with great honour and civility. I happened to be present at his arrival, and after their first compliments of salutation, John Cossé *, Seneschal of Provence (a person of honour, and of a noble family in the kingdom of Naples), addressed himself to the king in the following manner: "Be not surprised, sire, if the king, my master and your uncle, has offered to make the Duke of Burgundy his heir; for it was the advice of his council (and particularly mine), upon this ground, that notwithstanding you were his nephew and sister's son, yet you had injuriously taken from him the castles of Bar and Angers, and used him unhandsomely in all his other affairs. We therefore promoted this treaty with the Duke of Burgundy, that your majesty being informed of it, might thereby be the better inclined to do us justice, and be put in mind that my master is your uncle. But we never intended to bring that treaty to a conclusion."

The king took his speech very wisely and well; and he knew it was true, for Monsieur Cossé was the person that managed the whole affair. In a few days after, all their differences were adjusted; the King of Sicily and all his retinue were largely presented with money † ; and the king entertained him among the ladies, and treated him in every respect as he loved to be treated; so that a perfect reconciliation took place between them, and no mention was made of the Duke of Burgundy, for not only King René but all his allies had abandoned him; and this was another misfortune occasioned by his defeat. The Duchess of Savoy, who for a long time had been suspected to be her brother's enemy, sent a private messenger (called the Lord of Montaigny), who addressed himself to me, to endeavour her reconciliation, and to represent the reasons which had induced her to abandon the interest of the king her brother, and to state her doubts of the king. However, to speak impartially, she was a lady of great wisdom, and my master's true sister. She was unwilling to proceed to an open rupture with the Duke

* Jean, Lord of Cossé in Anjou, was one of the councillors and chamberlains of King René, and Seneschal of Provence.

† Louis XI. undertook to pay René a pension of 60,000 francs yearly during the remainder of his life. Lenglet, iii. 392.

Yolande of France, Duchess of Savoy, and sister to Louis XI

of Burgundy, but seemed desirous to temporise and to renew her friendship with the king. And she continued to send him news of the duke's adventures, that the king might treat her more favourably; and he ordered me to despatch her envoy with all expedition, to give her good encouragement, and to invite her into France. Thus another of the Duke of Burgundy's confederates fell off from him, and endeavoured to abandon his alliance. In Germany they began universally to declare against the duke; and several towns of the empire, as Nuremberg, Frankfort, and others, joined in a confederacy with the new and old allies of Switzerland against him; and it seemed that whatever mischief could be done to him, was quite pardonable.

*

The poor Swiss were mightily enriched by the plunder of his camp. At first they did not understand the value of the treasure they were masters of, especially the common soldiers. One of the richest and most magnificent tents in the world was cut into pieces. There were some of them that sold quantities of dishes and plates of silver for about two sous of

*The following is a list of the spoil taken by the Swiss at Granson, from Peignot's Amusemens Philologiques.

"1. Five hundred pieces of heavy artillery, with a quantity of ammunition, and abundance of provisions.

"2. Four hundred tents of great richness, fitted with silk and velvet, and with the duke's arms embroidered thereon in gold and pearls. Most of these were spoiled by the Swiss, who made them into clothes.

"3. Six hundred banners and standards; 300 helmets; 300 cwt. of gunpowder; 3000 sacks of barley; 2000 baggage wagons; 2000 barrels of herrings, and a quantity of other dried fish, and salted meat, geese and fowls; and abundance of sugar, raisins, figs, almonds, and other things innumerable; and 8000 spiked clubs.

"4. Four hundred lbs. weight of silver plate, which was taken to Lucerne, and divided among the Swiss, to say nothing of that which was carried off by the soldiers.

"5. Three hundred complete services of magnificent silver plate; and so great a quantity of coined money that it was distributed by handfulls; four wagon-loads of crossbows and strings; and three wagon-loads of bed-linen.

"6. The coffer containing the duke's archives, and his great diamond. "7. The duke's rosary, with the apostles in massive gold.

"8. The duke's sword, adorned with seven large diamonds and as many rubies, with fifteen pearls of the size of a bean, and of the finest water; 160 pieces of cloth of gold and silk; with innumerable relics

our money, supposing they had been pewter. His great diamond (perhaps the largest and finest jewel in Christendom), with a large pearl fixed to it, was taken up by a Swiss, put up again into the case, thrown under a wagon, taken up again by the same soldier, and after all offered to a priest for a florin, who bought it, and sent it to the magistrates of that country, who returned him three francs as a sufficient reward. They took also three very rich jewels, called the Three Brothers, another large ruby called La Hatte, and another called the Ball of Flanders, which were the fairest and richest in the world; besides a prodigious quantity of other goods, which has since taught them what fine things may be purchased for money; for their victories, the esteem the king had of their service afterwards, and the presents he made them, have enriched them prodigiously.

The king made every one of their ambassadors that was sent in the first embassy to his majesty very considerable presents in plate or money, by which means he pacified them for not openly declaring and entering into an alliance with them; and they returned with their purses well filled, and their persons clothed in silk, besides a promise of a pension of 40,000 florins of the Rhine (which he paid afterwards, but he saw the event of a second battle first), 20,000 to the towns, and 20,000 to the governors of them.t Nor should I tell an untruth in saying, that from the battle of Granson to the death of our master, their towns and magistrates received of his majesty above a million of Rhine florins; and by the towns I mean only four, Berne, Lucerne, Friburg, Zurich, and their cantons, or

in rich shrines; the duke's gilded chair, and his gold ring, and the ring of his brother Antony, and two large pearls set in gold, each as large as

a nut.

* This famous diamond, called the Sancy diamond, was sold by the last-mentioned purchasers to M. de Diesbach, for 5400 Rhine florins; he sold it to a Genevese jeweller for 7000 Rhine florins; it was next sold to the Duke of Milan for 11,000 ducats; then to Pope Julius for 20,000 ducats; and in 1835, it was purchased by Prince Demidoff for 20,000l. It is said to weigh 53 grains.

† Of this sum, 9000 francs were given to certain private individuals, and the remainder was thus divided: 6000 francs to Berne, 3000 to Lucerne, and 2000 to Zurich. Lenglet, iii. 379.

mountains. Schwytz also is another of their cantons, though but a small village; yet I have seen an ambassador of that village, who, though he was in a mean dress, yet gave his opinion with the others. The other cantons are Glaris and Underwald.

CH. III.-How the Duke of Burgundy was again defeated by the Swiss, near the Town of Morat.-1476.

BUT to return to the Duke of Burgundy's affairs. He assembled forces on all sides, and, in three weeks' time, he had as many as he had had in the late battle. His quarters were at Losanne, in Savoy *, where you, my Lord of Vienne, attended him with your counsels in an illness, which melancholy and vexation for the dishonour he had sustained, had occasioned; and truly I am of opinion, that from the very day of his defeat, his understanding was never so good as it had been before. The account I give you of the great army he had assembled again, I received from the Prince of Tarentot, who in my presence made the same relation to the king. This prince had come to the duke's court about a year before, with a very splendid equipage, in the hope of marrying his daughter, the heiress of Flanders. And, indeed, he appeared to be a king's son by the gracefulness of his person, and the splendour of his appearance and retinue; for his father, the King of Naples, had spared no cost to set him off. The Duke of Burgundy did but dissemble with him; for, at the same time, he was in treaty with the Duchess of Savoy for her son, besides others elsewhere. The Prince of Tarento (called

The duke reached Lausanne on the 29th of April, 1476, and remained there until the 27th of May.

The principality of Tarentum was not actually conferred on Don Frederic of Arragon until 1485, but he appears to have enjoyed the titular dignity for some time previously. He became King of Naples in 1496, and died on the 9th of November, 1504.

Ferdinand I., natural son of Alphonso, King of Naples, succeeded his father in 1458, and died on the 25th of January, 1494.

Don Frederic of Arragon) and his council, growing weary of his delays, sent a herald, who was a clever person, to our king, to desire his majesty to grant the prince a passport to return safely through his dominions into his own country, for his father had sent for him. The king granted it very willingly, because he believed it would redound to the Duke of Burgundy's dishonour, and would lessen his interest abroad. However, before the return of the messenger, the German confederates had taken the field, and lay encamped not far from the Duke of Burgundy.

The prince took his leave of the duke the night before the battle*, in obedience to his father's command; for in the first engagement he had given signal proofs of his valour. There are some (my Lord of Vienne) who affirm, that he left the army by your advice; and I heard him say, upon his arrival at court, to the Duke of Astoly†, called the Count Julio, and to several others, that your lordship transmitted an account into Italy of all that happened both in the first and second battles, several days before they were fought.‡

At the prince's departure, the confederates (as I said before) were encamped near the Duke of Burgundy, with a design to give him battle, and raise the siege of Morat, a small town near Berne, belonging to the Count of Romont. The confederates (as I was informed by those who were present in that action) might be about 30,000 foot, all choice troops and well armed: that is to say, 11,000 picked men, 10,000 halberdiers, and 10,000 musketeers, besides a body of 4000 horse. The confederate forces were not all arrived; so that only those mentioned above were in the engagement, and they were more than was necessary. The Duke of Lorraine arrived at their camp also with a

On the 21st of June, 1476.

† According to some commentators, the person here referred to is the Duke of Ascoli, but as the name of that nobleman was Orso Orsino, it is impossible that he can be identical with "Count Julio," who, as Commines tell us, possessed the dukedom in question. It is more probable that our author alludes to Giulio Antonio Aquaviva, Duke of Atri, a d.stinguished statesman and warrior, known in Neapolitan history as "Count Giulio." The Duke of Atri, moreover, had been chosen by King Ferdinand to accompany Prince Frederic of Arragon on his visit to the Court of Burgundy.

Angelo Catto was celebrated as a physician and astrologer.