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BOOK THE THIRD.

CH. I.-How the King took an occasion of making a new War upon the Duke of Burgundy; and of his sending as far as Ghent to summon him to appear, by a Serjeant of the Parliament.

- 1470.

In the year 1470, the king, having a fair opportunity, as he thought, resolved to be revenged of the Duke of Burgundy, and secretly endeavoured to persuade the towns upon the River Somme, as Amiens, St. Quentin, and Abbeville, to forsake the duke, and admit some of his troops into their garrisons; for it is always the custom of great princes (especially if they be wise), to seek out some fair pretence or other to cover their designs. In order to your better understanding the intrigues and artifices of the French court in this kind of transactions, I will give a relation of the whole management of this affair; for the king and duke were both of them deceived, and a very bloody and cruel war commenced upon it, which lasted thirteen or fourteen years. The king indeed had a great desire to excite those towns to rebel, and set up his standard, upon pretence that the Duke of Burgundy had extended the bounds of his dominions farther than the treaty would bear. Upon this account several envoys and ambassadors were sent from one court to the other, backward and forward, who passed and re-passed through these towns, and proposed and drove on their several bargains very securely, there being no garrisons in these towns; for the whole kingdom of France, as well on that side towards the Duke of Burgundy's dominions, as on the other towards the Duke of Bretagne's, was in perfect peace, and the Duke of Guienne was to all appearance in great friendship with the king.

However, the king had no design to commence a war purely to repossess himself of one or two of those towns, and no more; but his intention was to raise a universal rebellion in the Duke of Burgundy's dominions, hoping, by that means, to make himself master of all his country.

Many persons, to ingratiate themselves with the king, undertook the management of these secret negotiations, and reported them much forwarder than he really found them; one promised him one town, and another another town, and that they had bargained for them all; but had the king's designs reached no farther than the events which succeeded (though indeed he had cause to complain of his treatment at Peronne), he would not have violated the peace, nor involved himself in a new war; for he had published the peace at Paris* three months after his return into his kingdom; and he began his enterprise not without some fear and caution; but the violent desires he had to it, at last prevailed over his timorousness, and he was spurred on to it by some of his courtiers.

The Count of St. Paul, a very wise man, and Constable of France, with several of the Duke of Guienne's servants and others, earnestly desired a war between those two great princes, rather than peace, and that for two reasons:- -The first was, that they were afraid their great revenues would be lessened, if the peace should continue; for the constable had 400 men-at-arms or lances, paid every muster, without any comptroller, and above 30,000 francs a-year, besides the salary of his office, and the profits of several good places which he had in his possession. The other was, because they had observed and talked among themselves, that the nature of the king was such, that unless he was at war with some foreign prince, he would certainly find some quarrel or other at home with his servants, domestics, and officers; for his mind must always be working. Prompted by these specious arguments, they endeavoured to persuade the king to commence the war; and the constable promised to take St. Quentin whenever he pleased, for his lands lay near it; and he boasted much of his great intelligence in Brabant and Flanders, and

* The peace was published at Paris on Saturday, November 19. 1468. See Lenglet, ii. 78.

that he could induce several of those towns to revolt against the Duke of Burgundy.

The Duke of Guienne being of the same opinion, all his principal governors offered the king their services, and promised him to bring along with them 400 or 500 men-atarms, whom the Duke of Guienne kept constantly in pay; but their design was not as the king took it, but quite contrary, as you will see hereafter.

The king was always wont to proceed gravely and solemnly in all actions of importance, and therefore he convoked the three Estates at Tours in the months of March and April, 1470* (a thing which he had never done before†, nor ever did afterwards), but he summoned only such persons as he thought would not oppose his designs. In this assembly he complained of several of the Duke of Burgundy's enterprises and practices against his crown; he ordered the Count d'Eu to bring in a complaint against the duke for detaining from him St. Vallery and other towns belonging to the jurisdiction of Abbeville and the county of Ponthieu, without giving the Count d'Eu any reason or satisfaction; pretending only he did it by way of reprisals for a merchant-man of Flanders, which had been taken by a small man-of-war belonging to Eu; for which the Count d'Eu offered to make reparation. Besides, the Duke of Burgundy wished to oblige the Count d'Eu to do him homage, and swear fealty to him against all persons whatever; which he would never consent to do, it being against the honour and authority of the king. In this assembly there were present several lawyers, as well of the parliament as elsewhere; by all of whom it was concluded, ac

*The declaration of Louis XI. against the Duke of Burgundy, dated December 3. 1470, was the result of all the deliberations of this assembly. After enumerating all his grievances against the duke, and declaring that he would no longer tolerate his outrageous conduct, "we have," he says, "in order to proceed in so great a matter with mature and due deliberation, assembled in our city of Tours, certain of the princes and lords of our blood, prelates, counts, barons, and other nobles, and notable members of our council." The opinion of this assembly was, that the king was free and discharged from the promises he had made to the Duke of Burgundy by the treaty of Peronne and other treaties, and that the lands and lordships of the duke should be confiscated to him. Lenglet, iii. 68.

† Commines is in error on this point. The Estates had met at Tours in 1467, from the 6th to the 14th of April. See Lenglet, ii. 71,

cording to the intention of the king, that a day should be appointed, and the Duke of Burgundy summoned to appear in person before the Parliament at Paris. The king knew

very well his answer would be insolent, or that he would do something or other against the authority of that court, which would give him a more plausible pretence of declaring war against him.

The Duke of Burgundy received his summons in Ghent from the hands of one of the officers of the Parliament, as he was going to mass; he was much surprised, and highly offended at it, and ordered the officer to be taken into custody, where he remained several days, but at length he was dismissed.

You see the measures that were concerted for the invasion of the Duke of Burgundy's territories; who, having intelligence of it, immediately enlisted great numbers of men, but at half-pay (as they called it), who were to be ready in arms at their houses upon the first summons. However, they were mustered constantly once a month, and received their pay.

In this posture affairs continued for three or four months; but the duke growing weary of the expense, disbanded his soldiers; for the king having sent several embassies to him, he began to think the storm was blown over, and retired into Holland. He had now no soldiers in pay, ready to be employed upon any occasion, nor garrisons in his frontier towns, which was greatly to his disadvantage, by reason of the designs on foot for bringing over Amiens, Abbeville, and St. Quentin to the king. While the Duke of Burgundy was in Holland, John, late Duke of Bourbon*, gave him notice, that in a short time a war would break out against him, as well in Burgundy as Picardy, for the king had great intelli gence both in those provinces and in his household. The Duke of Burgundy being wholly unprovided with troops (having disbanded his army, as I said before), was much alarmed at this news; upon which he passed immediately into Artois by sea, and went straight to Hesdin.† There he began to find out the secret intrigues of some of his

He died in 1488. See note, book i. chap, 2.

The duke arrived at Hesdin on the 2nd of August, 1470, and remained there five months and a half.

officers, and the transactions which were being managed privately in the above-mentioned towns. At first he could not be persuaded of the truth of it, so that it was some time before he would be convinced of their treachery; but at length he sent for two of the principal citizens of Amiens, whom he suspected to have a hand in those secret negotiations; yet they excused themselves so handsomely, that he suffered them to depart. Not long after this some of the duke's household revolted from him, and went over to the king, as the Bastard Baudouin*, and several others†; which made him fearful lest more should follow their example. To prevent the worst, he issued a proclamation, requiring all his people to be immediately in arms; but few obeyed it, for winter was approaching, and the duke had not been many days arrived from Holland.

CH. II. Of the Delivering up the Towns of St. Quentin and Amiens to the King; and upon what grounds the Constable and others fomented the War between the King and the Duke of Burgundy.— 1471.

Two days after the Duke of Burgundy's servants had deserted him (which was in December, 1470), the Constable of France entered St. Quentin ‡, and forced the inhabitants to take an oath of fidelity to the king. Then the duke began to discern the ill posture of his affairs; for he had sent all his officers to raise men in his own countries. However, with those few he could get together, and about 400 or 500 horse, he marched to Dourlans §, intending to secure Amiens,

*Baudoin, Bastard of Burgundy, knight, councillor and chamberlain of Duke Philip, was Lord of Falais, Bredain and Sommerdyk. He was a natural son of Philip the Good, by Catherine de Tiesferies. He died in 1508.

†The others were, Jean Darsson, pantler to Duke Charles, and Jean de Chassa, his chamberlain; who, with the Bastard Baudoin, were accused of entertaining designs against the duke's life.

On the 10th of December, 1470. Lenglet, ii. 88.

He arrived at Doullens on the 17th of January, 1471, and remained

there until the 3rd of February.

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