioned."[9]

It was, however, a situation in which apprehension was not confined to the men of lower station. To Louis, looking down from his window, there seemed dire menace in the mere presence of these persons who had heavy grievances against him, and the unfortified private house seemed slight protection against their possible vengeance. Here, Charles might disavow injury to him as something happening quite without his knowledge. On ducal soil the safest place was assuredly under shelter patently ducal. There, there would be no doubt of responsibility did misfortune happen.

Straightway the king sent a messenger to Charles asking for quarters within the castle. The request was granted and the uneasy guest passed through the massive portals between a double line of Burgundian men-at-arms. It was no cheerful, pleasant, palatial dwelling-place this little old castle of Peronne. So thick were the walls that vain had been all assaults against it.[10] Designed for a fortress rather than a residence, it had been repeatedly used as a prison, and the air of the whole was tainted by the dungeons under its walls, dungeons which had seen many unwilling lodgers. Five centuries earlier than this date, Charles the Simple had languished to death in one of the towers.

This change of arrangement, or rather the disquieting reason for the change, undoubtedly clouded the peacefulness of the occasion. Yet outward calm was preserved. Commines asserts that the two princes directed their people to behave amicably to each other and that the commands were scrupulously obeyed. For two or three days the desired conferences took place between Charles and Louis. The king's wishes were perfectly plain. He wanted Charles to forsake all other alliances and to pledge himself to support his feudal chief, first and foremost, from all attacks of his enemies. The Duke of Brittany had submitted to his liege. If the Duke of Burgundy would only accept terms equally satisfactory in their way, the pernicious alliance between the two would vanish, to the weal of French unity.



Apparently the first discussion was heard by none except the Cardinal Balue and Guillaume de Biche. Charles was willing to pledge allegiance and to promise aid to his feudal chief, but under limitations that weakened the value of his words. Nothing could induce him to renounce alliance with other princes for mutual aid, did they need it. There was a second interview on the following day. Charles held tenaciously to his position. Then there came a sudden alteration in the situation, a strange dramatic shifting of the duke's point of view.

The city of Liege had submitted perforce to the behests of her imperious neighbour, but the citizens had never ceased to hope that his unwelcome "protection" might be dispensed with; that, by the aid of French troops, they might eventually wrest themselves free from the Burgundian incubus. In spite of all promises to Charles, secret negotiations between the anti-Burgundian party and Louis XI. had never ceased. The latter never refused to admit the importunate embassies to his presence. He was glad to keep in touch with the city even in its ruined condition. He sent envoys as well as received them, and Commines states definitely that, in making his plan to visit Peronne, the fact of a confidential commission recently despatched to Liege had wholly slipped the king's mind.

In that town the duke's lieutenant, Humbercourt, had been left to supervise the humiliating changes ordered. And the work of demolition was the only industry. Other ordinary business was at a standstill. For a period there was a sullen silence in the streets and the church bells were at rest. In April, a special legate from the pope arrived to see whether ecclesiastical affairs could not be put on a better footing.

It was about the same time that the States-General were meeting at Tours that, under the direction of this legate, Onofrio de Santa-Croce, the cathedral was purified with holy water, and Louis of Bourbon celebrated his very first mass, though he had been seated on the episcopal throne for twelve years. Then Onofrio tried to mediate between the city and the Duke of Burgundy. To Bruges he went to see Charles, and obtained permission to draft a project for the re-establishment of the civic government, to be submitted to the duke for approval.

If Onofrio thought he had reformed the bishop by forcing him into performing his priestly rites he soon learned his mistake. That ecclesiastic speedily disgusted his flock by his ill-timed festivities, and then forsook the city and sailed away to Maestricht in a gaily painted barge, with gay companions to pass the summer in frivolous amusements suited to his dissolute tastes. Such was the state of affairs when the report of Louis's extensive military preparations encouraged the Liegeois to hope that he was to take the field openly against the duke.

About the beginning of September, troops of forlorn and desperate exiles began to return to the city. They came, to be sure, with shouts of Vive le Roi! but, as a matter of fact, they seemed willing to make any accommodation for the sake of being permitted to remain. "Better any fate at home than to live like wild beasts with the recollection that we had once been men."

To make a long story short, Onofrio again endeavoured to rouse the bishop to a sense of his duty. Again he tried to make terms for the exiles and to re-establish a tenable condition. It was useless. Louis of Bourbon refused to approach nearer to Liege than Tongres, and declined to meet the advances of his despairing subjects. It was just at this moment that fresh emissaries arrived from Louis, despatched, as already stated, before Charles had consented to prolong the truce.

Excited by their presence the Liegeois once more roused themselves to action. A force of two thousand was gathered at Liege, and advanced by night upon Tongres—also without walls—surrounded the house where lay their bishop, and forced him to return to Liege. Violence there was and loss of life, but, as a matter of fact, the mob respected the person of their bishop and of Humbercourt the chief Burgundian official. This event happened on October 9th, the very day that Louis rode recklessly into Peronne.

On Wednesday, October 11th, the news of the fray reached Peronne, but news greatly exaggerated by rumour. Bishop, papal legate, and Burgundian lieutenant all had been ruthlessly murdered in the very presence of Louis's own envoys, who had aided and abetted the hideous crime! To follow the story of an eyewitness:[11]

"Some said that everyone was dead, others asserted the contrary, for such advertisments are never reported after one sort. At length others came who had seen certain canons slain and supposed the bishop[12] to be of the number, as well as the said seigneur de Humbercourt and all the rest. Further, they said that they had seen the king's ambassadors in the attacking company and mentioned them by name. All this was repeated to the duke, who forthwith believed it and fell into an extreme fury, saying that the king had come thither to abuse him, and gave commands to shut the gates of the castle and of the town, alleging a poor enough excuse, namely, that he did this on account of the disappearance of a little casket containing some good rings and money.

"The king finding himself confined in the castle, a small one at that, and having seen a force of archers standing before the gate, was terrified for his person—the more so that he was lodged in the neighbourhood of a tower where a certain Count de Vermandois had caused the death of one of his predecessors as king of France.[13] At that time, I was still with the duke and served him as chamberlain, and had free access to his chamber when I would, for such was the usage in this household.

"The said duke, as soon as he saw the gates closed, ordered all to leave his presence and said to a few of us that stayed with him that the king had come on purpose to betray him, and that he himself had tried to avoid his coming with all his strength, and that the meeting had been against his taste. Then he proceeded to recount the news from Liege, how the king had pulled all the wires through his ambassadors, and how his people had been slain. He was fearfully excited against the king. I veritably believe that if at that hour he had found those to whom he could appeal ready to sympathise with him and to advise him to work the king some mischief, he would have done so, at the least he would have imprisoned him in the great tower.

"None were present when the words fell from the duke but myself and two grooms of the chamber, one of whom was named Charles de Visen, a native of Dijon, an honest fellow, in good credit with his master. We aggravated nothing, but sought to appease the duke as much as in us lay. Soon he tried the same phrases on others, and a report of them ran through the city and penetrated to the very apartment of the king, who was greatly terrified, as was everyone, because of the danger that they saw imminent, and because of the great difficulty in soothing a quarrel when it has commenced between such great princes. Assuredly they were blameworthy in failing to notify their absent servants of this projected meeting. Great inconveniences were bound to arise from this negligence."

Such is Commines's narrative. Eyewitness though he was, it must be remembered that when he wrote the account of this famous interview it was long after the event, and when his point of view was necessarily coloured by his service with Louis. Delightful, however, are the historian's own reflections that he intersperses with his plain narrative. To his mind the only period when it is safe for princes to meet is

"in their youth when their minds are bent on pleasure. Then they may amuse themselves together. But after they are come to man's estate and are desirous each of over-reaching the other, such interviews do but increase their mutual hatred, even if they incur no personal peril (which is well-nigh impossible). Far wiser is it for them to adjust their differences through sage and good servants as I have said at length elsewhere in these memoirs."

Then our chronicler proceeds to give numerous instances of disastrous royal interviews before returning to his subject and to Peronne:

"I was moved [he adds again at the beginning of his new chapter] to tell the princes my opinion of such meetings.[14] Thus the gates were closed and guarded and two or three days passed by. However, the Duke of Burgundy would not see the king, nor had Louis's servants entry to the castle except a few, and those only through the wicket. Nor did the duke see any of his people who had influence over him.

"The first day there was consternation throughout the city. By the second day the duke was a little calmed down. He held a council meeting all day and the greater part of the night. The king appealed to every one who could possibly aid him. He was lavish in his promises and ordered fifteen thousand crowns to be given where it might count, but the officer in charge of the disbursement of this sum acquitted himself ill and retained a part, as the king learned later.

"The king was especially afraid of his former servants who had come with the army from Burgundy, as I mentioned above, men who were now in the service of the Duke of Normandy.

"Diverse were the opinions in the above-mentioned council-meeting. Some held that the safe-conduct accorded to the king protected him, seeing that he fairly observed the peace as it had been stated in writing. Others rudely urged his capture without further ceremony, while others again advised sending for his brother, the Duke of Normandy, and concluding with him a peace to the advantage of all the princes of France. They who gave this advice thought that in case it was adopted, the king should be restrained of his liberty. Further, it was against all precedent to free so great a seigneur when he had committed so grave an offence.

"This last argument so nearly prevailed that I saw a man booted and spurred ready to depart with a packet of letters addressed to Monseigneur of Normandy, being in Brittany, and stayed only for the Duke of Burgundy's letter. However, this came to naught. The king made overtures to leave as hostages the Duke of Bourbon, the cardinal, his brother, and the constable with a dozen others while he should be permitted to return to Compiegne after peace was concluded. He promised that the Liegeois should repair their mischief or he would declare himself their foe. The appointed hostages were profuse in their offers to immolate themselves, at least they were in public. I do not know whether they would have said the same things in private. I rather suspect not. And in truth, I believe that those who were left would never have returned.

"On the third night after the arrival of the news, the duke never undressed, but lay down two or three times on his bed, and then rose and walked up and down. Such was his way when he was troubled. I lay that night in his chamber and talked with him from time to time. In the morning his fury was greater than ever, his tone very menacing, and he seemed ready to go to any extreme.

"However, he finally brought himself to say that if the king would swear the peace and would accompany him to Liege to help avenge Monsgn. of Liege, his own kinsman, he would be satisfied. Then he suddenly betook himself to the king's chamber and expressed himself to that effect. The king had a friend[15] who warned him, assuring him that he should suffer no ill if he would concede these two points. Did he do otherwise he ran grave risk, graver than he would ever incur again."

When the duke entered the royal presence his voice trembled, so agitated was he and on the verge of breaking into a passion. He assumed a reverential attitude, but rough were mien and word as he demanded whether the king would keep the treaty of peace as it had been drafted, and whether he was ready to swear to it. "Yes" was the king's response. In truth, nothing had been added to the agreement made before Paris, or at least little as far as the Duke of Burgundy was concerned. As regarded the Duke of Normandy, it was stipulated that if he would renounce that province he should have Champagne and Brie besides other neighbouring territories for his share.

Then the duke asked if the king would accompany him to avenge the outrage committed upon his cousin the bishop.

"To which demand the king gave assent as soon as the peace was sworn. He was quite satisfied to go to Liege and with a small or large escort, just as the duke preferred. This answer pleased the duke immensely. In was brought the treaty, out of the king's coffer was taken the piece of the true cross, the very one carried by Saint Charlemagne, called the Cross of Victory, and thereupon the two swore the peace.

"This was now October 14th. In a minute the bells pealed out their joy throughout Peronne and all men were glad. It hath pleased the king since to attribute the credit of this pacification to me."

There was undoubtedly an immense sense of relief in Peronne when this degree of accommodation was reached. The duke was unwilling, however, to have too much rejoicing in his domains until he had ascertained for himself the state of Liege. Among the letters despatched from Peronne this October 14th, was the following to the magistrates of Ypres:[16]

"Dear and well beloved friends, considering that we have to-day made peace and convention with Monseigneur the king, and that for this reason you might be inclined to let off fire-works and make other manifestations of joy, we hasten to advise you that ... our pleasure is you shall not permit fireworks or assemblies in our town of Ypres on account of the said peace until we have subdued the people of Liege, and avenged the said outrage [described above]. This with God's aid we intend to do. We are on the point of departure with all our forces for Liege. Beloved, may our Lord protect you.

"Written in our castle of Peronne, October 14, 1468."

A certain G. Ruple conveyed his own impressions to the magistrates of Ypres, possibly managing to slip them under the same cover.[17]

"To-day, at about 10 o'clock, peace was concluded between the king and Monseigneur, and also between the king and the Duke of Berry. Here, bells are ringing and the Te Deum is sung. It is generally believed that Monseigneur will depart to-morrow. God deserves thanks for the result, for I assure you that last night the outlook was not clear."[18]

The king wrote as follows to his confidential lieutenant:

"PERONNE, October 14th.

"Monseigneur the grand master, you are already informed how there has been discussion in my council and that of my brother-in-law of Burgundy, as to the best manner of adjusting certain differences between him and me. It went so far that in order to arrive at a conclusion I came to this town of Peronne. Here we have busied ourselves with the requisitions passing between us, so that to-day we have, thanks to our Lord, in the presence of all the nobles of the blood, prelates and other great and notable personages in great numbers, both from my suite and from his, sworn peace solemnly on the true cross, and promised to aid, defend and succour each other for ever. Also on the same cross we have ratified the treaty of Arras with its corrections and other points which seemed productive of peace and amity.

"Immediately after this the Duke of Burgundy ordered thanksgivings in the churches of his lands, and in this town he has already had great solemnity. And because my brother of Burgundy has heard that the Liegeois have taken prisoner my cousin the bishop of Liege, whom he is determined to deliver as quickly as possible, he has besought me as a favour to him, and also because the bishop is my kinsman whom I ought to aid, to accompany him to Liege, not far from here. This I have agreed to, and have chosen as my escort a portion of the troops under monseigneur the constable, in the hopes of a speedy return by the aid of God.

"And because it is for my weal and that of my subjects I write to you at once, because I am sure you will be pleased, and that you will order like solemnities. Moreover, monseigneur the grand master, as I lately wrote to you, pray as quickly as possible disband my arriere ban together with the free lances, and do every possible thing for the mass of poor folks; appoint well-to-do men as leaders in every bailiwick and district. Above all, see to it that they do not indulge in any new and startling conduct. That done, if you wish to come to Bohan, to be nearer me, I would be glad, so as to be able to provide for any further action that may arise. Written at Peronne October 14th.

"Loys MEURIN.

"To our dear and beloved cousin the Count of Dammartin, grand master of France."[19]

Dammartin thought that this letter was phrased for the purpose of passing Charles's censorship. He took the liberty of disregarding his master's orders; the troops were not disbanded, and he held himself in readiness to go to fetch the errant monarch if he did not return speedily from the enemy's country. His letter to the king and the unwritten additions delivered by his confidential messengers terrified his liege lest too much zeal on his behalf in France might work him ill in Liege. A week later Louis writes again:

NAMUR, Oct. 22nd.

"MONSEIGNEUR THE GRAND MASTER:

"I have received your letter by Sire du Bouchage. Be assured that I make this journey to Liege under no constraint, and that I never took any journey with such good heart as I do this. Since God and Our Lady have given me grace to be friends with Monseigneur of Burgundy, be sure that never shall our rabble over there take arms against me. Monseigneur the grand master, my friend, you have proved that you love me, and you have done me the greatest service that you can, and there is another service that you can do. The people of Monseigneur of Burgundy think that I mean to deceive them, and people there [in France] think that I am a prisoner. Distrust between the two would be my ruin.

"Monseigneur, as to the quarters of your men, you know what we planned, you and I, touching the action of Armagnac. It seems to me that you ought to send your people straight ahead in that direction and I will furnish you four or five captains as soon as I am out of this, and you can make what choice you will. M. the grand master, my friend, come, I beg you, to Laon and await me there. Send me a messenger the minute you arrive and I will let you have frequent news. Be assured that as soon as the Liegeois are subdued, on the morrow I will depart, for Monsg. of Burgundy is resolved to urge me to go as soon as he has finished his work at Liege, and he desires my return more than I do. Francois Dunois will tell you what good cheer we are making. Adieu, monseigneur, etc.

"Writ at Namur, Oct. 22nd.

"LOUIS "TOUSSAINT.

"To our dear and beloved cousin the Count of Dammartin, grand master of France."[20]

Letters of the same date to Rochefoucauld and others also declare that Louis goes most gladly with his dear brother of Burgundy and that the affair will not require much time. To Cardinal Balue he writes only a few words, telling him that the messenger will be more communicative.

Between Peronne and Namur did the party turn aside to visit the young Duchess of Burgundy, either at Hesdin or at Aire? Such is the conjecture of a learned Belgian editor, and he carries his surmise further in suggesting that in this brief sojourn was performed Chastellain's mystery of "The Peace of Peronne."[21] Perhaps these verses, if put in the mouths of Louis and Charles, may have pleased the princely spectators of the dramatic poem. Mutual admiration was the key-note of these flowery speeches while the other dramatis personae expressed unstinted admiration for the wonderful deed accomplished by these two pure souls who have sworn peace when they might have brought dire war on their innocent subjects.

"Never did David, nor Ogier, nor Roland, that proud knight, nor the great Charlemagne, nor the proud Duke of Mayence, nor Mongleive, the heir, from whom issued noble fruit, nor King Arthur, nor Oliver, nor Rossillon, nor Charbonnier in their dozens of victories approach or touch with hand or foot the work I treat of."

* * * * *

[The king speaks.]

"Charles, be assured that Louis will be the re-establisher and provider of all that touches your honour and peace between you and him. That he will ever be appreciator of you and avenger, a nourisher of joy and love in repairing all that my predecessor did.

[The duke speaks.]

"And Charles, who loves his honour as much as his soul, wishes nothing better than to serve you and this realm and to extol your house. For I know that is the reason why I have glory and reputation. Then if it please God and Our Lady, my body will keep from blame."

One stanza, indeed, uttered by Louis strikes a note of doubt: "Charles, so many debates may occur, so many incidents and accidents in our various actions, that a rupture may be dreaded."

Vehemently did the duke repudiate the bare possibility of a new breach between him and his liege. The whole is a paean at a love feast. If the two together heard their counterfeits express such perfect fidelity, how Louis XI. must have laughed to himself behind his mask of forced courtesy! Charles, on the other hand, was quite capable of taking it all seriously, wholly unconscious that he had not cut the lion's claws for once and all.

[Footnote 1: See Lavisse iv^{ii}.,356.]

[Footnote 2: The letters of convocation bear the date February 26, 1467, o.s. Tournay elected four deputies. By April 30th, they had returned home, and on May 2d they made a report. The items of expenditure are very exact. So hard had they ridden that a fine horse costing eleven crowns was used up and was sold for four crowns. M. Van der Broeck, archivist of Tournay, extracted various items from the register of the Council. See Kervyn's note. Chastellain, v., 387.]

[Footnote 3: See Lavisse iv^[ii]., 356.]

[Footnote 4: Dordrecht was not among them. Her deputies held that it was illegal for them to go to The Hague. Some time later Charles received the oaths at Dordrecht. (Wagenaar, Vaderlandsche Hist., iv., 101.]

[Footnote 5: Treaty of Ancenis, September 10, 1468. See Lavisse, iv^[ii].] One of the results of the War of Public Weal was that St. Pol was appointed constable of France.]

[Footnote 6: The original is in the Mss. de Baluze, Paris, Bibl. Nat.; Lenglet, iii., 19.]

[Footnote 7: Commines and a letter to the magistrates of Ypres are the basis of this narrative. (Gachard, Doc. ined., i., 196.) There is, however, a mass of additional material both contemporaneous and commentating. See also Michelet, Lavisse, Kirk, etc. Chastellain's MS. is lost.]

[Footnote 8: See Lavisse, iv^[ii]., 397.]

[Footnote 9: Ludwig v. Diesbach, (See Kirk, i., 559.) The author was a page in Louis's train, who afterwards played a part in Swiss affairs.]

[Footnote 10: It was never captured until Wellington took it in 1814.]

[Footnote 11: Commines, ii., ch. vii.]

[Footnote 12: The bishop did indeed meet his death at the hands of the mob, but it was many years later.]

[Footnote 13: Le roi ... se voyait loge, rasibus d'une grosse tour ou un Comte de Vermandois fit mourir un sien predecesseur Roy de France. (Commines, ii., ch. vii.)]

[Footnote 14: Memoires, ii., ch. ix.]

[Footnote 15: Undoubtedly Commines wishes it to be inferred that this was he. The main narrative followed here is Commines, whose memoirs remain, as Ste.-Beuve says, the definitive history of the times. There are the errors inevitable to any contemporary statement. Meyer, to be sure, says, apropos of an incident incorrectly reported, Falsus in hoc ut in pluribus historicus. Kervyn de Lettenhove three centuries later is also severe. See, too, "L'autorite historique de Ph. de Commynes," Mandrot, Rev. Hist., 73.]

[Footnote 16: Gachard, Doc. ined., i., 199.]

[Footnote 17: Ibid., 200.]

[Footnote 18: Waer ic certiffiere dat het dezen nacht niet wel claer ghestaen heeft.]

[Footnote 19: Lettres de Louis XI, iii., 289. The king apparently never resented the part played by Dammartin when he was dauphin. His letters to him are very intimate.]

[Footnote 20: Lettres, iii., 295. (Toussaint is probably Toustain.)]

[Footnote 21: Kervyn ed., Oeuvres de Chastellain, vii., xviii. See poem, ibid., 423. The MS. in the Laurentian Library at Florence bears this line: "Here follows a mystery made because of the said peace of good intention in the thought that it would be observed by the parties." Hesdin is, however, a long way out of the route between Peronne and Namur, where the party was on October 14th. It would hardly seem possible for journey and visit in so brief a time.]



CHAPTER XII

AN EASY VICTORY

1468

It was in the midst of heavy rains that the journey was made to Namur and then on to the environs of Liege. Grim was the weather, befitting, in all probability, Charles's own mood. The king's escort was confined to very few besides the Scottish guard, but a body of three hundred troopers was permitted to follow him at a distance, while the faithful Dammartin across the border kept himself closely informed of every incident connected with the march that his scouts could gather, and in readiness to fall upon Burgundian possessions at a word of alarm, while he restrained his ardour for the moment in obedience to Louis's anxious command.

By the fourth week of October the Franco-Burgundian party were settled close to Liege in straggling camps, separated from each other by hills and uneven ground. Long was the discussion in council meeting as to the best mode of procedure. Liege was absolutely helpless in the face of this coalition. Wide breaches made her walls useless. Moats she had never possessed, for digging was well-nigh impossible on her rocky site covered by mud and slime from the overflow of the Meuse. On account of this evident weakness, the king advised dismissing half the army as needless, advice that was not only rejected immediately but which excited Charles's doubts of the king's good faith. Over a week passed and feeble Liege continued obstinate, while each division of the army manoeuvred to be first in the assault for the sake of the plunder. But advance was very difficult, for the soldiers were impeded in their movements by the slime. Wild were some of the night skirmishes over the uneven, slippery ground and amidst the little sheltering hills.

On one occasion, "a great many were hurt and among the rest the Prince of Orange (whom I had forgotten to name before), who behaved that day like a courageous gentleman, for he never moved foot off the place he first possessed.

The duke, too, did not lack in courage but he failed sometimes in order giving, and to say the truth, he behaved himself not so advisedly as many wished because of the king's presence."[1]

There is no doubt that Charles entertained increasingly sinister suspicions of his guest. He thought the king might either try to enter the city ahead of him and manage to placate his ancient allies by a specious explanation, or else he might succeed in effecting his escape without fulfilling his compact. At last Charles appointed Sunday, October 30th, for an assault. On the 29th, his own quarters were in a little suburb of mean, low houses, with rough ground and vineyards separating his camp from the city. Between his house and that of the king, both humble dwellings, was an old granary, occupied by a picked Burgundian force of three hundred men under special injunctions to keep close watch over the royal guest and see that he played no sudden trick. To further this purpose of espionage, they had made a breach in the walls with heavy blows of their picks.

The men were wearied with all their marching and skirmishing, and in order to have them in fighting trim on the morrow, Charles had ordered all alike to turn in and refresh themselves. The exhausted troops gladly obeyed this injunction. Charles was disarmed and sleeping, so, too, were Philip de Commines and the few attendants that lay within the narrow ducal chamber. Only a dozen pickets mounted guard in the room over Charles's little apartment, and kept their tired eyes open by playing at dice.

On that Saturday night when Charles was thus prudently gathering strength for the final tussle, the people of Liege also indulged in repose, counting on Sunday being a day of rest, that is, the major part of the burgher folk did within city limits. But another plan was on foot among some of the inhabitants of an outlying region. An attack on the Burgundian camp was planned by a band from Franchimont, a wild and wooded district, south of the episcopal see. The natives there had all the characteristics of mountaineers, although the heights of their rugged country reached only modest altitudes.[2]

These invaders were fortunate in obtaining as guides the owners of the very houses requisitioned for the lodgings of the two princes. Straight to their goal they progressed through paths quite unknown to the foe, and therefore unwatched. The highlanders made a mistake in not rushing headlong to the royal lodgings, where in the first confusion they might have accomplished their design upon the lives of Louis and of Charles or at least have taken the two prisoners. But a pause at a French nobleman's tent created a disturbance which roused the archers in the granary. The latter sallied out, to meet with a fierce counter-attack. In order to confuse them the mountaineers echoed the Burgundian cries, Vive Bourgogne, vive le roy et tuez, tuez, and they were not always immediately identified by their harsh Liege accent.

The highlanders were far outnumbered by the Burgundians, and it was only by dint of their desperate courage and by reason of the pitchy darkness and of the locality with its unknown roughness that the former inflicted the damage that they did.

Commines and his fellows helped the duke into his cuirass, and stood by his person, while the king's bodyguard of Scottish archers "proved themselves good fellows, who never budged from their master's feet and shot arrow upon arrow out into the darkness, wounding more Burgundians than Liegeois." The first to fall was Charles's own host, the guide of the marauders to his own cottage door. There were many more victims and no mercy. It was, indeed, an encounter characterised by the passions of war and the conditions of a mere burglarious attack on private houses.

Quaking with fear was the king. He thought that if the duke should now fail to make a complete conquest of Liege, his own fate would hang in the balance. At a hasty council meeting held that night, Charles was very doubtful as to the expediency of carrying out his proposed assault upon the city. Very distrustful of each other were the allies, a fact that caused Philip de Commines to comment,[3] "scarcely fifteen days had elapsed since these two had sworn a definitive peace and solemnly promised to support each other loyally. But confidence could not enter in any way."

Charles gave Louis permission to retire to Namur and wait until the duke had reduced the recalcitrant burghers once for all. Louis thought it wiser to keep close to Charles's own person until they parted company for ever, and the morrow found him in the duke's company as he marched on to Liege.

"My opinion is, [says Commines], that he would have been wise to depart that night. He could have done it for he had a hundred archers of his guard, various gentlemen of his household, and, near at hand, three hundred men-at-arms. Doubtless he was stayed by considerations of honour. He did not wish to be accused of cowardice."

Olivier de la Marche, also present as the princely pair entered Liege, heard the king say: "March on, my brother, for you are the luckiest prince alive." As they entered the gates, Louis shouted lustily, "Vive Bourgogne," to the infinite dismay of his former friends, the burghers of Liege.

The remainder of the history of that dire Sunday morning differs from that of other assaults only in harrowing details, and the extremity of the pitilessness and ferocity manifested by the conquerors. Charles had previously spared churches, and protected the helpless. Above all he had severely punished all ill treatment of respectable women. Little trace of this former restraint was to be seen on this occasion. The inhabitants were destroyed and banished by dozens. Those who fled from their homes leaving their untasted breakfasts to be eaten by the intruding soldiers, those who were scattered through the numerous churches, those who attempted to defend the breaches in the walls—all alike were treated without mercy.

The Cathedral of St. Lambert, Charles did endeavour to protect. "The duke himself went thither, and one man I saw him kill with his own hand, whereupon all the company departed and that particular church was not pillaged, but at the end the men who had taken refuge there were captured as well as the wealth of the church."



At about midday Charles joined Louis at the episcopal palace, where the latter had found apartments better suited to his rank than the rude huts that had sheltered him for the past few days. The king was in good spirits and enjoyed his dinner in spite of the unsavoury scenes that were still in progress about him. He manifested great joy in the successful assault, and was lavish in his praises of the duke's courage, taking care that his admiring phrases should be promptly reported to his cousin.[4] His one great preoccupation, however, was to return to his own realm.

After dinner the duke and he made good cheer together. "If the king had praised his works behind his back, still more loud was he in his open admiration. And the duke was pleased." No telling sign of friendship for Charles had Louis spared that day, so terrified was he lest some testimony from his ancient proteges might prove his ruin. "Let the word be Burgundy," he had cried to his followers when the attack began. "Tuez, tuez, vive Bourgogne."

There is another contemporaneous historian who somewhat apologetically relates the following incident of this interview.[5] In this friendly Sabbath day chat, Charles asked Louis how he ought to treat Liege when his soldiers had finished their work. No trace of kindliness towards his old friends was there in the king's answer.

"Once my father had a high tree near his house, inhabited by crows who had built their nests thereon and disturbed his repose by their chatter. He had the nests removed but the crows returned and built anew. Several times was this repeated. Then he had the tree cut down at the roots. After that my father slept quietly."

Four or five days passed before Louis dared press the question of his return home. The following note written in Italian, dated on the day of the assault, is significant of his state of mind:

LOUIS XI. TO THE COUNT DE FOIX

"Monseigneur the Prince:

"To-day my brother of Burgundy and I entered in great multitude and with force into this city of Liege, and because I have great desire to return, I advise you that on next Tuesday morning I will depart hence, and I will not cease riding without making any stops until I reach there.[6] I pray you to let me know what is to be done.

"Writ at Liege, October 30th.

"LOYS

"DE LA LOERE."

Punctilious was Louis in his assurances to his host that if he could be of any further aid he hoped his cousin would command him. If there were, indeed, nothing, he thought his best plan would be to go to Paris and have the late treaty duly recorded and published to insure its validity. Charles grumbled a little, but finally agreed to speed his parting guest after the treaty had been again read aloud to the king so that he might dissent from any one of its articles or ever after hold his peace.

Quite ready was Louis to re-confirm everything sworn to at Peronne. Just as he was departing he put one more query: "'If perchance my brother now in Brittany should be dissatisfied with the share I accord him out of love to you, what do you want me to do?' The duke answered abruptly and without thought: 'If he does not wish to take it, but if you content him otherwise, I will trust to you two.' From this question and answer arose great things as you shall hear later. So the king departed at his pleasure, and Mons. de Cordes and d'Emeries, Grand Bailiff of Hainaut escorted him out of ducal territory."[7]

"O wonderful and memorable crime of this king of the French [declares a contemporaneous Liege sympathiser.][8] Scarcely anything so bad can be found in ancient annals or in modern history. What could be more stupid or more perfidious, or a better instance of infamy than for a king who had incited a people to arms against the Burgundians to act thus for the sake of his own safety? Not once but many times had he pledged them his faith, offering them defence and assistance against the same Burgundians. And now when they are overwhelmed and confounded by this Burgundian duke, this king actually co-operates with their foe, to their damage, wears that foe's insignia and dares to hide himself behind those emblems, and assist to destroy those to whom he himself had furnished aid and subsidies with pledges of good faith! I am ashamed to commit this to writing, and to hand it down to posterity, knowing that it will seem incredible to many. But it is so notorious throughout France and is confirmed by so many adequate witnesses who have seen and heard these things that no room is left for doubt of their veracity except to one desiring to ignore the truth."[9]

November 2d is the date of Louis's departure. It needs no stretch of the imagination to believe the words of his little Swiss page, Diesbach, when he says that on reaching French soil Louis dismounted and kissed the ground in a paroxysm of joy that he was his own man again.[10] Devoutly, too, he gave thanks to God for helping him in his need. Still this joy was concealed under euphemistic phrases in his correspondence. On November 5th, he wrote again to the Duke of Milan from Beaumont:

"We went in person with the duke against the Liegeois, on account of their rebellion and offence, and the city being reduced by force to the power of the duke, we have left him in some part of Liege as we were anxious to return to our kingdom of France."

In January, 1469, Guillaume Toustain, the brother of the faithful secretary Aloysius Toustain, who had written several of Louis's letters from Liege, goes to Pavia to finish his studies, and Louis writes to the Duke of Milan asking him to assure his protege a pleasant reception in the university.

The ratification of the treaty took place duly at Paris on Saturday, November 19th, and the king also sternly forbade the circulation of any "paintings, rondels, ballads, songs, or defamatory pamphlets" about Charles.[11] The same informant tells us that loquacious birds were put under a ban.

"And on the same day in behalf of the king, and by virtue of his commission addressed to a young man of Paris named Henry Perdriel, all the magpies, jays, and chouettes, caged or otherwise, were taken in charge, and a record was made of all the places where the said birds were taken and also all that they knew how to say, like larron, paillart, etc., va hors, va! Perrette donnes moi a boire, and various other phrases that they had been taught."

Abbe le Grand thinks that "Perrette" was meant for Peronne instead of a mistress of Louis of that name. But this conjecture seems the only basis for the very deep-rooted tradition that Peronne was a word Louis could not bear to have uttered.

"In the way of justice there is nothing going on here, [wrote one Anthony de Loisey from Liege to the president of Burgundy], except every day they hang and draw such Liegeois as are found or have been taken prisoners and have no money to ransom themselves. The city is well plundered, nothing remains but rubbish. For example I have not been able to find a sheet of paper fit for writing to you, but with all my pains could get nothing but some leaves from an old book."[12]

Charles decided that nothing should be left standing except churches and ecclesiastical buildings. On November 9th, before the final fires were lit, he departed from the wretched town and went down the left bank of the Meuse to an abbey on the river, where he paused for the night. Four leagues distant from the city was this place, and from it were plainly visible the flames of the burning buildings on that grim St. Hubert's Day—a day when Liege had been wont to give vent to merriment.

"From all the dangers that had encompassed him, Charles escaped with his life, simply because his hour had not yet struck, and because he was God's chosen instrument to punish the sinning city," is the verdict of one chronicler who does not spare his fellow-Liegeois for their follies while he profoundly pities their fate.[13]

Out of the many contemporaneous accounts a portion of a private letter from the duke's cup-bearer to his sister is added:[14]

"Very dear sister, with a very good heart I recommend myself to you and to all my good friends, men and women in our parts, not forgetting my beaux-peres, Martin Stephen and Dan Gauthier. Pray know that, thanks to God, I and all my people are safe and sound. As to my horses, one was wounded and another is sick in the hands of the marshals at Namur, and the others are thin enough and have no grain to eat except hay. The weather, has, indeed, been enough to strike a chill to the hearts of men and horses. Since we left Burgundy there have not been three fine days in succession and we are in a worse state than wolves.

"You already know how we passed through Lorraine and Ratellois without troubling about Salesart or other French captains, nor the other Lorrainers either, although they were under orders to attack us, and were no more afraid of us than we of them. As we approached the territory of Hainaut, M. the duke sent Messire Pierre de Harquantbault[15] to us to show us what road to take. He told us that the duke had made a treaty with the king, who had visited him, news that filled us with astonishment....

After skirmishing for several days we reached the faubourgs of Liege and remained there three of four days under arms, with no sleep and little food, and our horses standing in the rain with no shelter but the trees. While we were thus lodged, the king and the duke with a fair escort arrived and took up their quarters in certain houses near the faubourg. [... Constant firing was interchanged for several days. Sallies were essayed and men were slain.]

"Finally a direct attack was made on the king and Monseigneur and there were more of their people than ours and that night Monseigneur was in great danger. The following Sunday at 9 A.M. we began the assault in three separate quarters. It was a fine thing to see the men-at-arms march on the walls of the said city, some climbing and others scaling them with ladders. The standards of monseigneur the marshal and monsgn. de Renty who had been stationed together in the faubourgs, were the first within the said city which contained at that moment sixteen to eighteen thousand combatants, who were surprised when they saw their walls scaled.

"In a moment we entered crying 'Burgundy' and 'city gained.' Ever so many of their people were slain and drowned in their flight. We flew to reach the market-place and the church of St. Lambert where a number of prisoners were taken and thrown into the water. Our ensign stood in the midst of the fray on the market-place, in the hopes that they would rally for a combat but they rallied only to flee. While we held our position on the square several were created knights.... All the churches—more than four hundred—were pillaged and plundered. It is rumoured that they will be burnt together with the rest of the city. Piteous it is to see what ill is wrought.... [The king] stayed in the city with Monseigneur two or three days. Then he departed, it is said for Brussels to await my said lord. It is a great thing to have seen the puissance of my master, which is great enough to defeat an emperor. I believe the Burgundians will shortly return to Burgundy.

"I paid my respects to my said lord, who received me very well. At present I am listed[16] among those whose term is almost expired and I am ready to follow him wherever he wishes until my service is out, which will be soon. I would have written before had I had any one to send it by. Pray write me about yourself by the first comer. Praying our Lord, beloved sister, to keep you. Written in Liege, November 8, 1468.

"JEHAN DE MAZILLES."

This sober letter and other accounts by reliable witnesses agree as to the terrible havoc wrought in the city by the assault on October 30th and by determined and systematic measures of destruction, both during Charles's ten days' sojourn for the express purpose of completing the punishment and after his departure. Yet the result assuredly fell short of the intention. The destruction was not complete as was that of Dinant. Vitality remained, apart from the ecclesiastical nucleus intentionally preserved by the duke.

Having watched the tongues of flame lap the unfortunate city, Charles turned with his army towards Franchimont, that rugged hill country which had proved a nest of hardy and persistent antagonists to Burgundian pretensions. Jehan de Mazilles is in close attendance and gives further details of the pitiless fashion in which Charles carried out his purpose of leaving no seed of resistance to germinate. Four nights and three days they sojourned in a certain little village while there was a hard frost and where, without unarming, they "slept under the trees and drank water." Meantime a small party was despatched by the duke to attack the stronghold of Franchimont. The despairing Liegeois who had taken refuge there abandoned it, and it was taken by assault. A few more days and the duke was assured that Liege and her people were shorn of their strength. When the remnant of survivors began to creep back to the city and tried to recover what was left of their property, many were the questions to be settled. Lawsuits succeeded to turmoils and lingered on for years.

In the lordly manner of conquerors Charles, too, demanded reimbursement for his trouble in bending these free citizens to his illegal will. The reinstated bishop wanted his rents and legal perquisites, all difficult to collect, and many were the ponderous documents that passed on the subject. How justly pained sounds Charles's remonstrance on the default of payment of taxes to his friend, the city's lord!

"Therefore [he writes,] in consideration of these things, taking into account the terror of our departure to Brussels last January, we decide, my brother and I, that the payment of both gabelle and poll tax must be forced, and that we cannot permit the retarding of such taxes under any colour or pretence. At the request of our brother and cousin we order the inhabitants of the said territories to pay both gabelle and poll tax, all that is due from the time it was imposed and for the time to come, under penalty of the confiscation of their goods and their persons."

It was the old story of bricks without straw—taxes and rents for property ruthlessly destroyed were so easy. To this extent of tyranny had Duke Philip never gone, and undoubtedly the treatment of Liege was a step towards Charles's final disaster. So much hatred was excited against him that his adherents fell off one by one when his luck began to fail him.

No omen of misfortune was to be seen at this time, however. That month of November saw him master absolute wherever he was and he used his power autocratically. At Huy, he had a number of prisoners executed. At Louvain, at Brussels, he gave fresh examples of his relentlessness as an overlord.

[Footnote 1: Commines, ii., ch. xi. It was not far from the place where another Prince of Orange tried to cross the Meuse exactly a hundred years later.]

[Footnote 2: The story of the "men of Franchimont" is questioned. Commines is the only authority for it.]

[Footnote 3: II., ch. xiii.]

[Footnote 4: Commines, ii., ch. xiii.]

[Footnote 5: Oudenbosch, Veterum scriptorum, etc. Amplissima Collectio, ed. E. Martene, iv. Rerum Leodiensim. Opus Adriani de Veteri Busco, p. 1343. The writer acknowledges that the story is hearsay.]

[Footnote 6: "Non cessero di cavalchare senza fare demoia alcuna. Lettres,iii., 300.]

[Footnote 7: Commines, ii., ch. xiv.]

[Footnote 8: "O proeclarum et memorabile facinus hujus regis Francorum."]

[Footnote 9: Basin, Histoire des regnes de Charles VII. et de Louis XI., Quicherat ed., ii., 204. This also appears in Excerpta ex Amelgardi. De gestis Ludovici XI., cap. xxiii. Martene's Amplissima Collectio, iv., 740 et seq.]

[Footnote 10: Quoted in Kirk, i., 606, note.]

[Footnote 11: Jean de Roye, Chronique Scandaleuse, ed. Mandrot, i., 220.]

[Footnote 12: Comines-Lenglet, iii., 83.]

[Footnote 13: Johannes de Los, Chronicon, p. 60. Quia hora nendum venerat. De Ram, "Troubles du pays de Liege."]

[Footnote 14: Commynes-Dupont, Preuves, iii., 242. Letter of Jehan de Mazilles to his sister.]

[Footnote 15: Hagenbach, later Governor of Alsace.]

[Footnote 16: Conte aux escros. This word strictly applies to the prisoners on a jailer's list—evidently used in jest.]



CHAPTER XIII

A NEW ACQUISITION

1469-1473

This successful expedition against Liege carried Charles of Burgundy to the very crest of his prosperity. His self-esteem was moreover gratified by the regard shown to him at home and abroad. A man who could force a royal neighbour into playing the pitiful role enacted by Louis XI. at Peronne was assuredly a man to be respected if not loved. And messages of admiration and respect couched in various terms were despatched from many quarters to the duke as soon as he was at Brussels to receive them.

Ghent had long since made apologies for the sorry reception accorded to their incoming Count of Flanders in 1467, but Charles had postponed the formal amende until a convenient moment of leisure. January 15, 1469, was finally appointed for this ceremony and the occasion was utilised to show the duke's grandeur, the city's humiliation, to as many people as possible who might spread the report far and wide.

It was a Sunday. Out in the courtyard of the palace the snow was thick on the ground where a group of Ghent burghers cooled their heels for an hour and a half, awaiting a summons to the ducal presence. There, too, where every one could see those emblems of the artisans' corporate strength, fluttered fifty-two banners unfurled before the deans of the Ghentish metiers.[1]

Within, the great hall of the palace showed a splendid setting for a brilliant assembly. The most famous Burgundian tapestries hung on the walls. Episodes from the careers of Alexander, of Hannibal, and of other notable ancients formed the background for the duke and his nobles, knights of the Golden Fleece, in festal array. As spectators, too, there were all the envoys and ambassadors then present in Brussels from "France, England, Hungary, Bohemia, Naples, Aragon, Sicily, Cyprus, Norway, Poland, Denmark, Russia, Livornia, Prussia, Austria, Milan, Lombardy, and other places."

Charles himself was installed grandly on a kind of throne, and to his feet Olivier de la Marche conducted the civic procession of penitents. Before this pompous gathering, after a statement of the city's sin and sorrow, the precious charter called the Grand Privilege of Ghent was solemnly read aloud, and then cut up into little pieces with a pen-knife. Next followed a recitation of the penalties imposed upon, and accepted by, the citizens (closing of the gates, etc)., and then the paternal Count of Flanders, duly mollified, pronounced the fault forgiven with the benediction, "By virtue of this submission and by keeping your promises and being good children, you shall enjoy our grace and we will be a good prince." "May our Saviour Jesus Christ confirm and preserve this peace to the end of this century," is the pious ejaculation with which the Relation closes.

Among the witnesses of the above scene, when the independent citizens of Ghent meekly posed as the duke's children, were envoys from George Podiebrad, ex-king of Bohemia. Lately deposed by the pope, he was seeking some favourable ally who might help him to recover his realm. He had conceived a plan for a coalition between Bohemia, Poland, Austria, and Hungary to present a solid rampart against the Turks, and strong enough to dictate to emperor and pope. He was ready for intrigue with any power and had approached Louis XI. and Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, before turning to Charles of Burgundy.[2]

Meantime, the Emperor Frederic tried to knit links with this same Matthias by suggesting that he might be the next emperor, assuring him that he could count on the support of the electors of Mayence, of Treves, and of Saxony. He himself was world-weary and was anxious to exchange his imperial cares for the repose of the Church could he only find a safe guardian for his son, Maximilian, and a desirable successor for himself. Would not Matthias consider the two offices?

Potent arguments like these induced Matthias not only to turn his back on Podiebrad, but to accept that deposed monarch's crown which the Bohemian nobles offered him May 3, 1469. Then he proceeded to ally himself with Frederic, elector palatine, and with the elector of Bavaria. This was the moment when the ex-king of Bohemia made renewed offers of friendly alliance to Charles of Burgundy. In his name the Sire de Stein brought the draft of a treaty of amity to Charles which contained the provision that Podiebrad should support the election of Charles as King of the Romans, in consideration of the sum of two hundred thousand florins (Rhenish).[2]

This modest sum was to secure not only Podiebrad's own vote but his "influence" with the Archbishop of Mayence, the Elector of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg.[4] While Podiebrad thus dangled the ultimate hopes of the imperial crown before the duke's eyes, he over-estimated his credulity. As a matter of fact the royal exile had no "influence" at all with the first named elector, and the last, too, showed no disposition whatsoever to serve his unstable policy. Both were content to advise Emperor Frederic. The sole result of the empty overtures was to increase Charles's own sense of importance.

Another negotiation which sought him unasked had, however, a material influence on the course of events, and must be touched on in some detail. Sigismund of Austria—first duke then archduke,—Count of Tyrol, cousin of the Emperor Frederic, was a member of the House of Habsburg. In 1449, he had married Eleanor of Scotland, and became brother-in-law of Louis during the term of the dauphin's first marriage. An indolent, extravagant prince, he was greatly dominated by his courtiers. His heritage as Count of Tyrol included certain territories lying far from his capital, Innsbruck. Certain portions of Upper Alsace, lands on both sides of the Rhine, Thurgau, Argau in Switzerland, Breisgau, and some other seigniories in the Black Forest were under his sway.

These particular domains were so remote from Innsbruck that the authority of the hereditary overlord had long been eluded. The nobles pillaged the land near their castles very much at their own sweet will. The harassed burghers appealed to the Alsatian Decapole,[5] and again to the free Swiss cantons for protection, and sometimes obtained more than they wanted.

Mulhouse was seriously affected by these lawless depredations. To her, Berne promised aid in a twenty-five years' alliance signed in 1466, and at Berne's insistance the cowardly nobles restrained their license. But when the city attempted to extend its authority Sigismund interfered. Having no army, however, he could not recover Waldshut, which the Swiss claimed a right to annex, except by offering ten thousand florins for the town's ransom. Poor in cash as he was in men, he had, however, no means to pay this ransom and begged aid in every direction. Moreover, he feared further aggressions from the cantons, which were growing more daring. What man in Europe was better able to teach them a lesson than Charles, the destroyer of Liege, the stern curber of undue liberty in Flanders? Was he not the very person to tame insolent Swiss cowherds?

In the course of the year 1468, Sigismund made known to Charles his desire for a bargain, intimating that in case of the duke's refusal, he would carry his wares to Louis XI. At that moment, Charles was busied with Liege and showed no interest in Sigismund's proposition. The latter tried to see Louis XI. personally in accordance with his imperial cousin's advice that an interview might be more effective than a letter.

It did not prove a propitious time, however; Louis was deeply engaged with Burgundy and he was not disposed to take any steps that might estrange the Swiss—and any espousal of Sigismund's interests might alienate them. He did not even permit an opening to be made, but stopped Sigismund's approach to him by a message that he would not for a moment entertain a suggestion inimical to those dear friends of his in the cantons—a sentiment that quickly found its way to Switzerland.

Thus stayed in his effort to win Louis's ear, Sigismund decided that he would make another essay towards a Burgundian alliance, this time face to face with the duke. On to Flanders he journeyed and found Charles in the midst of the ostentatious magnificence already described. Ordinary affairs of life were conducted with a splendour hardly attained by the emperor in the most pompous functions of his court. Sigismund was absolutely dazzled by the evidence of easy prosperity. The fact that a maiden was the duke's sole heiress led the Austrian to conceive the not unnatural idea that this attractive Burgundian wealth might be turned into the impoverished imperial coffers by a marriage between Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian, the emperor's son.



The visitor not only thought of this possibility, but he immediately broached it to Charles. The bait was swallowed. As to the main proposition which Sigismund had come expressly to make, that, too, was not rejected. The duke perceived that the transfer of the Rhenish lands to his jurisdiction might militate to his advantage. A passage would be opened towards the south for his troops without the need of demanding permission from any reluctant neighbour. The risk of trouble with the Swiss did not affect him when weighing the advantages of Sigismund's proffer, a proffer which he finally decided to accept. Probably he found his guest a pleasant party to a bargain, for not only did he broach the tempting alliance between Mary and Maximilian, but he, too, seems to have hinted that the title of "King of the Romans" might be added to the long list of appellations already signed by Charles.[6] As Sigismund was richer in kin, if not in coin, than the feeble Podiebrad, Charles gave serious heed to the suggestion which fell incidentally from his guest's lips, in the course of the long conversations held at Bruges.

Certain precautions were taken to protect Charles from being dragged into Swiss complications against his will, and then in May, 1469, the treaty of St. Omer was signed,[7] wherein the Duke of Burgundy accorded his protection to Sigismund of Austria and received from him all his seigniorial rights within certain specified territories.

The most important part of this cession comprised Upper Alsace and the county of Ferrette, but there were also many other fragments of territory and rights of seigniory involved, besides lordship over various Rhenish cities, such as Rheinfelden, Saeckingen, Lauffenburg, Waldshut and Brisac. This last named town commanded the route eastward, as Waldshut that to the southeast, and Thann the highway through the Vosges region.

Fifty thousand florins was the price for the property and the claims transferred from Sigismund to Charles. Ten thousand were to be paid at once, in order to ransom Waldshut from the Swiss. The remainder was due on September 24th. On his part, Sigismund specifically recognised the duke's right to redeem all domains nominally his but mortgaged for the time being, certain estates or seignorial rights having been thus alienated for 150 years.

This territorial transfer was not a sale. It was a mortgage, but a mortgage with possession to the mortgagee and further restricted by the provision that there could be no redemption unless the mortgager could repay at Besancon the whole loan plus all the outlay made by the mortgagee up to that date. Instalment payments were expressly ruled out. The entire sum intact was made obligatory. Therefore the danger of speedy redemption did not disquiet Charles. He knew the man he had to deal with. Sigismund's lack of foresight and his prodigality were notorious. There was faint chance that he could ever command the amount in question. Accordingly, Charles was fairly justified in counting the mortgaged territory as annexed to Burgundy in perpetuity.

Sigismund pocketed his florins eagerly. Nothing could have been more welcome to him. But this relief from the pressure of his pecuniary embarrassment did not inspire him with love for the man who held his lost lands. His sentiments towards Charles were very similar to those of an heir towards a usurer who has helped him in a temporary strait by mulcting him of his natural rights.

As for the emperor, when this transfer of territory was an accomplished fact, he began to take fright at the consequences. He did not like this intrusion of a powerful French peer into the imperial circle.[8] At the same time he was ready to make him share responsibility in any further difficulties that might arise between Sigismund and the Swiss.

The least skilful of prophets could have foreseen difficulties for Charles on his own account, both foreign and domestic. His own relations with the Swiss had always been friendly enough, but he had never before been so near a neighbour, while, within the Rhine lands, it was an open question whether the bartered inhabitants were to enjoy or regret their new tie with Burgundy. The importance of their sentiments was a matter of as supreme indifference to Charles as was danger from the Confederation. Neither conciliation nor diplomacy was in his thoughts. He had no conception of the intricacies of the situation. He counted the landgraviate as definitely his by the treaty of St. Omer as Brabant by heritage or Liege by conquest.

The need of a kindly policy towards the little valley towns—a policy that might have won their allegiance—never occurred to him. They were his property and Peter von Hagenbach was, in course of time, made lieutenant-governor in his behalf.

Apart from all personal considerations of enmity and amity of natives and neighbours, the territory of Upper Alsace and the county of Ferrette, delivered from needy Austria to rich Burgundy, like a coat pawned by a poor student, was held under very complex and singular conditions.[9] The status of the bargain between Sigismund and Charles was in point of fact something between pawn and sale, according to the point of view. Sigismund fully intended to redeem it, while Charles did not admit that possibility as remotely contingent. Nor was that the only peculiarity. The itemised list of the ceded territories as given in the treaty was far from telling the facts of the possessions passing to Sigismund's proxy.

In the first place the Austrian seigniories were not compact. They were scattered here and there in the midst of lands ruled by others, as the Bishop of Strasburg, the Abbe of St. Blaise in the Black Forest, the count Palatine, the citizens of Basel and of Mulhouse, and others.

The existent variety in the extent and nature of Austrian title was extraordinary. Nearly every possible combination of dismembered prerogative and actual tenure had resulted from the long series of ducal compositions. In some localities a toll or a quit-rent was the sole cession, and again a toll or a prerogative was almost the only residue remaining to the ostensible overlord, while all his former property or transferable birthright privileges were lodged in various hands on divers tenures. There were cases in which the mortgagee—noble, burgher, or municipal corporation—had taken the exact place of the Austrian duke and in so doing had become the vassal of his debtor, stripped of all vested interest but his sovereignty. For in these bargains wherein elements of the Roman contract and feudal customs were curiously blended, two classes of rights had been invariably reserved by the ducal mortgagers:

(1) Monopolies, regal in nature, such as assured free circulation on the highways, the old Roman roads, all jurisdiction of passports and travellers' protection.

(2) The suzerainty. This comprised the power to confer fiefs, of requisition of military service, of requesting aids and admission to strongholds, cities, or castles, le droit de forteresse jurable et rendable.

In these regards the compact between Charles and Sigismund differed from all previous covenants not only in degree, but in kind. The Duke of Burgundy entered into the sovereign as well as into the mangled, maimed, and curtailed proprietary rights of the hereditary over-lord.

In his assumption of this involved and doubtful property, Charles laid heavy responsibilities on his shoulders. The actual price of fifty thousand gold florins paid to Sigismund was a mere fraction of the pecuniary obligations incurred, while the weight of care was difficult to gauge. He succeeded to princes weak, frivolous, prodigal, whose misrule had long been a curse to the land. The incursions of the Swiss, the repeated descents of the Rhine nobles from their crag-lodged strongholds to pillage and destroy, terrified merchants and plunged peaceful labourers into misery.

Through hatred of the absentee Austrians, the neighbouring cities repeatedly became the accomplices of these brigands, affording them asylums for refitting and free passage when they were laden with evident booty.

In all departments of finance and administration disorder prevailed. The chief officials, castellans and councillors, enjoyed high salaries for neglected duties. The castles were in wretched repair and there were insufficient troops to guard the roads. There was no dependence upon the receipts nominally to be expected. In the sub-mortgaged lands, the lords simply levied what they could, without the slightest responsibility for the order of the domain; they did not hesitate to charge their suzerain for repairs never made, confident that no one would verify their declaration.

In the territories of the immediate domain, the Austrian dukes and their officials had no notion of the rigid system maintained in Burgundy. Only here and there can little memoranda be found and these are confused and obscure. There is a dearth of accurate records like those voluminous registers of outlays kept by Burgundian receivers, registers so rich in detail that they are more valuable for the historian than any chronicle.

Exact appraisal of the resources of these pays de par de la was very difficult. Between 1469 and 1473 there were three efforts to obtain reliable information by means of as many successive commissions despatched to the Rhine valley by the Duke of Burgundy.

Envoys drew up minutes of their observations in addition to their official reports and all were preserved in the archives. As these were written from testimony gathered on the spot, such as the accounts of the receivers now lost, etc., there is real value in the documents.

The first commission in behalf of Burgundy was composed of two Germans and three Walloons. One of the former was Peter von Hagenbach, who won no enviable reputation in the later exercise of his office as lieutenant-governor of the annexed region, to which he was shortly afterwards appointed. This first commission entered into formal possession in Charles's name and instituted some desired reforms immediately, such as policing the highways, etc.

The second commission made its visit in 1471. It consisted of Jean Pellet, treasurer of Vesoul, and Jean Poinsot, procureur-general of Amont.

The third commission (1473) was under the auspices of Monseigneur Coutault, master of accounts at Dijon. He carried with him the report of his predecessors and made his additions thereto.

Charles's directions to Poinsot and Pellet (June 13, 1471) were vague and general. They were "to see the conduct of his affairs" (voir la conduite de ses affaires). The important point was to find out how much revenue could be obtained. As the duke's plan of expansion grew larger he had need of all his resources.

The reports were eminently discouraging. Outlay was needed everywhere—income was small. As the chances of peculation diminished, the castellans deserted their posts and left the castles to decay. The Burgundian commission of 1471 found the difficulties of their exploration increased by two items. Charles had not advanced an allowance for their expenses and they were anxious to be back at Vesoul by Michaelmas, the date of the change in municipal offices and of appropriations for the year. It was in hopes of receiving advance moneys that they delayed in starting, but the approaching election and coming winter finally decided them to set out, pay their own expenses, and complete the business as rapidly as they could in a fortnight.

The summary of this report of 1471 was that there was little present prospect that Charles would be able to reimburse himself for his necessary expenses. An undue portion of authority and of revenue was legally lodged in alien hands. Charles was possessed of germs of rights rather than of actual rights. The earlier creditors of Austria held all the best mortgages with their attendant emoluments. The immediate profits accruing to the Duke of Burgundy fell far short of the minimum necessary to disburse to keep his government, his strongholds, his highways in repair. Very disturbed were the good treasurer of Vesoul and the procureur-general of Amont at this state of affairs, and distressed at the prospect of the ampler receipts from Burgundy being required to relieve the pressing necessities of the poor territories de par de la.