called Saint Lievin; and knocking the image against a little house, called La Maison de la Cueillette (where they collected certain gabels upon corn, raised for the payment of certain debts which the city had contracted when they paid the sum of money which was required by Duke Philip of Burgundy upon the peace of Gavre, after two years' war with him), they pretended the saint had a mind to pass through that house erect, and without any distortion; upon which in a moment it was pulled down. The duke having notice of this tumult, repaired immediately to the market-place, and got up into a house to speak to them the better. Several persons of quality, that were then attending on him in arms, offered to go along with him, but he ordered them to stay before the Town-Hall, and wait till he returned; however, the mob forced them by degrees into the marketplace. The duke being got thither, commanded the image to be taken away, and carried back again into the church: some in obedience endeavoured to take it up, but others threw it down again where it was.

The next insolence was, to demand justice against certain persons in the city, who had embezzled part of the public stock; to which the duke answered, that he would take care and see them satisfied as to that particular: but finding they would not disperse, he returned to his palace, and they continued in the market-place for eight days together.* The next morning they brought him certain articles, by which they demanded restitution of whatever Duke Philip had taken from them by the peace of Gavre; and among the rest this was one, that every company might have its banner according to former custom, which guilds are in all seventytwo. To avoid the danger he was in, he granted their demands †, gave them whatever privileges they asked, and the word was no sooner spoken but the banners were set up and displayed in the market-place, having been made ready for that purpose; from whence one may probably conjecture they would have done the same thing if the duke had denied

* The duke remained only three days in Ghent : he left on the 1st of July. Lenglet, ii. 190.

†The letters, dated Brussels, July 28th, 1467, by which the duke granted the demands of the Gantois, will be found in Lenglet, ii. 688

their requests. His opinion was right, that, if he made his first entry into Ghent, all the rest of the towns would follow its example, for several of them mutinied as it had done, killed their officers, and committed many other excesses. If he had believed his father's character of that people (which was, "That the inhabitants of Ghent loved the son of their prince very well, but for their prince himself they never had any kindness"), he would not have been so much mistaken; for, to speak impartially, next to the city of Liege, Ghent is the most fickle and inconstant town in the whole world. But among so many ill qualities, they have one good, and that is, that they never offer violence to the person of their prince; and, indeed, the chief citizens and better sort of the town are generally honest men, and much dissatisfied with the folly and inconstancy of the common people.

The duke was forced to wink at these insolences, lest he should have been engaged in a war with his own subjects and the Liegeois at the same time; but he resolved, if he succeeded in the enterprise he had undertaken, to call them afterwards to a severe account †; and so it happened, for (as is said before) they brought all their banners on foot as far as Brussels to meet him, and all their privileges and charters which they had forced him to sign at his departure from Ghent; when, in a grand assembly at the great hall at Brussels, and in the presence of several ambassadors, they presented him with the said banners and privileges, to dispose of as he pleased, he commanded his heralds to strip the banners from the staves to which they were fastened, and to send them to Boulogne (a town about ten leagues from Calais) upon the sea, where the rest were then kept, which his father Duke Philip had taken from them in his wars, in which he had vanquished and subdued them. The duke's chancellor & also took their charter and all their privileges,

Chastellain devotes twelve chapters of his Chronique to details of this

sedition.

The Gantois did not receive the duke's full pardon until 1469. An interesting account of this assembly will be found in M. Gachard's Collection de Documents Inédits, i. 204.

Pierre de Goux, Lord of Goux, Contrecœur, and Wedargate, knight, Chamberlain of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, was created Chancellor of

and cancelled one of them, relating to the magistracy of their city, before their faces: for in all the other towns of Flanders the duke renews the magistrates every year, and receives their accounts; but at Ghent, by virtue of this privilege, he could elect but four, though the whole number was six and twenty, the remaining two and twenty being left to the nomination of the city. When these magistrates are well affected to the Earl of Flanders, that year they are at peace, and they grant him whatever he desires; but when, on the contrary, they are disaffected, seditions arise, and all goes to wreck. Besides this, they were fined, and paid 30,000 florins to the duke, and 6000 to his courtiers, and some of their townsmen were banished, and then all the rest of their privileges were restored. The rest of the towns, following their example, ransomed their crimes, and made their peace with money*; for they had attempted nothing against his person. By all which it evidently appears what advantages follow the conqueror, and what losses the conquered; for which reason we ought to be very cautious of coming to a battle before there be a necessity for it, and if any such necessity happens, all things are to be seriously weighed and considered before we engage; and commonly those who are wary, and go to it with fear, are most circumspect, and by consequence more frequently successful than those who are arrogant and presumptuous. But when God interposes, man's wisdom signifies nothing.

The Liegeois, of whom we were speaking, were excommunicated five years together† for some difference between them and their bishop; but they despised his excommunication, and continued in their folly and obstinacy, without any

Burgundy by letters dated October 26. 1465. He married Dame Mathie de Rye, and died on the 5th of April, 1470.

* The Flemings had to pay 1,200,000 crowns, within sixteen years; the Brabanters 300,000 lions; and Valenciennes 100,000 livres tournois, within fifteen years.

†The Liegeois, in 1462, put themselves under the protection of Louis XI. and refused to obey their bishop, a nephew of the Duke of Burgundy ; upon which the duke solicited and obtained from the Pope a bull of excommunication against them, by which he was ordered "to crusade against them as against the infidels, and against a people disobedient to the holy apostolical see." The sentence of excommunication is dated December 23, 1465.

other reason besides their excessive riches and pride. And to this purpose King Louis had a saying, and in my judgment a wise one, "That when pride rode before, shame and destruction would follow;" but he had not the least tincture of that sin in him.

CHAP. V.

How the King of France made War in Bretagne upon the Duke of Burgundy's Allies, upon Intelligence of what had happened to the Liegeois; and the Interview and Conference of these two Princes at Peronne. 1468

THESE Commotions being over, the Duke of Burgundy retired to Ghent, where he was honourably and magnificently received. He entered the city in arms, and the citizens made a postern into the fields, that he might bring in or keep out what company he pleased. Several ambassadors were sent to him from the king, and others went from him to the king; the Duke of Burgundy also sent several embassies to the Duke of Bretagne, and in this manner all that winter was spent. The king was very solicitous and pressing with the Duke of Burgundy to abandon the Duke of Bretagne's interest, and made him several advantageous proposals to that purpose; but the duke would not consent, which was much to his majesty's dissatisfaction, especially when he considered what had happened to the Liegeois, his allies. As soon as summer was come, the king could refrain no longer, but himself or his forces entered Bretagne, and made themselves masters of two small castles, one of them called Chantocé, and the other Ancenis. The Duke of Burgundy had notice immediately of the taking of these places; and at the earnest solicitation and importunity of the Dukes of Normandy and Bretagne, he raised an army with all expedition, and wrote to the king, entreating him to desist from that enterprise, for they were his allies, and comprehended in his truce*; but not being pleased with the king's answer,

On the 26th of May, 1468, there had been a prolongation of the truce between the king and the three dukes: it was to last from the 1st of June to the 15th of July. Morice, iii. 172.

the duke took the field, and rendezvoused near Peronne with a considerable force. The king himself was at Compiegne, but his army was in Bretagne. The duke staid at Peronne but three or four days, during which time the Cardinal Balue, who made but a short stay, arrived as ambassador from the king. He made some overtures to the duke, and told him, that the Bretons could make their peace without his interposition; but the king's design was to separate them and break the confederacy. The cardinal was received very honourably, and despatched with this answer, That the duke had not taken the field to invade his majesty, nor to make war upon him, but only to relieve his allies; and so they parted with fair words on both sides.

No sooner was the cardinal departed, but a herald arrived from the Dukes of Normandy and Bretagne with letters, importing that they had made their peace with the king*, and renounced all their alliances, and particularly his; and that, in satisfaction of all his demands, the Duke of Normandy was to receive a pension of 60,000 livres per annum, for which he was to relinquish the interest which had been lately conferred upon him in Normandy. The Lord Charles of France was not at all pleased with his terms; but. he was forced to dissemble his resentment. The Duke of Burgundy was extremely surprised at the news; for he had raised this army on purpose to relieve them; the herald also was in no little danger; for as he had passed through the king's quarters, the duke had a suspicion the king had forged the letters; but it was not long before they were confirmed from several places. The king thought he had now done his business, and that it would be no hard matter to persuade the

By the treaty of Ancenis, made on the 10th of September, 1468, by the envoys of the contracting parties. It was ratified by the king and the Duke of Bretagne on the 18th of September following; but the adhesion of the Duke of Normandy was not obtained to it until the 21st of June, 1470. No article in this treaty stipulates that the dukes shall renounce their alliance with the Duke of Burgundy. This was probably made the subject of a special treaty; for the king alludes to it in his instructions to his envoys to the Duke of Bretagne on the 1st of December, 1470. Item, by the treaties and promises which the Duke of Bretagne has made with the king, he has promised and sworn to serve the king formally against the said Duke of Burgundy, at any time that he may undertake any war against him." Salazard, iv. Preuves, ccxcv.

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